“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (John 1:1-2) And this Divine Multiplicity of Being that was relationship within the Divine self was so overflowing with love a love that was so great it simply had to create. And this Divine Multiplicity of Being breathed the divine breath, the divine spirit outward and an enormous bang occurred, a bang bigger than any bang ever heard thereafter. A bang bigger than we could ever imagine, because the pure love and breath of the creator of all could not be contained in that infinitesimally small bit of matter, but had to expand its boundaries. And the universe was born and thus began the multi-billion year path that lead to life as we know it. “What has come into being in him was life.” (John 1:3-4)
And at each stage of the evolution of life, God saw the new life and said that “it is good.” The trees, the birds, the mountains, the oceans, the itty bitty ants, the mosquitoes, the algae, the flowers, the bees, the lions, the tigers and bears, the platypuses, and the pandas, and yes even the human beings, especially the human beings because these particular creatures are the ones who most resemble God, male and female God created them, in the Divine Image God created them. And God saw that it was good.
Then came the first couple, Adam and Eve. God had a very personal relationship with them. The Divine One walked and talked with them. They were the only part of his creation that had higher cognitive abilities. They could think for themselves. This is what mades God’s relationship with Adam and Eve different from Their relationship with mosquitoes. Adam and Eve had free will and they could choose to love God. They could choose. And as we know they could also choose to turn away from God. True love only comes from a place of true freedom. To truly love we also have to be able to choose not to love. Adam and Eve chose not to love God. They chose to try to be God. They chose to walk away from God.
Ever since that time in the Garden of Eden, God has been trying to bring humanity back into relationship with Them. Each and every human being since the beginning of time has faced the same choice that Adam and Eve faced—do we chose to turn to God or away from God? Do we recognize that we are not God, that we are creatures created to love God but not be God, or do we try to take the place of God and take on an identity that we cannot handle?
And God did not give up on these creatures created in the Divine Image. God watched as these creatures created in Their image created beautiful civilizations and then destroyed them with terrible wars. God watched as these creatures created in Their image created ingenious technologies and then used these technologies to hoard wealth while some were left without enough to survive. God watched as some of these created in Their image accumulated so much wealth and so much power that they could declare themselves to be god, or at least behave as if they were. God watched as the ones created in the Divine Image increasingly came to believe that they did not need God or perhaps that God did not even exist.
In every generation there were some who still sensed God’s presence who still heard God’s voice and God inspired them to speak to the rest of those created in the Divine Image, because God was finding it increasingly difficult to cross the divide between the Divine and human flesh. These prophets speak God’s word to the people. They beg, they plead, they threaten. Some hear them, but most do not. Just as the people turned from God, they also turn from God’s prophets.
Finally, it became clear to God that if They would need to get even closer to the ones created in the Divine Image if They had any hope of being heard. God would have to become one of us. God would have to enter into vulnerable, fragile, limited, mortal flesh in order to be heard. God would need to become a living human example of love in order for humans to understand love.
So, 2000 years ago, God became one of us. Born to a young woman and her husband traveling in great difficulty to fulfill the mandates of an Empire that had put itself in the place of God. Visited only by lowly shepherds. God limited the Divine self and became mortal so that we might understand God better.
When we see Jesus, we see what can be seen of God in a human life. We do not see everything about God in Jesus, because that is impossible. There are aspects of the Divine that are beyond our created world. God is to omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. A human being, and Jesus was truly human, cannot be any of these things. A human being cannot know everything and still be human. A human being cannot be in all places at once. So, these aspects of God could not be revealed through Jesus.
But what can be known about God in the created order can be seen in Jesus. We can see in Jesus God’s character and passion. We can see in Jesus that God cares for all humanity, even those who humanity does not always care for. We can see in Jesus that God does not like it when people misuse power in the Divine Name. We can see in Jesus that God wants justice, everyone to have enough and peace, no more war. We can see in Jesus that God wills the well-being of us all, every human being, every animal, every bird, every insect, every plant, every microbe—God wills the well-being of the whole creation. And because Jesus was a human being, we can also see what God intends every human being to be. When we see Jesus, we can see what it is to be truly and fully human. When we see Jesus, we see what it is to be in right relationship with God.
And why did God do this for us? Why did God become a struggling, suffering human being? God did it for love. God loves us and like any loving parent, God wants for us true peace and happiness.
[And] the angel said to [us], “Do not be afraid; for see– I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest heaven,
and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” (Luke 2:10-14)
Amen.
