I
heard a radio interview once in which John Lennon, the former Beatle, recalled how
he met Yoko Ono. He had been invited by friend to a conceptual art show. He
found one piece of the exhibit particularly intriguing. It was a step ladder
that led to a magnifying glass hanging from the ceiling. Lennon climbed the
ladder. He looked through the magnifying glass at a small note taped to the
ceiling. The note contained one tiny word – yes. Moved by this small
declaration of hope, Lennon found the artist – Yoko Ono – and the rest, as they
say, is history.
This
week, we shift our attention from the anticipation of Advent season to the
celebration of the actual advent of Jesus who in the Gospel of Matthew is called Immanuel, God with us. Like that hopeful word that so moved John Lennon,
the word God spoke in speaking the Word (John 1:1-18) into the quiet of Mary’s womb,
into the insignificant manger in little Bethlehem, and hence into the world,
was God’s “Yes” to humanity. The Incarnation affirms the fundamental goodness
of being human with all our vulnerability and awkwardness. There is no aspect
of authentic human experience, however mundane, that is not blessed and honored
by the divine enfleshment. At the heart of it all is not silence or
indifference, but an exultant and relentless Yes. God has created us to hear
that yes and in the Incarnation declared us unequivocally worthy of his
attention and fellowship.
To
be sure, from our earliest days, humans have responded by ignoring or rejecting
God's Yes and preferring in our ignorance and willfulness to speak our own “yes”
to ourselves, for ourselves. But, we are unable to speak yes on our own and our
self-referential “yes” invariable fragments into myriad “no's” resulting in the
incoherence of sin. To the obstinate “no” of human violence, selfishness,
pride, and greed – of all that refuses God’s Yes – we hear a terrifying and
resolute “No!” Our “no” and God’s “No!” finally meet in Jesus on the cross. The
human “no” is answered by God’s No! and, in the resurrection of Jesus on Easter
morning, God’s fundamental Yes to humanity (indeed, to all creation) is
reasserted.
In
the end, we will only be able to hear God’s Yes if we are first willing to hear
the No! to all that contradicts that Yes. That is the way of repentance of
which we have already heard in Advent. Faith is our yes in response to God’s
Yes proclaimed in Jesus Christ. As the 20th century Swedish theologian, Gustaf
Aulen, wrote, “In spite of timidity, faith is the soul’s audacious yes to God”
(The Faith of the Christian Church).
Jesus said there are but two great commandments (Matthew 22:34-40), which we might paraphrase as:
1.
You shall say, “Yes” to the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind.
2.
You shall speak “Yes” to your neighbor as you yourself have heard “Yes” spoken
to you.
May
we prepare to hear again God’s Yes spoken in Jesus, God with us, come to save
his people from their sins. "For in him every one of God's promises is a
"Yes." For this reason it is through him that we say the
"Amen," to the glory of God" (2 Corinthians 1:20).
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