Moved into the neighborhood...

This morning, Sara, Erica, and I began our weekly staff meeting by reading and reflecting on today's Scripture reading from the first chapter of John's Gospel.

We read, as we often do, from The Message, a contemporary interpretation of The Bible by Eugene Peterson. I was really struck by the beauty and power of these words as Peterson interprets them...

John 1:1-18 (The Message)

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.
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.

There once was a man, his name John, sent by God to point out the way to the Life-Light. He came to show everyone where to look, who to believe in. John was not himself the Light; he was there to show the way to the Light.

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.

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.

John pointed him out and called, "This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word."

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.

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I love the image of Christ as the Life-Light, and I love the reminder that in Jesus, God "became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." Wow.

If you don't have a copy of The Message, I highly recommend it. I don't think it necessarily replaces a more literal and traditional translation (such as the New Revised Standard Version or Today's New International Version), but I find that it often provides a fresh new window into the beauty and power of God's Word. Check it out.