In the Beginning Was the Conversation!
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
January 23, 2022
Good morning and welcome to Light Reflections. This morning our scripture text is a familiar one from John 1:1-5:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
As I mentioned in “As Way Opens” a couple of weeks ago, I started 2022 reading devotionally the book, “Church of the Wild” by Victoria Loorz. There are many great things that I could preach on from this book, but one chapter specifically struck me and had me rethinking and even deconstructing some of my former theological understandings.
It is not too often these days that I read something that has me engaged in the way that Chapter 6, In the Beginning was the Logos, has had me these first few weeks of 2022.
In this chapter, Loorz is focusing on the phrase, In the beginning was the Word. This is a statement we have all read or heard for most of our lives from the very beginning of the Gospel of John.
I have taught on this poetic text, preached sermons on it, even spent hours writing papers on the theological constructs that come from the idea of Jesus being the “Word” or as in the Greek it reads, “Logos.”
Where it hit me was when Loorz began her research on the word Logos. I love doing research on words and phrases, part of my education has been all about this research as it is very important work for pastors when trying to interpret the wisdom of the scriptures.
Yet, what I had been taught all my life, I have realized had taken, somewhat, for granted. If there was one interpretation that I accepted as true without researching, it was “In the Beginning was THE WORD.” “The word” was the given and proper English translation of the Greek word Logos – at least that is what I thought and had been taught for most of my education.
Loorz helps give some background to the origin of the word logos and its interpretation over time. She says,
“Logos was first used in a cosmological way by Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher in the 15th Century BCE. He used the word logos to articulate a kind of intelligent life force embedded in and interconnecting all things, ”a divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.”
Loorz points out that Heraclitus developed one of the most revolutionary concepts – the idea that all things are one – or what they now label “unitary Nature” or an indwelling unity behind the diversity in existing things.”
“Logos is the principle or power that shapes all and creates all things, immanent and embedded in all that exists…[It is] the relationship between all things, holding them together.”
She points out that this is a concept that many great thinkers throughout history have connected with – just calling them by different names.
Thich Nhat Hahn calls it “the web of interbeing.”
Robin Wall Kimmerer calls it “sacred reciprocity.”
David Whyte calls it “the conversational nature of reality.”
Quantum scientist David Bohn calls it “implicate order.”
Even Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had a way of describing this logos. He called it an inescapable network of mutuality, which he said was tied in a single garment of destiny – meaning whatever effects one directly, affects all indirectly.
And not only great thinkers but all the great philosophies of the world utilize this idea of logos. From the Stoics to the Chinese, to even the Persians – this concept of logos is a universal concept that almost all philosophies teach and embrace.
So…what about the Christian faith of which we ascribe?
I remember when I was in undergrad college in River Forest, Illinois. Sue and I would frequent a store in Oak Park, Illinois (which has since sadly closed). The name of that store happened to be Logos. It was an eclectic store – filled with Bibles, Christian Contemporary Music CDs, and religious trinkets.
In many ways, it was very much like the old Family Christian or Lifeway Stores, but there was a difference. Mixed in among the books on the shelves were books from other religious philosophies and trinkets from other religions.
On occasion, the students at our Christian college would get upset and seek ways to question the owners for their confusing selection of items. I remember one student even saying, “The store is called Logos – it is clear that it should be all about Jesus – because Jesus was the Word.”
Until around the fourth Century, most theologians and translators translated the Greek work logos into Latin not English, because Latin was the official language of the church at the time. Logos in Latin was translated as sermo.
Here is the surprising thing. When you and I hear the word sermo – we immediately think of the word sermon. Thus, it is easy to think why they would translate it into English as “word.”
Yet, the reality is that sermo does not mean word, but rather a manner of speaking back and forth – or simply a conversation.
Sermo’s root is sero which means to weave and join, it is the intimate living of life together, living among, and all in intimate conversation.
The Apostle John wanted to connect to this understanding when he wrote his unique and much more metaphorical and poetic gospel. Many believe John was trying to be culturally relevant in how he saw Christ. He wanted to identify Jesus with the logos – this divine indwelling through which all things were made.
Early theologians and philosophers would have understood what John was trying to do saying logos had a relational dimension or force. It was a metaphor or descriptor for the embodiment of Christ’s work – not the person of Jesus himself.
This is more like when we distinguish between the President of the United States and the Office of the President of the United States. One is about the man, Joe Biden, and the other is about the actions, the work, the impact, the legacy of the position.
I consider Logos for us to be like the Office of the Greater Conversation Relationship with our neighbors, the divine, even the natural world around us. When describing Margaret Wheatley’s idea of “turning to one another” and embracing the need for and conversation with each other, I was inviting us to tap into this greater office of conversation and relationship.
This means logos is bigger than just the person, Jesus. It is more about the title we give Jesus, that being, the Christ.
In Seeking Friends we have been wrestling with Richard Rohr’s latest work, “The Universal Christ.” Where he speaks directly to the difference between Jesus and the Christ. Rohr says,
“Christ, as such, is not precisely a religious principle…but a life principle – the ubiquitous confluence of matter and spirit.” Christ is not Jesus’ last name, but the title for his life’s purpose.”
What Rohr and Loorz help us see is that Christ is about radical solidarity. Christ is the conversation happening between everyone and everything. Christ is not the word, but the conversation.
Just listen again to our text from John 1 which I read earlier – but this time let me replace “word” with conversation.
In the beginning was the Conversation, and the Conversation was with God, and the Conversation was God. This was with God in the beginning. Through this conversation all things were made; without it nothing was made that has been made. In this conversation was life, and that life was the light of all mankind…
The conversation became flesh and made its dwelling among us.
Just let that sink in for a moment.
Christ is the sacred conversation that links everything together.
I once taught a class to mostly freshmen at Huntington University. It was an Introduction to Christianity class and a required course. As part of the curriculum I included a talk by Rob Bell, who many of my Evangelical students considered a heretic. Ironically, this talk was more a science lesson than it was a religion or theology lesson.
During Rob’s talk he shares about how everything is made up of smaller and smaller things. All which must be in relationship with one another. This he says is the interconnection of all things.
At our molecular or subatomic state we are made of particles that have to be in relationship, or as some scientists say, in an ongoing conversation with one another to survive. Conversation and relationship is literally what we are made of.
As we would watch Rob’s talk many lightbulbs would began going off in the heads of my students.
Hmmm…they would wonder…then begin to make the connections first in the scriptures.
· Where two or three are gathered – there I am in the midst of them.
· A cord of three strands is not easily broken.
· Three is the magic number… (well, you get it).
When we “turn to one another” as I said a few Sundays ago and strike up a conversation with each other, our conversation becomes as Loorz points out, “a holy space of exchange: a space in which I release some of what I used to think and be, in order to include you. And we both are changed.”
As Quakers we can embrace this understanding because when the God in me, meets the God in you, we two are changed. It is when we don’t acknowledge the God in our neighbor that we begin to break down the relationship and stop the vital communication.
So why do we not translate logos as word, today, instead of conversation?
Because since the 4th Century, the Patriarchs have been intentionally translating it to the Latin word verbum instead of sermo. Verbum is a noun meaning word, where sermo is a verb meaning conversation.
Since language not only describes things, but also produces culture, the Patriarchs decided that controlling the religious world meant defining it by nouns or what we would call things. Soon a successful life was about the pursuit of things. This is known as empire.
It is into this male dominated empire of things that Jesus of Nazareth is born. A man who comes with a revolutionary message that was all about resisting empire.
Jesus came from the Hebrew people whose language is verb-based and who focuses in great depth on the relationships between all things. The Hebrew people were not about trying to define the substance of God – instead they were more about relating to and pleasing God.
Actually, God was considered a verb to the Hebrew people – “I am who I am” (or as it should be more appropriately verb-translated “becoming which will be becoming.”
As Loorz put it, “God is BEING, not A being.”
Most of American Christianity today is all about defining nouns. We have lost the conversation. Even me giving this sermon – from the Greek sermo – should actually be about a conversation with you – not just a lecture of sorts.
That is why I try to offer queries that will continue the conversation throughout the week. To help us engage our religious faith in a way that taps us into the greater conversation we are all a part of – the logos.
As Quakers, we speak of being Light Bearers, carriers of the Logos, the Tao, the spark of Divine love within us. And as Loorz points out, “when we engage one another [when we choose to turn to one another] – the conversation between us becomes the manifestation of the sacred, moving us forward to the ever-evolving kin-dom of grace – that is the Wild Christ.”
I pray we at First Friends will work hard on embracing this logos or sacred conversation. That we will seek to be verb-people instead of noun-people. That as we have these sacred conversations we will see the manifestation of God in our midst, in our lives, within each of us.
It might just be a wild and unexpected ride – but first we must “turn to one another” and start a Divine conversation!
If you want to continue to learn more about this, I highly recommend you pick up “The Church of the Wild” by Victoria Loorz – It would be a great way to continue the conversation. I am sure I will sharing more from this book in the future.
Now, as we enter waiting worship, I want to utilize some queries Victoria Loorz poses to conclude this sermon.
· What would a Wild Christ – a Conversation who is the intermediary of love between all things…evoke in our world?
· Is it possible to imagine the worldview of kingdoms and empires transforming into a wordview pf kin-dom and compassion?
· How might Christianity be different if it could become a place for sacred conversation: a place to explore possibilities and express doubts and disagree, and encourage voices on the edges?