A young and rather inexperienced curate once met a famous preacher and thought that he might get some good advice.

“What shall I preach about?” he asked.
“About God and about ten minutes” was the reply.

Speaking about God for ten minutes should be no hardship to any priest though I remember that my very first essay on Doctrine at University had the rather daunting title:

“The problem for Theology is not whether God exists but how we can meaningfully talk about him” – discuss.

That fits in with something Michael Ramsey once said: 

No words, even inspired words, are wholly adequate to convey the reality of God.

St Hilary took this further when he said:

We are compelled to attempt what is unattainable; to climb where we cannot reach; to speak what we cannot utter. Instead of the bare adoration of faith, we are compelled to entrust the deep things of our religion to the perils of human expression.

Words, then, are inadequate when we talk about God so perhaps we shouldn’t bother.

Perhaps, then, we should be like the little boy who was once busily drawing when his father asked him what he was doing.

“I’m drawing a picture of God” he said. 
"But no-one knows what God looks like", said his Father. 
“They do now” said the boy.

What sort of picture would you draw of God?  Setting aside the image of an old man sitting on top of a fluffy white cloud where would you get your inspiration?  It’s an important question because, as Christians, we are ambassadors of the Gospel and we have a duty to express our belief in God, sharing it with each other, and, more importantly, sharing it with others. That’s the stuff of Evangelism.  It’s also what many people are yearning to hear.

I have often been invited to wedding receptions and there comes a moment, usually after the wine has been flowing for a bit, when at least one of the guests decides its time to unburden his or her soul.  Usually they trap me in a corner where escape is impossible and inevitably they begin with an apology about why they don’t come to Church – usually it is because they feel the Church is full of hypocrites who don’t practice what they preach. At least that charge salves the conscience. However, as the conversation progresses the talk inevitably turns towards God – what’s he like? why do I believe in Him? How can he be found?

These are important questions and they lie beneath the surface of many people’s thoughts because, though there are proportionately fewer churchgoers than in the past, the longing to believe in someone greater than oneself is very strong within the population.  One of the tasks of the Church is to touch that longing and answer it.  So, it’s back to the question: “What sort of picture would you draw of God?” What would you say about him?  Or, as I once read: “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”  Well, of course, I’m sure there would be but maybe we all need some help on this one.

One clue to this help comes in today’s Gospel:  Jesus was in Capernaum where he taught in the Synagogue. Those who heard him were amazed at the authority with which he spoke – which is another way of saying that they saw in him a man filled with God.  Amongst those present was a man with an unclean spirit, a demon which was possessing him. The demon, the dark force within this man, recognised that the authority with which Jesus spoke was not only from God but was in fact because he was God – “I know who you are” the man cries, You are “The Holy One of God.”  Jesus cleansed the man of his dark spirit and his authority before the eyes of all who saw him was complete.  Now what we have here is a huge clue in our quest to talk meaningfully about God.  If the unclean spirit recognised God in Jesus, how much easier it should be for us to do so.

You see, God has helped us to understand him.  He did not send us a manifesto, nor a lot of words – he painted a picture.  “You want to know what I’m like” he says “well here I am. I’m Jesus”.  In the Incarnation, God chose to reveal himself as one of us. The babe of Bethlehem whom we celebrated at Christmas; the teacher in the synagogue whom we meet in today’s Gospel; the builder of the Church who takes the raw material of disciples lives and changes them into Apostles – ambassadors for Christ; the Christ who hangs on a Cross and on the third day is raised from the dead, are part of this composite picture God sends about Himself.

On one occasion, Church House received a letter from a schoolboy.

“Dear Sirs, it read, “this term in RE we are doing God. Have you any literature? Please send me full details.”

And that’s exactly what God does in Jesus Christ – he sends us full details about himself.  So if we are to talk meaningfully about God we have to start with Jesus.

Now, of course, it isn’t too difficult to do this because we have a wealth of material. Not only the Gospels –but also the other New Testament writings which are the working out of the early church’s relationship with Christ. And then, the Old Testament which is peppered with clues about him; Add to that, of course all the many millions of testaments written by individual Christians throughout the ages..  If you were writing about Jesus you would have more resources than about any other human being who has ever lived.

But, of course, these resources are about Jesus. They give us a picture of a man who lived in Galilee over two thousand years ago but they do not necessarily take us beyond a fact finding exercise. Like the Schoolboy, we might, with all these details, write a credible essay about God but that would not be enough to reveal God to others in a way that would help them believe in Him.  For that, we have to take our fact-finding one step further – and this was God’s intention in the Incarnation.

You see, in the birth of Christ, God laid everything on the line. He became a vulnerable human being in order to build up a relationship with us. He didn’t come to simply give us a picture of what he was like, he came in order to give us a vision of what we could be like – and what we can be like is to be Christ-like.  In other words, as one of the great teachers of the Church once put it:

God became what we are in order that we could be as He is.

Now that’s a tremendous action on God’s part.  For that action to become real in our own lives, however, we have to enter into a relationship with Him. We have to take that step from Knowing about God to Knowing him. This involves us in entering into a living relationship with him.

OK, you may agree and you may well say, if we hadn’t done that, we wouldn’t be here this morning. We already have a living relationship with Jesus Christ. We recognise him in the Word of Scripture, in the Breaking of the bread of the Eucharist, in every Prayer we utter and, in each other.  Now, there’s the rub – in each other.

It is when we celebrate Jesus in one another – when we see the image of Christ in each other and are filled with joy because of it that we are taking our relationship with God that bit further. It would help us to grow more close to God and that would also mean that we treat each other more specially.  When we can answer the question – “What is God like?” with “well, it may seem strange to say this but he’s a bit like me and a bit like you” , we are well on the way to revealing what God is like.

But, isn’t it a rather audacious claim to say that we are like God?  Well, maybe – but in the Collect we have just said we prayed to God that the Glorious gospel of Christ may dispel the darkness of ignorance and unbelief and shine into the hearts of all your people to reveal the knowledge of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ – a prayer which links our Lord’s glory with our hearts – our inner being, and at the end of today’s service we will pray that we may be signs of your wonders in the world.  The link between us and Jesus Christ is very clear in these two prayers. Listen carefully, also, to the blessing at the end.  The relationship between God and us is made through Jesus Christ and the thing about any relationship is that, to be genuine, each has to show something of themselves to the other. 

The deeper a relationship grows, the more is revealed. It’s sometimes said of people who have been married for a very long time that they think and act as one – and that is true of all long-lasting relationships which are based on deep friendship and genuine love. The more we are in a loving relationship with someone the more we share each others characteristics, manners, thoughts and feelings.  So there is a clue – the more we spend quality time with Jesus – in prayer, in worship, in the Eucharist, in Scripture, even in companionable silence, the more we shall discover his characteristics and the closer we shall get to him. Gradually, as we deal with those things which get in the way of that relationship – things like sin and selfishness – we shall shine with his image – perhaps dimly at times but, if we persist, more brightly.  And when that happens we shall be changed and it is this change - this transformation - which will turn us from people who know about God, or people who dabble a little with God, into people who reveal God simply by being who we are.  People whom others can meet and say: “I know who you are. You are someone living close to the Holy One of God – to Jesus.” They may not use those words but that will be what they will see.

In the end we don’t actually have to talk about God. We do, however, have to be a picture of him so that, as the little boy who drew God said – they now know what God is like.

He is like you and me because we are like him! We are made in His image.  Isn’t that fantastic!