Reflecting God’s Light

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life,^£ and the life was the light of all people. ⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.^£

¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own,^£ and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,^£ full of grace and truth. ¹⁵(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) ¹⁶From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. ¹⁷The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ¹⁸No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son,^£ who is close to the Father’s heart,^£ who has made him known.

There was a teenager who was a favorite among his teachers. He had green eyes and blond hair, a happy face and an easy smile. He was intelligent and had a great sense of humor, lively and alert, the center of attention and could always be found with a group of people around him.

One day at an event at his high school, all the parents had assembled and a teacher for whom the young man was a favorite went out to seek his parents. She was fascinated to see what kind of folks he had. She did not have to go far.

There in the center of a group of parents was a gentleman with green eyes and blond hair, a glad and smiling face, laughing and conversing brightly with the people he was with. The teacher approached the group, heading directly for the green-eyed center of the group and introduced herself. She was overjoyed to find out that her hunch was correct, the man in the center of all the other parents, was indeed the father of the young man who was her favorite.

Often times family resemblances betray a relationship. A long, thin, aquiline nose. A dark complexion. Large floppy ears. Rotund Shape. A big toothy smile.

Resemblances sometimes extend not only to physical traits but also to character traits, personality and even health issues. Its not true in every opportunity and in all cases, but heredity, family inheritance can be an amazing predictor of a great deal.

In the gospel of John, family resemblance is taken a step further. John tells us that Jesus is the revelation of the Father. That is, through Jesus the Son, the Father is revealed. Through Jesus the Son, the Father is made known.[1]

Much like the young man whom the teacher likes so well, to know him was to know something about his father. They were so similar in so many ways that the teacher who walked through a crowded room of parents knew who the father was because she knew the son.

But with Jesus and his Father there is more. Not only is Jesus a window into the character and personality of the Father to such a point that knowing the son helped to give a sense of who the Father was and what kind of person he was, but the connection between the Father and the Son go deeper.

“If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”[2]

And also, “know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”[3]

There is a deeper connection between the Father and the Son than is easy to understand or even express. In the ancient Nicene Creed, the relationship is described as “being of the same substance with the Father.” The implication is that together with the Holy Spirit, the three that make up the Trinity, Father Son and Holy Spirit, are somehow one.

If you have ever been a part of an Armenian Apostolic or Armenian Orthodox or Loosavorchagan worship service, you’ll have noticed some of the significant differences in the style and manner of worship. One of the key differences in the two communities, is the contention in the Protestant, Evangelical community that God is known well through scripture and we read the bible a great deal and have great confidence in our ability to interpret the bible and so preach it with greater confidence and regularity. In the Apostolic or Loosavorchagan Church, they have a much greater tradition in lifting up and celebrating the great mystery of our faith. One of the great Sharagans of the Christmas Season in the Loosavorchagan church is one called “Khorhoort Medz.” Which means “Great Mystery.” It tells the miracle of the virgin birth of the baby Jesus.

In the case of the Trinity, as much as in the Immaculate Conception birth and of Jesus, the Loosavorchagan tradition for the mystery of our faith can probably be well understood.

What does it mean that Jesus and God the Creator, God the Source and Father and Mother of all are one, even though they are somehow separate? It is a great mystery.

The closest I can personally come to understanding it is to think of them as reflections, as revelations and something a bit deeper and more profound than mere resemblances of each other.

The Father and Son family resemblance image begins to get at what the Apostle John is speaking of as he speaks of where Jesus came from and what is his relationship to God. Perhaps a bit more true to the point of what we’re trying to get at however, is John’s own language of thinking of both Father and Son as light.

Think of a light beam that comes from above, from the son or the moon. As it extends down into our presence, if we hold up a mirror, we can reflect that beam of light. Have you ever caught a concentrated ray of sunlight on your watch or some other shiny object and then projected it around the room? Into a teacher’s face, onto a wall, or other surface? That may be something a bit more like what God is like. The light coming from the sun down to the point of your shiny object is not much different from the light being sent off the surface of the mirror, but it is different, it is a separate, individual and distinct beam of light.

Jesus too, is the same substance as God, but distinct and separate and with a different trajectory and function than God the Source.

In this long passage from John, which I read this morning, there is another person whose relationship with God is perhaps more accurately defined by the analogy with blond-green eyed family that we spoke of earlier.

In the Gospel of John, there is allusion made to John the Baptist as well. And in order to clear up some confusion, the gospel writer has to make a distinction between Jesus and John the Baptist.

In verses 7-9 it says, “John came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world”

John wasn’t the same person as Jesus. He himself was not the light, not the light that comprises God the Creator in heaven and Jesus the Son, the “true light.” But he came to “testify” to the light, to tell about it and to describe it. John could not “make known” the Father or the Son in the same way that Jesus could. But Jesus could somehow tell about and describe what he’d experienced of God and of Jesus and of their coming kingdom.

The relationship cannot be mistaken, like the teenager and his blond dad. They point to each other. Each one reminds folks of the other and each one can’t help but reflect aspects and traits apparent in the other just like Jesus & John. “Wait a minute,” you might say, "Jesus and John are not blood kin like the blond, green-eyed teenager and his dad, how is it that they have any resemblance?” John says that through Jesus, God “gave power to become children of God.” God adopts all those who believe in him and makes them his own. Jesus and John did have a relationship, beyond a blood relationship. John was adopted by God the Father.

Three days after Christmas. Three days before New Year’s day, on a day when we can reflect on our relationships with Jesus, the Christ and God, the Father in Heaven, what a great privilege it is to realize that even though, like John, we can never truly be “of the same substance” as Jesus or his Father in Heaven, that our light is weaker and somehow not as lustrous as the light which comes from heaven, we too can nonetheless reflect the light that comes from heaven even as John himself does, by testifying to that light, by reflecting it as well as we are able and with as much purpose as we can muster up. Because we too are adopted God has chosen us, and given us the opportunity to choose him.

A great holiday tradition at this time of year is to come up with New Year’s resolutions.

Perhaps one of the first people ever to do this, or maybe the person to popularize tradition, (I don’t know enough of the history of it to say which) was Jonathan Edwards, the 18th-century revival preacher and theologian. Edwards sat down at age 17 and penned 21 resolutions by which he would live his life. Throughout his lifetime he would add to this list until, by his death, he had 70 resolutions.

7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.

15. Resolved, never to suffer the least emotions of anger toward irrational beings.

Edwards didn't casually make New Year's resolutions with an expectation of eventually breaking them. Each week he did a "self-check." He regularly summed up how he was doing and sought God's help in the process.

This is how he began his list: "Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these Resolutions. … Remember to read over these Resolutions once a week. 1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God's glory. "

Edwards’ very first resolution is one that could be said was one that John the Baptist, the one who had come “as a witness, to testify” to the light of God, could have adopted. His first resolution is the one that gets him adopted by God. In his first resolution, he chooses God like God has chosen him.

With God’s help Edwards wanted to glorify God in everything that he did and in every moment of his life. He wanted to be a mirror of God’s light. He wanted to reflect God’s glory and always point back to God any praise or glory God deserved from what he did and became. Jonathon Edwards believed you could resolve to do this and to do so was to choose being adopted by God.

He knew it was not easy. He knew God would have to be a part of the process and only through asking God for help could he even hope to participate in such an endeavor. Edwards also knew that he would have to remind himself and return to his list of resolutions on a weekly basis.

Christ calls us to commit to actively work at becoming conformed to His image. This coming year you can resolve to be come a person committed to a reflecting God’s light to adoption by God. But you’ll have to return and remind yourself of the commitment and renew your faithfulness to your hopes and desires on a regular basis.

Today, along with ending the year and looking forward to beginning a new one next week, we celebrate the Sacrament of Communion. For Christians, such as Jonathan Edwards and we ourselves, Communion is like returning to that list of resolutions. Its an opportunity to restore our relationship with God in heaven. Its an opportunity to reconnect and recommit ourselves to the lives we wish to lead. Communion is a chance we have to see the light shining from above and decide not to hide from it, not to absorb it and keep it to ourselves, but to commit to finding a mirror within ourselves and do all in our power to reflect it, bear witness to its power and to testify to its brilliance.

So let us now come to this table, receive God’s light, resolve to reflect it and be adopted by God himself as his very own.

[1] John 1:18

[2] John 14:7

[3] John 10:38

[4] http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-10/web/edwards-resolutions.html

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