The more aware we become (in creeping, minutely incremental ways) how God is incomprehensibly other than we are, the more at home we are and genuinely content in our finite human skin. There's something beyond humility (though it likely turns out to be quintessential humility) in uttering with a sigh of relief, "Thank God I'm not God!"
Part of the relief is, of course, that the existence and state of the whole created order doesn't depend on me! Another part of it is, I realize there's a particular thought-experiment I need never invest my energies in conducting because it's a sheer waste of time. It's the one that starts: "Imagine what it's like to be God...." (Ah yes... yes, let's just... imagine that, shall we? Hold on, hold on, I think I'm getting it now...!)
Yet I can imagine someone, once, seriously setting himself that task, actually believing he could comprehend the essence and totality of God's... what? God-ness. And, having conceived that challenge to his powers of conceptualization, he reached the conclusion that he'd done it, figured it out, broken it down to its constituent parts, mastered the conundrum and qualified himself to assume the role and execute the duties thereof. He was called Lucifer.
What is piercingly poignant, in comparison, is what Scripture tells us about the only human being ever competent, capable and, yes, essentially entitled to indulge in that very thought-experiment: "What's it like to be God?"--essentially entitled because He was (and is) God. He is the single, singular case, out of all humanity through all time, of one who would not have engaged in something on the order of Monty-Pythonesque absurdity in saying, "Now my mind will conceive--authentically and clearly--what it's 'like' to be God. And I will enter into that reality now."
The thing that is piercingly poignant is, Scripture tells us He never did that. He chose, willed, not to. He completely set aside even the thought, having committed wholly to live as Man in absolute obedience to the God Who is not Man.
It's in the light of these things that what Scripture goes on to say about Him (and us, too) is so stunning. It is precisely this Jesus, Who, "being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage," but, instead, lived out, to the final degree and last extent, "the nature of a servant", and "being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!" It's because of that alone that "God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Philippians 2:6-11, NIV-UK).
In the (to us) gloriously paradoxical way of God's victories, it's the One who never conceived in his heart a creaturely lust for the Eternal Throne but expended Himself instead to the point of virtual annihilation, apparently reward-less and comfortless as Death closed in to swallow Him up, Who turns out to reign eternally with the Father in Heaven, "God from God, Light from Light," on the "throne of God and the Lamb."
"But wait, there's more," as the saying goes.
As for us, the Scriptures speak of the consummate realization of our redemption, which is a kind of glorification, in Christ--not to become the same as God or usurp His throne, as Lucifer conceived it in his heart to do, not to be identical in every possible way to Christ the Word Incarnate--only One will ever be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, the Alpha and Omega, the express image and effulgence of the Father's Being. And yet, the apostle John says that "we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is." The apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, speaks of the body that is "raised imperishable... raised in glory... raised in power... raised a spiritual body." In an echo and affirmation of John's assertion--which, considering how different we mistakenly tend to think of Paul and John being from each other, is really stunning--Paul too points to the moment when "we shall be like Him": "...as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man. ...[W]e will all be changed.... For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality."
Our resurrected state--in body and spirit as entirely redeemed and everlastingly, divinely renewed souls--within the entirety of the New Creation of God, will be possessed of a nature, of a quality and capacities, of a fullness and integrity of life, drenched with the living love of God Himself, such that, were it possible for us to see these future selves of ours, now, strolling toward us, we'd very likely fall on our faces like dead men. We might well imagine it was Christ Himself, or at least an angel, coming toward us. The apostle John did a fair bit of falling on his face before the heavenly glory revealed in the Revelation, whether at the aspect of Christ Himself or just an angel of God.
The theologians, and, yes, the mystics, speak of a process, "divinization." This isn't man-becoming-God. Rather, it's this very process of growing into the likeness of Christ through what is, in the simplest of terms, the "entire takeover" of the human will by divine love. Paradoxically, our divinization is so radically not man-becoming-God that it is, to the contrary, entirely dependent on the immutable fact--an eternal "verdict"--that we are not God. In other words, the only reason we may go on forever and ever growing in similitude, manifesting ever more sublime reflection of God is, quite logically, that we are other than He is. Otherwise all talk of "becoming like" is pure nonsense. We cannot go on "becoming like" what, actually, we have at some point become. I cannot be "like" myself, because I am myself! I may, however, become "like" the God Who I am not.
Divinization, then, turns out to be an eternally, endlessly "realizing" reality, because there is no end to the Being of the One Living God Whose life and love we are to engage, adore and extol, in infinite ways as yet unimaginable, all the more, forever and ever. Because He is infinite, our divinization, as His forever-finite creatures, is necessarily infinite. Such a singular, incomparable appointment and glory in the order of God's creation would be an impossibility to us if we were not... FINITE. Only the finite may infinitely "become". Only the finite may confront an infinite world of unknown, unexplored possibilities. These possibilities well up and spring, first and last, from the very life and creative will of the Living God.
Such is the glory proper and unique to Man, that of our created-ness and God-likeness in the sphere of the ultimately unfathomable designs and counsels of the Living Infinity that is the One True God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I think it appropriate here to repeat what I said at the outset: the more aware we become (in creeping, minutely incremental ways) how God is incomprehensibly other than we are, the more at home we are and genuinely content in (and everlastingly thankful for) our finite human skin. There's something beyond humility (though it likely turns out to be quintessential humility) in uttering with a sigh of relief, "Thank God I'm not God!" It seems appropriate, too, to remark that the way of this divinization begins, for the Christian, not in the "by and by" but right here and now--pointedly, inescapably and uncomfortably by having "the same mindset as Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5), which brings no promise of earthly glory or splendor... quite the contrary....
Which is all the more reason for that "sigh of relief." Yes, relief... because the very sigh is the sound of faith that HE IS.
Thursday, December 12, 2013
Clouds
This sermon is about as far as you can get from a "three-pointer", and forget about anything approaching "expository preaching" here. It's a cluster of notions united by a single image or figure: clouds. The conclusion is hardly a conclusion as much as a "gathering storm" of praise.
A few weeks ago we celebrated "Harvest Festival" in the church, which is always a very enjoyable Sunday service - especially when it's followed by a big lunch! At Harvest Festival Sunday we thank God for all His many physical blessings -- the sun, the rain, the fruits of the earth... blessings we're grateful for, even if we don't always talk as if we're grateful! Let's admit it, on other days, when it's not "Harvest Festival", it's very easy for us to whine and moan if the day's cloudy or drizzly; we look outside and say, "Ugh, what a gloomy, dreary day." Though, personally, I have to say that I've always really liked gray, rainy days. When the sky is thick with clouds and the sun can't break through, I always feel very cozy and safe, like I'm under a big blanket in bed. I can't stand the feeling of being "broiled" under the sun. But even if you don't like overcast days at all, you must admit that clouds promise blessing -- the blessing of rain without which we can't live!
Psalm 135 talks about these clouds God has created. Let's read verses 6 and 7 (read).
In the sphere of visible nature, clouds, like all of nature, are a symbol of God's power and blessing-- and more than just a 'symbol', clouds are a vehicle of real blessing in the natural realm. Psalm 147:7-8 likewise tells us: (read).
But clouds aren't only a vehicle of blessing in the natural dimension. There are clouds that announce and at the same time conceal the presence of God. (Read Exodus 19:9, 16, and 24:15-18).
What is this "thick cloud" into which God summoned Moses? I don't know, but I know what it did. It simultaneously manifested and concealed the presence of God. Because of the cloud, the nation knows that God is there, and because of the same cloud, the nation knows they cannot see Him. In this way the cloud teaches us a timeless lesson, which is that we can know that God is near--yes, we can even hear His voice, see His power, love and worship Him and know His fellowship... but, but, on the other hand there will always be, figuratively speaking, a CLOUD, a certain cloud, in which is concealed the infinite glory and eternal depths of God's very being which we can never plumb.
This is what the apostle John is talking about when he says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18, NIV-UK).
No one has seen God, even though several times the Bible tells us, quite literally, about people who did see God! Is this a contradiction in the Bible? It tells us people have seen God and people haven't seen God! No, it's no contradiction. Because even those people who saw God didn't see God. Why? Because there's always a cloud, because even the very manifestation of God is a cloud concealing God--what He reveals of Himself is a limitation accessible to our finite understanding, which necessarily excludes infinite depths of being in Him from all conceivable apprehension. There is always a "cloud".
Here's a quite elementary, primitive, but apt illustration! (Holding out my hand, palm forward, to the audience) Now I'm showing you my hand. I'm also hiding my hand from you at the same time, because when I show you this side (pointing to my palm), I'm automatically hiding this side (pointing to the back of my hand, which the audience can't see). You can't see both sides at once - it's impossible!
Now, if that's true on such a simple, physical, human level, just imagine how much more true it is on the level of God and the inexpressible, immeasurable degree of His eternal being. Whatever God shows us of Himself automatically excludes "everything else" that He isn't revealing to us of Himself at the same time. The very fact we finite creatures can perceive anything of God means that what we're perceiving is already a limitation, a finite phenomenon, which paradoxically means that what we are perceiving is both God and not-God at once. "No one has seen God", the apostle John tells us, and not by accident in the direct context of his exposition of the Eternal Word's Incarnation, because it is only Jesus Christ, the Word and Son of God, who has seen and known God the Father in the "cloudless" perfection of unlimited knowing.
Let's look at another place in the Old Testament where "clouds" come up: (Read Exodus 40:34-38)
Here's a wonderful paradox. Even though God surpasses all our capacities to fathom His essence, and even though even the most stunning revelation of His presence and glory hides more than it reveals, nevertheless this incomprehensible, uncontainable God abides among His people, fellowships with them, accompanies them, leads them and, in the unsearchable depths of His love, loves them. That's the mystery of the Presence of God: there where we cannot penetrate the infinite presence of God, right there, nevertheless, He is infinitely present and we can understand that He is infinitely present. To put it differently, the God Who is absolutely everywhere is absolutely able to be absolutely near, without contradiction.
This truth manifests itself in the highest degree--historically, personally--in the very person of Jesus Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God", "for it pleased God that in him all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily."
As God did in the wilderness, in the cloud as He led the nation, so now in Christ He abides with us, fellowships with us, accompanies us through life's long way, in Christ in Whom abides His infinite fullness, even if that's a truth we can't possibly encompass by human logic. It's enough that it's so. It's enough that the "fullness" is there, in Him, and that He is with us - Immanu El, our "God with us"!
Here is another picture of the cloud of God's presence in the Old Testament, and note especially the way the nation responded to the movement of the cloud. (Read Numbers 9:15-22, with special emphasis on all the times the text says that the nation always responded immediately and exactly to whatever the could did; if it moved on, they moved on, if it stayed put, they stayed put)
May our following after Christ be as attentive and faithful, with full cognizance of that glory that once appeared to three disciples on a mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, His clothes became whiter as light itself, and then, a cloud, a shining cloud, overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice spoke: "This is my beloved Son, in Whom is all my pleasure. Listen to Him."
This very God Who unveils His glory in the cloud, gives us as well a cloud of witnesses, as it says in Hebrews 12:1; they are the witnesses of faith whose testimony provokes us to ruthlessly abandon whatever interferes with our all-out race for the goal and run with eyes fixed on the Originator and Culminator of our faith, Jesus Christ, Who promises that one day we will see the Son of Man "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). For, as it says in Thessalonians 4, "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."
"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." (Revelation 1: 7 - NASB)
Now, "to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6 - NASB)
But clouds aren't only a vehicle of blessing in the natural dimension. There are clouds that announce and at the same time conceal the presence of God. (Read Exodus 19:9, 16, and 24:15-18).
What is this "thick cloud" into which God summoned Moses? I don't know, but I know what it did. It simultaneously manifested and concealed the presence of God. Because of the cloud, the nation knows that God is there, and because of the same cloud, the nation knows they cannot see Him. In this way the cloud teaches us a timeless lesson, which is that we can know that God is near--yes, we can even hear His voice, see His power, love and worship Him and know His fellowship... but, but, on the other hand there will always be, figuratively speaking, a CLOUD, a certain cloud, in which is concealed the infinite glory and eternal depths of God's very being which we can never plumb.
This is what the apostle John is talking about when he says, "No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in the closest relationship with the Father, has made him known" (John 1:18, NIV-UK).
No one has seen God, even though several times the Bible tells us, quite literally, about people who did see God! Is this a contradiction in the Bible? It tells us people have seen God and people haven't seen God! No, it's no contradiction. Because even those people who saw God didn't see God. Why? Because there's always a cloud, because even the very manifestation of God is a cloud concealing God--what He reveals of Himself is a limitation accessible to our finite understanding, which necessarily excludes infinite depths of being in Him from all conceivable apprehension. There is always a "cloud".
Here's a quite elementary, primitive, but apt illustration! (Holding out my hand, palm forward, to the audience) Now I'm showing you my hand. I'm also hiding my hand from you at the same time, because when I show you this side (pointing to my palm), I'm automatically hiding this side (pointing to the back of my hand, which the audience can't see). You can't see both sides at once - it's impossible!
Now, if that's true on such a simple, physical, human level, just imagine how much more true it is on the level of God and the inexpressible, immeasurable degree of His eternal being. Whatever God shows us of Himself automatically excludes "everything else" that He isn't revealing to us of Himself at the same time. The very fact we finite creatures can perceive anything of God means that what we're perceiving is already a limitation, a finite phenomenon, which paradoxically means that what we are perceiving is both God and not-God at once. "No one has seen God", the apostle John tells us, and not by accident in the direct context of his exposition of the Eternal Word's Incarnation, because it is only Jesus Christ, the Word and Son of God, who has seen and known God the Father in the "cloudless" perfection of unlimited knowing.
Let's look at another place in the Old Testament where "clouds" come up: (Read Exodus 40:34-38)
Here's a wonderful paradox. Even though God surpasses all our capacities to fathom His essence, and even though even the most stunning revelation of His presence and glory hides more than it reveals, nevertheless this incomprehensible, uncontainable God abides among His people, fellowships with them, accompanies them, leads them and, in the unsearchable depths of His love, loves them. That's the mystery of the Presence of God: there where we cannot penetrate the infinite presence of God, right there, nevertheless, He is infinitely present and we can understand that He is infinitely present. To put it differently, the God Who is absolutely everywhere is absolutely able to be absolutely near, without contradiction.
This truth manifests itself in the highest degree--historically, personally--in the very person of Jesus Christ, "Who is the image of the invisible God", "for it pleased God that in him all the fullness of the Godhead should dwell bodily."
As God did in the wilderness, in the cloud as He led the nation, so now in Christ He abides with us, fellowships with us, accompanies us through life's long way, in Christ in Whom abides His infinite fullness, even if that's a truth we can't possibly encompass by human logic. It's enough that it's so. It's enough that the "fullness" is there, in Him, and that He is with us - Immanu El, our "God with us"!
Here is another picture of the cloud of God's presence in the Old Testament, and note especially the way the nation responded to the movement of the cloud. (Read Numbers 9:15-22, with special emphasis on all the times the text says that the nation always responded immediately and exactly to whatever the could did; if it moved on, they moved on, if it stayed put, they stayed put)
May our following after Christ be as attentive and faithful, with full cognizance of that glory that once appeared to three disciples on a mountain top, when Jesus was transfigured before them, and His face shone like the sun, His clothes became whiter as light itself, and then, a cloud, a shining cloud, overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice spoke: "This is my beloved Son, in Whom is all my pleasure. Listen to Him."
This very God Who unveils His glory in the cloud, gives us as well a cloud of witnesses, as it says in Hebrews 12:1; they are the witnesses of faith whose testimony provokes us to ruthlessly abandon whatever interferes with our all-out race for the goal and run with eyes fixed on the Originator and Culminator of our faith, Jesus Christ, Who promises that one day we will see the Son of Man "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory" (Matt. 24:30). For, as it says in Thessalonians 4, "the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord."
"Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him." (Revelation 1: 7 - NASB)
Now, "to Him who loves us and released us from our sins by His blood--and He has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father--to Him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen." (Revelation 1:6 - NASB)
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