Sermon Library
“The Word Became Flesh”
Gregg R. Anderson
January 02, 2005
Service Theme: Epiphany-2005
Source: Matthew 2: 1 – 12
Today is Epiphany Sunday. Epiphany means “to reveal.” The origin of Epiphany dates back to the 4th century when Catholic Church Fathers attempted to determine that Jesus was more than likely born on January 6, but Christmas or the Christ Mass became celebrated on December 25 to counter the Roman Pagan celebration of Saturnalia and/or Winter Solstice. Trying to tie these two dates together, legend created the twelve days of Christmas. So Epiphany remains on January 6 and the common lectionary chooses one of the Sundays close to January 6 to celebrate Epiphany Sunday because people are used to going to church on a Sunday and will probably not come back on a Thursday. If one turns to Epiphany in the voluminous Catholic Encyclopedia, which I am sure most of you refer to on a daily basis, one will discover that there are many revelations of Christ that have been celebrated on Epiphany. There are three predominant remembrances of Epiphany. The more popular one is the arrival of the Magi whose presence, homage and gift bearing reveal this child to be the Christ. Another remembrance is the baptism of Jesus whereupon the heavens were opened and people saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and alighting on him; and lo, a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” and thus revealing Jesus as the Son of God. Third is the first miracle of Jesus changing the water into wine at the wedding at Cana and again revealing his God like powers.
The newly forming Roman Catholic Church had a great deal at stake in establishing Jesus as the sole Son of God. Some contemporary scholars today, typically identified with the current Jesus Seminar, suggest that the Roman Church had more of an investment in establishing Jesus as the sole Son of God than the earlier forming church of Jesus or the way. Constantine and subsequent Christian Emperors of the Roman Empire needed to establish authority and conformity over the Roman citizens in all areas of life especially through religion. My purpose this morning is not to discuss the divinity-humanity debate of Jesus which has been going on intensely since the birth of Jesus. I think it is important, however, to recognize that as hard as the Catholic Church and/or Christian Church have historically established Jesus as God, it has also remained a significant debate. I suspect that this debate is particularly intense today with the on-going and intensified archeological discoveries being revealed in the past century and even the past few years. I also think that the debate and the discoveries are exciting. But for today I want to talk more about epiphany and revelation.
The Gospel of Matthew begins with an extensive genealogy as preface to the birth of Christ revealing Jesus as the Son of David. The Gospel of Mark begins not with his birth, but with his baptism. The Gospel of Luke begins with prophetic sayings prefacing the birth story. The Gospel of John has an even more unique preface before introducing Jesus like Mark through the baptism of Jesus. John’s preface establishes Jesus not just from the lineage of David, but from the very beginning of time itself. “In the beginning was the Word and Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” The preface continues on like this for 14 verses and then states, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.”
This is a beautiful passage. It was the last passage read here a few weeks ago for that magnificent Lessons and Carols service presented by the choir and led by Susan Nicholson and Joan Lewis. But, let’s for a moment go back to the very beginning of time as the Gospel of John suggests. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.”
The original Greek word for Word, as many of you do know, is “Logos.” Logos is the essence of anything. Logos is the very breath and life of anything. Logos is the power behind all power. I have had a few professors teach me to translate Logos as Wisdom. It is the Wisdom behind all wisdom. It is the Wisdom that ordained the universe. Other professors have taught me to translate Logos as Intention or the very essential intentionality of God or Wisdom. What was in the beginning? We have often pondered the origin of the universe.
I have always appreciated attending a number of the lectures by Stephen Hawking when he was in Aspen during the summers. One was entitled, “Does God Throw Dice in Black Holes?” Professor Hawking talked a lot about the universe being either determined or random. He discussed both possibilities, but concluded that the universe appears to be more determined than random. One of the questions asked afterwards was if the universe appears to be determined was there a determinator? Dr. Hawking said that this would be a logical question and that it would be more than likely.
Our local paper carried an article a couple of weeks ago entitled, “Leading atheist now believes in God, based on evidence.” It begins, “A British philosophy professor who has been a leading champion of atheism for more than a half-century has changed his mind. He now believes in God, more or less, based on scientific evidence, and says so on a video released December 9th. At age 81, after decades of insisting belief is a mistake, Antony Flew has concluded that some sort of intelligence or first-cause must have created the universe. A super-intelligence is the only good explanation for the origin of life and the complexity of nature, according to Flew. Flew went on to say that he is best labeled a deist like Thomas Jefferson, whose God was not actively involved in people’s lives. I’m thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far from the God of Islam because both are depicted as omnipotent despots. It could be a person in the sense of a being that has intelligence and a purpose. Flew has changed his mind mostly because of the evidence of DNA. He states in his new video, “Has Science Discovered God?” that DNA has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved.Personally, I do not know if God can ever be proven, but most people believe, myself included, that if you look at all the evidence we can grasp of the universe to date, as well as listening to that still small voice within, there is a strong indication that something is behind the pattern and harmony of nature and the universe. I think we have narrowed the concept of God when we have anthropomorphized God by making God look and act just like us. I think that is presumptuous on our part. To even contemplate this God, this Source, the All, the I Am, this Wisdom, this Intelligence before intelligence, this omniscient, omnipotent being is to concurrently contemplate our own limitations and human humility.
Does this great Wisdom and God of the universe really reveal himself, herself or it’s self to the people of this miniscule, almost undetectable pebble of a planet in this infinite universe? I read not long ago of an astronomer estimating that out of the stars that are basically known so far, there are about 2 trillion stars for every living human being. So if you want to wish upon a star, each person has about 2 trillion personal stars to do so, but then again, no human being could ever come up with 2 trillion wishes because it would take too many life times to even count to 2 trillion. I, on the other hand, have my own personal star. I even have proof. Here is my plaque which clearly names my duly registered star with the International Star Registry, complete with all the coordinates. I received this as a gift from someone who I believe paid about $75.00 for this. I would say that the International Star Registry has a good thing going when they can sell something they do not have. Anyway, I always think that it is interesting to contemplate the fact that when we look upon a star, the light that we are seeing with our eyes is now about 4 to 5 million years old by the time it reaches our eyeballs. Does the creator and grand wisdom of this infinite universe take time to make one star that lead a few wandering magi to a tiny manger in Bethlehem 2005 years ago? Is Jesus the Word or God’s ultimate intention made flesh?
I do not know enough about the other religions of the world, but I am learning more and more about them with a special thanks to Spiritual Paths here in Aspen. Other religions have their own sense of divine incarnations to exist within special prophets and gurus, but I believe it is only Christianity that traditionally espouses the creator of the universe to be fully embodied in the person of Jesus. It is an incredible claim.
Personally, my meager mind is not capable of completely defining God let alone Jesus. Furthermore, I question anyone else who may think that they happen to have the one and only answer of the creator and the creation of the universe and the precise characteristic of Jesus whom we call the Christ. I do however, like anyone else, have faith. I know that I want to utilize all available knowledge to continue to ascertain such questions and that the pursuit of this venture is exciting and life giving. I agree with Antony Flew when he said, “My whole life has been guided by the principle of Plato’s Socrates: Follow the evidence, wherever it leads.” I would add, however, that faith can be as significant as evidence. Life is always a combination of faith and fact.
So it is in fact and faith that I believe in the source of life, who we humanisticly call God. It is in fact and faith that I believe in the person of Jesus. It is in fact and faith that I desire to learn from and respect other people of faith and different faiths. It is in fact and faith that I believe that if there is a creator of the universe, there is only one. We just have different perspectives of this God or this cosmic all. Does this God reveal God’s self to humanity? It is a very big question. And if God does and I’d like to think so, then we are still left with another question which is human cognition of revelation. Every human being has different perspectives and interpretations of this creator. I have never even met two Christians who think exactly a like. It is a mind-boggling world. I hope that fact makes us all a little more humble. Maybe that’s the creator’s intent.
Even though it is a mind boggling world, it might be the only world or planet that has human beings on it who think and reason and boggle their minds. At least, as far as we know to date. This fact makes me really wonder if we are special. The fact that we are human beings who even contemplate God suggests that there is something which does tie us personally to the creator, like a child who desires to know his or her parent. Is it really possible that we are made in such an image?
I am asking a lot of big questions this first Sunday of the New Year. My purpose is to expand our horizons of religion, spirit, science and faith. I conclude by saying that wherever we are on this planet and universe, we have a purpose, an intentionality, to be the most loving and compassionate people we can be. However we may see God and Jesus, our purpose between now and not yet, is to do our part to love God and our neighbor as ourselves. If for any reason, it is because there is only one planet earth and as this planet gets smaller and smaller, we need to become more and more loving. My personal prejudice is that Jesus embodied the most loving way to love. This does not ignore other great prophets and gurus who also love. We just happen to have grown up in a culture where the majority of people celebrate Christmas. And as Jesus was the word made flesh, so it is our purpose to make the word flesh as well. What is God’s intent for your life?
I don’t think God caused the Tsunami. I think that was nature. I don’t think God controls the laws of nature or people any more than a loving parent completely controls his or her own children. There is influence and there are guidelines, laws, and probably revelations. From what we can tell God wants us to help those who have been hurt through the patterns of nature. As far as we know for now, love is the Word.
Shelley Jackson is publishing a short story, but you won’t be able to read it in a book or a magazine. Instead, you’ll have to look at the bodies of random people around the world, because Jackson’s story is written solely on human skin. Her book contains 2095 words and each single word is tattooed on 2095 individual people who randomly volunteered. She calls it a “Mortal work of art.” I do not know her intention, but it can be a metaphor about each of our missions to live out the Word that we have and know and in order for the story to make sense, we have to get together. It’s a mind boggling world and there will always be more questions than answers, but we do have a few answers. I think Jesus was one answer and he said “Follow me.” Now there’s an epiphany. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson, Chaplain
Aspen Chapel
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