The Torah is truth. Its words are sublime, wise, and empowering. But even with this divine revelation, the chosen people continue to struggle to understand what it means to be the community of God. Yes, the written word is a lamp unto our feet, but is it enough? What does it mean to be the people of God? What does it mean to be a blessing to all nations? What does it mean to really enact the kingdom of God?
Like many people picking up a book, we start looking for a picture or two to help us out. And if there are no pictures, can I have a diagram? Or maybe a map?
Jesus is our picture.
“If you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.”
“I am the Word.”
“I am the Way.”
“I am the Light.”
The life of Jesus is a complete portfolio,
visualizing the “word of God” becoming the “Word of God”.
Consider the words of Rodney Clapp:
God’s Word is not first and foremost abstract belief, propositionalized truth. So it is that Jesus – a person, not a proposition – is presented as the supreme and the unique embodiment of the Word (John 2:11; 20:30). And he is constantly about embodying the words of life. He speaks of the bread of life and miraculously feeds over five thousand with edible, actual bread (John 6). He speaks of the light of the world and heals the blind (John 8:12, 9:1-11). He speaks of the resurrection and the life and raises Lazarus from the dead (John 11). He speaks of servanthood and washes the disciples feet (John 13). And John seems to expect that this speaking and its embodiment will continue, for Jesus says to his followers, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you” (John 20:21). To recognize the church as the body of Christ is to recognize that the church exists as a continual, ongoing embodiment of God’s Word.
What Jesus is, is what we, his church, are called to be.
What Jesus does, is what we, his body, are called to do.
Even though the entire church does not have the giftedness or power
to match what Jesus could do, it is our calling to try.
To try to talk honestly with the one struggling for answers,
To try to engage the pain of the broken and hurting,
To try to live openly before the babes learning the godly life,
To try to point to sanity and salvation for a world desperate for both,
To try to speak out loud the truth that is more and more subversive
to the powers and principalities in our world every day.
Then, having tried, to examine the truth of our failings,
to listen to the voice of the truth-speaking prophets,
and try to do better tomorrow.
As we celebrate the coming of Jesus among us in the flesh,
May we have the courage to enact Jesus living among us in the flesh,
Until the day that he appears in person, triumphant and eternal.
Amen.
Grace and peace,
Ron
Quote from Rodney Clapp, A Peculiar People, p. 136.
