May 2, 2025
Completing One's Prayers
For this past Sunday’s confirmation meeting, Pastor Lauren and I created a review of what we have covered since January. Our confirmands were divided into two teams and had a friendly competition to see who remembered how much and what. For example, they were given a statement and had to determine if it was true or false. In that spirit, here is a question for you: “God became human, that humans might become God,” is both biblically true, and theologically orthodox; True or False? Hold onto your answer.
In preparing for last week’s sermon, I ran across an observation that I have not thought of before. That is, some of what Jesus prayed for in John 17 is enacted by Jesus in his first post-resurrection encounter with the disciples in John 20. Specifically, that Jesus is sending the disciples into the world just as the Father sent him (17:18 & 20:21) and Jesus has been made holy that that might be made holy (17:19 & 20:22).
This is a rather radical thought: to think that we have been anointed as Jesus was, with the very same Spirit that Jesus was, and the result is that—according to Jesus’ words also recorded in John’s gospel—that we who follow Jesus will do greater works than Jesus (14:12). Though it may be radical, it is neither new nor unheard of. Recently, North Park Theological Seminary’s professor emeritus Klyne Snodgrass wrote a book entitled You Need a Better Gospel: Reclaiming the Good News of Participation with Christ. In this he argues that that a biblical theme that continues throughout the history of the Christian faith is that we are invited to participate in the very life of God in Christ through the Spirit.
The quiz question you were given is a statement from St. Athanasius, whose Feast Day is today, May 2. It comes from his treatise, On The Incarnation. Written about 330, it was a treatise that came out of his argument for the unity of the Father and the Son in the Council of Nicaea which gave us the Nicaean Creed. This was a crucial defense of the divinity of Christ. It was expanded later in the Athanasian Creed, which is often prayed on Trinity Sunday.
But did Athanasius really believe that we become God? Not exactly. The word translated as “become” means “to participate in” or “to overlap.” This means that the divine life of God through the Spirit resides in us because of the intercession of Christ. And the word “us” is equally key, as the divine life God offers is one of community. And a main point of Jesus' prayer in John 17 is the unity of those who believe (participate) in him. (17:23-23).
The answer to our quiz today is a nuanced “True.” We do not become gods, but we participate in God’s divine life in Christ through the Spirit. This is given to us through the risen Christ who promises that this participation in God’s divine life will never end.
For those of you have confessed that Jesus Christ has been made Lord of all, including being your Lord, I pray that you might be filled with God’s Spirit and continue to grow in Christ, deepening your participation in the life of our Triune God. May we together might do great things in God’s name for God’s sake.
Let us offer the world a better gospel by our living into our participation of God’s divine life, plainly and for all to see.
With resurrection hope,
~ Pastor Todd
P.S. Thank you for your prayerful support this past week for my eye procedure this past Wednesday. Like before it did not go as planned, but this time with a much better outcome. That is, I was misdiagnosed as having Progressive Keratoconus and do not need this procedure after all. You can read more about it here.