Lectio notes
John 2 ... felt unfinished because I had no comment on Jesus taking a whip to the money changers’ set up in the temple—this story being told on the heels of the Wedding at Cana where he turns water into wine. I want to say something but have nothing to say. I’ve always appreciated His audacity—drawing the line of impropriety....
John 3
“No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit” (John 3:5). The lesson from turning the water into wine from chapter 2. It is a miraculous and astonishing miracle. Also seems to be the beginning of reminding these people of how truth works—stronger in metaphor, stronger in story. There is a place for literal truth, for straightforward instruction, but the greater power, the deeper truth is found only in the heart and soul which can more fully be found in meaning, in story, symbols, connections beyond the surface of the literal. Nicodemus asks the question—questions are the bridge, of course, to understanding—“How can anyone be born after having grown old?” (John 3:4).
Contained in that question seems to be a theme throughout—how can anything change? Especially against the law of chronos? Especially against the law of common sense? Logic? Tradition? Science?
In this same conversation Jesus says, “And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up . . . ” (John 3:14). I can almost remember the day when this image connected. Satan comes in the form of a serpent and the First Ones are deceived (Genesis 3). The bronze serpent Moses made and lifted up that those bitten by the poisonous serpent could look up at it and be healed (Numbers 21:1-9); and now this connection when Jesus says He Himself will be lifted up. Ironic that the essence is duality—evil and death embodied in the form of a serpent/antedote and life in the metaphor of a serpent... A study of the symbolism in the serpent in that part of the world would no doubt be interesting...basically perpetual life, fertility, and yet also a rival for the human/son...
Showing posts with label water into wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label water into wine. Show all posts
Sunday, March 3, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
Lectio Notes John 1 and part of 2
Lectio John 1
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4).
“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” (John 1:18).
They searched for “Rabbi” “teacher” and found “Messiah” “Anointed” the promised one...the expected one... What we find will be better than what we seek. What we find will encompass what we seek. (John 1:35-42)
Relationship. The chapter (the book?) is all about relationship—what happens when the Word is spoken. We will either hear it, or we won’t. When the Story is told. We tell stories to know we are not alone (C.S.Lewis, right?). So God speaks, tells Story, stories, that God won’t be alone? So that we will not be alone? // We are all one...but somehow “all one” was manifest in Him...as He is “all One” manifest in us. This is the light, the light of all people.
“You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:5). Again, we will see far more than we look for, ever increasing our relationship, strengthening the connection. This is the hope of faith.... We will now see...because the Light has come.
Something about this chapter makes me want to do a meaning study of the preposition “of” and yet that would be going too deeply into the grammar of English than necessarily into the intention of the Aramaic....
John 2
connect this above in chapter 1 to verse 25 that ends chapter 2: “...and needed no one to testify about anyone, for he himself knew what was in everyone.”
First miracle... wine: symbol of life with the added implications of the spiritual inextricably connected. And this wine was miraculously wrought from water, that exceedingly human element of which we are made of 80some percent. So what is of us most human at the mercy of Jesus may become the finest of wine in the end. ...by extension, the ocean makes up also around 3/4 of the earth, right? Perhaps this, too, is connected to what is promised in a new heaven and new earth. (To be consumed and enjoyed by wedding guests...surely there is a line to extrapolation of meaning in a story...unless we also are the wedding guests as well as the Bride...images and meaning interplay and interrelate...)
also...as first miracle...on the surface it seems gratuitous—appealed to by his Jewish mother who ignores his clear statement to her that this is an inappropriate time, she turns to the attendants and orders them to do whatever he tells them. I wonder if Jesus felt any kind of guilt—that he was somehow compromising what he seemed to believe was a higher calling...because he submits to his mother’s wishes instead of his own view of appropriation that God has more extraordinary things for him to do later and in another context besides a (mere) wedding, a cultural celebration... Yet in the long run it is this simple obedience, this honoring of his mother at such a young and yet powerful age that becomes pervasively revealing about the nature of Jesus as a son, as a man, as a miracle worker, and the fundamental root of transforming human beings takes on the most amazing (and universal) of symbols: turning water into wine.
There are many other lessons in this simple story, too. Perhaps the idea that what seems at first to be a failure to follow what we consider our calling will become in fact inextricably part of our life’s contribution to our destiny. ... Honoring our guests by reserving the best of the best for the last. ... Trusting that God cares even for such a time that might otherwise seem to be outside the lines of “need” (praying for healing is one thing, praying for more wine at a wedding party seems a bit...excessive). And yet it was all in divine order. // Perhaps our efforts are the water, the more "human" and God's touch is the turning of our efforts into wine. //
“What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4).
“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” (John 1:18).
They searched for “Rabbi” “teacher” and found “Messiah” “Anointed” the promised one...the expected one... What we find will be better than what we seek. What we find will encompass what we seek. (John 1:35-42)
Relationship. The chapter (the book?) is all about relationship—what happens when the Word is spoken. We will either hear it, or we won’t. When the Story is told. We tell stories to know we are not alone (C.S.Lewis, right?). So God speaks, tells Story, stories, that God won’t be alone? So that we will not be alone? // We are all one...but somehow “all one” was manifest in Him...as He is “all One” manifest in us. This is the light, the light of all people.
“You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man” (John 1:5). Again, we will see far more than we look for, ever increasing our relationship, strengthening the connection. This is the hope of faith.... We will now see...because the Light has come.
Something about this chapter makes me want to do a meaning study of the preposition “of” and yet that would be going too deeply into the grammar of English than necessarily into the intention of the Aramaic....
John 2
connect this above in chapter 1 to verse 25 that ends chapter 2: “...and needed no one to testify about anyone, for he himself knew what was in everyone.”
First miracle... wine: symbol of life with the added implications of the spiritual inextricably connected. And this wine was miraculously wrought from water, that exceedingly human element of which we are made of 80some percent. So what is of us most human at the mercy of Jesus may become the finest of wine in the end. ...by extension, the ocean makes up also around 3/4 of the earth, right? Perhaps this, too, is connected to what is promised in a new heaven and new earth. (To be consumed and enjoyed by wedding guests...surely there is a line to extrapolation of meaning in a story...unless we also are the wedding guests as well as the Bride...images and meaning interplay and interrelate...)
also...as first miracle...on the surface it seems gratuitous—appealed to by his Jewish mother who ignores his clear statement to her that this is an inappropriate time, she turns to the attendants and orders them to do whatever he tells them. I wonder if Jesus felt any kind of guilt—that he was somehow compromising what he seemed to believe was a higher calling...because he submits to his mother’s wishes instead of his own view of appropriation that God has more extraordinary things for him to do later and in another context besides a (mere) wedding, a cultural celebration... Yet in the long run it is this simple obedience, this honoring of his mother at such a young and yet powerful age that becomes pervasively revealing about the nature of Jesus as a son, as a man, as a miracle worker, and the fundamental root of transforming human beings takes on the most amazing (and universal) of symbols: turning water into wine.
There are many other lessons in this simple story, too. Perhaps the idea that what seems at first to be a failure to follow what we consider our calling will become in fact inextricably part of our life’s contribution to our destiny. ... Honoring our guests by reserving the best of the best for the last. ... Trusting that God cares even for such a time that might otherwise seem to be outside the lines of “need” (praying for healing is one thing, praying for more wine at a wedding party seems a bit...excessive). And yet it was all in divine order. // Perhaps our efforts are the water, the more "human" and God's touch is the turning of our efforts into wine. //
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