By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
January 5, 2025
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John 1:1–18 (ESV)
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. 9 The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known.
Light and darkness. These are philosophical ideas we do not dwell on often. There are times where we look at the world and we get fixated on darkness. The past few years it almost seems like we as a culture have spent more time thinking about the darkness than is healthy.
I am just as guilty as the next person. It is easy to look at what is wrong, I can tell you just how many times I have been offended or feel as if I was not treated properly. There is a complete genre of internet meme focused on that concept. We can look out and easily see the wrong. But do we take the time to look for light?
The news does not help. The algorithm of facebook and twitter seem to constantly redirect our attention to the aspects of our culture that we find detestable. If we were to simply look at our various news feeds without any context we would easily begin to think that the world today is worse than it has ever been. This is not the reality of the situation. Things could improve do not get me wrong. Life is not easy by any means, but If we were to take a step back life today is better in many ways than it was even a few years ago.
We can get fixated on darkness. We can look at gas prices and we get nervous. I get nervous. We look at pictures from ten years ago and we long for the days when prices were that low. When I started college gas was still below a dollar a gallon. Now its over three. We fixate on that. We claim that the price of gas has doubled or tripled, we are right in that statement. But there is more to this. The average fuel economy of a vehicle in 1978 was seventeen miles per gallon of gas. In the year 2002 it was nearly twenty miles per gallon. In 2020, this increased to twenty-five and just two years ago it is over twenty-six. These figures include all vehicle types, and many vehicles have a fuel economy over thirty miles per gallon.
Why do I bring this up? Gas prices have doubled, and in the same amount of time the fuel economy has also doubled. We see the darkness more readily than we see the bright side, the reality as much as we do not want to hear it is there is virtually no real change. The dollar amount we pay at the pump increase but the amount of fuel we purchase has decreased.
We do not like to hear things like this. I like everyone else wanted to be enraged by fuel prices. It is one of my largest expenses, and it always has been. I want to pay less not more. But in the time I have lived in Kansas City I have owned three different vehicles. Each of those vehicles have had better mileage than the one previous. I once filled up ever other day, now I fill up maybe once a week. And I have purposefully looked for vehicles that would be more economical because that is one of my largest expenses.
Light and darkness.
I mentioned that these are philosophical concepts. These concepts are found in various schools of thought, it is found in Hebrew scriptures, as well as the universities of the Greek culture. And they speak of wisdom and ignorance.
Today’s passage begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”
I encourage you to contemplate that passage for a moment. What does it mean? We might let our minds wonder through the various apologetic concepts that use this passage to bring people to question or affirm their faith but let that pass over you. I want you to think about what it means to you.
In the beginning was the Word. This term here is logos in Greek. I like this word, in part because it is the name of my favorite software on my computer, Logos Bible study software. It is a word that points to wisdom, but there is more to this word. It can also mean to gather, or to count. It can be used to give a reckoning, or testimony. And it can mean the grounds of which we can make a judgment. Every aspect of this word points us to something. Logos is the place we start and it is the pathway toward wisdom.
In the beginning was the Word, John the apostle, tells us. In the beginning was the gathering, the counting, the reckoning and testimony. I have sat reflecting on this one verse many times as I have explored my faith. There is beauty in these words, there is passion and love. When I consider it, my mind begins to trace images of snowflakes falling and gathering on the ground. I am then transported back to the greatest part of the school year when my family would gather around the radio listening with anticipation for my school to be named as one of those that would have a snow day. This would mean that we could go outside to build a snowman, build a snow fort and have a snow ball fight. The snow day was a day of joy for a child. I want you to remember that joy. Remember the falling snow gathering into drifts. Remember the laughter we once emitted as we packed and rolled balls of snow to make oddly shaped masterpieces.
That is logos. But it is just the beginning. It is that counting, the gathering. Its the building and the bringing together of chaotic disorder and molding it into something beautiful.
John wrote these words as poetry, yet the meter of the poem is seen in the cosmos. As a child I wanted to be an astronaut and I still am amazed at the pictures that we receive from the various telescopes around the world, and in space. Some of the images that NASA has released from the James Webb Space Telescope are breath taking in their beauty, and when I look at those images it is the words of John that ring in my ears. As I watch computer animations of the birth of a star it is the words of scripture that play in the background. To me, I do not fixate on timelines or formulas seeking to prove or disprove faith, what I see and hear in my mind is, “In the beginning…”
“All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” I want us again to go back to the snow day at school. The joy that we had as a child as we gathered the snow together to build the greatest snowman our neighborhood had ever seen. When I was a kid we had acres of yard to gather from. I remember one winter my brother and I rolled a ball of snow so large we could no longer push it. And we kept trying, I do not know why we wanted it so large, because eventually we would have had to try to put on the second layer. But we kept pushing and gathering. I want us to remember that joy and creativity. That is the joy of creation, and I imagine that is how God felt as he began to make all things.
He gathered, and he made. He rolled balls of cosmic dust into stars and planets throughout his theological yard. In the beginning God had the joy of a child on a snow day.
“In him was life.”
Life in Greek spoke about vitality. Something with life was not a thing, but a collection of activity. This is fascinating if we stop to think about it for a moment. Life is not a thing, but it is activity, it is movement, growth, and work. Life is a collection of activity building upon itself. Moving out and expanding. And in the Greek understanding of the world anything with movement had life.
“And the life was the light of men.”
Light, we are back to that philosophical term. In Greek this term means to shine or illuminate. And the use of the word in this passage, takes on a form that means the source of illumination.
“In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made,. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”
The snow is falling, we go out and gather it into balls, there is joy and laughter, as we create. There is movement and activity, vitality, life. And that life, that movement illuminates, it shines as a beacon back to the source. Where all things begin.
Today, as an adult a snow day has different meaning. What was once a source of joy now is a source of concern. What once was a day of celebration becomes a day of worry and fear. Have you noticed this in your life? There was once vitality, now the movement slows. Things are not as they used to be.
Joy has turned into mourning. And despair replaces hope. We have turned our backs on the light, and our gaze is fixated on the shadows.
Wisdom and ignorance, light and dark, life and death. All of these theological and philosophical ideas are vibrating around us and are we able to hear the wave though the void? Logos is the gathering, that points to the source. And it continues to move and cycle all around us.
John says, “The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.”
Light is an important concept. Illumination, heat, energy is all included in light. When we think of light we, like those in ancient days think of the sun, that star that allows life to exist on earth. We often look at the ancient superstitions of our ancestors as folly because they were unable to understand what we understand today. Yet they did understand more then we give them credit for. They knew the importance of the sun and they were afraid during a solar eclipse because what force could remove that power for an instant? They would study the movements of the stars and the moon and through them they were able to make calculations and determine how to proceed in their life. We look at these superstitions and at times we laugh, but there is something we are missing when we do that. They are studying. They are seeking knowledge and wisdom. They are using what they learned even though it might come from a superstition and they are applying that knowledge to their life and work.
We marvel at the pyramids, we wonder at Stone Hinge. We wonder how they constructed these thing in their primitive cultures but these things were tools and instruments of gathering knowledge to apply to the wisdom of life. They measure the movement of the sun, they calculate the the movement of the stars. And through that knowledge they knew when to plant the crops and through other factors what other actions to take. It is illumination, knowledge.
They gathered knowledge, but there are times when we use and manipulate knowledge. Why was it important to know when a solar ellipse was going to occur? Because if you held that knowledge you could use it for your advantage. You know when the sun will darken, you tell the people that you will darken the sun at a specific time, and it happens now you are seen as the one that holds the power even over the sun. Those that had the wisdom used the ignorance of everyone else against them for their own benefit. This is sin, distraction. It is pulling our attention away from the source and putting it somewhere else.
Which takes me back to gas prices. We are all upset about the price. We all wish they would go down. We blame certain political entities and place our faith in others. This is just one aspect where wisdom and ignorance can be seen. I mention it because I get caught in that cycle of panic and realization just as much as everyone else. When the price goes up I get nervous because it affects me, darkness creeps in. But within that darkness is a lack of knowledge, ignorance. I had to look up the statistics I mentioned before. I took the time while preparing to give this message to find out how much gas prices have risen and how much fuel economy has increased. And as I obtained that knowledge something happened within me. The tension griping at my economic chest decreased just a bit. I began to recognize that when I look at the bigger picture things have not gotten quite as bad as I thought. That is what knowledge can do for us.
But where are we getting the knowledge and how are we applying it? This takes us back to John. John told us that the true light, which gives light to everyone was coming into the world. That true source of vitality, and energy. True knowledge was coming. He was in the world, the world that he made, yet the world did not know him.
We lost track at some point, our attention was distracted. We in our collective past once knew the true light, but we had turned away. It sounds like a story we know. A story that seems to be in our very genetic code. We know right and wrong, yet we turn away from what is right and choose the thing that is wrong. Light and darkness. We choose what is safe, what is beneficial, what will give us power in the moment. We like the kings of old use the knowledge we have to tell the world that the sun will darken and we take the credit so that we can reap the rewards. But we leave out the part where the moon will move away just as quickly as it came.
We have lost track of the true source, the true vitality of who we are and why we are here. He came into the world and we did not know him. We did not know him. We did not even know we were looking for him and yet he came.
He came to show us what true life is. He took on our complete humanity. He lived a complete life just as we have. He experienced gestation, was an infant, toddler, child, teenager, adult. He worked a job, and entered midlife in his culture. We think of him as young, but thirty was fairly old given the average life expectancy in the first century. He changed careers. He faced struggle, betrayal, injustice. Yet through it all he made it his custom to worship with his community in the synagogues, he withdrew often to the isolated places to pray, and he ministered to those in need.
He came into the the world, and the world was made through him. He took on our humanity, he became one of us. He showed and empowers us to live the life God created us to live. The life of true vitality. The one that is truly enlightened from the source. Yet we turn and live in the shadows, the world did not know him. He came to his own people, the people he chose to bear the light to all nations. And his own people did not receive him.
We all get distracted. We can all live in the darkness of our own ignorance. But what do we do with the light, with the wisdom as it comes in. Do we use it to exploit those around us or do we use it to gather together and shine in the darkness?
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
As we move about in our community this week, as we interact with those around us, as we play in the snow. I want us to reflect on the poetry of John. I want us to consider that gathering of the word and the wisdom within that gathering. I want us to remember the joy of creation as we remember the snow days of our youth and the vitality and life that is found within that joy. And I want us to remember and embrace the hope that comes when we reflect on the source of that life. He gave us the right to become children of God. He gave us the right to enjoy a snow day, to participate in creation, and join with him in true life. A life of loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit and Living the love of Christ with others. Let us know that with kind of life. Life with God and with each other. A life with hope. Life with light that overcomes the darkness.
Previous Messages:
The Mind of Christ
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 29, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Query 3: Do you attend regularly the services of your church and participate in them actively? Do you prayerfully endeavor to minister, under the guidance of the Holy…
Walk as Children of Light
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church March 15, 2026 Click here to join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Ephesians 5:8–14 (ESV) 8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light 9 (for the fruit…
Your Kingdom Come
By Jared Warner Willow Creek Friends Church February 22, 2026 Click here to Join our Meeting for Worship Click to read in Swahili Bofya kusoma kwa Kiswahili Romans 5:12–19 (ESV) 12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all…
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