Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Saturday, 13 September 2014 "God's ultimate Word"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Saturday, 13 September 2014 "God's ultimate Word"
Daily Scripture: John 1: The Life-Light
1-2 The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
    God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
    in readiness for God from day one.
3-5 Everything was created through him;
    nothing—not one thing!—
    came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
    and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
    the darkness couldn’t put it out.
9-13 The Life-Light was the real thing:
    Every person entering Life
    he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
    the world was there through him,
    and yet the world didn’t even notice.
He came to his own people,
    but they didn’t want him.
But whoever did want him,
    who believed he was who he claimed
    and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
    their child-of-God selves.
These are the God-begotten,
    not blood-begotten,
    not flesh-begotten,
    not sex-begotten.
14 The Word became flesh and blood,
    and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
    the one-of-a-kind glory,
    like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,

    true from start to finish.
16-18 We all live off his generous bounty,
        gift after gift after gift.
    We got the basics from Moses,
        and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
    This endless knowing and understanding—
        all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.
    No one has ever seen God,
        not so much as a glimpse.
    This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
        who exists at the very heart of the Father,
        has made him plain as day.
John 6: Too Tough to Swallow
60 Many among his disciples heard this and said, “This is tough teaching, too tough to swallow.”
61-65 Jesus sensed that his disciples were having a hard time with this and said, “Does this throw you completely? What would happen if you saw the Son of Man ascending to where he came from? The Spirit can make life. Sheer muscle and willpower don’t make anything happen. Every word I’ve spoken to you is a Spirit-word, and so it is life-making. But some of you are resisting, refusing to have any part in this.” (Jesus knew from the start that some weren’t going to risk themselves with him. He knew also who would betray him.) He went on to say, “This is why I told you earlier that no one is capable of coming to me on his own. You get to me only as a gift from the Father.”
Reflection Question:
At Resurrection, we read John's prologue every Christmas Eve. But it speaks to us year round—its superb poetry reminding us, in terms that spoke to Jews and Gentiles alike, that Jesus was God's ultimate word. And though John used a lot of literary skill, he was not being theologically original in this passage. Instead, he was following the lead of Jesus himself, who told a spiritually hungry crowd, "The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life."
In what ways have the words of Jesus functioned in your life as "what is useful for building up," and as words that "give grace" to you as you hear them? What role have Jesus' words played in reshaping you from the inside out, so that the words of your mouth and the meditation of your heart become ever more acceptable to God, your rock and your redeemer? How can you more closely connect with Jesus' words in the weeks and months ahead, to draw even more spirit and life from them?
Family Activity:
One of the ways we can experience and express positive words is through music. Choose a 24 hour time period where you and your family listen closely to the words in the music playing around them. Pay close attention to the musical lyrics you hear in the car, at home, in stores, in church and at school. Discuss the kinds of messages being shared, the ways groups of people are portrayed and whether the lyrics are building others up or tearing them down. Decide together on one place you can choose to listen to more positive, Christ-like music. Commit to changing your car radio station or updating your playlists and listen to songs that encourage and lift others up. Pray and ask God to help you sustain this change.
Today's Prayer:
Lord Jesus, reshape my heart and the words that spring from it, to others and to you. Keep me always listening for your words, that they may be a powerful spring of spirit and life for me. Amen.

Insight from Dan Entwistle

Dan Entwistle is Resurrection’s Managing Executive Director for Programs and Ministries.

First, this weekend, we’re preparing to launch into a new sermon series, The Call, where we’ll retrace the incredible journeys of the Apostle Paul through modern day Turkey, Syria, Greece and Italy. If you missed the promo last weekend, view it here: http://vimeo.com/105576939. I also encourage you to use the power of your words by sharing the video promo on a social media account by clicking on the paper airplane symbol just to the right of the video.

Now, on today’s scripture reading. God speaks to humans in a variety of ways and is never distant from us. We can experience God in words of scripture, majestic sunrises, the profound love of a friend, or the inner whisper of conviction. But today’s reading carries a clear and unmistakable message that we find ourselves rediscovering each Christmas. When God wanted to communicate in fullness, Jesus was the message. His life, his death and his resurrection are the clearest “Word” God has spoken to us.

As you and I journey through life following Jesus, we have access to the clearest possible expression of the heart of our Creator. When Jesus heals the bleeding woman, we learn something important about God. When he elevates the fragile and forgotten, we learn something about God. When he teaches us how to pray, we learn something about God. When he sends his followers into mission as God’s agents to change the world, we learn something about God’s dream for this world. When Jesus willingly journeyed to the cross, we grasp something very profound about the love of God.

Jesus was God’s fullest communication, the Logos, the ultimate Word spoken from God to us. John is also making it known that Jesus existed before existence, that Jesus had no beginning, he was the essence of God and the source of life from before the beginning of time.

Side note: we often see the Bible referred to as the (capital W) Word of God, but today’s scripture actually teach us differently. Yes, the Bible is our most cherished book, the most important book ever composed. It reveals who we are and bringing us to knowledge of God. It informs our practice of faith and shapes the course of our lives. But even so, it carries far less authority than the person Jesus, God among us, the one who from the beginning was God’s ultimate Word.

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.
The Word was with God in the beginning.
Everything came into being through the Word,
and without the Word nothing came into being.
What came into being
through the Word was life, and the life was the light for all people.
The light shines in the darkness,
and the darkness doesn’t extinguish the light.

One final thought about today’s scripture. In verse 12, we learn that those who “welcome” Jesus, those who believe in his name, are given authority (power) to become God’s children. Over the past four weeks, we’ve begun to understand the power of the words we speak. And as we finish this sermon series, I encourage you to speak the name of Jesus and believe in the power of his name. When we consider the Power of Words, let’s remember that there’s one word above all others, Jesus, that carries the power to transform you and me into children of God. Today, speak that one word, the Word, Jesus.
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