John 1:1-18

            The manager of a large office noticed a new employee one day and immediately invited the new employee into his office.  “What is your name?” Is the first thing the manager asked the new guy.  “John”, the new guy replied.  The manager scowled, “Look I don’t know what kind of place you worked at before, but I don’t call anyone by his first name.  It breads familiarity and that leads to a break down in authority.  I refer to my employees by their last names only…Smith, Jones, Baker…that is the way I operate this office.  I am to be referred to and addressed only as Mr. Robertson.  Now that we have that straight what is you last name?”  The new guy sighed and said “Darling.  My name is John Darling.”  “Okay, John the next thing I want to tell you about the way I run this office is…” 

            I guess the office manager decided he would risk breading familiarity and the possible break down in authority rather than risk outside observers thinking he was a little too familiar with his employee by addressing him as darling.   Of course the situation the office manager found himself in was comical but it also raises the importance of how we relate to one another.  There is the issue of how a person of authority, the manager in this case, relates to someone who is subordinate.  While this particular manager believes that familiarity undermines authority others would suggest that familiarity and concern for employees builds relationship and leads to a more congenial and productive working environment.  Whichever way you believe is best there is no question that what is at stake is a mater of relationship and relationships are important. 

             I think at the heart of the passage we read today from the beginning of John’s gospel is relationship.  First we have the relationship between God and God incarnate, Jesus the Christ.  Then there is the relationship between John the Baptist and the Christ.  Finally there is the issue of relationship between us and God.  Let’s look first at the relationship between Jesus and God.  John talks about the Word of God and the Light that came into darkness but make no mistake John the gospel writer is here referring to Jesus.  What the gospel writer says is that Jesus was there in the beginning…which beginning… the beginning; as in Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning.”  We often think about Jesus coming along later in the story but here the gospel writer tells us that not only was Jesus there to observe God’s work of creation, but that Jesus was an active participant in the work of creation; “without him not one thing came into being.”  I think we often think of Jesus coming in later in the story because we often imagine Jesus as being somehow subordinate to God, but here the gospel writer tells us that Jesus is not subordinate to God because they are in a unique relationship with one another.  While God and Jesus are in some ways distinct, they are in relationship, indeed they are the same.  “The Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  What is unique about Jesus and distinguishes him from God the creator is that in the person of Jesus the Christ God has taken on human form.  As the gospel writer says no one has ever seen God but because God and Jesus are in relationship, indeed one and the same, and because God chooses in the person of Jesus to dwell among us, we then can be in relationship with God also. 

            Let us then look at the relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus or God.  John too is in relationship with God because the gospel writer says “There was a man sent from God”.  Being sent not only implies relationship but it also tells us something about that relationship.  John’s relationship with God is not the same as Jesus’ relationship with God.  John, as the gospel writer says, is not himself the light but he has come to testify to the light.   John and Jesus are not the same, John is subservient to Jesus as he says “He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.”   While John is subservient to Jesus he is still in close relationship with Jesus.  Jesus is at the very center of John’s life.  In fact the only things we know about John from what the gospel writer tells us are about how John relates to Jesus.  According to the gospel writer’s account John’s very being is defined by his relationship to and with Jesus.  While John was not Jesus his purpose was to testify, to tell people about Jesus so that all might believe.   In order for John to be able to testify about Jesus in a way that will make others believe John must be in close relationship with Jesus. 

            Finally let’s look at what this passage says about our relationship with God.  First we are God’s creation.  Second while the world came into being through God/Jesus the world did not know him and his own people did not accept him.  So it is in the very nature of our relationship with God to be hostile toward God and to reject God.  But to all who received him and believed in his name God gives power to become children of God.  From God’s fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  While it is in our nature to be hostile toward God it is in God’s nature within this relationship to be gracious to us, to forgive us, and redeem us.  Because God chose to come into the world in the person of Jesus the Christ our relationship with God has been transformed.  We have been granted the status of being God’s children which is the result of no natural or human effort but is the result of God’s doing alone; God became human so that humanity might be redeemed and God’s relationship with humanity restored. 

            Having been redeemed by God in this way the question then becomes how do we live in relationship with God?  The redemption of that relationship is God’s doing entirely but having been redeemed by God how then do we live into this redeemed relationship?  The standard answer is that we then become followers of Christ, we live in relationship with God the way that Jesus did.  While I would agree with the overall sentiment of that response I think there is one not so subtle nuance that needs to be accounted for…Jesus is God and we are not.  Jesus’ relationship with God is perfect because being divine Jesus is perfect.  We are not perfect and so our relationship with God will never be made perfect by our doing the right things, it is only made perfect because God chooses to redeem our relationship with God and make it perfect.  What I am getting at is this our striving to be like Jesus will always fall short. 

            Political commentator Bill Maher has observed the same.  In an interview on Fox News’ The O’Reilly Factor, he said “Jesus as a philosopher is wonderful. There’s no greater role model, in my view, than Jesus Christ. It’s just a shame that most of the people who follow him and call themselves Christians act nothing like him.” Mr. Maher is correct on the point that as followers we Christians often fall short of the mark imitating the model of Christ.  Mr. Maher is also correct that there is no greater role model than Jesus, there is no greater role model in how to live in relationship with God, and there is no greater role model in how to live in relationship with one another than Jesus.  The trouble with Mr. Maher’s critique of Christians is that Jesus is more than a philosopher, he is a redeemer, a creator, a sustainer… he is God.  So try as we might to act like him, and we should try our best to act like him, but we will always fall short because our relationship with God is not the same as his.

              Our relationship with God is more like that of John’s relationship with God.  Unlike Jesus our relationship with God is not such that we are called to be God.  Like John our relationship with God, our relationship with the Word made flesh in the person of Jesus the Christ is not that we become the one who has redeemed us but that having been redeemed the one who has redeemed us is now at the very center of our lives.  So being a Christian is not so much about being a follower of Jesus, doing the things he did the way he did them, as it is about our very existence, our very identity being defined by our relationship with the one who has chosen to redeem us.  This does not mean that our relationship with God is passive.  While we are not called to be Jesus, to be the light, to be the Word, to be God, we are called to bear witness to the light, to bear testimony about the one who is at the center of our lives, who indeed is the very definition of our lives as our creator, redeemer, and sustainer, so that others may also come to believe. 

            Like John we are not the light, we are not Jesus, we are not God, but we are in relationship with God the creator and God in Christ, and God in the Holly Spirit.   Our relationship with this triune God is that of being subservient, God is definitely above us, but unlike the office manager who believed that familiarity bread a breakdown in authority, it is precisely God’s familiarity with us and all our faults, and yet choosing to be in relationship with us that increases not diminishes God’s authority in our relationship with God.  We are not the Christ, but as Christians we are called to at the best of our ability bear witness to the one who is the Christ, the one who has redeemed our relationship with God, the one who is the center of our being.  The only way we can do this is if we are in relationship with the one whose name we bear as Christian.  “No one has ever seen God,” but they’ve seen us.  May we bear the best testimony possible relying not on our ability to get it right or to be perfect, but relying always on the relationship with God that we have because Christ has redeemed it.  Amen.