ThisWeeksSermon, The Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ, January 6, 2008

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“It was Christpower at the Big Bang of the Universe!”
The Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ January 6, 2008

May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.

I'm about to admit something here…
something that may surprise you…
coming from the mouth of a parish priest with a master’s degree in theology.
I struggle with the meaning of the word Christ.
I'm not quite sure what it should mean to me.
I understand that it's not Jesus' last name…
although I think a lot of people think it is.
But Jesus' last name actually would have been “Jesus ben Joseph”…
Jesus, son of Joseph.
That's the way people kept track of a person’s paternity in those days.
I know that the word Christ comes from the Greek word Christos…
meaning "the Anointed One."
I also know that the Hebrew word for Christ is usually translated as “Messiah.”
The word Christ is actually a title…
not a name.
But there's something more to it.
And that's what I'm trying to get a handle on.
Scholars these days make a distinction between "the Jesus of history" and "the Christ of Faith"…
suggesting two possible ways of thinking about Jesus…
The One we follow.
Thinking about Jesus the man who walked the dusty roads of the Middle East…
and thinking about the Christ of Faith…
beyond the limits of the natural order…
the Christ of Faith…
somehow God.
The Christmas readings
On Christmas Eve…
and again last Sunday…
the gospel was from the first chapter of John.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
Notice that John refers to the Word as a "he."
He (the Word) was in the beginning with God.
All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
Then…
as we read on…
the author of that gospel suggests that it was that original “Word” that became flesh and came into this world as Jesus…
son of Joseph and Mary.
So somehow…
if John got it right…
this word Christ is more than a word to describe just the risen Christ of Faith.
The word Christ would describe that “God-presence” at The Big Bang…
at the birth of the Universe.
My spiritual journey
In my personal spiritual journey…
I have a Teacher…
a Rabbi of my own…
a person who leads me toward that which feels most Honest and most True.
My Rabbi’s name is John Shelby Spong.
He's the retired Episcopal bishop of the Diocese of Newark.
(Incidentally, I'm going to be seeing him in California in March!)
Here's how my Teacher…
Bishop Spong…
describes the Christ experience.
He coined the word Christpower…
and he wrote a very long poem about it.
With your blessing…
I hope…
you’ll stay with me as I share that very long poem.
Here it is…
somewhat edited.
Christpower
Far back beyond the beginning…
stretching out into the unknowable…
incomprehensible…
unfathomable depths.
Dark and void…
of infinite eternity behind all history…
the Christpower was alive.
This Christpower was the
living, bursting…
pulsing, generating…
creating, smoldering…
exploding, fusing power of life itself.
This Christpower was the multiplying, emerging…
erupting power of life itself.
Christpower was the pollenizing, inseminating, heating, cooling power of life itself.
And it was good!
Here, all things that we know began their journey into being.
Here, light separated from darkness.
Here, Christpower began to take form.
Here, life became real…
and that life spread into emerging new creatures…
creatures evolving into ever higher intelligence.
There was a sacrifice here…
and a mutation there.
There was grace and resurrection appearing in their natural order…
occurring and recurring…
and always driven by the restless…
creating…
energizing life force of God…
called the Christpower…
which flowed in the veins of every living thing
for ever and ever and ever and ever.
And it was good!
In time…
in this universe…
there emerged creatures who were called human…
and the uniqueness of these creatures lay in that they could
perceive this life-giving power.
They could name it…
and embrace it…
and grow with it…
and yearn for it.
Thus human life was born…
but individual expressions of that human life
were marked with a sense of incompleteness…
inadequacy…
and a hunger that drove them ever beyond the self
to search for the secret of life…
and to seek the source of life's power.
This was a humanity that could not be content with
anything less.
And once again in that process there was sacrifice and there was mutation…
grace and resurrection now in the human order…
occurring…
recurring…
and it was good!
Finally…
in the fullness of time…
within that human family…
one unique and special human life appeared:
whole, complete, and free…
loving, living, and being.
In that life was seen with new intensity…
that primal power of the universe…
Christpower…
and it was good!
Of that life people said: Jesus…
you are the Christ…
for in you we see and feel and experience the living force of life and love and the being of God.
Jesus was hated, rejected, betrayed, and killed…
but he was never distorted…
for here was a life in which the goal…
and the dream…
and the hope of all life is achieved.
A single life among many lives.
Here among us…
out from us…
and yet this power…
this essence…
was not from us at all…
for the Christpower that was seen in Jesus…
is finally of God.
And even when the darkness of death overwhelmed him…
the power of life resurrected him…
for Christpower is life eternal…
without beginning…
without ending.
It is the secret of creation.
It is the goal of humanity.
Here in this life we glimpse that immortal…
invisible…
most blessed…
most glorious…
almighty…
life-giving force of this universe…
in startling completeness…
in a single person.
Men and women tasted the power that was in him…
and they were made whole by it.
They entered a new freedom…
a new being.
They knew resurrection and what it means to live
in the “Eternal Now.”
So they became agents of that power…
sharing those gifts from generation to generation…
creating and re-creating…
transforming…
redeeming…
making all things new.
And as this power moved among human beings…
light once more separated from darkness.
And it was good!
They searched for the words to describe the moment that recognized the fullness of this power…
living in history…
living in the life of this person.
But words failed them.
So they lapsed into poetry:
When this life was born…
they said…
a great light split the dark sky.
Angelic choruses peopled the heavens to sing of peace on earth.
They told of a virgin mother…
of shepherds compelled to worship…
of a rejecting world that had no room in the inn.
They told of stars and oriental kings…
of gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh.
For when this life was born…
that power was and is with God…
inseparable.
The endless beginning was seen even in a baby in swaddling clothes…
lying in a manger.
Christpower.
Jesus…
you are the Christ.
To know you is to live…
to love…
to be.
O come, then, let us adore him!
O come, then, let us adore him!
The Christ of faith
That’s where we are today.
“The feast of The Epiphany of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The feast of the manifestation of Christpower to the world.
It's the end of the journey that began with the announcement of the coming of the Anointed One…
the Messiah.
Four weeks of advent and 12 days of Christmas…
ending with an array of kings…
Herod…
David…
the Magi…
all directed to a simple stable with a newborn child.
We're used to thinking that God's anointed one would arrive quietly…
in vulnerability…
in the midst of violence…
prepared for suffering.
That’s the “Jesus of History.”
But the whole point of all those kings is that they were left in the darkness by the radiance of the King of kings…
the Christ of faith…
beyond “the Christ of faith.”
It was the Christpower…
present at the beginnings of life…
present at the “Big Bank” of the Universe.
O come, then, let us adore him!
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks