Week 2—Saturday John 1:15-18
John 1:15-18
JESUS PUTS A FACE ON GOD
We are discussing the relation of principles and the Person. When people speak of God as “the Divine Principle,” they may talk to themselves about God, but they cannot talk to God. You cannot talk to a Principle; you can only talk to a Person. So a religion founded on “the Divine Principle” must be, of necessity, a religion of dialogue with yourself, affirming to yourself certain principles. This is this side of, and other than, the religion of communing with your Heavenly Father, a person with a Person.
Christianity “puts a face on God.” Jesus is God’s face. And that “one dear Face, far from vanishes, rather grows . . . and becomes my universe that feels and knows.” And Browning further adds: “O heart I made, a Heart beats here.” The psalmist asks: “He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see?” And we may add: “He that made the human personality, shall he not be Personal?” He can’t be less than Personal, for personality is the highest category of being we know. And when I say, “God is Personal,” I don’t mean God is corporeal—an enlarged Person seated in the heavens. In personality, there are at least four things: intelligence, feeling, will, self-consciousness. So when we say that God is Personal, we believe God thinks, feels, wills, has self-consciousness. God may be more than that but cannot be less. And the Impersonal is less.
We cannot say our prayers to a principle, nor worship an axiom. The woman in Ceylon, who when self-government came and the first election was introduced, was seen with folded hands saying her prayers to a ballot box—the new god who decided things. But prayers to a ballot box decided nothing; the number of votes within the box did.
Prayer and worship is response on the part of the person to the response of the Person. It is communion, or it is self-hypnotism.
So principles let you down unless they are embodied.
O Father God, when I talk with you I know I am not listening to the echo of my own voice. I know my Father’s voice. And the Voice is not mine projected into the heavens, for it often runs counter to my voice—and rightly so, for it is redemptive. I thank you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My person responds to the Eternal Person fully and forever.