Advent #3.1 of 10:

The Word was God

(John 1:1)

Probably something should be said about that word “Word" that appears in the first chapter of John’s Gospel. I’ll try. It’s a translation of the Greek word logos which, for the most part, is simply and properly translated as “word”. With words we tell our stories, or give an account, or put things in order, or try to make sense of things.

Which leads philosophers and poets to use logos in a deeper sense meaning “reason,” or “rational order.” The logos is that which makes sense of things. We get our word “logic” from it as well as a host of “ology” words like biology and sociology; by which we mean “the study of”. So “biology” is the study of life and sociology is the study of social structures. Today, we think of such studies in more scientific ways as methods for discovering the mechanisms of life or society. For philosophers and poets of old, logos had to do with discovering the meaning of things. What is the meaning of life? Or, what is the “Meaning” that underlies all things? That’s the logos of poets and philosophers.

Thus, we might translate John’s poetic use of logos something like this: “In the beginning was the Meaning, and the Meaning was with God, and the Meaning was God.” The Chinese version of the Bible, I’ve been told, translates logos in John chapter one with the word “tao”: “In the beginning was the Tao…” Lewis would like that (his “Illustrations of the Tao” in The Abolition of Man).The idea is that the Word that calls all things into being continues to echo. Poets and philosophers contemplate this sustaining echo of the eternal Logos.

My hunch is that poets and philosophers would have little trouble with John’s first stanza. They would nod their heads in approval: “Yes, in the beginning was the Logos…” It’s not until the last stanza of John’s poem that the philosophers and poets realize John is talking about something they could never imagine. We’ll save that shocking surprise for Christmas.

For now, Advent has to do, not only with how Israel’s prophets foretell the mystery and wonder of Christmas, but also how some of the poets and philosophers long for it as well. There’s something universal about Advent. As the Apostle Paul said to the Athenian philosophers: “Even some of your poets have said…” (Ac 17). All humans wonder about such things. As we sing during Advent: “Dear desire of every nation, Joy of every longing heart” (Come Thou Long Expected Jesus). An echo of that sustaining Logos, spoken before the beginning, still lingers in God’s creation.