This is indeed a witness when we have someone who is baptized and particularly of Alexandra’s age.  The understanding of when a person is able to understand and accept the words and the commitment for themselves.  And I have had on occasion a little younger than Alexandra, but its wonderful when a child is able to mentally and spiritually accept that commitment to follow Jesus Christ.  It’s a very personal approach; and that’s what we mean baptism to mean.  It’s not just an outward thing; it’s an inward action and response from our hearts to God. 

            The problem with the world, the way I see the world at this point, is that many people have a problem or difficulty in their life of getting that close to God.  They keep God at a great distance because, well, they heard that God created all the world and all the universe.  And that’s true!  But it also means that God is something big and glorious and also very distant out there.  Other people might trip the other side a little too much and make God so personal and close meaning that you relegate God to be too small.  You don’t give God the opportunity to be the kind of God that the Lord is.  And so consequently, J.D. Phillips wrote a book, Your God is Too Small.  And that’s for people who do not attribute enough glory and majesty to God. 

            Now other people need to see a very organized world and they will approach their view of God from a very methodical, precise organized, calculating, clear and exact.  And other people see God as sort of a whimsical, capricious, never-quite-know what God is going to do.  Other people just have a problem of accepting that anything could be beyond themselves when they look at the pain and the heartache of this world. 

            Paul in his writing in the Scripture, particularly to the church of Colossi, the book called Colossians.  He’s dealing with that in his time.  He’s dealing with the particular problem of understanding and interpretation of God called Gnosticism.  That simply interpreted means that God did create everything that there is, but God is so pure and holy that God can not be in touch with that which is evil.  And so they came up with a glossary and an interpretation that some where out there is God.  But to be able to create the world, there were these like waves or emanations.  In fact, Jesus was one of those emanations or a wave.  Not really God but about two or three steps away from God.  Since God could never be contaminated by the physical world.  The physical world is seen as holy. 

            That’s what Paul was dealing with when he writes the passage for today from the first chapter of Colossians.  Starting at verse 15, I’m only going to read the first six verses of that whole passage.  It goes actually to Verse 28 for today.  And I want us to listen to the glorious language of what Paul is saying on how he is telling people, “Don’t discount Jesus, the Christ.  Jesus is God.  And I want to tell you,” Paul says in his words, “how fully Jesus is God.”  “In His image (that’s Jesus), He is the image of the invisible God. The first born over all creation. For by Him all things were created.  Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Him and for Him.  He is before all things and in Him all things hold together.  And He, Jesus, is the head of the vine, the church.  He is the beginning and the first born from among the dead so that in everything He might have supremacy.  For God was pleased to have his fullness to all in Him and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through His blood shed on the cross.” 

You should re-read that a few times.  It’s a very full and powerful statement.  It says that not only is God the Creator, but in a sense Jesus Christ is the supreme commander, the head of the body that we call the church.  Jesus is equal to God; Jesus is God.  He is Lord and Creator of all as is God.  Now in our minds that’s a little difficult at times. In fact, we as a society and every generation struggle with that question.  How big is God and how do we connect or relate to God?  In fact, Hollywood, if it can make money on it, will make movies that deal with this religious theme.  That “The Ten Commandments”, the original by Cecil B. DeMille—grand and glorious pageantry of that movie that showed God as described in the Old Testament as being up on a mountain with clouds and mysterious rumblings and lightning and distant.  And that’s true, particularly as Scripture.  But if that is all that you see, that’s your image of God—distant and removed and can’t quite really come in touch with human beings. 

Then comes along a movie called, “Oh God!” where God is portrayed by George Burns.  And those who are young enough know him as a comedian; he lived to be over the age of 100.  And he was quite an interesting guy because here comes God on the scene smoking a cigar.  But there is George Burns, who comes and says to John Denver, who is the lead character (Jerry Lander is the character he is playing, but John Denver is the actor).  And God says to him, “Well, I want people to know that I really do care for them and I have not forgotten them.  I am still around.  But Jerry, what I want you to know is telling them that they are in charge of things.  And if it is going to work out right, they have to be doing what is right.”  So God, in a sense says, it’s your world, it’s your responsibility.  Well, that movie was so popular they had a sequel called, “Oh God Two”.  What else would they call it? 

Then comes a couple of decades latter a movie called, “Bruce Almighty”.  And Bruce Almighty, with Jim Carey, one of the more interesting roles that he ever played, is confronted by God who now is Morgan Freeman.   And this out of work reporter, Bruce, is given the power of God for a week.  And he then learns the joy of it and also the frightening aspect of that kind of power.  For me the most interesting scene was when Bruce is confronted with all of the prayers and all prayers that are coming from all over the world to God.  And trying to deal with them and answer them all in one way.  So there are some good theological points. And if you haven’t seen it, which I haven’t yet, then the sort of sequel to it is “Evan Almighty” where a modern day Noah is now confronted by Marvin Freeman again, who is God and that movie tells its own story about protecting the world from destruction. 

Well, these are almost too personal.  They are too flippant in a way because, not just Morgan Freeman and George Burns, although they do kind of give you an interesting twist, but its that nonchalant approach to things.  We need to keep a balance in our understanding of how God is presented in both these movies as well as our personal life.  And the question to basically ask for today is, “In our Christian faith and our belief of who God is, if God came back before the end of time, which we understand described in Revelation and other parts of Scripture, if God came back today what would God look like, how would God act, and how would God speak? 

A music writer, Joan Osborne, in 1996 produced a song.  And in this song there are some words which bring some other good theological questions but also some challenges. I won’t sing it for you, but I’ll read the words and you’ll probably remember it.  “If God had a name, what would it be and would you call it to His face?  If you were faced with Him and all of His glory, what would you ask if you had just one question?  What if God is one of us, just a slob like one of us, just a stranger on the bus trying to make his way home?”  Now some Christians respond to that in a negative way.  They didn’t like the image of God being portrayed as a slob, for one thing.  Although the truth of coming as a human being is exactly what God did in Jesus, the Christ.  So the awareness of that personal connection is a challenge for many.  Did it make God not the supreme commander?  Did it make God less than the God of Cecil B. DeMille in “The Ten Commandments”?  Jesus Christ, Paul says, is equal to God and comes in human form.  So in a sense, Jesus comes like one of us.  Maybe not a slob like one of us, but definitely like a stranger on a bus.   That image and that connection are scriptural. 

And so the song does raise these questions for us.  But we struggle then that if God goes in to this human form, how do we deal with that?  The movie and the play, “Jesus Christ Superstar”, one of the characters is Mary Magdalene.  She sings a song that said, “I do not know how to love him.”  And the words of that song go this way, “I don’t know how to love him. What to do or how to move him.  (She’s relating to Jesus, of course.)  I’ve been changed, yes really changed.  In these past few days, when I’ve seen myself I seem like someone else.  I don’t know how to take this.  I don’t see why he moves me.  He’s a man; he’s just a man.”  And that’s the danger that Paul would want us to stay away from.  From seeing Jesus as just another man, just another wonderful philosophical leader in this world.  Jesus, like a Buddha or like anyone else, good to listen to, a great teacher, but that’s all he is.  Mary struggled with that because she had experienced the very power that had changed her life.  She admits that in the song.  “I’m not the same person I was.”  That’s what happens when we come in contact personally with God in Jesus, the Christ.  But she goes on in the expression of that to then say, of course, she struggles with, “she knew him as a man, how can I know him as God?” 

These are the challenges human beings face all of the time.  And, yes, these song lyrics are powerful.  For the questions they ask, strike at the heart of our human soul.  People look for answers to these questions.  Who is God?  Where is God?  How can I relate to God?  They wonder why God remains so distant it seems, detached, so of like George Burns.  You take care of things. Or maybe like Morgan Freeman.  I need to go on vacation, which I do this week, and that’s where I’ll be on vacation but don’t equate that anything to God going on vacation.  

We look around and ask questions when we see the Indianapolis Star that reports the latest domestic violence, murder, or a body found lying in an alley way from a drug deal.  Or what about two boys who died unexpectedly and tragically at an unmarked railroad crossing.  Or a mother and a son who were murdered just a year ago and still going on unsolved and you wonder where the killer is.  And people will ask the question, “Where is God in that kind of tragedy?”  And the answer isn’t easy because it is a mixture of the great powerful God who created all the universe and the truth that God comes to us like a stranger on the bus. 

These words are indicative of the questions that we have.  For Joan Osborne continues to write in her song that I quoted earlier, “If God had a face, what would it look like and would you want to see it if you could?  If seeing meant that you had to believe in things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets, would you believe if you could see the face of God?  This isn’t a question of doubt.  It’s not even a question of disbelief.  But it is a question of, “What can I believe and what do I believe in this understanding?”  Would you want to see God if it meant believing in something deeper and more personal than just the fact that God created the world?  

J.R.R. Tolkien, the author of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy, is one who comes to this point in his own life where he is, a devout Catholic, writes these to try to express the battle of good and evil in the world.  If you’ve ever read or seen those movies then you know its taking place in what is called “Middle Earth”.  An imaginary place, but it is always and truly and completely the battle of good versus evil with the hope that good will triumph as it does in his books.  But a friend of his, Jack, who was an atheist, would be challenged by that kind of writing.  And he couldn’t quite accept it.  But Jack would continue to be a friend with J.R. and J.R. would offer the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ to him.  And Jack kept his distance until one time, he was walking and it finally not only dawned on him mentally but spiritually and emotionally that this wasn’t a God that was a distant God that J.R. was talking about.  But it was a personal God who came in Jesus Christ.  And Jack, which was his nickname, is known as C.S. Lewis, who became one of the best contemporary Christian writers in the 20^th Century who wrote books that deal with mere Christianity as well as the “Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe” made into a movie just recently.  And by the way, that too is a battle of good and evil that he writes of and it is portrayed in that movie.  

So C. S. Lewis comes to the awareness that this God is not a distant God disconnected from our world.  But a God in Jesus Christ, the Creator of all things, who comes to me, me personally, and deals with me as I am.  Paul, himself, is reflective of this when he has already had this experienced of what is called, “The Road to Damascus Experience”.  Where the God who he had held off as a God of law and rule of the Jewish faith, now comes in the form of Jesus Christ and says, “Saul, why do you persecute me?”  And the image of Jesus comes as a blinding light and now Paul (who changes his name from Saul to Paul), and becomes a new creature.  One who sees God now not as just a distant God, but a powerful, personal God.  More than just a man, but one who has touched his life and made him forever different. 

That truth and certainty which Paul understands on that road to Damascus experience is one that God continues to offer to us today.  You see, Paul didn’t search for the historical Jesus.  He didn’t try to go back and find the one who had lived and died upon the cross, but he expounded upon the glory of the cosmic Christ who touched his heart.  The power of this message for today is it is the living true God who offers to come and dwell in you and in me and in each and every human being.  

The Apostle John writes these words that are the beginning of his gospel, and they connect the same message when he says, “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.” He was with God in that beginning for creation of all things and the word and John’s meaning is logos and that reflects to Jesus, the Christ.  And even Jesus himself is quoted in Scripture as saying and recognizing this pre-existence that He is God when He says, “Before Abraham, I am.” 

In surfing the net in preparation for this message today, one of the gifts of the Internet is to find sermons that are out there.  Some are losers and we don’t quote those, but others come to be great images and messages.  And I want to quote from a pastor today, the words that he chose in describing the power of God I want to quote to you.  He says, “God dwells in the invisible world beyond the focus of the human eye, beyond the limitations of space and time as we know it, beyond the confines of flesh and blood.  When the earth was void and without form, when all cosmic definitions of a physical reality did not apply, Christ dwelt in the presence of God.  In that primeval suite, God, the Father in communion with God, the Son and God, the Holy Spirit lay out his plan for all of creation.” 

You see, that statement tells us that our life is not without meaning.  Our life has purpose from the very beginning of creation.  Before all forms of life began, God commissioned His son to sacrifice his life for you and me.  From the very beginning, God wants to be in touch with you, his creation, his personal creation.  Not a distant animation, but intricately involved.  That’s why the Psalmist in 139 says, “In my womb, you formed me.  And I can’t flee from any place in this world to get away from you.  For all places are where you are.  To the heights of the mountains to the depths of the sea you will find me,” the psalmist says. 

This is the mystery that God chooses to make God known to you and to me.  This is the glorious riches that we enjoy.  This is the hope of our glory.  So what if God were one of us as Joan Oxford asked the question?  The question is not a skeptical one of doubt.  The answer is not discovered philosophical speculation.  The question is answered in the life and the presence and the person of Jesus of Nazareth who is God.  The man in whom dwelt the fullness of God, the person who existed before the world again, the person who is before all things, by whom all things were created, and now who holds all things together.  The person who touched the heart of Alexandra when she responded to that love.  The one who is willing to touch your heart and the hearts of all people as we will not hold God so far distant that we can’t relate.  But we also remember, it’s the great God almighty who comes to love us personally as God’s spirit in Jesus Christ. 

Let’s join together for prayer, “Lord it is by your power and your might that we are even here.  The creation that you started eons before time ago, that continues in the creation of each child, while we were formed in our mother’s wombs, you were there.  And you bring to us the power of that love in Jesus, more than a man unlike us.  Sometimes as a stranger on the bus, we are to open up our hearts so that we might be a witness to others.  And then those who are strangers in our lives become friends in Christ, part of the family.  Lord, first of all, let us recognize that you are the Christ and Christ is the creator.  And in Jesus we know that creation.  Let us accept in our hearts the power of that cleansing, forgiving love that we call grace.  Let us in our hearts live daily to give you praise and to call you the great God, but also to feel your loving presence.  And then as we dwell in your presence and you dwell in our hearts and we become a witness by word and deed to others in our life so that they might receive the gift of forgiveness, grace, and connection with creation and eternity. Thank you Lord that in your original plan it was to love us here today.  Amen.”            

E-mail Comments to: Pastor Bob Coleman

[FrontPage Include Component]