Let us pray:

We have come into your presence, Lord, to celebrate, and to learn to better represent you to the world. Please send your Spirit to guide us. Amen.

I picked up a book at Barnes & Noble. The young man who sold it to me saw the badge in my billfold and asked, “What do police chaplains do?”

After a brief conversation, he told me of a minister who spoke at some meeting at the White House, calling on our leaders to worship a more loving and compassionate God, than the God they apparently worship. Then he asked, “What kind of God do you worship?”

What kind of God do we worship? Does our God have a name, a specific way of being in the world? Is our God personal?

We recently celebrated the birth of Baby Jesus, meek and mild. In 3 weeks we will begin Lent, when we celebrate grown-up Jesus, oblique and wild.

By the way, in case it’s been a long time since you studied high school English, oblique is defined as “not explicit or direct in addressing a point.” Jesus often taught with parables, stories which were oblique, somewhat indirect.
Who was this Jesus we worship? When we saw him in a crib, he looked about like any other baby, but when he grew up, he assumed a rather terrifying persona — calling Herod Antipas, the king, an “old fox,” calling the religious leaders some very nasty names, like a “brood of snakes,” boldly proclaiming that he and the Father were one . . .

When we read about, or talk about God, and Jesus, and Bible stories, we consider them in terms of our own preconceptions. We must realize that many of the Bible characters and stories are metaphors. Even the scholars don’t always agree on which are which.

The stories of Jesus, factual or not, were from real life, readily identifiable.

There are many who believe we must overcome Bible anthropomorphism. Anthropomorphism — the notion that God is in our image — hands, feet, eyes and arms. Yes, God is described in the Bible as walking in the garden, speaking to his prophets, holding us in his arms, etc. But scholars believe those are metaphors.

When Jesus told us to call God “our Father” he seems to have been speaking of God as as a person, a daddy! When Jesus was called, even by himself, the Son of God, that was anthropomorphic. How important is it to hear it as fact, or as metaphor?

Let me remind you of an old story I have told you before: A Native American said, “I am going to tell you the history of our tribe. I don’t know if these things happened, but I know the story is true.”

The Bible teaches us Truth, sometimes factual, sometimes maybe not! So I don’t quarrel either with those who take the Bible pronouncements more literally than I do, or those who take the Bible less literally than I do.

During Lent, we will speak of Jesus as the incarnation of God. I think he was just that. I like the story of Gabriel saying to God, “Father, isn’t it time for the Judgment?” as he lifts his trumpet to his lips. But God pushes the trumpet from Gabriel’s lips.

Gabriel says, “But Father, you have sent many prophets to warn them. You even sent a flood one time. They simply don’t want to do what is right. What more you can do?”

“Gabriel, I have tried to get them to listen. They haven’t. I am going to try once more. This time I’m going to go down in person . . . as a human being.”

So God, as Jesus incarnate, came down to live among us, as one of us, to love us, and to invite us to follow his example. “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:26)

Jesus prayed, just before the crucifixion, “Father, just as you are in me and I am in you, I want them to be in us . . .” (John 17:21)

Matthew, Mark and Luke all tell of the conversion of Levi, a tax collector. What was the first thing he did? He threw a party! “That night Levi invited Jesus and his disciples to be his dinner guests, along with tax collectors and many other notorious sinners.” (Mark 2:15)
Maybe we can understand why many people hesitate to see God as intensely personal. The more vague, indistinct, impersonal we make God, the more we can make God to be whatever makes us feel good! We can picture God as a sweet, sentimental Being who loves us no matter what. Then we won’t have to grow, change, be born again.

I have noticed that people talk more about God, and less about Jesus. They say, “We have our differences, but we all believe in God.” So to promote unity, they sacrifice God as a distinct, personal Being.

Praise the Lord, we pray and work for unity by accepting Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, the Savior.

Our scriptures today give us a beautiful picture of a personal God. Look again at the psalm: (Psalm 40) “I waited patiently for the Lord to help me, and he heard my cry. He lifted me out of the pit of despair. He set my feet on solid ground and steadied me as I walked along. He has given me a new song to sing, a hymn of praise. Many will see what he has done and be astounded.”

He goes on, “I have not been afraid to speak out . . . I have not kept this good news hidden in my heart; I have told everyone in the great assembly of your unfailing love and faithfulness.” That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it?

Isaiah recounts how even before he was born, God had plans for him. Even before he was born God claimed his life. That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it?
Paul, when he was challenged by dissidents in one of his congregations, defended his role as a preacher, not on the basis of biblical fidelity, not with a diploma from the seminary, but by his Damascus Road experience, God’s call to be an apostle. The word apostle literally means “someone sent by God.” That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it?

Paul, as an apostle, was a mighty man of God. I am reminded of a Peanuts comic strip. Linus is upset by news that one of his teachers was to be fired. He turns to Lucy and says, “They can’t do that. I’ll write a letter of protest. I’ll blow this thing wide open. I’ll write to someone in authority, someone who can really do something about it.”

He picks up his paper and pencil, then says to Lucy, “How does one address a letter to the Apostle Paul?”

Then in our Gospel for today, John the Baptist looked at Jesus and saw the very presence of God, the personification of God among us. “I testify that he is the Son of God.” That man standing there is more than just a man. That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it? He is the Son of God. A man, and God! That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it?

The incarnation, the Word made flesh, is the supreme manifestation of God’s determination, from the beginning of the world, to be with us, no matter what! That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it?

When I was 10 years old, I worked in a greenhouse, transplanting plants. I was paid 4 cents an hour!
I was careful not to disturb the roots. Mrs. Hanson said, “Junior, don’t be so careful with the plants. The roots need to be loosened, to give them a chance to breathe, stretch and grow.”

Is that what we need? Do we need a little stirring of our roots, some disturbing of our “comfort zones,” so our hearts and minds can breathe, stretch and grow? Is that what Jesus meant when he said we must be born again?

In our Wednesday evening Bible Study we are studying baptism. Last week we found baptism to signify dying, burying the old person of sin, and a new person being resurrected, or born into the Kingdom of God. That is a very exciting insight. When you are converted, you are a completely new person!

Paul wrote to the Romans, “And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice — the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask?”
(Romans 12:1)

To the church in Corinth he wrote, “We have all died to the old life we used to live . . . What this means is that those who become Christians become new persons. They are not the same anymore, for the old life is gone. A new life has begun!” (II Corinthians 5)

That sounds pretty personal, doesn’t it? Jesus wants to be one with us. Jesus gives us a new way to live — completely new values, new ideals, new experiences.
I don’t want to make it all sound too simple. It isn’t. Jesus made very clear that his followers will face trials, even persecution! I have never been persecuted; have you? Why not? That disturbs me sometimes. If Jesus said there will be a cost to discipleship, and he did, and we are his disciples, why has it not really cost us much, as it did the first-century Christians?

By 320, when Constantine made Christianity legal, it seems to have put Christians “to sleep”!

Back to John the Baptist. When John and two of his disciples saw Jesus in a crowd, John said, “Look! There he is, the one I told you is the Son of God.”

“Andrew was one of these men who had heard what John said, and then followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother, Simon, and tell him, ‘We have found the Messiah’” (John 1:40, 41)

Before every evangelistic campaign Billy Graham held, they had what they called “Operation Andrew.” People who knew Jesus, who were Christians, were encouraged to invite their friends to attend the meetings. Mr. Graham said, “We don’t know how many other people Andrew brought to Jesus, but the record of that first one is crystal clear. Simon Peter became one of the dynamos who powered the early church.”

A story is told about David Livingstone, that great missionary to Africa. A missionary society cabled him: “Is there a good road to where you are? If so, we will send other men to join you.”
Livingstone replied, “If you have men who will come only if there is a good road, I don’t want them. I would be glad to welcome men who will come even if there is no road at all.”

USA Today published a list of 10 great places to enjoy the “thrill of skill.” They are all sporting type places — schools where you can learn mountain climbing, canoeing, race driving, skiing, horse-back riding . . .

To accomplish skills in any of those endeavors takes practice. I don’t think Wilma sat at the piano for the first time and played like she does now. I am quite sure Charlie didn’t just walk into Ford’s and start planning better cars. Alvina did not just sit at a typewriter and start typing, nor did Larry just sit at a computer and know what to do with it!

The “thrill of skill” is reserved for those who are willing work at perfecting the skill they want for thrills! The old adage “practice makes perfect” is more than just a pleasing platitude. It is a challenge to work, practice, study.

How about faith? Should we, can we perfect our faith by diligent practice, by study, by serious tho’t?

Well, Jesus did say “you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect,” didn’t he? Paul said to “let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is.” James wrote, “Whatever is good and perfect comes to us from God above.”
Finally, John wrote that as we live in God, our love grows more perfect.”
(I John 4:17)

I submit that reaching perfection should be our goal. And I submit that when Jesus said, “Let your light so shine that all may see your good works” he was asking us to reach a pretty high, personal goal! I submit that if we really want God to get personal with us, we better get personal about representing Jesus.

“God will surely do this for you, for he always does just what he says, and he is the one who invited you into this wonderful friendship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” (I Corinthians 1:1-9)

Let us pray . . .