John 1:14-16, 29; I John 1:1-2:2
“By this we may know
that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought
to walk in the same
way in which he walked.”
Sometimes, I think we Christians go out of our way to complicate Jesus.
Was he human? Was he divine? Was he more human than divine—or was it the other
way around? How could he be fully human and fully divine at the same time? In
seminary we used to say ad nauseum,
Is it both/and or is it either/or? Oh, we were so sophisticated in the way we
split hairs. Those comparatives can describe the divining line: can Jesus be
both human and divine; can Jesus be either human or divine. One way leads to
truth; the other way leads to heresy.
In John’s day, “there were teachers who replaced the incarnation of
Christ with the idea that Jesus was a supernatural being (not God) who seemed
human but was really only so in appearance, a messenger who could not die for
sins.” That’s called Docetism, and it is heresy.
Generation after generation has tried to reason its way through to the
truth about Jesus. Yet, as I said, when we try to reason our way to the correct
answer, we run the risk of getting all twisted up in the “isms” and “ologies” of
belief systems and we may not find the answer we are hoping to find. This joke
about Sherlock Holmes and Watson demonstrates what happens when we see the
trees but can’t find the forest.
“Holmes and Watson are on a
camping trip. In the middle of the night Holmes wakes up and gives Dr. Watson a
nudge. "Watson" he says, "Look up in the sky and tell me what
you see."
"I see millions of stars, Holmes," says Watson.
"And what do you conclude from that, Watson?"
Watson thinks for a moment. "Well," he says, "astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what does it tell you, Holmes?"
"Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”
"I see millions of stars, Holmes," says Watson.
"And what do you conclude from that, Watson?"
Watson thinks for a moment. "Well," he says, "astronomically, it tells me that there are millions of galaxies and potentially billions of planets. Astrologically, I observe that Saturn is in Leo. Horologically, I deduce that the time is approximately a quarter past three. Meteorologically, I suspect that we will have a beautiful day tomorrow. Theologically, I see that God is all-powerful, and we are small and insignificant. Uh, what does it tell you, Holmes?"
"Watson, you idiot! Someone has stolen our tent!”
Has Christianity gone on a camping trip and found itself without a tent—you
know, one truth about the Lord under which all can sleep soundly? It’s our nature to seek answers, to understand
our world down to the protoplasmic prelude to life, but even that idea creates
controversy! Such unpacking of the layers of the world requires a different
skill set when it comes to analyzing heaven.
We want answers, facts—names, dates, your mother’s maiden name and the
last four digits of your social security number to believe that you are you.
Jesus is Jesus—was, is and always will be—even though his mother didn’t
have a maiden name and he never had a social security number. The human mind
will never fully understand this side of the O-Zone the divine mystery of Jesus.
Somehow, many of us tend to go the way of Watson—explaining investigating,
compartmentalizing, inducing, deducing, and reducing all the information we
have about Jesus to the facts, yet God did not send us facts; God sent us truth—and
they are not always the same thing.
Truth expands dimensions; itself, truth never changes, but the truth
can change a person; it can set people free; it is timeless—that is, it is as
true today as it was a thousand years ago and it will still be true a thousand
years from now. Is it possible for human beings to tell the difference between
what is real and what is truth?
Remember Sherlock Holmes? Was he real? His most devoted fans, his
groupies, might argue the reality of his existence, after all, Holmes’
“biography” is as easy to find on the internet as Winston Churchill’s. “Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle wrote prolifically of the famous detective known for his
heightened skills of observation and eccentric personality. Holmes was both
memorable and beloved—and he was entirely fictional.
Holmes himself once said, “The temptation to form premature theories upon
insufficient data is the bane of our profession.”[1]
The bane of our humanity is that factions of Christians—Churches/temples/kingdom
halls— think the way they “do” Jesus, the way they worship God, the way they read
their scripture is not just the best way but it is the RIGHT way.
At stake for Christians walking the divining line is that this line can
divide us, and separation is so far from the plan that God purposed for his
people ever since the day the animals walked onto the ark two by two. Even then, the divine plan was to save the
world…and so it is with Jesus. He is real and he is present; he’s not on
Memorex.
John wrote us a whole gospel on the divinity of Jesus Christ; yet when followers
relied too much on the spiritual side, John wrote letters to help Christians understand the human side. To understand
Jesus, we need him as incarnation and enfleshed—it’s a both/and situation, not
an either/or.
So, friends, tonight, when you look up in the sky and the Lord asks
you, “Tell me, Watson (or Jim or Mary, etc), what do you see?” It’s not
necessary to wax poetic, it’s hardly acceptable to profess prophetic; it’s only
necessary to say from your heart, “Lord, I know you…and I promise you that I
will abide in you, keeping your commandments and walking not against you, but
close to you on the divining line. Amen.
August 3, 2014
First Parish Federated Church of South Berwick, ME
The Reverend Donna Lee Muise, Pastor
