Behold His Glory
Sermon
THE GREENING OF THE GOSPEL
SERMONS FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY SUNDAYS 1-8 IN ORDINARY TIME)
In the fullness of time, every parent must pass the test of good parent-child communication. After that brief season, during the early years, when most children submit to our instruction and direction with minimal resistance, there comes the extended encounter in which our suggestions are questioned. Our demands are resisted and our motives are critically examined, in an attitude of suspended judgment.
There is told, an interesting story about Susanna Wesley. She was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, two men both of whom made a remarkable contribution to British history through the inauguration of a religious movement called Methodism. Susanna, the wife of an eighteenth century Anglican priest, had nineteen children. One day a friend observed her correcting one of her youngsters. Seventeen times, within a unreasonably short interval, Susanna chided the child for an act of disobedience. The visiting friend was perturbed. "Susanna," she exclaimed, "that's the seventeenth time that you have told that child not to do what he persists in doing. When are you going to take stricter measures?" Susanna, it is alleged, calmly replied: "Perhaps the eighteenth time he will listen and change his ways." Raising a child helps a good parent understand the patience and compassion of God.
Even at its best, human language like all other aspects of our being, has it limitations. To clarify the meanings we seek to convey, we often are pressed beyond the boundary of strictly verbal communication. Writing, pictures, physical gestures and all forms of body language supplement the inadequacies of speech.
Now and then we attempt to handle a huge idea, which embraces meanings we only partially comprehend. Anyone who has ever tried to talk to someone else about God, for example, will understand what I mean. The problem centers around the fact that God is infinite and human beings are finite. Our understanding of the infinite is restricted by our own intellectual and spiritual confinement.
The prologue to the Gospel of John, written somewhere between A.D. 80 and 90 is flavored with the theology of the early church. John's description of the identity of Jesus is unsurpassed. John refers to him as the "Word" of God, the "logos"; that is to say, the expression or the meaning of God. His style is inspiring:
In the beginning was the Word (logos)
and the Word (logos) was with God
And the Word (logos) was God.
Logos is a Greek philosophical term relating to rational, creative power and rational expression. Philo Judeaus, a Jewish philosopher of Alexandria around A.D. 40, appropriated the word logos and used it in his attempt to reconcile Judaism with the thought forms of the Greek world. Philo considered the logos an attribute of God, but not the comprehensive essence of God.
John's opening expression takes a mighty step beyond the thinking of Philo. When he declares: "The word (logos) was God," this marks a significant departure from Greek philosophical thought. John's interpretation, likewise, out-distances Philo's more limited view.
Assuming that his readers were familiar with the logos concept, John is sure that they would likewise recognize the difference between the traditional interpretation of the logos, and his own. He lays the theological foundation for the resolution of the church's fourth century theological controversy concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The crowning insight of John's logos expression is found in verse fourteen: "The Word (logos) was made flesh." Following his categorical earlier description of the mutually inclusive relationship between God and logos, now he says the unprecedented: "God becomes man, in the physical person of Jesus of Nazareth." John's paradoxical, theological dogma is that Jesus was and is authentically human and authentically divine!
The church has held to this teaching through the centuries, resisting all attempts to totally humanize the person of Jesus, to the exclusion of the divine; or to totally divinize the person of Jesus, to the exclusion of the human.
John presents Jesus as the personification of both "light" and "life." In the Genesis account of creation, you will remember, the text begins:
In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was
without form and void;
And darkness was upon
the face of the deep
and the spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters
and God said,
Let there be light
and there was light
And God saw that the light was good.
(Genesis 1:1-4)
With the coming of the light, out of the formless void, life emerges in response to the command of God. Jesus is the light that makes abundant life possible.
Some time ago I witnessed a blind scholar addressing a class of high school students. It all took place in an underprivileged section of a big eastern city. The blind man was urging the students to take advantage of the opportunity to learn, to cultivate the abilities of the mind, to join the never-ending pursuit of truth. Then he paused to say: "Some of you may pity me because I am blind and cannot see the light." Then he went on to add: "But I pity those who cannot or will not see the truth."
In John's rendering, Jesus is the light, the life and the truth of God in human form. Jesus is our Emmanuel, meaning "God with us." The children of darkness cannot comprehend his power nor can they overcome it.
In the midst of John's theological statement concerning the person of Jesus, he injects some comments concerning John the Baptizer. Some scholars feel this was done in response to a prevailing controversy. Evidently, some of the disciples of John the Baptizer continued to hold the view that the Baptizer was the true Messiah. But the author of the Gospel of John categorically asserts that John the Baptizer was a forerunner. Jesus was and is the true Messiah.
With Jesus in mind, the author of the fourth Gospel bemoans the stupidity of the world in not recognizing the true identity of Jesus. Alluding to the Jews, he said: "He came unto his own and his own received him not."
Most scholars agree that verse thirteen refers to the spiritual regeneration or rebirth of the believers who are receptive to the Word of God. God bestows enabling power on them, and they become the spiritual sons and daughters of God. Verse fourteen is the classic incarnation statement in the Gospels: The Word (logos) in the person of Jesus was made flesh and mingled with his contemporaries. It was in this intimate association with the Son of God that his fellows beheld the glory of God in him, full of grace and truth.
This joyous ending offers a glorious and gracious atmosphere in which to celebrate Christmas. The infant Jesus is the confirmation of God's kinship to us. This human holy child lived through the season of infancy, enjoyed the warmth of family, labored as a carpenter's helper, made the solemn choice of a sacrificial vocation, faithfully revealed God to us, died on the cross, rose from the dead and is coming again in the day of the Lord's consummation.
So we join the heavenly chorus, singing:
Joy to the world
the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
prepare him room
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing.
There is told, an interesting story about Susanna Wesley. She was the mother of John and Charles Wesley, two men both of whom made a remarkable contribution to British history through the inauguration of a religious movement called Methodism. Susanna, the wife of an eighteenth century Anglican priest, had nineteen children. One day a friend observed her correcting one of her youngsters. Seventeen times, within a unreasonably short interval, Susanna chided the child for an act of disobedience. The visiting friend was perturbed. "Susanna," she exclaimed, "that's the seventeenth time that you have told that child not to do what he persists in doing. When are you going to take stricter measures?" Susanna, it is alleged, calmly replied: "Perhaps the eighteenth time he will listen and change his ways." Raising a child helps a good parent understand the patience and compassion of God.
Even at its best, human language like all other aspects of our being, has it limitations. To clarify the meanings we seek to convey, we often are pressed beyond the boundary of strictly verbal communication. Writing, pictures, physical gestures and all forms of body language supplement the inadequacies of speech.
Now and then we attempt to handle a huge idea, which embraces meanings we only partially comprehend. Anyone who has ever tried to talk to someone else about God, for example, will understand what I mean. The problem centers around the fact that God is infinite and human beings are finite. Our understanding of the infinite is restricted by our own intellectual and spiritual confinement.
The prologue to the Gospel of John, written somewhere between A.D. 80 and 90 is flavored with the theology of the early church. John's description of the identity of Jesus is unsurpassed. John refers to him as the "Word" of God, the "logos"; that is to say, the expression or the meaning of God. His style is inspiring:
In the beginning was the Word (logos)
and the Word (logos) was with God
And the Word (logos) was God.
Logos is a Greek philosophical term relating to rational, creative power and rational expression. Philo Judeaus, a Jewish philosopher of Alexandria around A.D. 40, appropriated the word logos and used it in his attempt to reconcile Judaism with the thought forms of the Greek world. Philo considered the logos an attribute of God, but not the comprehensive essence of God.
John's opening expression takes a mighty step beyond the thinking of Philo. When he declares: "The word (logos) was God," this marks a significant departure from Greek philosophical thought. John's interpretation, likewise, out-distances Philo's more limited view.
Assuming that his readers were familiar with the logos concept, John is sure that they would likewise recognize the difference between the traditional interpretation of the logos, and his own. He lays the theological foundation for the resolution of the church's fourth century theological controversy concerning the person and work of Jesus Christ.
The crowning insight of John's logos expression is found in verse fourteen: "The Word (logos) was made flesh." Following his categorical earlier description of the mutually inclusive relationship between God and logos, now he says the unprecedented: "God becomes man, in the physical person of Jesus of Nazareth." John's paradoxical, theological dogma is that Jesus was and is authentically human and authentically divine!
The church has held to this teaching through the centuries, resisting all attempts to totally humanize the person of Jesus, to the exclusion of the divine; or to totally divinize the person of Jesus, to the exclusion of the human.
John presents Jesus as the personification of both "light" and "life." In the Genesis account of creation, you will remember, the text begins:
In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth.
And the earth was
without form and void;
And darkness was upon
the face of the deep
and the spirit of God
moved upon the face of the waters
and God said,
Let there be light
and there was light
And God saw that the light was good.
(Genesis 1:1-4)
With the coming of the light, out of the formless void, life emerges in response to the command of God. Jesus is the light that makes abundant life possible.
Some time ago I witnessed a blind scholar addressing a class of high school students. It all took place in an underprivileged section of a big eastern city. The blind man was urging the students to take advantage of the opportunity to learn, to cultivate the abilities of the mind, to join the never-ending pursuit of truth. Then he paused to say: "Some of you may pity me because I am blind and cannot see the light." Then he went on to add: "But I pity those who cannot or will not see the truth."
In John's rendering, Jesus is the light, the life and the truth of God in human form. Jesus is our Emmanuel, meaning "God with us." The children of darkness cannot comprehend his power nor can they overcome it.
In the midst of John's theological statement concerning the person of Jesus, he injects some comments concerning John the Baptizer. Some scholars feel this was done in response to a prevailing controversy. Evidently, some of the disciples of John the Baptizer continued to hold the view that the Baptizer was the true Messiah. But the author of the Gospel of John categorically asserts that John the Baptizer was a forerunner. Jesus was and is the true Messiah.
With Jesus in mind, the author of the fourth Gospel bemoans the stupidity of the world in not recognizing the true identity of Jesus. Alluding to the Jews, he said: "He came unto his own and his own received him not."
Most scholars agree that verse thirteen refers to the spiritual regeneration or rebirth of the believers who are receptive to the Word of God. God bestows enabling power on them, and they become the spiritual sons and daughters of God. Verse fourteen is the classic incarnation statement in the Gospels: The Word (logos) in the person of Jesus was made flesh and mingled with his contemporaries. It was in this intimate association with the Son of God that his fellows beheld the glory of God in him, full of grace and truth.
This joyous ending offers a glorious and gracious atmosphere in which to celebrate Christmas. The infant Jesus is the confirmation of God's kinship to us. This human holy child lived through the season of infancy, enjoyed the warmth of family, labored as a carpenter's helper, made the solemn choice of a sacrificial vocation, faithfully revealed God to us, died on the cross, rose from the dead and is coming again in the day of the Lord's consummation.
So we join the heavenly chorus, singing:
Joy to the world
the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart
prepare him room
Let heaven and nature sing
Let heaven and nature sing.
