"Beginnings"
Genesis
1:1-5
John
1:1-5
A sermon preached by Reverend Greg Seckman at the Eastminster Presbyterian Church
January 5 , 2014
A while back I read a fascinating
article about the latest adventures of the Hubble Telescope and those who look
through it.[1] They
have focused this space-based instrument on the furthest known galaxies from
our own. In doing so, they literally
look back through time because the light that we see today from those far
distant places was created billions of years ago. It is exactly because of the great distances
it has traveled, that it has taken this long to reach our planet.
For this reason some writers have
exaggerated the power of this telescope to say that we may have the ability to
see the beginning of time. We
don't. But, we can see backwards further
than ever before.
What was interesting about this article was that the
images they have received have raised more questions than answers. There are unexpected phenomena that don't fit
the current theories. New theories will
have to be developed to incorporate the new information.
That is always the way. As our
scientific knowledge increases more questions than answers are usually
found. I think it will probably always
be so; as we continue to explore our universe we will in fact be exploring the
mind of God, and the mind of God is infinite with infinite possibilities. We will never have all the answers; there
will always be more questions.
The Apostle John began to explore
the mind of God in the prologue to his gospel.
His knowledge did not come through a telescope but from revelation. This revelation came from God himself. "In
the beginning was the Word."[2]
This phrase is reminiscent of the
first verse in the Bible, "In the
beginning was God."[3] William Temple said this could be translated,
"At the root of the universe is God."[4]
This is a faith statement. It must be, for God cannot be proved or
disproved. The very nature of the
definition of God determines that the created cannot prove the creator. To do so would demand complete understanding,
and this is not possible, for as I said the mind of God is infinite with
infinite possibilities. This is what God said, "For as the
heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.”[5]
The world is divided into those who
believe God is, and those who believe God is not. Both groups are making a faith
statement. But, for those who believe
God is not, the next question becomes one of meaning and purpose. If there is no God what is the point other
than to "eat, drink, and be merry
for tomorrow we may die." (Ecclesiastes 8:15)
This is why the discussion over the
beginning of the universe is so critical.
If the universe and the life within it are created by pure chance and
accident, then the only meaning we will find in it is the meaning we create
ourselves. And we have been woefully
inadequate to that challenge.
Macbeth, in Shakespeare's play
reveals this philosophy:
Life's
but a walking shadow, a poor player
That
struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And
then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told
by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing. (Macbeth, act 5, sc.5
lines 24-28)
Many young people today carry that
philosophy because they believe life is pure chance, an accident with no
meaning; and so they try to create the meaning themselves, but it is only
"sound and fury." Many of the
lyrics of the popular music echo that emptiness, what the Bible calls
"vanity".
Those who believe that God isn't
have the tremendous challenge to find meaning and purpose only in themselves. Even if they do, it is fleeting and will not
last.
Those who believe God is, are faced
with the next question: What is God like?
John offers an answer: "In the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was God." (John 1:1) Remember John is here preaching to two
distinct congregations. The words he
writes are being read by Jews, some of who are disciples of Jesus Christ and
some who are not. He is also writing to
Greeks, some of who are disciples of Jesus Christ and some who are not. And there are almost no cultural similarities
between the two. The Jews believed in
one God, the Greek believed in many. The
Jews were tucked away off the beaten path and the Greeks were cosmopolitan
smack in the center of things.
The only thing that these two groups
have in common is a high regard for the Word.
For the Jews, the Hebrew word “dabar”,
translated as the Word conveys power. It is an action. It is creative. God
said "Let there be light" and there was light. (Genesis 1:3)
The act of speaking and doing were seen as being the same. In our best moments we feel the same. We hope that "A man's word is his
bond", or say that people are "only as good as their word." Saying you will do something and then doing
it are hopefully the same.
Isaiah spoke for God in that way, “So shall My Word be that goes forth from my
Mouth; it shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it." (55:10-11)
Knowing God depends on understanding the question "What?" We will
understand God as we see what God is doing.
For the Greeks, logos, translated as Word is less
concerned with "what God does" than it is in "Why?" "Why has God created the world the way
it is?" "Why has God created us
the way we are?" The Logos focuses
on reasons and ideas, on the mind of God. "The Greeks - through the philosopher Hearclitus -
believed that the will of God could be known through the reason of every man,
dwelling within him through the Logos." 2 For hundreds of years this had been the
pursuit of Greek philosophy. Knowing God depends on understand the question
"Why?" Why has God created the universe in this way? Our reason should lead us to the answers.
Both questions are important, so
what does John say about God? He says, "In God was life, and the life was the
light of men." (John 1:4)
God is not a dispassionate scientist running an experiment and making
observations about the results. God has
not wound up the universe like a grandfather clock, only to step back and watch
the time tick away. God is
involved. God is for life.
The poet James Weldon Johnson took a tangy peek at
God when he wrote:
"God stepped out on space
And He looked around and said,
I'm lonely -
I'll make me a world.'
And God looked
On all that He had made.
And God said, `I'm lonely still.'
And the great God almighty,
Who lit the sun and fixed it in the
sky,
Who flung the stars to the most far
corner of the night,
Who rounded the earth in the middle
of His hand-
This great God,
Like a mammy bending over her baby,
Kneeled down in the dust
Toiling over a lump of clay
Until He shaped it is His Own image;
Then into it He blew the breath of
life,
And man became a living soul."
I don't know if God gets lonely, but
I do know that God does care and is involved with His creation. The length to which God is involved is found
in the fourteenth verse of this first chapter of John. "And
the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld
his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father."
Now if the Jews and the
Greeks of John's day were in agreement about the power of the Word, they were
equally agreed about the weakness of the flesh.
Both had a difficult time grasping the notion that God would come into
the world in the form of a babe born in Bethlehem. For Jews this spoke of having more than one
God, for the Greeks it spoke of God in terms that were too personal, too
intimate.
But, that is exactly why God came
into our world in this way. In this
unique event in time, God stepped out of eternity and into our history. The reason God did that was so that we could
see God face to face, so that our relationship with God could be intimate,
could be personal.
Jesus said, "the one who hath seen me, hath seen the Father". (John
14:9 The Apostle Paul said, "For God, who commanded the light to
shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." (2 Corinthians
4:6)
Until Jesus Christ it was not
possible to really see God. God had said
in Exodus, "You cannot see my
face; for there shall be no man see me, and live." (33:20) This
statement was a reflection on the holiness and awesomeness of God. It was the Bible's way of speaking of God as
the "other"; as one totally separate and different from us. The theological word is transcendent. God transcends our experience.
The common image of God as
transcendent is that of creator and judge.
For many people, this is their dominant image of God. It is how they see God. God made us; God will
judge us, so watch out. God is "out
there" or "up there" in heaven.
There is little comfort and much fear in this picture.
For others the negative is turned
around. Black becomes white. God is not see as being "up there",
but rather is seen as being "in here". The language is one of intimacy and
immediacy. Words like Father or parent
are used. The theological word is
immanence. God is as near as a baby.
Well, I believe God gave us two
hands for this reason. On the one hand
God is transcendent, "out there or up there"; is the creator and the
judge. On the other hand God is
immanent, "in here"; is the Father, the one whom Jesus called
"Abba". God is both. God is as near as a baby, and as far as the
stars.
And God becomes small when we choose
one or the other. If God remains forever
stuck in our minds as a babe born in Bethlehem, then He becomes sentimental and
seasonal. If God remains forever stuck
out there in the stars, then He endures distant from our lives and only a
curiosity to look at with our telescopes.
It is for this reason that Jesus
taught us to pray, "Our
Father". This is an intimate
and personal expression of a close relationship. Then he says, "Who art in heaven."
Which is to say, "Remember always the transcendence of
God." "God is above us, beyond
us, foreign to us, different from us and what we are." (Guthrie, Shirley, Christian Doctrine, pg 112)
When we remember what's on both the
hands, then our understanding of God expands and we come closer to seeing God
than we ever had before.
And when you are out for a walk on a
starlight summer's night and see the thousand billion stars and realize they
came to being by utterance of a single word from God - "Light"; maybe it will take your breath away and you'll
whisper to yourself, "God is as far as these stars and beyond."
Or when you go into a child's room
early in the morning and the babe's eyes open with a smile that lights up a
room; and you remember that snippet of a verse "a little child shall lead them", maybe it will take
your breath away and you'll whisper to yourself, "God is as near as this
baby."
And if that happens to you maybe
once a year, count yourself blessed. For
there are many who look to the night sky and see only stars. And there are many who look at a child and
see only a baby. For them the world is
an empty, lonely place.
Thanks be to God whose "Word became flesh and dwelt among us,
full of grace and truth; we have seen his glory." Amen.
2. Preaching Magazine. November - December, 1991. pg 58.
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