Vicar Brett Wilson – Christmas 2A – John 1:1-18 – CELC Lancaster - 1/2/10 - John 1:1-18
On January 15, last year, I stared into a muddy bucket of dirty water to see clearly. My friends and I hunched around this bucket, looking through a set of sunglasses we passed around. We stood in the courtyard of a convent in the hills in southwest India, trying to see the solar eclipse that was passing overhead. A solar eclipse cannot be looked at directly – especially as we happened to be in the small swath of Asia which would see the full solar eclipse, where the moon would pass in front of the sun to make it a perfect, red-hot ring. But you cannot see it directly. Only through mirrored reflections with proper eye protection can one view the eclipse. So, risking it, we stood, trying to look at the sun. If you think about it, we never directly look at the sun in full strength – except perhaps stubborn kids who continue to stare despite their parents' warnings.
Augustine said “John's gospel is deep enough for an elephant to swim and shallow enough for a child not to drown.” These verses I just read, called the prologue of John, set the tone for the whole book. Now, the sentences are simple – probably the simplest grammar in the Bible – it's Dick and Jane kind of stuff – See Jane – see Jane run – See Jesus – see Jesus walk. So the first verse - In the beginning was the Word. and the Word was with God. and the Word was God. But in that very first verse, there is enough to contemplate and pray over and discover your whole life long. The statements in this text are simple, and each one could be pulled apart in endless directions. But in reading this simple sentence, No one has ever seen God, I remembered standing in India, trying to see something in a reflection of muddy water.
No one has ever seen God. Moses got a glimpse of God's backside, but John might mean that in this life, we cannot see God's fullness or exact image. It can be a frustrating, basic fact of faith that we cannot see our God. Can't see God like Superman sightings, swooping down and act in our world or we cannot see the face of God we call father. It says in the letter to the Hebrews, faith is the assurance of things unseen. Unseen. So the gift of faith that we are given means living in this tension, trusting in something we cannot see, and hearing this from John – No one has seen God.
Turn on the television, tune the radio, or surf the internet, and you will find multitudes of competing claims out there for how or where to see God. It's as if there was a formula, and everyone has their own argument on how to solve it. This week Lancaster experienced this firsthand as Westboro Baptist Church threatened to protest a young soldier's funeral. They offer, to say the least, a very different way to see, that is, conceptualize, God. But we also long to literally see God. In the desert in Mexico there is a site holy to many Catholics where devotees stand in the blazing desert sun and squint at the sun, taking pictures of the sun with polaroid cameras, in faith that a prayerful shot will produce a picture where the sun's rays form the image of the virgin Mary.
Let's be honest though, amidst all the religious competition over how or where to see God, sometimes the darkness of reality can create doubt that there is much light to be seen. John's gospel, especially these verses, are full of light and darkness. I find it comforting that the gospel at least admits that there is darkness. It is easy enough to see around us – the international news has been filled with dark days for churches worldwide – Christian churches in Iraq shut down the week before Christmas and people were urged to be discreet because of terror threats. What is thought to be an apparent suicide bombing in Alexandria, Egypt, killed at least 21 as they left church on New Year's Eve. But shadows fall locally here too, as economic struggles, health problems, relationship or work stress, can make us see darkness on the horizon.
John says, “No one has ever seen God.” Not directly, but God is made known – John continues - It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known. You cannot look directly at the sun in our sky, either – but you can experience it. You feel its warmth, and see its reflection. The sun changes the environments we live in, and can create energy that works in our world. God is experienced – through the Son. Want to know the fullness of God? Jesus, the one who had a human face, who lived and breathed, who healed, welcomed all, and died for us, this one, is the “mirror of the Father's heart.” (LC 440) God has given the greatest gift here. And through Jesus, this mirror, we see our God clearly. This is John's beginning, the Christmas story where we come face to face with the human Jesus, fully God, fully our gift. It lacks the hay and animals of the traditional nativity scenes, but in some ways, it's just as muddy – as muddy as that bucket of water, and yet as clear a reflection of the Son, and in it, God's love. Jesus' story isn't crystal clear, without a smudge or any dirt from the world weighing him down, rather it has the very real stuff of life in it – tears, love, conversations, friends, anger, life, and death. Jesus' story is muddy, and yet, it is the perfect reflection of the father's heart – just it was only that muddy bucket in which we could see the sun's eclipse that day.
C.S. Lewis wrote, “I believe in Christianity as I believe the sun has risen, not only because I see it, but because by it, I see everything else.” The s-o-n has risen. Thanks be to God. Jesus, the person made known through scripture and who moves in our lives through the Holy Spirit, is the mirror through which we see God. But he is also the lens through which we experience and see the whole world. The gift of living the Christian life is not that there is no more darkness in our days, but that when we find shafts of light, we follow them back to the source, the sun, Jesus, the light of the world. What were the brightest times for you in 2010? Whatever they were, you can trace them back to God's gifts and blessings for you. Even if 2010 wasn't the brightest of years or you're not feeling too sunny about the future, the gospel today says “In Christ is life, and the life is the light of all the people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. So no matter what, God's light will be in your 2011, and the darkness will not overcome it.
It starts here, with the word, Jesus the son. It starts with this word, this table. But just as wherever you go, there the sun's rays will be there, even if hidden, so too does God's presence in Christ stay with you. God's gift to us is that we see Jesus, the son, is the mirror of the father's heart – and through him we know and yes, see God. Amen.
