Sunday Wisdom

Genesis 1

The History of Creation

1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4And God saw the light, that it was good:

John 1

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

2The same was in the beginning with God.

3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

John 8
12Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life

These, to me are the most profound verses in the Bible. The Genesis verse and the first John verse talk about the beginning. The beginning. What was it? God was in the beginning before anything else was God was. The Word was with Him and was the life and light of men. It says that the light shines in the darkness and was not comprehended by the darkness. Genesis tells us that the light was good and in John 8:12 Jesus says that he is the light of the world and if we follow him we shall have the light of life. Jesus is therefore, good. He is the definition of God to us and of goodness to us. He loved and accepted everyone. (with the possible exception of the hypocrites and money changers in the Temple.)

For me, to follow him means to be loving and accepting of all of creation and to care for one another. There is no place for hatred or envy or any of the myriad of other things which divide our world. It is only when we think of ourselves as better than others or others as less than we are that we get into trouble. When we know how to love and care and not worry about controlling others that we are able to approach the nature of God and the Word and be with them in Spirit. And then we become good as the light is good.

We have a measuring stick against which to judge ourselves and our actions and that stick is Jesus. Several years ago people were all wearing little bands around their wrists with the initials WWJD on them - What Would Jesus Do? Unfortunately many so-called Christians (myself included) fall far short of His example. I do not feel that Jesus had to be a sacrifice for us. I do not accept that a loving Father would require that to have happned. I do believe that He sent his Son to show us how to live, how to love and how to join with our fellows in comprehending the light that is good.