Peering into the Word

Don’t you admire people who read—who truly love to read? I know people who especially love biographies. Maybe you are one of those people. In a good biography, one learns about a person and the people around that person. There is a whole situational and historical context to gain too. There are cultural features one learns in a well-researched biography. To finish a biography is to have a far richer acquaintance than just knowing a few facts about a figure. Most significantly, the reader knows every person, as well as they, can. It is not available, but what would add to that knowledge of a person, is to spend a week with that person written about. (It might involve time travel.) A live, personal opportunity, to know the person’s movements, voice, facial expressions, and spontaneous comments: that would add a first-hand kind of knowing.

The New Testament is a remarkable compilation of documents. Four long ones are written to paint portraits of Jesus from the recollected happenings of others' experiences of him. There is another long compilation of experiences of the Jesus-believing Apostles and their impact on the world in which they moved. There are missives and letters about what believing in Jesus does and can do for the believer. There is a mystical vision about the victory of Jesus Christ over destructive forces: an apocalypse to provide hope for those who believe in him but are terrified by oppression. To summarize, the New Testament is a collection of works for those seeking to know Jesus.

Everyone gains awareness that there are different layers to knowing a topic or a person. There is knowledge and there is deeper knowing. I plucked out a few excerpts from the Eucharistic readings for Wednesday in Easter Week. The symbol I saw in common within these passages represents a deep kind of connection: the experience of looking into another’s face. One can imagine the eye contact, the opening of attention, and awareness that goes on in these described encounters. Read through them all, and see what you can see.

Peter looked intently at him [the beggar, a lame man, by the temple gate], as did John, and said, "Look at us." And he fixed his attention on them, expecting to receive something from them. But Peter said, "I have no silver or gold, but what I have I give you; in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, stand up and walk." And he took him by the right hand and raised him up; and immediately his feet and ankles were made strong. —Acts 3:3-7

Glory in his holy Name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
Search for the Lord and his strength; *
continually seek his face. —Psalm 105:3-4

While they [Cleopas and another disciple, leaving Jerusalem] were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, "What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?" They stood still, looking sad…When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. They said to reach other, "Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?" —Luke 24:15-17, 30-32

With the Paschal Mystery—the sign and wonder God raised the crucified and buried Jesus the Son of God from death—comes a remarkable belief and potential for all of us. Our rector, Fr. Bates helps us, regularly emphasizing that Christ is risen, he is alive, and so comes the beauty that he is with us, living within us as we come to put our trust in him. As the Psalm suggests, we can continually seek his face. worship, fellowship, study, service, conversation, and reading the Bible all contribute to that supreme relationship each of us has. When we read the word, we come to know the Word. When we read the word which is the inspired collection of works, the Bible, we come to know the Word: the living, active Logos, who moved in the creation and was from the beginning with God.

“Not one thing came into being” except by that Word. That is how the Gospel of John starts. Opening lines poetically declare that all things came into being through the Word. As you come to know Jesus, spoken of in the Gospels, that is who you come to know. No wonder the beggar, though lame, when he looks into the eyes of Peter and John sees there the living Christ within them, is re-created, made whole. You can come to know about Jesus through several helpful sources, but you are in charge of opening your eyes, speaking to him, and noting as you, how your heart burns within you. The Holy Spirit allows for it, but you are the one who opens the opportunity to experience the Word. You do so by willing it, by seeking and choosing.

The two on the road to Emmaus, the sad disciples spoken of in Luke’s Gospel, already knew the scriptures. But when they came across the Risen Christ and heard him open the message of the prophets it was all new. When they saw him break the bread in their camp, by the road, they recognized him. My question to us all is, are we willing to find ways, with the eyes of our hearts, to look into the face of Christ? We can come into a relationship with God, see and know Jesus Christ, better than we could through a thick, exquisite biography. Today is the day to know God. Open up: “let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.” This is the day for enriching that relationship.

We should respond to the call of an intimate relationship with God. All those years ago, I really should have dropped all and come home for dinner when called. That hot meal and the warmth of family meant more than that final out amongst the young gladiators of the neighborhood. I wish I had not so routinely irritated my parents, ignoring the call. In matters of the Spirit, how good it would be now, to be responsive, and receive the good things to which God is calling us.