God Along the Way--July 27, 2021

God Along the Way--July 27, 2021

"For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by human hands, a mere copy of the true one, but he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf." [Hebrews 9:24]

I'm not usually one to offer movie reviews when I'm supposed to be reflecting on the Scriptures, but on this hot July day, I find myself thinking about the movie version of The Polar Express, and what it has taught me about the nature of God.

The movie itself, I confess, I find kind of forgettable.  (Truth-in-advertising, I'm not a fan of most Christmas movies, so this was gonna be a hard sell for me no matter how the movie was made.)  But they have basically taken a thirty page picture book that was thin on plot to begin with and stretched it out into a hundred-minute winding story with a whole host of characters and twists that weren't in the original.  That said, however, I am struck by a choice made in the casting of the movie that makes a connection that was impossible to create in book form, and I love it, for the sheer theology of it.

In the movie, which tells the story of a magical train that takes children to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, the voice of the conductor of the train is also the voice of Santa Claus himself. Both are played by the ever-popular Tom Hanks (along with a few other characters by the time the movie is done).  And while Hanks makes Saint Nick's voice a bit jollier and heftier than the manic conductor, his voice is so recognizable that anybody watching can tell there's a connection there.  Tom Hanks, the conductor, is bringing a train full of children into the presence of Tom Hanks, the man waiting at the North Pole in the red and white suit.  The same person is at the destination and along on the journey.  The same person is the one who gives out the gifts of Christmas and also the one who prepares the children along the way to be able to receive those gifts--and to believe that all of this incredible journey is happening in the first place.

Now, I don't want to lean too hard on a Theology of Tom Hanks or of the Polar Express, but I do think that this curious connection in the movie between the characters offers a helpful way of thinking about what God does in Jesus.  We heard from the very opening of this book that Christ Jesus is nothing less and none other than the very "reflection of God's glory" and the "exact imprint of God's very being," who sustains all things in the universe.  That sure sounds like saying that Jesus is what God looks like in a human life, and that's of course why the early church fought hard to be clear about that very claim.  In Jesus we get "God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God."  So Jesus is God's self-presentation to humanity--God coming to us, and God dwelling with us.

And yet at the same time, this Jesus brings us into the very presence of God, the One whom Jesus himself calls "Abba" (Papa, Daddy, Father).  Jesus is like the high priest, coming into the unfiltered, undiluted presence of God with all of us along in his presence... and Jesus is also one with the God to whom he brings us.  God is the destination, and God in Jesus is the one conducting us along our journey toward that destination.  God is the One who gives all good gifts as the Source of all things, and God is the One, through Christ, who enables us to receive those gifts and gives us the faith to believe and trust in this God's grace, by the Spirit.  God is the One we are longing to see face to face, and God, in Jesus, is the One who enables us to come to God.

That reframes all our lives, I believe.  It means that we are not being set up for disappointment at the end of our journey, like in The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy and company find out that for all of the spectacle and drama leading to their arrival before the Wizard in the Emerald City, he's really just a sham and a fraud.  There is no worry of disappointment in the presence of God, though, because that same God has accompanied us along the way in Jesus to bring us into the presence of God.  It's all rather like the children's northward journey on the train, accompanied by the friendly voice of the conductor, which turns out to be the very same voice of the one they have been traveling to see all along.

And if nothing else, that means our faith is not merely a matter of getting "out there" or "up there" to where God is at some point beyond death--it means that God is right here with us now on the journey we call life, and also yet God is the One toward whom we are all coming home.  God is on both sides of the equation. God is both the destination and the companion on the way.  Or, as Catherine of Siena famously put it, "All the way to heaven is heaven, for Jesus said, 'I am the way'."

May we see it in this day as well.

Lord Jesus, give us the courage to face this day's journey, knowing you are both our destination and our companion along the way.