John 1

Following an idea shared by Bishop Mark Webb of the Upper New York Conference of the United Methodist Church, I have asked my congregation in Penn Yan, NY to read a chapter of the Bible each week and find someone to share with about what they read and thought about it.

This week we begin to read the Gospel of John. Take some time to read it before continuing. For your information I am reading the Common English Bible translation.

As I preached last Sunday, this gospel begins in the beginning just like the Bible does in the book of Genesis. By the way, though no one asked me, I think this should be the first gospel not the fourth as it does begin like Genesis and then follow it with Mark and then Matthew and Luke who took Mark as the template for their longer versions of that short gospel. That way Acts would follow Luke as the two books written by him, rather than now having John's Gospel in between.

In this gospel Jesus does not show up in birth stories in Bethlehem, but shows up in the beginning of creation as "the Word" spoken by God in creation. Nothing seemed to happen until God gave the Word and once given then things started happening. John affirms that the Word of God "became flesh and made his home among us." God became human. Infinite became finite. Omnipresent became present. The world that was brought into being was brought into a new relationship with the creator.

I have an old "Red Letter Edition" of the King James version of the Bible that my grandmother gave me. The red letters or words were the words of Jesus or as we might say today the words of the Word. As you read through this gospel will you respond as creation responded and do what the Word says to do?  Read on in the further chapters to see what the Word says!

In the middle of this chapter we have a section on John the Baptist and he coins the phrase by describing Jesus as "the Lamb of God." What does that term mean to you?

We also discover that John the Baptist had disciples and that a couple of them indeed begin to follow Jesus. One of those is Andrew who finds his brother Peter and calls him to come and be a follower, too. Then Jesus calls Philip to follow him and Philip goes and calls Nathaniel. Nathaniel seems quite skeptical that Jesus could amount to anything since he came from the village of Nazareth. Philip offers all that he can and that is virtually - come and see for yourself! He does and he does!

Now my question is who has been like Andrew or Philip for you? Who told you about Jesus or invited you to come and see for yourself? Do you remember?  Can you thank God for their witness.  I thank God that my parents began to bring me to church as a baby and helped me to grow in my faith. In the gospel we get the stories of Andrew, Peter, Philip and Nathaniel, what is your story?  Share it with someone today.

And next week read Chapter 2 and come back and read the next post.

God bless.