1 John 1:1-4

    One of the most compelling feature of John's first epistle is his complete lack of any identification in his introduction. What's interesting about it is that John, doesn't really seem able to contain himself throughout his first letter at all. It reads a lot like Mark's Gospel, or Ephesians chapter one. An overwhelming abundance of good things spilling out over the page. What John does say by way of introduction is a brief, albeit abstract, proclamation of the Gospel concerning the Word of Life. In verse one we see that Jesus Christ was infinite "That which was from the beginning", that Jesus was declared in the Old Testament, and experienced in the world "which we have heard, which we have seen, John then goes on to mention that the 12 Apostles had a unique experience with Jesus. Everybody around Jesus at the time saw him, and heard him physically. But John says that they not only saw him but they also looked up him. That is to say, they saw him as he truly was. One thinks of the transfiguration, Isaiah's vision and calling, Peter's experience in the boat, or the revelation of Thomas while he felt the wounds of the risen Christ.
    John doesn't even leave it at that he goes on to say that Jesus was made manifest, which is to say that he took on a specific, identifiable form, and that the 12 were able to touch him. Jesus was no floating ethereal spirit. He became a man of flesh, and blood. Now, he didn't become manifest idly. He came with the expressed purpose of restoring fellowship between God, and his people. Now, what's really interesting about this fellowship is the language that John uses to describe it. First off, he always uses plural pronouns...we, our, us. What we can take away then is that John is not referring to some sort of "me and Jesus" experience, but a verifiable event that he, and the rest of the church stand behind. Nor is his mention of fellowship some sort of nebulous, pie in the sky thing to consider abstractly. It is fellowship with the church, as the church has fellowship with God. It's concrete, and visceral. It's palpable.
     Becky and I went to a Wilco concert a few months ago, and because I'm a true music lover, I am still sitting happily in the afterglow of it.....because it was awesome. The band had their sound engineered very deliberately. It was poised right at the edge, leaning over as far as it possibly could before causing feedback. I literally felt the air being displaced by the sound coming out of their stage setup. I've never experienced anything like it. The sound coming off of that stage was palpable....it had a dimension, and texture, a dynamic force behind it. That's the kind of fellowship that John is talking about, the sort that has an empirical dimension. The sort that people notice when they're around it, that's the ethos behind the first 4 verses of 1 John.....great joy derived from palpable fellowship with God. What an amazing thing!
     But we would be remiss if we were just excited by this passage and not challenged by it. Here, John tells us, we can have the same fellowship with God that he had. Even more wonderful, that because of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection we are caught up into the fellowship within the trinity. So, what we have got to ask ourselves is this: "If our fellowship with God can be the same as that of the Apostles.....is it?" Would people say that your faith, your Christianity is palpable?