Be with us, Lord Jesus, for if you are with us, nothing else matters; and if you are not with us, nothing else matters. Amen.
And while they are beautiful pieces of art, that’s not why I’ll miss them; I’ve had a print of the Pentecost icon in my office for a few years. No, what I’ll miss is what these icons, or any icon, do. Think about that word “icon” – what comes to mind. A musical icon is someone like Bono – someone who is the epitome of what it means to be a rock star. A cultural icon is someone who embodies the values of a society. And an icon, in the form of an emoji or a meme, represents something far greater than the image itself. As an example, when I’m texting and I want to convey the humor of a situation, a well-chosen meme from The Office or Seinfeld will not only communicate that humor, but will actually make it present as both the sender and the recipient of the text chuckle.
In the Eastern Orthodox branch of our faith, they speak about icons as windows or portals that bring us into an awareness of God’s presence. Icons function as a spiritual tool like a rosary or book of daily devotions to help us grow in faith and hope. This is what icons do: they epitomize, they make truth present, and they connect us with deeper realities. These icons do this for us: they are both a reflection of who we are, who we aspire to be, and they help us to grow towards the holiness they depict. I will miss these icons because they make the love of God visible and palpable in this place, and I’m so glad they are here to bless this and future generations.
The reason why I’m thinking about these icons this morning is because that is precisely how St. Paul speaks about Jesus in the passage we heard from Colossians. We heard, “Christ Jesus is the image of the invisible God” and in the Greek of his letter, the word “image” is eikon. Scholars tell us that the first paragraph that we heard read is hymn of the ancient Church, so it’s been a foundational passage for Christians for millennia.
As an icon, this hymn begins by declaring the same thing that one well-known hymn does: “Christ is made the sure foundation.” All things, all things, are in Jesus. Whatever difficulties you are going through, Jesus is with you. Jesus is sovereign over all things; there is no situation so bad for which the love of Jesus is powerless. Jesus loves us all, regardless of how much we struggle to love ourselves. Jesus is the relief from all the pressures that weigh upon us because his grace is before all things. Jesus guides us, no matter how uncertain the road before us.
And this particular truth is a great comfort to me. Though I absolutely feel called to the parish in Colorado, I also wonder if this is the clearest sign yet that I’m off my rocker. We love St. Luke’s. We love Salisbury. There wouldn’t be a thing wrong with us being here for several more years. But we’re going because, without any doubt in my mind, Jesus has told me to go. And the only reason why we’re doing something as crazy as moving 2,000 miles away is because I absolutely trust that Jesus is guiding us in all things. And I want you to hear me when I say that Jesus is also guiding this Parish, our staff, and our Vestry. Jesus promised his disciples that he would not leave them as orphans and that promise is still good. Yes, this transition is going to present you all with new challenges, new frustrations, and new anxieties. And there will also be new opportunities, new growth, and new blessings. In all of those things, Jesus will guide you, for he is in all things and holds all things together. Jesus makes all things well because he is Lord of all.
As an icon, Jesus makes this peace of God which passes all understanding present to us. So that there could be no question and no doubt about how much God loves us or how much God is for us, as we heard, “God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things by making peace through the blood of his cross.” There is no limit to God’s love. No person for which God is not willing to give everything. No situation that has not been redeemed by the outpouring of God’s love in Jesus. In other words, Jesus is an icon of God’s love.
The reason why we know that God is love is because, in the birth, life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension of Jesus, as St. Paul writes, “the mystery that has been hidden throughout the ages and generations has now been revealed to his saints.” As an icon, Jesus allows us to see more deeply into the heart and mind of the God who spoke and nothingness responded with being, the God who made a way out of no way and parted the Red Sea, the God who raises up prophets to call us back towards God’s love when we go astray, the God who lifts up the lowly and humbles the proud. When we hear stories about Jesus or see a depiction of him in an icon, we receive the restoring and enabling love of God.
When I often quote the theologian who said that love is the grain of the universe, this is what I’m getting at. Because God made all things in, with, through, and for love – it means when we listen for those notes of grace and respond in love we are working with reality that Jesus, our icon, is pointing us towards. All things – things visible and invisible, are oriented towards love. It’s why “love” is never ever the wrong response. Love might not always or often be easy, but it’s always the answer to the question of “what would Jesus do?” or “what should I do?”
As the icon of our faith, Jesus reminds us of this love. Over the past month or so, Tyler and I have started watching the television show “The Chosen.” I’ll confess that I had heard about the show awhile ago, but I avoided it because I, ignorantly and judgmentally, thought it was a show for “those Christians.” Man, was I wrong. There’s hardly been an episode that hasn’t brought me to tears. When I put on my scholarly hat, I know that the show isn’t a perfect depiction of Jesus and his ministry in Galilee and Jerusalem. I know that the writers and director are making artistic choices for a 21st century American audience. But in Scripture God speaks to people through a burning bush, through a donkey, through the stars of the sky, and through a crucified Jewish peasant, so who’s to say that God won’t speak to us through a television show?
What has so moved me in watching this show is the way that, more than anything else, the gracious and compassionate love of Jesus comes through. As Jesus was calling Simon and Andrew, I heard him speaking to me. As Jesus spoke Mary Magdelene’s name, I heard him calling my own. As Jesus heals the lepers and forgives the sinners of the paralytic, I felt Jesus forgiving and healing me. In a sense, the show has been functioning as an icon for me – putting me in touch with the love of Jesus not in an abstract way, but in a way that I know that his love is for me.
Maybe that show will speak to you in the same way, maybe not. It might be that receiving the Eucharist is the icon Jesus will visit you through this week. Maybe it will be in praying with a rosary, or coming to Morning or Evening Prayer, or visiting the sick, or serving those in need. I don’t know how Jesus is communicating his love to you, but I promise you that he is. I’ve got a few weeks left here, so if you want to find a time to talk about that, please let me know. And if not with me, whoever the next priest is – meet with her or him. I promise you: a new priest will be so excited to encounter a group of people who want to talk about getting closer to the love of Jesus.
As this hymn about Jesus puts it, Jesus has a lot of power. As we heard, “thrones, dominions, rulers, and powers” – he is Lord over all. What would you do with that kind of power? I don’t know that I’d give it up, and I really don’t know if I’d allow myself to end up on a cross. But that is precisely what Jesus does. For the purposes of reconciling our estrangement and hostility, Jesus gave himself up to the consequences of our closedmindedness, our inability to give up control, our doubts, fears, and sins. So that there would be no doubt about the purity or depths of his love, Jesus faced the worst of humanity and said “I still love you.”
And our restoration and salvation were done with a purpose in mind. As St. Paul wrote, Jesus did all of this to present us as holy and blameless so that we might be a servant of the Gospel. Unlike a rock icon that we admire from afar, religious icons are intended to draw us into their reality and enable us to participate in the truth they proclaim. As an icon, Jesus does this for us. Jesus loves us so that we might, in turn, share in his love.
As we’ve been praying over these past several months, “Lord, make us instruments of your peace,” we’ve been asking God to make us servants, to enable and equip us to love, cost what it will and lead where it might. Now, like a musical instrument, we don’t need to all sound the same, we don’t even need to play the same notes. Some of us might be a xylophone, or a violin, or a piano. Who knows, maybe some of us are God’s bongo drums, accordions, and kazoos. And while there’s a lot of uncertain ahead of us, I am absolutely confident that this parish is going to be an amazing part of the symphony that God is conducting, and each of us have a part to play in that. And so we will continue to listen for those notes of grace, to pay attention to the rhythms of love, and to, as another great hymn puts it, “repeat the sounding joy.”
No matter what happens, Jesus is with us in all things and at the center of all things. Jesus is an icon showing us God’s love and enabling us to participate in that same old song of the love that is making all things well.
