Seeing the Father

Easter 5

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Meg and I were on vacation out of the country last week. Before boarding our flight home, they checked our passports six times before we boarded our plane for the flight home. Six times, and three of those included scanning them electronically.

We had no problem with that. We appreciate the security assuring our safety and well-being. But six seemed a lot, and all of that to ensure that she was her and I was me, that we belonged on this flight and were cleared for international travel. And that we pose no threats to others’ safety.

I’ve been vetted way more deeply than that along the way to ordination and for each position I’ve held in the church, including being your rector. You need to have confidence that I didn’t just show up and take this job without education, training, experience, background checks and character references and on and on. Our identity matters.

Now, let’s take that idea of identity to the ultimate level. Who is God?

The word “God” identifies his being, almost like a job description as the ultimate authority, power and so on. We have to specify, to distinguish our God from all other gods and goddesses. We say “the one true God”, or better “the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

The Old Testament encounters with God tend to involve angels or a symbolic manifestation like the burning bush Moses first encountered, or the pillar of cloud and flame that accompanied Israel in the Exodus. And they often involve God’s speech or visions shared through the prophets.

Everything about our Christian faith hangs on the true identity of Jesus Christ; the very simple question of who Jesus is. That is the question that all four gospels answer – that he is the Son of God, one with the Father, the one true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and our Savior.

That is the witness that the Apostles manifest as they spread the Good News in Acts. They re-present him and the Church forms as his body. It is the witness at the heart of all of Paul’s letters and the rest of the New Testament as well.

This witness brings God into much clearer focus. First, note that Jesus routinely refers to God as his Father, and their Father. There are some verses in the Old Testament that describe God as father.  But the way Jesus uses it in relation to himself and his disciples is quite different. It is intimate and highly relational.

And most radically he says, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” They are seeing the Father, not as an angel, not as a burning bush or a pillar of cloud, but in a person, a flesh-and-blood human being they have spent a couple of years with, and who is also much, much more.

They are not hearing God’s voice in a prophet’s writings, not in a vision and not that “still small voice” Elijah described. The words coming out of Jesus’s mouth are God’s words, God’s speech. That’s a lot to process over dinner, even though he’s been teaching them for a long time.

Philip’s response, “Lord, show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” if understandable, is comical. Jesus patiently makes it clear to Philip and all of them, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”

We come here primarily seeking God in worship, in prayer, in his Word, and in the sacraments. We cannot see the Father directly, yet in Christ the Father is made known. 

We are surrounded by Jesus in this sanctuary; or at least images of Jesus. We have windows and sculptures to the front and back, panels on the sides, 70’s Jesus on the banners in the chapel. But all of those are merely representations. We cannot see Jesus unless he comes to us in a vision.

But that’s not the point. We can see him in the witness of scripture. Not his physical appearance, but who he truly is; his mind, his grace, his care, his strength of will. All of that is in much tighter focus through him.

We can see him alive and active in our shared life in the church, in our fellowship, the ways we care for each other and the ways we serve our community. Seeing him, we see the Father. Jesus is the clearest revelation that God has ever given us. The very character of Almighty God is revealed in the person of his Son.

Jesus says these words of ultimate hope and promise. “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many rooms.” I’m going to prepare a place for you and I’m going to bring you there and we will be together. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Jesus is the goal (the truth), he is the path (the way) to get there, and the means (the life) to get there.

Those words hold infinite comfort because of who Jesus is.

When Meg and I landed in Tampa, we walked to customs and had to pause for a second for a device to take our picture, and we were waved through. That was it. They call it, “facial recognition.” By then, we were fully known, approved and accepted.

When we come to our moment to step into eternity, we are also known, approved and accepted – not because of who we are and what we’ve done or not done, but because of who Jesus is. The facial recognition works the other way. Although we have not seen his face, we will know him when we see him, and the Father will see us in him.

AMEN!