Finding God Through Conversation

In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was With God
and the Word was God.
~ John 1: 1

You may recall that the New Testament was written in Greek. Logos is the original Greek word used in this sentence where we now use Word. In every Bible that exists Logos is now Word and we don’t even stop to think about whether that is correct or not. But what if it isn’t? What if Logos once meant something much more?

Logos was first used in a cosmological way by Heraclitus of Ephesus, a Greek philosopher about 500 years before Jesus. As Victoria Loorz writes, “He used the word logos to articulate a kind of intelligent life force embedded in and interconnecting all things, ‘a divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.’”

For Heraclitus, logos is the principle or power that shapes and creates all things, immanent and embedded in all that exists. Logos is the relationship between things, the dialog between things, the conversation between things.

Up until the fourth century, theologians, bishops and translators consistently translated the Greek word logos into Latin (the language of the church) as sermo. Sermo meant a lively discourse, a dialogue, a conversation. It also meant the intimate living of life together.

What if these understandings of the word logos is what the original author of the Gospel of John meant when he wrote “In the beginning was the logos…”? What if he meant that God, and then God as experienced in Jesus, was the relational force, the spiritual force holding all things together?

But then in the fourth century something happened, and logos stopped being translated into sermo and started being translated into verbum, or word. In short, Constantine and the Council of Nicaea happened. Constantine declared Christianity to be the official state religion and then set about to define it, persecuting those who then did not agree with the definitions, and destroying all writings contrary to the Nicene creed.

The Pope then sanctioned an official translation of the Bible into Latin – the Vulgate – in which logos became verbum forevermore. Why? Well, if you were the Holy Roman Empire determining who God was for all people, would you want God to be a conversation? Nope. God as conversation opened discussion. God as word, one definitive word that was indisputable, fit the church’s and Rome’s purposes much better.

When we consider a conversation, it can be much more than spoken words. I can be a touch, a look, body language. A conversation may be music, kindness, working together.

When was the last time you had a deep meaningful conversation? Hopefully not too long ago. And how did it make you feel? Those types of conversation always leave me feeling known, seen, heard, cared about. I feel less alone and empty, more connected and whole.

Consider John 1:1-5 (The Inclusive Bible) rewritten using conversation instead of word:

In the beginning there was the Conversation;
the Conversation was in God’s presence,
and the Conversation was God.
The Conversation was present to God from the beginning.
Through the Conversation all things came into being,
And apart from the Conversation
nothing came into being that has come into being.
In the Conversation was life, and that life was humanity’s light –
a Light that shines in the darkness,
a Light that the darkness has never overtaken.

I love this! It makes so much more sense and feels right.

Victoria Loorz writes,” And the Conversation was God: this suggests that God is the dynamic intimacy of relationship, a verb of back-and-forth, of connection, of Love that created everything and connects everything and moves everything forward. Everything – as in the whole cosmos! Not just humans but all things – before humans, including humans, but was larger than humans. This Conversation holds all things together, from the cosmos to nations to ecosystems to your own psyche.”

Ludwig von Beethoven was one of the greatest composers of all time, and as most of us know, by a wicked turn of fate, Beethoven began losing his hearing in his late 20s and the decline continued until he was completely deaf. One interesting fact about Beethoven is that he kept conversation books. He would ask visitors to write down what they wanted him to hear. He would have discussions and debates about life, music, love and art. He also used these books for conversations with servants, lists of things to do, notes and ideas for music and more. 139 of these books survived.

He found a way to stay connected, to visibly manifest the presence of the sacred through recording his conversations. I wonder what our lives would look like if we each had conversation books.

Keep in mind that all of life has this spiritual interconnected web. Quantum physics has shown that at the tiniest part – the subatomic part – of the universe, subatomic particles behave relationally as interconnections.

So, scientifically, or spiritually, it is all the same, we are all connected to everything - plants, animals, trees, water, rocks, you name it! Visualizing the Divine as a conversation has the power to change how we understand and interact with everything around us. Petting my dog and talking to her becomes a sacred connection. Working with my plants in the garden, talking to them and singing to them brings to awareness that connection. A casual good morning to another walked out of the street becomes an acknowledgment of our oneness. A walk in the woods to intentionally commune with nature becomes a beautiful conversation with the divine in many forms.

I invite us to contemplate this new metaphor for God and explore how it might shape our interactions not only with those we love and care about, but with other people and with the earth and all her creatures.

Love & Light!

Kaye