Preparing for Sunday: John 1:1-18

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Every Sunday in our bulletin there is a section that let's everyone know what the scripture text and sermon will be for the next four weeks. This is not merely for my benefit, nor merely the benefit of the worship team and our musicians who plan our services ahead of time. My hope is that people will do a little reading before worship, start thinking, maybe even do a little reading about the scripture text on their own time, so that they don't come into Sunday morning worship cold, but warmed up and ready to engage the text on a deeper level. 

Before every workout or race, I have my runners warm up by running a few easy miles, doing agility drills, strides and stretching, so that they won't get hurt when they start trying to run the fast stuff. This same principle can and should be applied to warm ups before Sunday worship. You really can't expect to fully grow as a disciple or fully engage Sunday worship, or get all you can out of worship without some preparation and warming up on your own time. 

So with that in mind I wrote the following to get folks thinking about this Sunday, June 9:

After 22 weeks in the Old Testament, we are in the New Testament, and we will be reading John 1:1-18. In the middle of the scripture lesson John writes: "Jesus was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not recognize him." For 400 years after the prophet Malachi prophesied Jesus' coming, there was silence--no visions, no prophecies, no messenger from God. Then the Word became fleshed; the long awaited messiah came to dwell among us. But we learn from John that those who waited the promised Messiah didn't even recognize him when he came!

In the movie October Sky, Homer Hickam gets to travel from West Virginia to Indiana for the National Science Fair. Homer and the Rocket Boys win first prize, and in a flurry of congratulations, Homer's hero, the rocket developer for NASA, Werner Von Braun, shakes Homer's hand, but Homer didn't even know who's hand he shook until a reporter asked Homer, "What did Von Braun say to you?" Later Homer's dad said, "I heard you met your hero, and you didn't even know who he was." 

"Jesus came into the world...yet his own people did not recognize him." How do we miss Jesus in our midst? How do we make sure the world does not miss Jesus alive and working in the world today?

Sunday Worship with WMUMC

2501 Heyward Street, Cola., SC

9:50am (contemporary) and 11:00am (traditional)

Scripture: John 1:1-18

Sermon: "Incognito Jesus"

See you there!