How does one "see the unseen?"
The Ongoing Search for Christ Astonishingly, the Creator seldom imposes himself on his creatures. It requires attention and effort on our part to “remember your Creator” because the Creator slips quietly backstage. God does not force his presence on us. When lesser gods attract, God withdraws, honoring our fatal freedom to ignore him. -Philip Yancey, Rumors
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The pursuit of glory begins with a paradoxical statement:
"The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish." (John 1:14 MSG)
John writes by way of giving evidence, handing us this must-know information so we can get our minds around the truth. But the truth itself is shocking. I can’t read this passage without being struck by the paradox: "We saw the glory..." says John. What about us?
Today, we can say these words, and we can’t. For us it’s true and it isn’t.
The disciples indeed saw Jesus: Flesh-and-blood glory. We see him too, but not in the same way. Our starting place is not a sea-side summons to "Come follow!" but this… this in-the-book glory.
Christ the man is no longer with us, but he’s left these words behind him, and something else as well—his spirit. The lens that we use to perceive Christ has switched, visible to invisible, optical data to spiritual perception. We are not alone, but the highest reality in our lives is now unseen.
In some ways, our obstacle here is also our advantage—we are no longer misled by appearances. The unseen can have a piercing effectiveness, a more direct path to our hearts, because we are so easily swayed by facades. But undoubtedly we are going against the grain when we work to "see the unseen." As Christ said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, but have believed.”
In our favor is this: We don’t stumble over Jesus’ appearance anymore-
- His not-so-striking looks
- His peasant status
- His mundane day job
- His lack of fine threads and servants
Instead, we stumble over his non-appearance. Today, we have to search for Jesus—and the burning question is how?
Just as it was in John's day, "glory" is of the essence...
* Once or twice a year I get the opportunity to guest-speak at my church, and I'm trying a new idea with this post - previewing the message I'm giving this Sunday. More than likely, I'll post a follow-up.
5 comments:
Again a fabulous post! I can't wait for the second part.
This is a very fascinating way to begin, it is an approach I would never have thought of using. I hope preaching on Sunday goes well for you.
great! I can't wait for Sunday!
~ruth
You truly have a gift for stunning and evocative language, Ariel. And I'm an atheist!
you're preaching on sunday?!! that's terrific.
you have a way of always finding an original angle....always keeping it real and new. it's so easy to pity ourselves about all the questions surrounding His invisibility, i've never thought about what a blessing it is. how perfect.
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