What If Our God Had Simply Saved Us From Exile? Would That Not Have Been Enough?

The Crossing of the Red Sea By Nicolas Poussin, 1634, wikimedia  

If our God had simply saved us from exile, that would have been enough, the Jewish scriptures say.  But Jesus did so much more - he moved into the neighbourhood!  Consider these words from John:

John 1

The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one. Everything was created through him; nothing—not one thing!— came into being without him. What came into existence was Life, and the Life was Light to live by. The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness; the darkness couldn’t put it out.

The Word became flesh and blood, and moved into the neighborhood. We saw the glory with our own eyes, the one-of-a-kind glory, like Father, like Son, Generous inside and out, true from start to finish. John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.” We all live off his generous abundance, gift after gift after gift. We got the basics from Moses, and then this exuberant giving and receiving, This endless knowing and understanding— all this came through Jesus, the Messiah. No one has ever seen God, not so much as a glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the Father, has made him plain as day. 

What words stand out for you?  What does this mean to you personally?  To the community? 

There is so much more to the story than being saved from exile, right?  I hope you can join us this Sunday as Rev. Donna helps us to remember the WHOLE story on this last Sunday of the Christian year.  It will be good to remember together.