Beginnings. The
start of something new. Is there
anything more human than a beginning?
Everyone has a story, and each one of our stories had a beginning. In fact, if you could fly all the way
back through history…before computers, before world wars…before industrial
revolutions and reformations…before empires and pyramids and exiles…even way
back before people, animals, plants or planets or stardust…before explosions
and fission lit up the darkness…this is our beginning. Nothing. Or rather…something.
Actually,
not just something. The logos.
The Word. The Greeks
described this Word as the blueprint that governed a beautifully crafted,
unfolding universe. We know that
Earth’s axis tilts at about a 23-degree angle, which causes the seasons to
change as the Earth makes its journey around the Sun. American ghost orchids can only survive while living on a
specific type of wood, in water of a specific acidity and salinity, and it has
its own species of moth. We know
that water freezes from top to bottom, so that life can survive at the depths
of a body of water. People grow
older…not younger. The Word
governs all of these things, and it has been that way since the beginning.
In
the beginning…the beginning beginning…there was the Word. Well…the Word and God. Well…the Word was God. You see, there are benefits to being at
the beginning beginning, where nothing exists except for you. If anything else comes after you, then
it will always be second place. A
painting will always owe something to the painter, and a song will always be in
debt to its composer. And so the
Word…God…composed and conducted the symphony that hangs so beautifully together,
and the music can only look back to the composer and say, “Thanks!” If you haven’t figured out by now, the
Word is Jesus.
John
writes this poem…that looks suspiciously like the creation hymn sung at the
beginning of the Old Testament…trying to describe Jesus, and he clues us in
that Jesus has been with the world from the very beginning. Just imagine…this man, Jesus, has the
score of the creation symphony in His chest. He has the blueprint of the universe in His mind…and He’s
walking around here like one of us.
John describes it as “light shining in the darkness.” Here, where death whispers in the ear of
every man and woman…buried in the dirty dark blooms a light that inspires life
anywhere it shines.
And
normally, when light shines, it reveals and illuminates. Have you ever had to wake up so early
that the sun isn’t up, and fumbled around the room for something in the
dark? I go through this at least
once a week…I spend a few minutes groping in the dark for my work clothes, or
my Ipod, and finally I tell Kelley to take cover as I switch on the light. And in that instant, all is revealed. I have my bathing suit in one hand, my
work pants are still on the shelf and I’m wearing my shirt inside out. The light allows us to comprehend, but
this isn’t the scenario that John describes. This light, Jesus, shines in the darkness, but the darkness
still has no idea what’s going on.
A world so inundated by shadows cannot handle so bright a light. John describes a scenario more like
Clark Griswold switching on the annual Christmas lights, causing his neighbors
to stumble and stammer around their house. Eyes accustomed to darkness are too frail to handle a flood
of pure light.
Have
we understood this light? We have
our notions…Christ is love. Christ
is a liberator. Christ is a final
payment on our debt. Christ is the
the ouster of oppressive governments.
Christ is our medicine.
Christ is something that happens inside of us to help us cope with our
problems. Christ is our reason to
be good to one another. None of
these notions completely miss the mark…they each have their merit. David Crowder puts it poignantly, “How
do you sum up a life in a few words?
How do you measure the weight of a soul in a matter of moments? You do not. You cannot.”
These explanations…these ideas miss the mark, not because of invalidity
or incoherence, but because the Word is not an idea. The Word is not an explanation or a life philosophy. The Word is a man. This light that brings life to the
dead…that shines in the darkness.
This Word became flesh.
And
so this Word took on a body…Jesus…God with us. Or as I like to put it, God has a bellybutton. God sweated and ate dinner. God walked around and His feet got
dirty. God laughed, smiled and
cried with His friends. God was
here. At one time, the King of the
Jews built a huge, ornate house so that God would descend and live with His
people. This final King of the
Jews would build a house for God that only God Himself could make…with a
handful of dust, a divine breath, and a holy heartbeat, this man Jesus poured
on the scene to light up the darkness.
He carried the secrets of creation in that frail chest, and wore the
mystery of resurrection on His dirty palms. He came and He went.
And
now we are left with a new beginning…for every end signals the start of
something new. This beginning
signals another great mystery. For
those of us who confess Christ, and risk to bear His name on our banners in the
midst of so many other names…this Word, this song that spun the universe into
being…this light that shone life into the deepest darkness…this love that was
stronger than death itself…lives in us.
We have God inside of us, beating at the door of our hearts, and busting
from the seams. We, with weak
wills tossed about like a raft on the ocean…and we, who fight with all of our
strength to get up in the morning to face the day…even we who shrug off the day
as if each breath were not a blessing from God…we are the ones carrying the
Word…the light of life inside of us.
Something so gigantic and glorious inside of something so delicate and
fleeting. Eternity living inside
of a few short breaths. This is
our beginning…this is the new life that fills our lungs each day. Jesus Christ.
As
we begin this year, let us begin at the beginning. You might have been wavering this summer, flitting from one
worry to the next. What should I
be doing with my life? With whom
should I spend my time? Where can
I go and whom can I meet? You
might have struggled with a problem that you just can’t shake. Maybe you just checked out and vacated
the premises all summer. If you
have been wandering around aimlessly, now is the time to focus. We are starting over, and its time to
find our center.
I’m
excited about this year. We
already have a ton of expectations and plans for the year…we’re returning to
Atlanta for Passion…we’re going to Charleston…we want to fight human
trafficking…we hope to get out to our neighbors and help them around their
houses…we might be able to do some work in local schools…not to mention playing
some basketball. But these things
are empty without Christ. They are
a list of things to do while we wait for death to arrive. They might even be a nice
distraction…but they are nothing until the Word sings them into being…just as
He snatched us from the hands of death.
And now, He pushes on our insides with the full gravity of His being…and
He shines in us with the whole spectrum of His radiance…this Word that
fashioned the universe dwells inside of us. We look to Him as our center, because without Him, we have
nothing. We are nothing. But He has made something out of
nothing, and so He is our everything.
As we start out our year, let us lift up Christ before us, to be the
heartbeat of all that we do. Here,
we have our beginning.
