Preached at Christ Church, Billericay in church and on-line on 7 Feb 2021
The on-line service is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4tbSVndlBE
Story
This is the story of our world, where we came from and how we got to where we are today. Obviously we’re going to miss a few things out, or our story would take a very, very long time indeed. But our story will cover the important events and help to explain why we think of God the way that we do. I’ll concentrate on those things mentioned in our readings today. I will tell it from my understandings of theology and physics (both of these are limited, but I’ll do my best), and a few other things as well.
So let’s begin.
Difficulties with Words
Once upon a time ...
Oh, no that’s not right, we need to start before “a time”, what would we call it.
“Before time began”, yes, that’s better, but still not quite right. I think it’s probably as good as I’ll get it. Finding the right words to explain what we think we understand, is an important theme in the story.
“In the beginning”
The apostle John’s words are translated “In the beginning …” echoing the first words found in the Bible, in the Book of Genesis, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” If we were speaking to people today we might say “In the beginning God split the nothing into positive and negative and the ‘big bang’ occurred, light was produced and eventually galaxies and solar systems and the planet earth was among them”.
John’s beginning
John’s beginning though requires a little more scene setting than the beginning in Genesis. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God”
Or we could say “When the beginning began the Word was already there with God, and the Word was God”.
Wisdom
Then there is that part of the lovely poem about wisdom to consider, we only heard a small part of it this morning. It seems to suggest that wisdom is a created thing. It can be confusing, and it can be translated other ways, we’ll come back to that. But first, let’s fast-forward in time for a minute and meet a guy called Arius.
Arius
Arius was a priest in Alexandria in modern day Egypt. He lived from about 250 to 336 at a time when the evil empire (the Roman Empire) was suddenly and miraculously converted. That happened in 312, because the Emperor was converted at that time. Arius taught that Jesus was God’s son, in the same way that Andy and Mike are my sons. He liked the idea that wisdom was in fact Jesus, or the Word, and he based that idea on this part of the poem.
? Teaching
His teaching was gaining ground and was beginning to cause a split in the church, as many of the other leaders did not agree with him. All this happened at a time when the Emperor wanted a peaceful religion to spread around the empire. The bishop did not take any steps to stop Arius from spreading his teaching, and the church leadership at the time seemed happy to let the controversy ramble on. Nothing changes does it? So Constantine ordered them to sort it out.
Nicea
A meeting was arranged at Nicea in 325 and discussions got underway. Discussions might be a little of an understatement, as there seems to have been physical fighting too. Athanasius, another priest, was sent by his bishop. He had the job of putting the case that Jesus, the Word and God are one, as John’s translation says today.
Eventually, Arius lost the battle and a creed was agreed that spelt out the true nature of Jesus the Word as God.
We’ll be saying that creed later, so I don’t have to include it here.
As we do look out for the lines that say …
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Wisdom?
And Wisdom? Well there are several reasons why it doesn’t work to assume that wisdom and the Word are the same. Firstly, wisdom is presented as a woman. Secondly, you can’t really create wisdom, that’s just a poetic device. If you look at the footnote you will see that ‘brought me forth’ can also be translated as ‘possessed me’. So wisdom was possessed by God before the beginning. Look how that reading ends
“I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world and delighting in mankind.”
Wisdom delights in mankind – just let’s pause to take that in – because there are too many times when I don’t.
Wisdom delights in mankind.
Back to John
Let’s go back to see what John is saying next in his story of the beginning.
He tells us that Jesus, the Word is the maker of all things, everything that appeared after the Big Bang, right until today was made by the Word, and is sustained by the Word. Hebrews 1:3 agrees:
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word.
The Word is also the source of our life, His life is the light of mankind and the darkness has not overcome it.
Words of misunderstanding
Oh, is that not what it says – look in the footnotes again, there is an alternative translation. Words convey important concepts, but sometimes different languages do not have exactly the right word to express the idea.
John the Baptiser
The John goes on to introduce John, the baptiser. John, the apostle never refers to himself by name, so whenever you see the name John in this gospel, it is always John the baptiser. John’s job was simple. He was a messenger. He came to prepare people for the light of life, the word of God arriving in our world, and to identify Him when he arrived.
John, as you already know, identified Jesus, as the Word of God. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us – literally ‘pitched his tent’ among us. That image would have taken his Jewish hearers straight back to the Exodus.
World’s reaction.
So how did the people react? What would you expect? Perhaps there would be some sort of welcome, some type of celebration? At least an official welcome by the Chief Priest, and perhaps the Emperor?
No, quite the reverse. “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.”
In fact “his own” – the Chief Priests and the Pharisees, decided that it was far too dangerous having ‘God’ around, and had him killed.
Some are different
A few, though, were different. They recognize who He was, or they were at least interested in finding out. To those a most amazing thing happens: “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God”.
The Word became flesh and in the person of Jesus, God walked the earth for 30 odd years.
Song
In 1995 a song called “What if God was one of us?” sung buy Joan Osborne was in the UK chart. It reached number 6. It asks lost of questions about belief, and prompts people to think about who they think God is?
It was written by Eric Bazilian, who does not claim to have a faith of any kind, but it is clearly full of Christian references.
The second verse is:
If God had a face, what would it look like?
And would you want to see?
If seeing meant that you would have to believe
In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets?
And the Chorus:
What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make His way home?
Misses the point
In one sense it entirely misses the point. But a faithful Christian should be able to answer most, but not all of the questions it raises.
Because God WAS one of us, and as far as I know, Jesus wasn’t a slob, but He was a stranger to many people.
Why is it important?
I think the underlying questions in the song are “What is God like?” and “Can we relate to Him?”
The answer is also hinted at in the song. Jesus is God, and we can relate to Him. That is one of the very important reasons that He came to live among His creation. And that He gives us the right to become children of God, so that the relationship has a solid footing.
Pay for our sins
He came to live among us to do a job for us, to redeem us, so that we can have that relationship. He had to pay for our sins, by dying on a cross. A fellow human cannot pay for our sins, they can only pay for theirs. It requires at least a god, to pay for our sins, but how many can A god pay for?
To be sure that all our sins are paid for requires THE God to die for us.
One of us, One with Him
God was one of us, so he has experienced the human life He created and knows how we think and feel. He has paid for our sins too, so we can be one with Him.
Amen.
