+ If you’re anything like me, youare sometimes not all that proud to call yourself a Christian.

In this day and age, the very term “Christian”sometimes means something diametrically opposite of what we actually believe andpractice.

The term has been highjacked andmade into an ugly word, associated with such things as racism, sexism,homophobia, transphobia, etc.

There’s a lot of talk recentlyabout “Christless Christianity.”

And boy! Do I see that on a regularbasis!

Many of us find ourselves trying toskirt the identification as “Christian.”

We say, instead, “I’m Episcopalian.”Or “I’m Anglican.” Or “I’m a progressive Christian.”

We add often, “we’re not like thoseChristians.”

I often say I’m a liturgicalChristian, hoping that helps (it often doesn’t).

But, one of the things I love aboutbeing a liturgical Christian, especially in the Episcopal Church, and here atSt. Stephen’s is  that we worship withall our senses here.

We worship with our ears—with musicand bells.

We worship with smell, with theincense we use at our Wednesday evening Eucharist.

We worship with taste, with thebread and wine of the Eucharist.

We worship with sight, with thebeauty of the art on our walls and in our altar and in the hangings here.

Even in baptism we use our senses—withthose basic elements of water and fire (in the candles) and oil. 

And in our icons and religious art.

And in this way, we are payingspecial homage to the Eastern Orthodox roots within our church.

In Eastern Orthodoxy, icons takespecial place in the worship service.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church,ikons are pictures which are sacred because they portray something sacred.

They are a “window,” in a sense, tothe sacred, to the otherwise “unseen.”

They often depict Jesus or Mary orthe saints.

But they are seen as something muchmore than art.

They are seen as something muchmore than pictures on the wall.

They are also “mirrors.”

And that is important to remember

That term Ikon is important to usthis morning because we encounter it in our reading from Pauls’ Letter to theColossians.

In that letter, in the originalGreek,  Paul uses the word “eikon” todescribe the “image” of Christ Jesus.

Our reading this morning opens withthose wonderful words,

“Jesus is the image of theinvisible God…”

Image in Greek, as I said, iseikon.

But eikon is more than just an“image”.

Ikons also capture the substance ofits subject.

It captures the very essence ofwhat it represents.

For Paul, to say that Jesus is theikon of God, for him, he is saying that Jesus is the window into the unseenGod.

In fact, the way ikons are “written” (which is the word used to described howthey’re made), God is very clearly represented.

But not in the most obvious way.

God is represented in the goldbackground of the ikon, which is the one thing you might not notice when youlook at an ikon.

That gold background represents theLight of God.

And that light, if you noticepermeates through the faces of the subjects in the ikon.

So, when we look at any ikon, itour job to see God in that ikon.

God shining through the subjectwhose face we gaze upon.

God, who dwells always around usand in us.

For me personally, I do need thingslike icons in my own spiritual life.

I need help more often than not inmy prayer life.

I need images.

I need to use the senses God gaveme to worship God.

All of my senses. 

I need them just the way I needliturgy and scripture and incense and vestments and bells and good music andthe bread and wine of the Eucharist.

These things feed me spiritually.

In them, I am actually sustained.

My vision is sustained.

My sense of smell is sustained.

My sense of touch is sustained.

My sense of taste is sustained.

My sense of hearing is sustained.

And when it all comes together, Itruly feel the holy Presence of God, here in our midst.

I have shared with you many timesin the past how I have truly felt the living presence of God while I have stoodat this altar, celebrating Holy Communion.

I have been made aware in that holymoment that God is truly present and dwelling with us.  

The Sacred and Holy Presence of Godis sometimes so very present here in our midst.

I can’t tell you how many times I have gazed deeply into an icon and truly feltGod’s Presence there with me, present with a familiarity that simply blows meaway.

And for those of us who arefollowers of Jesus, who are called to love others as we love our God, when wegaze deeply into the eyes of those we serve, there too we see this incrediblePresence of God in our midst.

In other words, sometimes the ikonsof God in our lives are those who live with us, those we serve, those we arecalled to love.  

This, I think, is what Paul isgetting at in his letter.

We truly do meet the invisible Godin this physical, visual, sensory world—whether we experience that presence inthe Eucharist, in the hearing of God’s Word, in ikons or the art of the churchor in incense or in bells or in those we are called to serve.

For years, I used to complain—and it really was a complaint—about the fact thatI was “searching for God.”

I used to love to quote the writerCarson McCullers, who once said, “writing, for me, is a search for God.”

But I have now come to the realization—and it was quite a huge realization—thatI have actually found God.

I am not searching and questingafter God, aimlessly or blindly searching for God in the darkness anymore.

I am not searching for God becauseI have truly found God.

I found God in very tangible andreal ways right here.

I found God in these sensory thingsaround me.

Certainly in our Gospel reading fortoday, Mary  also sees Jesus as the eikonof God.

Martha is the busybody—the lonewolf.

And Mary is the ikon-gazer.

And I think many of us have beenthere as well.

It’s seems most of us are sometimeseither Marthas and Marys,

But, the reality is simply thatmost of us are a little bit of both at times.

Yes, we are busybodies.

We are lone wolves.

But we are also contemplatives,like Mary.

There is a balance between the two.

I understand that there are timeswe need to be a busybodies and there are times in which we simply must slowdown and quietly contemplate God.

When we recognize that Jesus istruly the image of God, we find ourselves at times longingly gazing at Jesus orquietly sitting in his Presence.

But sometimes that recognition ofwho Jesus is stirs us.

It lights a fire within us andcompels us to go out and do the work that needs to be done.

But unlike Martha, we need to dothat work without worry or distraction.

When we are in God’ presence—whenwe recognize that in God we have truly found what we are questing for, what weare searching for, what we are longing for—we find that worry and distractionhave fallen away from us.

We don’t want anything to comebetween us and this marvelous revelation of God we find before us.

In that way, Mary truly has chosenthe better part.

But, this all doesn’t end there.

The really important aspect of allof this is that we, too, in turn must become, like Christ, ikons of God to thisworld.

In that way, the ikons truly becomeour mirrors.

When we gaze at an ikon we shouldsee ourselves there, reflected there.

We should see ourselves surroundedby the Light of God.

We should see the light of Godpermeating us and shining through us.

We should become living, breathingikons in this world.

Because if we don’t, we are notliving into our full potential as followers of Jesus—as unapologeticChristians.

So, let us also, like Mary,  choose the better part.

Let us be Marys in this way.

Let us balance our lives in such away that, yes, we work, but we do so without distraction, without worry, withoutbeing the lone wolf, without letting work be our god, getting in the way ofthat time to serve Christ and be with Christ and those Christ sends our way.

Let us also take time to sitquietly in that Presence of God.

Let us sit quietly in the presenceof God, surrounded by the beauty of our senses.

Let us be embodied ikons in ourlives.

Let us open ourselves to the Lightof God in our lives so that that Light will surrounded us and live within usand shine through us.

And, in that holy moment, we willknow: we have chosen the better part, which will never be taken away from us.