The abiding place of God

John’s Gospel message can be summed up in several different ways. For many, the heart of the Johannine message is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that any who believe in him may not perish, but have everlasting life.” That’s a good one, and so is the very next one, “God did not send his son to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” 

There are also the seven “I am” statements in which Jesus not-so-subtly declares himself by the unspeakable name of God. Those are a pretty powerful witness to Jesus as well. Others might look to Jesus’ statement mission in 10:10, “I came that they might have life, and have it abundantly.” All good, I tell you, all good.

However, as I read the first Gospel lesson choice for Sunday, I was struck by another thematic highlight in John’s Gospel, the abiding place of God. It begins in the prologue with John’s famous verse, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Or, as Eugene Peterson puts it, “The Word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”