In the Beginning Was the Word

On this Monday after the Baptism of Our Lord, the appointed Gospel reading for the Daily Office comes from the first chapter of John’s Gospel.  For me, these are some of the most powerful paragraphs in the New Testament:

 

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

 

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

 

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, ‘This was he of whom I said, “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”’) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known. (Jn. 1:1-18).

 

One could easily spend a whole book unpacking these words. The Word of God is the very ground of creation who then becomes a creature in creation; God fully with us as one with us to take us out of the darkness humanity was dwelling in to be brought into God’s living light bathed in grace so that we ascend to the very throne of God.  One could read these words over and over again, and still find such depth in them to last, literally, an eternity.

 

Let us pray: Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, in whom we live, and move, and have our being; may your light shine in our hearts that we may grow in grace upon grace. Amen.

 

CALENDAR REMIDNERS

 

Annual Parish Meeting Sunday, 17 January 2016.

 

Seaside Seniors, 21 January 2016 at 11 AM in Sutton Hall.

 

Please remember everyone on our Prayer List.

 

Your servant in Christ,

 

Fr. Chester J. Makowski+

St. Augustine of Hippo Episcopal Church

Galveston, Texas 77550