Word to the Wise
Wednesday, December 27, 2006 - St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
[1 John 1:1-4 and John 20:1A, 2-8]What we have seen and heard we now proclaim to you, so that you too may have fellowship with us; for our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing this so that our joy may be complete.
The poetry and drama of the "Johannine" literature in the New Testament appeal to me. Even when I find some of the contents painful I still love to read and meditate on what I see and hear. The lines quoted above from the first scripture for the day really describe why I do this preaching everyday. The Gospel According to John refers to the evangelist as the "disciple whom Jesus loved." Perhaps that is why the word "love" appears so much in the gospel and in the epistles. The lines, "God is love; and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him.." come from the same letter quoted above. The important thing, however, is not to talk about a love that one has never experienced. People are drawn to God when they can experience, see and hear that love made real in another person, and not simply in what that person says. Earlier in the passage the writer refers to "what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands.." This is what so many long to hear, see and touch. Can we make Christ "real" for them? AMEN
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