Good Book Club: John 1:6-18

6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. 12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

14 And 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.’”) 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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A poem by Bernie Fox, St. John in the Wilderness, Flat Rock, NC
 

John came from God 
as a witness to the Light,
a witness that lights the darkness
with sparking words,
a guttering flame
flaring into the radiance 
of the only Son,
the Son sending a message
to a waiting world
caught in the turmoil
of a journey into the center
of an abyss of selfish self.

In the water of the Jordan,
the Son rises from His baptism,
the winged Spirit resting on His shoulder,
His Father's voice of approval
ringing from on high,
the love of the Trinity
passed to a world
craving the quenching peace.