Norwood Presbyterian Church

Worship on the Lord’s Day

Fourth Sunday of Easter

April 13, 2008 10:45 am

Gospel Lesson: John 10:1-10 – The Message, Eugene Peterson

JESUS SAID: “Let me set this before you as plainly as I can. If a person climbs over or through the fence of a sheep pen instead of going through the gate, you know he’s up to no good – a sheep rustler! The shepherd walks right up to the gate. The gatekeeper opens the gate to him and the sheep recognize his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he gets them all out, he leads them and they follow because they are familier with his voice. They won’t follow a stranger’s voice but will scatter because they aren’t used to the sound of it.”

Jesus told this simple story, but they had no idea what he was talking about. So he tried again. “I’ll be explicit, then. I am the Gate for the sheep. All those others are up to no good – sheep stealers, every one of them. But the sheep didn’t listen to them. I am the Gate. Anyone who goes through me will be cared for – will freely go in and out, and find pasture. A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

The Word of God for the people of God – thanks be to God!

Message: “Images of God” The Rev. Chris White

· No one really knows what God looks like.

· A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's work.

· As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

· The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

· Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute."

· God is a mystery. Anyone who says they completely understand God – doesn’t understand just how amazing God is!

· If we understood everything about God – we’d be God ourselves – and that just isn’t possible.

· God is also a Spirit – a mysterious and invisible Spirit without body or form.

· And although the reality is that we will never completely figure out God this side of heaven – we humans are still called to do everything we can to try to “meet and greet and get to know” our mysterious and invisible God.

· Fortunately for us, this seemingly impossible task has been made easier than one might think – because God wants to be known – wants to be in relationship with us – wants us to understand as much as humanly possible.

· Fortunately for us, God loves us – and has come up with many different ways to be revealed to us.

· The Scriptures are full of images of God.

· The 23^rd Psalm – often referred to as the “Shepherd’s Psalm” that we read responsively this morning - reveals one of the most well-known images of our Lord as our shepherd. Our epistle and gospel lessons use those images as well.

· Shepherds and sheep would have been familiar images to people of that time. God’s caring and protective nature would have been more easily understood through the image of a shepherd tending carefully to a flock of sheep.

· Another familiar passage, this one from the prophet Isaiah, is often used at Christmas time, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ: For a child has been born for us, a son given to us; authority rests upon his shoulders; and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

· One of the most important ways God has chosen to be revealed is through Jesus Christ.

· Jesus - the “incarnation” of God – God made flesh.

· Do you remember the movie “O God” starring George Burns and John Denver? There is one scene in the movie where Burns, who plays God, appears to a supermarket assistant manager (the character played by Denver) wearing tennis shoes, glasses, and a fishing hat. When asked why he looks the way he does, Burns answers, “I picked a look you could understand.”

· In Jesus, God picked a look that we could understand – a human form.

· Of course, Jesus wasn’t just “any” human – Jesus is also a mystery - in that Jesus was fully human while at the same time being fully God.

· And since we humans are made in the image of God – Jesus Christ (God incarnate) is an image of God we can understand.

· It takes many different images to cover the vastness of God. No one image could ever contain all the wonderfulness of God.

· Because we know God as the “Triune God” – or the “Trinity” – one God revealed to us in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit – we already have – right off the bat - at least three different images of God.

· Some of us were introduced to images of the Trinity when we were young – through drawings in our children’s Bible Story books or through movies with actors like Charlton Heston. Some of those images may have been helpful at one time – a look we could understand – but a look that might be too simplistic or confining for us now.

· God the Creator – the loving parent, often portrayed in the past as a man with a flowing white beard, and a booming voice, sitting on a throne.

· God the Son – Jesus Christ – our Savior and Redeemer. Perhaps you’ve seen paintings of Jesus as a blue-eyed, blond, fair-skinned man – surrounded by small children with similar European features.

· And God the Holy Spirit – the sustainer, the advocate - referred to in the Apostles’ Creed as the “Holy Ghost” – maybe bringing to mind images of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

· The truth is - God’s being cannot be contained – even within the theological concept of the Trinity. God goes beyond any image we could possibly visualize or articulate.

· The fact that Jesus used father-language for God refers more to the culture in which Jesus had his human experience than to any actual definition of God. God can’t be restrained within our humanly defined narrow designations of gender or race or ethnic origin.

· Jesus would have used the title of a male parent - “abba, daddy” - to express not only a loving, intimate familiarity with God – but at the same time – an acknowledgement of God’s absolute power and control over life and death.

· We are fortunate to have many images of God that speak of the attributes – the character – of God.

· Several of those images have been woven into this morning’s worship service. In our opening music, we sang of Jesus as King.

· Our assurance of pardon reminds us that while God challenges and confronts us, God also accepts and encourages us.

· This morning’s “affirmation of faith” in particular lists many different images of God.

· And our last song for today “I Am Who I Am” is based on one of the first ‘formal’ introductions we have of God.

· In Exodus – the second book of the Bible – God tells Moses to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses reluctantly agrees – but wants to know who to say sent him. And God’s reply to Moses is – “I am who I am.”

· The translation from Hebrew into English loses something of the eternal aspect of that name – “I was, I am now, I will be - who I was, am now and will be” might be more accurate.

· At various times in his ministry, Jesus asks his disciples, “Who do you say I am?”

· I believe it is important for each and every one of us to attempt to answer that question for ourselves.

· What images of God inform and direct our lives? Has our understanding of God grown and developed to reflect an adult faith?

· Childhood images of God as judge and father can be enhanced and enriched by other biblical images of God – such as portraying God as potter and mother.

· Simplistic images of God aren’t always helpful when it comes to coping with the complications of adulthood.

· For example – a childhood image of God as all powerful is true in and of itself – but it isn’t helpful if we then mistakenly believe that nothing bad will ever happen to us.

· Or just because we know that God is a loving creator – it doesn’t mean God will necessarily grant our selfish prayers of winning the lottery.

· Our challenge – especially when we experience a “crisis of faith” – is to find images of God which do justice to all of God’s self-revelation - and to all of life as we have experienced it.

· To do that – we must continually be open to learning new things about God – to study the Scriptures for new images of God that more fully reveal God to us.

· To be on the look out for the “images of God’ that help shape and impact all aspects of our lives – the good times and the bad times.

· The “images of God” that remind us just how mighty God is – and just how much God loves us and cares for us regardless of the conditions and situations of our lives.

· GOD IS LOVE! Amen.