TueJan52010
Scripture: John 1:1-18
Text: Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
In a Sentence: In Jesus we get a picture of who God is and how God responds to humankind.
John 1: [1-9] 10-18
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 the life was the light of all people.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.] He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
(John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
The Art Class. The art teacher had given her class of second graders an assignment. They were to draw a picture. It could be a picture of anything they wanted to draw. As the teacher circulated around the room, checking on the progress of her students, she came to one little boy. She asked him what he was drawing.
“I’m drawing a picture of God,” he said brightly.
“But no one knows what God looks like,” the teacher responded.
Undeterred, the little boy replied confidently, “They will when I’m finished.”
Close to the Father’s Heart. I don’t know where the little boy was getting the inspiration for his picture of God, but the author of this morning’s biblical passage says that Jesus gives us glimpses into the nature of God. Jesus was there in the beginning, with God, one with God.
The writer obviously has in mind the first words of the Hebrew Bible found in Genesis: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....” Martin Luther was once asked what God was doing before the creation of the world. His answer was that he was cutting canes for people who asked such useless questions.
In fact we cannot get beyond the beginning. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in his commentary on Genesis 1, says no question can penetrate behind God creating, because it is impossible to go behind the beginning.
So the author of our passage proclaims that Jesus was there in the beginning, that he was one with God, not a created being, but rather the creator of all that is. More than the source of all things, Jesus is the source of all life.
So in Jesus we discover a reality greater than the created world. In him we discover the One who stands behind it all. In Jesus we have One who brings light and truth and hope into a world sometimes overwhelmed by darkness. We do not look at Jesus and say, “You are like God,” for as the art teacher in our story and our text this morning remind us, “no one has ever seen God.” Rather we look at Jesus with the eyes of faith and say, “Ah, so this is what God is like.” We come to know God through Jesus.
And we come to know Jesus through eyewitnesses, who lived and worked with him. We come to know Jesus through people of faith, who have been touched by the “Life Light,” as Eugene Peterson refers to Jesus in The Message translation of this morning’s gospel passage.
A work of art reveals the artist. In a work of art we get a glimpse of the artist. Every month at Federated the work of a different artist is displayed in the lobby area of our Bell Street facility. This past month Mary Ann Boysen’s paintings have been on display.
Now I’m not much of an art critic, but I’ve noticed that the many different artists, whose work has been displayed on our walls, have different and unique styles. Someone familiar with the artists from our area could look at the artwork on display downstairs and, without ever seeing the signature at the bottom of the painting, tell whose work it was with a considerable degree of accuracy. An artist’s work reveals the artist.
Handwriting reveals the author. Handwriting analysts claim that people can be identified by their handwriting. And not only can you identify a person, but you can also tell a lot about them, according to analysts. For example, the slant gives clues to a person’s emotional makeup.
A right slant signals one who responds strongly to emotional situations. They are caring, warm and outgoing-- their heart rules their mind. A left slant writer on the other hand will conceal their emotions and is observed as cold and indifferent. A vertical slant writer tries to keep their emotions in check-- their mind rules their heart, according to one analyst. The handwriting reveals the handwriter.
I want you all to know that I’m going to be checking closely the handwriting of everyone who signed the hospitality booklet this morning
Parent & Child. In a child we get a glimpse of the parent. Often there is a physical resemblance. When our daughter was growing up, people would frequently say, “Oh, she looks just like her mother.” I was always a little offended that they didn’t think she looked like me, but consoled myself with the thought that she had many of my positive characteristics. I have pictures of Jan and her mom, when they were about the same age and they looked remarkably alike. A child often resembles the parent.
In Jesus we get a glimpse of God, the author of John’s gospel says to us. But there is another way we get a glimpse of God. It is through our encounters with people of faith.
Muggeridge. Malcolm Muggeridge was a well-known British TV journalist and author during the 20th Century. For much of his life he professed to being an agnostic. Through the influence of Christian thinkers like Augustine and Pascal and Bonhoeffer and Kierkegaard, he abandoned his agnosticism and became a Christian. Then in 1982 at the age of 79, having been deeply touched by a TV documentary he filmed on Mother Teresa, Muggeridge converted to the Roman Catholic faith.
In a book about her, entitled “Something Beautiful for God,” he talks about the impact Mother Teresa had on him. Muggeridge had spent a considerable amount of time with her in the process of making the film. One morning, after filming for the documentary was nearly complete, he had taken Mother Teresa and two sisters from her order to a train station in Calcutta, India, where they were departing on a trip. “When the train began to move, and I walked away,” writes Muggeridge, “I felt as though I were leaving behind me all the beauty and all the joy in the universe. Something of God’s universal love has rubbed off on Mother Teresa, giving her homely features a noticeable luminosity; a shining quality.” (Something Beautiful for God, p5) We get a glimpse of God through our encounters with people of faith.
Millard Fuller. I remember the first time I heard Millard Fuller, the founder of Habitat for Humanity, speak. It was back in 1985. A group of people from the church I was a part of at the time had driven up to hear him at Harvard University. Forty or fifty people from various churches in the Boston area were gathered in a small lecture hall at Harvard, waiting for him to arrive.
I was a bit disappointed, when this tall, gangly, a little bit homely (I thought), man walked in carrying a huge Bible. He opened the Bible, read a few verses and then began to talk about his encounter with God that led him to begin Habitat for Humanity. He burned with passion for the mission of providing adequate housing for all of God’s people in need of it. Afterward I shook his hand and thanked him for coming to our area. As I walked into the parking lot that evening and headed for my car, I had the distinct impression that I had been in the presence of Jesus.
Peterson paraphrase. Eugene Peterson, in his refreshing paraphrase of the Bible, translates the first five verses of our passage as follows:
The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!—came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.
That evening on the campus of Harvard University I felt that I had encountered the “Life-Light” in Millard Fuller. Approximately one year later a group of folks from churches south of Boston began South Shore Habitat for Humanity. Twenty-five years later they are still involved in the mission of providing adequate housing for all of God’s people in need of it.
Illustration: No Hands
Shortly after the Second World War ended, a devastated city in England began its heartbreaking and weary work of rebuilding the city. In the old city square had stood a large statue of Jesus with outstretched hands in a welcoming pose. On the pedestal were carved the words, “Come unto me.”
A group of master artists and sculptors were commissioned and began the painstaking process of restoring the statue. The figure eventually was restored, except for the hands. In the surrounding rubble from which the statue had been recreated, they could not find pieces of the hands.
A disagreement arose amongst the townspeople over what to do. Some felt that, since the hands could not be found, the artists should fashion new ones. Another group of townspeople disagreed and one day, as they gathered in the public square, shouted, “Leave him without hands!” Today, in the public square of that English city, the restored statue of Christ stands without hands, and on its base is carved the words, “Christ has no hands but ours!”
Christmas Eve. Our scripture passage this morning from the prologue to the Gospel of John is read each year in our Christmas eve services:
$ In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God...
$ in him was life...and...light....
$ [and] the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it....
$ and the Word became flesh and lived among us and we have seen his glory....
It is always a moving experience to be in this sanctuary on Christmas eve. Toward the end of the service the lights are turned off and the sanctuary is in darkness. As the words from John’s gospel, “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” are read, the Christ candle is lit. Moments later that light is taken from the Christ candle and passed throughout the sanctuary. In the process a warm glow pervades the once dark space, which the darkness cannot overcome.
One of the verses of Richard Gillard’s “Servant Song,” not printed in our Hymnal says:
I will hold the Christ-light for you,
in the night-time of your fear,
I will hold my hand out to you,
speak the peace you long to hear.
We are called to do that–to hold the Christ-light for others in the nighttime of their fear. We are called to hold our hands out and speak the peace they long t hear.
This past Christmas eve I arrived at the church a little after 7 p.m. I parked my car at the far end of the parking lot behind the middle school. The 6 p.m. service was just concluding and worshipers were beginning to stream into the parking lot. It was a heartwarming sight to pass several people with lit candles, carrying the Christ-light into the dark world, to the homes and neighborhoods of Chagrin Falls and surrounding communities.
“Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known,” the gospel writer reminds us. It’s not just for Christmas eve, you know.