However, time is an abstract and
we could at this point consider whether what Noah Yuval Harari points out in
his book Homo Deus is true. He
says everything we do as human beings is based on stories. Stories we've made
up for ourselves to help us understand our lives and make them work
better. This would include how we
understand time. In this case we would
be asking ourselves the question is it really a new year after all? After all doing a quick scan of the internet I
found at least 11 cultures that do not celebrate New Year’s day on January 1st.
Alternatively, we might think
about the problem of time philosophically buying into the ancient debates of Parmenides
and Heraclitus around how time operates.
Or we could contemplate the fact that in the 16th century we
changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar.
Yet, I digress, and as we
gather on this day we gather as Christians who have just heard read the astounding
claim that the Word became flesh and lived among us.
This somewhat perplexing claim is the claim
of the church that in Jesus God became, becomes, and is becoming flesh. It is
the doctrine of the incarnation, which the great theologian Thomas Torrance
called “utterly staggering.” Torrance
notes in his book Space, Time and Resurrection, “that after the
incarnation He [Jesus] is at work within space and time in a way that He never
was before.” Noting the work of the Early Church theologian Origen, Torrance
goes on to say, “as soon as we talk like this, however… or even say about the Son
that ‘there never was a time when he did not exist’, we are using terms
‘always’, ‘has been’, ‘when’, ‘never’ etc., which have a temporal significance,
whereas statements about God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, must be understood
to refer to what transcends all time and all ages, and all eternity, since even
our concept of eternity contains a temporal ingredient.” As a
Christian one may say somewhat sceptically “New Year’s, indeed.”
In my understanding of the Christian faith this
is the defining point and distinctiveness of what it means to be Christian, to
believe that in Jesus God became one of us. All else is secondary. The virgin birth, the ministry, the miracles,
the death, the resurrection, and the ascension are all aspects of Jesus’ life as
God with us. All point to this utterly astounding claim of our faith, the
incarnation.
So, on this first Sunday after what we call
the new year, we wade into the deep waters of our faith to contemplate the
mystery of God with us and consider what God is doing in our midst. As I contemplated the question of the Word
becoming flesh it caused me to ask whether our attendance in church is about us
using Jesus to drag God down to earth, to domesticate the divine, if you will. To try to make Jesus and God more relevant to
us. Or, in coming to church, do we come
to encounter the mystery of God in Jesus dragging us up into the heavenly realm,
to share in God’s divine existence.
The complexity of this question is reflected
by the complexity of the writing of John's gospel which occurred at least 60
years after the ascension of Jesus. Far
more than Matthew, Mark, or Luke, it is John who leads his readers into a
deeper contemplation of the implications of Jesus’ identity as God among us. In the passage from John 1 John challenges us
with these words. “He was in the world, and the world came into being through
him; yet the world did not know him.” And more confronting, “No one has ever
seen God.”
I have wondered what John’s readers may have
made of this statement almost 200 years ago and what we make of it in our time
as we consider the ways in which people claim to encounter and experience God. Thus, as part of today’s message I want to
share a poem with you, entitled “Eyes to See”.
Eyes to See
No one has ever seen God, yet
Abraham greeted three strangers in the heat
of the day.
Jacob wrestled with a man until the break of
day.
Moses stood before a burning bush as he
worked through the day.
Elijah met God, after a storm, in the silence
of the day.
But no one has ever seen God.
No one has even seen God, yet
I have looked into the eyes of a lover.
I have beheld the birth of a child.
I have seen the joy and laughter of my children.
I have watched for wisdom in the eyes of my
elders.
But no one has ever seen God.
No one has ever seen God, yet
I have contemplated as the waves roll crashing
against the shore.
I have wandered in the bush and seen the desert
bloom with life.
I have stared up at the mountains reaching
towards the sky.
I have gazed at the stars wheel through space
putting on their nightly show.
But no one has ever seen God.
No one has ever seen God,
This is what John teaches us
This is his controversy with his people
But, this is his conviction: Jesus came to
make God known
This is his hope for a world gone blind
No one has ever seen God, but Jesus.
Jesus has seen God, the Word made flesh.
Jesus sees God, at the moment of creation.
Jesus sees God, when God chose a people for
himself.
Jesus sees God, as he walked through his
life.
Jesus sees God, in his death and in his
resurrection.
And Jesus sees God now and evermore.
Jesus has made known to us what he has seen.
Have we seen God?
Have we beheld Jesus?
Have we sensed the Spirit?
Have we understood God’s love?
God’s invitation to see glory is the
incarnation.
No one has ever seen God.
This day, God, we implore you send your
Spirit
Give us eyes to see
Give us ears to listen
Give us minds to know
Give us hearts to hope
For we who see the Son, see God.
For we who have already seen the Son I
wonder what it is you see when you hear Jesus’ name mentioned. In Chapter 14 of John Jesus says to Philip,
“Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
I do wonder at Jesus tone of voice at this point. Is there a bit of exasperation and
frustration at Phillip? “Anyone who has
seen me has seen the Father.” Or is it more encouraging and formational? “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Whichever the case we might well ask how our glimpses of Jesus are glimpses of
the divine? How do you see Jesus?
Do you see Jesus in the manager and pray to
‘baby’ Jesus like Ricky Bobby in Talladega nights?
Do you see Jesus on the beach calling his
first disciples? A leader of men and women.
Do you see Jesus’ healing and performing
miracles? The wonder worker full of compassion.
Do you see Jesus’ teaching his disciples or
arguing with the Pharisees? An earnest teacher.
Do you see Jesus turning over the tables in
the temple? A prophet full of righteous anger.
Do you see Jesus washing his disciples’ feet?
A servant leader.
Do you see Jesus before Pilate? A man
standing before the unjust powers of the world.
Do you see Jesus hanging on the cross? Our
wounded healer.
Do you see Jesus cold and lying in his tomb?
Sharing our descent into the undiscovered country.
Do w you e see Jesus coming to Thomas who was
full of doubt? A comforter and encourager of faith.
Maybe there is an image, an event, a concept
that comes to mind when you think abut Jesus.
Glimpses of who he was.
Ironically, when I asked one of my students what first came to mind when
I mention Jesus, she said the toy Jesus that I have. It is still in its
packaging, in my office.
We all play with our ideas of Jesus. Sometimes
like Phillip we don’t see past the man to the divine. Sometimes like Peter, we
deny our relationships with him. Sometimes like Thomas, we doubt the
stories. Sometimes we simplify Jesus’
existence so much that we avoid the concept that Jesus is the Word made living
among us. He becomes a teacher to
follow, a wise sage, a friend but not the one that we sung of at Christmas in
the great carol of the Church, Hark the Herald Angels sing.
Late in time behold Him come,
Offspring of a Virgin's womb.
Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity,
Pleased as man with man to dwell,
Jesus, our Emmanuel.
Notwithstanding the anachronistic language of
the hymn the carol asserts John’s claim afresh for us and reminds us that
“Veiled in flesh the Godhead see” – Jesus.
God’s purpose in sending Jesus undoubtedly affirms our created existence
but in Jesus, the Word made flesh, we also see a human living God-wards. In preparing today I read a fascinating
article about the translation of very first phrase of John’s gospel, “and the Word
was with God.” Christopher Atkins
connects John’s writing to the thought of Philo of Alexandria, the first
century Jewish philosopher, who brought the thinking of the Greek philosophers
into conversation with the Jewish theology of the time.
Atkins argues that the phrase might be better
translated “and the Word was God-wards”, suggesting that the eternal existence
of the Word, in Greek the logos, existed towards God. Through Jesus becoming flesh and the sending
of the Holy Spirit our lives are drawn Godwards into the mystery of the
divine. It is as Paul wrote to the first
Christians in Ephesus, With all wisdom and insight he has made known to us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in
Christ, as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him,
things in heaven and things on earth.” God’s plan in Jesus is to gather all
things into him, to share in God’s divinity.
It is the ancient notion of theosis. In his prayer of John 17 he says, “And this
is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ
whom you have sent.”
Knowing Jesus, or maybe better put being
known by Jesus, and by God is eternal life.
Again, a better translation might be read as eternity life. Although, returning to where I started with
Torrance and Origin, knowing Jesus means that at some spiritual level we
transcend the abstract concept of time and might I dare to suggest space as
well. God in Jesus and through the Spirit
lift us beyond our mundane mortal existence to encounter and experience the
promise of the gathering of all things into him.
Today we will celebrate the communion. It is a time we look back into the past and
remember what Jesus did in dying for us, so that we might see the risen Jesus,
who is our host, coming from the future, to meet us in the present. We declare the mystery of our faith as we
share communion “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again!” He is the alpha and the Omega, the beginning
and ending of all things, he is our origin and our destination, because our
lives are hidden in his.
It would be appropriate on the first Sunday,
after the first day of the New Year, to begin by wishing you a ‘happy new year’
and to encourage you to reflect on the year that has been and to think about the
year that lies ahead. So, I do say to
you Happy New Year but let me conclude with these words and this reality that
because the Word became flesh we should now and always remember until time
passes into irrelevance “God’s mercies are New Every morning” and we who seen
the Son have seen the face of God.