Three Men

"Three Men"

Luke 4:14-30

There is a short poem by John Masefield that reads:

And there were three men

Went down the road

As down the road went he

The man they saw, the man he was

And the man he wanted to be.

As the poem states, there is but one man walking on the road.  But within the one man there are really three:  the person others see, the person he really is, and if caution could be thrown to the wind, the person he’d really like to be.

We all have opportunities in our lives when we have the chance to make minor or major adjustments in those three selves—that trinity that is within us all.  One of those times may be when you are embarking on something new, like starting a new job, or making a career switch.  Or you’ve lost a loved one, and you have the opportunity to redefine those three selves without the other in your life.  The same happens after a divorce.  Or maybe you have reached a point in life when you are tired of who you are, and you begin a new self-examination, pondering changes you want to make in those three selves.  Or maybe you are a teenager and you are trying to put yourself together apart from parental control and influence, not to mention peer pressures.

There was an actor who came to Hollywood from Paris to look for work—to make his dream come true of breaking into the entertainment world.  As he entered each casting office, he would leap over the secretary’s desk.  No one every forgot him.  Whenever they needed an actor of that type, they called “the fellow who jumped over desks.”  Likewise, most of us search for some way, some look, some behavior, some attitude, some characteristic that will distinguish us from the rest of the pack and make us memorable.

But at some point in our lives, we all have to figure out some way to reconcile the “three selves” each of us live as.  There is the person others see.  Some of what other people see about us is within our control and some is not.  It’s determined by how well we define ourselves in ways we want to be defined, rather than being wet clay, always formed in someone else's image.

In the book on marriage titled, Scary Close, that Men’s Bible Study just finished up, there is this illustration that fits well here.  Donald Miller and his fiancé went to a place called “Onsite” for pre-marital counseling with a group of other prospective couples.  This is what happened in one of the group sessions.

Back at Onsite, our group therapist created a terrific visual example of what a healthy relationship looks like. She put three pillows on the floor and asked a couple of us to stand on the pillows. She told us to leave the middle pillow open. She pointed at my pillow and said, “Don, that’s your pillow, that’s your life. The only person who gets to step on that pillow is you. Nobody else. That’s your territory, your soul.” Then she pointed at my friend’s pillow and told her that was her pillow, that she owned it and it was her soul. Then, the therapist said, the middle pillow symbolized the relationship. She said that both of us could step into the middle pillow any time we wanted because we’d agreed to be in a relationship. However, she said, at no point is it appropriate to step on the other person’s pillow. What goes on in the other person’s soul is none of your business. All you’re responsible for is your soul, nobody else’s. Regarding the middle pillow, the question to ask is, “What do I want in a relationship?” If the pillow you two step on together works, that’s great. If not, move on or simply explain what you’d like life to feel like in the middle pillow and see if the other person wants that kind of relationship too. But never, she said, ever try to change each other. Know who you are and know what you want in a relationship, and give people the freedom to be themselves.

This is a huge developmental question for all of us.  Who am I on my own pillow?  There are people who allow all kinds of others to stand on their pillow and tell them what kind of person they should be.  From the poem, that’s “the man he was,” or, “the man he wanted to be.”  I would amend this to say that if there is only one other who is allowed to stand on your pillow, it should be Jesus.

Jesus, himself, had to deal with that at the start of his Galilean ministry.  He had already launched his mission in the Capernaum area on the north shore of Lake Galilee.  Stories about Jesus traveled northward through the Galilean region so that by the time he got to Nazareth, expectations were already being formed about what He would do and who He was.

Walking through the little hill village of Nazareth, where he grew up, Jesus had to be sensitive to the “three men:”  the man they saw, the man He was, and the man He wanted to be.  I think Jesus had those three worked out in His mind, but did any of those who came into contact with Him—especially with whom He grew up with in Nazareth?

I was reading an article this week about the state of American religion and spirituality.  There was a phrase that caught my attention.  The article stated that in America, we live in “the Christian ghetto of the already convinced.”

Not only in the church, but in every facet of life, there is a segment of people who are “already convinced.”  That is, they have their opinions already set.  They have their ways of thinking already set.  They have their impressions already formed.  They have their beliefs already poured into concrete.  No new thoughts are entertained.  No new ideas are contemplated.  No new ways of being are attempted.

At the Elders meeting this past Tuesday, Alan Luttrell has started leading us through the process of how we are going to change directions in our congregation so we have a growing worship attendance.  We realize this is going to take some new ways of thinking about who we are, and who others think we are.  But we are looking forward to embarking on this adventure of growing our worship and program attendance, and not let the attitudes of the “already convinced” have the day.

I heard the story about a family that moved to a new town.  The youngest child in the family was, shall we say, a very active boy.  One of those kinds of kids who never gets tired and is always in the middle of something.

When the boy’s mother went to enroll him in his new school, she was asked to fill out an enrollment card with the usual information.  She filled in all the required data, such as name, address, age, family doctor, etc.  Near the bottom of the form she came to a spot reserved for “additional remarks.”  In large letters, the mother wrote, “BRACE YOURSELVES!”

Brace yourselves.  We will be looking at our congregation and not only deciding who we are, and how others see us, but who we want to be as we strive to increase our worship attendance.

I think Jesus also had some of that “Brace Yourselves” as he started his ministry, especially to people like those in his home town where they may have thought they already knew who he was.  But those gathered there to pray and sing and hear scripture were seeing a different man.  They were seeing a man who had a nice voice, who could read scripture well, maybe even prayed sincerely.  Here’s how Luke described it:  “And all spoke well of him and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, ‘Is not this Joseph's son?’”  (verse 22)

But then Jesus pulled his three men—his three selves—together and let everyone see who he was, and who he wanted to be.  Jesus already knew that he was in the middle of a ghetto of the already convinced.  Once Jesus told them that God had sent the prophet Elijah to sustain “a widow in the town of Zarephath near the city of Sidon” (in other words, a Gentile); and that God through the prophet Elisha had only healed the leper Naaman from Syria, (also a Gentile), and that Jesus was defining himself and his ministry as one for “outsiders”, then that lit the match of their ghetto mentality.

So, at the outset of his ministry, Jesus took the misperceptions head on, and made the “three men” of who he was, who he wanted to be to come together into the seamless robe of his ministry.  But it didn’t work.  Instead of seeing him for who he chose to be, the people couldn’t see past their own self-convinced misunderstanding.  Suddenly they turned, and instead of thinking him a gracious talker, out of their wrath, they tried to throw him over a cliff, in his home town.

In Men’s Bible Study we are using the 5x5x5 Bible Reading Plan as the basis for our study.  If you have been using that also, this past week you would have read Mark 14 and Mark 15, the record of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and Crucifixion.  One of the points we discussed at Men’s Bible Study was the total misunderstanding of who Jesus really was.  It seemed at every turn of the story in those chapters of Mark’s Gospel, there was someone who looked at Jesus and saw only what they wanted to see.  Defined Jesus by their own misunderstandings.  It didn’t matter who Jesus really was.  Others had already made up their minds and acted toward him accordingly.  This time Jesus didn’t escape, as he did in Nazareth.  This time he was crucified.

It becomes a constant task of Jesus to define clearly who who he was and what his identity is—to somehow bring the three men together.  This story of how the Galilean ministry got started in Nazareth—with rejection—is important because it signals what kind of message Jesus is going to speak, what kind of Savior he will be, and what his followers are asked to be and do.  I think each congregation has to go through the same identity “crisis” defining who they are as a church, and how they want to be perceived.

The problem, and the truth is, most Christian churches are ghetto’s of the already convinced.  That is, we are already convinced about who we think Jesus is, what kind of message he speaks, what we are being asked to do, what kind of people are in and which are out, what the church should be like and what it should be doing.

We already know.  We don’t want to hear any new stories, like those Jesus told in Nazareth, that God’s whole project with people is a great deal larger than we had determined.  We don't want to find out that in our Bibles there are stories of God’s gracious inclusiveness and acceptance of people we would rather God not include or accept.  We don’t want our arrogant level of being convinced challenged.  We don’t want Jesus free to be Jesus the way Jesus wants to be.  We don’t want to find out we’ve been living in the Christian ghetto of conclusions that have, in all reality, deprived us of growth and experiencing Jesus in all His fulness.

Don’t we all feel the gap between the three men:  the person we are, the person people think they see, the person we really want to be.  Imagine how that must have been so frustrating for Jesus, knowing he was the Savior of the world.  Most everyone saw someone else.

And the same is true of the church.  There is the church we are, the church others think they see, and the church we really want to be.

It is time to change the ghetto in which we live.  It is time to see Jesus in the seamlessness of his own self-definition.  And it is time to take a fresh look at our church, and find a way, together, to be as seamless with those three selves as Jesus was.

Something From The Spirit

"Something From the Spirit"

1Corinthians 12:1-11

You each have “something from the Spirit.”  Do you know what it is?  Some call it a gift.  Or an ability.  Or something about your character.  Whatever it is that we call it, according to Paul in this letter, it can be “seen in each person.”  That’s the first thing.  And secondly, it is “for the common good.”  The common good of the church, that is.  And probably for the common good of all life.

Are you aware what that “something from the Spirit” is in yourself?  How many think you do?  I like the way this is phrased, “seen in each person,” because, though it is visible to others, it is not entirely visible to us.  That’s one of the things we need other believers for.  That’s one of the reasons we need this community of Jesus—to help each other see, what is in us, that “something” from the Spirit.

So here is what I want you to do.  There is an insert in each bulletin.  If you don’t have one, we printed some extras.  Ushers please make sure each person has one.  Now, print your name at the top.  Pass them all to this end of the pew.  Ushers, collect them and mix them up.  Once they are mixed up, pass them out randomly.  If you get your own back, trade it with someone else.  Now take a few minutes and just write one word (or a few) that you think describes what that “something from the Spirit” is that that person has.  A spiritual quality, not, “this is the kind of person I think you are.”  I would be like, “You have the spirit of…”

Keep in mind what verse 7 says here in 1 Corinthians 12.  The New Century Version that was read, states:   “Something from the Spirit can be seen in each person, for the common good.”  And in the Contemporary English Version, it states, “The Spirit has given each of us a special way of serving others.”  So, what you are trying to identify in the person whose list you have is what the Spirit has given them, that is visible to you, that enhances or directs the way this person serves others, or works for the common good.

Here’s an example.  I’ll use John and Dona Cochran.  I think, together, as a couple, the “something” the Spirit has given them is hospitality.  Not everyone’s home is a swinging door like their home is.  Men’s Bible Study, Women’s Bible Study, Christmas Eve Soup Supper, just to name a few.  It is so visible to me what the Spirit has given them, and it’s not just for them—it’s clearly for the common good.  It’s their way of serving others.  So if they had a sheet as a couple, I would write, “hospitality” on one of the lines.  When you look at John or Dona individually, you may see other “something’s” the Spirit has given them.

When you’re done writing one thing down, pass it along or trade with someone else.  If you really don’t know the person to write something down, just pass it along to another person.

Once a sheet has 10 fill-ins, give it back to an usher.  The ushers can collect these and pass them back to the right person.  Questions?

After you get your list back, look it over.  Is there anything there that surprises you?  Maybe a difference in what you see in yourself vs. what others have written they see is that special something from the Spirit.  Any one want to make a comment about the process, or about something on their sheet?

The reason I’ve had us do this is based on one of my main assumptions that we can’t see in ourselves that certain something.  We may look at another person and think, “You have a certain something about you—and it’s got to be from God—because it is so clear.”  But the person we’re thinking that about may have no idea.

What dulls us to a sensitivity to that certain something the Spirit has given us for the common good?

One answer will come when we remember which church Paul was writing to:  the Corinthian congregation.  If you know anything about that congregation, you will know it was a mess from day one.  The people of Corinth, were as a whole, infatuated with themselves.  Arrogant.  Self-centered.  Narcissistic to the core.  Sexualized everything.  They had no thought of the “common good.”  They only thought about themselves and their personal good.

One of the reasons the people of Corinth were that way was because of their worship of Diana, also called Artemis, the sex goddess.  It got to the point that if someone told you you were acting like a Corinthian, it was not a complement.

But the other reason was, there was a popular philosophy, developed by Greek thinkers, called Stoicism.  The Stoics wrestled with the question, as did most ancient philosophies, of, “What makes people happy?”  The answer of the Stoic philosophers was to be a completely autonomous individual will.  We would call it being a rugged individual.  The way you did that was to live a life marked by the quality of, to use the Greek word, apatheia.  What English word does that sound like?  (Apathy.)  Apatheia in Stoic philosophy refers to a state of mind where a person is not disturbed by the passions.  In our day and time, apathy means to just not care about anything.  But it was different when the Stoics got started.

Apatheia means not being taken over by, or to react with your emotions.  It is to let logic rule your life.  The Stoic philosophers believed one of the main ways you let your emotions get the better of you was through human relationships.  So the fewer humans you allowed yourself to get close to, the more logical and clearly you can think, and the more you can live a life of apatheia—thus, be happy.  The more you can be a completely individual person the happier you will be.

I know this is a brief philosophy lesson, but it’s strategic in understanding what Paul is saying here about that special something that comes from the Spirit.  Stoicism was the main, and most popular philosophy in Greece, where Corinth was located.  The converts that Paul made at Corinth would have been Stoics.  These Christian converts would have, previously been trying to discover happiness through apatheia, thus becoming individuals, completely separate from others.

But then Paul comes along and tells them something entirely different.  He tells them that the Spirit has given them something, yes, very individual.  But what is given by the Spirit is to be used for the common good.  You don’t find happiness by cutting yourself off from others.  You find happiness by creating community with others by sharing the unique gift the Spirit has given you.  That’s the truth Paul was trying to make to the Corinthian converts.  It was a hard sell.

Stoicism is still alive and well.  Ever been told, “No one is in charge of your happiness but you”?  Stoicism.  “Don’t let anyone rob you of your happiness.”  Stoicism.  “The question is not, ‘Why does so-and-so make you mad’; the question is, ‘Why do you let them make you mad?’”  Stoicism.

The better, the positive flip side to all that is being given something from the Spirit for the good of the Christian community.  Giving of yourself in some specially gifted way that adds to the common good.  Not living life for yourself, but for the health and empowerment of the community of believers.

The Stoicism of our day is called social media.  Facebook.  Instagram.  You may think you are connecting with others.  But you are literally isolating yourself from others.  Keeping yourself at arms length.  Trying to create a measure of safety from real human emotional relationship.  You don’t have to really care as much, because the reality is, you really aren’t putting the real you out there.  Through social media you are protecting yourself from true community and relationship.  You are protecting yourself from emotions, just like the Stoics did.  Letting people affect you, but only so much.

Paul is saying the opposite.  What followers of Jesus are trying to do is build authentic community, where people really get together, and build that community together, using the special something from the Spirit.  You all have it.  You hopefully got a vision of it through our little exercise this morning.  Use it.  Help all of us build something for the common good.

Sifted

"Sifted"
Luke 3:15-17

I don’t know about you, but when I’m baking, I always sift the flour.  I know the bags of flour these days says “Pre-sifted”.  But, come on, they are just words.  If Nick Squires got a load of oak lumber and it said, “pre-sanded” do you think he’s going to leave it at that.  No way.

The reason I sift the flour is not just because the flour gets all packed down during shipment.  Sifting is important for that reason, and you can measure your ingredients by weight, rather than by the cup.  The reason I sift is because there are usually clumps of who knows what in the flour.  I sift to get these clumps of surprise ingredients out of my mixture.  I never investigate what those clumps are.  I just immediately toss them in the trash.  Separate the good from the bad.

Continuing the flour metaphor, but in its raw form of wheat, I think that’s the same thoughts people have when they read that Jesus is going to separate the wheat from the chaff.  There’s a good part of the wheat, and there’s a bad part of the wheat, and you want to make sure you only keep the good part.  The bad part gets burned.

So this is a one sentence parable and it’s all about judgment, right?  Separating the good people from the bad people.  Holding on to the good people.  Burning the bad people up in an unquenchable fire.  Salvation or damnation.  Rising or roasting.  Either, or.  That’s what Jesus is getting at, right?

Well, let’s call in an expert.  A real wheat farmer, who knows everything there is to know about wheat.  Farmer Brad Pagenkopf.  (Get him a mic.)  I want you to tell us everything you know about wheat in five minutes or less.  Actually, tell us just about the husk.  What is the purpose of the husk in the growth process of the wheat?

(Talk back and forth with Brad about this.)

So what you’re saying is, the husk isn’t bad.  It’s absolutely necessary up to a certain point in the wheat’s development.  If there was no husk, the “berry” of wheat would not be protected from the elements, nor would it develop.  The wheat would be worthless, if each kernel were not protected by the husk.

But then, in the use of the kernels of wheat, the husk is no longer needed.  It has to be discarded back into the soil so the wheat berries can be ground into flour, or used for whatever.  No husk, no grains of wheat, no flour made out of those grains.

At least for human consumption, the husk is useless.  We can’t digest the husk.  It just passes through.  But the wheat is extremely useful in so many products that we eat.  But like I keep saying, we wouldn’t have the multi-useful grain unless the husk protected that grain while it was developing.

So, let’s look at this verse again, this statement by John the baptizer made about Jesus:  “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.”

The process went this way.  A large cloth would be laid on the threshing room floor.  Or the floor would be made out of hard-packed clay.  The bundles of wheat stalks would be brought in and thrown on the threshing floor to a certain height.  Those stalks would be pounded with a shovel until the wheat grains had been loosened from the husks.  Then, with a forked shovel, the whole mess would be thrown in the air.  The wind would blow the lighter chaff (stalks and husks) away, but the heavier seeds of wheat would fall back down on the threshing floor.  After doing this several times, only the wheat was left.  It would be shoveled into clay containers and stored in the barn.  This process was called sifting.

So let’s take what we learned from farmer Brad and combine it with this ancient way of sifting out the wheat.

The hull or husk, at one time, was vitally important to the wheat.  But at the time of the harvest and sifting, it isn’t important any more.  It’s pretty well useless other than for burning, using for cattle fodder, or plowing back into the ground.  So, it’s not a matter of the husk being bad and the wheat being good.  The analogy doesn’t hold.  This statement isn’t about judgement.

This is a statement about having something useful, something important, at one point in your life.  And then, at another point, it’s just not useful anymore.  It’s not needed anymore.  It served it’s purpose.  But now it’s time to let it go.  Even throw it in the fire if need be.  That’s the sifting process.

Maybe we should call it the life-sifting process.  And here comes the hard part.  If this were merely about judgement, it would be easy.  Christians and non-Christians do it all the time.  Who’s in and who’s out?  Who’s good and who’s bad?  Who should burn in hell and who gets to go to heaven?  We try to make those distinctions and divisions and judgements all the time, and for my part, I’m sick of it.

So let’s make this harder than that.  If the statement is about the sifting process, taking that which was at one time strategic, but then isn’t important anymore, then John’s statement is about taking a hard look at our own life and beliefs.  It’s about doing a fearless personal inventory of our lives and beliefs and identifying that which might have been important at one time, but is useless now.  If it is useless, we have to get rid of it.  Burn it.  Expunge it once and for all.  Not let it be a part of our lives anymore.

Now that’s harder.  Now we’ll have to deal with all kinds of self-created hooey as we try to justify why we’re holding on to husks—stuff that has no life value.  Could be as big as a job that isn’t enhancing your life in the least.  Could be a relationship that you keep trying to find some kind of value there, when there’s none.  It could be a belief, even a so-called "Christian" belief, that doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus at all.

It could be some form of self-punishment for something you’re not proud of out of your past.  Something that, whenever it crosses your mind, all you feel is guilt and shame.  It’s a handful of husk you think you have to hold on to so you can be reminded about how bad you are.  And you won’t let God blow it all away.  Blow it into the fire so God can fill your hand with grace and embrace you, and you can embrace God back.  But you can't do that if your hands and heart are full of husks.

Now I’m going to make this harder yet.  You don’t get to decide what is husk and what is wheat.  Nor do you for someone else.  Nor someone else about you.  Only  Jesus can do that.  That’s what John says:   “His winnowing fork is in his hand to clean out his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his storehouse, but the chaff he will burn up with inextinguishable fire.”  This sifting task, of going through your life and deciding what is kept and what is tossed is up to Jesus.  You can bellyache and complain and try to talk Jesus out of discarding certain parts of your life and beliefs, but ultimately it is Jesus’ work, Jesus’ decision.

You know what that means, don’t you?  Get ready to be sifted.  Get ready to lose.  Get ready to watch some things you valued as strategic to who you are get thrown on the burn pile.

I like how The Message Bible has two of the Beatitudes in the Sermon of the Mount.  These are the first two:

“You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule.  (Or we could say, with less husks there's more room for God and Gods grace.)

“You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.  (In other words, some of that which we hold so dear is not worth holding on to anymore.  And only Jesus can let us know what those things are.)

The sifting process is about making more space for God, “the One most dear to you.”  That’s the wheat that needs to be kept.  The only way to do that is to get rid of hokey beliefs, values, and ways of being that have long served their purpose.  It’s time to let them go.  Make room for God.  Sift them out.

But only Jesus can do that, because only Jesus knows what is worth keeping and what is worthless.  You have to let him do it.  You have to let him sift you.

Like Father, Like Son

"Like Father, Like Son"

John 1:14-18

“No one has ever seen God. The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has shown us what God is like."  (John 1:18 TEV)

This is a picture of me when I was in my early 30's--I think 32 or 33.  (I really haven't changed much, have I?)  This was taken at a wedding rehearsal.  The invitation said, "Tux not required, but tennis shoes are."  The bride's mother couldn't quite figure me out.  I had just arrived at Colby, KS as their Pastor.

Anyway, what I want you to look at in this picture is my face, rather than all the other distracting stuff.  Now, here's another picture of my son, Ryan, at the same age, 32—the age he is now.

I don't know if you (the person running the computer/projector) can go back and forth between the two pictures, but there is a striking similarity, is there not?  They could both be me; or they could both be him when we were 32.

I don't know what you'd learn about me by looking at Ryan.  Probably not much.  Ryan's intelligence is off the charts.  Mine barely makes the charts.  We both sound a like.  We both love watching college basketball and text back and forth during KU games.  We both want to make an impact on the world, and affect people's lives for the better.  We are both patient, but about different things and situations.   He is thoroughly focused on all he does.  I used to be, but have lost that focus in ways, of late.

In many ways, like father, like son.  And in just as many other ways, Ryan is his own man.  I'm so proud of that fact.  Of both those facts, I should say.

What spurred all this musing was verse 18 from John 1, read this morning:  "No one has ever seen God.  The only Son, who is the same as God and is at the Father's side, he has made him known."  I was thinking about that in relation to Ryan and me and you and your children.  If you had never known me, but you met Ryan, what would you learn about me?  If I had never known you, but I met your children, what would I then know about you?

The same with Jesus and God.  No one living, past or present, has seen God.  That’s what John tells us.  But if we believe Jesus is the only Son of God (as verse 14 and 18 state) then what can we see of God in Jesus?  John has given us a lot of qualities of God that we get to see in Jesus.  That, according to John, if we really know Jesus, we will also know God.  And notice, John’s statement assumes we can know Jesus, no matter when you are alive.

So, let’s look at what John tells us about Jesus, so we can get to know God better.

First, John wrote that Jesus is God who became a human being.  John doesn’t have a story of Jesus’ birth.  John only has this statement, that Jesus is God in the flesh.  The big word we use for this is the Incarnation--which means, "in the flesh."  It’s the hardest part about Jesus to get your head around.  But you have to start there, because everything else John is going to tell us about Jesus uses “God-as-human-being” as it’s foundation.  The Incarnation is one of the most bedrock pieces of our faith.  It is the biggest leap of faith you will be asked to make about anything you believe.  There is nothing you or I can do to prove the truth of this belief that Jesus is God in-the-flesh.  You just have to believe it or not:  Jesus is God as a human being.  Creator become creation.  There it is.

Secondly, John tells us that Jesus—God as a human being—lived among us.  The Message version of the Bible translates this phrase as “moved into the neighborhood.”  Imagine God living in your neighborhood.

It’s an interesting word in the Greek that John wrote.  It literally means, “tented.”  That Jesus, as God as a human being, tented with us.  To understand that you have to go back to the time when the Ark of the Covenant was made by the Jewish people.  It was that gold box with a winged angel made out of gold sitting on each end of the box.  Inside the box was the Ten Commandments, etched on stone by the finger of God.

The Ark of the Covenant moved around with the people of God as they traveled.  There was no Temple built at this time.  But the Ark had it’s own tent.  That tent was pitched in the center of a circle of all the tents of the people.  And it was believed that wherever the Ark was, God was.  God “tented” with the people of God.

So when John wrote that Jesus “tents” with us, that’s what John is alluding to—the time when God was with the people wherever they were.  It’s a great image, isn’t it?  Maybe we should wear little tents on the end of necklace chains, instead of a cross.  Because wherever you are, wherever you go, God is with you.  What we learn about God through Jesus is that we have a God who wants and desires to be with us in a real and visible and intimate way. Through Jesus, God is tenting with you, putting up His tent wherever you are.  Whether it be the hospital or a motel.  Whether it be on an airplane or when you’re driving in your car.  Whether you are at work or on vacation.  Wherever you go, Jesus is God tenting with you.

Thirdly, John says we see God’s glory in Jesus.  And then, as if anticipating our question, John tells us what that glory of God is that we see in Jesus:  grace and truth.  Glory has to do with God's grace and truth.  They are two great words.  And he uses the two words twice, so we know they are important for John in describing who Jesus is.

Grace is a two directional kind of word.  The first and foremost direction is God’s loving, forgiving, embracing activity on our hearts.  God’s actions are always primary.  As John will write later in his first letter, “We love because God first loved us”  (1 John 4:19).  We don’t love God or love others because we are naturally capable of that kind of loving.  We needed a model.  We needed to know what it is like to be loved—to be really loved—before we can love back.  The only true model of that love and grace is from God through Jesus.

Then comes the other direction.  Once we have been loved and received grace from God through Jesus Christ, we respond with devotion, obedience and gratitude.  Our responsive gratitude is the sure sign we have received and understood Jesus’ loving grace.  By experiencing this grace from Jesus we find out what God is like and what God really wants our relationship to be like with him and with each other.

The second great word that shows us the glory of God in Jesus Christ is truth.  This is a special word in the Greek language John wrote in.  It means what is always true.  It doesn’t mean something that is true only in certain circumstances.  As Mark Twain once said, “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.”  Not so with Jesus.  The truth of Jesus is always true in every situation and circumstance of life.  That “always truth” is part of what God’s glory is all about.

One profile on a dating site read, “I am 32, 6 feet tall, handsome, well-built, athletic, intelligent, absolutely amazing and completely perfect in every way.  I’d like to meet a woman who will humor me when I get like this.”  When you experience the glory of God in Jesus, what you are facing and dealing with is the truth.  Jesus will humor you only with the truth.  So you have to be ready to face the truth when you give yourself to Jesus.

When we experience Jesus’ grace and truth, what we are actually experiencing is the glory of God.  Only in Jesus can we see and know what God’s glory is all about.

And lastly, Jesus is about “fullness.”  John used this word twice in these verses in describing Jesus, so it must be an important word for John in relation to who Jesus is.  There are a couple of nuances to this word.  First, fullness means that which has been filled.  Whatever the container is, it doesn’t come full; it is filled.  And secondly, whatever is filled is full to the amount equal to the container.  The glass, in this case isn’t half full or half empty.  If it experiences fullness, it is totally full to the brim.

Maybe you’ve heard the example of the science teacher who took out a big jar and set it on the table in front of her.  She put in some big rocks up to the top of the jar.  She asked the class if the jar was full.  Many said yes.

Then the teacher poured in some gravel that fell in-between the larger rocks.  The gravel came to the top of the jar.  She asked, “Is the jar now full?”  Now, more of the students said yes.

Out came a container of sand and the teacher poured the sand slowly into the jar.  It made its way between the smaller spaces left by the gravel.  When it was full to the top, she asked, “Is the jar full?”  Every student replied, Yes.

But then she took out a pitcher of water and poured that in the jar all the way to the top.  “Now is it full?” she asked.  And, yes, agreed the students.  Now it is full.

That’s what John is telling us about Jesus.  When we look at Jesus, we are seeing someone who is totally and completely full of God.  God to the brim.  Not just a bit of God.  But absolutely full of God with no space left over.

But that’s not all.  Jesus’ fullness of God keeps getting filled.  The reason that is so, says John, is because, “From Jesus’ fullness we have all received, grace upon grace” (vs. 16).  Jesus is filled with the grace of God that we talked about in relation to God’s glory.  Jesus shares that grace with us out of his fullness.  We receive that grace.

The word for “receive” literally means in the Greek, “keep on receiving.”  It’s a continual act of receiving.  We keep receiving from Jesus because he keeps giving out of his fullness.  Jesus can keep on giving out of his fulness because he is God, and God is never emptied of himself.  God never runs out of himself, his grace, his fullness.  We receive all that from Jesus because Jesus is God.

And so it is:  Like Father, like Son.  God has never been seen nor even close to be comprehended by the human mind and heart.  Only through Jesus can we get a glimpse of what God is like.  May this New Year be a year that you draw close to Jesus, and thereby draw close to God.