Agents of God

The opening chapter of John is all about dichotomies.  About great cosmic, spiritual, opposites.

The big two, Chaos VS Order and Darkness VS Light

And the basic message of the chapter?  That something, someone, the “Word of God” moves people, no, more than that, moves all of creation from one side of the dichotomy, from one end of the spectrum, to the other.  This word, this power, this person, creates order out of chaos, and brings light in the darkness.

The word of God!  What are we talking about?  One way to think about it is to understand that the word is the creative, the ordering, the life giving power of God.  Think about Genesis 1.  That is the real reference point for this passage.  What is the key phrase in Genesis 1?  It is pretty obvious.  “And God said”.  God spoke… The word of God is the power which brought the world into being.  The word of God created humankind in God’s image.

We can also think of a word as a vehicle of expression. Words are used to convey thoughts and ideas.  In listening skills workshops we talk about the interpersonal  gap, and about how one person, in order to bridge the cap, the chasm really, between one person and another, must “encode” what is inside them, that which they want to communicate, into some sort of code…. Either words, or body language… interesting how here John talks about the word became flesh….

So through Words, through the “flesh” we put what is in here out there, we make what we are thinking and feeling, we make who we are accessible.  We enable the other to know us, to understand. So Christ, as the Word, reveals God to us

Now, this is what is important.  When God becomes real, in any form, as the Creator, In the person of Jesus, as the empowering Spirit – when God comes to us.. puts himself out there… connects with us,  something happens.  As John puts it, “Grace is piled on Grace” and we receive “God’s fullness”,  and little order, a little wholeness, and a little light

But there is a trick to all this.  We have to hear the Word. We have to  be aware of this presence.  John suggests that this can be a problem.  “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.”  We have to learn to see.  We have to learn to hear.  And the reality is, that if we aren't looking for God, we can miss him even though he is right in front of us.  So we must “attend” to God.

But if we do look, and do see?  Have you ever had one of those moments when you learned about a new word?  Or hear a new song.  Learn a new fact?  Suddenly its everywhere!!!  You see that truth, hear that song, everywhere.  That new word appears everywhere.  It has been circulating all along, it's just you never knew to notice it before.  So it is with God.  Once we get hear that word, see that light… once we make that connection with God’s reality, we find God everywhere. 

And frankly we need God’s word in this world.  We need to have a sense of God, and God’s presence, reality.  God’s work.  Think there is a little darkness out there?  What does it look like today  - Greed? Throwing the poor under the bus?  Drugs?  Materialism?  War, violence poverty?  Actually all we have to do is remember that today is September 11 to get a sense of darkness.

What is chaos?  That lack of knowing who we are?  How we are to Live?  Who we are to be?

The presence of God help us see darkness, and fight it  The presence of God helps us make sense of our lives, it creates order out of the chaos – and we become, as individual Christians –a presence, the way God has a voice, and is “enfleshed” today.  John puts it in a number of ways…”we become the children of God”….”from his fullness we have all received grace from grace.”  People full of grace.”  “Children of God.” 

We become people who make God real, for ourselves and for others

The sparkling Christian essayist Phyllis Theroux began one of her articles as follows:  Many years ago I took a Civil Service entrance exam that contained certain questions designed to sort out the people who had “Messiah complexes” or thought that J. Edgar Hoover was giving them varicose veins.  Those questions were easy to spot although the only one that still sticks in my mind is “Do you think you are a special agent of God?”  I paused, thought about all the government benefits which hug upon my answer.  I wrote “No”  I would like to think that under the same circumstances, Mr. Hoover might have lied too

We are special agents of God.  We are called, and empowered… to see the chaos, and fight against it

To see the darkness and fight against it, to see God, be God’s voice

We cannot stick our heads in the sand.  WE cannot ignore the injustice, the wrongs all around us.  We cannot ignore the darkness, or even go along with it.  We cannot allow chaos to continue to rule.

We must open our eyes to the needs.  The hurt, the pain, the poverty, the lostness.  For as Desmond Tutu once said… if you are neutral in cases of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor

We have no choice but to ask ourselves about how we are going to be in this world, which so wants to move to darkness and chaos.  We must choose how we are we going to participate in the work of God, that work of bringing light in the darkness, order in the midst of chaos.

Community gardens.  Wellness programs, Cooks night out! Listening, caring, taking food to the ill.  These are all ways in which we fight the chaos and darkness

Chaos and darkness are out there, and gaining power.

The world is full of chaos thinking,  darkness thinking.

We have to be the antidote to that

We have to see God, receive God, be empowered by God

And then - Be love -- Be Grace  -  Be the creative restoring redeeming word of God

But it all starts with “attention”  With that focus on God that allows us to “see”.

There is a story about Russian who heard a preacher say "pray without ceasing" He puzzled about how to do this, and so, after his wife's death he left home and set out as a pilgrim, seeking a teacher who could help him.  Finally he found a monk who taught him the Jesus Prayer, which simply goes “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”,  and he spent the rest of his life practicing it ceaselessly

As he talks about his experience he ends with these words.  If someone offended me, I needed only to remember the sweetness of the Jesus Prayer and hurt and anger vanished.  I was very much at peace, and often even dreamed that I was uttering this prayer, I thanked God!  For now I understood clearly the meaning of the apostle's words that I heard, pray without ceasing.

Remember God... look for God....See the Light... Hear the Word... and life will be transformed.  I’d like to end with some words from the old Presbyterian Hymnal that to me become a wish, a prayer of response to today’s passage….

God be in my head, and in my understanding,  God be in my eyes and in my looking

God be in my mouth, and in my speaking, God be in my heart and in my thinking

AMEN