The "Other" Creation Story...continued...

 

John 1: 1-5

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

 

            He.  Pronoun referring back to “the Word”.  That is important because there are moments in the Bible when deciphering the pronouns can be its own game of confusion.  He was in the beginning with God.  Seems a restatement of verse 1 where we know the Word was in the beginning and the Word was with God.  In fact, the Word was God.

            But we are building in verse 2. What is “in the beginning”?  Why is that important?  Because the beginning is not creation itself.  There was a beginning before creation.  Genesis 1:2 says “The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.”  Out of this void and darkness, God created.  In the beginning, ‘he’ was with God.  Jesus was with God.  The Word was with God, before creation, before the first occurrence of “then God said…”

            Why is this important?  Jesus did not come later.  He is not a created being, like ourselves.  God’s plan pivots around Jesus and John has just placed Jesus before Creation itself. 

            Presupposition:

1.      God’s plan for the salvation-centered on Jesus-of God’s creation was put in place before creation.

Jesus was there for that plan, before creation.

Here is another interesting piece to consider.  Jesus is called “the Word” here in John 1.  What is “the Word” that God spoke in Genesis 1, at the creation?  God said “Let there be light.”  God’s word was not simply a conversational form with the void and darkness.  God’s word was a creational command upon that void and darkness.  God said and it was so.  The Word of God spoke and it was so.  Hold on to that thought for verse 3.

 

Diversion. It’s all Greek to me.  Well, at least the New Testament is.  That was the common language of the Roman Empire.  Yes, Greek, not Latin.  Latin would take over later.  What we translate from the Greek as “the Word” is transliterated ‘the Logos’.  Transliteration is an excessively big word that means we take the Greek alphabet and pronunciation and put it into the alphabet we use in English.

Another way to translate ‘the Logos’ is as ‘the Logic’.  Thus, “in the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was with God, and the Logic was God.”  Now, logic is defined (I know because I just looked it up) as a ‘formal principle of reasoning’.

So… “In the beginning was “the formal principle of reasoning”, and “the formal principle of reasoning” was with God, and “the formal principle of reasoning” was God.” 

Why is that even important?  It looks like a word game, but it speaks to me that there is a structured process, a formal system, a reasoned approach to the creation by the Creator.  This is over and against a lot of assumptions that God doesn’t care, that God is mean, that God is random.  But one of the things that the Bible teaches is that God is, in fact, love.  And God has a ‘formal principle of reasoning’ in how that love is expressed.  In a world that can seem so random, that makes me feel better when ‘stuff gets too real’.

The Bible (and reading it)

John 1: 1-5

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

            What?

            I have been attempting, without success, to write a post about the importance of God’s Word not only as the center of worship, but also as a daily exercise in devotion and practice of the Christian faith.  If I am going to suggest such a thing, it should then come with a recommendation of where to begin.  I would recommend the Gospel of John as a starting point.

            The Gospels are good places to begin, all about Jesus.  And here is John.  For Christian groups that seek to share the Word of God, it is usually the Gospel of John that is printed and handed out on its own.

            To distill the objections to reading Scripture, they boil down to two.  The first is that it is incomprehensible.  The second is that it is boring. 

            And John 1:1 could be argued to fulfill both arguments.  Word…Word…Word…same word three times in one sentence.

          In the beginning was the Word.  I called the Bible the Word of God.  Is that what John is talking about?  The Word was in the beginning, was with God, was God?  The ‘experienced’ Christian might reply “no silly, the Word is Jesus”.  For the new reader, it is an honest question to ask why He (Jesus) is not mentioned by name until verse 17. 

            So, the ‘experienced’ Christian might counter that saying "Word" three times is not the thing to lead off with.  It is “In the Beginning…”, the actual starting words.  Because this parallels the Creation story in Genesis 1, where it says, “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth…”

            So…if that is the..."beginning beginning", the 'real' beginning', why start in John and not in Genesis?  Well, says the ‘experienced’ Christian, it is because the New Testament interprets the Old Testament.  What?

            Okay.  The ‘experienced’ Christian, hopefully, begins to see how it sounds rather arrogant simply to tell Christians to just ‘go read their Bible’.  It presumes so much.  It presumes knowledge of the Bible so there is a common frame of reference in understanding it.  It presumes that the ‘stories’ are known, like how the ‘experienced’ Christian might have learned them in Sunday School.

            To say “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” and to understand what it means presupposes the following:

1.   1.     “The Word” is a title and a role for Jesus.

2.  2.      “In the beginning” is a direct parallel to Genesis 1, where the story of Creation is told.

3.  3.      That “Word” is a word that is going to have different meanings if this Word is Jesus in the Word of God, because translating the "Word of God" into the "Jesus of God" just sounds silly.  

So what John is telling us is that at creation there was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus WAS God.  It is a progressive understanding.  Jesus was at creation.  More than that, Jesus was at creation with God.  More than that, Jesus was (and is) God.

So, Jesus is a guy, yet Jesus is God.  Not two gods, God.  And guy and God.

Verse 2 seems to summarize, “He was in the beginning with God.”  Well, not just to summarize.  But that is something for the next round.

What Has Epiphany To Do With Washington?

     Because of the winter weather last Sunday, we moved our celebration of Epiphany to this coming Sunday.  These bracket the actual celebration day of Epiphany, some 12 days after Christmas.  This year, the biblical story of Epiphany is echoed very eerily n the events of this past Wednesday.

    Both were failed attempts to stop the legitimate government from moving forward.

    Yes, protestors took over the US Capital, got into the Senate Chamber, trashed the office of the House Leader, waved their signs and walked off with podiums (or is that podia in the plural?).  But at the end of the day, they were gone, the business of government moved forward, the election was certified, and, by the grace of God, we will have peace until the inauguration and beyond.

    Yes, King Herod attempted to intercept the plan of God, offering a hand of help and support to the Magi who showed up in his capital.  Behind that offering was the the reality of the situation.  No one was going to take his throne away from him.  The Magi were the means at hand for him to discover the identity of this "king of the Jews" and do away with him before he could even become a toddler.

    But in the end, truth and legitimacy won out.  But be aware of how precious is the gift of freedom we have as Americans.  

    Be aware how the power of God protects God's plan against all threat.

    May we take neither for granted.

Peace, Pastor Peter

I Did Not Mean For Yesterday To Be Prophetic...

     While I was wondering what was going to happen yesterday, I mean what new bit of repair might rise up at church.  What was Mr. Antoniello going to tell me about the heating system in Westminster?  (It turns out a distribution piece for the water pump needs replacing.)  I did not expect the highest level of political polarization that we have seen in this country since the Civil War.  Yes, I know that one of the members of Congress talked about the War of 1812 being the last time the Capital Building was occupied, but it was not for a lack of trying on the part of the Confederate states in the Civil War.

     A woman died of gunshot wounds yesterday.  Pipe bombs were found.  At least one member of the mob, as he was dispersing at the order of the police, was heard to comment about needing rifles.

    Political polarization.  To use language like that is to be in the same category as calling Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles mounting nuclear warheads "Peacemakers".  

    So, I have a few observations to make.

    The first concerns the mixing of religion and politics.  Mixing Christian beliefs and motifs into electoral politics is as old as the country itself.  But consider this: Are we, as Christians, presumed to be looking at what happened last night and somehow think that Jesus would permit, support, or condone such action?  And if you believe that Jesus would not, as I do, there has to be a SERIOUS consideration of why Christian views and beliefs are included in political rhetoric.  Is it a matter of faith or a matter of political expediency?   

    From what I watched, the closest direct link to Christianity that I witnessed in the coverage was when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke of Epiphany in the reopening of the work of the House of Representatives and I saw that to be an invocation of peace.

    The second is the perception of the response of law enforcement, especially in comparison to the presence of law enforcement at the Black Lives Matter protests that took place in Washington DC in the summer of 2020.  To sum up what I have read, the response during the BLM protests might be described as "robust" while the response, at least in the hours that led to the invasion of the Capital, was "soft".  

    For me, this is represented mostly starkly in the deployment of the National Guard.  There is a photo of the National Guard deployed in front of the Lincoln Memorial during the BLM protest, our soldiers equipped in camouflaged uniform, which is for battlefield deployment.  Last night, they were in black vests, reserved for a different mission.  According to Fox News, DC National Guard spokesman Capt. Tinashe T. Machona said "It is the traditional uniform worn during domestic support operations, including presidential inaugurations, the 4th of July celebration, response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington last year."  It is not body armor or a tactical vest.

    Now one conclusion to be drawn is that the 'soft' appearance of the response was meant to counteract the images of the 'robust' appearance of law enforcement during the BLM protests.  Because there was a 'robust' deployment plan in place last night.  The acting head of the Justice Department spent the day at the Command Center in the FBI building where the Federal law enforcement agencies had gathered in preparation to deploy.

    Another conclusion is far starker.  This started as a 'white' protest so they got the 'soft' treatment whereas BLM was a 'black' protest and, in the racial bias of this national, they were met with a 'robust' presence.  

    What does this have to do with faith?  Well, if we were to look at this as a test case on how the 'American civic response to protest' interfaces with the command that we love our neighbor, there would be some hard questions, divisive questions to be raised.

    Thirdly, what about President Trump during all of this?

    Well, Vice-President Pence and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the highest ranking elected members of the Republican party, very clearly broke rank for the calm and peaceful transition of power to go forward, and not this civil disturbance, this violent protest, this domestic terrorism (I have heard all these terms used to describe the Capital takeover).  There are also a lot of reports of the cabinet discussing the 25th Amendment, the Constitutional process by which a sitting President can be removed from office.  Due of issues of appropriate content, Twitter shut down the President's account for 12 hours.

    I have taken some time to look at what President Trump has said in regards to the Capital takeover.  I invite EVERYONE to go and take a look at what he has to say.  Decide for yourself what message the leader of our nation is supporting.

    Finally, what should we do?  I think we NEED to raise the level of Civic awareness in this country.  What does it mean to be an American?  What does it mean to participate in the democratic process?  What does it mean to vote?  What are the means of redress that we have when we do not agree with something?  What is appropriate?  What is absolutely NOT appropriate?  Like violence.

    I think we need a very serious understanding of the differences between being an American and being a Christian.  To be a patriotic American is to understand and defend the Constitution of this nation.  That is the vow and promise of our elected officials, our military, our peace officers, our newly naturalized citizens, it is the responsibility of each and every one of us.

    To be a faithful Christian is something else.  It is loyalty and obedience to Jesus as our Lord and Savior, as God come down to save us.  It is to be united with a community of people far larger than then population of the United States.  Obedience to Jesus is obedience to the law as Jesus shared it, love God and love neighbor.  

    One can be an American and a Christian, but one is neither an American because they are Christian, nor Christian because they are American.

    Pray for the Nation.

Peace, Pastor Peter  

So I Wondered What Was Going To Happen Today...

     That's what it feels like in church thus far into 2021.  For our first Sunday, the winter weather did its last second dive into the End Zone to win over having church.  The winds of Christmas dropped a big old Christmas tree across the front of the church on the day of our Savior's birth.  The heat in Westminster is down, although the furnace is working like a fiend.  Pastor has fallen so low as to use football metaphors in his blog post...could we descend any lower?

    There is a certain cultural expectation for this.  COVID rendered 2020 into a year like no other in our living experience.  That led to very high expectations for midnight on December 31 to cause a radical shift back to what we remember as normalcy.  Yet things have not changed.  The pandemic is still here.  The 'rollout' of vaccines has been reported as 'slower' than expected.  Things in Washington D.C. ... oi, not going there.

    There is one constant in all of this however.  It is the reason we have church in the first place.  That one constant is our God.  

    Who's going 'ewwwww', pastor going religious on us?  It is well known that the religious is my vocation, but God, why do we always have to hear about God?  I hate to say it, but this is a common reaction, in and out of church circles.  And I can understand why.  It runs parallel to discussions about politics.  These are two topics where people, generally, fall into two categories:

1. They have highly developed, polarized points of view of what is right and what is wrong and there is no middle ground for discussion or 

2. They are so burned by the highly polarized points of view with no middle ground for discussion that they have tuned out.

    They are...we are...some say potato, others say potato...and that cliché loses so much when typed...

    But there is one constant, and that is our God.

    So whether it be COVID or the burnt over nature of the present political and religious landscape or winter weather or Westminster unheated or...fill in the blank...big or small, tragic or just annoying, one thing is constant and that is our God.

    If you look through the Bible...and this is the next spot where I lose people.  To be condescending, I might say this is a bored reaction.  But as I consider, I do not think it is.  I think it is a lack of common experience.  What does that mean?  It means that as one who is steeped in the wonders of Scripture, it is SO easy for me to presume other people are as into this book as I am.  But as I have discovered about my interest in 'science fiction', that presumption that people are as into it as I am just isn't so.  

    What we know about God, we know from the Bible.  What we know is that our God is not a distant, uncaring toymaker who wound up the world and let it go.  God is in relationship with us.  What we know about that relationship is that God is not some tyrant of whimsy, making impossible and contradictory demands depending on God's mood.  Our God is a God of love, which is the foundation of that relationship with us.

    And the proof is in God's staying power.  No matter what happens, God is with us.  And from what we know from the Bible, God does this deliberately.  And in a formal manner.  In human terms, consider the covenant of marriage.  It is something of a cultural joke to talk about 'till death do us part', but that is not the important part of the covenant.  To 'love, honor, and cherish', that's the important bit.  A license does not define the relationship of marriage, the attitude of the partners does.

    For me, an underlying principle to figure out what the Bible is saying is the principle of the covenant.  God made us and made our relationship.  God's capacity for love, honor, and cherishment is unlimited.  Ours, not so much.  We are 'only' human.  Thank God that God is not.  

    So through a pandemic, a tree blowing down, a lack of heat, a winter freeze, whatever, God is always with us.  And God loves us.  And God is there for us.  And there is that line in the marriage covenant, 'til death do us part'.  Well, God, through Jesus, rewrote that line so that death cannot part us from the love of God.  Such is God's covenant with us who know Jesus as Lord and Savior.    

     So I wonder what is going to happen to us today...whatever it is, God is with me and God is stronger and more loving than whatever might happen.

Peace,

Pastor Peter

Worship for Sunday, January 10, 2021, CARRIED OVER from Jan. 3, 2021

So You Can Take the Church Out of Epiphany...

 But you can't take Epiphany out of the church.

     We are celebrating Epiphany this coming weekend.  The winter weather kept us out of church in person this past Sunday and a snafu I am still trying to untangle led to a YouTube link to our first service from November 2020 instead of our first service from January 2021. So, according to the calendar, Epiphany is passed by, unless we do not take Epiphany out of the church.  

     So all the prep work into taking communion remotely, while still part of the community, was, temporarily, in vain.  And, unless someone commented to me, I would never have discovered the error except that the background was wrong.  I was on Facebook and saw the link to what was supposed to be Sunday, Jan.3's service.  The background was from my study, not the sanctuary, to where we have upgraded our service recordings.  

     What was a first in our actual presence at church extended to include an event that is a first in our remote presence from church. 

     So we are rolling everything forward to this Sunday.  BE AWARE, the service recording will say "January 3, 2021", but that is because I am not going to re-record it just to change the date.  And I do not have the capability to edit and change these things yet.  

     We are NOT taking Epiphany out of the church.  We are not bypassing Three Kings Day.  We are not leaving the story of the gifts of the Magi because it is stretching the bounds of the Christmas calendar.  It is so very appropriate to remember the gifts of the Magi on the Sunday where we remember the gift of salvation won for us by Jesus through the breaking of his body and the shedding of his blood.

     And if it sounds like I am trying to play catch up, well, that is not wrong either.  

     At the conclusion of the Epiphany passage in Matthew 2, God came to the Magi in a vision and told them to go back to their own country by another road.  They were warned not to return to Jerusalem, as the present king, King Herod, had instructed them to.  The Gospel does not tell us if they ever had an idea as to why they did not return to Jerusalem.  

    If they had, their reaction would have been a double edged sword.  On the one edge, there would have been joy at the reality that it gave Jesus and his family the time they needed to escape to Egypt.  But on the other, there would have been shock and dismay at the slaughter of the Innocents that Herod ordered anyway.  Compared to that, well, there is no comparing the inconveniences of this past week to what happened then.

    God's plan is accomplished but bad things, inconvenient things, sinful things continue to happen.  Our strength, as Christians, is that we have the patience, the forgiveness, and the love of God in our hearts to overcome anything, from the horrific to the trivial, as we lives our lives of faith.

Peace,
Pastor Peter

The Monday After the Sunday Before: Canceling Live Worship

January 4, 2021

Dear Church Family and Friends,

Even after almost twenty years of service to this church, new things continue to happen.  This past Sunday, in a perfect storm of cold and alternating freezing rain and rain, we called off church in the sanctuary literally in the last hour.  It was a combination of two considerations.  The first was providing for safe access into the church in the frozen mess coming down, and the second was the consideration of how much worse it could be by the time church was dismissed.

                In years gone by, calling it that late in the game would have been well nigh unthinkable.  Waving people away from church as they drove up…that is unprecedented in my experience.  To gather the faithful who have come out and then trust in the Lord to get them home safe would have been the game plan.  But against the pandemic of COVID and the preciousness of life against a disease that maxing out our hospital capacities, there is trusting the Lord to protect us and there is tempting the Lord to adjust the odds so they may be in our favor.

                Weather permitting, we are going to celebrate Communion together in the sanctuary this coming Sunday, January 10, 2021.  The remote service is not going to include the liturgy of the Lord’s Supper because that was made available for this past Sunday.  The ‘regular’ liturgy will be shared instead online. 

                As it turned out, from feedback I received from those who’d driven home safely, it looked like a good call on our part to pass the Sanctuary service by.  Prayers went out to those who were in accidents and those who found themselves in close calls.  If the weather had warmed so that everything turned to rain, the feedback might be different. 

I found myself wondering why we did not have a formal protocol set in place for the ‘last minute’ scenario.  We do have a process for calling church ahead of time, in case of a State-wide emergency or other conditions that warrant safety for our membership, but that presumes 12-24 hours lead time.  It was a matter of sending out a text to as many folks as I could and be present for the rest.  Well, hey, looks like we just wrote a formal protocol…     

                It is a hard call to cancel because worship is the center of our church life.  Praising the God who sent us, who came to us as our Messiah, as our Lord Jesus Christ, thanking the God who sent us, who came to be Jesus indwelling us as the Holy Spirit, honoring the God of Creation who has saved us from our sins and made us, by divine mercy, to be worthy of heaven; that is not something to be surrendered lightly. 

The remote service was available and I hope people were able to use it for their own times of worship and praise to our God.  It was dropped for Sunday instead of ahead of time so that we that the opportunity to participate would begin for us all at the same time.  But we shall live and learn.

                May the Lord keep us safe and may we add to our prayers the safety of our presence to worship the Lord through the season of winter and through the pandemic.

Peace,

Pastor Peter