Local Preachers’ Group on John's Gospel
Notes of meeting held in December 2009
In our lectionary, John 1 verses 10 – 18 are set for Epiphany or the Sunday between January 1st & 5th, but verses 1 – 9 appear as well in brackets. So we decided to include all verses, 1 – 18, in our discussion. By the end of the evening we thought we had enough material for 18 sermons/messages as each verse is packed with theology, mystery, poetry and meaning.
This passage is one which we all had fond memories of from childhood Christmases. Even though as children we could not understand what John was saying, we remember the poetry and words which have a resonance that has stayed with us all. The gospel hangs together in a measured way and the poetry gives it a significance which overcomes its incredible difficulty.
John uses verses 1 - 18 to set out his themes:
Light v darkness
Order v Chaos
Truth v Falsehood
Spiritual rebirth
God = word = Jesus
Jesus is the beginning
Truth = light; Jesus is truth and light
In the last session we looked at John 3: 1 – 17 (Jesus’ meeting with Nicodemus) and, as we talked about this passage, we were struck again by how John links his themes together. Nicodemus meets Jesus at night and questions him; todays passage has a wonderful evocation of light overcoming darkness. Jesus tells Nicodemus that people need to be born again of the spirit; here John says that all who believe in Jesus will become children of God, not born of the flesh but of God.
We noted the similarity to Genesis 1 with light overcoming darkness and God’s word creating order out of chaos. The beginning of this gospel makes so many theological points immediately, it must have amazed its first readers just as it does today. By linking God and word and Jesus, John presents the reader with a triune God, who not only created everything but is eternal.
In v9 John talks about the true light enlightening the world. Right from the beginning John makes it clear that what God offers is for all people not just the Jews. Everyone can now become a child of God, fitting in with what Paul says in his letters. This verse can sound as if John the Baptist were a false prophet, because he was not the true light. John, the writer of the gospel, obviously feels that he has to make this point very clearly right at the beginning: that John the Baptist was not the one, he just pointed the way to the one. We thought that this was because he was trying to counteract the beliefs of the many followers John the Baptist still had. (Was Jesus a Nazarene like John the Baptist?)
Discussion of v 9 led to questions about who the writer of this gospel was. We believed that he was the disciple whom Jesus loved, John son of Zebedee, but probably not John the Revelator. We decided that the writer was a very spiritual person who had given much thought to his belief and had planned this work for a long time developing his ideas and theology over many years. This is shown in the nature of the gospel, which is not narrative but analysis, less description more discussion.
It is so clear that this and the other gospels are very carefully planned by their writers with themes and stories deliberately linked to make theological points. How far can one believe that Jesus actually said or did certain things and how far is the gospel writer manipulating his material to make his points? Looking at the way John sets out his themes here, and his use of them later in the gospel, made us ask the question: how carefully planned was this gospel and how did this impact on its credibility? This led to a lively discussion on different opinions about scriptural authority and how we should tackle this tricky subject with our various congregations where there are a variety of differing opinions about Biblical authority from metaphorical understanding to literal belief. Several points came out of this discussion;
• Spiritual truth is different to veracity
• John was a man who thought long and hard about what he included
• John’s writing was inspired rather than God given
• We could not please everyone with our preaching as we would always be faced with theological and cultural differences and different spiritual journeys and needs.
• Whatever people believed, whether literally or metaphorically scripture contained eternal truths which needed to be teased out and it was our job to help congregations to do this by encouraging and challenging.
• We must be careful how we respond to cultural, theological differences.
• If the gospel is not literal truth this does not invalidate its message. Our job is to find the purpose behind the passage who is it for, why was it written, who is it that writes? We must mine for the eternal truth that is there. We are God’s mouthpieces and the truth and challenge are God’s not ours. We cannot please all our congregations and if the word is provocative then it is our challenge to present it to the people.
• We are not there to create Bible scholars, but to bring comfort, encouragement and challenge.
• God still speaks to people today who have not seen him, but through the gospels we can gain an insight into the heart of God.
We asked the question why this gospel was chosen as the readings for the New Year, and we came to the conclusion that this passage, more than any other, sets out the purpose of Jesus’ birth, life and death and the theme of light v darkness in a northern hemisphere with new year celebrations. This passage sets out God’s purpose, to bring creation back to a natural relationship with its creator.
V 18 provided another lively discussion. John writes that no-one has seen God and yet in the Old Testament there are accounts of people who have had a revelation of God: Isaiah, Moses and Abraham to name a few. Our conclusion was that whereas all these people had encountered God, John is making the point that Jesus has always been with God and reveals what God is in human from. Jesus as God is both human and divine, so is more than a revelation of God’s presence, indeed is God’s person.
This sparked another discussion about the miracle of Jesus’ being both human and divine, and how we understand this. Like others before us we asked the question “How can this be?” We have to accept that this is the miracle and such is faith!
In his humanity Jesus is rooted in time, place and human experience. How does he express his divinity at this point? One of us made the point that pre-birth Jesus was fully divine and post-resurrection Jesus is fully divine; but in the middle he was human. If we dwell in his divinity we diminish his humanity. Jesus was a human who had a natural relationship with God, i.e. was very close to God, close enough to call God father. This relationship is what God wants for all people. There are many people today who do have a natural relationship with God, as there have been in the past, and they have not all been Christians. To enable us to have a natural relationship with God we have to probe scripture with each other and ask awkward questions. This is part of our job as preachers: to encourage and help our congregations to get into this relationship with God. (Does spirituality evolve just as nature evolves biologically?)
What would we preach from this passage?
• Light v Darkness, linking this passage to Psalms or Genesis, and using the metaphor of light overcoming darkness to link into peoples experiences of dark times in their lives, Jesus suffered, was rejected and alone, so understands. There is a need for care when tackling this subject.
• V 12 express God’s love for all people
• V 13’s of being born of the spirit
• V18 is not a new truth but THE TRUTH, in which God is revealed in many ways. Link this to Genesis and Revelation. We cannot see God, but through Jesus we see God in action.
PS
Would we ever re-use a sermon/message?
Yes, but adapted for different people and different circumstances.
SC