If I ask you to imagine a life of abundance what comes to mind? Since I’ve had time to think about it, and I’ve just sprung the question on you, I’m going to answer for myself. As I imagine a life of abundance I imagine a five bedroom house on Canandaigua Lake. There’s be a large lawn sloping gently to the lake. In the water I’d have a dock with a motorboat on one side and a sailboat on the other. I’d have a garage big enough for my cars and an oversize bay for a camper. I’d also have an upstairs room in the garage which I could use as a wood shop.
A life of abundance would have enough cash reserves so that I wouldn’t have to worry. While I know I’d have to have a decent job to I’d also have enough leisure time to enjoy the water and some exotic travel. Let’s throw into the image a perfect spouse, perfect children, and a perfectly behaved dog.
Oh, and I would want to be able to eat what I wanted, whenever I wanted, and still have the buff figure of a body builder.
An abundant life would include no medical problems and no medical emergencies either.
Maybe I’d go for an airplane too. That might be fun!
Okay, that’s about it. All I need for that image to be true is for you to increase my salary about thirty-fold. (Shouldn’t be a problem I figure!)
We haven’t gotten to John 10 yet, but there we will hear Jesus say, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Somehow though, I don’t think my vision of an abundant life is what Jesus meant! There it is part of the Good Shepherd Discourse, but I think I can apply it here.
With Jesus’ ability to feed thousands with just a couple fish and several loaves of bread, plus his ability to walk on water, you think he’d be well positioned to provide abundant life. But what is abundant life?
At first thought a life of ease and relaxation sounds like it would be abundant. But I don’t think it would be. I remember being in elementary school and it was the first time we had field day. The whole day was given over to field day events. There were no classes. My favorite part of the school day was recess. I thought it’d be great to have a whole day with nothing to do but participate in the couple events I had to be in, and then play on the playground otherwise! The day turned out to be tedious and long. I discovered the only way recess was fun was because it was a break from class. But endless time on the playground really wasn’t all that fun.
The Netflix series The Good Life explores, among other things, what an existence of constant fun and leisure would be. And it eventually gets around to recognizing that endless fun is not fun at all.
Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life. He says that whoever comes to him will never be hungry and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty. This is, of course, not to be taken literally, but yet it can be quite literal. Jesus envisions a community for his followers where they do care for each other’s basic needs. And a life of abundance is not one where there is abundant food and drink. It is one where there is an abundance of worth and meaning.
Like many of the discourses in John’s gospel, the Bread of Life Discourse seems to meander all over the place. It is also filled with intricacies. Let’s try to aim for the thrust of it though.
The crowd follows Jesus after the miraculous feeding. They don’t seem to know about him walking on water. Why are they following him? Because they want more bread! They figure this Jesus guy is a good thing! Getting food in those days was a lot harder than going to a grocery store and buying it off the shelf. It was harder than making everything from scratch too. It meant planting seed. Raising the crop. Fending off predators. Backbreaking labor to harvest the crop. Then there was threshing the crop, another labor-intensive act. Then there was hauling and storing the grain. Then grinding the grain. Finally the ground grain could be used to bake something. A loaf of bread was A LOT of work! If you met a guy who could cut out most of those steps, you’d surely follow him!
The crowds follow Jesus because they want more bread. But Jesus tells him they are following him for the wrong reasons. Following Jesus is not about a short cut through life’s work. Following Jesus is about finding meaning in life’s work.
When Jesus says, “Do not work for the food the perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They reply, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” The crowd and Jesus are using the same words but with different meaning. The crowd is thinking about the performance of works. Jesus is talking about the work of God. Which he explains, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
That’s not particularly clear. People get mixed up with it easily. It easily becomes a statement that believing in Jesus is an act of intellectual acceptance of a fact; even if that fact is supernatural. But in practice there’s nothing supernatural about believing Jesus’ is God’s definitive revelation to the world.
The practice of believing Jesus is the Son of God is living in a way that recognizes God’s love and grace as supreme. It means living in a way where you know your value is held surely and safely by God. You are not driven by peer pressure to fit in or be acceptable. Being acceptable to God is enough. It also means seeing the value in other people and the creation. If we are made in God’s image then we must treat each other as such. That means that greed and manipulation and deceit to get ahead are not acceptable.
Have you ever bought or sold something in Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, or any other similar platform? You know that lies and deception are often part of it. People pass off second rate goods at a premium price. Flaws are hidden and deceptions are complex. On a few occasions I’ve called people out for their lies, right to their faces, and they don’t look the least bit embarrassed for being caught. It’s just part of it all. If they can get away with it they will. If they get called out, well then they’ll wait for someone ignorant to come along and profit from them. But none of that is honoring the value of other people. None of that is ever the work of God.
The work of God will bring about a life of abundance, but it will not be a life of an abundance of luxuries. It will be an abundance of value, purpose, and sense of identity. The work of God is often hard, very hard. It can be stress inducing. It can mean setbacks. It can mean overcoming problems and obstacles. But you all know that nothing worth having ever came easily. While works do not win us a ticket to heaven, works will affirm our value.
Think about highly successful people, especially those who have risen through the ranks of their field. All of them have made mistakes. They have had setbacks. The path has not been easily. But they have learned from their mistakes and gained wisdom. Through wisdom they have gotten ahead.
Believing in Jesus is not a means to move up the corporate or social ladder. But it is a sure way to feel like a worthwhile person.
I want to wrap up with a slight shift in focus, but it is also one of abundance. You’ll remember the first of Jesus’ signs was turning water into wine – an abundance of excellent wine. Here we have Jesus multiplying bread into an abundance to feed a multitude. Jesus also says about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. That sounds absolutely disgusting and cannibalistic! But our brains should be taking us to holy communion.
In the early church communion was not a scrap of bread and a tiny shot glass of wine. It was a meal shared among the community of believers. It was a tangible expression of their togetherness and their dependence upon Jesus. We’ve lost that in our communion practices, but in those days it truly was a meaningful nourishment for their bodies.
May we find such nourishment in our lives – literal nourishment for our bodies, emotional nourishment for our minds, and spiritual nourishment for our souls, which will give us life abundant.
Monday, July 24, 2023
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
July 16, 2023 John 5
Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Jesus came to your house for dinner? How would you feel? What would you cook for him? Would you clean your house to spotless perfection the likes of which it’s never seen before? Would you be worried? Would you try to make a good impression?
And yet, what does it matter. Over and over again the Bible says Jesus knows what’s in people’s hearts and minds. What’s the point of putting on a good show when Jesus already knows what your normal is like? And yet, would it feel right to just let your house be in its usual state without making any effort. (Or perhaps you are a person whose house is always spotlessly clean and in perfect order. If you’re one of those people I’d say I both jealous and also live a little. There’s more to life than a spotless house.) Would you try to hide clutter in the closets. But again, what would be the point? You might be able to hide things for normal visitors. They can’t tell what you’re hiding. But what if they could?
Would you be anxious about what Jesus would say to you? Would you be afraid he’d take you aside and give you a list of the sins of your lifestyle? What would he think of our spending choices: clothes, cars, food, furniture, luxury items? What would he think of our jobs? Would he tell us to sell everything and give it all to the poor, and then come, follow him?
What about us would Jesus praise that we didn’t consider praiseworthy? And what about us would we think we’re doing well only to have Jesus criticize it?
Imagine Jesus sitting across from you at the dinner table. What would be going through your mind, knowing that Jesus knows your thoughts? Would you try to think only good, pure, wholesome things? How would you keep improper thoughts out. But of course he also knows what you’re trying!
It’s impossible not to think of something. If I say, “Don’t think about elephants,” you’ll immediately think about elephants. And all because I suggested it. I assume you don’t usually daydream about elephants while I preach, but you are thinking about them now. The more forcefully I say don’t think about elephants the more likely you are to do just that!
Our brains are complex and hard to control things!
I suspect dinner with Jesus will create great anxiety for us. There’s just no way to get it right no matter how hard we try. At the exact same time Jesus is the model of love and grace.
I started with us thinking about a visit from Jesus because it reminds us of how much we know about Jesus. We know him as Messiah, Lord, Savior. We know him as somehow both fully human and fully divine. He is fully God and yet in a way that defies logic, only part of the Trinity.
All of these thoughts and realizations about the nature of Jesus took years, centuries even, for people to put into words. To the people of his day he was just an ordinary guy. Or perhaps to those closest to him who had seen him perform miracles, they saw him as a miracle worker. That was pretty spectacular, of course! But it was still far short of some of his claims; especially, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” Then the gospel writer adds, “For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.” (John 5:17-18)
That Jesus was making himself equal to God was only half the scandal. If you’ve grown up a Christian and know the Bible reasonably well that claim won’t shock you much. But it was, and still is, quite a remarkable claim.
There is a second thing going on that is even more scandalous, and that goes for both people of that day, and today; and for us whether we’ve grown up in Christian faith or come to it more recently. That second more scandalous thing is the nature of God that he is revealing.
Put yourselves in the shoes of the people the gospel writer calls, “the Jews”. It is always important when reading John’s gospel to remember that “the Jews” does not mean all of Judaism. It means the religious leaders. Christians have persecuted Jews too much for mistaking what Jesus meant in John’s gospel. Anyway, if you’re a religious leader you have probably grown up learning and following the law of Moses. That law revealed the nature of God. It showed God to be orderly and just. It showed what God liked and what God did not. It showed how to make up from sin and how to be in a good relationship with God. The law had a good amount of kindness and forgiveness built into it too. We often overlook that.
Most importantly, the law put you in charge of your journey of faith. Being a good person that God liked was up to you. It took discipline and work. It took faith and the right priorities. Those who lived that way had God’s favor. And what bad things inevitably happened, God was sure to eventually bring about rightness.
To explain it as Lutheran theology, it was a Theology of Glory. A theology of glory is any time you relationship with God is up to you and your own abilities. It is relying on your strength and commitment.
The nature of God that Jesus was revealing was not a theology of glory. It was a theology of the cross. In the theology of the cross it is all about what God did for you. It is God choosing you when you don’t especially deserve to be chosen. If you say that you have faith, then that faith is God’s creation in you. And it is God who is maintaining it in you. It may feel like a struggle. But the ability to maintain that struggle is also God’s work in you. Basically, in the theology of the cross it is all about God and you are along for the ride.
We could easily slip into a discussion about free will and all of that but that would take us nowhere. Simply put, Lutherans do believe that there is such a thing as free will, and there is quite a bit of it too. But there is no free will when it comes to important things. Martin Luther said God gave him free will over unimportant things, like his taste in beer. But when it came to salvation, he knew that God created him, called him, drove him, and sustained him entirely. Remember Luther’s explanation of the third part of the Apostles’ Creed:
“I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith.” It’s all about God’s actions. There’s nothing about your work. There’s nothing about God offering you the gift and you deciding to accept it or not. And if you accept it then you’re good. And if you reject it then you’ve made your choice and have to accept the consequences. Nope. That’s heresy. Luther would say that if you decided to accept God’s gift then it was God’s own work that made you accept it.
This is the nature of God that Jesus reveals. It is scandalous to our own sense of free will. And it was scandalous to the religious leaders then. How can God work this way? How can God be so unpredictable and uncontrollable? Where are the rules and laws and norms and predictability?
Let’s go back to our opening example of Jesus visiting for dinner. What if everything we’d think about simply didn’t matter at all?
What if our attitude was simply, “Jesus, everything that I have and ever will have is yours. I know that you love me unconditionally and that you’ll never ever let go of me. You created me. You gave me value. You made me good. I trust you.”
That is the beginning of an honest, true, and sincere loving relationship. God does not want to hurt us or hinder our independence. When I say there is no free will I’m speaking in philosophical terms. In ordinary terms it is God’s promise of safety and goodness for us. That safety and goodness give us freedom. It is freedom from religious laws and structures. It is freedom from rituals and ceremonies and “must dos”.
I want to end with an example from a book I’ve recently read at the suggestion of some colleagues. It is called Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. I don’t recommend it. Critics have called it a naïve romantic fantasy. I’ll add that I found it tedious. But the reason we were reading it was because it is about death, or more specifically what happens after death.
Like many recent books it makes plenty of unfair stabs and Christian beliefs, but that doesn’t bother me. Where it goes wrong, but where it hits a theme that is sure to sell books, is that it plays with the idea that after you die you have a chance to redeem yourself by good works, or works of courage and commitment. Ultimately it suggests the human will and strength is supreme in the universe.
Our gospel reading would say no. God’s will is supreme. God’s will is not bound by the limits of human logic, but it is good, very good.
Rejoice that God is at work in you. Rejoice that it is not up to your own strength to save yourself. It is not laws or rules or strength. It is God’s work that you can count upon securely.
And yet, what does it matter. Over and over again the Bible says Jesus knows what’s in people’s hearts and minds. What’s the point of putting on a good show when Jesus already knows what your normal is like? And yet, would it feel right to just let your house be in its usual state without making any effort. (Or perhaps you are a person whose house is always spotlessly clean and in perfect order. If you’re one of those people I’d say I both jealous and also live a little. There’s more to life than a spotless house.) Would you try to hide clutter in the closets. But again, what would be the point? You might be able to hide things for normal visitors. They can’t tell what you’re hiding. But what if they could?
Would you be anxious about what Jesus would say to you? Would you be afraid he’d take you aside and give you a list of the sins of your lifestyle? What would he think of our spending choices: clothes, cars, food, furniture, luxury items? What would he think of our jobs? Would he tell us to sell everything and give it all to the poor, and then come, follow him?
What about us would Jesus praise that we didn’t consider praiseworthy? And what about us would we think we’re doing well only to have Jesus criticize it?
Imagine Jesus sitting across from you at the dinner table. What would be going through your mind, knowing that Jesus knows your thoughts? Would you try to think only good, pure, wholesome things? How would you keep improper thoughts out. But of course he also knows what you’re trying!
It’s impossible not to think of something. If I say, “Don’t think about elephants,” you’ll immediately think about elephants. And all because I suggested it. I assume you don’t usually daydream about elephants while I preach, but you are thinking about them now. The more forcefully I say don’t think about elephants the more likely you are to do just that!
Our brains are complex and hard to control things!
I suspect dinner with Jesus will create great anxiety for us. There’s just no way to get it right no matter how hard we try. At the exact same time Jesus is the model of love and grace.
I started with us thinking about a visit from Jesus because it reminds us of how much we know about Jesus. We know him as Messiah, Lord, Savior. We know him as somehow both fully human and fully divine. He is fully God and yet in a way that defies logic, only part of the Trinity.
All of these thoughts and realizations about the nature of Jesus took years, centuries even, for people to put into words. To the people of his day he was just an ordinary guy. Or perhaps to those closest to him who had seen him perform miracles, they saw him as a miracle worker. That was pretty spectacular, of course! But it was still far short of some of his claims; especially, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” Then the gospel writer adds, “For this reason the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.” (John 5:17-18)
That Jesus was making himself equal to God was only half the scandal. If you’ve grown up a Christian and know the Bible reasonably well that claim won’t shock you much. But it was, and still is, quite a remarkable claim.
There is a second thing going on that is even more scandalous, and that goes for both people of that day, and today; and for us whether we’ve grown up in Christian faith or come to it more recently. That second more scandalous thing is the nature of God that he is revealing.
Put yourselves in the shoes of the people the gospel writer calls, “the Jews”. It is always important when reading John’s gospel to remember that “the Jews” does not mean all of Judaism. It means the religious leaders. Christians have persecuted Jews too much for mistaking what Jesus meant in John’s gospel. Anyway, if you’re a religious leader you have probably grown up learning and following the law of Moses. That law revealed the nature of God. It showed God to be orderly and just. It showed what God liked and what God did not. It showed how to make up from sin and how to be in a good relationship with God. The law had a good amount of kindness and forgiveness built into it too. We often overlook that.
Most importantly, the law put you in charge of your journey of faith. Being a good person that God liked was up to you. It took discipline and work. It took faith and the right priorities. Those who lived that way had God’s favor. And what bad things inevitably happened, God was sure to eventually bring about rightness.
To explain it as Lutheran theology, it was a Theology of Glory. A theology of glory is any time you relationship with God is up to you and your own abilities. It is relying on your strength and commitment.
The nature of God that Jesus was revealing was not a theology of glory. It was a theology of the cross. In the theology of the cross it is all about what God did for you. It is God choosing you when you don’t especially deserve to be chosen. If you say that you have faith, then that faith is God’s creation in you. And it is God who is maintaining it in you. It may feel like a struggle. But the ability to maintain that struggle is also God’s work in you. Basically, in the theology of the cross it is all about God and you are along for the ride.
We could easily slip into a discussion about free will and all of that but that would take us nowhere. Simply put, Lutherans do believe that there is such a thing as free will, and there is quite a bit of it too. But there is no free will when it comes to important things. Martin Luther said God gave him free will over unimportant things, like his taste in beer. But when it came to salvation, he knew that God created him, called him, drove him, and sustained him entirely. Remember Luther’s explanation of the third part of the Apostles’ Creed:
“I cannot believe in Jesus Christ my Lord or come to him, but instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy, and kept me in the true faith.” It’s all about God’s actions. There’s nothing about your work. There’s nothing about God offering you the gift and you deciding to accept it or not. And if you accept it then you’re good. And if you reject it then you’ve made your choice and have to accept the consequences. Nope. That’s heresy. Luther would say that if you decided to accept God’s gift then it was God’s own work that made you accept it.
This is the nature of God that Jesus reveals. It is scandalous to our own sense of free will. And it was scandalous to the religious leaders then. How can God work this way? How can God be so unpredictable and uncontrollable? Where are the rules and laws and norms and predictability?
Let’s go back to our opening example of Jesus visiting for dinner. What if everything we’d think about simply didn’t matter at all?
What if our attitude was simply, “Jesus, everything that I have and ever will have is yours. I know that you love me unconditionally and that you’ll never ever let go of me. You created me. You gave me value. You made me good. I trust you.”
That is the beginning of an honest, true, and sincere loving relationship. God does not want to hurt us or hinder our independence. When I say there is no free will I’m speaking in philosophical terms. In ordinary terms it is God’s promise of safety and goodness for us. That safety and goodness give us freedom. It is freedom from religious laws and structures. It is freedom from rituals and ceremonies and “must dos”.
I want to end with an example from a book I’ve recently read at the suggestion of some colleagues. It is called Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune. I don’t recommend it. Critics have called it a naïve romantic fantasy. I’ll add that I found it tedious. But the reason we were reading it was because it is about death, or more specifically what happens after death.
Like many recent books it makes plenty of unfair stabs and Christian beliefs, but that doesn’t bother me. Where it goes wrong, but where it hits a theme that is sure to sell books, is that it plays with the idea that after you die you have a chance to redeem yourself by good works, or works of courage and commitment. Ultimately it suggests the human will and strength is supreme in the universe.
Our gospel reading would say no. God’s will is supreme. God’s will is not bound by the limits of human logic, but it is good, very good.
Rejoice that God is at work in you. Rejoice that it is not up to your own strength to save yourself. It is not laws or rules or strength. It is God’s work that you can count upon securely.
Wednesday, July 12, 2023
July 9, 2023 Jesus' Second "Sign", Healing an Official's Son John 4:43-54
In John’s gospel Jesus performs a series of “signs,” as the author calls them. Signs are, perhaps, simply miracles. But the idea is more than Jesus is able to act beyond the laws of physics. As John’s gospel presents it, Jesus is more than a miracle worker. Some of the miracles are “signs” because they reveal something about the character of God. In other words, we discover things about who God is from them.
The first of the signs was the Wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. I find it fascinating that it is the first. You may remember that Jesus does not just turn a stingy amount of water into wine in order to keep the wedding family from being embarrassed about running out. No, there were six special stone jars for holding purification water standing there. They were for holy purposes, but Jesus repurposes them. He has those holy vessels filled with water and turns it into an abundance of excellent wine. It’s lavish, extravagant, abundant, and perhaps even irreverent and irresponsible! Yet that is God. We make a mistake if we think of God as stern, judgmental, harsh, and a killjoy. Think about what eternal life would be like if God were that way – stingy and joyless.
There is something joyful about a God who has a sense of humor – who likes to be surprising and silly. I imagine God looking down at that wedding and thinking, “Oh, this is going to be fun!”
So the first sign shows us that while God is powerful God also likes to have fun; be playful. That’s great! But what about the real pain and suffering of disease and injustice and all the other horrible things this world can cause for us? Is God just silly and trite.
Today we have the second sign – a much more serious thing. We’re told that a royal official has a son who is dying. We’re not told anything about this official. He could be a Jew. He could be a Roman. Most scholars think he was part of the Herod family’s leadership structure, but that’s not spelled out. It doesn’t seem to matter to the author. He’s just a royal official who comes to Jesus for help.
Jesus doesn’t seem overly concerned. At first he even seems dismissive saying, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” It’s worth noting that “you” here is plural. Jesus does not mean just this royal official specifically. He probably means people in general.
Jesus may sound harsh here. This man is a parent terrified of the death of his young child. He’s desperate. The last thing he needs is a rebuke in his desperation. But Jesus is not being harsh. He’s stating a reality. It’s subtle but important. It is worth us noting.
Jesus will heal the boy. He will do so because it is his will. He will not do it because of human demands or expectations.
It’s been a while since I’ve come across something like this, but I remember occasionally seeing ads in the newspaper where a person claims to have followed some sort of prayer formula, including publishing an ad in a newspaper, and has gotten them the results they wanted from God. Nope. It doesn’t work that way. God is sovereign. You cannot manipulate God. Similarly, it isn’t by some pure absolutely doubt free faith that you can make miracles happen. I know you can get that idea from the other gospels, but that is a misreading.
So, we have this second sign accomplished not because of any particular qualities of the boy or his father. It is purely and entirely Jesus’ will. It is Jesus’ will, and the second of his signs, which is intended to teach this important thing about God:
God sees and knows our human condition, both as individual humans and as larger communities. And along with that, God is present and available in real ways that impact our lives. This last statement is a tricky one though. We see that in the text.
We immediately ask a very good question. Why was this royal official’s son healed? Was this official somehow better or more holy or more faithful than other people? Why does God let so much suffering go on? And where it really gets sticky is, if God is present and available in real ways that impact our lives then why aren’t the lives of Christians measurably and statistically better than the lives of non-Christians?
Wouldn’t that make spreading the gospel easier? Wouldn’t it be great if we could run advertising campaigns, like the medication ads, that would say, “Become of follower of Christ and you’ll see noticeable improvement in your physical and mental health. You’ll have a happier, more stable family. Your life will be fulfilled.” And we could even say, “Past results ARE an indication of future outcomes”!
Yes, I would like to be able to do that! But what does Jesus say? “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
I hope we can appreciate fully the way John tells this story. He gives us the message of God caring and acting in tangible ways. At the exact same time he tells us not to expect that to be measurable. There will not be a halo of the miraculous accompanying the lives of those who believe in Jesus.
So then, how does this tangible presence of God work, if it is not in the miraculous?
I cannot speak to times prior to my own birth, but as I think about my own experience of Christianity in America throughout my life I think we’re missing something very significant. We seem to think that we are to live fundamentally as individuals, or perhaps as nuclear families, each living an independent life of righteousness before God. And then getting together once a week for a religious experience called worship. We’ve made that religious experience the most spectacular thing we can based on a limited budget and talent.
As someone who’s been a pastor for a couple decades, and as someone who’s serving as the conference dean, and who has served the larger church in a number of ways, I’ve heard many people in congregations say, “Just give us a pastor who can preach a good sermon and our church will flourish.”
I get it. And sadly, there may be (or used to be) a certain amount of truth to that. But think about what that assumes for a minute. It assumes that faith and the church are based pretty heavily on the oratory skills of the pastor. It doesn’t rely at all on God’s grace, or God’s love, or the strength of the community. It puts the success or failure of the congregation all in the one basket of Sunday morning worship. You’d better make that the best show it can be because that’s the only meaningful God connection people are going to have in a week.
And there are variations on it. There was a fad about creating small groups, and a congregation being a collection of small groups. In each of these people were making deeper connections than just Sunday worship.
Okay, that’s going a bit further along, but it is still an institutionalized approach to Christianity. What it lacks is real community.
The oldest Christian writings in existence are Paul’s letters in the New Testament. And there Paul does not talk about miracles at all. He does not talk about Sunday morning worship being the best thing it can possibly be to spread the gospel. He talks about real community among the believers. He talks about sharing, table fellowship, real connecting, and interdependence. The early churches were not communities of individuals who got together once a week. The early churches, and I believe still the case where churches across the world are strong, are communities of interdependence. Church was not one organization among many. It was a fundamental community for strength and survival.
Let’s call it “affluenza”. I’ve used that word before. It is when people are affluent enough to live independently. They don’t need a faith community. A faith community is a luxury or a choice.
St. Paul wasn’t just using images when he says that the body of Christ has many members and we are all members of it. That’s the solid truth.
If we want tangible strength as Christians God has spelled it out quite clearly for us. God works through communities. The presence and power of God are found in and through each other. The stronger we make our community of faith the stronger it will be for us.
Ask yourself this. Are you a person who offers to help, but then discovers that you can only offer help when it is convenient for you? Or are you a person who offers help, and then is quite often able to follow through with that help even when it is complicated and hard? It is the second mindset that is the strength of the church.
We are all co-workers in God’s kingdom, a community of faith where God is active and real. It is not about a flashy worship experience. It is about true meaningful community with each other and the world at large. That is the way God works. That is the most significant and dependable way we will experience God in our lives.
May we have the insight and strength to be a community where God’s will is truly done; that we may be a sign to the world of God’s love.
The first of the signs was the Wedding at Cana where Jesus turned water into wine. I find it fascinating that it is the first. You may remember that Jesus does not just turn a stingy amount of water into wine in order to keep the wedding family from being embarrassed about running out. No, there were six special stone jars for holding purification water standing there. They were for holy purposes, but Jesus repurposes them. He has those holy vessels filled with water and turns it into an abundance of excellent wine. It’s lavish, extravagant, abundant, and perhaps even irreverent and irresponsible! Yet that is God. We make a mistake if we think of God as stern, judgmental, harsh, and a killjoy. Think about what eternal life would be like if God were that way – stingy and joyless.
There is something joyful about a God who has a sense of humor – who likes to be surprising and silly. I imagine God looking down at that wedding and thinking, “Oh, this is going to be fun!”
So the first sign shows us that while God is powerful God also likes to have fun; be playful. That’s great! But what about the real pain and suffering of disease and injustice and all the other horrible things this world can cause for us? Is God just silly and trite.
Today we have the second sign – a much more serious thing. We’re told that a royal official has a son who is dying. We’re not told anything about this official. He could be a Jew. He could be a Roman. Most scholars think he was part of the Herod family’s leadership structure, but that’s not spelled out. It doesn’t seem to matter to the author. He’s just a royal official who comes to Jesus for help.
Jesus doesn’t seem overly concerned. At first he even seems dismissive saying, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” It’s worth noting that “you” here is plural. Jesus does not mean just this royal official specifically. He probably means people in general.
Jesus may sound harsh here. This man is a parent terrified of the death of his young child. He’s desperate. The last thing he needs is a rebuke in his desperation. But Jesus is not being harsh. He’s stating a reality. It’s subtle but important. It is worth us noting.
Jesus will heal the boy. He will do so because it is his will. He will not do it because of human demands or expectations.
It’s been a while since I’ve come across something like this, but I remember occasionally seeing ads in the newspaper where a person claims to have followed some sort of prayer formula, including publishing an ad in a newspaper, and has gotten them the results they wanted from God. Nope. It doesn’t work that way. God is sovereign. You cannot manipulate God. Similarly, it isn’t by some pure absolutely doubt free faith that you can make miracles happen. I know you can get that idea from the other gospels, but that is a misreading.
So, we have this second sign accomplished not because of any particular qualities of the boy or his father. It is purely and entirely Jesus’ will. It is Jesus’ will, and the second of his signs, which is intended to teach this important thing about God:
God sees and knows our human condition, both as individual humans and as larger communities. And along with that, God is present and available in real ways that impact our lives. This last statement is a tricky one though. We see that in the text.
We immediately ask a very good question. Why was this royal official’s son healed? Was this official somehow better or more holy or more faithful than other people? Why does God let so much suffering go on? And where it really gets sticky is, if God is present and available in real ways that impact our lives then why aren’t the lives of Christians measurably and statistically better than the lives of non-Christians?
Wouldn’t that make spreading the gospel easier? Wouldn’t it be great if we could run advertising campaigns, like the medication ads, that would say, “Become of follower of Christ and you’ll see noticeable improvement in your physical and mental health. You’ll have a happier, more stable family. Your life will be fulfilled.” And we could even say, “Past results ARE an indication of future outcomes”!
Yes, I would like to be able to do that! But what does Jesus say? “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
I hope we can appreciate fully the way John tells this story. He gives us the message of God caring and acting in tangible ways. At the exact same time he tells us not to expect that to be measurable. There will not be a halo of the miraculous accompanying the lives of those who believe in Jesus.
So then, how does this tangible presence of God work, if it is not in the miraculous?
I cannot speak to times prior to my own birth, but as I think about my own experience of Christianity in America throughout my life I think we’re missing something very significant. We seem to think that we are to live fundamentally as individuals, or perhaps as nuclear families, each living an independent life of righteousness before God. And then getting together once a week for a religious experience called worship. We’ve made that religious experience the most spectacular thing we can based on a limited budget and talent.
As someone who’s been a pastor for a couple decades, and as someone who’s serving as the conference dean, and who has served the larger church in a number of ways, I’ve heard many people in congregations say, “Just give us a pastor who can preach a good sermon and our church will flourish.”
I get it. And sadly, there may be (or used to be) a certain amount of truth to that. But think about what that assumes for a minute. It assumes that faith and the church are based pretty heavily on the oratory skills of the pastor. It doesn’t rely at all on God’s grace, or God’s love, or the strength of the community. It puts the success or failure of the congregation all in the one basket of Sunday morning worship. You’d better make that the best show it can be because that’s the only meaningful God connection people are going to have in a week.
And there are variations on it. There was a fad about creating small groups, and a congregation being a collection of small groups. In each of these people were making deeper connections than just Sunday worship.
Okay, that’s going a bit further along, but it is still an institutionalized approach to Christianity. What it lacks is real community.
The oldest Christian writings in existence are Paul’s letters in the New Testament. And there Paul does not talk about miracles at all. He does not talk about Sunday morning worship being the best thing it can possibly be to spread the gospel. He talks about real community among the believers. He talks about sharing, table fellowship, real connecting, and interdependence. The early churches were not communities of individuals who got together once a week. The early churches, and I believe still the case where churches across the world are strong, are communities of interdependence. Church was not one organization among many. It was a fundamental community for strength and survival.
Let’s call it “affluenza”. I’ve used that word before. It is when people are affluent enough to live independently. They don’t need a faith community. A faith community is a luxury or a choice.
St. Paul wasn’t just using images when he says that the body of Christ has many members and we are all members of it. That’s the solid truth.
If we want tangible strength as Christians God has spelled it out quite clearly for us. God works through communities. The presence and power of God are found in and through each other. The stronger we make our community of faith the stronger it will be for us.
Ask yourself this. Are you a person who offers to help, but then discovers that you can only offer help when it is convenient for you? Or are you a person who offers help, and then is quite often able to follow through with that help even when it is complicated and hard? It is the second mindset that is the strength of the church.
We are all co-workers in God’s kingdom, a community of faith where God is active and real. It is not about a flashy worship experience. It is about true meaningful community with each other and the world at large. That is the way God works. That is the most significant and dependable way we will experience God in our lives.
May we have the insight and strength to be a community where God’s will is truly done; that we may be a sign to the world of God’s love.
Wednesday, July 5, 2023
July 2, 2023 Samaritan Woman, John 4:1-42
Two-character dialog.
Cast: N: Nicodemus
S: Samarian Woman
N: I’m Nicodemus.
S: My name isn’t recorded in the Bible.
N: I’m a Jew.
S: I’m a Samaritan.
N: I’m a man.
S: I’m a woman.
N: I’m a religious leader.
S: I’m nothing in my religion.
N: I came to Jesus under the cover of darkness.
S: Jesus came to me in the middle of the day.
N: I came to Jesus under the cover of darkness because I didn’t want other religious leaders know I was speaking to Jesus.
S: I had to come to the well in the middle of the day because the respectable women shun me if I go when they’re there in the early morning.
N: I have a respectable family. My life is orderly. Life is under control and predictable.
S: I’ve had five husbands and the man I’m with is not my husband.
N: I feel I’m in control of my life.
S: My life is chaos.
N: I knew that Jesus had come from God, for no one could do the signs that he did apart from God.
S: I knew nothing about Jesus… until he knew everything about me without even asking.
N: As a religious leader I have spent years of my life studying what God is like. I feel I know what God wants and what God doesn’t want. God likes faithfulness and virtuous living. God rewards people who live like that.
S: I never studied anything. I know how to cook and clean. I can take care of livestock too. As for what God is like, I have no idea. God is good, I hope.
N: The more time I spent with Jesus the more confused I got.
S: The more time I spent with Jesus the more I understood even though what he said was complicated.
N: Jesus said we must be born from above. How can man climb into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?
S: Jesus said he will give me living water. At first I didn’t understand. I thought it meant I wouldn’t have to come to the well to keep drawing water. It would be like the water came right into my house. (Imagine such a marvel!) But Jesus meant a living water that comes endlessly from him.
N: Jesus said that the Spirit of God is like the wind. We feel it and hear the sound of it, but we do not know where it comes from or where it goes. How can that be? That makes it sound like God can’t understood through logic. How can God act in a way that isn’t logical? That would mean God makes no sense!
S: Jesus said that God is not confined to Jerusalem or to Samaria. He said that God is worshipped in spirit and truth
I said I knew that the Messiah is coming and that when he comes he will proclaim all things to us. Then Jesus said that he is the Messiah. I believe he is!
N: Jesus said to me, “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
S: Jesus said to me, “The water that I will give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
N: Jesus said that he is the Son of Man and that he descended from heaven. Then he said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Then he said, “For God so loved everyone, including his enemies, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would have eternal life.”
I don’t understand any of this. What does Jesus mean by being lifted up like Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness? What does he mean that God loves his enemies so much that he gave his only Son?
How can God give to his enemies? That would be absurd.
S: I’m a Samaritan. Jews are my enemies. We are their enemies. I think we’ve hated each other forever.
I was surprised Jesus asked me for water. Jews and Samaritans never help each other out.
Jesus said to me, “… salvation is from the Jews.” I didn’t like the sound of that. But he also said that salvation isn’t limited to the Jews. He said that it was about worshipping God and not about nationality at all.
N: After I met with Jesus I went home and didn’t tell anyone where I had been or what I had done. I wasn’t sure about Jesus. He doesn’t seem to be a bad guy. He does perform miraculous signs. But there is so much else that doesn’t fit with what I know about God.
S: After meeting Jesus I immediately told everyone I knew about him. I was in such a hurry to go and tell them that I left my water jar behind. (Imagine that! Forgetting that I needed water!) Then everyone I told came out and met Jesus. They believed in him too. We invited him to stay. He did stay with us for two whole days. It’s hard to believe enemies like us would connect like that. But many people in my town now know that Jesus is truly the Savior of the world.
N: I’ve decided to keep an eye on Jesus. We’ll see what happens.
S: I’m going to keep telling people that God wants both the good and the bad to know that God desires them, and that God wants them to love him too!
Cast: N: Nicodemus
S: Samarian Woman
N: I’m Nicodemus.
S: My name isn’t recorded in the Bible.
N: I’m a Jew.
S: I’m a Samaritan.
N: I’m a man.
S: I’m a woman.
N: I’m a religious leader.
S: I’m nothing in my religion.
N: I came to Jesus under the cover of darkness.
S: Jesus came to me in the middle of the day.
N: I came to Jesus under the cover of darkness because I didn’t want other religious leaders know I was speaking to Jesus.
S: I had to come to the well in the middle of the day because the respectable women shun me if I go when they’re there in the early morning.
N: I have a respectable family. My life is orderly. Life is under control and predictable.
S: I’ve had five husbands and the man I’m with is not my husband.
N: I feel I’m in control of my life.
S: My life is chaos.
N: I knew that Jesus had come from God, for no one could do the signs that he did apart from God.
S: I knew nothing about Jesus… until he knew everything about me without even asking.
N: As a religious leader I have spent years of my life studying what God is like. I feel I know what God wants and what God doesn’t want. God likes faithfulness and virtuous living. God rewards people who live like that.
S: I never studied anything. I know how to cook and clean. I can take care of livestock too. As for what God is like, I have no idea. God is good, I hope.
N: The more time I spent with Jesus the more confused I got.
S: The more time I spent with Jesus the more I understood even though what he said was complicated.
N: Jesus said we must be born from above. How can man climb into his mother’s womb and be born a second time?
S: Jesus said he will give me living water. At first I didn’t understand. I thought it meant I wouldn’t have to come to the well to keep drawing water. It would be like the water came right into my house. (Imagine such a marvel!) But Jesus meant a living water that comes endlessly from him.
N: Jesus said that the Spirit of God is like the wind. We feel it and hear the sound of it, but we do not know where it comes from or where it goes. How can that be? That makes it sound like God can’t understood through logic. How can God act in a way that isn’t logical? That would mean God makes no sense!
S: Jesus said that God is not confined to Jerusalem or to Samaria. He said that God is worshipped in spirit and truth
I said I knew that the Messiah is coming and that when he comes he will proclaim all things to us. Then Jesus said that he is the Messiah. I believe he is!
N: Jesus said to me, “Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?
S: Jesus said to me, “The water that I will give will become a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”
N: Jesus said that he is the Son of Man and that he descended from heaven. Then he said, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Then he said, “For God so loved everyone, including his enemies, that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him would have eternal life.”
I don’t understand any of this. What does Jesus mean by being lifted up like Moses lifted the serpent in the wilderness? What does he mean that God loves his enemies so much that he gave his only Son?
How can God give to his enemies? That would be absurd.
S: I’m a Samaritan. Jews are my enemies. We are their enemies. I think we’ve hated each other forever.
I was surprised Jesus asked me for water. Jews and Samaritans never help each other out.
Jesus said to me, “… salvation is from the Jews.” I didn’t like the sound of that. But he also said that salvation isn’t limited to the Jews. He said that it was about worshipping God and not about nationality at all.
N: After I met with Jesus I went home and didn’t tell anyone where I had been or what I had done. I wasn’t sure about Jesus. He doesn’t seem to be a bad guy. He does perform miraculous signs. But there is so much else that doesn’t fit with what I know about God.
S: After meeting Jesus I immediately told everyone I knew about him. I was in such a hurry to go and tell them that I left my water jar behind. (Imagine that! Forgetting that I needed water!) Then everyone I told came out and met Jesus. They believed in him too. We invited him to stay. He did stay with us for two whole days. It’s hard to believe enemies like us would connect like that. But many people in my town now know that Jesus is truly the Savior of the world.
N: I’ve decided to keep an eye on Jesus. We’ll see what happens.
S: I’m going to keep telling people that God wants both the good and the bad to know that God desires them, and that God wants them to love him too!
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