The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 27 January 2015 “God’s definitive revelation: a person, not a book”

The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection of Leawood, Kansas, United States Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 27 January 2015 “God’s definitive revelation: a person, not a book”
Daily Scripture: John 1:14 The Word became
a human being
    and lived here with us.
We saw his true glory,
the glory of the only Son
    of the Father.
From him all the kindness
and all the truth of God
    have come down to us.
15 John spoke about him and shouted, “This is the one I told you would come! He is greater than I am, because he was alive before I was born.”
16 Because of all that the Son is, we have been given one blessing after another.[a] 17 The Law was given by Moses, but Jesus Christ brought us undeserved kindness and truth. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is truly God and is closest to the Father, has shown us what God is like.[Footnotes:
1.16 one blessing after another: Or “one blessing in place of another.”]
Hebrews 1:1 Long ago in many ways and at many times God’s prophets spoke his message to our ancestors. 2 But now at last, God sent his Son to bring his message to us. God created the universe by his Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son. 3 God’s Son has all the brightness of God’s own glory and is like him in every way. By his own mighty word, he holds the universe together.
After the Son had washed away our sins, he sat down at the right side[a] of the glorious God in heaven.[Footnotes:
1.3 right side: The place of honor and power.]
Reflection Questions:
Every Christmas Eve, we ponder John’s amazing statement that Jesus is “the Word,” God’s ultimate revelation. The writer of Hebrews said that while God spoke through the prophets “in many times and many ways,” God’s final word was not a book, but a person: Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus “is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being.” Only through him can we rightly understand the rest of God’s story unfolded in the Bible.
• Many philosophies in John’s day said a holy God could have no contact with the corrupt physical world (“flesh”). John echoed Genesis, which poetically said “in the beginning” God made the world, and declared it very good (Genesis 1:31). Then God became flesh in Jesus, and showed us what God is really like. How does Jesus, God in flesh, give you a clearer picture of what it means to be fully human than any list of laws or guidelines could?
• Sometimes we read the Bible as a set of free-standing verses, all equally true (in Pastor Scot McKnight’s phrase, “morsels of truth”). But if Christ is God’s ultimate word, then we need to interpret each part of the Bible in terms of how it fits with the Bible’s overall story, with Jesus as its saving center. In what ways does making Jesus the ultimate standard of truth cast a different light on many of the Bible’s more difficult parts?
Prayer: Lord Jesus, in you I find light and life, God’s ultimate “Word” to lead me to the path of salvation. Be my guide as I wrestle to unlock the spiritual treasures contained in my Bible. Amen.

Insight from Rev. Glen Shoup

More years ago now than I’d like to admit, I had a seminary professor make a statement that proved to be one of those ah-ha moments for me relative to my own theological study and understanding.  He said “God is not confined to the person of Jesus Christ, but God is defined in the person of Jesus Christ”.  He went on to say something like: therefore, Christians believe that everything essential we can and must know about God is found in Jesus.  And while there is certainly more that is attributed to God (which God may or may not have anything to do with) than what is revealed in Jesus—there is absolutely nothing more we have to know about God in order for us to know who God is or what God is like than what we find in Jesus—for Jesus is God’s definitive Self-Disclosure to the world.

What my seminary professor was doing in that lecture two decades ago was restating and seeking to bring further understanding to what we find in today’s two scripture readings (and in many other places in Holy Scripture): Jesus is The Word of God…he is the Word made flesh (John 1:14).

Incarnation is a big word and an even bigger idea—but that’s really what we’re talking about here (more to the point, that’s what the apostle John and the writer of Hebrews were talking about): that the God of the cosmos…the God who is the genesis of everything became fully human and yet remained fully God.  And since volumes have been written seeking to unpack the meanings of this mystery, I’ll not even flirt with the notion I can fully articulate this confession of faith in a few sentences.

Rather, in just a few remaining words, I’ll offer an anecdote that will hopefully help clarify a tripping point we sometimes stumble on in thinking about Jesus as the Word of God; specifically, Jesus as God’s son.  Both of today’s readings reference Jesus as “Son” of God and this reference of “Son” occurs frequently in many other New Testament passages as well.  And the stumbling point for most of us is that we explicitly (or implicitly) connect the term “Son” with the notion of offspring and Jesus is not God’s offspring—God did not make Jesus (The Nicene Creed, one of the earliest confessions of faith also tried to address this understandable misunderstanding).  Rather, the key to understanding the meaning implied is tied up in the word that we sometimes translate “begotten” in John 3:16.  Said as succinctly as possible, “begotten” has everything to do with being of the same stuff or being of the same essence and nothing to do with being made by or being the offspring of.

I’ll use me being my father’s son to illustrate.  While obviously I am my father’s offspring, that really is only part of what it means for me to be his son.  The other part of what it means for me to be his son is that I bear his image…I look like him…I walk like him…I embody his essence.  Whether I like it or not, the older I get (and the fatter I get), the more I look like my dad.  As much as I might hate to admit it, he and I have the same mannerisms, characteristics—shoot we even sound alike.  In fact, in a very real (albeit imperfect way) I can say that if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen my father.  And to some degree, if you know me, you know my father—why, because I am my father’s son.

And that’s what it means—only in a perfect and complete way—to call Jesus God’s son.  It has nothing to do with Jesus being the offspring of God and it has everything to do with Jesus perfectly having God’s characteristics, mannerisms and voice.  Fact is, in an exact and definitive way, if you’ve seen Jesus, you’ve seen His father and if you know Jesus, you know His Father—why, because Jesus is His Father’s son—the only true and complete Word of God.

Rev. Glen Shoup is the Executive Pastor of Worship and a Congregational Care Pastor.

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