On Saturday night, the first weekend of Advent, I listened to a sermon on John 1, and that got me started rereading the first homily on the Gospel of John, written by John Chrysostom, who was Archbishop of Constantinople and died in 407 A.D. He takes a surprising approach, and I thought I should share it.
He starts off talking about how spectators get really excited to see their favorite wrestler or musician or rhetorician, and go all out to the stadium, and we should be even more eager to hear the man from heaven who speaks with a voice like thunder.
Then he talks about how merchants prepare their ships to go on trading expeditions, and farmers plow their fields before planting, and how we should also prepare our hearts to hear the word of God. Then he takes Paul's words about not participating in the Lord's cup and the cup of demons too, and says we shouldn't leave his sermon and go off and watch sordid stage plays (like many modern TV shows), as if we hadn't even heard the sermon.
He even admits that he won't get to commenting on the verses from John 1 until the second sermon, because he's so intent on preparing his audience to receive them. Imagine going to a sermon that doesn't even make it to the text as advertised! Sort of reminds me of the Sermon on the Mount, or the first couple chapters of Proverbs, where it's all about being careful how you listen, more than giving you the content of the wisdom on offer.
You can read it for yourself here.
