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.
Tuesday, July 18, 2023
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!
Monday, June 26, 2023
June 25, 2023 John the Baptist's Last Message John 3:22-4:3
Perhaps the best way to understand the words of our gospel reading is to remind ourselves of the landscape of Judaism in Jesus’ day. We’ve talked before that Jews were not a monolithic block. There were different groups and divisions, a lot like different church denominations today. Two of these groups we encounter often in the gospels: the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Less often mentioned in the Bible are the Herodians and the Zealots. And then never mentioned in the Bible, but still of importance, were the Essenes.
It seems that subgroups and offshoots would form and dissolve too. Two such groups, at least as understood by Jews of the day were the followers of the Baptizer – John the Baptist. And the Nazarenes – what we would call the earliest Christians.
There appears to have been overlap between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus. In Acts 19 we see the overlap, and that may have continued even to the time of the writing of John’s gospel. Eventually John the Baptist’s disciples either began following Jesus or they disbanded. But at the time of Jesus there was competition and confusion between the two groups.
We have no records of John the Baptist apart from Christian scripture. Those records always present John as one who points away from himself and towards Jesus. Perhaps that is indeed all that John ever did. Or perhaps there was more. We don’t know. But what is clear is that the early Christian writers use John to show that Christianity is not just a new sect within Judaism, but a fundamentally different thing. They also use John as a way to get at the difficult truth that some people were accepting and embracing following Jesus and others simply were not. Both of those things are linked.
Christianity was, and is, a distinctly different belief system from other religions. The idea that a god would come to life in a human form, or even have some virgin birth as a human, was not unique to Christianity, or even new. Other religions of the time were making the same claims. The difference is that the God Christianity was revealing was one of absolutely selfless radical love. No limits. No boundaries. No qualifications. No one unworthy. And yet, at the same time, no one was good enough or righteous enough on their own to claim that they deserved God’s love.
If you’re a life-long Christian none of this is new. Its radicalness doesn’t strike you. But it was, and still is, quite a radical claim.
As John the Baptist is presented in John’s gospel he is pointing to this ultimateness of Jesus. John doesn’t do this because he is somehow a model of selflessness or humility. No, he does it because he has become aware of what God is up to. His followers should turn their attention to Jesus. John does not say that his testimony or his ministry is somehow lacking or second rate. But that his whole purpose has been to point to the ultimate thing God is doing.
John the Baptist uses the imagery of weddings, which in some ways are not all that different than our own. He sees Jesus as the groom. He, John the Baptist, is the best man; which is still an honor and highly important. The best man at a wedding is hand-picked by the groom as his best and most trustworthy associate. No one is higher. He is entrusted with all sorts of arrangements. John the Baptist considers this, even though a secondary role, to still be a great honor. It is more like the fulfillment of his life’s purpose.
That takes us to the second issue John the Baptist raises. Why do some accept Jesus as God’s son and that God’s nature is one of love, and others do not?
That question remains highly relevant to today. For of course, not too many decades ago you could assume that someone living in America was somehow connected to a church. Life, morality, rites of passage, and more all revolved around church beliefs. It is certainly not so today. As one of you recently noted, “Being a Christian in America has become a faux pas.”
As John the Baptist sees it, there’s more. It’s not a question of do you believe or don’t you believe. It’s a question about the very character of God.
You would think, wouldn’t you, that any message that God is radically loving would spread like wildfire. Who wouldn’t want a loving God? Right? So why do people not want to embrace it? Why turn away?
Perhaps here’s an example. Most of us own a car, or maybe multiple cars. We love cars. Cars let us go where we want to go, when we want to go, and the way we want to go. You don’t have to plan around a bus or train schedule. You don’t have to get an Uber ride or a call cab. Driving is freedom. It is self-determination. Despite the fact that cars cost huge amounts of money to buy, insure, and maintain, we’re willing to spend it. A car means you can live where you want to live. Though I know full well I am pointing a finger at myself as I say this, when you start to philosophize about it, a car is a very selfish thing indeed.
How would life be different if you had to depend upon some form of public transportation?
Is not truly trusting God a lot like living and depending upon public transportation? A car puts you in charge. Public transportation forces you to be in community and at the whims and needs of others. How safe do you feel if you truly put God in control of your life? How dangerous is the love of a God who was willing to die a shameful death for those who weren’t worthy of it?
If you want your life to be all about you, you’re going to struggle with a God who is so lavishly generous; even as God’s offer is truly liberating and life-fulfilling.
Why do people turn away from the church? Why has being a Christian become a faux pas? The answers are many. I don’t want to make too absolute a statement. But largely it is because people want to pursue their own path to self-fulfillment rather than trusting that God will do better.
It's the endless irony of faith. The more in this life that you try to horde and keep for yourself, the more you try to be in charge, the more you make it about you; the less of you that there is. And the more of a slave you become. St. Paul writes about that to the Corinthians, which we read earlier. Jesus said similar things. You will be a slave to one thing or another. Only God will bring about true fulfillment.
Last week we talked about being “born again” and also “born from above”. Those are not just promises for eternal life. Those are promises for today. God’s love would free you from all that enslaves you. But people don’t want to hear it. They want their source of fulfillment to be within themselves.
I don’t think that God through Jesus looks at us as bad children. And God does not challenge us to see if we will endure today in order to be rewarded in some promise of eventual eternal life. I think God looks at us, stretches out a hand, and says, “Come, join in my adventure. Have fun with me. I will fulfill you. I will make you whole. I won’t promise you false fulfillment from earthly things, but I will guarantee your spirit deep wholeness from my endless supply of love. You will be fully alive. Fully free. Fully yourself.”
Those are God’s offers. It is up to us to see them as the truth, and the world’s ways as lies. John the Baptist points to Jesus and the new truth about God that Jesus was revealing, inviting all to become followers of the Christ.
It seems that subgroups and offshoots would form and dissolve too. Two such groups, at least as understood by Jews of the day were the followers of the Baptizer – John the Baptist. And the Nazarenes – what we would call the earliest Christians.
There appears to have been overlap between the followers of John and the followers of Jesus. In Acts 19 we see the overlap, and that may have continued even to the time of the writing of John’s gospel. Eventually John the Baptist’s disciples either began following Jesus or they disbanded. But at the time of Jesus there was competition and confusion between the two groups.
We have no records of John the Baptist apart from Christian scripture. Those records always present John as one who points away from himself and towards Jesus. Perhaps that is indeed all that John ever did. Or perhaps there was more. We don’t know. But what is clear is that the early Christian writers use John to show that Christianity is not just a new sect within Judaism, but a fundamentally different thing. They also use John as a way to get at the difficult truth that some people were accepting and embracing following Jesus and others simply were not. Both of those things are linked.
Christianity was, and is, a distinctly different belief system from other religions. The idea that a god would come to life in a human form, or even have some virgin birth as a human, was not unique to Christianity, or even new. Other religions of the time were making the same claims. The difference is that the God Christianity was revealing was one of absolutely selfless radical love. No limits. No boundaries. No qualifications. No one unworthy. And yet, at the same time, no one was good enough or righteous enough on their own to claim that they deserved God’s love.
If you’re a life-long Christian none of this is new. Its radicalness doesn’t strike you. But it was, and still is, quite a radical claim.
As John the Baptist is presented in John’s gospel he is pointing to this ultimateness of Jesus. John doesn’t do this because he is somehow a model of selflessness or humility. No, he does it because he has become aware of what God is up to. His followers should turn their attention to Jesus. John does not say that his testimony or his ministry is somehow lacking or second rate. But that his whole purpose has been to point to the ultimate thing God is doing.
John the Baptist uses the imagery of weddings, which in some ways are not all that different than our own. He sees Jesus as the groom. He, John the Baptist, is the best man; which is still an honor and highly important. The best man at a wedding is hand-picked by the groom as his best and most trustworthy associate. No one is higher. He is entrusted with all sorts of arrangements. John the Baptist considers this, even though a secondary role, to still be a great honor. It is more like the fulfillment of his life’s purpose.
That takes us to the second issue John the Baptist raises. Why do some accept Jesus as God’s son and that God’s nature is one of love, and others do not?
That question remains highly relevant to today. For of course, not too many decades ago you could assume that someone living in America was somehow connected to a church. Life, morality, rites of passage, and more all revolved around church beliefs. It is certainly not so today. As one of you recently noted, “Being a Christian in America has become a faux pas.”
As John the Baptist sees it, there’s more. It’s not a question of do you believe or don’t you believe. It’s a question about the very character of God.
You would think, wouldn’t you, that any message that God is radically loving would spread like wildfire. Who wouldn’t want a loving God? Right? So why do people not want to embrace it? Why turn away?
Perhaps here’s an example. Most of us own a car, or maybe multiple cars. We love cars. Cars let us go where we want to go, when we want to go, and the way we want to go. You don’t have to plan around a bus or train schedule. You don’t have to get an Uber ride or a call cab. Driving is freedom. It is self-determination. Despite the fact that cars cost huge amounts of money to buy, insure, and maintain, we’re willing to spend it. A car means you can live where you want to live. Though I know full well I am pointing a finger at myself as I say this, when you start to philosophize about it, a car is a very selfish thing indeed.
How would life be different if you had to depend upon some form of public transportation?
Is not truly trusting God a lot like living and depending upon public transportation? A car puts you in charge. Public transportation forces you to be in community and at the whims and needs of others. How safe do you feel if you truly put God in control of your life? How dangerous is the love of a God who was willing to die a shameful death for those who weren’t worthy of it?
If you want your life to be all about you, you’re going to struggle with a God who is so lavishly generous; even as God’s offer is truly liberating and life-fulfilling.
Why do people turn away from the church? Why has being a Christian become a faux pas? The answers are many. I don’t want to make too absolute a statement. But largely it is because people want to pursue their own path to self-fulfillment rather than trusting that God will do better.
It's the endless irony of faith. The more in this life that you try to horde and keep for yourself, the more you try to be in charge, the more you make it about you; the less of you that there is. And the more of a slave you become. St. Paul writes about that to the Corinthians, which we read earlier. Jesus said similar things. You will be a slave to one thing or another. Only God will bring about true fulfillment.
Last week we talked about being “born again” and also “born from above”. Those are not just promises for eternal life. Those are promises for today. God’s love would free you from all that enslaves you. But people don’t want to hear it. They want their source of fulfillment to be within themselves.
I don’t think that God through Jesus looks at us as bad children. And God does not challenge us to see if we will endure today in order to be rewarded in some promise of eventual eternal life. I think God looks at us, stretches out a hand, and says, “Come, join in my adventure. Have fun with me. I will fulfill you. I will make you whole. I won’t promise you false fulfillment from earthly things, but I will guarantee your spirit deep wholeness from my endless supply of love. You will be fully alive. Fully free. Fully yourself.”
Those are God’s offers. It is up to us to see them as the truth, and the world’s ways as lies. John the Baptist points to Jesus and the new truth about God that Jesus was revealing, inviting all to become followers of the Christ.
Wednesday, June 21, 2023
June 18, 2023 John 3:1-21
I brought a sailboat and a bicycle in with me today to help explain what is going on with the John 3 text that we have as our gospel. It is a particularly tricky text to deal with because it does not want us to come to a settled understanding of what it means. At the exact same time it wants to give us solid confidence in what God is up to and how God works.
Let’s start with what it is not. Many Christians will say they are “born again” Christians. That isn’t typical language in Lutheran churches. If anyone ever asks you are you born again, you say, “Yes, I was born again when I was baptized.” And they’ll reply that that doesn’t count as being born again. Being born again means some sort of conviction or conversion experience as an adult; a sort of proof of validity of faith and commitment.
I disagree with them, but I am not going to dismiss the concept as wrong or heretical. What is wrong, however, is that their idea of being born again is rooted in the story of Nicodemus that we read. And the root of that story is counter to their understanding of being born again.
That takes us to the bicycle. Nicodemus saw faith as being like riding a bike. When you’re riding a bicycle you are providing 100% of the energy needed to get you from Point A to Point B. I’m not talking about those new hybrid bikes which have a battery and a motor that help you along. They’re cool and all, but that’s not what I’m talking about!
You’re also producing 100% of the energy needed to get from Point A to Point B if you’re walking or running. But a bicycle is different in that it uses your body’s energy more efficiently.
Faith the way Nicodemus understood it was like a bike in that the root energy came from you; and your faith was like getting an efficiency advantage from God. It made it easier and better. But again, 100% of the energy originated with you. It was up to you. You had to create it. You were in control.
That leads to the very mechanical thinking Nicodemus has when he hears Jesus say he must be born again. It was still all about him. Those who call themselves “born again” are focusing on a personal conversion experience. And again, that is not necessarily wrong. It is just coming up short on what Jesus is getting at.
When Jesus says you must be born again, the Greek word used there is anoqen. That means both born again and born from above. It is not one or the other, but both. If you focus too much on being “born again” you are missing the born from above part. The born from above part is the uncontrolled part, the dynamic part. That takes us to the sailboat.
You may recognize this little boat as it’s the same one I’ve brought in before to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. I think it will suit our slightly different purposes today.
When you are sailing 0% of the energy to move you from Point A to Point B comes from you. It comes from the wind. However, that does not mean you have no control. You are not limited to only going where the wind blows you and at what speed the wind blows you.
This little boat is very simple, but even so, an experienced sailor can use it to go wherever he or she wishes no matter which way the wind is blowing. Tacking and jibing maneuvers allow you to even get to a point exactly into the wind, although it is a circuitous path. The sails are harnessing the power of the wind that is out there. They do not control it. They do not make the energy. It is not like riding a bike. But it is cooperating with it, capturing it, using the energy to suit your needs. The sailor isn’t passive all. It takes skill. Strong winds take different techniques than light winds. A properly set sailboat goes faster than the wind pushing it.
And, while I am not a skilled enough sailor, I do know sailors who sail without needing to use a rudder. By the proper techniques with the main sail they can steer, go faster or slower, brake and stop, and even sail backwards. I’ve heard stories from hundreds of years ago that highly skilled crews in the American Navy could sail their ships with such agility, even going backwards sometimes, that the British navy struggled to target them with cannon fire.
And sailboats are by no means slow. If you’ve been following Ocean Race 2023 you know this year’s 32,000 mile round the world race is nearing its end. (The American team is in the lead by the way.) The ocean-going sailboats in the race are hitting around 40 mph with the right conditions.
Now let’s look at that as an example of faith being both born and again born from above. It’s not about you. It’s about the wind. Faith is not your creation. Faith is God’s energy being poured out. You do not control the wind. You do not control faith. The person who is “born again” acts as though they are now living in a new reality. Maybe so, but the new reality is not in their control.
God still gives you enormous freedom in how you want to capture the energy. Just like a sailor’s freedom for how to capture the wind. But the key thing is that the energy is not yours.
When you’re on a bicycle you can push yourself through whatever comes. It is all you. With sailing, there’s no pushing with your energy. You are 100% dependent upon that which you cannot control.
Jesus wants Nicodemus to realize that faith is not his to control or even to fully understand. But he is to realize that it is confidently there. Perhaps the breezes can be light at times, perhaps even for a long time, but it will return.
That takes us to where we will end, which if we have gotten this far by understanding we do not control or limit, then we are in a place to hear.
I think theologian Gail O’Day puts it pretty succinctly in the New Interpreter’s Bible:
“To believe in Jesus is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that God loved the world so much that God have the Son as a gift. The God revealed in Jesus is a God whose love knows no bounds and who asks only that one receive the gift. If one receives the gift, one receives eternal life, because one’s life is reshaped and redefined by the love of God in Jesus. The words about judgment with which the text concludes underscore the seriousness of God’s offer.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, Pg. 555)
Such is the nature of God’s love that resists all limits and all boundaries. Accept it and go for a ride. Enjoy the adventure. It’ll still be hard work, but the energy of life will all be coming from God.
Let’s start with what it is not. Many Christians will say they are “born again” Christians. That isn’t typical language in Lutheran churches. If anyone ever asks you are you born again, you say, “Yes, I was born again when I was baptized.” And they’ll reply that that doesn’t count as being born again. Being born again means some sort of conviction or conversion experience as an adult; a sort of proof of validity of faith and commitment.
I disagree with them, but I am not going to dismiss the concept as wrong or heretical. What is wrong, however, is that their idea of being born again is rooted in the story of Nicodemus that we read. And the root of that story is counter to their understanding of being born again.
That takes us to the bicycle. Nicodemus saw faith as being like riding a bike. When you’re riding a bicycle you are providing 100% of the energy needed to get you from Point A to Point B. I’m not talking about those new hybrid bikes which have a battery and a motor that help you along. They’re cool and all, but that’s not what I’m talking about!
You’re also producing 100% of the energy needed to get from Point A to Point B if you’re walking or running. But a bicycle is different in that it uses your body’s energy more efficiently.
Faith the way Nicodemus understood it was like a bike in that the root energy came from you; and your faith was like getting an efficiency advantage from God. It made it easier and better. But again, 100% of the energy originated with you. It was up to you. You had to create it. You were in control.
That leads to the very mechanical thinking Nicodemus has when he hears Jesus say he must be born again. It was still all about him. Those who call themselves “born again” are focusing on a personal conversion experience. And again, that is not necessarily wrong. It is just coming up short on what Jesus is getting at.
When Jesus says you must be born again, the Greek word used there is anoqen. That means both born again and born from above. It is not one or the other, but both. If you focus too much on being “born again” you are missing the born from above part. The born from above part is the uncontrolled part, the dynamic part. That takes us to the sailboat.
You may recognize this little boat as it’s the same one I’ve brought in before to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit. I think it will suit our slightly different purposes today.
When you are sailing 0% of the energy to move you from Point A to Point B comes from you. It comes from the wind. However, that does not mean you have no control. You are not limited to only going where the wind blows you and at what speed the wind blows you.
This little boat is very simple, but even so, an experienced sailor can use it to go wherever he or she wishes no matter which way the wind is blowing. Tacking and jibing maneuvers allow you to even get to a point exactly into the wind, although it is a circuitous path. The sails are harnessing the power of the wind that is out there. They do not control it. They do not make the energy. It is not like riding a bike. But it is cooperating with it, capturing it, using the energy to suit your needs. The sailor isn’t passive all. It takes skill. Strong winds take different techniques than light winds. A properly set sailboat goes faster than the wind pushing it.
And, while I am not a skilled enough sailor, I do know sailors who sail without needing to use a rudder. By the proper techniques with the main sail they can steer, go faster or slower, brake and stop, and even sail backwards. I’ve heard stories from hundreds of years ago that highly skilled crews in the American Navy could sail their ships with such agility, even going backwards sometimes, that the British navy struggled to target them with cannon fire.
And sailboats are by no means slow. If you’ve been following Ocean Race 2023 you know this year’s 32,000 mile round the world race is nearing its end. (The American team is in the lead by the way.) The ocean-going sailboats in the race are hitting around 40 mph with the right conditions.
Now let’s look at that as an example of faith being both born and again born from above. It’s not about you. It’s about the wind. Faith is not your creation. Faith is God’s energy being poured out. You do not control the wind. You do not control faith. The person who is “born again” acts as though they are now living in a new reality. Maybe so, but the new reality is not in their control.
God still gives you enormous freedom in how you want to capture the energy. Just like a sailor’s freedom for how to capture the wind. But the key thing is that the energy is not yours.
When you’re on a bicycle you can push yourself through whatever comes. It is all you. With sailing, there’s no pushing with your energy. You are 100% dependent upon that which you cannot control.
Jesus wants Nicodemus to realize that faith is not his to control or even to fully understand. But he is to realize that it is confidently there. Perhaps the breezes can be light at times, perhaps even for a long time, but it will return.
That takes us to where we will end, which if we have gotten this far by understanding we do not control or limit, then we are in a place to hear.
I think theologian Gail O’Day puts it pretty succinctly in the New Interpreter’s Bible:
“To believe in Jesus is to believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that God loved the world so much that God have the Son as a gift. The God revealed in Jesus is a God whose love knows no bounds and who asks only that one receive the gift. If one receives the gift, one receives eternal life, because one’s life is reshaped and redefined by the love of God in Jesus. The words about judgment with which the text concludes underscore the seriousness of God’s offer.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, Pg. 555)
Such is the nature of God’s love that resists all limits and all boundaries. Accept it and go for a ride. Enjoy the adventure. It’ll still be hard work, but the energy of life will all be coming from God.
Tuesday, June 13, 2023
June 11, 2023 John 2
Jesus turns water into wine. Then Jesus goes and wrecks things in the temple. What are we to make of this? If you were here last week you may remember me saying that John’s gospel was all about answering the question, “Who is Jesus?” Well, who is this Jesus who does these things?
There are loads of interpretations about both of these stories, all of them attempts to tame them. But neither can be tamed. And they are not supposed to. I suspect the author intends them to have a certain shock value, here while we’re still near the beginning of the gospel, which pulls the rug out from lots of what we assume about God.
Take the story of Jesus turning water into wine. Now this is one that makes every tea totaling church nervous. How can God be making intoxicating beverages? And not just a little bit – a whole lot. You don’t have to have gone too far in math to figure out that if there are six stone jars, each holding 20 to 30 gallons, that adds up to 120-180 gallons of wine! What kind of a wedding reception is this!?!
I’ve heard it interpreted that it would be have been shameful for the families giving the wedding to run out of wine. Thus, Jesus saves them from public embarrassment. But there’s nothing in the text to suggest that at all.
The text just says that the wedding had run out of wine. Normally at a party when the alcohol runs out that is a sign that no more alcohol should be consumed. The guests are probably at, if not past, the point of intoxication.
When Jesus’ mother points out to him that they’ve run out of wine you’d expect Jesus to say something to her like, “Well, they’ve had enough. Running out will naturally limit them from going to much further. That’s a very practical and realistic response to the situation. He does at least point out to her, “…what concern is that to you and to me?”
But she, exercising a mother’s prerogative, completely ignores him. She just tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Talk about a mother manipulating her child!
We could speculate on all sorts of dynamics about what Jesus means and what he really intends with his action, but the text does not give us answers to them. All we’re given is that Jesus co-ops the use of six stone jars, special stone jars meant to be reserved to hold water for purification rites, and basically turns them into wine vats.
A party, with the alcohol gone; meaning everyone has had enough already, and God brings on an extra 120-180 gallons more of intoxicant!
This text, when left to speak without an interpretive overlay to tame it, is scandalous! It is irresponsible in the extreme. How can God act this way? Why would God encourage and enable inebriation that is beyond all sense?
The quick answer before we go on to the next scene: don’t be too quick to think you can understand God’s ways. And, God has a sense of humor! What if God is thinking, “They’re going to have fun with this one!” God can do delightful things purely for the delight of it. We’ll come back to all of this after we get the rug yanked out from under us again.
Jesus heads to Jerusalem for the Passover holidays. It is important to note that the other three gospels record Jesus causing a ruckus in the temple right before his arrest and execution. In fact, that’s the event that pushes the religious leaders too far and they decide he has to be gotten rid of. In John’s gospel it is placed at the beginning of Jesus public ministry. Biblical experts that I know say that from a historical perspective it is misplaced. It quite certainly happened at the end of Jesus’ ministry. But John has placed this event at the beginning as another undermining of our assumptions about Jesus.
You may have heard this scene called Jesus’ “cleansing” of the temple. The headings in most Bibles call it that. But that is based on a number of interpretive assumptions. It assumes that the temple was somehow “corrupt” or dirty in the first place. That idea comes from the version of these scene in Matthew, Mark and Luke. There Jesus quotes from Jeremiah and says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers.” But when Jeremiah calls it a den of robbers he is not talking about greed and corruption. He is talking about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders.
Here in John’s gospel Jesus appears to quote from Zechariah 14. That’s the, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” quote. In Zechariah it is also not a statement about corruption. It is a statement that when the Lord fully comes into the temple there will no longer be a need for merchants and traders there.
Remember, none of this happens within the temple itself. It all happens within the vast courtyards that surround the temple. They had been built to accommodate the commerce needed to support the major holidays. You’ll remember me saying before that if you were a pilgrim heading to Jerusalem for Passover or a holiday, and you wanted to make a sacrifice to God in the temple, it wasn’t very practical for you to travel with an animal to sacrifice. If you were a farmer maybe you’d sell one of your sheep. You’d pocket the money and head to Jerusalem. There you’d buy another sheep in the temple for sacrifice. And the good thing was the sheep for sale in the temple courtyards were sheep that were considered appropriate for sacrifice. Not all sheep made that grade.
Jesus does not cleanse the temple. He shuts down the temple as the place for right relationship with God. In our passage Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Of course, in what we’ll discover to by typical of John’s comedy, the Jews take him literally. They say, “This temple has been under construction for 46 years, and will you raise it up in three days?” Our author clarifies it immediately for us and says, “But he was speaking of the temple of his body.”
The ”temple of his body” is important. Ancient Judaism was a religion of place. The temple was believed to be the house of God. It was the center of faith, worship, and sacrifice. It was the holiest place on earth. Christianity is not a religion of place. It is a religion of relationships based on what God revealed about his nature through Jesus.
But what is being revealed about God through this abundance of wine and violent actions in the temple? Is God crazy, wild, violent, and irresponsible? Remember, we’re in chapter 2. I think the author puts these scenes here to challenge our reverent and domesticated assumptions about God. He does that to open our eyes to see that God will not be so confined. He has to break our old models in order for us to be open to new ones.
It is very easy for us to allow habits, traditions, and social expectations to become what we think God wants from us. Our Christian faith is incredibly flexible. We forget that place and time are not important to us.
Perhaps the greatest current example is kids’ sports. In this area it feels like kids’ sports rule the calendar and the community. They take priority over all other things. Parents run ragged knowing that to miss a practice or a game may cost their child the ability to stay on the team.
Churches become enraged that Sunday mornings have become prime time for youth sports. I understand the anger too. But we do need to keep it in perspective. While we can question the wisdom of any society that gives such priority to something that has so little provable value in terms of social development for children, it is not a faith issue. While it is long standing Christian tradition to worship on a Sunday morning, it is not a divine decree. Any place and any time can work. When churches dig in their heals and go into battle mode they have lost sight of things. This is a big and complex issue. There are many things at play, and it is far more than time. But I use it as an example of how deeply we can allow faith practices to become an end unto themselves.
As John’s gospel opens with untamable texts we do well to think critically about all of our faith expressions and our assumptions about God. We inadvertently add a lot that isn’t there.
It can be challenging, but we have to let God be God. When we can release our fears and realize that God truly is in control then we can enjoy and be amazed at what God is up to. Don’t be surprised when God comes to you in ways you never expected!
There are loads of interpretations about both of these stories, all of them attempts to tame them. But neither can be tamed. And they are not supposed to. I suspect the author intends them to have a certain shock value, here while we’re still near the beginning of the gospel, which pulls the rug out from lots of what we assume about God.
Take the story of Jesus turning water into wine. Now this is one that makes every tea totaling church nervous. How can God be making intoxicating beverages? And not just a little bit – a whole lot. You don’t have to have gone too far in math to figure out that if there are six stone jars, each holding 20 to 30 gallons, that adds up to 120-180 gallons of wine! What kind of a wedding reception is this!?!
I’ve heard it interpreted that it would be have been shameful for the families giving the wedding to run out of wine. Thus, Jesus saves them from public embarrassment. But there’s nothing in the text to suggest that at all.
The text just says that the wedding had run out of wine. Normally at a party when the alcohol runs out that is a sign that no more alcohol should be consumed. The guests are probably at, if not past, the point of intoxication.
When Jesus’ mother points out to him that they’ve run out of wine you’d expect Jesus to say something to her like, “Well, they’ve had enough. Running out will naturally limit them from going to much further. That’s a very practical and realistic response to the situation. He does at least point out to her, “…what concern is that to you and to me?”
But she, exercising a mother’s prerogative, completely ignores him. She just tells the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Talk about a mother manipulating her child!
We could speculate on all sorts of dynamics about what Jesus means and what he really intends with his action, but the text does not give us answers to them. All we’re given is that Jesus co-ops the use of six stone jars, special stone jars meant to be reserved to hold water for purification rites, and basically turns them into wine vats.
A party, with the alcohol gone; meaning everyone has had enough already, and God brings on an extra 120-180 gallons more of intoxicant!
This text, when left to speak without an interpretive overlay to tame it, is scandalous! It is irresponsible in the extreme. How can God act this way? Why would God encourage and enable inebriation that is beyond all sense?
The quick answer before we go on to the next scene: don’t be too quick to think you can understand God’s ways. And, God has a sense of humor! What if God is thinking, “They’re going to have fun with this one!” God can do delightful things purely for the delight of it. We’ll come back to all of this after we get the rug yanked out from under us again.
Jesus heads to Jerusalem for the Passover holidays. It is important to note that the other three gospels record Jesus causing a ruckus in the temple right before his arrest and execution. In fact, that’s the event that pushes the religious leaders too far and they decide he has to be gotten rid of. In John’s gospel it is placed at the beginning of Jesus public ministry. Biblical experts that I know say that from a historical perspective it is misplaced. It quite certainly happened at the end of Jesus’ ministry. But John has placed this event at the beginning as another undermining of our assumptions about Jesus.
You may have heard this scene called Jesus’ “cleansing” of the temple. The headings in most Bibles call it that. But that is based on a number of interpretive assumptions. It assumes that the temple was somehow “corrupt” or dirty in the first place. That idea comes from the version of these scene in Matthew, Mark and Luke. There Jesus quotes from Jeremiah and says, “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations. But you have made it a den of robbers.” But when Jeremiah calls it a den of robbers he is not talking about greed and corruption. He is talking about the hypocrisy of the religious leaders.
Here in John’s gospel Jesus appears to quote from Zechariah 14. That’s the, “Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace,” quote. In Zechariah it is also not a statement about corruption. It is a statement that when the Lord fully comes into the temple there will no longer be a need for merchants and traders there.
Remember, none of this happens within the temple itself. It all happens within the vast courtyards that surround the temple. They had been built to accommodate the commerce needed to support the major holidays. You’ll remember me saying before that if you were a pilgrim heading to Jerusalem for Passover or a holiday, and you wanted to make a sacrifice to God in the temple, it wasn’t very practical for you to travel with an animal to sacrifice. If you were a farmer maybe you’d sell one of your sheep. You’d pocket the money and head to Jerusalem. There you’d buy another sheep in the temple for sacrifice. And the good thing was the sheep for sale in the temple courtyards were sheep that were considered appropriate for sacrifice. Not all sheep made that grade.
Jesus does not cleanse the temple. He shuts down the temple as the place for right relationship with God. In our passage Jesus says, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
Of course, in what we’ll discover to by typical of John’s comedy, the Jews take him literally. They say, “This temple has been under construction for 46 years, and will you raise it up in three days?” Our author clarifies it immediately for us and says, “But he was speaking of the temple of his body.”
The ”temple of his body” is important. Ancient Judaism was a religion of place. The temple was believed to be the house of God. It was the center of faith, worship, and sacrifice. It was the holiest place on earth. Christianity is not a religion of place. It is a religion of relationships based on what God revealed about his nature through Jesus.
But what is being revealed about God through this abundance of wine and violent actions in the temple? Is God crazy, wild, violent, and irresponsible? Remember, we’re in chapter 2. I think the author puts these scenes here to challenge our reverent and domesticated assumptions about God. He does that to open our eyes to see that God will not be so confined. He has to break our old models in order for us to be open to new ones.
It is very easy for us to allow habits, traditions, and social expectations to become what we think God wants from us. Our Christian faith is incredibly flexible. We forget that place and time are not important to us.
Perhaps the greatest current example is kids’ sports. In this area it feels like kids’ sports rule the calendar and the community. They take priority over all other things. Parents run ragged knowing that to miss a practice or a game may cost their child the ability to stay on the team.
Churches become enraged that Sunday mornings have become prime time for youth sports. I understand the anger too. But we do need to keep it in perspective. While we can question the wisdom of any society that gives such priority to something that has so little provable value in terms of social development for children, it is not a faith issue. While it is long standing Christian tradition to worship on a Sunday morning, it is not a divine decree. Any place and any time can work. When churches dig in their heals and go into battle mode they have lost sight of things. This is a big and complex issue. There are many things at play, and it is far more than time. But I use it as an example of how deeply we can allow faith practices to become an end unto themselves.
As John’s gospel opens with untamable texts we do well to think critically about all of our faith expressions and our assumptions about God. We inadvertently add a lot that isn’t there.
It can be challenging, but we have to let God be God. When we can release our fears and realize that God truly is in control then we can enjoy and be amazed at what God is up to. Don’t be surprised when God comes to you in ways you never expected!
Monday, June 5, 2023
June 4, 2023 John 1
We’re used to hearing the prologue of John’s gospel at Christmas time. That’s John 1:1-18. It fits well for that, giving theological weight to the birth of Jesus. But when we only ever use it that way we miss its bigger purpose in John.
John’s gospel does not read like the other three: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It’s not as much a story as it is a collection of short stories of people encountering Jesus. John’s main purpose in writing the gospel is to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”
But before we can get to that answer we have to start somewhere else. This somewhere else is something John knew was essential to understanding who Jesus is.
Let’s remind ourselves that the Bible’s authors used more complex and sophisticated writing styles than we use today. They used patterns and formulas in their writing. They deliberately created contrasts and contradictions in what they wrote. They were not aiming to teach limited truths, but rather open doors to multiple levels of understanding. They knew that their writings could be understood at a simple level by children and also speak in a sophisticated way to highly educated adults. Their writings were very carefully crafted and very thoughtful. Never approach an ancient text thinking it is a product of the ignorant past. While they didn’t have the scientific techniques and technologies of today, they were our equals or superiors when it comes to understanding and communicating complex ideas. John’s gospel, like the other gospels, easily holds its own in the world of complex literature.
So, keeping that in mind, when it comes to answering who is Jesus, John gives us eight answers in Chapter 1. They are:
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
Son of God
Rabbi
Messiah
Him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote
Son of Joseph from Nazareth
King of Israel
Son of Man
There are more to come in the chapters that follow. But that is not actually where John wants to begin. John knows he cannot answer directly for you who Jesus is. Or perhaps I should say, John knows that before we can understand who Jesus is, we have to understand who we are.
Give your mind time to ponder that at some point. Who is God? Who is Jesus? Perhaps it is best to first ask, “Who am I?” But, tempting as it may be to ponder that now, I invite you to do that at another time. For now I want to keep your attention on a dynamic that John is creating. You see, for John, knowing who you are and knowing who Jesus is, is an ongoing dialog and development. There’s no point in your life where you truly and fully know who you are – at least not in a sense where you have become a static and unchanging being. Each new day brings something different. It brings a new part of yourself into being. It is certainly going to be informed by yesterday. And it will be guided by plans for tomorrow, but it is still a learning and growing process.
So, who is Jesus?
Who are you?
That’s an ever-changing dynamic that is a way of life. Let’s call it an adventure.
Notice what happens in Johns 1. Each person we meet sees something different in Jesus and bears witness in his own way. In Chapter 1 we met John the Baptist, Andrew, Simon, Philip, and Nathanael. Each one comes to Jesus with differing expectations and needs – one needed a teacher, another the Messiah, another the fulfillment of scripture – and each of these needs was met.
As we read further into John’s gospel in the weeks to come we will encounter more and more people. The way we’re going to read it is to look at each encounter on its own each week, or perhaps a couple encounters if they’re meant to be a contrast. That’s how John wants his gospel to be read and interpreted. Each person will come to Jesus with their own history, their own understanding, and their own needs. And each one will discover something different about Jesus. This goes all the way to Pontus Pilate when Jesus is on trial!
As the gospel progresses the list of answers to who Jesus is will be replaced, transformed, expanded, or redefined by Jesus’ words and actions; and ultimately by his death and resurrection.
From a literary perspective, John’s gospel is a brilliant way to learn about Jesus. From a theological perspective, John’s gospel gets at the truth that who Jesus is, and more broadly who God is, is not someone that is confined to definite and consistent limits.
Commentator Gail O’Day notes this, “The rich variety of testimonies in chapter 1 is both cautionary and celebratory. It cautions the reader not to limit Jesus to preconceived categories and expectations but to keep one’s eyes open for a surprising revelation of God.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, Page 533)
Indeed, at no point in our lives can we say that we fully “know” Jesus, or know all there is to know about him. And, while there are certainly things that Jesus is not, it is wrong to confine him to what we think he has to be. Different people are going to have different experiences. Jesus meets you where you are, wherever you are.
That is a key part to John’s gospel, and of deep importance to him. Among the most important things John wants you to know about Jesus is that Jesus meets you where you are, wherever you are; in whatever state you are in. Jesus isn’t called this in Chapter 1, or anywhere specifically, but he is the “abiding one”.
One of John’s favorite words is “abide” when referring to Jesus. It occurs 4 times in Chapter 1. 34 times in John’s gospel. 22 times in the letters attributed to John. When you consider “abide” occurs 110 times in the entire New Testament you realize that over half of them are in John.
Happy with God? Jesus is the abiding with you.
Mad at God? Jesus is the abiding with you.
Living a clean wholesome life? Jesus is abiding with you.
Living in shame and filth feeling unfit to be considered a human being? Living in the deepest and darkest of depressions? Jesus is abiding with you; whether you can feel him or not.
Believing deeply in God? Jesus is abiding with you.
Not believing in God completely and totally; the strongest, staunchest atheist that ever lived? Jesus is still the abiding one.
We’re going to encounter just about all of that in John’s gospel in the weeks ahead. Jesus is there always, solidly, strongly, securely, in whatever way and place people are.
Let’s note one more thing about John 1. This is a Lutheran Church and we throw the word “grace” around quite a bit. Grace shows up lots of times in Paul’s writings. It shows up rarely in the gospels. It never shows up in Matthew or Mark. It shows up in Luke’s gospel eight times, I believe. And it shows up in John’s gospel only four times; all of them in Chapter 1. You probably know verse 16 particularly well, “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” Grace means unmerited, or unearned favor.
While grace may only be used four times at the beginning of John’s gospel the rest of the gospel is a witness to it. Lots of people encounter Jesus. None of them has any claim to his presence or can say they deserve his presence. But Jesus is willing to give favor to them all; although not all accept it.
We journey through John’s gospel this summer and encounter many people as they encounter Jesus. May we relate to them and in so doing also relate to our abiding Lord.
John’s gospel does not read like the other three: Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It’s not as much a story as it is a collection of short stories of people encountering Jesus. John’s main purpose in writing the gospel is to answer the question, “Who is Jesus?”
But before we can get to that answer we have to start somewhere else. This somewhere else is something John knew was essential to understanding who Jesus is.
Let’s remind ourselves that the Bible’s authors used more complex and sophisticated writing styles than we use today. They used patterns and formulas in their writing. They deliberately created contrasts and contradictions in what they wrote. They were not aiming to teach limited truths, but rather open doors to multiple levels of understanding. They knew that their writings could be understood at a simple level by children and also speak in a sophisticated way to highly educated adults. Their writings were very carefully crafted and very thoughtful. Never approach an ancient text thinking it is a product of the ignorant past. While they didn’t have the scientific techniques and technologies of today, they were our equals or superiors when it comes to understanding and communicating complex ideas. John’s gospel, like the other gospels, easily holds its own in the world of complex literature.
So, keeping that in mind, when it comes to answering who is Jesus, John gives us eight answers in Chapter 1. They are:
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
Son of God
Rabbi
Messiah
Him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote
Son of Joseph from Nazareth
King of Israel
Son of Man
There are more to come in the chapters that follow. But that is not actually where John wants to begin. John knows he cannot answer directly for you who Jesus is. Or perhaps I should say, John knows that before we can understand who Jesus is, we have to understand who we are.
Give your mind time to ponder that at some point. Who is God? Who is Jesus? Perhaps it is best to first ask, “Who am I?” But, tempting as it may be to ponder that now, I invite you to do that at another time. For now I want to keep your attention on a dynamic that John is creating. You see, for John, knowing who you are and knowing who Jesus is, is an ongoing dialog and development. There’s no point in your life where you truly and fully know who you are – at least not in a sense where you have become a static and unchanging being. Each new day brings something different. It brings a new part of yourself into being. It is certainly going to be informed by yesterday. And it will be guided by plans for tomorrow, but it is still a learning and growing process.
So, who is Jesus?
Who are you?
That’s an ever-changing dynamic that is a way of life. Let’s call it an adventure.
Notice what happens in Johns 1. Each person we meet sees something different in Jesus and bears witness in his own way. In Chapter 1 we met John the Baptist, Andrew, Simon, Philip, and Nathanael. Each one comes to Jesus with differing expectations and needs – one needed a teacher, another the Messiah, another the fulfillment of scripture – and each of these needs was met.
As we read further into John’s gospel in the weeks to come we will encounter more and more people. The way we’re going to read it is to look at each encounter on its own each week, or perhaps a couple encounters if they’re meant to be a contrast. That’s how John wants his gospel to be read and interpreted. Each person will come to Jesus with their own history, their own understanding, and their own needs. And each one will discover something different about Jesus. This goes all the way to Pontus Pilate when Jesus is on trial!
As the gospel progresses the list of answers to who Jesus is will be replaced, transformed, expanded, or redefined by Jesus’ words and actions; and ultimately by his death and resurrection.
From a literary perspective, John’s gospel is a brilliant way to learn about Jesus. From a theological perspective, John’s gospel gets at the truth that who Jesus is, and more broadly who God is, is not someone that is confined to definite and consistent limits.
Commentator Gail O’Day notes this, “The rich variety of testimonies in chapter 1 is both cautionary and celebratory. It cautions the reader not to limit Jesus to preconceived categories and expectations but to keep one’s eyes open for a surprising revelation of God.” (New Interpreter’s Bible, Volume 9, Page 533)
Indeed, at no point in our lives can we say that we fully “know” Jesus, or know all there is to know about him. And, while there are certainly things that Jesus is not, it is wrong to confine him to what we think he has to be. Different people are going to have different experiences. Jesus meets you where you are, wherever you are.
That is a key part to John’s gospel, and of deep importance to him. Among the most important things John wants you to know about Jesus is that Jesus meets you where you are, wherever you are; in whatever state you are in. Jesus isn’t called this in Chapter 1, or anywhere specifically, but he is the “abiding one”.
One of John’s favorite words is “abide” when referring to Jesus. It occurs 4 times in Chapter 1. 34 times in John’s gospel. 22 times in the letters attributed to John. When you consider “abide” occurs 110 times in the entire New Testament you realize that over half of them are in John.
Happy with God? Jesus is the abiding with you.
Mad at God? Jesus is the abiding with you.
Living a clean wholesome life? Jesus is abiding with you.
Living in shame and filth feeling unfit to be considered a human being? Living in the deepest and darkest of depressions? Jesus is abiding with you; whether you can feel him or not.
Believing deeply in God? Jesus is abiding with you.
Not believing in God completely and totally; the strongest, staunchest atheist that ever lived? Jesus is still the abiding one.
We’re going to encounter just about all of that in John’s gospel in the weeks ahead. Jesus is there always, solidly, strongly, securely, in whatever way and place people are.
Let’s note one more thing about John 1. This is a Lutheran Church and we throw the word “grace” around quite a bit. Grace shows up lots of times in Paul’s writings. It shows up rarely in the gospels. It never shows up in Matthew or Mark. It shows up in Luke’s gospel eight times, I believe. And it shows up in John’s gospel only four times; all of them in Chapter 1. You probably know verse 16 particularly well, “From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.” Grace means unmerited, or unearned favor.
While grace may only be used four times at the beginning of John’s gospel the rest of the gospel is a witness to it. Lots of people encounter Jesus. None of them has any claim to his presence or can say they deserve his presence. But Jesus is willing to give favor to them all; although not all accept it.
We journey through John’s gospel this summer and encounter many people as they encounter Jesus. May we relate to them and in so doing also relate to our abiding Lord.
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