Fifth Sunday of Easter

We’ve come to the end of a week where we’ve been meditating on different names by which we know God, names like:

El Shaddai
Abba Father
Emmanuel
Yahweh
Jesus
El Roi

Whenever I contemplate names of God, my mind will inevitably wander to a Christian poster that was very popular some years back. It featured a whole list of different names for God printed in different colors, and sitting right in the center of the poster, in a stark white that made them stand out, were two words:

I Am.

Singer and songwriter Mark Schultz tells how that poster, which used to hang in his office as a church youth director, inspired him to write the song we’re featuring today. It’s an upbeat celebration of all the ways we come to know God, and sits well as a song of worship for today.

But the reality is this: no human language can fully capture who God is. The multitude of expressions and names we find in Scripture each speak to a different aspect of who God is, but they only scratch the surface of that unfathomable reality. Scripture testifies to a God who transcends every possible human description, and our words will always be incomplete and will ultimate fall short.

And that’s okay.

We’re not called to figure God out, we’re simply called to be in relationship with him and worship him. One way we can worship him is by celebrating the ways he has chosen to reveal himself to us, and at the center of that revelation is Jesus. Mark Schultz captures this well in his lyrics:

I am the fount of living water
The risen Son of Man
The healer of the broken
And when you cry
I am your Savior and Redeemer
Who bore the sins of man
The author and perfecter
Beginning and the end
I am

On this Fifth Sunday of Easter, let’s worship God and celebrate the one who declared, “I Am.”

Throughout the Earth…I am
The universe…I am
In every heart…I am
Oh, where you are…I am
The Lord of lords…I am
The King of Kings…I am
The Holy lamb…I am

Read the rest of the lyrics here.

Scripture for Reflection and Worship

Hebrews 1:1-3 (NIV)

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

John 1:1-18 (NRSV)

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.