GOD'S INVOLVEMENT!

John 1.1-14

There is an old story of a physicist, a chemist and an economist marooned on a desert island. One day a tin of beans is washed ashore. How are they going to open it? Well the physicist rigs up a complicated device involving rocks and creepers. But all he succeeds in doing is giving the tin a rather more battered appearance. The chemist puts together a potion which she smears on the tin and then heats it up. All she succeeds in doing is leaving the outside with some very queer looking stains. The economist the takes up the tin and says “Assume a tin –opener”. They remained hungry.

Which all goes to show that physicality matters. And this morning’s gospel reading tells us about God taking on the physicality of human flesh. We call it the Incarnation, the moment at which God became human.

'GOOD MAN' OR GOD?

Now for the early church the idea that Jesus of Nazareth was divine was very easy to accept, after all the predominant culture had all sorts of stories of gods wandering around disguised as people. What was rather more difficult for them to understand was that Jesus of Nazareth was also fully human, not just a god in human disguise. In the 21st Century many people have precisely the opposite problem of understanding. So Jesus of Nazareth is seen as a fine example of a “good man”, a wonderful teacher, some one to be admired, someone to take as a example of how to live a moral life, but accepting him as God as well is seen as unnecessary, unscientific. Well we know differently don’t we. Jesus Christ is both divine and human.

Our Gospel reading describes how Jesus Christ, “The Word” brought all things into being. I recently came across a piece of writing that illustrates marvellously the wonder of this

“Let me tell you why God made the world. One afternoon, before anything was made, God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit sat around in the unity of their Godhead discussing one of the Father’s fixations. From all eternity, it seems, he had this thing about being. He would keep thinking up all kinds of unnecessary things – new ways of being and new kinds of things to be. And as they talked, God the Son suddenly said “Really, this is absolutely great stuff. Why don’t I go out and mix us up a batch?”

And God the Holy Spirit said “Terrific! I’ll help you.” So they all pitched in, and after supper that night, the Son and the Holy Spirit put on this tremendous show of being for the Father. It was full of water and light and frogs: pine cones kept dropping all over the place and crazy fish swam around in the wineglasses. There were mushrooms and grapes, horseradishes and tigers – and men and women everywhere to taste them, to juggle them, to join them and to love them. And God the Father looked at the whole wild party and said, “Wonderful!” Just what I had in mind!”

From The Third Peacock by Robert Farrar Capon

BEING THERE...

What this passage captures is the sheer excitement of being. And Jesus Christ’s life illustrates this also, there are the miraculous events surrounding his birth, and his ministry was a vibrant mix of healing the sick, raising the dead, feasting with friends old and new, teaching vast crowds and small intimate groups, saving a fallen woman from an ignominious death, commissioning his friends to tell the Good News to the whole world. Jesus’ humanness led to his being involved in the whole of human life, the joys and the sorrows, the messiness, the good times and the bad times. It’s all there in the Gospel stories

So what are some of the implications for us? Well perhaps first of all, that there are no areas of life in which God is not intimately involved. We can’t hive off parts and say that they are a God free zone. Jesus Christ lived through all human experience, he ate and drank and fell asleep as well as healing and teaching and praying. And his life was a very balanced one. He worked and he took rest. He enjoyed companionship and solitude. He feasted and fasted, went to weddings, attended synagogue, visited the temple. He was joyful and sorrowful. So our lives too, should reflect this vibrant mix. Christianity is not just about attending church, it’s about friendship and family life, about work and leisure about getting sufficient rest, getting enough time to recharge our batteries as well as serving others.

PRECIOUS LIFE

The incarnation tells of the importance of life. We live in an age when medical technology raises all sorts of questions about when life begins and when it ends. As Christians we need to get involved in those debates. Now to a certain extent we do that at St John’s already. We have a long standing link with the Hospice. And the Hospice movement is born out of the concept that human life is precious right up to the very end and that is a very Christian concept. By lovingly looking after people on that final journey from life to death, in a way that allows them to retain their dignity, we state very clearly that each and every one of us is precious in God’s sight. Taking this a step further, the Church is quite clear that voluntary euthanasia and assisted suicide are incompatible with the preciousness of life demonstrated by God become man. As Christians we need to be aware of the debates concerning when life begins, whether abortion is justified, or experimenting with embryos. None of this is straight forward, but the Christian perspective on life needs to be part of that debate.

And if we argue that each human life is precious in God’s sight, then as a Christian community we need to get involved in other political issues. Not many of us want to join a political party but whether it’s campaigning for better facilities at a local hospital or school, getting involved in anti-poverty campaigning, knitting for Ksizizi, joining Amnesty International or the Samaritans, these are all actions through which we say that God cares about His Creation so much that He became human and lived a human life and died a human death.

...AND NOT JUST HUMAN LIFE...

And here at St John’s we are working on environmental issues. Because not only is human life precious in God’s sight, the whole of creation is precious. As the Gospel says “All things came into being through him”. So our Lent Course is going to look at environmental issues and challenge us all to take them more seriously, to change our ways of living to make them more compatible with the needs of creation as a whole.

“And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” We are called to bear witness to that glory, to that grace and that truth, by the full enjoyment of the good creation that God has given us, by serving our communities, looking after our environment, engaging with issues of life and death, living life in a way that proclaims that God is involved in all things.

Penny Sayer
St John the Evangelist, Pevensey Rd, St Leonards on Sea

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