Spiritual Transparency

2nd Sunday after Epiphany

John 1:43-51; 1st Samuel; Psalm 139

The news has been full as of late with stories of deception, intrigue, and scandal. Things are rarely as they seem, and people are rarely completely the persons they purport to be. So, you and I are no longer surprised when we discover something about someone we thought we knew, only to find out that much of the relationship has been a façade.

Revelation of self to others – it’s the thing that makes so much of life exciting. Do you remember dating? I know – for most of us it’s a faint memory. Dating was all about revealing yourself and discovering the other person. Whether it was sipping coke out of the same glass, or going to the movies, or going to church – the goal was revelation and discovery. We spent our time getting to know the other person, and letting them know something about us. We didn’t share everything about ourselves – heavens, most of us tried to share only the part we thought looked good. Truth of the matter was – we shared a great deal more.

It’s much the same in most of our relationships. When I was in seminary, doing doctoral work, in one of my psychology classes I was introduced to a descriptive analysis of the way people reveal themselves to one another. It was known as the Johari window – you may remember something about that theory of personal revelation and discovery. The theory behind the Johari window was that we enter into relationships with others for the purpose of discovery, and that we accomplish that through the sharing of information. In each relationship there are things that we know about the other person, and things we do not know about the other person. Gradually over time, we enter into conversation, relational situations, trust opportunities and the like – all for the purpose of discovery and revelation.

Psychologists take this a step further to suggest that with each of us, there are things that we do not know about ourselves. So, for each of us, we are involved in a life-long process of self-discovery. There are hundreds of stages in this process, and over our lifetimes we may experience exhilaration and joy, or frustration and disappointment – all in the process of self-discovery. We think that we have finally figured out something about ourselves, only to discover an incongruity or deception at a level that we previously didn’t think possible. And the cycle continues for most of our lives – at least until we reach the point of resignation, or that of complete cynicism.

One of the great mysteries of faith is God’s decision to reveal Godself to us. Were it not for God’s choice in the matter, you and I would know nothing of Almighty God. But God chose, in God’s wisdom, to reveal Godself to us, and we are better for it. God revealed Godself in creation. God revealed Godself through prophets and leaders of Israel. God revealed more of Godself through the writings we now call the Bible. God revealed even more of Godself through His Son, Jesus. And God continues to reveal Godself through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. God is a god Who values revelation – revelation of self as a means to relationship.

It is no surprise to us, then, that God desires that we live transparent spiritual lives before God. The intimacy God desires from us requires a level of transparency that makes most of us uncomfortable, to say the least.

I want to make a distinction today between social, personal transparency, and spiritual transparency. Social, personal transparency is a factor of our personalities and our choices. Some among us are more guarded about revealing themselves to others. Others are open books – we hear and know often way more than we want to know. Those expressions of transparency are social and personal, and are factors of innate feelings, experiences, and choices, and they are perfectly acceptable to the point that they do no harm to the individual who possesses those attributes.

And I’m not speaking about transparency in our relationship with God as it relates to others. While Christianity is not a private faith – we are admonished in the scriptures to live our faith in an open and public way – the depths of our relationship to God remains a personal and private matter. Only when we choose to share with others the depth of how we relate to, talk with, and commune with God is that personal revelation relative. We do not coerce faith expressions from another, and we do not condemn others for keeping their deepest thoughts and encounters with God private.

No, what I’m talking about today is transparency in our relationship with God, as it relates directly to our relationship with God. I want to let us in on a little secret – the exchange of information we have with God is different than in any other relationship we will ever have. In other relationships, we make ourselves transparent so that the other person will discover something about us. In our relationship with God, God already knows everything about us. God is never surprised by our revelations – has something to do with omniscience, don’t you know. God is more interested in the manner in which we are transparent, and our willingness to learn more about ourselves as we progress in our relationship with God.

Our scriptures for today are illustrative on this matter. First of all, when we listen to the story of Samuel, we realize that God looks for people to serve Him who are willing to respond. Samuel was just a boy when he was serving in the temple with Eli. It was not unusual that a young boy like Samuel would serve with an old priest like Eli. What was unusual was stated in that first verse – “the word of the Lord was rare in those days; and visions were not widespread.” It seems that Israel had grown complacent in her relationship with God, and God searched for a prophet who was willing to respond above all else. I suspect God had been looking for a while – Samuel finally fit the bill.

God called to Samuel. That’s not unusual – God calls to each of us, in different ways. What was unusual was that Samuel responded to the authority in his life at the time – old Eli. We are not prone to respond to authority. When we hear the voice of God, most of us are prone first to ignore God’s voice, then put off the call of God, and finally reject God’s voice. We aren’t prone to respond to authority.

American Christians are particularly troubled by this phenomenon. We live in a “bootstrap” country – we live in a land where self-sufficiency and individuality are prized as characteristics of stalwart people. I fear that very thing which makes us great plays against the way we live out our Christian lives. In spiritual relational considerations, God does not prize individuality and self-sufficiency. God loves our dependence on God for all of our needs, wants, and desires. God loves for us to come to Him as little children. God delights in our need for God, and God delights when we respond affirmatively to God’s authority in our lives.

Eli knew well enough that God was calling Samuel. And Eli knew well enough that God had some particular problem with the way Eli had done his work over the years. God’s revelation to Samuel about Eli was troubling to the boy, and rightly so. But to his credit, and I think to the credit of Eli, Samuel continued down the path of willingness to respond to God, and shared with Eli the complete revelation of God. I think even old Eli gained something positive from this experience.

Then when we look over to the Psalm for today, we learn that God looks for people to serve Him who understand their limitations. Even as I speak, that idea seems weak. God desires that we know so much more than our limitations – He desires that we know that God is God, and we’re not. He desires that we know that God is all powerful, and all knowing, and all present. He desires that we realize the vastness of His presence, His knowledge, and His power - at the same time that we recognize the puniness of our own existence. The psalmist understood something of his place in the grand scheme of things – when it came to God. Were we to rewrite this psalm in a single verse, we might say something like, “God, you know so much more – about everything, including me – than I can ever hope to know.” Something like that.

Peterson starts to get at this idea of transparency with his translation. “God, investigate my life; get all the facts first hand. I’m an open book to you; even from a distance, you know what I’m thinking. You know when I leave and when I get back; I’m never out of your sight. You know everything I’m going to say before I start the first sentence. I look behind me and you’re there, then up ahead and you’re there, too – your reassuring presence, coming and going. This is too much, too wonderful – I can’t take it all in!” Then He closes the psalm with this translation. “Investigate my life, O God, find out everything about me; Cross-examine and test me, get a clear picture of what I’m about; See for yourself whether I’ve done anything wrong – then guide me on the road to eternal life.” Yeah, I think Peterson gets at it.

When I first looked at the scriptures for this day, I was most intrigued by the gospel story. What a wonderful story. Jesus is on his way to Galilee, and on his way finds his new disciple, Philip. Philip, in turn, finds his friend Nathanael, and tells him that they have found the Messiah, and that he hails from Nazareth. I love Nathanael’s response – “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I like his response because of the brutal honesty of it. He didn’t care for Nazareth – most Jews of that day didn’t care for Nazareth – and he was more than willing to just come out and say so. Evidently, Jesus liked his honesty, too. When he sees Nathanael, he says, “Behold, and Israelite in whom there is no guile” – or “deceit,” depending on your translation. It was from this exchange between Jesus and Nathanael that I began to get the idea for the sermon focus this morning – Spiritual Transparency.

Evidently, God looks for people to serve Him who are willing to be honest about what they think and about who they are. According to Jesus, Nathanael was one of those people. You know, when the boys won their basketball game the other night, the coach was quoted as saying that they showed some “moxie.” Well, that’s what Nathanael did – he showed some “moxie.” He showed a little “spunk.” He looked the Son of God in the eye and said, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” I think in essence he was saying, “Jesus, I’ll give you a chance to prove yourself to me, but you’ve got to know that the only direction you can go, in my book, is up. I already don’t have a very good opinion of you.” Or something like that. He called it the way he saw it – with Almighty God – toe to toe, face to face.

When I mention Spiritual Transparency, that attitude starts to get at the kind or relationship I think God wants to have with us. Frankly, God can stand up to any scrutiny we offer. When we enter into relationship with God, God is going to come out looking pretty good. The question in this “give and take” relationship is this – how will we look?

God calls us to relationship, and in that relationship, God is looking for transparency. Transparency calls for a willingness to respond to God’s call, an honesty which understands our limitations, and a willingness to be honest, perhaps even when honesty isn’t popular or wise. We learn to practice transparency with God, and in doing so, we practice vulnerability in which Almighty God can enter into just as honest and transparent a relationship with us.

In other words, in terms of relationship, God is looking for the real thing – God is looking for genuine people. Do you know the etymology of the word genuine? It is ancient in origin. When people in ancient times would sell pottery, sometimes those pots would crack in the baking process. Less honest businessmen learned that by glazing over the cracks and then re-firing the pots, they could often disguise the imperfections, and thus complete the transaction. Wary consumers learned that if they would take the piece of pottery out into the sunlight, hold it up to the sunlight, and turn it around, often the sunlight would peek through the imperfections. In this way they could tell which pots were cracked, and which were genuine.

In the relationship we have with God, God sometimes figuratively takes us out into the sunlight, and looks for the cracks. The trouble is, we all have them – we’re all cracked and flawed. Let me ask us – since God is the Potter, and we are the clay, doesn’t it make more sense to enter into a relationship with God that is transparent at the core?

Richard W. Dunn, PhD.