The Cotton Patch Gospel

The Cotton Patch Gospel Of all the versions of the Scripture you can find out there, one that you might not be all that aware is one written by Clarence Jordan in the 1960’s called “The Cotton Patch Gospel.” Jordan was a Georgia farmer slash New Testament Greek scholar who sought ways to truly live out the Gospel in the world. He formed a community called Koinonia Farms in rural Georgia and was an integral part of establishing a ministry of home building for the poor with which Nativity is quite involved called Habitat for Humanity. Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel joined the ranks of the genre “Jesus musicals” like “Jesus Christ Superstar” and “Godspell” when it also was converted into a stage-production called “The Cotton Patch Gospel.” My church that I attended while a post- grad student in Louisville even put on a production of it. Now, the distinctive twist about Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel is that he brought the New Testament right down to where he was living— which was Georgia. So in his version wherever you might see “Judea” he makes it “Georgia.” “Rome” becomes “Washington D.C.” Jerusalem becomes Atlanta. Bethlehem becomes Gainesville, Georgia. So to be consistent whenever you would see Jews and Gentiles mentioned he would call them “White Men and Negroes.” “Crucifixion” is replaced by “lynching.” But it is his rendering of John’s prologue—what you heard for our Gospel reading this morning from John chapter 1—that clues us in to what our Gospel writer is REALLY getting at when he waxes poetically about “The Word become flesh.” I’ll let you in on what this is a little later. But you don’t have to be a biblical languages scholar, any casual reader can open up John’s gospel and start reading and notice there’s no Christmas story here. No angels, no heavenly host, no bright light, no shepherds, no manger, no magi being guided by a star. There’s not even a baby Jesus! So what’s up? Not only is there no Christmas story in John, if you keep reading to the end you might notice that John never mentions Mary’s name even once. What we see in John’s Gospel is the most progressive Christology we can find in the 4 gospels. The 4th Gospel is all about making it clear that in absolutely, positively no way whatsoever is Jesus a man who became a god. There were plenty of other religions out there more than willing to cash that check. Here, John’s purpose is crystal clear at the very outset—he wanted to make it plain that Jesus the Christ of God is god who became a man. And he does it without using the word “Emmanuel” (meaning God with us) even once. By the way, a little Bible trivia here—the word “Emmanuel” as a name for Jesus occurs only once in all of Holy Writ—and it’s in Matthew’s story of the nativity when the angel is talking to Joseph in a dream. It’s almost as though John is taking the “Emmanuel” idea from Matthew and running with it all the way into eternity—that in Jesus we have One who IS “God with Us” So when we open John 1:1 we don’t read about the corporeal being from Nazareth, Jesus, being talked about at all—we hear role of what Jesus came to fulfill being the focus. What we get here as readers is a re-writing, basically, of Genesis. John says that before God even created the world there was something else also eternally begotten wrapped up in God—and this is what you heard in our English language as “Word.” “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The Word was in the beginning with God and all things came into being through him, not one thing came into being without the Word.” The word “Word” is a tricky one for our ears and brains. We think of word as meaning something that you say or give voice to— something that can actually be written down as an entity that could exist as black ink on white paper or some other facsimile thereof. But the word “Word” here is pregnant with so much more possibility. The Greek word underlying “Word” is “logos.” And, to their credit, John’s audience was an educated bunch of Christians who were very hip to the jive of the Hellenistic Greek world of philosophy. We, in 21st Century Scottsdale Arizona USA, unfortunately, are not. The Greek word “logos” had been around for almost 7 centuries being used in this way. Greek philosophers would expound on this “logos” to refer to the divine reason or plan that coordinates a changing universe. For John, the “logos” or “Word” was the organizing principle by which God brought the world into being. Jordan’s Cotton Patch Gospel translates this the best in bringing it home to us in our day and age. It reads thus: “When time began, the Idea already was. The Idea was at home with God, and the Idea and God were one. This same Idea was at home with God when time began. Through him the universe was made, and apart from him not one thing came to be.” “Idea” is a great way to translate “logos” because it gets to the eternal nature, the infinite non-carnational existence of God. Have you ever read in the comics and seen a light bulb appear over someone’s head—It means they have a new idea, right? A few years ago the Ford Motor Company used a light bulb graphic in its advertising to communicate the thought that Ford has “a better idea” about how cars and trucks should be made—they went so far as to even replace the letter “o” in “Ford” with a light bulb to help us make the connection that Ford vehicles were always a “better idea.” For John, this “Idea” of God was not simply new and better—it was, however, supremely eternal. For God there are no new ideas. Now, to us, it may SEEM new. But it only seems new to us because from our terrestrial point of view its like its new—but its not. God has always intended to reveal himself to us in flesh. Jordan’s Cotton Patch rendering continues: “Well, the Idea became a man and moved in with us. We looked him in the face—the face of an only son whose father is full of kindness and integrity.” “All of us got one favor after another from his overflowing abundance. Moses gave us rules: Jesus gave us kindness and integrity. While no one has ever actually seen God, the only One—the Father’s dearest One—has revealed him.” Finally, John tells us that the man Jesus is this earthly manifestation, this earthly embodiment of the eternal “Idea” of God—again, distinctively NOT a new idea at all. God’s Idea of revealing us his love and truth was always supposed to end up in flesh. I certainly hope you can get over the thought that somehow Jesus was floating up in the heavens before being born. Jesus, the flesh and bone carpenter from Nazareth, was a temporal being. The Christ/Messiah the Logos and eternal “Idea” of God is what he incarnated. I think that John knew his audience wouldn’t go for a story about a baby lying in a manger in Bethlehem. John is painting a picture that goes beyond our Nativity scenes to a cosmic reality, a universal truism that abides IN us forever. Jesus was not a plan “B” of God. Jesus’ incarnation is the ultimate expression of God—full of grace and truth. And this is good news! It’s good news because it makes our search for God so much simpler. It boils down all our strivings to, well, “What did Jesus say?” “How did Jesus react?” That’s all you need. Now, let’s not be overly simplistic—there’s still a lot of figuring out to do with regard to how this looks in your life. And I’m not going to tell you what that has to look like. But what John is getting at is that God can come TO us in the very familiar things of life. Familiar things can also be frustrating things, so include those as well . God’s transformational power can strike you when you are least prepared to ward it off. God comes at us in the familiar. Look for that. Celebrate that. Let these 12 days of Christmas—you know there are still six more days—not go to waste. How do you embody the incarnation? How are you being in life as a son or daughter of God? How do others experience you—as grace and truth? Let that be the thing that motivates you and softens your heart. Yeh, Merry Christmas to all o’ y’all in the game of transformation. To the only wise God our Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen. .

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