This morning, we continue our prayer with the beginning words of the Gospel of John: John 1:1-18.
The seminary where I work sits on a hill in hilly coastal country. Day to day, as I walk the campus, I see the particularity of our life in community: students with their books, conversation and laughter, a person paused in prayer, an energetic cell-phone call about who will pick the kids up from school. If I walk to the top of the hill, there’s a terrace with a labyrinth and an expansive vista. With this broader vista, I can see Mt. Tam in her quiet glory, the neighborhood that embraces our hill, the seminary set in its nearest community. If I were to hike to the top of Mt. Tam, I would have an even broader vista – the seminary and the town, the San Francisco Bay, the cities of San Francisco and Oakland, the Pacific Ocean – an expansive vista where we live in all of our particularity.
The Gospels of Matthew and Luke begin the story of Jesus with the particularity of the stable each with their own detail: a woman going into labor, strange shepherds at the door, even stranger angels singing. The Gospel of John zooms out and provides an expansive vista: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” This Gospel vista begins the life of the Christ before time and stretches it out beyond time. Everything that God is doing, God has been doing since the beginning of time – everything part of God’s ongoing creative work. And then, the text zooms in with particularity – “And the Word became flesh and dwelt in the midst of us” — the expanse of God’s love embracing the particularity of us.
This morning in our prayer, I invite us to pray both with an expansive vista and with particularity. Choose a vista as broad as the day permits. If the weather permits, maybe take a walk outside. Or look out a window. Or settle into a warm room in your home. Or find a favorite photo. (You can also do this with sound – for example, a favorite song.) Find a broad horizon and cast your gaze wide. Enjoy this expansive vista. See things whole. Then take a deep breath, and zoom in. Within this expansive vista, look at things in their particularity.
What do you see?
