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"And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us." Another way to say it is the way Eugene Peterson put it; "the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood." That's pretty accurate considering the literal translation of the Greek would be the Word became flesh and "pitched his tent with us". The point is that God is with us in a very intimate way. Theologians have long described Jesus, the second person of the Trinity, as the expression of the Creator. God the Father expressed Himself in the person of Jesus and created the universe through the expression of Jesus. A Canadian philosopher, Leslie Dewart, said that a "word" is "the extension of a person into his environment." Jesus might certainly be said to the extension of God into our environment. If this is God's expression of Himself, it seems that many of us really believe that God didn't take this opportunity to express Himself as well as He might have. We can all come up with ways that would have made God's expression more clearly defined and certain. I'll suggest a few. God could have come as an enormous cloud with thunder and lightening powerfully telling us what to do and how to live. Think of the power of thunder and lightening and add an unmistakably powerful voice and imagine how hard it would be to dismiss the appearance. We would have had to pay attention to that and it would be no question as the cloud showed up once in a while that it was more powerful than we are. Or God could have come as an otherworldly Being that would terrify us into submission and tell us exactly what to do and how to do it. If God thought that He needed to come to us as a human, then He at least could have come as a tyrant, perhaps a benevolent tyrant -- but a tyrant nonetheless, who could have conquered the whole world. If He would have conquered even more of the world than Alexander conquered, and put us all under His thumb and forced us into submission then God could have us act just the right way and we would know exactly what the right way is all the time. But God chose to express himself as a baby born of a human mother; a baby who would grow into a man that was crucified rather than a man who conquered. That was God's choice; to come to us a baby born like all of us, born as a baby to a poor family in Israel. Jesus lived among us in a very particular way and I think that we can know two important things about God's expression in the person of Jesus that do give an insight into how God wants us to act and make choices in this world. We can easily see two things about Jesus from his life and death. The first is that Jesus loved those around him and loves us. We can see this because he shared himself with his friends, he fed people, he healed people and helped people to be part of society when they had been rejected. And then he laid down his life for all of us. We can be assured that someone loves us when that person is willing to give his life for us. And the disciples assure us that Jesus laid down his life for something greater than just the group of men and women who were following him. The second thing that we know about Jesus from his life and teaching is that he trusted in God until his dying breath. Even in death he knew that God loved him and would be with him, trusting that it would be so without knowing exactly what it would mean. God's nature is revealed in Jesus' life and trust in the love of God, which he was able to share with his friends in his life and with all of us in his death. This leads me to ask what kind of expression God would have me make of His own expression of Himself in the world. If He chose not to be a conqueror in His expression of Himself, how can I choose to be a conqueror to express God's love? It doesn't seem to fit very well. What does seem to fit is that God would ask me to have the same vulnerability, love and trust that Jesus had in expressing God's nature and desire for us. Jesus was willing to be crucified for us, but not to conquer for us. When I try to talk about God's expression of Himself in our world, I would do well to stay consistent with the love and trust in God that Jesus showed us in his life and death. I'd like to share a story about how that might be carried out in our daily lives. The story is told by Julia Pennington-Russell about a Presbyterian minister. The Minister loved to go to Nordstrom department store during the season of Advent to see the beautiful sites and revel in the music and charm of the season. It is apparently a wonderful store; with live music playing on each floor during the Christmas shopping season. She was looking around on the fifth floor, where very expensive and beautiful dresses were displayed, when the elevator opened and out stepped an older woman whose hair was matted and stockings were falling down. She wore dirty, tattered clothing and carried a filthy, overstuffed gym bag. The Minister thought that she would see a security guard coming soon to escort the woman away. Instead, a stately saleswoman came over and asked, "May I help you, madam?" The woman said, "Yeah! I wanna buy a dress." "Any particular kind of dress?" the saleswoman asked in a dignified and kind manner. "A party dress!" said the woman. The saleswoman could not have been more gracious. "You've come to the right place. I think we have the most beautiful dresses you will find anywhere. Let's look at some for you." The women spent about fifteen minutes trying on dresses, as the Minister stayed close by to watch the encounter. After trying on a number of dresses the old woman finally said, "I don't want to buy a dress today." That was probably not a great surprise to either the Minister or the saleswoman. But what happened next did surprise the Minister. The saleswoman held out her hand with a card and said, "That's all right, madam. But here's my card. Should you come back to Nordstom, I do hope that you'll ask for me. I would consider it such a privilege to wait on you again." The woman telling this story said that if Jesus were ever a Nordstrom saleswoman, she thought that this is what Jesus would be like. That is the image I want to leave you with, an image of vulnerability, love and trust. God chose Jesus, born as a baby and crucified as a man, to express His nature to us. How will we, then, choose to express God to the world? In the Name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. |