Year B
Isaiah 45:21-25
Psalm 98
Philippians 2:5-11
John 12:31-36a<\/p>\n\n\n\n
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 darkness did not overcome it.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember when my parents seemed all knowing and all powerful\u2026 they actually knew when my favorite TV shows were on\u2026 or they knew how to find out\u2026 they could allow me to stay home from school\u2026 or compel me to go\u2026 they knew when I was getting into trouble\u2026 even though I thought I was flying under the radar\u2026 and I don\u2019t remember just when it happened\u2026 but I remember that my all knowing and all powerful\u2026 parents\u2026 became human\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I also remember being amazed at something else\u2026 that some people were able to imagine things that never existed before\u2026 and design them on paper\u2026 and have them manufactured in a factory\u2026 and shipped to a store\u2026 and then you could actually hold in your hands and buy\u2026 the thing they thought up in their heads\u2026 and that there was also an underlying continuity in this process\u2026 almost like the electromagnetic spectrum\u2026 different expression of one uninterrupted flow of energy\u2026 that in some important ways\u2026 made all of it one whole\u2026 from start to finish\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I remember my first transistor radio\u2026 and feeling amazed by it\u2026 of being able to listen to music that was being broadcast from somewhere across the Hudson River\u2026 in NYC\u2026 to where we lived in NJ\u2026 a signal received by this thing that someone invented\u2026 and later on there were AM\/FM radios\u2026 and then FM stereo\u2026 which began broadcasting in June 1961\u2026 and of course you wanted stereo headphones\u2026 and since then\u2026 the countless medical and other technologies\u2026 like computers and smartphones\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n And all of you know about the Big Bang\u2026 an event of unimaginable energy and brightness\u2026 and that moment of cosmic inflation\u2026 when the universe came into existence\u2026 and there was\u2026 for decades\u2026 the idea that at some time in the distant future\u2026 the expansion of the universe would slow down\u2026 that the combined gravitational pull of billions of galaxies\u2026 would become greater than the energy with which they\u2019re expanding\u2026 and the universe would stop expanding\u2026 and just hang there\u2026 in equilibrium\u2026 for maybe a few hundred-million years\u2026 but then\u2026 that combined gravitational force would pull it all back together\u2026 and all of them\u2026 and even space and time\u2026 will converge back into another unimaginably small and dense and hot singularity\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n We don\u2019t light a light and put it under a basket to hide it\u2026 light was created to enlighten\u2026 and when the Romans\u2026 in their myopic vision\u2026 which they believed to be enlightenment\u2026 when they realized that Jesus was telling too much truth for comfort\u2026 when they and some Temple leaders feared that the good life they had was in increasing jeopardy\u2026 when they tried to keep flying under the radar\u2026 but could not\u2026 and when the gravitational pull of Jesus\u2019 words could no longer be resisted\u2026 they decided to silence him\u2026 and they decided to do it in the most horrific way they knew how\u2026 so that anyone else who might want to pick up his staff\u2026 anyone else who might want to take on his mantle\u2026 would think better of it\u2026 or be silenced too\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And down through the centuries\u2026 there are those who we think know everything\u2026 as I did my parents\u2026 or who just claim to\u2026 and who resist truth-telling\u2026 so much so that enemies are made\u2026 and sometimes threatened\u2026 those whose values are not in line with Jesus’ values\u2026 people who resist the gravity of Jesus’ truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And we don\u2019t know how God did it\u2026 we can\u2019t grasp the mechanics\u2026 we probably couldn\u2019t understand it even if we tried\u2026 but since Christ was the One who was in the beginning with God\u2026 when through Christ\u2026 the idea of creation itself moved directly from the mind of God and into existence\u2026 what the Romans and any others whose worldly opposition to this light didn\u2019t quite count on\u2026 was that they met with an irresistible force\u2026 like ants trying to stop a bulldozer\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cosmologists now question the gravity that they thought would pull everything back together\u2026 now question the kind of irresistible force it is\u2026 they know that the galaxies that are farthest from us\u2026 are moving at close to the speed of light\u2026 and the farther they are\u2026 the faster they go\u2026 and these scientists now doubt that the expansion of the universe will ever slow down\u2026 or stop\u2026 that the collective gravitational force pulling it all together\u2026 will never be greater than the energy which is propelling it outward\u2026 and that the universe will just get bigger than it\u2019s already impossible-to-imagine size\u2026 and that all of the individual galaxies will just continue moving forever\u2026 into an uncharted and incomprehensible future\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Those who tried to silence Jesus on the cross\u2026 had no idea that the Word of God existed before they did\u2026 and that it expanded into creation\u2026 had no idea that their divisive and accusatory actions\u2026 fueled the ruler of this world\u2019s opposition to God\u2019s seamless continuum\u2026 couldn’t imagine that their efforts to contain God’s expansive love\u2026 would fail\u2026 they had no idea that they were running against the wind\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so however it is\u2026 that the mystery of incarnation happens\u2026 however it is\u2026 that we are animated by Spirit in these bodies we inhabit\u2026 however it is\u2026 that all things came into being through Christ\u2026 and that we are all as inextricably connected to each other\u2026 as all of creation is inextricably connected to the singularity from which it came\u2026 ] and if our formation means anything\u2026 if Christ came to offer us abundant life\u2026 then like the expanding universe around us\u2026 we are always and only called into more and more\u2026 and never into less and less\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so as we commemorate Holy Cross Day\u2026 we remember that the glory of the cross\u2026 is that wisdom could have been finite\u2026 but is infinite\u2026 that a symbol of terrorism could have had the final word\u2026 but was turned into God\u2019s symbol for love\u2026 that the limits of life were replaced with limitlessness\u2026 ] the glory of the cross is that the power of gravity\u2026 and death\u2026 has been overcome\u2026 and have given way to expansiveness and eternal life\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes it\u2019s difficult to know what to choose\u2026 what seems like it’d be consoling sometimes ends up causing desolation\u2026 and vice-versa\u2026 and some people in this world continue to confuse short-sightedness with enlightenment\u2026 but we are all on the same continuum\u2026 ] and we continue to be invited\u2026 to give up our small ways\u2026 in favor of God\u2019s boundlessness\u2026 ] and since we were created in God’s image\u2026 that means that we were created to create\u2026 not just things that come out of factories\u2026 but systems of justice and righteousness\u2026 of fairness and equity\u2026 and to not only oppose that in this world which seeks to shrink God’s love\u2026 but to choose the life-giving cross\u2026 Amen\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year B Isaiah 45:21-25 Psalm 98 Philippians 2:5-11 John 12:31-36a May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 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 darkness did not overcome it. I remember when my parents seemed all knowing and all powerful\u2026 they actually knew when my favorite TV shows were on\u2026 or they knew how to find out\u2026 they could allow me to stay home from school\u2026 or compel me to go\u2026 they knew when I was getting into trouble\u2026 even though I thought I was flying under the radar\u2026 and I don\u2019t remember just when it happened\u2026 but I remember that my all knowing and all powerful\u2026 parents\u2026 became human\u2026 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. I also remember being amazed at something else\u2026 that some people were able to imagine things that never existed before\u2026 and design them on paper\u2026 and have them manufactured in a factory\u2026 and shipped to a store\u2026 and then you could actually hold in your hands and buy\u2026 the thing they thought up in their heads\u2026 and that there was also an underlying continuity in this process\u2026 almost like the electromagnetic spectrum\u2026 different expression of one uninterrupted flow of energy\u2026 that in some important ways\u2026 made all of it one whole\u2026 from start to finish\u2026 I remember my first transistor radio\u2026 and feeling amazed by it\u2026 of being able to listen to music that was being broadcast from somewhere across the Hudson River\u2026 in NYC\u2026 to where we lived in NJ\u2026 a signal received by this thing that someone invented\u2026 and later on there were AM\/FM radios\u2026 and then FM stereo\u2026 which began broadcasting in June 1961\u2026 and of course you wanted stereo headphones\u2026 and since then\u2026 the countless medical and other technologies\u2026 like computers and smartphones\u2026 What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. And all of you know about the Big Bang\u2026 an event of unimaginable energy and brightness\u2026 and that moment of cosmic inflation\u2026 when the universe came into existence\u2026 and there was\u2026 for decades\u2026 the idea that at some time in the distant future\u2026 the expansion of the universe would slow down\u2026 that the combined gravitational pull of billions of galaxies\u2026 would become greater than the energy with which they\u2019re expanding\u2026 and the universe would stop expanding\u2026 and just hang there\u2026 in equilibrium\u2026 for maybe a few hundred-million years\u2026 but then\u2026 that combined gravitational force would pull it all back together\u2026 and all of them\u2026 and even space and time\u2026 will converge back into another unimaginably small and dense and hot singularity\u2026 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. We don\u2019t light a light and put it under a basket to hide it\u2026 light was created to enlighten\u2026 and when the Romans\u2026 in their myopic vision\u2026 which they believed to be enlightenment\u2026 when they realized that Jesus was telling too much truth for comfort\u2026 when they and some Temple leaders feared that the good life they had was in increasing jeopardy\u2026 when they tried to keep flying under the radar\u2026 but could not\u2026 and when the gravitational pull of Jesus\u2019 words could no longer be resisted\u2026 they decided to silence him\u2026 and they decided to do it in the most horrific way they knew how\u2026 so that anyone else who might want to pick up his staff\u2026 anyone else who might want to take on his mantle\u2026 would think better of it\u2026 or be silenced too\u2026 And down through the centuries\u2026 there are those who we think know everything\u2026 as I did my parents\u2026 or who just claim to\u2026 and who resist truth-telling\u2026 so much so that enemies are made\u2026 and sometimes threatened\u2026 those whose values are not in line with Jesus’ values\u2026 people who resist the gravity of Jesus’ truth\u2026 And we don\u2019t know how God did it\u2026 we can\u2019t grasp the mechanics\u2026 we probably couldn\u2019t understand it even if we tried\u2026 but since Christ was the One who was in the beginning with God\u2026 when through Christ\u2026 the idea of creation itself moved directly from the mind of God and into existence\u2026 what the Romans and any others whose worldly opposition to this light didn\u2019t quite count on\u2026 was that they met with an irresistible force\u2026 like ants trying to stop a bulldozer\u2026 Cosmologists now question the gravity that they thought would pull everything back together\u2026 now question the kind of irresistible force it is\u2026 they know that the galaxies that are farthest from us\u2026 are moving at close to the speed of light\u2026 and the farther they are\u2026 the faster they go\u2026 and these scientists now doubt that the expansion of the universe will ever slow down\u2026 or stop\u2026 that the collective gravitational force pulling it all together\u2026 will never be greater than the energy which is propelling it outward\u2026 and that the universe will just get bigger than it\u2019s already impossible-to-imagine size\u2026 and that all of the individual galaxies will just continue moving forever\u2026 into an uncharted and incomprehensible future\u2026 Those who tried to silence Jesus on the cross\u2026 had no idea that the Word of God existed before they did\u2026 and that it expanded into creation\u2026 had no idea that their divisive and accusatory actions\u2026 fueled the ruler of this world\u2019s opposition to God\u2019s seamless continuum\u2026 couldn’t imagine that their efforts to contain God’s expansive love\u2026 would fail\u2026 they had no idea that they were running against the wind\u2026 And so however it is\u2026 that the mystery of incarnation happens\u2026 however it is\u2026 that we are animated by Spirit in these 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