Tokens of Trust:
An Introduction to Christian
Belief
3. A Man for All Seasons
(and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord)
Sunday, February 8, 2009
10 to 10:50 am, in the Parlor
Presenter: David Monyak
Primary
Reference

Tokens of Trust:
An Introduction
to Christian
Belief, Rowan
Williams,
Westminister John
Knox Press,
Louisville,
London, 2007
Primary
Reference

Tokens of Trust:
An Introduction
to Christian
Belief, Rowan
Williams,
Westminister John
Knox Press,
Louisville,
London, 2007
The Most Revd.
Rowan Williams is the
104th Archbishop of
Canterbury. He was
enthroned at
Canterbury Cathedral
on 27th February 2003
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Born 1950
Studied theology at Cambridge
DPhil at Oxford 1975
Priest 1978
1977 to 1992: taught theology at
Cambridge and Oxford
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1986: Lady Margaret
Professorship of Divinity at the
University of Oxford
1991: Bishop of Monmouth in
Anglican Church of Wales
1999: Archbishop of Wales
Dec 2002: confirmed as the 104th
bishop of the See of Canterbury
Considered by many the best
Protestant theologian in the world
today
Also a noted poet and translator of
Welsh poetry
Tokens of Trust
An Introduction to Christian Belief
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Jan 25. Who Can We Trust? (I believe in God the Father
almighty)
Feb 1: The Risk of Love (maker of heaven and earth)
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Feb 8: A Man for All Seasons (and in
Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord)
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Feb 15: The Peace Dividend (He suffered and was buried,
and the third day he rose again)
Feb 22: God in Company (And I believe in one catholic and
apostolic Church)
Mar 1: Love, Actually (I look for the resurrection of the dead)
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Almighty God, you have given your onlybegotten Son to take our nature upon him,
and to be born of a pure virgin: Grant that
we, who have been born again and made
your children by adoption and grace, may
daily be renewed by your Holy Spirit;
through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom
with you and the same Spirit be honor and
glory, now and for ever.
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Collect for Christmas Day, Book of Common Prayer, p. 213
This Week:
3. A Man for All Seasons
(and in Jesus Christ
his only Son our Lord)
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God
An Astounding Claim
“For in him all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell …”
(NRSV Colossians 1:19)
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How on earth did such a claim come to be made
about Jesus?
In the Jewish world of Jesus’ day, many of people
were thought to be divinely anointed messengers of
renewal – but none attracted this kind of language
The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God Breaking In
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Jesus stressed in his teachings:
the kingly rule of God was about to arrive and
break into the human world
 To become a citizen of this new kingdom ruled by
God, simply say “yes” to what Jesus was saying
and offering
 Your life will begin to transform, and reveal to the
world a foretaste of God’s rule
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The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God Breaking In
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The Beatitudes (“blessed are …” 5th chapter of
Matthew) tell us about the transformed lives of
the citizens of this new kingdom. They are
lives that display:
dependence on God’s goodness
 forgiveness
 single-mindedness
 longing for peace and for justice
 patience under attack
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The Kingdom of God
Belonging to God’s People
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Different Jewish groups had different ideas
about who belonged to God’s People:
Those who are obedient to the sacrificial laws, and
the rules of the priestly class, or
 Those who obey all the details of the oral law, or
 Those who isolate themselves in the desert from a
corrupt world in order to live communal lives of
strict purity
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Jesus’ radical claim: You will belong to God’s
people if you accept my promise and invitation
The Kingdom of God
Belonging to God’s People
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This claim by Jesus – You will belong to God’s
people if you accept Jesus’ promise and
invitation – was not only radical, but
seemingly blasphemous.
Jewish scripture repeatedly stresses Israel was
God’s people only because God had chosen it
– because of God’s promise and invitation
The Kingdom of God
Belonging to God’s People
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This claim by Jesus – You will belong to God’s
people if you accept Jesus’ promise and
invitation – was not only radical, but
seemingly blasphemous.
Jewish scripture repeatedly stresses Israel was
God’s people only because God had chosen it
– because of God’s promise and invitation
All the Fullness of God
All the Fullness of God
Adoption Into God’s Family
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But there’s more.
Accepting Jesus’ promise and invitation did
not merely make you a “citizen” of God’s
kingdom, a “member” of God’s people.
When Jesus’ disciples asked him how they
should pray, Jesus told them to begin with
“Our Father …”
That is: we are not just citizens living under
the new government of God; we are adopted
into God's intimate family.
All the Fullness of God
Not Merely a Teacher
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Such claims by Jesus were politically and
religiously explosive.
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The suggestion of some that Jesus was just a
wonderful teacher who “went to Jerusalem to
deliver a course of lectures on the Fatherhood of
God and the Brotherhood of Man (motherhood and
apple pie, as it were), and met with an unfortunate
miscarriage of justice” simply doesn’t wash.
All the Fullness of God
Not Merely a Teacher
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Jesus’ words and actions did not engender
many comments like:
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“How interesting!”
But far more often:
“How dare he!”
 “What on earth are we dealing with?”
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All the Fullness of God
Not Merely a Teacher
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His disciples ask:
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Who is this that even the winds and the waves
obey him?
His enemies ask:
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Who is this who forgives sins?” (Only God can
forgive sins)
All the Fullness of God
An Angelic Power?
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Very early on, Jesus’ followers began to use
extravagant language as they struggled to
understand what they were dealing with.
There was speculation in Jesus’ day of angelic
powers who were granted a share in the glory
of God.
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In Hebrews, Paul’s letters, and John’s Revelation
you can find some imagery of this sort used to
describe Jesus.
All the Fullness of God
More Than an Angelic Power
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But writer after writer in the New Testament clearly
felt the need to go beyond this language of angelic
powers:
He is the reflection of God's glory and the
exact imprint of God's very being, and he
sustains all things by his powerful word.
When he had made purification for sins, he
sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, having become as much superior to
angels as the name he has inherited is more
excellent than theirs. (Hebrews 1:3-4 NRSV)
All the Fullness of God
LORD Jesus
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Before Jesus’ followers found some
philosophical concepts and terms to express
who Jesus was, their hearts and imaginations
had already reached a conclusion.
When Stephen, the first Christian martyr dies,
he prays “LORD Jesus, receive my
spirit” (Acts 7:59 NRSV)
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In the Hebrew scriptures, “LORD” was substituted
for the proper name of God, which was too holy to
be spoken
All the Fullness of God
LORD Jesus
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Within a time period of 30 years or less after his
death, Jesus is spoken of as though he were
completely with God, able to do what God does, and
so correctly addressed as if he were God
From the hymn in Philippians 2:6-11 (PrePauline;
may have dated to the late 30’s), we have:
… at the name of Jesus every knee should
bend, in heaven and on earth and under the
earth, and every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is LORD, to the glory of God the
Father. (Philippians 2:10-11 NRSV)
A God of Relationship,
Inner Movement
Relationship, Inner Movement
Jesus’ Relationship with the Father
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In Jesus we see:
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divine purpose, power, and action
but also:
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humility, responsiveness, receptivity
Jesus prays to his Father and puts his will and
his decisions at the service of his Father.
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He is in a relationship of dependence on the one he
prays to as Father
Relationship, Inner Movement
A Flowing Out and Reflecting Back
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Therefore, if Jesus is God, then our concept of “God”
must include more than:
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power and initiative.
It must also include:
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God as Father and as God as Jesus suggests God’s
love is:
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receiving, reflecting back in love and gratitude
both a giving and receiving,
both a flowing out and reflecting back,
both an initiative and a depending
“God” is not the life of a heavenly individual on his
own, but mysteriously, a life involving relationship
and inner movement and differentiation.
Relationship, Inner Movement
A Flowing Out and Reflecting Back
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When Jesus as a “Son” turns towards his Father, he
mysteriously embodies a divine, “reflecting back”
response of love to the divine “flowing out” initiative
of love from the Father.
This “twofold” movement within God would seem to
be part of the eternal nature of God.
Implication:
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Jesus, the “Son” of God, did not begin when Jesus was
born in ~4 B.C., but always was and is, part of the
relationship, inner movement, and differentiation, within
the life of the eternal God.
Relationship, Inner Movement
The Eternal Logos of God Made Flesh
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So in John’s gospel (the oral tradition of a community of Jesus’
followers written down some 60 years, at most 70 years, after
Jesus’ crucifixion), we read:
John 1:1-3, 14: 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. ... And the Word became flesh and
lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the
glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
(NRSV)
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*Word: the Greek Logos, God’s “word” = God’s mind and purpose
made manifest = God’s living energy streaming out from him
Relationship, Inner Movement
Living In God’s Image
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This picture of God’s life involving receiving as well
as giving, depending as well as controlling, has
implications for us as God’s adopted children.
We all live in relationships where we are:
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givers and / or receivers
depending and /or controlling
We can reflect the life of God in every aspect of what
we are. We are part of God’s image:
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when we acknowledge our dependence or offer thanks, and
when we are making decisions or showing God's love to
another.
Light of Light
Light of Light
The Formula of the Creed of Nicea
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It took more than three centuries to put what we find in the
scriptures about the relationship between Jesus and God the
Father into a “formula” would not break down under the
scrutiny of then contemporary philosophy:
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only-begotten Son of God,
begotten of his Father before all worlds,
God of God,
Light of Light,
Very God of Very God,
begotten not made,
being of one substance with the Father,
by whom all things were made.
Light of Light
The Formula of the Creed of Nicea
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Jesus is:
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“begotten,” a unique “product” of divine life,
“generated” within God by the unconditional love of God
the Father
apart from / before the whole of creation
The relationship between this “product” of divine life
and God the Father is:
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like child to parent
like the light of a light – like the flames of two candles, in
which the flame of one candle is used to light the other
candle
Light of Light
The Formula of the Creed of Nicea
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Light of light:
The God the Father = the flame on the source
candle
 The Son = the flame on the candle lit, “begotten”
by the flame of the Father
 The Father gives all he is and has into the heart of
this outflowing ‘product’, the ‘generated’ reality,
the flame of the Son
 The flame of the Son truly shares the living flame
of God’s nature with no qualification or lessening;
he is ‘of one substance’ with the Father
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Light of Light
God is “Christlike”
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Why God is trustworthy:
What God is, revealed in Jesus incarnated as a
human being, is simply what God always has been
and always will be.
 “God is Christlike and in him there is no
un-Christlikeness at all.” (Archbishop of
Canterbury Michael Ramsey and John V. Taylor)
 In Jesus, we can see embodied God’s nature as the
outpouring and returning of selfless love
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Light of Light
God’s Outpouring of Selfless Love
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We see the outpouring, selfless love of God in
different ways, like we see a great river in
different landscapes:
God’s outpouring of love into the world, as seen in
the life and death of Jesus;
 God’s outpouring of love in making and sustaining
creation;
 God’s outpouring of love in the eternal truth of the
Father’s “generating” the Son.
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The Human Jesus of
Nazareth
Jesus of Nazareth
Both God and Human Being
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In the gospels we read how Jesus suffered and
wept, slept and awoke. He was vulnerable and
mortal.
Yet we also see in Jesus the incarnation of the
eternal Logos of God, proclaiming the
kingdom of God was breaking into creation,
forgiving sins, healing the sick, commanding
the winds and the waves.
Jesus of Nazareth
Both Human Being and God
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How do we mesh these two pictures together:
Jesus as a human being, and Jesus as the Son
of God?
As early theologians of the Greek Church
loved to note, the same person who weeps for
his friend Lazarus is the same person who
raises him from the dead.
Jesus of Nazareth
God and Human: Analogy from Music
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An analogy from music:
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When you look at a great musician playing a piece of
music, you are looking at one human being playing at the
limit of their skill and concentration.
All their strength, their freedom, and even their love, is
focused on bringing to life the work and vision of another
person, the composer.
As the vision and imagination of the composer comes
through, it does not displace the human particularity of the
performer, but might be said to ‘saturate” the performer's
being for the time of the performance.
Jesus of Nazareth
God and Human: Analogy from Music
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Now imagine an entire lifetime given to such a
performance.
Throughout his life, Jesus, the human being,
“is performing God’s love, God’s purpose,
without a break, without a false note, without a
stumble; yet he is never other than himself,
with all that makes him distinctly human taken
up with this creative work.”
Jesus of Nazareth
God and Human: Analogy from Music
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When early Christians said they could not
imagine sin in Jesus, they were saying “there is
nothing in this performance that blocks out the
composer.”
When early Christians said Jesus was fully
human and fully God, they were saying “the
humanity of the performer is most full and real
in the performance” of the composer’s work.
Jesus of Nazareth
Born Through the Spirit and Mary
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The Creed of Nicea tells us:
“by the power of the Holy Spirit he
became incarnate from the Virgin Mary”
We see in this phrase two ways of looking at
Jesus’ birth, both of which need to be affirmed:
1. Jesus was born through the Spirit of God
 2. Jesus was born through the human being Mary
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Jesus of Nazareth
Born Through the Spirit and Mary
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Jesus comes into being on earth because:
1. God breathes into the world his breath (=
“Spirit”), just as he breathed into the first human
being in the Genesis creation story
 2. Mary’s human openness to God’s inbreathing:
She said “yes.”
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“Jesus begins to be as a human being because
of this meeting of God's free grace and Mary's
grace-filled human readiness and openness.”
Next Week
Next Week
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We have now talked about WHO Jesus is
But WHY exactly is this life, Jesus’ life,
required?
Next Week:
4. The Peace Dividend
(He suffered and was buried, and the
third day he rose again)