FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, ATLANTA, GEORGIA

Communion Meditation by Dr. George Bryant Wirth

Christmas Eve

December 24, 2006

CHRIST AT THE CENTER: THE GIFT OF TRANSCENDENCE

Scripture: John 1:18

INTRODUCTION

A little girl, just five years old, was sitting quietly in her Sunday school class drawing something on a piece of paper. Her teacher noticed what was happening as he was telling the children about the creation story in the Book of Genesis, and how God made everything in the world. The young girl was listening, but she kept on drawing.

So the teacher walked over to where she was sitting and looked at the artwork with an expression of affirmation:

“Donna, that’s a wonderful picture – what are you drawing?”

Without distraction, she kept working with her head down and answered “It’s a picture of God.”

The teacher was pleased and somewhat surprised as he replied “But Donna, nobody knows what God looks like.”

She just kept on drawing and said “They will when I’m finished!”

I

Obviously that child had never read the first chapter of the Gospel of John, verse 18, which says, in part, that no one has ever seen God. And that is so, because God is the creator of the universe, the author of everything that ever was and is and will be, the inventor of time, the speed of light and gravity and the power behind, over, around and within all that exists from here to eternity. God is out there, somewhere, greater than what our minds can conceive and far beyond what our eyes can see.

And yet with all of that said, we human beings have sensed God’s existence since the beginning of our time on earth, as these poetic lines from William Wordsworth describe it:

“And I have felt a presence that disturbs me

With the joy of elevated thoughts;

A sense sublime

Of something far more deeply interfused,

Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,

And the round ocean and the living air,

And the blue sky, and in the mind of man:

A motion and a spirit, that impels

All thinking things, all objects of thought,

And rolls through all things.”

(From “Lines Composed A Few Miles from Tintern Abbey” by William Wordsworth)

The theological word for all of that is “transcendence,” and it points toward the great mystery which John wrote about at the end of the first century A.D. – no one has ever seen God – and if John had stopped there, we wouldn’t be here this evening.

But something happened long ago in a little town called Bethlehem on a silent and holy night, something that changed everything and finally brought within our sight the One whom we had been looking for down through the ages of time.

The great mystery is that God intervened in history and revealed Himself to our world through the birth of His Son named Jesus – “Immanuel” in the Hebrew Scriptures - which means “God with us.”

John described it this way:

No one has ever seen God; (but) the only Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has made Him known (verse 18)

After all of our waiting, hoping and praying, God showed up and gave to us the gift of His transcendence through the presence of Jesus. And that is the gift He wants us to receive this Christmas.

II

A little boy was sitting on his grandfather’s lap in the month of December, with just a few days to go until Christmas. They were reading a bedtime story, and from time to time, the boy would take his eyes off the book and reach up to touch his grandfather’s wrinkled cheek. Then the boy touched his own cheek and finally asked the question: “Grandpa, did God make you?” “Yes,” he answered, “God made me a long time ago.” The boy thought a moment and inquired “Grandpa, did God make me too?” “Yes, God made you just a little while ago.” Feeling both of their faces once more, the boy looked up and said “God’s getting better at it, isn’t He!”

The Bible says that When the time had fully come, God sent forth His Son (Galatians 4:4) and when that moment came, not only were we given His name – Jesus – but for the first time we also saw and could touch His face, the face of God in person, finally revealed and visible to us.

Some say the world is a better place now because He has come. Others argue that the world seems to be the same with all of the wars and trouble and poverty and pain. What we believe as Christians is that the world is different now because the transcendent power and presence of Jesus is here with us – forgiving our sin, healing our grief and sorrow, showing us how to love and live together in peace, helping us to find our way through the valley of the shadow to the Father in heaven.

Christina Rosetti found that way in her own life and wrote about it:

“I know not how that Bethlehem’s Babe

Could in the Godhead be;

I only know the Manger Child

Has brought God’s life to me.”

CONCLUSION

Some of us have come here tonight feeling disconnected and far away from Him. Others have arrived just thankful that they survived the Christmas rush, which has nothing to do with the real reason for this season. And still others are hoping that something will happen here and now that will draw them closer to the Lord than they have ever been before.

Wherever you are tonight, whatever you need in your life, I hope and pray that this closing story will lead you toward the light of the transcendent presence of Jesus Christ.

When the Discovery space shuttle touched down yesterday in Florida, I thought about Apollo II, the first space mission to the moon, which landed on Sunday, July 20, 1969. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first men to walk on the moon, and Michael Collins was in charge of the command module.

Aldrin had brought with him a communion kit, a gift from his church, and although he was not allowed to celebrate the sacrament publicly – remember NASA was embroiled in a controversy with Madelyn Murray O’Hare over the Apollo 8 crew reading from Genesis while orbiting the moon at Christmas – nevertheless Buzz Aldrin ate the bread and drank from the cup by himself, looking down at planet earth with gratitude in his heart for the God who had created the universe long, long ago.

Tonight we come to this table with that same thankful spirit, believing that our creator God who hung the moon and the sun and the stars in the sky, has come down to us in person, in the person of Jesus Christ, to offer us the gift of transcendence through His holy presence, alive and at work in our world today. That is the gift God offers to us this Christmas.

And what He wants from us is that we would share the gift with others - with our sisters and brothers and fellow travelers on planet earth in our journey of faith. What do we have to share? The word of hope for all of us in here and everyone out there - that although no one has ever seen God, Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, has made Him known to us. That is the gift He gives to us this Christmas – The Gift of Transcendence.

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