Faith Daily | 31 December 2021

PRAYER of the DAY - APBA p 476

Almighty God,

you have shed upon us

the light of your incarnate Word:

may this light, kindled in our hearts,

shine forth in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

COLLECT PRAYER Following First Sunday after Christmas APBA p476

Almighty God,

you have shed upon us

the light of your incarnate Word:

may this light, kindled in our hearts,

shine forth in our lives;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen.

GOSPEL for the Day: John 1: 1-18

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.

5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. 6There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 14And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

15(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) 16From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

GOSPEL Reflection: Contributed by: Pamela Davey

The New Oxford Annotated Bible (NOAB) says that John starts his gospel by telling us Jesus’ uniqueness, his eternal origin and divine nature. Unique because “he was in the beginning with God”, active in creation, the source of light and life. And when he became incarnate in human flesh, he made known the eternal God, whom “no one has ever seen” (1:14, 18).

Richard Rohr says “It does not say the Word became Jesus, but everything material — the sky, the trees, your bodies — are an outpouring of God. What else could you be? As people have tried to understand the Bible, they have called it poetry and then looked at it as literal description. Literalism is the lowest level of meaning; symbolic meaning is the greatest level because it includes many contrary possibilities.”

In this magnificent Prologue, John uses symbolism drawn from common experience (bread, water, light etc.) to make the significance of Christ both clear and gripping.

FINAL PRAYER: Dr Rowan Williams

We are not consumers of what God has made; we are in communion with it.

Go for a walk.

Get wet.

Dig the earth.

Amen.