"The light shines (!) in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it."

"... the Son of God, Jesus Christ ... was not YES and NO;

but in him it is always YES ...

... all the promises of God find their Yes in him."

(2 Cor 1:19f.)

Hosea 11:1-9; John 1:1-5, 9-14, 16-18; 2 Cor 1:18-22.

What do I want to say to you after 40 years and more of trying to witness to the good news that in Christ and by the Spirit, God has shared God's rich life with the poverty of our human existence? What do I want to say to myself as I enter a new stage of my life? What do I want to lift out from the colourful mystery that we call "God"?

Is there a word in our language that can give expression to what life really is? Is there a word that can assure us that with the life, death and resurrection of Christ, God has written into being that "he light shines (!) in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

It must be a simple word. It must be a word that we can all understand. It must be a word that the Holy Spirit can easily bring into our present when we are tired, even tired of life. When we are confused and need direction. When we are lost and need salvation.

"In the beginning was the Word"

It is interesting how the fourth evangelist begins his story of Jesus: "In the beginning was the Word ...."

The Word? We hesitate! In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth; when God looked at his creation and found it beautiful there was a Word?! Strange!

The deed that is what we would have expected: "In the beginning was the Deed ..." that would have made sense to us. We are activity people. We are defined by what we do. Not only others define us by what we do, but we ourselves tune into this competition by works. Our self-image depends on what we do. Our culture, our friends, our colleagues and let us not forget the church they stroke us for our performance. Intelligent, reliable, strong important virtues in our culture and in our hearts. You have them and you are someone.

And important they are! Our society and our life together cannot function apart from them. Where would our church be without us being doers? Works, performance, deeds they are very important!

But can they be of ultimate importance? Does our self-worth really depend ultimately before God, and in the presence of God on our performance?

• Is the decathlon champion less worth ultimately! when he can no longer run and jump?
• Is the painter less worth ultimately! when she looses her eyesight and can no longer take up the brush?
• Is the concert pianist less worth ultimately, before God when arthritis cripples her fingers?
• Is the beautiful actress less worth – ultimately – when the body begins to sag and wrinkles cover the face?

And what about us, us performers; what about us when we walk into the autumn of life; when we become forgetful; when we bend down to tie our shoes and look around for anything else we need to do down there before we come up again; when depression hits us more often than we like? When the deeds don't come as easy and as perfect any more?

Then, my friends, it is good to know that in the beginning, the moment closest to God, there was not the Deed, but the WORD. “In the beginning was the Word”!

What Word was in the beginning with God?

What word is it that was in the beginning with God – that indeed "was God"? What word is it that has always been with God? That expresses what God is like, better than other words. What is that word that creates and sustains and enhances life?

It is the word YES!

We can translate:

"In the beginning was the word YES,

and the word YES was with God

and the word YES was divine."

The Apostle Paul understood that better than most Christians. Whether he knew the Johannine prologue or not is not important. Important is that Paul had understood that God is a speaking God, and when God speaks, God says YES:

"... the Son of God, Jesus Christ,

whom we preached among you ...

was not Yes and No;

but in him it is always Yes.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in him."

(2 Cor 1:19f.)

Existential objections

Can that be? Can it be that at the centre of the Christian message, there is a God who speaks a strong and unconditional YES into our lives? YES without condition, and without qualification?

Our experience makes us uncertain at that point.

Too often has our experience with God been associated with the word "No".

At high school and university we are confronted with the claim that faith in God is a crutch that we need to throw away before we can really walk.

Indigenous people say that Missionaries came teaching them to pray, but when they opened their eyes they were no longer allowed to speak their language, worship their gods and own their land.

Every counsellor knows that religious faith can cripple the soul just as much as it can heal and liberate it.

Does not even the Bible major on the "No" rather than the "Yes"?

What about the sounding "NO" of the prophets to the people with their hypocrisy and injustice and godlessness? And did not Jesus himself speak about a sin against the Holy Spirit that cannot be forgiven (Mk 3:28f.)?

You see, we are often very superficial in our reading of the Bible.

We tend to overlook that the prophetic "NO" is encircled by God's radical and unconditional "YES" declared in the covenant with Israel and with God's creation. God's godhood shows in the facr that God is not ruled by morality, but by grace:

How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? … I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:8f.)

And we often forget that Jesus, before he speaks about the sin against the Holy Spirit, declares: "Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter."

And we hardly dare to look into history. It is replete with a seeming "NO" of God that the church has spoken and too often enforced with guns and bombs against the Jews and the communists and the heathens. We have used the word “God” to validate slavery. With a halleluja to God Christians have persecuted, tortured and killed dissidents.

All of that is true.

We must not forget it. Indeed, the "No" is great. It is powerful. It captures many of our hearts too often. The media has discovered this. Bad news are good news. Good news are bad news. They bring us what we want, what we buy and too often it is "NO". That is the reason why it is also very much easier to find the wrinkles in people’s lives and to criticise them; rather than see the positive points and praise them.

Is there any way out? Let us hear the gospel, the good news, the promise for a conversion, the hope that the ground of our being is “YES” rather than “NO”.

The Overwhelming Power of the "YES"

The apostle of old says: "… where sin increased, grace abounded all the more" (Rom 5:20). This is why Paul can say: where the “No” is great, indeed where the “No” is increasing he speaks of sins and failings and death , where the “Yes and No” determines nearly all of our life, there the “YES” of God “grace” Paul calls it or the “victory of Christ” is even greater, more powerful, more convincing (Rom 5:12-21). Why? Because Jesus Christ is God’s YES to us and because God has raised this Jesus from the dead.

Therefore, whatever our experience may say. Let me tell you, even against your experience. God is “YES” and God wants to speak his “YES” into your life. And when God says “YES” to you, then you can also say “YES” to yourself. Often we can’t hear this empowering “YES” our experience has become so barren. Sometimes we do not want to hear the “YES” because we do not like God’s agenda, and we want to hold God at arms length. But we cannot invalidate the “YES” of God to us. It will remain at the door of of our life, waiting to be welcomed in (Rev 3:20).

Jesus has staked his life on the YES of God. This is the reason why he could speak encouragement and hope into the lives of powerless people. This is why he went to those who were hurled to margin of life and helped them to get up and walk. He could say “YES” to people because God’s word is “YES”. It was not easy, and for a moment the servants of death in their religious robes and their political uniforms seemed to be able to create an eternal dark Friday the Friday of Crucifixion of the One who fleshed out the word YES in our world. But the final, the ultimate word could not be “No”. Not even “Yes and No”. It is “Yes”. By raising the crucified Jesus from the dead, God has spoken his healing, his saving, his liberating “YES” into the world and no one will be able to eradicate it from there.

What do we have to do?

All we have to do, is to hear God’s “YES” and then we shall begin to spell it in and with our own lives.

• Because God says “YES” to us, therefore we can also say “YES” to ourselves. How beautiful are the words of the prophet:

"… thus says the LORD, he who created you, … he who formed you, …: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. (Isaiah 43:1-3)

• Because God says “YES” to us, therefore we can also says Yes to the church, the community of faith. Faith comes to each one of us. But it does not individualise us. It creates a community. We are relational beings. We are social creatures. We need to celebrate life together. "The body of Christ" we are named. The "body" through whom Christ shares the riches of God with a needy world. The "light of the world" and the "salt of the earth" we are called. Let us intentionally take our place in the church and contribute making our church a place where we experience freedom, compassion and trust.
• Because God says “YES” to us, therefore we can also say “Yes” to the world in which we live. God loves the world. Indeed, God has reconciled the world with himself. The cook uses salt, not to make the soup taste salty, but to bring out the taste of the vegetables. As "salt of the earth" let us engage ourselves for peace and kindness and justice so that the original beauty of the world come to the fore again.

Conclusion

God has said “YES”, an unconditional “YES” to us, to the church, to the world. He has backed up this “YES” with Jesus Christ and with raising Jesus from the dead.

Now God takes a step back. And it is our privilege to hear his “YES” in our lives, in our church, in the world and then let this “YES” determine our life “to the Glory of God” (2 Cor 1:20).

"... the Son of God, Jesus Christ ... was not YES and NO;

but in him it is always YES ...

... all the promises of God find their Yes in him."

"The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it."

TL: Canberra, 29/06/2005.