"God Is Down to Earth"

A sermon by The Rev. Keenan Kelsey
Noe Valley Ministry, Presbyterian Church (USA)
January 2, 2005

John 1:1,4-5, 10-18

¹ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.. 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. 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, 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, full of grace and truth. 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, who is close to the Father and Mother’s heart, who has made him known.

ON FRIDAY NIGHT, well after our service here, I snuggled up, watching the water and the clearing moon, and declared with glib confidence “Happy New Year!” I was fresh from hearing Wesla Whitfield and Mike Greensill, enjoying song and jazz and good food. I was safe and content, even optimistic. Yet, buried in the moment, there was also an uncomfortable, even acute awareness that that thousands of miles to the east of me, across the Atlantic Ocean, the Iraqi War was raging, with young, often unprepared and unprotected troops facing insurgent attacks, fatal ambushes, suicide and car bombs, infiltrators and torturers. And in the Middle East, people were trembling, suspicious of every neighbor and passerby, aware of guns pointed at them and walls dividing them. And, lurking in my celebration, was an equal awareness of how, here at home, we are a country divided and threatened. There are human rights issues and economic realities -- And some people actually hate me --or fear me -- for my political beliefs and actions. People I don’t even know think I am evil for my understanding of Christian moral values.

Even more alien to my experience or understanding, I also knew that several thousand miles to the west of me, the world was reeling from the most terrible natural disaster to happen in a 100 years -- devastating loss of life and hope produced by the earthquake/tsunami in the Indian Ocean, with people still seeking missing children and loved ones and dangers from disease and dehydration and starvation and displacement still very real. Yet, it all seemed so far away, so removed from me.

My pleasant, euphoric lethargy lasted into New Year’s Day. Something had to intervene to stir me from my comfort zone, to help me turn toward the realities of life. It came in the form of a copy of an email from a college student who had returned home to Sri Lanka for the Christmas holiday. Shanya wrote (in part) to her Presbyterian church in Wheaton, Illinois: Thanks so much for your prayers. Understandably, the country is in chaos at the moment. The last two days have been almost unbearable. We are hearing more and more reports of friends and acquaintances(and their entire families) who've been killed in this. A mother and her daughter were traveling to Galle on train when the tsunamis hit and carried the train into the sea. 1,000 people were killed in this.

I don't know how I'm going to come back to College and actually study... I've just been in a daze the last two days--I don't know what to do. PTL that none of my immediate family were hit, but knowing that friends have lost their lives and also watching innocent people--fellow Sri Lankans being swept away (on t.v.) and seeing parents crying over their dead children will forever be etched in my memory--that is all I see when I close my eyes and it is all I seem to be thinking about.

One good thing out of all this is that there has been an outpouring of co-operation in helping the needy in our country which has seen so much anger and bitterness over the past few months. People who usually don't work together have united to help relieve suffering, preparing meals or delivering relief supplies. I wanted to go as did mom but my dad won't let us because it is very dangerous out there. In addition to the water, debris, etc, there are landmines which were planted by the terrorists and the government during the war and have now been dislodged and are floating and have been lodged in Batticaloa and Trincomalee….

The situation in Aceh, North Sumatra, is terribly bad. The area has been isolated for so many years because the Acehnese have been fighting against the central government and many of its infrastructures have been destroyed during the prolonged war. It made it difficult for the outside world to reach out to the victims of the tsunami, and the longer it takes to help them the more people will suffer and die. This calamity, however, may force the Indonesian government to open up Aceh to the outside world so that the world will know what is really going on in that region. Hopefully it will bring good things to the people of Aceh.

As usual, the Buddhists have said that it is because Sri Lankans celebrated Christmas in a Buddhist nation that the gods were angry and allowed this to happen! Ironically it took place on a Buddhist holiday. Also, apparently one of the largest Christian congregations in Colombo has started a poster campaign in all three languages saying something like: "Don't mess with Jesus; you have seen his wrath unleashed for what you tried to do to him." Please pray for the church and wisdom for leaders so that such tragically wrong moves would not be made at a time like this. I know Jesus is leading us to something good and we have to stick together. Hearts are opening. Keep praying for us.

With this letter, I was confronted with my own frightening ability to forget about it all and snuggle into the cocoon of my own good fortune. Faced with the letter, I opened the newspapers of the past few days, and briefly succumbed to a kind of panicked crisis of faith and hope, wondering, “Where IS God in all of this?” I realized that trouble challenges Christian belief. Suffering and evil shake Christian faith. The problem of theodicy (presence of evil and suffering in a world of God’s love) has led brilliant people like Albert Einstein to reject belief in Christianity's God -- though certainly not its ethic.

But this girl’s letter, her personal crisis and her ability to turn to God, to see light in the darkness, reminds me that once again, that into this world, into all this trouble, God Came Down. God is Down to Earth. In Christ, God became clothed in human flesh and could touch, and be touched; could see, and be seen. Jesus was born! And this enfleshed, embodied Word finds us where we live. For “down to earth” includes walking right into all the trouble that comes with life on this planet, life in cities and towns, life with its riches and poverties, joys and sorrows, effusiveness and abusiveness, unexpected grace and unfair exploitation. To us, in all our doubts and tragic losses and sufferings and fears, that makes all the difference.

The Word became flesh and lived among us! Commentator William Barclay is convinced that John wrote the fourth gospel for the sake of this fourteenth verse.

In the beginning , longer ago that can penetrate imagination, it was this directing, controlling Word which put order in the universe, and a soul and a mind in women and men. Then John states an incredible, startling fact unheard of in his first century world: the Word, the power, the dynamic, the reason that orders and controls the world " becomes flesh and dwells among us." In 1st John he goes on to say that "we have seen with our eyes ... and touched with our hands ... the word of life" (1 John 1:1-2).

There is another line in John’s message today, another line that we cannot, must not, overlook. It is among the saddest – and yet most challenging in the Bible. “He came into his own, and his own knew him not.” He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. In a world of trouble, we are always in danger of being one of those tragic souls, one who “knew him not.” Our Scripture rejoices in the Word made flesh, but warns us about the risk of losing sight of Jesus, of being one of his own but not recognizing, knowing, seeing him. As we start a new year, let’s make a new resolve to know Jesus.

Do you remember the last time you fell in love? Even if it was a hit of love at first sight, it was still something that had to develop over a period of time. Falling in love is a gradual process of getting to know the beloved better over time, and simultaneously, revealing more of oneself to that beloved. This does not happen in an instant, it unfolds. To put it simply, if you want to fall in love with Jesus, you have to spend some time with him! You have to get acquainted, know him, what he things and feels, what his values and commitments are. Then you have to live them out!

The solution for this almost always comes down to two resolves: Study and Service. Over and over, that becomes the answer for following Jesus. Your study happens here at church, at Sunday service. But I invite each of you, this calendar year, to be intentional about your study. Find six extracurricular opportunities to get close to Jesus – Wednesday morning prayer circle, Wednesday evening Book Group or Meditation, a conference at Seminary or Zephyr point, one of our small covenant groups, John Brunn’s Torah study group on Saturday mornings . There are many opportunities in the Bay Area! Service should also be easy. No less an authority than Albert Schweitzer said, we know Jesus by doing his tasks. If Albert Schweitzer thought that was so it might be good enough for the rest of us! We get to know Jesus by serving someone in his name. This month we are cooking and serving meals for the Men’s Homeless Shelter, Jan 16, 17, 18. The following month the Blood Bank will set up after worship for our donations.

In fact, the Word is made flesh each time an individual, congregation, village or state responds to the Tsunami disaster. We see the living God arising all over the world, as people of faith and people of no faith mobilize to help those in need. Hearts are broken, prayers are offered, help is volunteered and pocketbooks are opened. In the present crisis we see our hands become the hands of God, our feet the feet of God, our words the words of God. This time and this crisis urges the church to be the church. And the church is being the church. Every denomination is gearing up to provide relief and aid to the suffering. The world is being a community of helpers. Together we are planting our world at the gates of hope! “And the Word is made flesh and lives among us."

And, of course, along with Study and Service, there is also Communion. The Word of God became flesh in Jesus Christ! This fact is driven home to us as we break the bread and share the cup. In this mystery of holy communion the love of Christ seeks to become one with us, part of us. When things in this world appear out of control, when disappointment and despair grip your heart, when friends let you down and circumstances appear overwhelming, remember: "The Word of God has become flesh and lives among us full of grace and truth." May the Light continue to shine in our darkness. And may the darkness never put it out.