John 1. 9-14: In a strange land?
The story so far.
We have learned that, before time began, The Word was there – with God. And the Word was God. Jesus has always been in the most intimate loving father-son relationship; constantly he was facing his Father, drawing closer to his Father… We have learned that The Word was God. Jesus isn’t just a bit of God; he isn’t just light that shines from god. He is truly God. And we have learned that he is creator, and the source of all life and light in the universe. Jesus is fully involved in all the actions of God. Creating, sustaining, revealing, loving. He is actively God
But when he became flesh, when his light came into the world, he was prepared to sacrifice that continual fellowship with his father. Now he had to get up early in the morning to pray. And the day will come when he prays “God, why have you forsaken me?” Now he sacrifices the status of God: “He didn’t count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself and taking the form of a servant.” (Philippians 2. 3) Now he does the creative things God does, but limited by a human body. That’s the incarnation. In Christ, God who always was for eternity, becomes in a moment of time: “The word became flesh”. "Sarx" (the Greek word for “Flesh”) is the whole person... more than human, more than body. “Sarx” is all human existence in all its frailty... cf Rom 8. 3. "sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh"
This is what C S Lewis called "The Grand Miracle." It is mysterious. It is destabilising. It is risky. It is costly. It is scary. That is what God in Christ has done for us. Becoming human. Knowing what “Flesh” does to the way we think and respond.
That meant...
Living among us. He “pitched his tent” alongside ours. He “moved into the neighbourhood.” So ordinary as not to be recognised. The true light that gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. (v 9) When John mentions the “World” he means the world in a theological sense: "the world organised in a rebellion against God's rule…" Or the creator of the world, the world had become “a strange land.”
Rejected by us. “He came to his own and his own did not receive him.” Jesus was among “his own” people, a community that has always had a place in God’s purposes. Let’s not think “Bad old Israel, rejecting Jesus their Messiah.” as though we would have done differently. I don’t know if we would. “Israel only typifies the folly of the human heart universally.” G A Studdart Kennedy, the WW1 padre and poet, wrote:
“When Jesus came to Birmingham, they simply passed him by
They never hurt a hair of him, they simply let him die.
For men had grown more tender and they would not give him pain.
They only just passed down the street and left him in the rain”
Dying for us. Philippians 2 goes on to say “He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. That is where not just the Jews’ rejection of Jesus, but ours too, leads to.
Rising above us. John is talking about Jesus because he knows he is alive. Fast forward to the end of the Gospel. John knows that we know the story, remember. Jesus has gifts to give us, because he is alive and powerful. Philippians 2. God has exalted him.
And Working within us. But some do receive and believe both in Israel and among the nations. To those who put their faith in him, he gives the right to become Children of God. The Word became flesh, so that we can become something: we can become Children of god. We can experience a new birth that is just as much a miracle as the virgin birth of Jesus. “Becoming God’s child, being Born of God” describes how God works. Clarence Jordan, Farmer and New testament Scholar, says “When God becomes a man, we don’t know what to do with him. If he will just stay God, like a God ought to be, then we can deal with him. We can sing songs to him if he’ll just stay God. Our part is to
receive him – accepting the truth of who he is, and welcoming him for what he is.
believe in his name. The word is literally “believe into his name”. That is an expression that is not found in secular Greek, nor in the Greek Old testament. It is only found in the New Testament. It tells us that faith in Jesus is a dynamic thing, that goes beyond head knowledge and involves dedicating our lives to the person of Jesus.
And that means, uncompromisingly doing things Jesus’ wayWe are new creation. Something has happened that transforms us, that locates us within the God-life of the Incarnate and eternal word. How do we live? We live as those who, like Jesus,want to show the true character of god to the people around us. We live as those who, like Jesus, want to give the love of God arms and legs in our world. We live as those who, like Jesus, want to bring the touch of God to our neighbours. We are not God; we are not gods with a small “g”. We are very human creatures. But “in Christ” we who have believed into him, have a mission that is shaped like that of Jesus: it is incarnational. That means, because we are citizens of Heaven, it is mission in a strange land. And that isn’t always easy.
In a strange land
In many ways we - those of us who have been around the Church for a while – find we are in a
“strange land” as we try to show the love of Christ in our community. I could start to list the things that are changing – the rejection of Christian values; changes in the way marriage and relationships are understood; people no longer knowing the great stories and poetry of the Christian faith. I learned to say the Lord’s prayer in Primary School. (Being in the "Christian Brethren" denomination we never said it in Church!) But is the Lord's prayer used in state schools today? Then there’s the general – kind of smug – feeling that faith is for stupid people; the intelligent people have grown out of that sort of thing… “Holidays “ replacing “Christmas.” A lack of respect, of reverence. Faith is seen as funny, and an easy target. A well-known bakery chain's infamous 2017 Christmas advert involving a sausage roll and three wise men is a case in point. Christians respond by doing a good line in offended outrage. Yes, I know “they wouldn’t dare try with this with any other religion”; but we should take that as a compliment – we’re not the ones with the AK47’s enforcing our version of blasphemy laws. But when some guy goes on James O'Brien's show on LBC radio and rants and shouts – real harm is done to our witness.
So how do we “Sing the Lord’s song in a strange land”? Someone wisely said “Telling people that God loves them is good theology. Showing people that you love them transforms the world.”
What would Jesus do? When the people of Israel were in a strange land, they were pained, hurt, resentful, angry. They prayed about seeing those who tormented them having their babies smashed against the wall. (Psalm 137. 9) The disciples once came to Jesus after people treated him as a stranger, and made him unwelcome, by asking “Lord do you want us to call down fire from heaven upon them?” (Luke 9. 54-55) But Jesus turned and rebuked them – not the people who rejected him, but his disciples. Jesus’ way of dealing with people was not with aggression and outrage (except for the religious people). he responded to life in a strange land with love, and preparedness to get alongside people, going to parties and being accused of being a drunkard and a glutton.
Staying, in the Scottish sense. We ask “Where do you stay?” when we mean “Where do you live? Where have you made your home?” For Jesus – and for us – “singing the Lord’s song in a strange” land means embedding in the “World” that Jesus came to save.
Shining. Bringing illumination, truth, revelation, into the world. Singing the Lord’s song in a strange land means we have to be distinctive; we have to be different.
Sharing. Generosity. Jesus “Gives us the right to become children of God”. Singing the Lord’s song in a strange, sometimes inhospitable land, is about generosity. What can we give? How can we serve? How can we show God’s love
The Incarnation – the light coming into the world – means that not only does Jesus work within us – he wants to work through us. Because God became flesh, gave his love and grace arms and legs, we are called to give his love and grace arms and legs too - in the power of the Holy Spirit. That’s what we need to do with the God who became flesh.
© Gilmour Lilly December 2017
