Imago Scriptura 45 - New

Yesterday morning, I was practicing my sermon in the sanctuary at about 6:45 as the run was rising. At one point I looked over at the east-facing stained glass window and saw something new that I had not seen in the glass before. Apparently the sunlight was shining in exactly the right way to illuminate this one spot of the stained glass over the rest of it. I had never seen it lit up in this way. Of course, I had to restart my sermon practice as I had to take a few pictures of this. 

It led me to a time of prayer for myself for worship but also for the congregation - that even though we do many of the same things in worship that we have done many times before, God is still doing a new thing. God is still speaking in new ways. God is still wanting to do new and beautiful and life-changing things in me and in us.

Yesterday's passage from the beginning of the Gospel of John was similar to this idea. This passage (in the beginning was the Word…) opens the story of Jesus in an entirely new way. Alexander Shaia suggests replacing Word in this section with Christ and feel how it reads then. It opens up a new and radical understanding of the passage of the eternalness of Christ, of the creating and creative power of the Word and the beautiful mystery of it all. Reading this section of John is like that burst of sunrise shining through the glass - a new world is opened, a sight previously unseen is taken in, and God is glimpsed.

What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. - John 1:4-5