Sermon: 15th February 2009

Preached at Sunnyside.

If we get Jesus right everything else follows

Today is sometimes called Creation Sunday. It’s easy to see why when we look at the four readings for today.

1. We’ve already shared part of Psalm 104 which sings in praise of God’s power in creation, “How many are your works: the earth is full of your creatures”

2. The second Old Testament reading is from Proverbs 8; a beautiful piece of Hebrew poetry that refers to the place of Wisdom, often associated with the Holy Spirit, in the beginning of creation. “I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command, and when he marked out the foundations of the earth. Then I was the craftsman at his side. I was filled with delight day after day, rejoicing always in his presence, rejoicing in his whole world.” This writing emphasises the feminine attributes of the creator God in Wisdom. It has a lightness of touch and a sense of playful creativity that I find delightful.

3. The Gospel reading is the New Testament Greek text, John 1:1-18, which we have heard several times recently, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” This is about Jesus’ presence at the beginning of creation, and about his nature as God and man. The Greek text is serious and heavyweight, and emphasises the masculine attributes of the creator God in Word.

As well as being two glorious pieces of writing, they combine to make an important point about the co-operative, interactive nature of God – about that dance of delight that marks the creative relationship between the three persons of the trinity.

4. And finally, the Epistle, from Colossians that we have just heard, in the context of creation, redemption and authority, “Jesus is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning…” I think that if we get our picture of Jesus right, everything else follows.

Those four texts give us the shape of Creation Sunday and tell us that:
Firstly, God’s power created and sustains our world.
Secondly, Wisdom and the Word existed before and worked in creation.
Thirdly, Jesus was fully human and fully divine.
Finally, Jesus is the head of our church, alive; resurrected and reconciling all things to himself. Renewal comes through Jesus. If we get our picture of Jesus right, everything else follows.

We all have slightly different mind-pictures of God, and some of our pictures can be quite unhelpful. When I was little I learned about God in a slightly schizophrenic way that made me think on the one hand of an ever present spy, ready to tell my parents about anything I did that was wrong – a sort of cosmic baby-sitter. On the other hand was a rather willocky and anaemic ‘gentle Jesus meek and mild’ who seemed very nice, but lacking energy. What was your picture?

Obviously my picture changed as I grew up – I no longer believe that Jesus had blonde hair and blue eyes for instance - but it does help me to understand why some people see God purely in terms of judgement and fear, or simply don’t see the point in faith.

All our pictures are likely to contain some kind of truth. But I think for all of us, in slightly different ways, our pictures of God may be less than adequate

Do we always think about God in a way that gives us a right sense of reverence, awe and majesty, holiness (set apartness), or do we sometimes reduce God to the equivalent of a ‘tame lion’ that we try to manipulate, control or ignore, and who is powerless to help us?

Do we always think about God in a way that gives us a right sense of the loving intimacy, forgiveness, compassion and care, or do we sometimes distort our picture of God to the equivalent of a disassociated dictator, hurling the occasional thunderbolt, and playing dice with humanity.

If God is neither a dictator nor a pussy-cat, how do we find a balance?

I think we find that balance by focusing on Jesus, God the Son – the second person of the trinity. If we get our picture of Jesus right, then everything else follows, even when we don’t understand it all.

In the Old Testament text, Exodus 33:20, “But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live."” God is physically separate from humanity, and few people develop a personal relationship with God. However, as soon as Jesus is born as a human – man born of woman, God gains a human face, and that relationship becomes personal. “No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known” (John 1:18) We can identify with that human being.

Jesus is there, as the second person of the trinity when the world is created- as God, and yet is able to become human in order to reach us, to create that opportunity for a personal relationship.

We often quote from a passage from Philippians that speaks about Jesus, “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.” That deliberate and willing putting aside of divine power meant that Jesus was able to become completely human. John tells us that “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us”. Jesus became fully human for us.

But we are hugely mistaken if we then go on to think that Jesus’ humanity meant that he was not and is not God. If Jesus was only human, only a good man then his death was sad and unfair, but nothing more. And our hopes of salvation are meaningless, a delusion.

John 1 makes it very clear that “the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning… the world was made through him”.

That’s what the Colossians passage goes to such lengths to point out. Look at what is says about Christ, “he is the image of the invisible God.” We can’t see God, but we know what God is like by looking at Christ.
“He is the firstborn over all creation... by him all things were created, things in heaven and earth, visible and invisible”

Look at verse 16. “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible.” Do you recognise these words from the Nicene creed? The bishops who met to debate, fight and eventually agree the statement of belief that the Christian church has used worldwide since the fourth century, weren’t just coming up with a set of fusty words to recite brainlessly on a Sunday; they were expressing truths about God Father, Son and Holy Spirit, truths that the church has held to despite many, many differences, through the centuries since then. The words of our creeds define Christianity and differentiate it from any other faith. They refute the pic’n’mix approach to spirituality and claim Christ as God. They show how, if we have a right picture of Jesus, everything else follows form that.

Jesus, present in creation and present now, as part of a Trinitarian God is “the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy”

Those truths are based in scripture, and those same truths, in those same words, are shared in churches in every town and county in this land, and in most countries of the world even today.

You will also hear echoes of the Colossians passage in the words of our peace, and in the Eucharistic Prayer that we are using today for our communion.

This Passage tells us that Jesus was present at and part of the activities of creation, holds all power, is before all things and holds everything together. Jesus, a human being created in the image of God, is head of the body that is the church, is the firstborn of the dead – supreme in everything, on earth or in heaven.

And by Jesus’ death and resurrection, all things are reconciled. The healing that we as humans all so desperately need, has been bought by Jesus through his blood, shed on a cross, and his rising from the dead.

(Arms open) When Jesus opened his arms on the cross he held together all those tensions and balances, divinity and humanity, past and future, brokenness and healing.

In our faith we also hold out our arms to the death and the resurrection, the despair and the hope, we hold in balance our ideas of God – awesome and majestic, loving and compassionate. That balance is accessible to us through Jesus, God made human, man born of woman, Wisdom and Word, “before all things”; with power and vulnerability “holding all things together”, “making peace through his blood, shed on the cross”.

This is what we share when we look outwards from ourselves and share the peace; when we focus on finding Jesus in each other; when we join together as one church – the bride of Christ, united in our baptismal faith, at our communion.

When we think about God’s continuing action in creation, and in re-creation and renewal today, we focus on Jesus because, as the old saying goes, if we get Jesus right everything else follows. Amen