Daily Devotional • August 24
A Reading from John 8:12-20
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” 13 Then the Pharisees said to him, “You are testifying on your own behalf; your testimony is not valid.” 14 Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid because I know where I have come from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge by human standards; I judge no one. 16 Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is valid, for it is not I alone who judge but I and the Father who sent me. 17 In your law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is valid. 18 I testify on my own behalf, and the Father who sent me testifies on my behalf.” 19 Then they said to him, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” 20 He spoke these words while he was teaching in the treasury of the temple, but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
Meditation
When you and I express ourselves, we must use not only voice—words, and speech—but our bodies too. “Proclaim the Gospel always,” St. Francis famously said, “sometimes using words.” Similarly, God the Father chose to express himself in and through his own Word, embodied. St. Maximos the Confessor said: “The Word of God, Who is God, seeks always and in all things to work the mystery of His embodiment.” If God’s Word and God are one and the same thing, there can be no more distinction between God and God’s Word than there is between us and our words. Moreover, most of what we are remains hidden until we speak and act; what we say and do reveals who we are. What and Who God is remained mostly hidden until God spoke and acted in and through the Word made flesh, Christ Jesus. When we think of it, it is altogether fitting that, when the time was right, God’s Word would surely take on human nature in order to more effectively communicate His love and truth to humankind; this is one reason why those medieval divines who urged that the Incarnation would have occurred regardless of the Fall had a good point.
“And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us…full of grace and truth.” Truth implies a light to be seen and the light that allows us to see everything else. To echo the Psalmist, Christ is “the Light in which we see” (Ps. 36.9). We may combine grace, truth, and light in our consideration of Jesus, who says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life” (John 8.12). Jesus shows us what is true in the best way possible: He is the very human embodiment of divine truth, light, and love. We must then “study” him in every way, follow in his footsteps, do what he does, and try to feel and see as he does. Is this possible? Yes, it is possible with God’s grace.
In our gospel text, the objection of the skeptical religious leaders is almost beside the point. Such always object to the deeper life and their rationalism demands scientific “proof” for what has little to do with scientific rationality. In every age, such captious folks make a living (so to speak) teaching people to look for light in the wrong part of the sky. Christ is the Light by which we see light, and the words and deeds of Jesus prove that the Father empowered him and still empowers him to save the world. Do you believe it?
The Rev. W.L. (Chip) Prehn, PhD, is president of The Living Church Foundation and is a principal of Dudley & Prehn Educational Consultants. He was a parish priest for 12 years before turning to school administration and consulting. Prehn writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and history.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
St. Anne’s Parish, Annapolis, Maryland
Church of the Province of South East Asia
The Rev. W.L. (Chip) Prehn, PhD, is president of The Living Church Foundation and is a principal of Dudley & Prehn Educational Consultants. He was a parish priest for 12 years before turning to school administration and consulting. Prehn writes poetry, fiction, nonfiction, and history.
