Bible Text:

This morning the Wesley Singers sang a very familiar musical piece as a part of our call to worship—Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” As the first hymn this morning we sang “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name,” using the more complex but glorious Diadem tune. This hymn is a great affirmation of faith. For our prayer hymn today we sang another, “Fairest Lord Jesus… O thou of God and man the Son.” 

There’s little doubt that the reason we gather here today is because of Jesus. We don’t come today because of some socially compelling reason. We do not come for political reasons, or cultural reasons. We don’t come for convenience. We come because of Jesus. We come together to worship because something about Jesus draws us and nudges us to be here. 

The question is who is this Jesus, really? Have you ever asked that question? Have you stopped and asked it? Have you pondered it at times? Is he “King of King and Lord of Lords”? Is he the Son of God? Is he the only begotten Son of God? Is he somehow God in human form, walking around on this earth? Or is he (as we shall sing in a few minutes), “a young and fearless prophet of ancient Galilee, whose life is still a summons to serve humanity”? 

Who is he? It’s a question you may have asked. I hope you have asked it. Perhaps not every day of your life. Perhaps not constantly. But at least now and then. 

My covenant discipleship group has as one of our primary commitments; “I will seek to speak to someone of Jesus and my faith this week.” If I do that, what do I say? How do I put it? How do I express it? 

There’s a story about a family who was traveling somewhere in a railroad Pullman car. The little six-year-old girl was sleeping on the upper bunk. The mother and dad were in the lower bunk. The mother tucked the little girl in at night and kissed her softly, encouraging her to go to sleep. A few minutes later she and her husband crawled into the lower bunk and turned out the lights. After a few minutes a tiny little voice came from the upper bunk saying, “Mommy, are you there?”  The mother responded, “Yes, honey, I’m here. It’s okay.” There was silence. Then another quiet little voice—“Daddy, are you there?” 

“Yes, honey, I’m here. Now be quiet and go to sleep.” Another moment of silence. Then, once more, the anxious little voice was heard saying, “Mommy, are you there?” From out of the darkness came a stern male voice—“Your mother is here and your father is here. We are all here. Now go to sleep.” After a long silence the little girl, with a trembling voice, asked, “Mommy, was that God?” 

This is a question sometimes asked about Jesus. Was Jesus God? 

Let me say at the outset that Jesus is at the center of my faith. I say this without reservation and without exception. He is the center point and the circumference. He embraces everything for me—from my prayer life to my family life, from ethical choices to environmental concerns, from personal behavior to political opinions. Nothing is outside the circle of Jesus’ influence for me. I agree with the apostle Paul when he wrote, “In Jesus, all things hold together.” 

But who is he? In what sense is he human? In what sense is he divine, or both? Can we fathom the mystery of that question? I think it’s a question you may have asked. 

The early church wrestled with this question long and hard. I know they wrestled with it because I had to study it in seminary for three years. They wrestled with how to express the divine human paradox. How could Jesus be both at once? Most of the creeds that we now use were written out of this wrestling. The Apostles Creed, for example, was not written by the apostles, as some presume, but written by the early church to express the nature of Jesus. Another lesser-known but still familiar creed is the Nicene Creed. It was written for the same reason. Out of the creeds we get phrases like, “begotten, not made,” or “born of the Virgin Mary,” or “of one substance with the Father,” or “very God of very God.” 

Kathleen Norris writes this about creeds:

There are some phrases, “True God from true God… That’s a little strange. It’s just not the kind of language people would normally use… Creeds used to drive me crazy. I thought I had to understand everything intellectually and agree to it, and I would make a big deal about it… But now I just think that this is our story. This is who we were, who we are, and who we’re going to be.[i] 

Some of the phrases used to describe Jesus in the New Testament are very political. The early Christians, of course, lived and wrote in a Roman world. In that world Caesar was the equivalent of a god or at least a “son of god.” 

So when Christians affirmed, “Jesus is Lord” at their baptism, what they were really saying is, “Caesar is not Lord.” When they boldly proclaimed that Jesus was the Son of God, they were really saying Caesar is not the son of God. You see, the early Christians were persecuted not for what they believed about Jesus, but for what they refused to believe about Caesar. There’s a small vignette in Scripture that I think is illustrative of this. It’s found in the 15^th chapter of Mark, verses 37-39. It comes at the time of the crucifixion of Jesus. Listen to these words: “Then Jesus gave a loud cry, and breathed his last… Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in his way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly, this man was God’s son.’” (Mark 15:37-39) How ironic that a Roman centurion would make this affirmation. How ironic that that Roman centurion would say, “Surely this man was a Son of God.” Do you hear the radical meaning here? Jesus is of God. Caesar is not! 

Other names for Jesus in the New Testament were not so radical or loaded. Words like “Teacher,” or “Good Teacher,” or “Rabbi,” or “Prophet,” or “Master.” 

But here is the question: in what sense is Jesus divine? Let me try a response using several familiar texts. This will not provide the answer to all of your questions. There is too much mystery here for that. I once read about a church that had as its slogan, “Open at the edges, committed at the core.” I like that. Let me try to illuminate the core. 

THE WORD BECAME FLESH 

The first text is from the Gospel of John, which says, “The word became flesh.” I like that image, and I can use it enthusiastically. I can use it because I believe that the “word” is actually the action of God. 

Almost every time you see the term, “word” in the Bible, it has to do with God’s action or activity. God spoke and the world was created. God spoke and Moses led the people out of bondage. 

Last Monday morning I used a text from Isaiah in my closing message to our First Time Senior Minister conference. The text goes something like this, “As the rain and snow come down from heaven and water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (see Isaiah 55:10-11) 

God utters God’s word and things happen. God spoke and Jesus came among us. Jesus is the word become flesh. Jesus is the action of God in our midst. 

THE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD 

A second familiar text comes from the writings of Paul in Colossians: “He is the image of the invisible God.” Exactly! I believe that. 

The first term paper I ever wrote in seminary was on a little book by D. M. Baillie entitled God Was in Christ.[ii] I still have the book. I wish I could find the paper that I wrote back then. Baillie says God was in Christ. Exactly, again! Jesus was NOT God. Jesus was the IMAGE of God. God permeated the being of Jesus in such a way that God shone through to perfection. 

Marcus Borg says something like this in one of his books: “Jesus was the most spirit-filled, God-infused person who ever walked the face of the earth.” I like that. Jesus was in touch. Jesus was in tune. Jesus was in sync with God. 

I tried to download a software program on my computer this week that would synchronize the address book in one program with the address book in another. It didn’t work. What it did was erase the address book in one program without adding it to the other. I ended up with a huge mess. 

Jesus was synchronized with God. Jesus shows me what God is like. 

So when Jesus says, “He who has seen me has seen the Father,” or when Jesus says, “I and the Father are one” (see John 14), there is a special power in those words for me. This is no longer a hard-to-define paradox. Rather, it is an expression of the revelation of God that came in Jesus. 

THE ALPHA AND THE OMEGA 

The third familiar text is from the Book of Revelation. Jesus says, “I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end.” Life begins and ends in him. Jesus is the meaning, the direction, and the final promise of life. 

I am not much of a pro basketball fan. But I do know one NBA story. Some years ago a man by the name of Lou Alcindar came to the Milwaukee Bucs. (He later changed his name to Kareem Abdul Jabar.) At the time of his coming, the Milwaukee Bucs were a terrible basketball team. They were in dire straits. When Alcindar/Jabar joined the team, everything turned around. The Milwaukee Bucs won everything there was to win. Here’s the way someone put it, “With everything under his feet, he, head and shoulders above all other players, led the Bucs to everything there was to win.” 

The church is a group to whom God has given Jesus. He is the one who has authority over all things. He is head and shoulders over everything. 

So there is a way to talk about Jesus without murky language. I find that renewing and refreshing. 

Karl Barth, probably the greatest theologian of the 20^th century said this, “All theology is finally Christology.” By this he means that everything we know about God, we see in Jesus. This is the deepest conviction of my life. And I share this with you as an expression of my own faith. 

Let me close with a little story about a four-year-old girl who was at a pediatrician’s office for a check-up. The doctor looked in her ears and said to her, “Do you think I will find Big Bird in there?” There was no response from the child. He got out a tongue depressor and looked down her throat. He said to her, “Do you think I will find Cookie Monster down there?” Again there was no response. Then he took a stethoscope and began to listen to her heartbeat. He smiled at her and said, “Do you think I will hear Barney in there?” Whereupon the little girl replied, “Oh no… Jesus is in my heart. Barney is on my undershirt!” 

If Jesus is in your heart, walk with me. Walk through the questions, the uncertainties, and the mysteries of life toward him. This is the direction of all true disciples in this new day.