The Intersection of God and Humanity -- FPC sermon excerpt
For years, I wondered what it meant to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
I would hear people talking about such a relationship, but it didn’t ring true to me. I couldn’t imagine how you could have a relationship with someone you couldn’t see or touch, meet at Starbucks, or slap on the back. I certainly understood how the people of Nazareth had a personal relationship with Jesus. They knew him as the son of Joseph and Mary. They had watched him grow up. They had seen him in his father’s carpenter shop, met him in the street, listened to him at the synagogue. Their relationship was personal. No doubt about it. But I didn’t understand how I could experience such a relationship.
And so I continued to pray to God, read the stories of Jesus, and open myself to the power of the Holy Spirit — all the time wondering what it might mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
Then, one day, I got it. I realized that this personal relationship wasn’t something that was supposed to start with me. It was supposed to start with God. God desperately wanted me to understand his will and his way. He wanted me to feel his love and forgiveness. He wanted me to see his grace and his truth.
And so he sent Jesus into my life. God came to earth in the form of a person — his only son Jesus — so that I could see exactly what God was like. That’s the personal side of the personal relationship. It has to do with God coming to me as a person.
Jesus is — for me, for you, and for everyone in the world — the intersection of God and humanity.
So now I have a personal relationship with Jesus because it is a relationship with a person. Not a concept, not an idea, not a theory — a person. I can hear the words of Jesus, see his actions, and feel his power — and through him I can get a much better grasp of what God desires for me and for all the people of this world.
Jesus is, for me, the face of God. He helps me to recognize God, and to see exactly what kind of Lord our God is.
I would hear people talking about such a relationship, but it didn’t ring true to me. I couldn’t imagine how you could have a relationship with someone you couldn’t see or touch, meet at Starbucks, or slap on the back. I certainly understood how the people of Nazareth had a personal relationship with Jesus. They knew him as the son of Joseph and Mary. They had watched him grow up. They had seen him in his father’s carpenter shop, met him in the street, listened to him at the synagogue. Their relationship was personal. No doubt about it. But I didn’t understand how I could experience such a relationship.
And so I continued to pray to God, read the stories of Jesus, and open myself to the power of the Holy Spirit — all the time wondering what it might mean to have a personal relationship with Jesus.
Then, one day, I got it. I realized that this personal relationship wasn’t something that was supposed to start with me. It was supposed to start with God. God desperately wanted me to understand his will and his way. He wanted me to feel his love and forgiveness. He wanted me to see his grace and his truth.
And so he sent Jesus into my life. God came to earth in the form of a person — his only son Jesus — so that I could see exactly what God was like. That’s the personal side of the personal relationship. It has to do with God coming to me as a person.
Jesus is — for me, for you, and for everyone in the world — the intersection of God and humanity.
So now I have a personal relationship with Jesus because it is a relationship with a person. Not a concept, not an idea, not a theory — a person. I can hear the words of Jesus, see his actions, and feel his power — and through him I can get a much better grasp of what God desires for me and for all the people of this world.
Jesus is, for me, the face of God. He helps me to recognize God, and to see exactly what kind of Lord our God is.
posted by Henry Brinton | 3:49 PM
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