“The Gospel of Light and Love”

“The Gospel of Light and Love”

During the month of January we will begin a new sermon series on the Gospel of John, and I’ve titled the sermon series: “The Gospel of Light and Love.”

The first meta-metaphor (is that a word?) which we will explore is LIGHT. The Gospel of John begins by declaring that Christ is the LIGHT of the world, and we will explore what that means in our own day and time. Throughout the Gospel LIGHT is used as a metaphor for understanding (seeing). How complete is our own understanding of Jesus? How does our understanding of Jesus give us enough LIGHT to see what is going on in our own lives and in the life of the world? 

The second meta-metaphor or great theme that we will explore in John is LOVE. Jesus gives one of the most poignant and powerful descriptions of sacrificial LOVE in John 15:12-13: “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (New Revised Standard Version updated edition).

One of the things that I like best about the four-year cycle of the Narrative Lectionary is that the Gospel of John gets its own year, and we have a chance to focus on the Fourth Gospel for an extended period of time. The Revised Common Lectionary, in contrast, has a three-year cycle in which Matthew, Mark, and Luke each get their own year but the Gospel of John is scattered this way and that throughout the three-year cycle. 

Since we are now in the fourth year of the Narrative Lectionary, we finally have a chance to focus on John; thus, from January 4 through April 12, all of the sermons will be based on texts from John.

I look forward to seeing you on Sundays as we explore the Gospel of John together.

Grace and Peace, 

Pastor Jack