The Technological Drive for
Perfection
Ever since I was a little
boy, I have always been fascinated by the steady march forward of
technology. I used to love going to the school library and picking up
a copy of Popular Mechanics to see what new gadget, or computer, or
AI system was being developed. I would play with electronics kits and
build my own radios. Even when I was in the Army, flying drones, it
was like being a kid again. I mean, not only did I get to play with
robots, but they were flying robots! How cool is that?! And in my
short lifetime, technology has advanced by leaps and bounds,
unimaginable to previous generations.
From facial recognition
technology to global climate modeling, and from GPS to automated
manufacturing; machines are able to do incredibly complicated work
with an efficiency and within tolerances unmatched by any human
being. In fact I learned this week that our most accurate atomic
clock, the strontium optical lattice clock, is so accurate that it is
able to measure subtle dilations of time itself as the clock is
placed closer or farther away from the mass at the center of the
Earth. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, when you put
your hand over your head, because it’s further away from the center
of the Earth, it actually travels through time a tiny bit faster than
your feet! It’s such an impossibly tiny change, that we don’t
perceive it at all. But this clock does! It can literally measure how
time itself stretches and crunches when acted upon by gravity.
That’s nuts, right? In
another age, if I had said such things, people would assume I was
crazy. Heck, you might be wondering about my sanity right now! But
that’s how far science and technology have advanced. We are able to
measure and create with such precision, and yet almost all scientists
agree that our knowledge of the Cosmos and our ability to shape our
surroundings through technology has only barely scratched the
surface.
The Purpose For Which We
Were Created
And yet, with all these
technological marvels and scientific advancements, we are still a
species consumed by war, slaves to our own appetites, ever on the
brink of being destroyed by our own hatred and lust. There is a sharp
contrast between the perfection humanity strives for through
creativity and ingenuity, and the imperfection we see in our nature.
We develop technology in the hope that it will make our lives better,
yet we find that it often brings as many problems as it solves. As
perfect as we seem to be able to make machines, they cannot fix
what’s really broken in the world. They can’t fix us. In fact,
nothing we do can. And we’ve tried just about everything. We’ve
tried putting our trust in governments, in political parties, in
philosophies, in technology, in relationships, in wealth, and in
pleasure. And they have all failed to get to the root of the problem
because the root of the problem is at the very core of our being.
When we read the opening
passages in Genesis, we find that this wasn’t always so. As God
said in Gen. 1:27, “So God created humankind in his image, in the
image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”1
And in v. 31, “God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it
was very good.”
God created us with
perfection in mind, His own perfection, the perfection of the Son.
This is most beautifully stated in the great statement on the
Incarnation from our reading in John 1 tonight,
“1
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. 2
He was in the beginning with God. 3
All things came
into being through him, and without him not one thing came into
being. What has come into being 4
in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. 5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome
it… 14
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his
glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and
truth.”
Everything that is good,
everything that is beautiful, and everything that is loving in the
world was created through the Son. Christ Himself is the creative
Word of God, and whenever we try to recreate perfection, whether it
is through art, or poetry, or music, or philosophy, or religious
expression; we do it because deep in our hearts we are being called
upon by the Holy Spirit to fulfill that great purpose for which we
were created: which is to reflect Christ’s perfect love in our
hearts and in every area of our lives.
Christ’s Anticipating and
Perfecting Grace
But when sin entered the
world, it corrupted us. It corrupted our bodies – bringing death
into our lives; it corrupted our hearts – the deepest seat of our
longing and desire; and it even corrupted our reason – our very
ability to perceive the character and nature of God through His
Creation. We were no longer able to perceive Him or the virtues He
created for us to possess through reason alone, and every attempt on
our part to grasp who He truly is, to grasp perfection itself, falls
short.
This
is why the Word became flesh and lived among us, so that by His
illuminating light which pierces every darkness, we might see His
glory, believe in Him and be filled with His grace which brings us
the truth we have failed to grasp on our own. This
is
why the Incarnation, the moment when the Word became flesh, is so
important to the Christian faith. It is through the Incarnation of
Christ that our wills and our reason are restored, so that we may
perceive the goodness of God, and being moved by the Holy Spirit,
answer His call to repent and be saved.
As
Titus 2:11-13 tells us, “11
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, 12
training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the
present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and
godly, 13
while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
When
we repent, receiving His grace by faith and turning away from our
selfish desires and all the things which distort the Image of God in
us, He begins that great work of healing us and restoring that
reflection in us. He restores the ability and the call to perfectly
reflect His love.
As
the Apostle John later wrote in his first letter, 1 John 4:16-19, “16
So we have known and believe the love that God has for us. God is
love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in
them. 17
Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness
on the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. 18
There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear
has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached
perfection in love. 19
We love because he first loved us.”
And
the best, most perfect example of God’s love was most fully
revealed to us over 2,000 years ago; when a virgin mother laid her
infant son in a feeding trough on a cold winter’s night in a tiny
village, nestled in the center of a backwater province of the Roman
Empire. It’s this moment that we celebrate tonight through our
songs and worship; and it is His death on the cross and His bodily
resurrection to free us from sin and death that we proclaim as we
partake in the Lord’s Supper together.
Footnotes
(1) All
quoted scripture is from the NRSV, unless otherwise noted.
First Delivered on Dec. 24, 2019 - Cortez Church of the Nazarene, Cortez, CO.
#Incarnation #ChristmasEve #Grace #Love
