In the 1990s, a biblical scholar named Marcus Borg wrote an incredibly popular book—by which I mean that it flew off the shelf at Barnes’ and Noble (when that was a thing)… He called Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. In its opening chapter Borg describes a journey many of us can relate to: He grew up in church and learned a simple story of Jesus. But that story soon became complicated…by the doubts that come with adolescence, college education, and the life experience that comes with adulthood… Borg’s story is that he eventually arrived at a renewed sense of his spirituality—a sense that he had been on journey all along… Many of you might be able to relate to some part of that story; you know that your spirituality is an important part of your life, but the “Christianity” you observe in the wider culture often feels foreign to you or is not something you are comfortable claiming as your own. It often appears to be divisive rather than unifying; hypocritical—caring about belief but ignoring care for the oppressed—or vice versa… Maybe you are hoping to find what Borg found—that renewed sense of spirituality—a deeper way to find wisdom and grounding in your life and a religious tradition you feel good about and want to talk about with others.
It’s for reasons like that that we here at Knox Presbyterian Church are in the midst of a sermon series on core commitments of Christian faith. In this season of Lent we’re spending time with the story of Jesus. We will spend time considering lessons from his ministry about healing, justice, and forgiveness; we will consider on Palm Sunday what could be the meaning of his violent death at the hands of a mob, and on Easter what it means to be Resurrection people—people who commit to hope in the face of a world that so often seems hopelessly broken.
Today though, we start at the beginning, with Jesus birth, which we often call Christmas, but which the theologians call “incarnation.” We’re singing songs we often just here in December or early January, asking questions we don’t always ask in the rush of the holidays, among them: What does it mean when the Bible calls Jesus by the name Emmanuel, meaning, God with us.
When we talk about Jesus coming into the world, there are so many stories we can choose from: Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Wise Men and Stars to follow; but instead, today, we’re going to talk about how the Gospel of John speaks a truth about all of these stories in words you might remember: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”—these are the words John uses to introduce Jesus. Why?
This scripture invites us to ask some questions about Jesus that are important and that are surprisingly practical when you give them some thought. What does Jesus reveal to us about God? And what does he teach us about how to be human? These will be the questions of the next several weeks. They are big questions. We will go deeper with them as we study the Gospel of John in Lent…
But let’s start here with this question: What does Jesus teach us about God? If we start with these words, “In the beginning was the Word,” what are we talking about? You might consider this: “The Word” as it is spoken of here is connected it to the ancient Wisdom of God. Wisdom is this powerful tradition that is woven throughout the Old Testament. Wisdom is how the great ones embrace the challenges of each day and are grounded by God’s Spirit. The prophets are inspired to seek justice because of God’s wisdom in their lives. Just like today, ancient Wisdom draws the wise out of their daily worries about more money and more stuff and reminds them to consider the kinds of things you hope will be said at your funeral. Wisdom complicates our simple claims about God: a feminine idea in the Old Testament, wisdom shakes up our vision of God as an old man with a beard and reminds us that God is a loving parent we can know and trust, but that God is also a mystery we cannot contain or explain.
When we claim about Jesus that “in the beginning was the Word,” we are confronted by the daring claim that God’s Wisdom is about to be present in the world in a way that we can see, feel, and learn from, and that we dare not ignore it. These are some of the things Jesus reminds us about God.
Then there’s the human side of Jesus: what does Jesus teach us about human beings? I had a college professor, and later a friend, Bill Placher, who I’ve always thought wrote powerfully about this subject (for more on the following, see Placher, Jesus the Savior). He said that there are three things about Jesus that are important to think about if you want to understand what his humanity was about. One is that Jesus had a body. So he experienced times of growth and strength, and he knew what it was like to be sick, tired or aging. God understands these things that are part of human life because Jesus had a body. Second is that not only did Jesus have a body, but he was someone in particular. Every human being is someone in particular: you have an ethnicity, a physical makeup, genetic and learned strengths and weaknesses, human beings experience gender variety and sexual orientation. Some folks question if Jesus is really like them because he differs from them in one of these respects. But Placher’s point is that every human person has a unique set of particular attributes, and if Jesus wasn’t like that he wouldn’t be like us at all. So he has to be a particular person. The point of both of these things—the body and the particularity—is that Jesus is like us…because God wants to understand us.
This is what we mean when we say God is with us. God understands. One of the most important aspects of human experience is the longing to be understood. We fall in love when we feel a connection with one who understands us. We separate or are estranged from people when that understanding breaks down. Our sense of whether we are connected or alone in the world has much to do with whether or not we feel understood. And in Jesus Christ—God with us—God has made a promise. God’s presence comes into the world and lives a fully human life for no greater reason than so that when we bow our heads or open our hands to God in prayer, we are opening ourselves to one who we believe understands us, wants to know us and listen to us, and love us.
The third thing Bill Placher said about Jesus’ human qualities is that we know him by his relationships. We learn about who Jesus is through how he relates to others. So in Jesus, that ancient, mysterious wisdom of God we were talking about before…that wisdom comes into the world and speaks to people who have power and authority, listens and is present to oppressed people that most of the world ignores; and Jesus, because he is wisdom, enters these relationships with a creativity that inspires us and shows us how to live. Those stories about daily living grounded in God’s spirit will frame the next several stories when we look at how he lived and what he taught.
What is the point? Knowing Jesus isn’t just about repeating some claim that you believe in him; and it’s certainly about more than trying to be good, but so much more than that. Knowing Jesus is about being part of a journey in which we gain a more expansive idea of what it means to be human, and our lives are transformed by his story. We become more compassionate and caring, more convicted but also more humble, more grounded in prayer for the chaos of each day…because that’s how Jesus lived.
That story I began with about Marcus Borg has a surprising twist to it: One might think that in the progression from childhood church to best selling scholar would make Borg an ivory tower academic, surrounded by a reasonable, rational kind of Christianity—one he had all figured out. But Borg tells his story differently than that. It is precisely his growing doubt and uncertainty about questions of faith that humbles him and makes him a more spiritual person, that introduces into his life experiences that he can’t really define or explain other than by borrowing ancient words like mysticism and amazement to describe his own Christian walk. There’s the scholarly pursuit of the historical Jesus; but there’s also the yearning to know and follow Christ.
In the weeks ahead, and as the world continues to be chaotic—as I’m sure it will, we are going to seek together to be grounded by stories about Jesus—how he loved compassion, demanded justice, grounded and calmed people who were anxious, and gave them challenge, inspiration, and hope for the living of each day. Let us pray:
Holy God, who is beyond our understanding, who comes into the world in Jesus to be with us…surround us with your love. In a few moments our children will return into the room. Today, some of whom will today come to your table of grace for the first time. How are we teaching them to live? What will they know of your compassion and justice, your care for the suffering and ignored, your peace in the midst of violence, your groundedness in times of stress, and your hope and joy in all circumstances. How will we teach them your wisdom? And what are they teaching us about your love? May we be humble enough to be formed by you together at your table of grace. Amen.