CLOSE TO THE HEART OF GOD
January 8, 2012
John 1:1-18
Union Avenue
The first time I stood on top of a snowy mountain, the experience was breath taking…. absolutely overwhelming. I felt closer to the heart – the center – of all creation than I had ever known …at the same time knew I was a mere speck in the fullness of what I was taking in. Touching the power of God, yet knowing I had only one small thread in the huge tapestry of what this creation holds. It was an experience of faith.
Receiving my son into my arms and gazing into his eyes for the first time was a similarly overwhelming experience. That time the touch of God was more personal and fragile.
We each have moments of our lives – that hopefully can be recalled – when we are overwhelmed. They might be when we realized we were in love…or when someone proclaimed their absolute adoration of us … or even when we knew our work was precisely what we had been created to do in this life.
We can tell others about those moments – and that might bring genuine appreciation. However, no one else can fully live the overwhelming nature of them. And no one else can work to deepen them and make sure they become foundational to our lives rather than fleeting images. And, they have not come without preparation within our lives, which allow us to be open to them.
Atop that mountain the first time, I had no clue the work it took to ski to the base – let alone pick myself up multiple times or steer way from trees, bushes, other skiers, or drop-offs. Never mind in my skiing days did I EVER accomplish getting off the lift without falling or coming dangerously close to it. In order to recapture that sense of being close to the heart of God, however, I had to dare to ski down, pick myself up, get on and off the lift …for the ecstasy of a moment.
Those of you who are fortunate enough to be parents can also relate to the preciousness of those first moments of life – as well as the immensity of work, anxiousness, and weariness of parenting that accompanies the joy.
Today’s scripture is a mountaintop a-ha. Our Biblical canon has 4 Gospels – biographies of Jesus the Christ. Scholars assure us that Matthew, Mark and Luke have used the same basic source for their writings. Each begins their book with differences shaped by their own personalities and needs. Matthew starts out with a genealogy – because lineage from Abraham and David was important to Matthew. Mark – who is the ‘just the facts’ Gospel writer – begins immediately with the message of John the Baptist and then jumps into Jesus’ encounter with the Baptizer. Luke has 2 sentences about why he thought it was necessary to have an orderly accounting of Jesus’ life and then begins the narrative of John the Baptist’s birth followed by the beloved rendition of Jesus’ birth.
Gospel writer John is an artist. He does not give us genealogy…he does not start out with facts of the story …he does not need to introduce himself as the storywriter. John takes us to the mountain-top – shows us the amazing panorama of God’s world and the glorious light emanating from God, whom he has come to know in Jesus Christ.
He does all this as prelude or prologue to his story telling. Many of the stories about Jesus are the same as the other Gospel writers – and yet, there is always a sensibility of John’s writing that is different – poetic, artistic, spirit-driven.
In the mission/vision statement of Union Avenue Christian Church – there are three identifiers of the ways we seek to demonstrate the love of Jesus Christ: becoming Biblically informed, socially responsible and artistically alive. We could simplistically conclude that this means we have artists, social activists and Biblical scholars in our midst and we allow room for all of them. In that sense we would tolerate each other and accept a common denominator of following Jesus in our own specific way. Or - and hopefully this is more the intent of our mission – all of us know that sharing the love of Jesus demands: 1) digging deeply into what has been written as the foundational piece of our faith 2) conscientiously serving others in this world 3) allowing ourselves to become vehicles for God’s expression and artistry.
Today, reading this prologue to John’s Gospel challenges us – all of us – to not just be appreciators of art …but to nurture that gift that lives (sometimes closeted) within us … all. John’s wrapping up of Jesus’ purpose, his life and work, his relationship with God in this prologue didn’t happen because of a one-time a-ha moment in John’s life. He was able to talk about light infusing a darkened life because he experienced and lived through it. Our Gospel writer could tell how we shift from being mere human creatures to knowing we are children of God because that change came to him by knowing Jesus. Our author, John, was able to speak about grace because of the newness of life he experienced in his relationship with Jesus whom he knew as the Christ, and whom he called the very Word (the articulation) of God.
This prologue of John’s is an artistic masterpiece like Handel’s Messiah, DaVinci’s Mona Lisa, Monet’s Waterlillies, Beethoven Fifth Symphony…none of which were created instantaneously, without depth of experience, immense work and tangible relationship of artist to work.
Today we celebrate Epiphany – the time we acknowledge a new experience of Jesus Christ. When the Magi arrived at Bethlehem, they had no clue who they would really be meeting. When our Gospel writer first encountered Jesus, he had no idea how his life would be changed. Yet they were all ready in some way – and their lives were altered because of it.
As surprising as mountain-top, first glimpse of baby, initial words of love might be none of them are life-changing unless there has been some preparation and then much work following.
If today would be an epiphany – a new experience of faith – it will be because we have opened ourselves to its possibility. We have readied ourselves to see how the light can overcome those darknesses in our lives. We have acknowledged the need of grace that could come. We have allowed the possibility to be claimed as a true child of God and not our own creation. And then we have signed up for the daily work, hourly challenges, momentary trials and joys of what the Christian faith can mean.
Today could be a true epiphany – an amazing beginning of new life with God because we have encountered Jesus Christ anew. If it is – savor the moment – it certainly could become every bit as important as John’s prologue …if only for you … an epiphany can be, should be a turning point and celebratory moment in one’s life. It comes when we have readied ourselves for the moment and committed ourselves to the work of deepening, savoring, using it to have our life changed. John took us to his mountaintop. May we all be so blessed to experience our own.
