2022 Worship Guide

Page 20 2022 Worship Guide LINCOLN DAILY NEWS December 1, 2022 In short, philosophers before Augustine had used the concept of “Word” (Logos) to refer to many profound aspects of reality: its meaningfulness, its purposefulness, its communicability, and its rationality. The deepest thinkers of antiquity located these lofty ideas in an unearthly (Platonic) realm of majestic notions and eternal principles, far removed from the real world. But John’s four inspired words reveal both an idea and, more importantly, an event in history that simply explodes all such human reasonings and speculations. His gospel begins: “ In the beginning was the Meaning, and the Meaning was with God, and the Meaning was God ” (John 1:1)! In simple words, Mark Lowry gets it precisely right when he asks Mary: “Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little baby, you’ve kissed the face of God!?” As Christians we believe the incomprehensible: that in Bethlehem’s manger the Meaning, Purpose, and Logic of the entire universe became a baby. The Apostle Paul says it this way: “ For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together ” (Col 1:16-17).