A Poem a Sunday

Christmas II C

January 3, 2016

Commentary:  A Spiritual Revolution is happening according to Marcus Borg, Diana Butler Bass and other church leaders involved in the 'Emerging Church.'  The Revolution is recovering an ancient theology from the prophets, poets, and mystics.  It is called panentheism - that God is with or in all things.  Locating God in the physical universe was also championed by Pierre Teilhard De Chardin who claimed Jesus as the Omega Point drawing all creation into the Divine.  We are in the process of rewriting theology in the 21st Century - ancient panentheism is informing the rewrite.

The Gospel of John has streams of panentheism as does Paul who spoke in Athens:  "In God we live and move and have our being...."  Time for us to preach the God with us theology.

John 1:1-18 - New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)

The Word Became Flesh

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ² He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴ in him was life,^[a] and the life was the light of all people. ⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶ There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷ He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸ He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹ The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.^[b]

¹⁰ He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹ He came to what was his own,^[c] and his own people did not accept him. ¹² But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³ who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴ And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^[d] full of grace and truth. ¹⁵ (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶ From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷ The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,^[e] who is close to the Father’s heart,^[f] who has made him known.

Footnotes:

1. John 1:4 Or ³ through him. And without him not one thing came into being that has come into being. ⁴ In him was life
2. John 1:9 Or He was the true light that enlightens everyone coming into the world
3. John 1:11 Or to his own home
4. John 1:14 Or the Father’s only Son
5. John 1:18 Other ancient authorities read It is an only Son, God, or It is the only Son
6. John 1:18 Gk bosom

A Poem a Sunday

Christmas II C

January 3, 2015

Stardust

A voice in primordial darkness cries:

“This is very good!”

and billions upon billions of sparks fly

seeding the cosmos with love.

Is It a visitor,

or was It always here:

the Divine Presence,

coming now so very near?

Never far off, away,

in distant galaxies;

but within the dust of stars

for billions of centuries.

The Divine ever within;

our eyes just have not seen,

flesh and blood formed into love

among us so serene.

Word becoming flesh,

tents within our kind.

Music of the cosmic spheres

plays in harmony so sublime.

Ever present Mystery

revealed again each time;

compassion, forgiveness, care

are shared among humankind.

Open your heart, your eyes.

Look out each and every day.

The Word is made flesh again

by any who follow the Way.

Grace was born in stardust,

and took billions of years,

to come to us in the Christ,

who overcomes all fears.

No Divine intervention.

No lightning bolt from the sky.

Yes, the Christ is being born again.

Yes, in you and in I.

@Copyright A Poem a Sunday – Kenn Storck – December 28, 2015