God's autobiography

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This is a early draft, I rearranged some paragraphs and improved the ending.

Christmas 2C, Jan. 3, 2010
John 1:1-14 “God’s Autobiography”

It's good to be here. It really is. As some of you know, the last time I preached here was on the Sunday before Christmas. I was fine during the first worship service and during the coffee hour before hand – I chatted with folks as we were setting up for Spirit of Hope, and all was well until I started the children's message, and then I started to feel – odd. Like the world was spinning and I was swaying with it. Like I was on a carnival ride – the ones that go around really fast. I don't like those rides. I could not stand up.

And all I could do was sit down and put my head down and close my eyes. Turns out I had an episode of vertigo – which is defined as a sensation of spinning and swaying. I'm all right now. But as I was recovering I had all sorts of people worried about me, and for that I'm grateful.

I also did some research on what could have caused the episode – and I learned more about the anatomy of the ear. There are three parts – the outer ear, the middle ear and the inner ear. Something probably was off in my inner ear. It's an extremely complex and delicate instrument in there – tiny canals and openings and spiraling structures and teeny, weeny hairs measuring every movement.

I was reading and looking at picutres and I said to myself – there is no way, no way, that this came about randomly – just no way. This beautiful and delicate instrumentation is inside of me. And inside of you, inside of all of us.

That is what it means to be flesh, to be made of matter, and to be a thinking being – to not only have these amazing bodies, these masterpieces of biology, but to know we have them. To be conscious of them. To know we are part of this organism and that we are so much more. We are our bodies and we are spirit, soul and mind. We are our bodies, and we are groups, families, teams and communities. We are our bodies and we are living through time in stories, making meaning or finding meaning. We are our bodies, and we are what we leave behind, legacies, books, buildings, relationships, grandchildren.

And we are part of communities that honor that and work to fix and heal what is wrong. To live with being flesh is to be in wonder, and in despair, too – for these bodies are also frail, will eventually fail, will no longer sustain life. To be a thinking person is to know this – all this truth – about each one of us.

So we are told God entered flesh. We are told that God, who created everything, who worked out the design of the inner ear, who is eternal and everywhere – chose to 'pitch his tent' among the species who stays aware of life and death, who lives to struggle with meaning of our fleshly existence. God, Almighty, Magnificent, the Lord, limited Godself to one man, one time, one language, one culture, one story.

The Gospel of John sets up it's unique way of telling the story of Jesus this way: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the word was God.
This Word – capital W Word – is eternal, is one with God, is God's Word. (As much as the speech you hear right now is my word, part of me, given to you – so God gave his WORD away)

This is the intention of God that made the world – this Word – this spoken desire – this is the heart of the Creator. Without the WORD – capital W – nothing was made, came into being, was created. It is because of the WORD – capital W – that we have life, that we breathe, speak, wonder and learn.

And this Word – this desire of God – became flesh, like us. Had an inner ear, like us. Had a name – Jesus. Ate, had friends, walked, talked, struggled and suffered. Like us. Faced conflict, cruelty, pain, like us. Died like us. And more. Because he was the Word of God- the heart of the creator – in his life, his death and in what happened after he died – he showed what God desires.

“Yes, Jesus is God's autobiography - Jesus, is the Revealer of God. He communicates to us the thoughts, feelings, and desires of God. Yet, he doesn't just talk about what goes on inside God -- he is God. His life reveals God. In order to know God, one needs to look to Jesus, to listen to Jesus, to try and understand Jesus." (Brian Stoffregen) The Word – Jesus - reveals the creator of all.

And in this revelation – this autobiography – this great story – we find our story has greater meaning. Because Jesus lived – because Jesus taught – because Jesus suffered and died – because he arose from the grave and showed that this life of flesh is not all we are – our lives can be different – can be richer, shaped and formed into lives lived for others.

So, what difference does it make? That this thing happened? That this miracle – God taking up flesh – having a body like ours – once at least. What difference does it make?
That Big became little – that Great became weak – that Power came to know death?

For me – it has always meant that I am not alone. In these bodies, in these lives, in these relationships we are not alone. We not only have each other- we have someone who knows us even better than our mothers, our spouses, our dearest friends. We have someone who knows what it was like to have made us, and to live like us, and to be us. And that someone cares enough to invite me into his family – to be his child.

12But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

That's the difference. That the God who created this realm of matter out of love – and who desires love back – offers to this part of his creation- human beings – his story of love. His autobiography of love. And through believing - we are part of that story – part of that movement.

It's a fleshy movement. It's a movement of people, like you and me, acting out God's story in a world of flesh and bone, money and agriculture, power and greed and evil and good. It takes flesh when we meet together here, when we have committee meetings and do good deeds and study and argue together. When we grieve together, when we rejoice together, when we eat together.

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.

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