Can you ever really get to know someone?  We allow ourselves to get close to people who matter to us.  Depending upon our comfort level, some of us try to get to know a lot of people.  Not all of these relationships will be close.  We expect that we know our family members very well:  mother, father, spouse, and children.  Some of are fortunate enough to have a really close friend.  These people we would dare to say are those whom we really know.  Even for those of us who are very private and cherish a lot of time alone, there is a drive to know another:  a spouse, a trusted friend.  It is clear that we are created to want fellowship with another human being.  We were hardwired to need to be part of a family.  And so, we will be driven to try to get to know some other human being.

            Talk about how we were created!  There is within the human spirit a desire to know God, the Creator of the universe, the Potter who molded us.  People spend a lot of time arguing about the differences in our religions.  The one thing that we ought to notice that unites us all is the universal drive to be united with what is most fundamental in life, that which gives life meaning, the star by which we navigate our lives.  The religious hunger of human beings is evident all over the world.  This fundamental hunger for the God who brought us into existence, the God who put in us a hunger for him, drives some of us into the study of theology.  I entered seminary not only because I felt called to the ministry; I also wanted to know God.  Still, the study of theology is more knowing about God than knowing God.  This same fundamental hunger for God drives some of us into Bible study at church or in homes with other learners.  God’s self-revelation is revealed by God’s activity and by God’s word.  Such divine activity and speech are central to the message of the Bible.  This same fundamental hunger for God drives some of us into a life of prayer and silence.  People who devote themselves to a lot of prayer time and a lot of silence exhibit an openness within themselves to be available to hear God’s whispers into the human heart.  We may approach the quest in various ways, but we are after the same objective.  There is within the human spirit a desire to know God.

            Of course, the trouble with all of these pathways to knowing God is that they all lead back to human receivers.  We are simply incapable of receiving the divine signal fully and clearly.  Our human minds and hearts can only do so much.  When it comes to knowing God, our minds are not up to it.  Have you ever had a conversation with someone who was brilliant in her field, but it was a field about which you knew nothing?  Hers was an area that was a complete mystery to you.  You just asked her what she did for a living, and she told you about her work in some esoteric scientific field.  As she explained how she goes about solving complex scientific problems, your mind began to go on overload.  You couldn’t follow the conversation.  It was just way over your head.  When it comes to knowing God, it’s way over all of our heads.  The smartest of us can only articulate the mystery better.  But knowing God completely in all of God’s glory—you can’t get there from here.  The human mind can’t take it all in.  Even when you study the Bible, you become aware that there is a growing picture of God as God gives people greater ability to understand God’s words and actions.  In the Bible, we find the all-powerful God who creates everything.  There is the God who walks in the garden, seeking his human creatures.  There is the testing God who doesn’t seem to know what Abraham will do until Abraham’s faith is tested.  There is the powerful God who can part the waters of the Red Sea.  There is the all-knowing God, who knows what you’re going to say before you have formed the words on your lips.  There is the God who knows us before we were formed in the womb.  There is the God of justice, making ethical demands through the voice of the prophets.  When we read the Bible all the way through, we receive a kind of composite picture of God, which brings us closer to knowing God.  The trouble remains; our brains haven’t gotten any better.  It’s like looking in a fogged mirror.  The picture isn’t very clear.

            The only thing that would clear up our view of God would be for God himself to come down to us and show what he is like.  Since our brains aren’t equipped sufficiently to apprehend God, the only way we could really know God is if God came in person to reveal himself, to disclose his nature.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to get to meet God the way we meet other human beings?  This is the way people get to know one another; we do it face to face.  When Bev and I lived in South Texas, we got to see President Bush, the elder, in person.  This was the first time I had ever seen a U. S. president while he was still in office.  I had seen George W. Bush at the Ballpark in Arlington when he had an interest in the Texas Rangers.  Seen him at a distance.  But we were pretty close to his dad on that cold day after Christmas in Beeville.  And when we left to go back to Sinton, we were blocked by his motorcade.  As it happened, the president had decided to visit a local establishment for some conversation.  It made me fantasize about meeting a president in my home.  Wouldn’t it be wonderful to meet the president in your home, and really get to know him?  Or pick one of the presidential hopefuls.  Forget a brief handshake at a political rally.  Wouldn’t you like to get to know your favorite candidate in person, maybe at your house for the evening at dinner?  That’s how people get to know each other.  Even more, wouldn’t you really like to meet God person to person?  Wouldn’t you like to know what God is like?  Wouldn’t you like to know how God feels about the human race?  Truly, wouldn’t you like to know how God feels about you?

            Maybe we should pay close attention to the prologue to John’s gospel.  It is fitting that we read this portion of the Gospel of John at Christmas, for the prologue to his gospel is his very own Christmas carol.  The hymn we hear takes us back to creation.  “In the beginning,” the hymn begins.  Where have we heard that before?  Right!  Those are also the very first words of the first book of the Bible.  Genesis 1 begins, “In the beginning.”  What was going on?  This was God creating the universe.  How did God bring everything into being?  God spoke.  God brought everything into existence by his Word.  In this hymn that begins John’s gospel, the writer wants to take the story of God’s saving activity in Jesus Christ all the way back to the beginning.  “In the beginning,” sings the hymn.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God.  All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.”  The Word, John is saying, the Word that became flesh in Jesus Christ was in the beginning, active in the creation of the world.  And then John’s Christmas carol makes the most astonishing claim:  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”  “. . . the Word was God.”  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”  Okay, John’s Christmas carol has no angles singing to shepherds, and no wise men following a star.  His carol has no manger scene.  But this Christmas carol is nevertheless amazing.  God became human.  God communicated his Word in person.  Now we can know what God is like.  The Creator God has come to humanity as a human.  Humanity has seen the glory of God in the most surprising location:  in a man named Jesus Christ.

            So, do you see what is happening?  Our Creator God is re-creating.  God is about the work of fixing the brokenness we have brought into the world.  Through God’s Word, God is now re-creating.  How did John’s hymn put it?  “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”  And it continues speaking about the Word that became flesh, “. . . to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”  The God who created the universe is now at work recreating humanity, giving them a new birth through the activity of the Word.  In the Genesis story, soon after God created this wonderful world, we spoiled it.  That’s the meaning of the Adam and Eve story.  We got God’s perfect creation all messed up.  We distorted God’s creation.  We experience this brokenness in our own lives:  Broken relationships.  Broken families.  Broken international relationships.  Conflicts within our families and within our nation’s government.  Wars.  Forced relocation of innocent and helpless people.  Inexcusable famine.  So much brokenness!  It is into this agonizing brokenness that God sends recreating light.  God through the Word made flesh has given humanity the power to become children of God.  Read that “new life.”  God is in the process of re-creating!  Imagine!  The power to know God and have life with God.  The power to have new life.  The power to live as a reconciler instead of perpetrating more brokenness.  The power to live outward in loving relationships and acts of compassion.  Imagine the divine power to have and live new life!  In Charles Dickens’s wonderful story A Christmas Carol we meet a man named Ebenezer Scrooge.  He lived a life only for himself, and hardly that.  His was more an existence rather than a meaningful, let alone joyful, life.  He became a changed man one Christmas Eve due to visits from his departed business partner and three spirits who helped him get a good look at his life and what the future would be, if he did not change.  He did change.  He turned outward with compassion and concrete acts of kindness to others.  New life!  It happens to us, not because of nocturnal ghostly visitors, but by God’s own work of re-creation through God’s Word made flesh.  We find it hard to forgive someone who has wronged us or is currently hurting us.  We don’t have the motivation to stand up for a matter of justice.  It is easier to stay home and relax than it is to become involved in a project that helps neighbors in need.  But then, because of the light of the Word that shines in our darkness, you knew that you must forgive; and you did.  You knew that you had to stand up for justice when others weren’t; and you did it.  There were neighbors in the community that needed help while they were having financial struggles, and it was you who got involved to help feed and clothe them.  Because God is involved in re-creating your life, you are living that new life.

            We can add a new Christmas carol to our lists of favorites.  “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”  “And the Word became flesh and lived among us.”  “. . . to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God.”  Look!  Today we celebrate not only Jesus’ birth.  We also celebrate our own new birth in him.  Happy new birth day!