1 Christmas B December 31, 2017
Is.61:10-62:3 Ps. 147:13-21
Gal. 3:23-25,4:4-7 John 1:1-18
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was God. This is perhaps the only Bible verse that is needed. Why? It tells us the very basis of human life as we can know it. Word is the grounding of human life in the most general sense. But Word also needs particularity in that we need modelling for the very best possible use of human words.
The Word was God is the most basic insight of all. Why? In a divine
circularity of argumentation, Word is used to establish Word as that which is
Primary, First Principle or in Greek, the "Arche" of all human
existence. (In principio erat Verbum, Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, En archē ēn
ho Lógos)
But you say, isn't Word itself simply metaphorical in that Words constantly refer to things that are not words? Material things, non-material things, things out there, things in here? Indeed that is the very art of having words. Art is the "as if" of using words to refer to things that are not words, even while to do so we have to use and be used by other words in the referring process.
I hope that I have convinced you of the sheer brilliant obviousness of the phrase and the WORD WAS GOD.
If we can accept the basic constitution of all of our life and life itself by word and within the web of words, then accepting that "arche" we can move on to deal with the most important word issue of all, namely, the quality of how we actually use words.
This is where the other biblical words come to play important roles for us. This is where the example of holy people, saints and sages arise for us to find role models in how we should freely choose to use the words of our lives.
Part of the task of learning how to add quality to our word use in life is to undergo a word analysis of our lives to understand how we are passively used by words of our lives over which we had no control since in our naïve passive states we could not control how words came to us and how we became constituted by words, not of our mature adult or subsequent "enlightened" choosing. We were not born in perfect word environments. In our states of not yet being wise censors of our word exposure, we took on habits of word which encoded our lives into repetitions of language use in word and deed that we have come to recognize as lacking the kind of quality which we have come to see as wise, self-controlled, compassionate and just.
Part of interdicting bad word habits comes from understanding how we have taken on the repetitions of some bad language habits in word and in our body language deeds. In psychological terms terms, one might look at how our desire became locked into body language deeds of "addiction." Addictions are those repetitive body language deeds which are locked in by the power of desire and bring a person to be out of control and do and say things that one does not want to do or say. Addictions can be on a continuum of mild lack of self control in matters not good for our health to the severe addictions that have stark health implications and social collateral damage.
In religious terms, the locking into behaviors of repetitions by the energy of desire might be called idolatry. An irreligious life is the life of idolatry; it is the life of repeating the false belief that things other than God can be God. Alcohol, drugs, food, careers, fame, glory can be the dangling carrot in front of us feigning the appearance of the divine and thus demanding the energy of our desire to achieve this feigned appearance.
If we can appreciate the "arche" or the First Principle of WORD BEING GOD, then we can begin to exercise the freedom that we know we have in being language users. We can become free agents in censoring the kinds of influences that we allow to become a part of the composite inner word reservoir of our lives from which rises all repetitive behaviors in our body language. This has become quite a task in our Informational Age when we have screaming at us the flood of a worded environment. The age of the internet is the age of profuse word products and such a quantity seems to indicate that whatever can come to language should come to language as a product to be experienced by you and me and everyone. Can one see how important it is to be the gate-keeper of the words one allows to have frequent entrance to contribute to the inner cauldron of fomenting words that can become possible future behaviors and future repeating behaviors?
So here's a recommendation for the New Year: 1-Accept WORD AS GOD. 2-Analyze how you have taken on word use in unhealthy addictive, repetitive behaviors in speaking, writing and body language deeds. 3-As a free agent language user, choose superlative models of word use. Following John's Gospel, this means that we follow Jesus Christ because He was WORD MADE FLESH as a model person to help lead us from the bondage of sin, aka, addictive and repetitive habits of things not good for us or our society.
If we can accept Word as the basis of our lives, then in 2018 we will work on translations of how we use words together with each other into love, kindness, peace and justice for all. Amen.
I hope that I have convinced you of the sheer brilliant obviousness of the phrase and the WORD WAS GOD.
If we can accept the basic constitution of all of our life and life itself by word and within the web of words, then accepting that "arche" we can move on to deal with the most important word issue of all, namely, the quality of how we actually use words.
This is where the other biblical words come to play important roles for us. This is where the example of holy people, saints and sages arise for us to find role models in how we should freely choose to use the words of our lives.
Part of the task of learning how to add quality to our word use in life is to undergo a word analysis of our lives to understand how we are passively used by words of our lives over which we had no control since in our naïve passive states we could not control how words came to us and how we became constituted by words, not of our mature adult or subsequent "enlightened" choosing. We were not born in perfect word environments. In our states of not yet being wise censors of our word exposure, we took on habits of word which encoded our lives into repetitions of language use in word and deed that we have come to recognize as lacking the kind of quality which we have come to see as wise, self-controlled, compassionate and just.
Part of interdicting bad word habits comes from understanding how we have taken on the repetitions of some bad language habits in word and in our body language deeds. In psychological terms terms, one might look at how our desire became locked into body language deeds of "addiction." Addictions are those repetitive body language deeds which are locked in by the power of desire and bring a person to be out of control and do and say things that one does not want to do or say. Addictions can be on a continuum of mild lack of self control in matters not good for our health to the severe addictions that have stark health implications and social collateral damage.
In religious terms, the locking into behaviors of repetitions by the energy of desire might be called idolatry. An irreligious life is the life of idolatry; it is the life of repeating the false belief that things other than God can be God. Alcohol, drugs, food, careers, fame, glory can be the dangling carrot in front of us feigning the appearance of the divine and thus demanding the energy of our desire to achieve this feigned appearance.
If we can appreciate the "arche" or the First Principle of WORD BEING GOD, then we can begin to exercise the freedom that we know we have in being language users. We can become free agents in censoring the kinds of influences that we allow to become a part of the composite inner word reservoir of our lives from which rises all repetitive behaviors in our body language. This has become quite a task in our Informational Age when we have screaming at us the flood of a worded environment. The age of the internet is the age of profuse word products and such a quantity seems to indicate that whatever can come to language should come to language as a product to be experienced by you and me and everyone. Can one see how important it is to be the gate-keeper of the words one allows to have frequent entrance to contribute to the inner cauldron of fomenting words that can become possible future behaviors and future repeating behaviors?
So here's a recommendation for the New Year: 1-Accept WORD AS GOD. 2-Analyze how you have taken on word use in unhealthy addictive, repetitive behaviors in speaking, writing and body language deeds. 3-As a free agent language user, choose superlative models of word use. Following John's Gospel, this means that we follow Jesus Christ because He was WORD MADE FLESH as a model person to help lead us from the bondage of sin, aka, addictive and repetitive habits of things not good for us or our society.
If we can accept Word as the basis of our lives, then in 2018 we will work on translations of how we use words together with each other into love, kindness, peace and justice for all. Amen.
