• Isaiah 9: 1-4

Isaiah acknowledges dark times in the past for God’s people, when the areas occupied by the tribes of Zebulum and Naphtali were lost to enemies.  But, he also recalls a past victory at Median to arouse expectations for a new era, filled with light and joy.  The closest analogy to the anticipated joy is the feeling of abundance and well-being at harvest time or when plunder after a battle is divided and there is more than people need: abundance surpasses needs.

• Psalm 27: 1,5-13

The psalmist affirms her trust in God.  She pushes further: God’s love even exceeds the love of parents for their children!

• I Corinthians 1: 10-18

Paul makes two distinct, but complementary, points at the beginning of his letter: the full  experience of Christ exceeds the perspective of any one faction in the church.  The message of the cross can be stated directly, but its full meaning can never be fully grasped in our understanding or in the way we live.

• Matthew 4: 12-23

Matthew moves Jesus from his hometown to Capernaum, “so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled.”  Jesus announces “the kingdom of God has come near.”  Jesus invites some local fishermen to join him.

According to Matthew, Jesus is clearly present– walking with the public and his followers around the lake of Galilee– but his presence also exposes an absence: the kingdom of God has come “near.”  “Near,” close, perhaps very close, but not fully present.

In fruitful exchanges Jacques Derrida and Jean-Luc Marion explored the different conclusions drawn from their mutual acceptance of the limits of human capacities and human language.  (See especially God, the Gift and Postmodernism, edited by conference leaders John Caputo and Michael Scanlon.)  “Were the Messiah to show up… Marion would take this as an event of excess and joy, a matter of prayerful praise–Hallelujah!– whereas Derrida, approaching him [the Messiah] cautiously, would ask, ‘When will you come?’ ” (p. 219)  Derrida dwells on the absence of final meaning, while Marion finds that actual experience always exceeds human imagination and language.  Perhaps both are biblical.  At times God is present, such as the transformation of Jesus on Mt. Tabor, — with which the season of Epiphany concludes– when those who witnessed it were dazzled to the point of fear and confusion.  Other times, God seems painfully absent, when one cries, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  However, it is also true that when we feel God is present, our human capacities are overwhelmed, dazzled, but when we feel God’s absence, there are traces of past presence or a substantive longing for future certainty.  Nearness and absence of God are intertwined in actual human experience, according to biblical texts.  Even though Jesus was totally and fully present that day around the lake of Galilee, God’s reign had only come “near.”

Jesus among us both makes sense and defies sense; is accessible and alludes our grasp.  Jesus lives out an example of love that exceeds any past or subsequent human exemplar.  And, as his life will unfold, it will become clear that Jesus is constricted by human relationships and institutions as he embodies God’s love which always surpasses, obliterates human expectations.  God’s abundance in Jesus will manifest love but will also reveal that God’s love overwhelms our capacity to process it or tame it.  God’s love revealed in Jesus is clear enough to grab our attention and our affection, but always escapes our grasp.