January 6th was the Feast of Epiphany and marked the first day of “Epiphanytide”, the period of the liturgical calendar between Epiphany and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. The purpose of Epiphany and the season that follows is to celebrate and emphasize the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. I plan on talking a LOT about this in the next few weeks.
But how does God reveal himself?
As Christians we say that God has best and most fully revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. We also say that revelation is witnessed by scripture and the Holy Spirit. Also in the created world. However, the New Testament teaches that Christ is most effectively revealed in those who follow him, Christians.
Oh. Dear.
The title of this blog post is a programming acronym: What You See Is What You Get; it refers to code editors and how they show their results to the end user. Most coding has a lot of specialized characters and syntax that the average person never sees.
Similarly there is a lot going on in the lives of the average person that no one else ever sees. However, to reverse the concept, as far as other people are concerned What You Get Is What You See. In other words, what people get out of your life is what they see of it.
So what is God revealing to others about Christ in you?
From an outsiders point of view would they say Christ is the kind of person who goes to a club with other people just like him and tells you it is important to go but never really explains why. Christ is a person who seems primarily concerned with his own well being and that of his family and has no desire to disrupt a status quo that works for him. Other than some rhetoric and a desire to tell people what they can and cannot do, Christ just seems like everyone else. Is that the Christ they see?
Or do they see a Christ who will go out of his way to get to know them, to actually show care and concern about their lives? Do they see a Christ sacrifices for the good of others? Do they see a Christ that weeps with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice? Do they see Christ as someone motivated by love or by their own best interests? Do they see a Christ that is critical of the status quo, who has embraced the prophetic role of speaking truth to power?
BUT! (I hear you saying.) I do all of this stuff for others! I give money! I read my Bible everyday and study my Sunday School lesson!
All well and good. But as far as being the revelation of Christ to the world I have to ask: so what? What do those outside the church see? What do those outside your circle see? How are you personally working to demonstrate Christ to the world.
In other words, what people see your life what version of Christ do they see?
Because WYGIWYS.
What you see is what you get.