Then God (Elohim --plural) said (singular verb), 'Let us make (plural verb) man in our image, after our likeness'" (Genesis 1:26)
Prop: A large Quilt, hanging backwards on a stand, so that the threadwork is visible
I want to show you a picture this morning. Take a look. What do you see?
What is it? [Give people time to answer.] Is it the sky? Clouds? The sea? A painting?
Now what if I give you a different view:
What is it? Tell me. A pool! It’s a pool!
You couldn’t tell by the first picture I showed you. It simply didn’t give you enough information about your world to help you understand what I was showing you. The blue could be anything. The pool however is a familiar object in your frame of understanding.
What kind of water is in the pool? That’s another matter entirely. But we can identify it definitely as a pool.
I could do the same thing with snow. Do you see white? Or do you see the snow-capped mountains of the Alps? It’s not that the snow wasn’t there all along. But you couldn’t see it or understand what it was until it was revealed to you in a familiar perspective. You needed a frame for understanding.
That is the nature of revelation.
To reveal is to make familiar. To reveal is to frame reality so that the familiar can be known.
There’s a saying among magicians --you’ll see only what I want you to see. I will reveal to you the feat but not the trick.
In the 2013 crime movie, “Now You See Me,” four magicians are led by an unknown bidder to perform a bizarre set of tricks. In one well-known scene, the four magicians, called “The Four Horsemen,” seemingly transport a man into a French bank vault to steal the money inside. The audience sees on camera the man inside of the vault. And in a whirlwind fury, the money disappears only to appear over the heads of the audience in a rain of thousand dollar bills.
When the police investigate, the volunteer swears he was inside of the vault. What he saw was all that he could believe. Only later would it be revealed that the room was an elaborate sham, and the man was merely transported to a space under the stage.
We can only relate to what we understand from what we experience. And sometimes, the thrill exists in what we do not know.
If you knew all of the magician’s secrets, there would be no intrigue in the show, no respect for the artist’s craft. But something extraordinary is revealed to you. And that is your gift of attendance. What is revealed to one, who does not know, is a gift of the revealer.
And if that magician takes you under his wing and shows you his secrets, you are now in a unique relationship of knowing. And you are forever in a trusted relationship with that master.
How much more will the master of the world reveal to us!
And God so loved the world, that He revealed His Son, a gift beyond measure and more intimate than imaginable. “See me,” God says. “Know me.” “Love me.” “Be with me.”
To reveal is to make known and to make familiar --to allow one to view something within a familiar frame of reference, so that what was formerly unseen can be seen and known.
And this is the basis for relationship. You cannot know you are in relationship with something you do not know exists.
Notice I did not say you cannot be in relationship. I said, you cannot know THAT you are in relationship.
Because, everything in this world that we live in is “in relationship.” And so are you.
No, I don’t mean with your husband/wife, or your girlfriend/boyfriend, or your sister/brother, or your dog/cat, although it can mean that. But you are also in relationship with the trees around you, with the light of the sun, with the grass between your toes, with the air and the wind. And you are in relationship with the Creator of all of those things.
Because even God exists in relationship! And it is through relationship that all things are revealed.
All of you probably know by now that we can’t see ourselves very well on our own. This is why God invented psychologists! [sly smile]. Just kidding. But you all know that when in relationship with someone else, we find out things about ourselves that we never knew. And we define ourselves according to that relationship. If your husband tells you, you are beautiful, you believe him. If your sister kindly points out that you are being selfish, you realize, maybe you are. If you fall in love, you surprise even yourself. And you act in ways that seem foreign to your usual way of being.
We exist in relationship, and we are changed by those relationships. Each and every day. Our relationships “reveal.”
And God SO loved the world, that He revealed Himself in the Son, who became Human, so we could know Him, be with Him, love Him, return to Him. “Know me,” says God. “See me.” “Love me.” “Follow me.” “Be with me, so I can make you whole again.”
Because to be blind to your relationship with God, to reject your relationship with God, to be “out of sync” with God is to live an “unrevealed” life. To be blinded to who you truly are.
It’s like seeing a picture with most of it missing. It’s a state of disharmony, a state of “illness.”
To be “healthy” (salve) is to be aware that to be whole, you need to be in relationship with God. You need “salvation.” To be “One” with “The One” (God), you must be aware that you are more than yourself.
Alone-ness is deadly. One-ness with “The One True God” is the very meaning of Life.
“No one has ever seen God. But the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” (The Apostle John)
For God SO loved the world, that He revealed Himself through His Son, so that all could know Him, be with Him, be saved by Him, be in relationship with Him, be redeemed by Him. Be made whole. For the many are One in God.
The many are one.
And Jesus has revealed the relational nature of God, and the loving nature of God.
The Lord God is One. But the Lord God also exists in relationship. And this is how the Apostle John accounts for the divinity of Jesus.
In Genesis One, when God creates, the word for God is “Elohim.” It’s one of the strangest words in the Hebrew scriptures. Elohim is a plural word, and yet it is always followed by a singular verb.
For the Jewish people, the word signifies the plurality of God, and yet the shema confirms that “The Lord is our God, the Lord is One.” (Adonai eloheinu Adonai echad.)
We, as Israel before us, are monotheists! We believe in One True God.
And yet, we confirm that God, even God, exists in relationship with God’s self.
We acknowledge that the Spirit of God (Ruach Elohim) hovers over the waters of Creation. And that same God appears in the form of a Son.
We acknowledge that God exists in relationship, and in conjunction with God’s own covenant.
God is covenant. And God’s covenant is part of who God is. God exists in relationship. Creation exists in relationship. You can see it…because God reveals it to you.
God’s very act of creating is an act of revealing. As the scriptures tell us time and time again, “what was hidden, will be revealed.” The unseen God is revealed in the act of creating. God’s relationship is extended to creation, and to humankind, created in God’s image, “only a little lower than God.”
God brought things into being. What does that mean? It means, we can now perceive God! God created, so that God could be in relationship with more than just God’s self. We were created to be in relationship with God.
YOU are in relationship with God as a part of that creation.
God is many. And God is one. There is Manyness to Oneness. And we know God through the person of Jesus Christ, made human, so that –like the picture framed in a way we can understand—we can know God.
This is revelation. This is incarnation. God revealed in the flesh.
In a sense, John’s description of Jesus as part of the Godhead is just a reiteration of the Hebrew understanding of Elohim, the Godhead in which God exists in relationship.
And yet the Hebrew people knew Him as YHWH –God known. God revealed to a people.
For Christians, we believe that Jesus is God revealed to His people.
For God so loved the world, that He revealed Himself in His Son, saying, “Recognize Me.” “Follow Me,” “Love Me.” “Come back to Me.”
Just as the Godhead of God is One God, so are we, many as we are, unique and beautiful, One people in our Manyness.
And we are one in Jesus the Christ.
God’s covenant was given not to a person, but to a people. God’s redemption was meant not just for one, but for many.
God is a God who wants to be known by all of His people!
And God will reveal to you God’s love and wonder through the person of Jesus the Christ.
Up front today, I have a quilt. It’s a beautiful tapestry. But it doesn’t look so beautiful, does it?
[The quilt is hanging with the backside front.]
It’s full of strings, and threads, and jagged edges, and frayed pieces, seemingly jumbled together. It really doesn’t look like much, except a mess of stuff thrown together. We can’t see anything recognizable that we can relate to, can we?
This is what life without God looks like. We can’t figure it out. It’s messy, and without meaning. It’s senseless, and it looks like nothing we can get excited about.
But getting to know Jesus can turn our misconceptions about God and life inside out. When we get to know Jesus, all of a sudden, we get to know a God, who is beautiful, loving, and amazing, and packed with more meaning than we can handle.
[Turn the quilt right side outward.]
Our lives change with that relationship. With that revelation. That’s the meaning of metanoia. All of a sudden, we change our position and perspective, and we don’t see dysfunction and chaos, but we see a beautifully designed pattern of love and hope in our lives –a garden of wonder.
[The garden quilt represents that pattern of intricate relationships that is our relationship with God.]
We were meant to live a garden life with God. We were meant, as many before us, to walk that garden with God, each and every day, to be made whole and beautiful, as God meant for us to be.
But we must first learn to recognize God in our lives. That is Jesus’ role in all of this. God's language for "water" is not a word "water," but water itself. God's language for love is not a word or idea or ideal, but Jesus himself.
For God SO loved YOU, that He sent Himself in the form of His Son, so that YOU could recognize His love for YOU, and live the life He always intended YOU should live.
“See me,” says God. “Come to me.” “I love you.” “I miss you.” “Come back to me.”
One of my favorite authors, Sally Lloyd Jones, wrote a book called “The Story of God’s Love for You.” It’s the Story of the scriptures –the Story that tells of how God revealed Himself to all of us, so that He could bring us home.
For God so loved….YOU!
*The photo for this sermon is taken from a prize winning quilt as seen on Quilt Inspiration. http://quiltinspiration.blogspot.com
Based on the Story Lectionary
Major Text
John the Apostle Explains Jesus’ Identity (John 1)
God Creates (Genesis 1)
Minor Text
The Word of God Appears to Abram (Genesis 15:1; Genesis 12:7; Genesis 18)
The Word of the Lord Appears to Elijah (1 Kings 19)
The Word of the Lord Calls Samuel (1 Samuel 3)
Psalm 33: Creator God
Psalm 119: The Word of the Lord is Eternal
Psalm 147: The Lord Has Revealed His Word
The Birth of Wisdom (Proverbs 8:22-36)
The Book of Job: God’s Voice Speaks with Job (Chapters 38-42)
Creator God (Isaiah 40) and the Word of the Lord (Isaiah 55)
Jeremiah Encounters the “Word of the Lord” (Jeremiah 1)
Paul Explains the Identity of God and Jesus to Greeks in Thessalonica (Acts 17:16-34)
The Victory of the “Word of God” (Revelation 19)
John the Apostle Explains Jesus’ Identity
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
(John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”)
Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.
God Creates
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
God Creates (The Orthodox Jewish Bible)
In the beginning Elohim created hashomayim (the heavens, Himel) and haaretz (the earth).
And the earth was tohu vavohu (without form, and void); and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the face of the waters.
And Elohim said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And Elohim saw the light, that it was tov (good); and Elohim divided the ohr (light) from the choshech (darkness).
And Elohim called the light Yom (Day), and the darkness He called Lailah (Night). And the erev (evening) and the boker (morning) were Yom Echad (Day One, the First Day).
Image Exegesis: Elohim
The word Elohim in Hebrew is an interesting word. It is a masculine plural; however, it is always used with a singular verb. Although it refers to the One True God of the Hebrews, the meaning denotes that God is a plural being.
For Jewish thinkers, Elohim refers to the Creator God of the universe, whereas YHWH is the name given to God who resides among humanity and is known by the Jewish people as their God. The name YHWH is the sacred name given to God that “symbolizes God’s closeness to humans.”* The name means “to be.” In other words, while Ruach Elohim is the Spirit which hovers over the waters in the midst of creation, YHWH is the “I AM,” the known God, the present on earth revelatory God as perceived by humankind. While Elohim is beyond knowing, YHWH is “God come down” so that God might be known by God’s people.
In a sense, this is the first “incarnation.” Creation itself –from Genesis 1 to Genesis—is God revealed.
The Septuagint (Greek Old Testament) loses this meaning, translating God simply as theos. Yet to understand the Apostle John, we must return to the Hebrew meaning, and the theology of incarnation. For the metaphor of the “visible” and “tangible” is only possible through the metaphor of “invisible” and “spirit.”
In Genesis 15:1, we see for the first time, “dabar YHWH,” which means “Word of God.” It is used for God’s message to Abraham in a vision. Later, it will be used to call Samuel, Elijah, Jeremiah, and others. While Elohim is the unknowable God, and YHWH the knowable God, dabar YHWH is the voice or characteristic of God that can convey a revelatory message. It is God. But specifically God in communication with humanity. Psalm 33 is a good example of how the Creator God is also “God come down or YHWH” and is also the breath/voice/message of God, which is dabar YHWH.**
It is God incarnate in some way so as to communicate directly with one or more of God’s people. When the Apostle John speaks of the “logos,” he is referring to this idea of the dabar YHWH. And Jesus is the message. He is God’s voice and God’s method of communication. He is God, and yet He is the “Word” of God. He is God incarnated as God’s communication of salvation.
He is the Light from the time of Creation, and part of the Godhead that is Elohim. And God’s message is one of grace and of truth.
The Jewish people celebrate the times when God dwells among the people. This dwelling is most evident for Christians in the person of Jesus. Jesus IS “God with us.” Emmanuel. He is “with” God and in relationship with God, even as God through Him is in relationship with us –revelation and incarnation.
Jesus reveals God to humanity –the truth of God. And the grace of God. He is the fulfillment of Moses, and the fulfillment of God’s salvific mission to return humanity to a life of wholeness with Him.
As the “Word of God” becomes flesh, God’s message is revealed in the actions and resurrection of Jesus.
While “logos” has multiple meanings, the Hebrew meaning perhaps has even more. It is a rich, diverse term that suggests the embodiment of God in everything that God is and stands for, and including his ability for incarnation and revelation.
Just as creation is “spoken” into existence, God “speaks” in the manner of His “being” to His people through the “Word of God.”
It’s important to understand that this does not mean literally “words” but “Word” means so much more.
In essence, God’s covenant IS God. God is all covenant, relationship, meaning, speech, manner, action, mission, plurality, and yet is One.
In the scriptures, we read frequently that “what is hidden will be revealed.” This is the essence of revelatory incarnation.
It is what happens whenever God communicates in vision or sound or metaphor with humanity. And the ultimate incarnation is Jesus –THE WORD.
Interestingly, the Greek meaning can mean “mind” or “force” (almost as in Jedi jargon), but also utterance, intent, expression, and even a collecting or gathering together within the mind. It can mean mandate, prophecy, declaration, speech, story or narrative, mental faculties, and reason.
The Hebrew meaning comes closest however to the “creative power” of God that allows God to come into “being” (YHWH) in order to reveal and communicate with humans. The Aramaic “memra” means for example a manifestation of the presence of God.
When one looks at the scriptural examples of Abraham, Elijah, Samuel, and others, it’s clear, that this kind of manifestation as a result of revelatory incarnation is closest to the intended meaning.
Whenever God communicates, His creative energy is manifested in a way that we can comprehend –in a message.
Jesus according to John IS God’s greatest manifestation. God in the flesh. God’s love personified.
*www.hebrew4christians.com
**See Holman Dictionary