The Mustard Seed Project
Since last December there have been scientific articles about strange radio waves emanating from the center of the Milky Way. Now, the universe is full of waves, from pulsars to colliding objects, but they detected a difference in this wave.
Space experts have detected unusual radio waves coming from the center of the Milky Way galaxy. The energy signal is unlike any phenomenon studied before and could suggest a previously unknown stellar object, according to a new study. [Katie Hunt, CNN October 12, 2021]
I read this article around Christmas. Maybe because of John’s gospel being part of my text reading during my devotional time, and John’s use of Logos for “word” in his gospel, and his connecting that word to creation and the cosmos, it really caught my attention.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
14And 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. [John 1:1-5; 14]
For me, this reading of John’s gospel reveals those waves detected by scientist today are echoes of God’s Logos, God’s Cosmic Word. John uses the word Logos, which means more than spoken word, but the word that identifies the essence of who the speaker is. In John that cosmic Word came for a specific reason, to reveal once again that God is love and life giving.
1:17The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
8:16For God so loved the world [cosmos] that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. [John 1:17; 8:16-17]
In the midst of our nation’s struggles through the political, religious, and societal tumult, as we continue to face this relentless virus, these verses take on significant meanings for me. According to the gospel writer John, Jesus was the manifestation of God’s word of truth. That truth is to save the world — which in Greek also translates to cosmos — and to set us free. As disciples of that truth, we should be ones that articulate and are examples of that truth.
If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. [John 8:31-32]
In this time of being in bondage of alt-truths and political spin, with religious entities supporting politicians, as well as following them in such practices, and who unapologetically indulge in those deceitful practices, I believe it is time to follow Jesus’ lead in understanding his truth and freedom, in John. We need to understand that it is that cosmic Word of truth, that Logos that is our hope for saving this fragile world floating in the cosmic vastness. To understand Jesus’ mission of truth we must understand it as life-giving.
3All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being 4in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.[John 1:3-4]
The cosmic word of truth is to bring life and light in the midst of darkness, to set us free from the alt-truths, so we can love as Jesus loved us and give life. That’s what Jesus’ life as John recounts it did, it gave life. From a young couple running out of wine at a wedding in the backwater town of Cana to the cleaning out the Temple in Jerusalem of its religious trappings; from freeing a pharisee of his bondage to the law to freeing the gushing waters of worth within a Samaritan woman; from freeing a woman accused of adultery from the death threats of the law to free a blind man from the blindness of the law. These few examples reveal how the arch of the universe may be long, but its energy, its wave, its Logos always bends toward justice, and God’s Cosmic justice always gives light and life.
Sometimes on a clear late night, when the world is hush, step outside and look towards the vastness of the heavens and see if you can see those eternal light waves, those pulsating stars, and listen for that small still Logos. In and amongst those waves of light, be still as you listen for that Word of life, and experience God’s vast love for the world.
In Christ the Word,
Pastor Tim
