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His Presence
By John Gavazzoni
Jesus Christ is present and progressively at work in the world. That fact, in fact, may be the best definition of the essential meaning of eonian life---God in Christ, present in and moving on in the ages, from age to age progressively fulfilling the will of His Father and our Father, until every last human being has come to know Him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.. That's the quality of life which is eonian. But He is present as above, in two modes: veiled and unveiled. And both His veiling and unveiling are, under the ordering of God the Father, matters of His initiative, His choosing.
He veils Himself from us by His choosing, and chooses when and how to pull aside the veil. No pietistic, plaintive appeal of ours, nor self-initiating preparation on our part can change that. Every veiling serves an unveiling, and every unveiling leaves us still with some measure of futility that we--- that is, until the consummation of all things---do not yet fully see Him as He is.
The summoned gathering (the church) is most spiritually vital when living in the expectation of His appearing, which appearing, is the unveiling of Him who is already present. This is normatively a moment by moment expectation of measured, progressive fulfillment, a present dynamic building to a final consummation. Dear mainstream brethren, please know that He doesn't need to get here from somewhere else. He IS Emmanuel, God with us. His is still existentially a precious presence mostly veiled to us. We need to be reduced to---and only He can do this---loving His appearing above all else.
This is the great expectation. It is first God's own expectation, next the believers' expectation, but also that of all creation. Yes, it is, and must be, God's own expectation of Himself and His Son to appear in an unveiling. They are not expecting anything of us to bring this about. The Father expects it of Himself via His Son Jesus.
It is one thing to hear life-giving words from God to move us along further into the riches of glory in Christ Jesus, but it is another thing to behold the Word. We need His unveiled glory, and that need is finally met in beholding Him, not only hearing of Him, or even hearing from Him Himself. The ultimate is the face to face encounter which in itself says it all.
In the prologue of John's gospel, the relationship between God and the Word, when the Greek is carefully examined, is a relationship of the Word being toward God, so as to be face to face with God, while being God. The picture we get from the whole message of the New Testament, is of the Word being face to face with God, and remaining so while at the same time turning to us, and turning us to Himself, so that we can see in His face, what He eternally sees in the Father's face.
I have heard so many good ideas about God. That's pretty much the level at which institutional Christianity operates: a long string of good ideas about God, but by and large those ideas are all of the warmed over variety. We've been there with each of them in church history before, just dressed up a bit by contemporary acculturation. Do you realize how Hellenistic that is? It's very little removed from the Greek's idea of the Logos (the Idea, the Word, the Message).
The Greek philosophers, and their disciples, were always trying to improve their conceptual grasp of the transcendent ideal. St. John came along, and said (if I may paraphrase): "Hey, I've got a message for you, God's whole Message, the Logos, the Ideal of His purpose is here, and we, His envoys have heard Him, seen Him, touched Him. In Him God has given us a quality of life in that springs forth out of our innermost being bringing us to know Him, Jesus of Nazareth, God's incarnation. Our only and full expectation is for that life, which is Him in us, to bring us into the full knowledge of His breadth, length, height and depth, even of His love."
Our need is for that singular presence of that singular Person. Oh yes, I know it's been revealed to the saints afresh that we, as His body, are His appearing, but we are His appearing in the measure that we behold Him within and among us, in the measure that we love His appearing.
There is nothing like His appearing, His unveiling. Nothing like it; absolutely nothing. Lord, uncover Yourself to us, that we might truly be your uncovering. We are tiring of what amounts to be by comparison childish church-playing. I am lonely for you Lord. All that I need awaits You. You're unveiling is occurring even now, and will continue until we see you resplendent in the fullness of your glory. In this I rest.
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