January 2, 2022; ICCM; Praises Be!; Pastor Rebecca Ellenson
Last Tuesday Steve and I took some friends to Las Labradas, the archeological north of Mazatlan, located right on the Tropic of Cancer. We’ve been there many times and every time it impresses us. Between the waves and the sand lies a quarter of a mile long stretch of volcanic boulders on which were carved over 600 drawings. There are geometric shapes: circles, spirals, crosses; human figures in various poses: hunting, raising their hands to the sun, even giving birth; animals and plants as well as depictions of an eclipse and a comet. And there are pictures that defy explanation. Most of the carvings are dated to the Aztatlán Period from 750 to 1250 AD but some were made as long ago as 3000 BC. Each time I am there I am astounded by the way the petroglyphs speak across the ages, communicating what the people experienced so long ago. The cover image on my blog features a photo I took the first time we were there.
Well, last Tuesday was even more spectacular than any other visit. We were just about to leave when we spotted two whales frolicking in the waves about 200 yards from shore. They breached and surfaced, they slapped the water with their glorious tails and rolled side to side, displaying their flippers—for 30 minutes! There we were, literally standing on ancient communication, watching, with mouths agape, a very present demonstration of the living mystery of the cosmos. We were dwarfed by time, and size and beauty. I have tried to describe it to you, but explanations fail. I felt so alive and aware.
The psalm we read responsively in worship last Sunday has been rolling through my mind since that encounter on the beach. Psalm 148 instructs all creation to praise God.
Praise God, from heaven—all angels, sun, moon, and stars for God made it all!
Praise God from earth—sea monsters, all deeps, fire, wind, hail, snow, frost, mountains, hills, fruit trees, cedars, wild animals, cattle, creeping things, flying birds!
Praise God you kings, all peoples, princes, all rulers, young men and women, old and young alike, Praise the Lord!
There on the shoreline, the whales, the rocks, the sunshine and the waves all demonstrated the glory of God. The loud booms of sound from the whales’ tails announced the grandeur of creation. The people scattered across the rocks, young and old, men and women, locals and tourists stood with mouths agape for a half an hour, exclaiming at the marvel of life itself. The water stretched to the horizon so far that the curvature of the earth was visible. No wonder the ancient people of that place carved their praise on the rocks!
Like the psalm from last Sunday, today’s readings sing the praises of God in poetic form. Eugene Peterson, who wrote the biblical paraphrase called The Message, points out that about 60% of the bible is poetry. He says, “poets tell us what our eyes, blurred by too much gawking and our ears, dulled by too much chatter, miss around and within us. Poets use words to drag us into the depth of reality itself. They do it not by reporting on how life is, but by pushing-pulling us into the middle of it. Poetry grabs for the jugular. Far from being cosmetic language it is intestinal. It is root language. Poetry doesn’t so much tell us something we never knew as bring into recognition what is latent, overlooked, or suppressed. Poetry forces us to slow down.”
Today’s readings are dense, written with exquisite artistry and care, each word carefully chosen to convey the overwhelming love of God for all creation. Both texts announce the same message, that the Christ is the pattern of existence. Christ was present with God before the cosmos began, fully revealed in Jesus, and continues to be revealed in the us, the children of God who live in Christ.
I slowed down to spend some time with these poetic this week in their original Greek. Those of you who’ve heard me preach before know that I’m a bible nerd. I could spend years studying these texts and never exhaust the depth. I’m going to try to share some of that fascination with you today in a manageable way.
Biblical poetry is different from what we normally think of as poetry in the western modern world. I printed the texts out for you in a different format. Let’s start with the gospel. Let’s read it responsively. This side is going to read the left-hand column and this side is going to read the right-hand column. Look for parallelism, a thought presented once and then repeated a little differently for emphasis and deeper meaning. Look for how Christ is portrayed, as one with God, and one with us from before time began, as the pattern of life and light.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God.
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
What has come into being 4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.[b]
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.
11 He came to what was his own,[c] and his own people did not accept him.
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God,
13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us,
and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,[d] full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”)
16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.
17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,[e] who is close to the Father’s heart,[f] who has made him known.
John 1 is not doctrine so much as it is a doxology. In the last few years, I’ve been fascinated by these New Testament hymn to Christ. They distill the beliefs of the early church, proclaiming the incarnation as the very goal of creation itself. Another one of these hymns is found in Colossians chapter 1
“Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities – all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him, all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.”
These texts express that deep mystery of God in Christ, and Christ in us, and God revealed in the cosmos. In them we hear echoes of the poetry of Genesis, when God spoke the world into being. They tell us that the Incarnation of Christ in Jesus is not a fall-back plan made necessary by sin, but actually is the very purpose of creation.
The great thinker Albert Einstein put it this way:
There is an extremely powerful force that, so far, science has not found a formal explanation to. It is a force that includes and governs all others, and is even behind any phenomenon operating in the universe and has not yet been identified by us. This universal force is LOVE.
When scientists looked for a unified theory of the universe they forgot the most powerful unseen force. Love is Light, that enlightens those who give and receive it. Love is gravity, because it makes some people feel attracted to others. Love is power, because it multiplies the best we have, and allows humanity not to be extinguished in their blind selfishness. Love unfolds and reveals. For love we live and die. Love is God and God is Love.
God laid the foundation of existence so that it reveals God’s own love and goodness. God is within all that God has made, wooing us, whispering to us to choose in our freedom the most beautiful future intended by God’s own self. Jesus called that future the kingdom of God, a world in which love, justice and equality would reign. There’s a line in the Talmud that says, “Every blade of grass has its angel that bends over it and whispers: “Grow, grow”. That’s how God relates to us, always alluring us to grow in the direction of love.
Jesus is our exemplar for this life lived in the image of God. The Word, the Logos, is the mind of God- what the Old Testament referred to as Wisdom and that Word is working through all creation, through the Tropic of Cancer and the crashing waves, through the slapping tails of whales, or the birth of a child.
Ilia Delio puts it this way “The Incarnation represents not a divine response to a human need for salvation but instead the divine intention from all eternity to raise human nature to the highest point of glory by uniting it with divine nature.” God is perfect love and wills according to the perfection of that love. Since perfect love cannot will anything less than the perfection of love, Christ would have come in the highest glory in creation even if there was no sin and thus no need for redemption.
Jesus said, “anyone who sees me has seen the Father.” If we want to see what the divine looks like when fully aligned with the human form we just need to look to Jesus. Paul says in Romans 11, “for from him and through him and to him are all things.”
Salvation is not just deliverance from sin but fulfillment of who God is in Christ for all creation. If we reduce Jesus to just helping us get rid of sin, we lose fulfilment of Gods purposes for all of creation in Christ and in the church as a continuation of incarnation. Certainly, salvation is the overcoming of sin, but the fullness of redemption is the completion of creation’s purpose. The outworking of the love as we see in Jesus is the very essence of God. The whole point of who God is and what God does is summed up in the incarnate Christ. That’s what we find expressed in our reading from Ephesians.
Let’s turn the handout over now. These 14 verses have been called the most monstrous sentence conglomeration ever seen in the Greek language. When it is translated as prose it becomes a 200 word mess of subordinate clauses and phrases. As I said earlier, I’m a bible nerd. I spent some time studying this passage this week, looking at it in Greek for clues to its structure. I wound up learning that it follows a Greek poetic form of lyric poetry called and Ode, intended to stir the listener’s emotive response through rhythm and musical accompaniment. So I examined it as if it were a song, looking for recurrent phrases and patterns.
I didn’t have time to figure out how to make it sound like poetry in English, to include the alliteration present in the original language, for example. But I think I was able to show you a little of it by using the formatting of the text. As I read this poem, follow along and look for the ideas I just told you about: how in Jesus the Christ the blessing of God is carried out, and how we and all believers are included in that belonging. Note the refrain that God’s plan is for us to live to the praise of God’s grace and glory. Note that nearly every line ends with “in him” or some equivalent of that phrase.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
The one who has blessed us
with every spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ
As God chose us in him
Before the foundation of the cosmos, to be holy and unblemished before him
Predestining us to God’s self, through adoption as children through Jesus Christ
According to the good pleasure of the will of him
To the praise of the glory of the grace of him
Through which he has freely given to us in the Beloved
In whom we have redemption through the blood of him
The forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of the grace of him
Which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery will of him
According to the good pleasure of him
Which he purposed in him
As a plan for the fullness of time, to gather together all things in Christ
Things of heaven and on the earth in him
In whom we also were chosen as heirs, predestined according to the purpose of him
The one who accomplishes all things according to the will of him
So that we should be to the praise of the glory of him
We who had previously hoped in Christ, and you also,
hearing the word of truth, and believing the gospel of your salvation
You were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance
until the redemption of those who are God’s possession
To the praise of the glory of him.
Christ is more than just a historical person who walked this earth for 33 years, though he is that. He is more than a great teacher, marvelous miracle-worker, and extraordinary moral-exemplar, though he is that too. Indeed, Christ is even more than the God- man who died for our sins and rose from the dead, though that is a crucial part of his identity. Christ, the scriptures tell us, is also someone and something within the very structure of the cosmos itself, the pattern on which the universe was conceived, is built, and is now developing.
Last week’s lesson from Paul’s the letter to the Colossians says this: “Christ is the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created … all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things and in him all things hold together.”
In addition to these great passages of scriptures, we have some other texts from the earliest days of the church too, that outline this idea. In the second century there was a man named Irenaeus who left us some amazing writing. He was born in Smyrna (modern day Turkey) and studied under another writer, Polycarp, who was a disciple of the apostle John. That’s amazing isn’t it, that we have these messages that endure across the ages. Irenaeus became the Bishop of Lyon, in what is now Southern France. In about the year 185 he wrote the first systematic exposition of the Christian faith, called “Against Heresies.” In it he says something that seems to be based on these hymns we’ve been looking at. He said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive. The life of humanity is the vision of God.”
I love that! When we are fully alive, we display the glory of God. As we follow Christ we become more alive. What can we say but, Praise God!
