Face To Face – ChurchEdge

Larry King was once asked whom he would interview if he could choose any person across time. He quickly responded, “Jesus Christ” and noted that he would ask if Jesus was indeed virgin born. “For to me,” explained King, “that would order all of history.” Likewise, renowned agnostic philosopher Bertrand Russell was once asked what he would say if he found himself standing in front of God. Russell immediately answered that he would assert, “You did not give us enough evidence.”

Truly, many of us have entertained similar scenarios. What would I say to God if I stood face to face with Him? For many, that image brings to mind an emotionally charged encounter, a chance to voice confusion, disappointment, or anger with premeditated words. For others it is a moment worth envisioning, even if they imagine it to be a moment far beyond words. Still for others, it is above all, a moment that just seems far away.

Now consider another scenario illustrated by a day in the life of G.K. Chesterton. Standing on a London street corner, Chesterton was once approached by a newspaper reporter who inquired, “Sir, I understand that you recently became a Christian. May I ask you one question?” “Certainly,” replied Chesterton. “If the risen Christ suddenly appeared at this very moment and stood behind you, what would you do?” Chesterton looked the reporter squarely in the eye and said, “He is.”

I would love to have seen the look on the reporters face at that reply — maybe he thought it to be a non-answer, maybe he looked behind him. In any case, the Christian teaching of Divine Presence is peculiar — largely rejected, neglected, or distorted into something it isn’t. Naïve and sentimental forms of pantheism grow increasing popular, but in seeing all things divine, divinity itself is expelled from the world entirely. The omnipresence of God is quite the contrary. It means, as Chesterton noted, that God in His incorruptible glory is right here, right now, a Presence we can ignore but not evade. It means that at no other point in time or place can God be nearer to you than He is now. King David once asked of God, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” Which means, that the moment of “reckoning” need not be something we perceive to be far away. The moment of standing before God with our questions, disappointments, pains and joys is right now, closer than we realize. The question then becomes, do you really want to see God? For those who have recognized this longing, Christ himself has much to say.

In his celebrated Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8) And while the phrase “pure in heart” means as Soren Kierkegaard stated, “To will one thing,” that is, to wholly and sincerely pursue God alone, it also means more. The Greek word for “pure” depicts a clearing of muddied waters, a ridding of all that pollutes. To be pure in heart is to be free from guilt and sin, to be free from what is false. It is to approach God, as C.S. Lewis says, with the prayer which precedes all prayers: “May it be the real I who speaks. May it be the real Thou I speak to.” [1]

Dear friend, God is near! In seeking and in seeing His face more fully, may we proclaim with all the wonder and fear of Jacob, “Surely God was in this place and I knew it not.” (Genesis 28:16-17)

____________

1. Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1964), 82.
____________