God's Beloved Son
Sermon
THE GREENING OF THE GOSPEL
SERMONS FOR ADVENT, CHRISTMAS AND EPIPHANY SUNDAYS 1-8 IN ORDINARY TIME)
Speculation concerning the identity of John the Baptizer was a major point of discussion. His converts responded to his call to repentance and submitted to his baptism. They also wondered aloud whether John was the Messiah. But John was swift to shift the attention from himself to the one who would succeed him, whose identity was yet to be revealed:
"I baptize you with water," said John;
"but he who is mightier is coming,
the thongs of whose sandals
I am not worthy to untie;
He will baptize you
with the Holy Ghost
and with fire."
(Luke 3:16, RSV)
This reference to the Holy Ghost and "fire" calls to mind the dramatic messianic passage in the prophecy of Malachi. In Handel's magnificent "Messiah" a bass soloist movingly lifts Malachi's words:
But who may abide
the day of his coming?
And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he shall be
like a refiner's fire,
and like a fuller's soap.
Malachi's penetrating prophecy goes on to add:
And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of Levi
and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering of righteousness.
(Malachi 3:2-3)
The refiner's smelting furnace was constructed in such a way that its intense heat separated all alloys or impurities from the precious base metal, rendering it pure. The "fuller's soap" is a name given to an alkaline cleanser of borith ashes mixed with water and used to wash the natural oil from wool in the process of preparing it for the weaver.
John the Baptizer's congregation clearly understood the illustrative uses of these common purifying procedures. John symbolically associates them with the work of the Holy Spirit in the righteous revolution of the Messiah.
John's reputation as a preacher and authentic prophet was widespread. His kinship with the wilderness added to his credibility. Nonetheless, his humility was amazing. The people came to his desert camp meetings in great numbers. The magnetism of his message and his personality attracted them. But his awareness of his mission was clearly defined in his own mind.
John's description of his successor, the coming Messiah, was so exalted that he was not even worthy to touch His feet. The lowest slave might be permitted to unloose the sandals of a king and bathe his feet. But the purity and power of John's coming Messiah made him untouchable. This explains John's reticence as recorded in Matthew's account:
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the river Jordan to be baptized there by John. John didn't want to do it. "This isn't proper," he said, "I am the one who needs to be baptized of you." But Jesus said, "Please do it, for I must do all that is right." So then John baptized him.
(Matthew 3:13-15, L.B.)
After the baptism, while Jesus was praying, suddenly a memorable event occurred. The clouds opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and rested on the head of Jesus. A voice from heaven declared, "This is my Beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased." (22b)
This heavenly endorsement marks the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus and signals the blossoming of his messianic identity as well as His divine identity as the Son of God. Both of these acknowledgements separated Jesus from the mainstream of traditional Judaism. First, the Jews anticipated a triumphant Messiah, not the son of a poor carpenter. Second, the notion that Jesus was in any sense divine was blasphamy. But the emerging Christian community declared him to be the Messiah (Christos) and gave him a divine status in the theology of the triune God.
The season of Epiphany, in the calendar of the Christian church, carries the meaning of the word itself. It is the time when Christians celebrate the divine manifestation of Jesus Christ. The divine note is sounded when the voice from heaven intones the title "Beloved Son." It gives authority to the Christian description of Jesus as the "Son of God." According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus did not describe himself as the "Son of God," but other people did. He used the term "Son of Man" or just "the Son." But he frequently referred to God as his father. When he appeared before Pontius Pilate, in the trial for his life, he did not deny his divine sonship.
Jesus was attending a religious celebration in Jerusalem some time later. He was cornered by a delegation of inquiring Jews who pressed him with the inquiry: "If thou be the Christ (Messiah) tell us plainly." (John 10:24) He responded, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30) Then he added:
Say ye of him,
who the Father has sanctified
and sent into the world
thou blasphemeth because I
say I am the Son of God?
If I do not the works of my Father
believe me not.
But if I do ... believe the works:
that ye may know,
and believe, that the Father
is in me and I in him.
(John 10:34-38)
Through the centuries, in every creedal formulation, the Son-ship of Jesus Christ is equated with God. In the earliest statement of the Apostles Creed, formulated sometime after A.D. 150, this formula is used:
I believe in God the Father almighty;
and in Jesus Christ his only
begotten Son, our Lord ...
But the controversy ensued over the meaning of "begotten." At the Council of Nicaea, convened by the emperor Constantine in A.D. 325, disputation concerning the relationship of Jesus to God was settled when the council agreed to a formula describing Jesus as "begotten, not made ... of one essence (Homousion) with the Father ..." When the Council of Chalcedon convened in A.D. 451, the church declared its affirmation even more cogently as follows:
We, then, following the holy fathers
all with one consent.
confess one and the same Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
the same perfect in Godhead
and also perfect in manhood;
truly God and truly man ...
Jesus said the proof of his divine sonship was vested in his deeds, his works: If you cannot accept my self-description he said, then "believe the works" that I do ... that you may know that the Father is in me and I in him.
In the encounter with unbelievers, the ultimate argument of the church must be clothed in convincing deeds. Our concern for the poor, the oppressed, the handicapped, the aging, youth and children, testify to the true divinity and true humanity of Christ. Our concern for the whole human family must be indiscriminate. But when the church turns inward to concentrate upon itself, its survival and its trappings, conscientious seekers turn away.
Demonstrative love conquers doubt and fear. It restores trust and confidence. It transforms unbelievers into converts. When the tangible evidence of love prevails, the institutional presence called the Church becomes the living, working, loving body of Christ in the world - the very presence of God!
"I baptize you with water," said John;
"but he who is mightier is coming,
the thongs of whose sandals
I am not worthy to untie;
He will baptize you
with the Holy Ghost
and with fire."
(Luke 3:16, RSV)
This reference to the Holy Ghost and "fire" calls to mind the dramatic messianic passage in the prophecy of Malachi. In Handel's magnificent "Messiah" a bass soloist movingly lifts Malachi's words:
But who may abide
the day of his coming?
And who shall stand when he appeareth?
For he shall be
like a refiner's fire,
and like a fuller's soap.
Malachi's penetrating prophecy goes on to add:
And he shall sit as a refiner
and purifier of silver:
and he shall purify the sons of Levi
and purge them as gold and silver,
that they may offer unto the Lord
an offering of righteousness.
(Malachi 3:2-3)
The refiner's smelting furnace was constructed in such a way that its intense heat separated all alloys or impurities from the precious base metal, rendering it pure. The "fuller's soap" is a name given to an alkaline cleanser of borith ashes mixed with water and used to wash the natural oil from wool in the process of preparing it for the weaver.
John the Baptizer's congregation clearly understood the illustrative uses of these common purifying procedures. John symbolically associates them with the work of the Holy Spirit in the righteous revolution of the Messiah.
John's reputation as a preacher and authentic prophet was widespread. His kinship with the wilderness added to his credibility. Nonetheless, his humility was amazing. The people came to his desert camp meetings in great numbers. The magnetism of his message and his personality attracted them. But his awareness of his mission was clearly defined in his own mind.
John's description of his successor, the coming Messiah, was so exalted that he was not even worthy to touch His feet. The lowest slave might be permitted to unloose the sandals of a king and bathe his feet. But the purity and power of John's coming Messiah made him untouchable. This explains John's reticence as recorded in Matthew's account:
Then Jesus went from Galilee to the river Jordan to be baptized there by John. John didn't want to do it. "This isn't proper," he said, "I am the one who needs to be baptized of you." But Jesus said, "Please do it, for I must do all that is right." So then John baptized him.
(Matthew 3:13-15, L.B.)
After the baptism, while Jesus was praying, suddenly a memorable event occurred. The clouds opened and the Holy Spirit descended in the form of a dove and rested on the head of Jesus. A voice from heaven declared, "This is my Beloved Son, with thee I am well pleased." (22b)
This heavenly endorsement marks the beginning of the public ministry of Jesus and signals the blossoming of his messianic identity as well as His divine identity as the Son of God. Both of these acknowledgements separated Jesus from the mainstream of traditional Judaism. First, the Jews anticipated a triumphant Messiah, not the son of a poor carpenter. Second, the notion that Jesus was in any sense divine was blasphamy. But the emerging Christian community declared him to be the Messiah (Christos) and gave him a divine status in the theology of the triune God.
The season of Epiphany, in the calendar of the Christian church, carries the meaning of the word itself. It is the time when Christians celebrate the divine manifestation of Jesus Christ. The divine note is sounded when the voice from heaven intones the title "Beloved Son." It gives authority to the Christian description of Jesus as the "Son of God." According to the synoptic Gospels, Jesus did not describe himself as the "Son of God," but other people did. He used the term "Son of Man" or just "the Son." But he frequently referred to God as his father. When he appeared before Pontius Pilate, in the trial for his life, he did not deny his divine sonship.
Jesus was attending a religious celebration in Jerusalem some time later. He was cornered by a delegation of inquiring Jews who pressed him with the inquiry: "If thou be the Christ (Messiah) tell us plainly." (John 10:24) He responded, "I and my Father are one." (John 10:30) Then he added:
Say ye of him,
who the Father has sanctified
and sent into the world
thou blasphemeth because I
say I am the Son of God?
If I do not the works of my Father
believe me not.
But if I do ... believe the works:
that ye may know,
and believe, that the Father
is in me and I in him.
(John 10:34-38)
Through the centuries, in every creedal formulation, the Son-ship of Jesus Christ is equated with God. In the earliest statement of the Apostles Creed, formulated sometime after A.D. 150, this formula is used:
I believe in God the Father almighty;
and in Jesus Christ his only
begotten Son, our Lord ...
But the controversy ensued over the meaning of "begotten." At the Council of Nicaea, convened by the emperor Constantine in A.D. 325, disputation concerning the relationship of Jesus to God was settled when the council agreed to a formula describing Jesus as "begotten, not made ... of one essence (Homousion) with the Father ..." When the Council of Chalcedon convened in A.D. 451, the church declared its affirmation even more cogently as follows:
We, then, following the holy fathers
all with one consent.
confess one and the same Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ,
the same perfect in Godhead
and also perfect in manhood;
truly God and truly man ...
Jesus said the proof of his divine sonship was vested in his deeds, his works: If you cannot accept my self-description he said, then "believe the works" that I do ... that you may know that the Father is in me and I in him.
In the encounter with unbelievers, the ultimate argument of the church must be clothed in convincing deeds. Our concern for the poor, the oppressed, the handicapped, the aging, youth and children, testify to the true divinity and true humanity of Christ. Our concern for the whole human family must be indiscriminate. But when the church turns inward to concentrate upon itself, its survival and its trappings, conscientious seekers turn away.
Demonstrative love conquers doubt and fear. It restores trust and confidence. It transforms unbelievers into converts. When the tangible evidence of love prevails, the institutional presence called the Church becomes the living, working, loving body of Christ in the world - the very presence of God!
