The One Who Is - For You

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

God always was, and always is, and always will be. Or rather, God always Is. For Was and Will be are fragments of our time, and of changeable nature, but He is Eternal Being. And this is the Name that He gives to Himself when speaking to Moses from the Burning Bush. For in Himself He sums up and contains all Being, having neither beginning in the past nor end in the future; like some great Sea of Being, limitless and unbounded, transcending all conception of time and nature, only outlined by the mind, and that very dimly and scantily, not by His Essentials, but by His Environment.

 

Many images and ideas of God abound, one image being gotten from one source and another from another,. Combined into some sort of presentation of the truth, it escapes us before we have caught it, and takes to flight before we have conceived it. It blazes forth upon our soul, even when that is cleansed, as the lightning flash which will not stay its course, does upon our sight. That part of it which we can comprehend draws us to Himself (for that which is altogether incomprehensible is outside the bounds of hope, and not within the compass of endeavor).

 

By that part of It which we cannot comprehend to move our wonder, and as an object of wonder to become more an object of desire, and being desired to purify, and by purifying to make us like God; so that when we have thus become like Himself, God may, to use a bold expression, hold converse with us as Gods, being united to us.

Perhaps He may converse with us to the same extent as He already knows those who are known to Him.  The Divine Nature then is boundless and hard to understand; and all that we can comprehend of Him is His boundlessness; even though one may conceive that because He is of a simple nature He is therefore either wholly incomprehensible, or perfectly comprehensible.

The unknowable, incomprehensible, invisible, immortal, eternal, omnipotent God who Is pure Being – this God we believe, teach, and confess to be our only Lord and God, our Savior and our Redeemer, our only help in trouble, our one Lord Jesus Christ.

For without the flesh of Jesus Christ, without His incarnation and nativity which we have just celebrated, the great I AM remains simply that – pure Being – inaccessible to His creation. He is as approachable as the star that guided the Magi to Bethlehem – bright, radiant, but myriad light-years removed from this earth.

This is the reason the Church celebrates this Feast of the Epiphany of our Lord. “Epiphany” means “manifestation” – one might loosely translate it as “dawning”. Just as the Star of Bethlehem dawned upon the earth and shined on the way to the Christ-Child for the Magi, so the Sun of Righteousness has dawned upon the earth, the Son of God stepping forth and revealing Himself not only to the Jews but to the Gentiles.

The Prophet Isaiah calls to you this day: “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.” The Light of the World has risen upon you. The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light. Those who formerly pined in darkness, waiting for the face of the Lord to be lifted up in blessing, now are comforted by the radiant beaming of the infant face of our Lord Jesus Christ, the visible image of the invisible God. He is the face of God in the flesh, and in Him all the fullness of the Godhead is pleased to dwell bodily. “And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

The Light of the World has dawned upon this earth, so that all mankind might enjoy the blessings He has come to bring. No longer is the Covenant of the Lord's favor limited to the children of Abraham according to the flesh. No – the Lord has now indeed raised up from the stones of the dead-in-sin Gentiles sons for Abraham by the Holy Spirit.

For this reason our Lord has come into the flesh, and for this reason we celebrate that He was worshiped and confessed by the Eastern sages. They, who brought to Him the gifts proper to His office as Prophet, Priest, and King, confessed His to be the King of the Jews, the Lord of Hosts, the Holy One of Israel who summons all nations to His holy mountain.

There is no difference – whether Jew or Greek, slave or free, gentleman or barbarian, male or female, gay or straight, adulterer, murderer, liar, gossip, pastor, layperson, old, young, black, white, or purple – all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And for this reason darkness covered the earth and thick darkness surrounded the peoples. We have all gone astray, every one to his own way.

You have fallen short of the holy standard of the Law. You would possess the seat of power, like mad King Herod, and breathe out hatred and malice against those who challenge your self-importance and prepossession. You doubt the Word of the Lord – “did He really say?” You would rather people listen to what you have to say, whether it is true or not, helpful or not, upbuilding or slanderous.

And you would just as soon your neighbor starve, freeze, and fall off the cliff in the valley of the shadow of death as see him brought into the light of the Lord's house, fed with the wedding banquet of the King, and clothed in the white robes of righteousness won by His Son. For he is not like you. He comes from different stock. He isn't from around here. He has bad habits and keeps bad company. His kids are no good.

For you, for this reason, for your sins and for the sins of your neighbor, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent into the flesh, to manifest in Himself the glory of God, full of grace and truth. He was sent to be the visible image of the great I AM.

He was sent in two natures, both only-begotten Son of the Father, begotten before all worlds, being of one substance with the Father; and also sole-begotten son of the Virgin Mary, conceived of the Holy Spirit, and born according to the way of man, being possessed of a human body, soul, and spirit. He is as you are, yet is without sin, in order that He might make you sinless through His obedience and sacrifice upon the cross.

This Epiphany, this manifestation of our Lord to the Gentiles, yes, to the whole world, happened in Bethlehem, as the Magi worshiped the Christ-Child. But this presaged the true, full Epiphany of our Lord, when He would shine forth from the cross, tearing the veil between God and man, piercing the darkness with never-ending light, and bridging the divide between heaven and earth with the ladder of His own broken flesh.

There is no difference – Jew or Greek, slave or free, young or old, man or woman, gay or straight, black or white, murderer or adulterer, liar or gossip – all your sins and failings have been placed upon Christ Jesus and have been left upon the cross. They are covered in the blood of the One whose light has dawned on this great and glorious day of the Lord.

 

God always was, and always is, and always will be. Or rather, God always Is. But God is not merely Pure Being. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God is your Savior. God is your brother, Jesus Christ. God is man, and now a man sits upon the throne of God. This is the mystery to which the Magi bore homage, and which you now confess and worship. “You shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and exult!”

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.