Who
are you
Lord?

Part I

The autumn cyclamen outside the entrance to my flat are harbingers of the changing of the seasons here in the UK. We may ruefully look back on a summer that was only fitfully 'summery' but then, that is the way of our island climate and weather! At the same moment there are also the challenging thoughts that, in the midst of the most disastrous recession for 79 years throughout the world, the UK is soon to see the political parties limbering up for the election of a new parliament in the Spring. Needless to say the media is jointly trying to tell us who should win! But we, the voters, also have more important things to think about - how to live our lives out with courage and humility, willing to serve others in the process.

Against this background of an unstable political and financial global crisis, the question of Who is Jesus? must seem to be fiddling while Rome burns. But it has always been a perennial question even when, for the majority of Christians, it was felt right to adhere to the dogmas and historic creeds of the churches. But the time came, about three centuries ago, when the scientific and philosophical revolution raised the stakes in questioning Christian statements about God and Jesus. This was seen in a negative light by many Christians and resulted in most of the churches barricading themselves in, as it were, from what they saw as the undermining of faith. Today we can see how that questioning can be seen as positive, enabling us to think through our faith against the background of life as we understand it from its origins to the present technological revolution of the late 20th century.

The question of Jesus cannot be understood apart from how we understand God. So this must be our first task. It is very complicated and we shall have to compress our answer!

The idea that God is holy reverberates throughout all religious literature. The vision of John the divine in Revelation is a good example:

At once I was in the Spirit, and lo, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne! And he who sat there appeared like jasper and carnelian, and round the throne was a rainbow that looked like an emerald. Round the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clad in white garments, with golden crowns upon their heads. From the throne issue flashes of lightning, and voices and peals of thunder, and before the throne burn seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God; and before the throne there is as it were a sea of glass, like crystal. And round the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all round and within, and day and night they never cease to sing, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!" (Revelation 4: 1-8)

While it can be argued that in the New Testament 'heaven' was a metaphorical description of the God who was holy, that is, separate from humanity, it quite soon became a substantial place apart from humanity and our world with all the 'trappings' quite delightfully described in Revelation and elsewhere. (It is found in Isaiah's vision of the divine in Isaiah chapter 6). And this 'description' of the dwelling of God came to be central to all worship. So the Sanctus, around which so much wonderful music has been written throughout the centuries, lies at the beginning of the Christian Eucharist. While this idea of the holiness of God may resonate in prayer and liturgy, the idea that God is somewhere 'out there' - in heaven - beyond the whole cosmos, has falsified the relationship between God and humanity. The ideas of the Almighty, the Omniscient God belong more to the primitive stories of the Old Testament and to Greek myths.

If we are to be able to believe in God today it has to be in terms of the creator who is compassionate, merciful and loving who is also immanent - with us - rather than a god who spends most of his time looking down to this 'naughty' world of ours. The latter idea began to fall apart three centuries ago but the churches have maintained the language and ideas of the Almighty God of heaven. The idea of the God who is 'with us' still raises the often repeated challenges - 'Why does he not do something about the prevalent evils in humanity and in natural disasters?' But, as we shall see, it is only with the God who is immanent that we shall be able to come to know who Jesus is.

So, there is only one world which we are, today, cherishing in the climate change scenario. If we believe in the God and Father of Jesus, he is with us in our diversity and oneness. The mediaeval world map of Dante with the 'super-natural' somewhere in the highest heavens and hell down in the depths of earth, has passed away for good. The poetry and music of the mediaeval story remains to enthral us, but today it no longer helps us to respond to the gospel which speaks of the 'kingdom' of God. We shall find that this very Jewish idea of the rule of God is the proper context in which we may come to understand who Jesus is. It is an immense and wonderful spectacle that the gospels present to us - if also, at times, enigmatic in the sayings of the Son of man -

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark 1: 14)

And when he was alone, those who were about him with the twelve asked him concerning the parables. And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; so that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven." (Mark 4: 10-12)