St. Andrew’s Pictou, January 2, 2005

 

Window on the Universe

 

Jeremiah 31:7-14

Psalm 147:13-21

Ephesians 1:3-14

John 1:10-18

 

We think of the Bible in many ways:

-the Word of God,

-sacred scriptures,

-the history of the development of our faith of God,

-our unique source of knowledge about the nature of who God is, and what God is about,

-the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

But maybe we need to add yet another view, to add another way to look at the Bible.

 

Consider for example that we look at the Bible as “a window on the universe.”

 

Just think of the Bible as a book telling us just the way it is; just as a book telling us what life is all about; a factual spiritual guide about the reality of life.

 

You have heard about “reality TV.” How about “life’s spiritual reality information?”

 

Think of the Bible as a place to go for “a reality check.”

 

The world has just experienced one of the biggest “reality checks” we have had for some time here on planet earth:

-an earthquake off the coast of Indonesia and the resulting tsunami waves have devastated about nine countries in Asia, killing 150,000 people, probably more, leaving millions homeless.

 

Mother Nature delivered her own “nuclear bomb” last week and it has been a massive reality check for humanity.

 

There is nobody living in the world today who has witnessed so many countries experiencing so much death, so much destruction to so many countries, and such massive homelessness all at once from one, solitary, event.

 

The whole world is in shock at the details of what happened; a reality check about the power of nature that nobody expected.

 

Maybe we should say right away, that these kinds of “reality checks” are never expected.

 

Whenever bad things happen, you will often hear people say, “Life isn’t fair!”

 

Now think for a moment, and ask yourself if it is written anywhere that life is supposed to be… fair? Is it written in the Bible somewhere that life is supposed to be fair?

 

Consider today’s readings.

 

Jeremiah tells us “Lyrically and tenderly (the prophet) assures his fearful contemporaries that, even though they go into exile, return will be possible.” (O’Driscoll p. 49)

 

Here we have in ancient times, the people of God experiencing their own tsunami where their country, their identity, and their faith have been erased from the map by the Babylonians, yet the prophet assures them, that they will return and go on. We have the unfair event and the resolution.

 

There are no “good ole days” here! It was utterly terrible for them; there was no fairness about it. There was no special status for the people of God, and they experienced great suffering.

 

The psalm reading shows us where “God’s people have been gathered, and have been given a sense of identity and security, for which they give fervent praise.” (O’Driscoll)

 

In other words, back 3500 years ago, the kids didn’t just hang out at the mall, or in a park smoking something. Apparently, building identity and experiencing security has to be an intentional act guided by community leaders. Praise and thanksgiving to God was part of it.

 

Reminds me very much of the wedding we held in this church on New Year’s Eve. About 200 gathered here, beautiful young people, faithful older people, lots of wonderful children, Bible readings, reflections on love and the God of love, lighting candles, the church all decorated so beautifully, moving religious music, a celebration of joy where there was much thanksgiving. The bride’s grandmother may have needed the wheelchair to get into the church, but the rain hat had to be removed, and she had to take her place in the church with pride under her own steam. Pride. Wouldn’t the bride be blessed by her grandmother’s presence?

 

Now the bride and groom, Becky and Philip, could have just gone to JP and had a five or ten minute exchange of words and signatures, but why didn’t they do that? Because they are Christians! What the psalmist just said above still rings true today: the leaders gathered the whole people of God, secure in their identity, giving praise and thanksgiving.

 

In the passage from Ephesians, “Writing to the Christian Community, Paul points to the continuing formation of a new people of God, to whom gifts are being given to be used for God’s glory.” (O’Driscoll)

 

Isn’t that true about “the Kirk?” Aren’t new people joining this church, new people coming with their gifts, continually reformulating this church and making it new, to the glory of God?

 

Then, in the reading from John, we have our Jesus; God incarnate, God with us: Emanuel. “John tells us of the One who came, offered himself to his own people, was rejected, then, at great and glorious cost, gathered to himself a people for God.” (O’Driscoll)

 

Isn’t that true? The church was started by Jesus who faced massive rejection. He was not recognized by many who were there at the time. In fact he was ridiculed for helping other people and healing them in order to improve their lives. He was abandoned and betrayed by even some of his closest friends, suffered greatly, was abused, publicly humiliated in front of the whole population , brutally murdered, and yet that very process started this world – wide movement that now has about 2 billion followers.

 

Does that make any sense to you? Isn’t Jesus Christ an absolute set of irrational contradictions, and impossibilities?

 

Yet is not Jesus, in all of that mess of contradictions, a window on the universe?

 

Have not the very same things that happened to Jesus, happened to human beings?

 

Rationally Jesus doesn’t make sense, but IN REALITY he does make sense, because Jesus represents the true reality of our contradictory, unfair, worldly, existence.

 

Don’t you know good people who have been maligned?

 

Don’t you know people of integrity who have been betrayed?

 

Don’t you know gifted people who are overlooked and unappreciated?

 

Haven’t many innocent people been sent to jail, suffered injustice, and been executed?

 

Don’t you see even good people reject the truth?

 

While you and I might agree that Jesus Christ was better than any one of us, the plain and simple unfair truth is that he still wasn’t exempt from the painful realities of life.

 

If Jesus Christ himself wasn’t exempt from the realities of life, then why in the world would we ever be exempt?

 

Now you may think that I have boxed myself into a corner here and painted a picture of despair, but the Gospel of Jesus wasn’t that we could be couch potatoes and be exempt from the plain reality of world difficulty and suffering.

 

Jesus came that we, like he, might overcome the world.

 

“But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave the power to become children of God,”

 

Jesus Christ came to give us POWER!

 

He came to give us the power to deal with the difficulties of our lives.

 

Like all gifts, you have to both accept the power, and you have to use the power.

 

The power of God came to earth in Jesus and he passed the power on to us which we access through faith. If the Bible is a window on the universe, then Jesus is the central pane of glass.

 

The purpose of the power Jesus passed on to us is… glory.

 

The purpose of the power is to experience the glory of God. That is why we were made. That is why we were created.

 

“And the Word become 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.”

 

AMEN                   Rev. Alan Stewart