WEBVTT 00:00:00.820 --> 00:00:09.919 Our reading today that we're going to think about and spend some time on is this gospel reading from the Gospel of John. 00:00:10.019 --> 00:00:17.219 In the very beginning there, and there's a lens I want to think through it, to look at this through. 00:00:17.859 --> 00:00:22.879 So let me ask you this question. Have you ever written a love note? 00:00:23.760 --> 00:00:26.920 Be honest. Come on. Have you ever written a love note? 00:00:26.920 --> 00:00:31.820 So, dear Poochie Pie, you are so great. Come on. 00:00:32.420 --> 00:00:35.400 For most of us, I think that you've probably done it at some point. 00:00:35.840 --> 00:00:43.740 I know that I have. A good friend of mine that I grew up with wrote a very nice letter to Condoleezza Rice once. 00:00:44.260 --> 00:00:49.299 He got a really nice reply with a framed portrait that was signed. 00:00:50.859 --> 00:00:55.420 If you haven't done it before, if you haven't tried it, I suggest you should. 00:00:55.420 --> 00:00:58.240 I think it's a good thing to do. Send it to a loved one. 00:00:58.399 --> 00:01:04.099 Write a love note for a band member or someone that you really, really like. 00:01:04.180 --> 00:01:06.359 I think it's a good thing for this reason. 00:01:07.320 --> 00:01:16.060 I think that for most of us, love notes are the closest that we come to being real philosophers. 00:01:16.820 --> 00:01:17.099 Really. 00:01:17.099 --> 00:01:19.739 I think that's the closest we come. 00:01:19.859 --> 00:01:26.539 And for this reason, I think that loving a person is a little bit like loving the truth. 00:01:26.899 --> 00:01:30.239 You have to talk about it for it to really make sense. 00:01:30.280 --> 00:01:36.259 You have to talk about it for those words, for that love to become something higher. 00:01:36.260 --> 00:01:41.540 And that's a little bit of what's going on in this chapter of John. 00:01:41.640 --> 00:01:44.380 John chapter 1 is what we're looking at. 00:01:45.320 --> 00:01:50.000 It's one of the most philosophical sections of the Bible. 00:01:50.160 --> 00:01:55.860 It uses a lot of language and ancient Greek philosophy in order to get across this basic story. 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:58.040 The one that we read just last week. 00:01:58.140 --> 00:02:01.320 The Christmas story of Jesus being born in a manger. 00:02:01.319 --> 00:02:07.279 This is sort of being processed through a philosophy kind of idea lecture. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.000 It's really deep. 00:02:10.079 --> 00:02:14.120 But at its core, I think, it's basically a love letter. 00:02:14.659 --> 00:02:20.219 It's basically on that spectrum, that continuum of love letters to philosophy. 00:02:20.459 --> 00:02:27.879 Of loving something so much that you need to use higher and better language to say something important about it. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:29.120 Something really important. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:35.099 And it's important because what's underneath this passage, what's underneath this great talk. 00:02:35.159 --> 00:02:37.680 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. 00:02:37.879 --> 00:02:40.400 What's underneath that are some basic assumptions. 00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:45.740 One, that the highest thing that you can say is love. 00:02:46.580 --> 00:02:51.800 And two, that the highest thing you can love is God. 00:02:52.879 --> 00:02:55.520 That's, I think, what's underneath some of what's going on here. 00:02:55.520 --> 00:02:59.420 What's driving these high words, this really deep stuff. 00:02:59.500 --> 00:03:07.480 To think about this basic narrative that we all know and tell our children about Jesus being born to become one of us. 00:03:07.780 --> 00:03:08.800 So we're going to look at this. 00:03:09.560 --> 00:03:14.300 And there's a couple of ways that you can learn from God's Word in the Bible. 00:03:14.460 --> 00:03:20.240 One way is to ask the things that it wants to teach us in some specific sentence. 00:03:20.379 --> 00:03:21.400 What does it mean for us? 00:03:21.400 --> 00:03:27.219 Another way to learn from the Bible is to try to move like the passage moves. 00:03:27.700 --> 00:03:28.719 And sort of dance with it. 00:03:28.800 --> 00:03:32.759 See how it wants us to move, to live. 00:03:33.879 --> 00:03:43.520 So that our lives, hopefully, by the end of this reflection, our lives can become a kind of love letter to God. 00:03:43.520 --> 00:03:46.159 So that's what we're going to try to get into here. 00:03:46.219 --> 00:03:46.939 Let's pray together. 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:55.939 Heavenly Father, thank you that you have loved us so much that you have sent your Son. 00:03:56.379 --> 00:04:02.460 It is hard to express what that was, but it is worthwhile to try to express that. 00:04:03.000 --> 00:04:07.520 Because you love us and have called us to love you also. 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:15.600 We pray that you will fill our minds with understanding and our hearts with love as we think about these words. 00:04:16.259 --> 00:04:16.540 Amen. 00:04:17.960 --> 00:04:28.759 So, as we try to move with this passage, I think there's a couple of dance moves, a couple of moves of our lives that I think that we can get by talking, by thinking about this. 00:04:28.840 --> 00:04:33.900 Here's one that kind of goes with the flow of the words here. 00:04:35.019 --> 00:04:35.660 Here it is. 00:04:35.660 --> 00:04:42.600 Christianity is a home for seekers and thinkers and philosophers. 00:04:43.620 --> 00:04:48.880 Christianity is a home for seekers and thinkers and philosophers. 00:04:49.660 --> 00:04:52.260 Is that a little unusual to hear? 00:04:53.040 --> 00:04:59.500 Did someone forget to mention that to you on your entry paperwork when you were thinking about Christianity? 00:04:59.500 --> 00:05:09.779 Do you sometimes feel embarrassed by churches and Christians and the Bible? 00:05:09.920 --> 00:05:12.120 Do you feel embarrassed by these things sometimes? 00:05:12.980 --> 00:05:25.160 Do you remember maybe an undergraduate philosophy professor kind of pushing this criticism on you that you just don't really know how the Christian faith could deal with it? 00:05:25.160 --> 00:05:28.320 Do you feel embarrassed by that sometimes? 00:05:28.320 --> 00:05:34.220 You know who doesn't feel embarrassed by that is the Apostle John in this passage. 00:05:34.700 --> 00:05:41.960 He loves to think deeply and to take all the resources of whatever philosophy and criticism are before him. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:42.940 Here's how he goes. 00:05:42.939 --> 00:06:01.860 He begins with this basic but profound idea that he had found in Greek philosophy back in his day in the first century A.D. 00:06:01.860 --> 00:06:08.160 In the beginning was the word, this creative principle, kind of reason itself, the logos. 00:06:08.639 --> 00:06:12.639 Something that was the source of everything and made sense of everything. 00:06:12.740 --> 00:06:14.480 Everything kind of flowed from it. 00:06:14.840 --> 00:06:20.980 And whenever we try to think rationally about it, we're partaking in this word, this reason, this logos. 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:31.100 And when the Apostle John heard that, he said, yes, there's something there that rings true to this same message that I have received from Jesus Christ. 00:06:32.280 --> 00:06:36.660 And there's something, there's a way of talking that works for me too. 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:40.800 And not only does it work as a method of conversation with other smart people, 00:06:41.259 --> 00:06:47.040 this is something that can help us to understand our own message of Jesus better. 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:51.760 And so, and so, John picks that up. 00:06:52.120 --> 00:06:56.600 And he thinks even more deeply about the message of Christmas. 00:06:57.460 --> 00:07:03.240 The message of God becoming a human in order to save humans. 00:07:03.860 --> 00:07:05.720 He thinks in a different way about it. 00:07:06.879 --> 00:07:09.620 In the beginning was the word. 00:07:10.040 --> 00:07:11.879 And the word was with God. 00:07:11.879 --> 00:07:16.000 He gives it his own particular spin based on the message of Jesus. 00:07:16.000 --> 00:07:17.579 And the word was God. 00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:20.720 This word, it will be revealed later, is Jesus himself. 00:07:20.860 --> 00:07:22.939 He was in the beginning with God. 00:07:23.040 --> 00:07:24.959 And all things were made through him. 00:07:25.000 --> 00:07:27.920 And without him was not anything made that was made. 00:07:28.060 --> 00:07:30.220 In him was life. 00:07:30.500 --> 00:07:33.220 If you have sometimes struggled, 00:07:33.819 --> 00:07:41.839 how can I possibly talk on the same level as these criticisms of faith and religious thinking that I hear? 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:45.719 How can I possibly think in that same way? 00:07:45.799 --> 00:07:48.339 Is there a way to have that conversation? 00:07:48.819 --> 00:07:49.479 There is. 00:07:50.299 --> 00:07:53.639 And the Apostle John is showing us one way. 00:07:53.899 --> 00:07:54.959 People do it today too. 00:07:55.099 --> 00:07:57.560 Not only in classical philosophy and thought, 00:07:57.639 --> 00:08:00.839 but people do it today with modern and post-modern philosophy. 00:08:01.539 --> 00:08:07.519 One book that we pass around in our circles sometimes is by an author named James K.A. Smith. 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:09.599 He wrote a book called Desiring the Kingdom. 00:08:09.839 --> 00:08:12.699 Works with a lot of modern thinking in the same way. 00:08:13.599 --> 00:08:21.919 How can this help us to think better about our own message while still being disciples of Jesus Christ? 00:08:22.099 --> 00:08:24.379 This is not something to be embarrassed by. 00:08:24.439 --> 00:08:27.899 This is something that we actually need and can help us. 00:08:29.079 --> 00:08:31.319 In the beginning was the word. 00:08:31.479 --> 00:08:32.600 It goes on here. 00:08:32.860 --> 00:08:34.319 More and more of this kind of thought. 00:08:34.320 --> 00:08:39.020 The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:40.000 Go down to verse 9. 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:44.900 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 00:08:45.080 --> 00:08:46.800 I didn't understand this kind of thing for a while. 00:08:46.900 --> 00:08:49.900 I read recently something that helped me from C.S. Lewis. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:55.740 He made this point that in the modern world we're sort of impressed by immensity. 00:08:55.879 --> 00:09:00.480 The sort of big distances between here and like the closest star. 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:01.639 How far away it is. 00:09:01.700 --> 00:09:05.539 How far we are from the center of the solar system. 00:09:06.680 --> 00:09:06.980 Sorry. 00:09:07.180 --> 00:09:09.700 How far we are from the center of the universe. 00:09:10.539 --> 00:09:12.740 And that makes us feel small. 00:09:12.860 --> 00:09:14.480 How could we be worthwhile? 00:09:14.680 --> 00:09:19.080 How could we think something really important with these great big distances? 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:20.700 We're impressed by that. 00:09:20.700 --> 00:09:27.520 And in a similar way, people in the first century A.D. had a very similar feeling. 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:29.920 But they thought of it differently. 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:33.300 Because what they were impressed by was light. 00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:36.160 They looked up in the sky and said, 00:09:36.580 --> 00:09:38.180 The sun is so bright. 00:09:38.600 --> 00:09:42.120 The stars even have light that are shining down on us. 00:09:42.200 --> 00:09:46.340 And yet here we are on earth and we have no light of our own. 00:09:46.500 --> 00:09:48.740 We seem so insignificant. 00:09:49.140 --> 00:09:50.280 It feels like nothing. 00:09:50.279 --> 00:09:56.199 And in the same way that we today, we try to comprehend, to get beyond this smallness that we feel. 00:09:56.319 --> 00:09:59.379 By gaining knowledge over vast things. 00:09:59.480 --> 00:10:01.600 By sending things out into outer space. 00:10:02.240 --> 00:10:06.799 In the same way, in some metaphorical sense, the Apostle John said, 00:10:07.199 --> 00:10:08.980 Yeah, we don't have light. 00:10:09.100 --> 00:10:10.139 We feel insignificant. 00:10:10.419 --> 00:10:13.500 And so we need some kind of a true light. 00:10:13.779 --> 00:10:16.159 The true light from God in our hearts. 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:23.620 This is how the Apostle John was conversant with the ideas going on at his time. 00:10:24.779 --> 00:10:33.059 If you sometimes feel embarrassed, you're not sure if your own faith is able to hold up. 00:10:33.059 --> 00:10:35.199 I want to encourage you to press on. 00:10:35.199 --> 00:10:45.639 Because this meditation here is something that uses these terms and brings us even deeper into Christian thought. 00:10:45.639 --> 00:10:51.679 There's a great quote from one of the great scientists of all time, Johannes Kepler. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:58.500 He said that he was kind of doing this great work of astronomy. 00:10:58.639 --> 00:11:02.459 He said, I am only thinking God's thoughts after him. 00:11:03.099 --> 00:11:11.419 He realized that in his work of thinking and processing, he was following after the thoughts of God. 00:11:11.419 --> 00:11:15.679 And that's why he had confidence in moving forward with knowledge. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:20.519 Knowing God does not cease thought, but inspires it. 00:11:20.819 --> 00:11:28.620 Just like falling in love doesn't end love poems, but only brings more and more of it. 00:11:28.699 --> 00:11:36.579 In the same way, knowing God does not end the pursuit of knowledge, but drives it farther and better. 00:11:36.580 --> 00:11:44.139 Now, you don't have to be a philosopher, but you can be. 00:11:44.660 --> 00:11:49.700 You don't have to be a seeker and a thinker and a skeptic. 00:11:49.879 --> 00:11:53.160 You don't have to be those things, but you can be. 00:11:54.180 --> 00:11:55.020 And we need you. 00:11:55.139 --> 00:11:58.480 We need you in what we are doing in this community. 00:11:59.540 --> 00:12:01.660 We need your part in this whole process. 00:12:01.660 --> 00:12:04.300 Just like a love poem. 00:12:04.299 --> 00:12:09.659 A love poem does not replace the actual experience of being in love. 00:12:09.959 --> 00:12:14.759 And yet, being in love is so much better for having love poems. 00:12:14.859 --> 00:12:17.719 Have you ever received a love note from someone? 00:12:17.839 --> 00:12:21.839 You know how much better that makes the experience of being in love. 00:12:22.459 --> 00:12:28.199 In the same way, again, theology, philosophy, debate, big ideas. 00:12:28.379 --> 00:12:32.699 That doesn't replace actually knowing, the experience of knowing God. 00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:37.860 And yet, knowing God is better, clearer, more deep. 00:12:38.200 --> 00:12:41.340 When we are able to have those things in a helpful way. 00:12:41.440 --> 00:12:45.600 We need you in this community, if that describes you. 00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:50.960 Because it is not only knowing God that we are after here. 00:12:51.060 --> 00:12:58.879 Like we have some kind of game of ideas we're trying to get to, to eventually solve God. 00:12:58.879 --> 00:13:02.240 No, in the same way, in verse 12 it says here, 00:13:03.279 --> 00:13:09.759 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he has given the right to become children of God. 00:13:10.320 --> 00:13:13.659 God came to us and we can receive him and become his children. 00:13:13.939 --> 00:13:18.139 It is not simply that we come to know God, but that he knows us. 00:13:18.200 --> 00:13:20.240 He has come to us. 00:13:20.759 --> 00:13:24.860 And because of this, this path that we've walked together is worthwhile. 00:13:24.860 --> 00:13:26.700 It's not impossible. 00:13:27.320 --> 00:13:29.419 We can do this and talk about God together. 00:13:30.519 --> 00:13:35.620 So, Christianity is a home for seekers and thinkers and philosophers. 00:13:36.139 --> 00:13:41.000 It works in this passage, in the Bible itself, and it works in our own lives. 00:13:42.060 --> 00:13:43.399 And there is something else, though. 00:13:44.100 --> 00:13:49.920 Because, of course, what we're doing here is not simply some kind of a, I have a cool idea club. 00:13:49.919 --> 00:13:53.979 There's something more to what we have going on in our community. 00:13:54.779 --> 00:13:58.599 This is the second movement I want to get from this passage here. 00:13:59.439 --> 00:14:01.199 The second movement is this. 00:14:02.519 --> 00:14:06.919 The highest use of words is in worship. 00:14:07.979 --> 00:14:12.919 The highest thing that we can do with our words is in worship. 00:14:12.919 --> 00:14:26.079 The kind of simple, basic things that we have to offer that are tied up in our time and the messiness of our lives that we offer to God in worship catches them up in eternity. 00:14:26.659 --> 00:14:28.439 And we can encounter the presence of God. 00:14:28.559 --> 00:14:33.079 Eternity and time meet for us in worship. 00:14:33.379 --> 00:14:37.199 That's deep and powerful, and it's crazy to think about. 00:14:37.200 --> 00:14:43.259 So, all of these things that we're saying, how do we know that they're not just another page of philosophy? 00:14:43.340 --> 00:14:51.040 How do we know that it's not just a greeting card platitude, like God helps those who help themselves, or something like that? 00:14:51.160 --> 00:14:52.660 How do we know that it's more than that? 00:14:53.540 --> 00:14:55.060 Again, let's go back to the passage. 00:14:56.120 --> 00:14:56.980 Verse 14. 00:14:57.759 --> 00:14:58.240 It says, 00:14:58.240 --> 00:15:20.039 This all really would, everything we're doing here, this really would just be highfalutin kind of stuff if it had not actually happened. 00:15:20.039 --> 00:15:30.779 This really would be just kind of another crash course in ideas if God himself had not actually become man. 00:15:30.860 --> 00:15:35.240 If Jesus had not been born into the world, become incarnated in flesh. 00:15:35.299 --> 00:15:42.179 If time and eternity had not actually met in the person of Jesus Christ, what worth would all of this be? 00:15:42.360 --> 00:15:44.860 It would not be worth very much at all. 00:15:44.959 --> 00:15:48.360 Instead, though, our worship really is powerful. 00:15:48.360 --> 00:16:01.740 Our worship really is a meeting of time and eternity, a place where we can encounter God because God himself met time and eternity in the person of Jesus Christ. 00:16:02.659 --> 00:16:10.379 And you can see how, even in this sentence, these deep, these powerful descriptions of God, 00:16:10.639 --> 00:16:14.840 the word became flesh and dwelt among us, it sort of bleeds into worship itself. 00:16:14.840 --> 00:16:23.200 And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 00:16:23.540 --> 00:16:24.940 Continuing in verse 16. 00:16:25.220 --> 00:16:30.000 For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. 00:16:30.000 --> 00:16:36.220 There's a flow into worship. 00:16:36.740 --> 00:16:42.159 Because as God kind of elevates our words to think great things about him, 00:16:42.440 --> 00:16:49.460 whether or not we're philosophers, whether or not we're people who kind of spend all of our time thinking of new ways to say things, 00:16:50.159 --> 00:16:54.940 all of our words find their highest use in worship. 00:16:54.940 --> 00:17:02.720 That's what's helpful, I think, for whether it's the thinkers and skeptics and doubters and philosophers among us, 00:17:03.200 --> 00:17:10.840 or the homemakers and businessmen, the accountants, the priests, the administrators. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:20.400 For all of us, our words, as in this passage, eventually will find their purpose and their highest meaning in worship. 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:25.500 That doesn't mean that we will always walk around singing praise songs, 00:17:25.740 --> 00:17:31.900 but there is sort of a gravity and flow to all of these great thoughts about God. 00:17:31.940 --> 00:17:34.860 And not only thoughts, the way that God has impacted our lives, 00:17:34.900 --> 00:17:38.740 because the highest thing that we can say is love. 00:17:38.840 --> 00:17:39.980 That's why we talk about it. 00:17:40.300 --> 00:17:43.400 And the highest thing that we can love is God. 00:17:45.800 --> 00:17:49.700 There is a flow of our words toward worship. 00:17:49.700 --> 00:17:53.920 Let's make that a worship of God in Jesus Christ. 00:17:55.240 --> 00:17:58.580 So when you talk to your wife, let me ask you this. 00:17:58.660 --> 00:18:03.340 Are you using words that will encourage in her worship? 00:18:04.039 --> 00:18:07.420 When you chat with your friends, ask yourself, 00:18:07.940 --> 00:18:13.960 how can I help this conversation veer in the direction and flow of worship, 00:18:14.120 --> 00:18:17.660 of praise to God who gave us this great time? 00:18:17.660 --> 00:18:20.320 When you wake up in the morning tomorrow, 00:18:21.080 --> 00:18:26.160 offer your words for the day as a sacrifice of worship to God. 00:18:27.040 --> 00:18:33.560 In this sort of flow, this continuum of kind of basic love notes that we write 00:18:33.560 --> 00:18:38.019 to a deeper understanding of God, to worship of him. 00:18:38.120 --> 00:18:40.040 Sometimes this gets cut up in our lives. 00:18:40.120 --> 00:18:41.840 We don't know how it all fits together. 00:18:41.839 --> 00:18:47.459 We don't know how all the pieces link up, either as ideas or as experiences. 00:18:48.259 --> 00:18:52.539 We don't know why our aunt passed away. 00:18:52.679 --> 00:18:55.099 We don't know why we lost our job. 00:18:55.159 --> 00:18:57.539 We don't know how these things fit together. 00:18:57.699 --> 00:19:04.159 And yet we see that if God really became flesh in Jesus Christ, 00:19:04.720 --> 00:19:08.939 then in our worship we can meet God. 00:19:08.940 --> 00:19:11.420 And so we come back to that again and again. 00:19:11.580 --> 00:19:15.279 When we doubt, when we have trouble putting the ideas together, 00:19:15.400 --> 00:19:20.980 that is why Christianity is a home for philosophers and seekers and thinkers. 00:19:22.240 --> 00:19:27.140 Because you can continue to come back to the presence of God in worship. 00:19:27.259 --> 00:19:30.240 That's why Christianity is a home for all of us. 00:19:30.460 --> 00:19:32.680 When we doubt, when we have difficulties, 00:19:33.180 --> 00:19:36.100 we can continue to come back to worship. 00:19:36.099 --> 00:19:40.139 Here when we gather on Sundays, daily as we pray, 00:19:40.719 --> 00:19:46.299 as we offer our lives as sacrifices of praise to God, 00:19:47.259 --> 00:19:50.699 will you offer your words tomorrow and in this week 00:19:50.699 --> 00:19:54.199 as a sacrifice of worship to God? 00:19:55.000 --> 00:20:00.259 I know that you may not be, you and I may not be philosophers, 00:20:00.980 --> 00:20:02.379 but we are lovers. 00:20:02.380 --> 00:20:07.480 We are people whose words veer toward worship. 00:20:08.440 --> 00:20:13.740 Let me just remind you again today that the word became flesh. 00:20:14.600 --> 00:20:20.520 The word became flesh and dwelt among us because he loved us so much. 00:20:20.660 --> 00:20:23.340 Jesus Christ loved us so much. 00:20:23.339 --> 00:20:30.159 So let's let our love become words and become worship to God 00:20:30.159 --> 00:20:35.459 in our lives with each other and in our lives in this week. 00:20:35.980 --> 00:20:36.779 So let's continue to pray. 00:20:36.819 --> 00:20:37.359 Let's pray here. 00:20:37.359 --> 00:21:07.339 We'll be right back.