Logos

This sermon was originally preached on December 29, 2002. It has been updated.

According to Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, pan-dimensional beings created a giant computer called Deep Thought. They programmed it to tell them the answer to life, the universe and everything. It took 7 ½ million years to calculate. When at last the day of the answer came, Deep Thought told the 2 representatives who were to transmit it to the people, that while it was sure of the answer, they probably weren't going to like it. Nevertheless they wanted to know what it was. And so Deep Thought, a greater computer than the Milliard Gargantubrain at Maximegalon, the Googleplex Star Thinker in the seventh galaxy of light and ingenuity, and the Great Hyperbolic Omni-cognate Neutron Wrangler of Ciceronicus 12, tells them that the answer to the great question of life, the universe and everything is...42.

After they get over the shock, the pan-galactic beings are appalled that all the computer has to show after millions of years is a number. So Deep Thought points out that the question is rather nebulous and needs to be precisely stated in order to understand the answer. When asked if Deep Thought can frame the question, it says “No” but it can design a computer that will. And that computer will be called...Earth.

What tickles me is that, while Adams' absurdist space saga is satire, it does touch on some real concerns. Earth is full of questions about the meaning of life. In Adams' book the answer is ultimately a joke. In real life, it is anything but.

Deep down, isn't that what we are all searching for—an answer to everything? Only it's not one question; it's more like 3. Where do we (and everything) come from? Why are we here? And where are we going? The search for these answers fuel philosophy, religion and even science. The answers we get are varied. But we can sketch the broad outlines.

Science tells us that we are made of stardust, elements that formed as our planet solidified from a swirling mass of gas and debris left over from the Big Bang. That's where we come from. And science tells us that, after billions of years, all the energy of the universe will be used up, everything will come apart and continue to exist as an immense lukewarm soup. That's where we are going. As to why we are here, science says we are simply here to reproduce and die as part of an ecosystem that was formed by blind chance. True, some scientists have different opinions but by and large what science can tell us is basically descriptive and on the surface rather than prescriptive and deep. It says we are nothing but a collection of organic components.

But humanity has never been satisfied by that. We believe that there is a meaning to life. In fact, we cannot live without meaning. Dr. Viktor Frankl, who survived the Nazi concentration camps, realized that those who survived had meaning and purpose in their lives. It might have been as simple as wishing to see their loved ones again but the will to live depends on having a reason to live. Those who saw no greater purpose to their lives tended to despair and perish.

Existentialism is a school of philosophy in which everyone decides on the meaning of his own life. A person creates meaning for himself or herself. The problem is that this makes everyone's meaning equally valid. It's all subjective. But that means there is no overall meaning to life and since we can all make up whatever meaning we wish, it's basically like whistling in the dark. Beneath existentialism is acceptance of the scientific model that we are just random bits of ephemeral phenomena. So we tell ourselves whatever we want in order to comfort ourselves but there may be no objective truth to it.

The alternative is that the meaning of life is objective. It is either deduced by some authority or revealed by God. Each religion conceives of it differently. But what is it? What is the ultimate value of life?

To many religions it is simply knowing one's place and obeying God. To a Buddhist or Hindu, the object is to leave behind the circle of death, rebirth and pain and to achieve Nirvana where one is absorbed by the World Soul and ceases to exist as an individual. To the Mormon, the purpose of life is to marry for eternity and beget children forever and one day, if you are a man, to become a god of one's own little world. To some groups, the purpose of life is to grow intellectually, becoming more enlightened and wise.

In the first chapter of the Gospel of John, the author gives a profound answer to the question of the meaning and purpose of life. Before we get to it, let's look at how his audience perceived what he wrote.

John uses a concept familiar to both the Jews and the Greeks of his time: the Word of God. For the Jews, God's Word was powerful. It was creative. God created the world just by speaking it into existence. “God said, 'Let there be light.' And it was so.”

God's Word also gave life. Again, God created life just by saying so. But God's Word also illuminated the minds of people.The Jews not only thought of God's Word as scripture but also as humanity's basic understanding of the world.

Finally, God's Word was his wisdom. This last concept was particularly important in their wisdom literature. In the Book of Proverbs (Chapter 8) as well as in later writings like the Wisdom of Solomon and Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom is pictured as God'sw agent in creation, a separate creature of his through whom all things were made. All of this lies behind what John means in the prologue to his Gospel.

The Greek philosophers also spoke of the Word. The Greek term is “logos.” And it means not only “word” but also “reason.” The Logos is the pattern behind creation, the thing that keeps order throughout a world in flux, the mind of the Creator itself. So when John uses the term “Word” he is speaking to both Gentile and Jew about a key philosophical and theological idea that shapes their worldviews.

John's first statement actually precedes the first sentence in Genesis. “In the beginning was the Word.” The reason behind everything, the pattern for all that is, was there from the start. “...the Word was with God...” It is not an afterthought; it was there with God before anything was created. It is original in every sense of the word.

“...and the Word was God.” The Greek is deceptively simple here but basically it means that what God was, the Word was. As we say in the Nicene Creed, “...of one being with the Father.” The Word was divine, of the same stuff as God.

John goes on to say that, just like the Hebrew concept of the Word and Wisdom of God, all things were made through the Logos and it gives us life and light.

Now all this sounds very abstract until we get to verse 14. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us...” The reason for life, the universe and everything became a human being. This is radical! Imagine it: the reason why we are all here was lying in an animal's feedbox, the wellspring of life suckled at Mary's breast, the principle that holds the universe together made his appearance in the world as the most vulnerable creature imaginable, a human infant.

I could write a book on this passage. All I want to point out here is this: if he is the principle behind everything, then Jesus is a better meaning to life than any philosophical statement or abstract theological concept. Because he is a person. As such he is complex. Our universe is complex. In fact, since he is both divine and human, we can see in him much more than we could deduce from any written word. He is the ultimate expression of God's mind and in him we see a multiplicity of meanings that overlap. We see justice, truth, grace, hope, trust, forgiveness, wisdom, paradox, kindness, healing, transcendence, creativity, sacrifice, love and more. In Jesus we see what God is like.

But because he has become one of us and follows the will of God perfectly, we also see what we can be. We see what a human life that is wholly responsive to God can do. So in Jesus Christ we not only see eternity but also our future and the potential future of humanity. Through Christ, we can rise above the self-destructive and corrosive effects of our sins to be loving, healing, giving stewards of God's gifts.

So what are the Christian answers to the 3 questions we posed?

Where do we come from? From God's creative love expressed through Christ, our original pattern.

Why are we here? To grow into that image of God which he planted in us until we mirror that joyous love we find in the interplay of the Father and the Son, united in the Spirit of their love.

Where are we going? If we choose to unite to God and leave behind those sins which limit and hinder us, we will become more like him, which is to say, more the people we were intended to be: diverse and yet harmonious, individual yet unified. It is a voyage of discovery and growth which will never end, and which promises surprises and delights forever more as we go deeper and deeper into the riches found in our infinitely wonderful God.