How We Know God
Dr. Jim Wilson, January 3, 2010 It is a common enough experience. You think you know someone and then something happens which reveals that someone in a whole new way---sometimes for the better and sometimes not. Either way, you are left saying, “I really didn’t know that person until now!” Dr. James Sanders was for several years prior to his retirement the Distinguished Professor of Hebrew Scriptures at Claremont Theological Seminary in California. He was also a leading interpreter of the Psalms Scroll found among the Dead Sea Scrolls. I was introduced to Dr. Sanders by a friend who gave me a copy of his book, TORAH AND CANON. I found Sanders’ interpretation of Scripture by a process he called, “dynamic analogy,” both refreshing and insightful. Soon, I was reading everything he published. In 1980, I went to Princeton to hear him lecture and later heard him at the University of Chicago Divinity School. I became a confirmed “Sanders’ groupie.” I knew him well or so I thought. His writings had a significant impact on my own biblical interpretation, theological thinking, and preaching. Then in 1990, my colleague and friend, Arthur Landwehr brought Dr. Sanders to Evanston for a three-day institute. That time was one of revelation for me. I came to know Jim Sanders as a husband and father, not just a scholar, as a passionate church member, not just a biblical interpreter, as a advocate for civil rights and peace, not just a researcher of ancient manuscripts. This experience of revelation helped me know Jim Sanders personally, which is significantly different than knowing about Jim Sanders. I am sure each of you has had such an experience. You know someone and then a revelation takes places which presents that person in a completely new light. That is what revelation does---it makes known what is hidden or what is only partially known. In our text for this morning, John tells us that is exactly what happened in the coming of Jesus---God chose to reveal himself, make himself known, to us as one of us. Our text presents us with some of the most profound and most memorable words in all of Scripture. With a masterful blend of poetry, history, and theology, John proclaims the revelation of God in the One known as Jesus. John has no nativity story, but he offers a hymn to the Eternal Word; God’s active power. John has no Bethlehem, Mary and Joseph, shepherds or angels, but he offers a proclamation that this Eternal Word took on flesh and lived among us. Without question, John takes beyond the beloved nativity story of Luke to the self-communication of God’s love, first in creation and ultimately in Christ Jesus. He begins with the borrowed poetry of a hymn: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. (vv. 1-5). Most scholars agree that John did not write these words. He borrowed them from an already existing, and possibly well-known hymn. However, scholars do not agree on the origins of the hymn. Some trace its origin to Gnostic sources, while others maintain that the hymn is originally a Hellenistic-Jewish tribute to Wisdom. Personally, I think the latter is closer to the correct source. Whatever the source, John uses it to establish the eternal background for all that happens in the life, ministry and death of Jesus. Jesus is the Word, who was with God in the beginning of Creation, the Word who is God. This is the source of the revelation. John rather abruptly switches from poetry to history, focusing on the witness of John the Baptist. Some believe he is addressing groups who believed that the Baptist was the real Messiah. John is clear---John the Baptist is not the light; he came to witness to the light. This is repeated for emphasis. John goes on to admit, however, that not everyone received the revelation. Not only did the “world” not know him, but even his own people, the Jews, did not accept Jesus. Such is the reality of any revelation, including God’s. Not everyone will receive it. Love offered is not always received. But, concludes John, to those who did receive him, who believed in his name, Jesus gave the power to become children of God. John concludes by proclaiming the revelation itself and its outcomes. “And the word became flesh and lived among us.” This is a radical statement indeed. If the source of the hymn were the Gnostics, they were just blown away. If it were Platonists, the Greeks, they were just left in shock. John announces that this Eternal Word, which was with God in creation and was God, has taken on flesh---become a human being. Such thinking runs counter to Gnostic and Greek thinking which draws sharp lines between the spiritual and the material, between body and spirit, between flesh and spirit, making the spiritual eternal, pure, and good, and the material temporary, corruptible, and evil. For God to take on flesh, for the Eternal to enter the material is unheard of. Yet, this is what John announces and as a result, he claims that we have seen his glory, “the glory of God’s only son, full of grace and truth.” This leads to John’s great summary: “No one has ever seen God. It is God’s only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart who has made him known.” This, for John, is the meaning of Christmas: God has communicated his love for the world and for us, by the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. What then does this mean for us? I believe it speaks to a very basic human hunger, the hunger to know God. Later in his Gospel, John will have Philip say to Jesus, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” I hear that same cry in a variety of ways today. Frequently, it comes in direct questions such as, “Where is God?” and “How can I know God’s presence?” At other times I hear it in more circuitous ways, such as in a comment said to me a few weeks ago, “I am not religious, but I am very spiritual.” I am not sure what all that might mean, but I suspect it speaks of a desire to know God. Finally, I hear Philip’s request in silence, in that stony silence that speaks of confusion, confusion that borders on despair. How can we know God? Do you remember Jesus’ answer to Philip’s request that he show him the Father? He said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father.” “And the Word became flesh and lived among us,” or literally, “has pitched his tent with us.” What John tells us is that we know God by revelation, by God’s self-communication in Jesus. Jesus, the Word become flesh, reveals God, makes God known. Knowledge of God comes not at the end of an argument, not at the end of a telescope or microscope, not by some spiritual exercise, not by climbing some ladder of intellectual search, but by revelation, this self-communication in Jesus. If you want to know God, look to Jesus. He is God incarnate. Christianity is a faith based on revelation, by God revealing himself. A story is told by Dr. Howard Kelly, a distinguished physician, who in 1895 founded the Johns Hopkins Division of Genealogical Oncology at Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Kelly was a Christian who had an interesting way of witnessing. He was never seen in public without a beautiful pink rose in his lapel. This practice provided him many opportunities to witness. When meeting him, a person usually would comment something to the effect, “That is a lovely rose, Dr. Kelly.” To which, the good doctor would reply, “Actually, it is a Christmas rose.” That would usually lead to a question, “Why do you call it that?” In response, Dr. Kelly would turn back his lapel and reveal a tiny water bottle which held the stem and kept it fresh and alive. “It’s a Christmas rose,” Dr. Kelly would explain, “because it has a hidden source of life and beauty.” Just so, Jesus, God’s love for us, is present with us to bring light to our darkness and life to our death, a life rooted in his presence is indeed a life of beauty and joy, hope and peace. How do we know God? We know God by receiving his self-communication of gracious love, by his liberating presence with us in the One named Jesus. This morning we are invited to experience that presence and know God with us as we come to the Table. Here we receive reminders of God’s presence in the bread and cup, and know of God’s great love for us. Come to the Table and know the presence of him who is the Word become flesh and living among us, the One that continues to reveal this amazing grace of our God. Thanks be to God! Amen! |
