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Sermon - December 29, 2002 - John 1:18
Picture on your TV an athletic, rugged, handsome young man gliding along, dressed so well, surrounded by beautiful women. The message - wear Brut Cologne and you can have it all. Even at age 17, some 30 years ago, I didn’t believe that I took such advertising seriously - UNTIL - I went to Cox’s Department Store in Fort Worth, Texas and I’m strolling along in the Men’s Department and I spot Brut - and yes, how could I possibly live without it?
Such is the power of image advertising. Even when you know, factually, that the product cannot deliver what the ad proclaims - you buy it!
Do you remember the struggle we all had to purchase generic products when they came out? It was well-nigh impossible to buy a box of cereal with black and white lettering that blandly said - Corn Flakes - we wanted the real thing!
This past November’s elections were especially focused on image, primarily in a negative way. I was disgusted with those black and white, slow motion ads smearing the opponent to look like a mobster.
All major political figures have to be concerned about the image they portray. They always have. In modern times we have image consultants hired to analyze the results of polls and focus groups. These image consultants answer the question, " who does America want this candidate to be?"
Let’s take one particular candidacy as an example. First, let me hasten to say that image consulting is not a partisan issue, every politician whether a Republican or Democrat, is engaged in such work.
In 1996 Senator Bob Dole was the Republican candidate for President. At the Republican National Convention the image consultants created a "spin" to portray Senator Dole as an "outsider from the Heartland", unsullied by the machinations of the Washington D. C. politicos. In my estimation, this approach was a total miscalculation. If anything, Bob Dole WAS Washington, D. C - a tough political insider whose experience and contacts were his electable strengths. Bob Dole’s service to his country, his integrity and guts should have been able to speak for themselves. Why did he need an image change? I know this is a bit naïve, but why can’t a person simply be who he or she is? For that matter, why can’t a cologne simply be what it is?
Many years after the death and resurrection of Jesus a writer we know as John wrote his story of Jesus Christ. Today we read the first 18 verses of his gospel. On Christmas Eve we read Luke’s story of the birth of the baby Jesus - a beautiful story of Mary’s faith and God’s power for good in a tough world. If Luke tells us of the birth of Jesus, John today tells us the meaning of his birth, the very meaning of his Incarnation.
John tells us that Jesus was ALWAYS with God - that he was present and active in the creation of the world. This suggests that when God said, "let there be light" that Jesus was the light that illuminated the darkness.
John tells us more. Jesus is the Word - the creative voice of God - the self-expression of God, perhaps we could say the Human Face of God.
To a modern world so immersed in image advertising and political spin, the Christian Church today can relax and smile. These words about Jesus are not spin but light-filled, life saving truth.
John was the last writer to gather his thoughts and produce his gospel. Looking back through the resurrection of Jesus into Jesus life, John told a story about Jesus that would clearly and boldly portray his divinity.
Jesus is not, John rightly asserts in his gospel, an advertisement for God, or an intimation of God, but God Incarnate.
In his theological classic, Faith and Practice, theologian Frank Wilson says this:
The Christian Gospel is not something which originiates with humanity and reaches up to God. It is something which comes from God and descends upon humanity. If Christ were no more than a divinely inspired man, he would be only a beautiful example of what God can do with one responsive life. We would look and wonder and be helpless. But the Incarnation tells us that God became Man, that he injected a new spiritual power into human nature in which we may share by union with Christ… Christianity is not the religion of a book, or of a philosophy, but of a Person. You don’t believe in a system - you believe in Christ… In Christ God is no longer a Divine Ruler located far off in the distant heavens. God’s love and mercy are no longer academic qualities. He has lived our life, faced our troubles, met our temptations.
And that might stimulate in us a yearning for relationship deeper than the images and spins of our culture - which are all too often skin deep.
Today we have the privilege of sharing the intimacy of a relationship that is not "skin deep". Thirty years ago Nan and Cliff Harrison were married, but their vows were not witnessed and blessed by a priest of the church. On this their 30th Anniversary we are honored to share with them in their desire for me, their priest and rector, to bless their marriage here in the church. Thank you, Cliff and Nan, for including us and for setting an example for us.
So the truth is that with Jesus Christ, the deeper you penetrate through the surface the more glorious he becomes. And there is more Good News. We don’t have to create an image or spin for ourselves to make ourselves acceptable to him. We can come to him in faith and trust today, exactly as we are and begin or renew our relationship with him.
This Gospel of John invites us to delve deeper and deeper into relationship with him, where there is, to be sure, grace upon grace upon grace! AMEN.
