Resolutions

Re-Solutions

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light sines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:1-14)

So what’s your New Year’s Resolution for 2012? Or did you make several? Maybe you’ve just given up on the whole thing because by the end of January most of them are broken, and by the end of February … well … they’re probably pretty much forgotten. Frankly, I think the problem with making resolutions is found in the word itself, i.e., solution.

The problem is that we can never really resolve the core problems of life in our own strength, because although the spirit of resolution is willing, the flesh of the solution is weak. We know deep down inside that we need something outside ourselves to empower us to live out the solutions of life, but there’s been only one resolution that has ever been completely fulfilled. And it is this great resolution, I believe, that lies behind our impulses to resolve the problems and issues of being human. This great resolution is what we just celebrated this past Christmas: the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us. (John 1:14)

You see, God resolved to give birth to the solution to humanity’s brokenness and sin in the form of his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. God came to be with his creation, now and forever, in the form of a solitary human being who would grow up and begin his ministry of salvation and resolution in a dusty, out-of-the-way province of Palestine.

In Jesus, the very character of God is revealed, since only in Jesus could the very nature of God be known and experienced. As the apostle John plainly states, “The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (John 1:17) And don’t miss the order of the words, “grace” and “truth.” The writer’s use of the words, and their order, was intentional.

For instance, the grace of God is this unconditional, infinite love that God has for his creation, because the truth is that God needed to send his Son, Jesus, into the world to save us from our sins. And the grace of God is the giftedness of this love, including its divine initiative and sacrificial vulnerability, because the truth is that God so loved the world that he was prepared to come into this world as a vulnerable human being.

In my opinion, it’s this grace/truth dynamic that’s the solution for humanity’s impulse to find meaning, value and fulfillment. The truth of the human species is that we have the capacity for both great good and incredible evil. And there’s a wonderful beauty about humanity which God embraces, because God becoming human presupposes the inherent characteristics of being human in the first place. Nevertheless, we’re a flawed, broken and fallen humanity in need of salvation and restoration.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, “If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart.” (The Gulag Archipelago) The apostle Paul put it this way: “I have discovered this principle of life – that when I want to do right, I inevitably do what is wrong.” (Romans 7: 21)

It is God’s great resolution in Jesus Christ that releases us from the tyranny of knowing our human potential and yet never achieving it; of destroying, or damaging, the important achievements in life through our illogical, chaotic tendencies of self-interest and aggression. God, in Jesus, saves us from the dichotomy of ourselves.

And God’s great resolution has the ability to save us because, first of all, he accepts us as we are – in all our grubbiness. At the same time God, in Jesus, embraces and esteems humanity and confronts our sinfulness, enabling us to be released from evil through his supernatural power. But this resolution doesn’t occur through the dictatorial activity of a deity that beats us into conformity. Instead, the solution occurs through the God/Jesus who initiates an event in human time and space. Salvation is offered through the God who loves us so much that he is willing to communicate that love by being born a human, living a fully-human life, and then dying at the hands of the very human beings that he loves infinitely. Huh? Maybe this will help.

Once upon a time, a watermelon hunter strayed from his own country into a place known as the Land of Fools. He suddenly encountered a group of people fleeing in terror from a field where they had been reaping wheat. “There’s a monster in that field,” one of them yelled. The watermelon hunter went over to the “monster” in the field and saw ………… a watermelon.

The crowd of people watched him from a safe distance with a mixture of fear and awe. Realizing this was his opportunity to impress and win these strangers over, he said, “I’ll kill the monster for you.” And with that, he drew his sword, cut the melon from its stalk and then cut himself a large slice of the watermelon and began to eat it. The people became even more terrified of him than they had been of the watermelon “monster.” Some of them screamed in fright at the sight of this foreigner devouring part of the monster. Others began to whisper, “He will kill us next unless we get rid of him.” So, they drove him away with pitchforks and whatever else they could lay their hands on.

Many years passed and another watermelon hunter strayed into the Land of Fools. He encountered a similar situation as the first man. But instead of offering to help them kill the monster, he agreed with the fools that it might be dangerous to try that, and by tip-toeing away from the watermelon gained their confidence. Thereafter, he decided to spend time with these people in their homes. He developed relationships with them. Eventually, little by little, he taught them some basics about watermelons that enabled them to lose their fear of watermelons, and to eventually cultivate them for themselves. (An old Sufi legend)

You see, God, in Jesus, is like the second watermelon hunter who decided to completely identify with us as human beings. God comes from another land and has the solution to all our dilemmas, fears and sufferings. Yet God does not impose this solution, like the first watermelon hunter. God appreciates and respects his creation with all its limitations. God accepts humanity as it is and yet, paradoxically, exposes humanity’s brokenness and sin by offering a solution through his limitless love. God, through Jesus, dwells with us in our homes; he is in relationship with us as one of us, yet he is still God – beyond us, and from a strange land.

John Tucker, a Baptist minister from New Zealand, has a useful observation which I think applies – it’s about aquariums. He says, “Have you ever seen one of those really sophisticated aquariums for tropical fish that some people have in their living rooms? You probably know someone who has one. It takes incredible energy and compassion to take care of those delicate fish. You have to feed them three times a day, change the water filters, monitor the water temperature, and test the nitrate levels. You’d think the fish would be grateful. But every time your shadow appears above the tank, the fish dive for cover. Out of ignorance they perceive their caretaker as a threat. Tragically, they see his acts of mercy as cruelty. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot convince them of his true intentions. He’s too large for them, too different. To change their perception, to communicate his true intentions, to reveal his true character, would mean getting into the tank, not just caring for their “world,” but actually being in it; becoming one of them.”

In Jesus, God got into the aquarium of humanity. Through Jesus, God in his infinite wisdom was at once able to identify with his creation and communicate God’s glory, i.e., grace and truth, and resolution for a creation quarantined by evil and self-indulgence.

And God, in Jesus, continues to dwell among us in the form of the Holy Spirit – the living reality of Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead through the supernatural power of God’s limitless love. Praise God that the Light that came into this world and is still with us. God, through Jesus, is Emmanuel! In other words, we can have a full relationship with God, through Jesus, in the here and now, and by accepting Jesus as he accepts us, our eternal resolution with God is sealed – now and for eternity.

As Jesus’ disciples, we have the same task of accepting people as are they are, and to learn to treat them with a grace they don’t deserve. We need to take the time to build the kind of relationships that demonstrate the great resolution of God in Jesus – a salvation of grace and truth. That kind of resolution, I believe, is worthy of any new year.

Happy New Year!

Grace,

Randy