Logos

a poem

Logos

learn the Logos and lay in the river—
be Baptized in the rejuvenating waters,
ascend to the point where thinking reaches, reaching
the lintel high above to transcend
descend, 
    go, 
        query the depths of the bedrock founding,
may the beginning of Being meet the common strata where space concludes,
find because you have been sought 
find the reception of your question in the hands of a gracious host
find the knowledge that knows you,
find found, even before discovery begins that later discovery finds after,
find Faith’s object who is a SUBJECT
    dejected
        rejected
            despised
                of sorrows
Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God,
who is coming into the world.

lean into the Logos and race to the running conclusion—
place your feet in the starter’s block
anxious to the dimensions of the horizon
allowing you to pass through-between-inside-with-beyond
ascend,
    go,
        answer the fool foolishly while holding your tongue,
may the direction of yesterday and the rate of tomorrow meet Time,
seek because you have been found
seek the opaque, confounding inquiries (wh’lst knowing the gracious answer)
seek the wanting coins to again join their want-ers
seek the searched ways until the search is un-seek-able
seeking Faith’s subject—which is THE object
                the principle
            the mover            
        the author
    the finisher
Jesus, the Christ, the Lamb of God,
He is slain for the sins of the world.

live astride the Logos, and lo to the living!
rub the unshackled-raw wrists of your recent bonds 
while naked illusions find their source against the smoldering light,
a sharper light awaits the dawning of your soul,
a sweet incense,
    go,
        sing the tale righteously of the atmosphere sustaining God’s creatures,
may the Thrownness of your life meet the story that beckons you cast and caught,
as for asking, it shall be answered—out of givenness and wisdom,
as for seeking, you shall find—in the picked-over unlikely-likely place,
as for knocking, the door shall be opened—unto the vanguard reaches of Mount Sinai,
as for the I AM 
as for the Nazarene of Galilee
    before faithful Abraham
        from the foundation of the earth,
        from the beginning
    or ever the earth was, 
CONCERNING Him—Jesus, the Christ, 
made of a woman, made under the Law.

Artist’s Statement

Heraclitus, who appears roughly 500 years before God is manifest in the flesh, speaks of the Logos (and so unwittingly speaks of Christ, if we are to believe the the grand opening of the Gospel of John) in the following manner:

“Of the Logos […] men always prove to be uncomprehending, both before they have heard it and when once they have heard it” (Philosophical Classics: Ancient Philosophy, Forest E. Baird, editor, 6th ed., 19).

With this framing, Heraclitus then introduces one of the most powerful, explications of the Logos from the ancient world.

“Into the same river we both step and do not step […]. It is not possible to step twice into the same river. Upon those that step into the same rivers different and different water flow” (ibid, 20).

Admittedly, this statement is quite opaque—perhaps even to the point of containing hardly any truth. Though, it should give us pause today as thoughts worthy of our time and consideration. For it is at the pinnacle of this dialogue that Christ is revealed.

And so we might ask ourselves, how do we identify the ever sifting and changing water and moving particles in a river? The answer seems to be something like we find in nature kinds of material that persist over time in a way that lends to a static description—even if we are not able to identify every changing particle from point-in-time to point-in-time. However, this is entirely unsatisfactory to rigorous inquiry. Why should we see the same river we stepped into previously when we recognize “different and different waters?” Shouldn’t the river change names at that point so that we might express correspondence with what is true?

And yet, I don’t pause at the bank of a river in confusion. The river with different and different waters is more of a sure thing than the shifting moods of the culture around me.

In the wake of this, I’m left asking why the world responds graciously to the questions we put to it. There has been no other satisfactory explanation to me than to confess that the Logos—the Christ—is the gracious host of our world: the gardener, the keeper, the shepherd, the Rabbi, the Way, the sage, the watch-maker and the watch-keeper, the only one who is truly Good.

And so I pray that the Logos would stand forth in the complete revelation of its mystery: the infinite God found in fashion as a man.

Father, let your Word be the wisdom and strength of our lives. Hold us together in Christ that we may become men and women who from the dust are given breath to be your servants. Amen.