I have been watching the show Unforgotten on Masterpiece Mystery, which is on WXXI on Sunday nights. Now, I’ve said I’ve been watching it. I didn’t say I like it. I’ve liked previous seasons and so I started watching this one, but so far I’m not all that impressed. I suppose I could say that if nothing else it has given me an illustration to open a sermon today!
Unforgotten is about fictitious murder cases from the past. New evidence comes to light which reopens the investigation. The series start off slowly introducing the audience to what seems like a diverse and unconnected cast of characters. As the investigation goes on the detectives link the characters and their pasts, and ultimately solve the mystery.
That’s the way John’s gospel may have felt as we read it today. A couple weeks ago I said John’s gospel could be seen as having two acts. In the first act we meet Jesus, we experience his signs, and we discover things about God through them. In the second act we have the final week of Jesus’ life, which includes his anointing, the Last Supper, and his arrest and crucifixion. We are still near the beginning of this second act. We have a whole lot of characters whose connections aren’t readily apparent. There’s: Jesus, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the “Jews”, chief priests and Pharisees, Caiaphas the high priest, and last but not least, Judas.
John’s story is complex, and we could take a sermon any number of directions from here. But for the sake of focus, we are going to look at the contrast between two: Mary and Judas.
John has already shown us that traditional racial and gender expectations are not going to be followed in this story. In fact, John will use them as a foil to teach about Jesus. For example, in chapter three we met Nicodemus. He was a solid, theologically educated man in a position of leadership. We expect him to accept and understand Jesus. But he didn’t. Then in chapter four we met an unnamed Samaritan woman. She was an outsider by race, gender, and social acceptability. We expect her to reject Jesus. But she does not. She believes in him, accepts who he is, and spreads the word about him. We’re going to see some broken expectations with Mary and Judas.
It is very helpful for us to read about the anointing of Jesus’ feet by Mary only a week after reading about Jesus raising Mary’s brother Lazarus. You’ll remember from last week that Lazarus had died and was buried. Jesus was somewhat far away, and didn’t seem too fused about it when he heard that Lazarus had died. In fact he deliberately stayed put for a couple days. Only after that does he travel to Bethany, which is the home of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. Mary is upset, and for good reason! When Jesus finally gets there Mary says, “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died.” Jesus asks to be taken to the tomb. When he gets there he commands it to be open. Mary’s sister Martha points out the obvious, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” But the stone is removed. Jesus cries out, “Lazarus come out!” The dead man came out still wrapped in burial cloths.
This is the foundation for Mary’s gratitude towards Jesus that we read today. Many people have thought her devotion to Jesus was one of sexual desire. But as John tells the story, Mary is overjoyed by what Jesus has done. Her brother is alive again! She is deeply grateful and no social boundaries or norms are going to stop her.
With a foreshadowing of Jesus washing the feet of the disciples at the Last Supper some time later, Mary anoints Jesus’ feet with a pound of pure nard, and wipes them with her hair. John tells us the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. Indeed dumping out a pint of an expensive perfume would fill a house with the smell to the point of being overwhelming! But let’s notice the contrast John has made. The tomb of Lazarus was said to have a stench from his decomposing corpse. Now the home of Lazarus is overwhelmed with the scent of fine perfume. Dr. Richard Carlson, my one seminary professor, said, “Lazarus had stinking life. Mary brings Jesus the sweet smell of death.” When Judas objects to the waste of this perfume Jesus says, “Permit her; it will keep to the day of my burial.”
With the mention of Judas, let’s turn to him.
Judas is an easy character to hate. He sells out Jesus for 30 silver coins, not a lot of money. He does more than sell out Jesus. He sells out all the disciples of Jesus as well.
And yet as we hate Judas for what he does, we can’t help but feel like we’re like him. Is he not being practical, hard-working, and responsible when he says, “Why was this perfume not sold for a year’s wages and the money given to the poor?”
Good point Judas! If Mary loves Jesus and wants to show her gratitude, that’s fine. If she wants to stretch social boundaries and anoint Jesus’ feet with perfume and wipe them with her hair, well, that may not be totally fine, but it’s an acceptable expression of gratitude for bringing her brother back to life. But to dump out a whole pound of costly perfume!!! That’s ridiculous! It’s pointless. It’s just waste, pure and simple. An ounce would have been more than enough. An ounce would have been extravagant. But a whole pound? I almost want to say in disgust, “Come on Mary, grow up! Learn to have some responsibility!”
But then I’m thinking and speaking like Judas.
Almost as if John knows we’re going to be feeling guilty because we’re thinking exactly like the guy who sells Jesus out John gives us some relief by saying, “He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.”
Okay, that is a bit of relief. We may be thinking like Judas at least somewhat but we are not going to outright steal from others! But there is more to it than that.
Can you remember where else we’ve heard about thieves in John’s gospel? You probably have to think hard. It was back in the Good Shepherd Discourse. There in Chapter 10 Jesus says he is the gate to the sheepfold. But in referring to the religious leaders he says, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.”
Now we’re seeing that Judas as a thief is in the same league as the religious leaders. In what we read today we see that the religious leaders are concerned not so much with God’s work but with their own position and power. Jesus is a threat to it. We aren’t surprised at all then later in the story when Judas shows himself in the same league as the religious leaders when he sells out Jesus to them.
But that’s in the future. There’s something to be learned from the scene as we have it today. John has created a contrast between two people who are very close to Jesus, and in a common community with him.
Mary, deeply grateful to Jesus responds to him without being told. She shows love and appreciation for Jesus without regard for social norms, how it looks to others, or how much it costs. Commentator Gail O’Day notes in the New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, “[Mary] gives boldly of herself in love to Jesus at this hour, just as Jesus will give boldly of himself in love at his hour.” (Volume 9, Pg. 703)
Judas, a long-time follower of Jesus who has seen quite a bit from Jesus, shows disdain for what he is seeing. He is driven by perceptions, pride, and limitations. Think back over the story. We aren’t told where Judas comes to be a disciple of Jesus. But he certainly had heard about the turning of water into wine; 120 to 180 gallons of excellent wine! And he certainly was there when Jesus took five loaves and two fish and made them be enough to feed thousands of people. So, based on his first-hand experience of Jesus being able to produce abundance and extravagance, Judas has no reason to focus on limits and waste. He should be faithfully enjoying Jesus’ abundance and accepting those who want to abundantly give to him. But he doesn’t.
That’s the contrast that we take away from this text for our own lives. It is not a contrast between propriety and impropriety, or stinginess vs. lavishness. It is the heart of discipleship.
Are we like Judas, seeing our relationship with God like we see life in the world – transactional, strategic, and limited. Do we give to God in order to receive in return? Is God’s promise of eternal life a reward calculated to make us live righteously?
Or, are we like Mary, living a new life as a child of God, embracing God’s endless love and generosity? That is not strategic to get eternal life. It is living fully now because of the promise of eternal life. Obviously we want to be like Mary
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
Wednesday, September 6, 2023
September 3, 2023 John 10:22-42
(Begin with showing several inspirational memes, but ones that ultimately leave you on your own to cope: Believe in yourself; Don’t just fly, soar; Believe in yourself and all that you are. Know there is something inside you that is greater and every obstacle; Attitude is everything; Let whatever you do today be enough; Even if you make the wrong choice, God will change it for good, so you can’t loose; You got this.)
Perhaps these little sayings give us a bit of a boost when we feel down, but are they actually helpful? Sometimes when someone shares with me some of the problems they are facing I’m tempted to say to them, “Hang in there.” But of what value is that? I’m telling them to find within themselves whatever strength is necessary to do what needs doing, but I’m not offering any actual help myself.
Or when you say to someone who has suffered a loss or is in crisis, “I’ll help any way I can,” you are certainly sympathizing with their situation, but are you really offering help? How much are you really going to inconvenience yourself for the sake of the other? Perhaps quite a bit, but I suspect that most often when we say things like that we really aren’t offering to rearrange our lives or schedules all that much. We’re willing to help as long as it is easy and convenient. Otherwise, we’ll have excuses.
Let’s keep that in mind as we turn to our gospel reading for today. It is about God coming to us and truly meeting us where we are, whether that is convenient or not, or even downright horrible and painful. That is the core teaching of Christianity that sets it apart from the world’s other religions. Other religions may teach that God is loving, and wants us to be the same. Well that’s all fine and good, I guess. But only Christianity says that God’s love has gone from just words and into tangible action.
We’re about at the halfway point of John’s gospel. We’ve completed chapter 10 and there are 21 chapters. (It probably actually originally stopped at 20 chapters, putting us at exactly the halfway point. But most biblical scholars think the original author added Chapter 21 at a later time.) I’ve said in the past weeks that John’s gospel is structured a lot like an ancient Greek play. And indeed, perhaps it is helpful to think of it like a modern-day play or a musical with two acts. We’ve just completed Act 1, which is all about Jesus’ public ministry. The curtain is closing and it’s time for an intermission. Next week we begin Act 2, which is all about Jesus’ Last Supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. Indeed fully half of John’s gospel is about the last few days of Jesus’ life. But for now, Act 1 is about to end and the author gives us a recap of the major themes:
-Jesus is God, the all-powerful, everlasting Creator of all that is, seen and unseen,… come to live on earth.
-Jesus is revealing the ultimate nature of God the all-powerful as deeply loving, even being truly loving towards those who hate God.
-Jesus is the good shepherd who will lead people to eternal life.
-Jesus can perform miracles, or signs, all of which reveal something about God’s nature and offer proof of who Jesus is.
-Despite this, many people reject Jesus. They prefer darkness to light. Why? They prefer their own ways to God’s ways. And, especially when it comes to the religious leaders, they just cannot accept that God would come in human form.
-There is a divided response to Jesus. Some believe him. Some do not.
-And a final theme. Everything is happening according to God’s design, even though it may appear that Jesus is not in control at all. That theme will be developed greatly in Act 2. The whole second act is filled with irony.
If you’ve grown up as a Christian none of Jesus’ claims will strike you as all that unusual. It’s just what you know. That’s unfortunate. For the central tenant of Christianity is, and always has been, radical and scandalous. That list of things I just made is the core of it. In Act 2 of John’s gospel we’ll see all of that list put into action even more deeply.
In order to help us realize the radical and scandalous nature of Christianity let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the religious leaders in the gospel.
They know that God is patient, forgiving, loving, and even gracious. There’s nothing new or challenging there. The Old Testament has plenty of stories about that.
But…
God’s love is limited. God loves those who do good things. God hates those who do bad. God rewards hard work, smart decisions, and faithful living. And while God isn’t necessarily bound by human rules of justice, for the most part God does not have warm and kind feelings towards those who are sinful dirty people. God just can’t do that! How could there be any justice or accountability if God loves everyone?!
Those are all very good points. But they miss the fundamental nature of God. That fundamental nature is what our faith seeks to make known.
God carefully and loving created this universe. It is vast – incredibly vast! It is so complex as to boggle anyone’s mind. Biological life is nothing short of miraculous. And the complex interdependence of the environment is rich, beautiful, and astounding. And when it comes to humans, there we have God creating one being, in the bigger part of the creation, that has the ability to have an awareness of God’s presence. In God giving humanity that awareness God has invited a new level of relationship with the creation.
That is a Christian ethic and philosophy of the universe. Of course God loves every person! Of course God wants to be in relationship with every being able to develop an awareness of God’s love. God wants the creation to be big and vast and lush and healthy as possible.
We humans, with our ability to sense God, also have the ability to reject God. And so we make a mess of things. But God is not done with us. While God always reserves the right for judgement, God wants it to be otherwise. And God works endlessly and tirelessly and selflessly to make it otherwise.
All of those memes we started with aren’t the kind of thing God would do. God is one to get right there into the mess and be a tangible presence beside us. And in such a way God invites us to be God’s real presence to each other.
I’ve used this example before but I’m going to use it again because it fits well. Imagine you’re lost in the woods and it’s night time. A storm is coming. How are you going to get out? Islam would say that God is loving. It would say that God will show God’s love for you by giving you a map of the forest, and maybe a flashlight. Those things will help you to find your way out to safety. It’s a good image. It’s a comforting one. But, with all respect due to Islam, it is not a Christian message.
The Christian message is that you are lost in the woods and it’s night time. A storm is coming. How are you going to get out? Yes, God will give you a map of the forest and maybe a flashlight. But God will also come to be with you in the midst of the fearful darkness. You will not be alone. If you stumble over a stump and fall flat on your face in the mud, God will be right there with you. God won’t laugh. God will help you up. If you’re scared, God knows what it is to be scared and God will be scared with you. If you feel exhausted and hopeless, God will be with you in those feelings as well. It will not be judgment. It will be accompaniment. For God loves you and wants to be with you always, even if you get lost in the woods again and again.
Act 1 of John’s gospel closes. Act 2 begins next week. Jesus performs his greatest miracle. He raises a dead man to life. But that will be the final straw for the religious leaders. And ironically in Jesus giving life to someone it will cost him his own life. But that is also God’s love.
May you feel God’s presence within you through good times and bad. And may God send you companions so that God’s presence may be tangible to you in your life. Similarly, may God honor you with getting to be God’s tangible presence to others. For God’s love is relentless and endless. It makes good on its promises to bring light to everyone’s life.
Perhaps these little sayings give us a bit of a boost when we feel down, but are they actually helpful? Sometimes when someone shares with me some of the problems they are facing I’m tempted to say to them, “Hang in there.” But of what value is that? I’m telling them to find within themselves whatever strength is necessary to do what needs doing, but I’m not offering any actual help myself.
Or when you say to someone who has suffered a loss or is in crisis, “I’ll help any way I can,” you are certainly sympathizing with their situation, but are you really offering help? How much are you really going to inconvenience yourself for the sake of the other? Perhaps quite a bit, but I suspect that most often when we say things like that we really aren’t offering to rearrange our lives or schedules all that much. We’re willing to help as long as it is easy and convenient. Otherwise, we’ll have excuses.
Let’s keep that in mind as we turn to our gospel reading for today. It is about God coming to us and truly meeting us where we are, whether that is convenient or not, or even downright horrible and painful. That is the core teaching of Christianity that sets it apart from the world’s other religions. Other religions may teach that God is loving, and wants us to be the same. Well that’s all fine and good, I guess. But only Christianity says that God’s love has gone from just words and into tangible action.
We’re about at the halfway point of John’s gospel. We’ve completed chapter 10 and there are 21 chapters. (It probably actually originally stopped at 20 chapters, putting us at exactly the halfway point. But most biblical scholars think the original author added Chapter 21 at a later time.) I’ve said in the past weeks that John’s gospel is structured a lot like an ancient Greek play. And indeed, perhaps it is helpful to think of it like a modern-day play or a musical with two acts. We’ve just completed Act 1, which is all about Jesus’ public ministry. The curtain is closing and it’s time for an intermission. Next week we begin Act 2, which is all about Jesus’ Last Supper, arrest, trial, crucifixion, and resurrection. Indeed fully half of John’s gospel is about the last few days of Jesus’ life. But for now, Act 1 is about to end and the author gives us a recap of the major themes:
-Jesus is God, the all-powerful, everlasting Creator of all that is, seen and unseen,… come to live on earth.
-Jesus is revealing the ultimate nature of God the all-powerful as deeply loving, even being truly loving towards those who hate God.
-Jesus is the good shepherd who will lead people to eternal life.
-Jesus can perform miracles, or signs, all of which reveal something about God’s nature and offer proof of who Jesus is.
-Despite this, many people reject Jesus. They prefer darkness to light. Why? They prefer their own ways to God’s ways. And, especially when it comes to the religious leaders, they just cannot accept that God would come in human form.
-There is a divided response to Jesus. Some believe him. Some do not.
-And a final theme. Everything is happening according to God’s design, even though it may appear that Jesus is not in control at all. That theme will be developed greatly in Act 2. The whole second act is filled with irony.
If you’ve grown up as a Christian none of Jesus’ claims will strike you as all that unusual. It’s just what you know. That’s unfortunate. For the central tenant of Christianity is, and always has been, radical and scandalous. That list of things I just made is the core of it. In Act 2 of John’s gospel we’ll see all of that list put into action even more deeply.
In order to help us realize the radical and scandalous nature of Christianity let’s put ourselves in the shoes of the religious leaders in the gospel.
They know that God is patient, forgiving, loving, and even gracious. There’s nothing new or challenging there. The Old Testament has plenty of stories about that.
But…
God’s love is limited. God loves those who do good things. God hates those who do bad. God rewards hard work, smart decisions, and faithful living. And while God isn’t necessarily bound by human rules of justice, for the most part God does not have warm and kind feelings towards those who are sinful dirty people. God just can’t do that! How could there be any justice or accountability if God loves everyone?!
Those are all very good points. But they miss the fundamental nature of God. That fundamental nature is what our faith seeks to make known.
God carefully and loving created this universe. It is vast – incredibly vast! It is so complex as to boggle anyone’s mind. Biological life is nothing short of miraculous. And the complex interdependence of the environment is rich, beautiful, and astounding. And when it comes to humans, there we have God creating one being, in the bigger part of the creation, that has the ability to have an awareness of God’s presence. In God giving humanity that awareness God has invited a new level of relationship with the creation.
That is a Christian ethic and philosophy of the universe. Of course God loves every person! Of course God wants to be in relationship with every being able to develop an awareness of God’s love. God wants the creation to be big and vast and lush and healthy as possible.
We humans, with our ability to sense God, also have the ability to reject God. And so we make a mess of things. But God is not done with us. While God always reserves the right for judgement, God wants it to be otherwise. And God works endlessly and tirelessly and selflessly to make it otherwise.
All of those memes we started with aren’t the kind of thing God would do. God is one to get right there into the mess and be a tangible presence beside us. And in such a way God invites us to be God’s real presence to each other.
I’ve used this example before but I’m going to use it again because it fits well. Imagine you’re lost in the woods and it’s night time. A storm is coming. How are you going to get out? Islam would say that God is loving. It would say that God will show God’s love for you by giving you a map of the forest, and maybe a flashlight. Those things will help you to find your way out to safety. It’s a good image. It’s a comforting one. But, with all respect due to Islam, it is not a Christian message.
The Christian message is that you are lost in the woods and it’s night time. A storm is coming. How are you going to get out? Yes, God will give you a map of the forest and maybe a flashlight. But God will also come to be with you in the midst of the fearful darkness. You will not be alone. If you stumble over a stump and fall flat on your face in the mud, God will be right there with you. God won’t laugh. God will help you up. If you’re scared, God knows what it is to be scared and God will be scared with you. If you feel exhausted and hopeless, God will be with you in those feelings as well. It will not be judgment. It will be accompaniment. For God loves you and wants to be with you always, even if you get lost in the woods again and again.
Act 1 of John’s gospel closes. Act 2 begins next week. Jesus performs his greatest miracle. He raises a dead man to life. But that will be the final straw for the religious leaders. And ironically in Jesus giving life to someone it will cost him his own life. But that is also God’s love.
May you feel God’s presence within you through good times and bad. And may God send you companions so that God’s presence may be tangible to you in your life. Similarly, may God honor you with getting to be God’s tangible presence to others. For God’s love is relentless and endless. It makes good on its promises to bring light to everyone’s life.
Monday, August 28, 2023
August 27, 2023 Jesus the Good Shepherd John 10:1-21
If you’re like me when you’re in a public building and you see a door with a sign, “Do not enter,” on it, the first thing you want to do is know what’s behind it. If it also has the words, “Danger,” or, “High Voltage,” then I’m even more curious about what’s behind the door. A walk through a hospital can put me into curiosity overload. There you’ll find doors that say, “Sterile Area,” or even more intriguing, “Radioactive.”
There was a time when Strong Hospital used to issue Photo ID badges to local clergy. I thought it was great. If I had to visit someone after visiting hours it was no big deal. I’d swipe my badge at the entrance doors and they’d open automatically for me. I didn’t have to go through any security checks because they already knew who I was. And best of all, when I wanted to visit someone in an intensive care unit that had restricted access I just swiped my badge and go right in. I didn’t have to go through a rigamarole of pressing buttons and waiting for doors to be unlocked and all of that.
Then Strong changed their policy and clergy were no longer given ID badges. When I turned mine in I said I would miss it and all the easy access it granted. The security person looked at me blankly and said, “There must have been a mistake. These badges were just so you didn’t have to pay for parking. They weren’t supposed to unlock any doors!” Apparently mine was somehow mistakenly empowered to unlock just about any and every door in the hospital! Now how I wish I’d tried all those doors! And I was also a little miffed that the person said they were only so I didn’t have to pay for parking. Given that they charged me an annual fee for that badge the parking was hardly free!
What we read in today’s gospel is often called the shepherd discourse, although half of it is about the gate to the sheepfold and not just a shepherd. Even so, they were common agricultural images people would have related to. When I was growing up we never had sheep, but a neighboring farm did. They didn’t know much of anything about sheep and they hired my cousins and I to help care for them. It is probably good that they knew nothing about sheep because if they had, they’ve have realized that my cousins and I were not good shepherds!
Sheep are like people. Or perhaps people are like sheep. Give them some place where they’re not supposed to go and that’s exactly where every last one of them wants to go! Turn them loose in a good rich pasture and all they want to do is run around the fence and test each and every last inch of it for weaknesses. And believe me, the moment one finds a way out they all want to go out! Forget the fact that the pasture is safe and full of food and water is available and everything a sheep could want is there; nope. They’ve got to get out and be in danger and dirt and ugliness and all of that.
You’ve heard it said that the only sure things are death and taxes. Well, here’s a third sure thing. Sheep are stupid. And sheep are like people – or people are like sheep. And, well, you can connect the dots!
It’s hard to say that Jesus is the Good Shepherd without also realizing that we are insulting ourselves as we do that. But yet, it is true. Humans cannot be counted on to know what is good for them. In fact, we’re attracted to just about everything bad for us. There’s the old question, “How come everything I like is either immoral, illegal, or fattening?”
I was a bad shepherd. When I was supposed to get the sheep to move from place to place, or if I was to catch one, we had shepherd’s crooks to help. You know, the long sticks with a big curved hook at one end. But I was worthless. As soon as the sheep saw I had one they’d run. I’d hold out the stick to my side and they’d hit it and run past me. If I’d hold out the hook to catch one of them they’d learn to just jump over it. Me, not being totally incompetent, learned to anticipate the jump and be ready to lift the hook as they jumped. But then I’d catch a sheep round the neck mid jump and end up flipping it upside down and it’d fall on its back. Well, I least I stopped it long enough to pounce on top of it.
About the only thing I could do well with the crook was hit the sheep. But of course you’re not allowed to do that – no matter how much they may deserve it!
Numerous artists have depicted Jesus with sheep around him. Maybe he’s carrying one on his shoulder. He looks happy. The sun is shining. The sheep are calm. It’s all peaceful.
I doubt that any artist who ever created such a picture ever worked with sheep!
Indeed a good shepherd will be recognized and known by the sheep. They will trust such a shepherd and obey him or her. But any shepherd also has to be stern with the sheep. The shepherd is in charge and the sheep need to be reminded of that from time to time. I think though, in time, a flock will come to trust a shepherd and learn to not have to explore every diversion or door that says do not enter.
Jesus is the good shepherd. We read in our gospel reading that he leads the sheep. They hear his voice and respond to him. He does not move them from place to place by beating them. No, they follow because they want to. They know and recognize the love and safety their shepherd provides.
We also learn that Jesus calls the sheep by name. That takes some doing. When I was in high school working with my neighbor’s sheep they almost all looked about the same to me.
No, even though we humans number in the billions these days, Jesus knows us each by name. And even more than that, for you can give things names. Indeed some of my neighbor’s sheep were unique and did stand out from the rest. I was never in the habit of giving them names, but you can bet that if I was to give those unique sheep names, they wouldn’t be things I should share from the pulpit.
Jesus could know us, or label us each with horrible names. But he doesn’t. He knows us by name – our name – our identity. I want to switch the image for a moment to maybe get at a deeper truth with this.
Jesus our shepherd knows us completely, deeply, down to our deepest darkest corners. Sometimes children feel like parents have x-ray vision into the thoughts of their minds. Perhaps there is some measure of truth to a parent’s intuition, but a parent’s skills at seeing through your facades is nothing to what Jesus can do – for you can fool your parents and keep things hidden. But not so with Jesus. He can see who we truly are, even if we are someone who has lost sight of who we really are. That’s really saying something! In other words, Jesus can see into ourselves even deeper than we can see inside ourselves. And despite all the failings and ugly places in our lives that we want to hide from the rest of the world, Jesus can see it, Jesus loves us anyway, and calls us by name – calls us by who we truly are.
How much of people’s lives are built around keeping up an image: the clothes they wear, the car they drive, the house they own, the people they like to be seen around. How much of that is truly who they are? Sometimes I wonder if the vast majority of people in our society even know who they are anymore. Or are they just what advertisers tell them they could or should be? Do they really know who they are anymore?
Whoever you are, our gospel reading concludes with important words from Jesus, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” This does not mean that you will become healthy, wealthy and wise. If you do: good for you; I suppose… maybe, because that is just a prosperity gospel. No, Jesus means that deep inside yourself you will be alive – solid, secure, robust in who you are. Even if you’ve lost sight of who you are, Jesus knows who you truly are. Your identity is that safe with Jesus!
It’s no fun being a sheep – but it is great to have a good shepherd. May we all know the security, peace, and comfort of Jesus, our good shepherd.
There was a time when Strong Hospital used to issue Photo ID badges to local clergy. I thought it was great. If I had to visit someone after visiting hours it was no big deal. I’d swipe my badge at the entrance doors and they’d open automatically for me. I didn’t have to go through any security checks because they already knew who I was. And best of all, when I wanted to visit someone in an intensive care unit that had restricted access I just swiped my badge and go right in. I didn’t have to go through a rigamarole of pressing buttons and waiting for doors to be unlocked and all of that.
Then Strong changed their policy and clergy were no longer given ID badges. When I turned mine in I said I would miss it and all the easy access it granted. The security person looked at me blankly and said, “There must have been a mistake. These badges were just so you didn’t have to pay for parking. They weren’t supposed to unlock any doors!” Apparently mine was somehow mistakenly empowered to unlock just about any and every door in the hospital! Now how I wish I’d tried all those doors! And I was also a little miffed that the person said they were only so I didn’t have to pay for parking. Given that they charged me an annual fee for that badge the parking was hardly free!
What we read in today’s gospel is often called the shepherd discourse, although half of it is about the gate to the sheepfold and not just a shepherd. Even so, they were common agricultural images people would have related to. When I was growing up we never had sheep, but a neighboring farm did. They didn’t know much of anything about sheep and they hired my cousins and I to help care for them. It is probably good that they knew nothing about sheep because if they had, they’ve have realized that my cousins and I were not good shepherds!
Sheep are like people. Or perhaps people are like sheep. Give them some place where they’re not supposed to go and that’s exactly where every last one of them wants to go! Turn them loose in a good rich pasture and all they want to do is run around the fence and test each and every last inch of it for weaknesses. And believe me, the moment one finds a way out they all want to go out! Forget the fact that the pasture is safe and full of food and water is available and everything a sheep could want is there; nope. They’ve got to get out and be in danger and dirt and ugliness and all of that.
You’ve heard it said that the only sure things are death and taxes. Well, here’s a third sure thing. Sheep are stupid. And sheep are like people – or people are like sheep. And, well, you can connect the dots!
It’s hard to say that Jesus is the Good Shepherd without also realizing that we are insulting ourselves as we do that. But yet, it is true. Humans cannot be counted on to know what is good for them. In fact, we’re attracted to just about everything bad for us. There’s the old question, “How come everything I like is either immoral, illegal, or fattening?”
I was a bad shepherd. When I was supposed to get the sheep to move from place to place, or if I was to catch one, we had shepherd’s crooks to help. You know, the long sticks with a big curved hook at one end. But I was worthless. As soon as the sheep saw I had one they’d run. I’d hold out the stick to my side and they’d hit it and run past me. If I’d hold out the hook to catch one of them they’d learn to just jump over it. Me, not being totally incompetent, learned to anticipate the jump and be ready to lift the hook as they jumped. But then I’d catch a sheep round the neck mid jump and end up flipping it upside down and it’d fall on its back. Well, I least I stopped it long enough to pounce on top of it.
About the only thing I could do well with the crook was hit the sheep. But of course you’re not allowed to do that – no matter how much they may deserve it!
Numerous artists have depicted Jesus with sheep around him. Maybe he’s carrying one on his shoulder. He looks happy. The sun is shining. The sheep are calm. It’s all peaceful.
I doubt that any artist who ever created such a picture ever worked with sheep!
Indeed a good shepherd will be recognized and known by the sheep. They will trust such a shepherd and obey him or her. But any shepherd also has to be stern with the sheep. The shepherd is in charge and the sheep need to be reminded of that from time to time. I think though, in time, a flock will come to trust a shepherd and learn to not have to explore every diversion or door that says do not enter.
Jesus is the good shepherd. We read in our gospel reading that he leads the sheep. They hear his voice and respond to him. He does not move them from place to place by beating them. No, they follow because they want to. They know and recognize the love and safety their shepherd provides.
We also learn that Jesus calls the sheep by name. That takes some doing. When I was in high school working with my neighbor’s sheep they almost all looked about the same to me.
No, even though we humans number in the billions these days, Jesus knows us each by name. And even more than that, for you can give things names. Indeed some of my neighbor’s sheep were unique and did stand out from the rest. I was never in the habit of giving them names, but you can bet that if I was to give those unique sheep names, they wouldn’t be things I should share from the pulpit.
Jesus could know us, or label us each with horrible names. But he doesn’t. He knows us by name – our name – our identity. I want to switch the image for a moment to maybe get at a deeper truth with this.
Jesus our shepherd knows us completely, deeply, down to our deepest darkest corners. Sometimes children feel like parents have x-ray vision into the thoughts of their minds. Perhaps there is some measure of truth to a parent’s intuition, but a parent’s skills at seeing through your facades is nothing to what Jesus can do – for you can fool your parents and keep things hidden. But not so with Jesus. He can see who we truly are, even if we are someone who has lost sight of who we really are. That’s really saying something! In other words, Jesus can see into ourselves even deeper than we can see inside ourselves. And despite all the failings and ugly places in our lives that we want to hide from the rest of the world, Jesus can see it, Jesus loves us anyway, and calls us by name – calls us by who we truly are.
How much of people’s lives are built around keeping up an image: the clothes they wear, the car they drive, the house they own, the people they like to be seen around. How much of that is truly who they are? Sometimes I wonder if the vast majority of people in our society even know who they are anymore. Or are they just what advertisers tell them they could or should be? Do they really know who they are anymore?
Whoever you are, our gospel reading concludes with important words from Jesus, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.” This does not mean that you will become healthy, wealthy and wise. If you do: good for you; I suppose… maybe, because that is just a prosperity gospel. No, Jesus means that deep inside yourself you will be alive – solid, secure, robust in who you are. Even if you’ve lost sight of who you are, Jesus knows who you truly are. Your identity is that safe with Jesus!
It’s no fun being a sheep – but it is great to have a good shepherd. May we all know the security, peace, and comfort of Jesus, our good shepherd.
Monday, August 21, 2023
August 20, 2023 Healing a Blind Man John 9
Introduction to the text:
I want to once again give an introduction to our gospel text before we read it. Hopefully that will alert our minds to what is coming and help us to understand it better. Ideally John 9 would a text that is not followed by a sermon at all. (You won’t be so lucky though!) For the text itself is intended for the reader to identify with its dynamics with no interpretation needed. Much of John’s gospel is that way. It provides its own interpretive frame. In any event, I will speak to it at least a little bit.
People often ask of the Bible, “Did that really happen?” Easy question. Tough to answer. Some will simply say, “Yes. The Bible says it. It literally happened that way. Don’t ask any questions.” Perhaps the opposite view is that the Bible is a collection of old legends and myths from the past; that at best can teach some morality, but is ultimately not particularly authoritative.
Lutheran thought is willing to wade into the murkiness of the space in between. It is God’s divinely inspired word, yes. But as to interpreting it, that is complex, for the Bible has many contexts and uses many means of truth telling. For example, each of the gospels is written to different communities of faith. Each author has his, or potentially her, own way of communicating.
John’s gospel employs a technique used in ancient Greek plays and dramas. That technique is to never have more than two characters on the stage at the same time. Thus, ancient Greek dramas are a series of dialogs. If you think back about what we’ve read in John’s gospel thus far you see this. We had Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus and the religious leaders. Jesus and the disciples.
In what we’re about to read there are several characters: Jesus, the disciples, the Pharisees, a blind man, his parents, and a crowd of neighbors. Notice that the characters come and go but there’s never more than two on the stage at once.
There’s also tension, confusion, and some comedy; much like any good play that you’d watch. Is that the way this historically played out? Unlikely. But this is John’s technique of telling us about Jesus based upon his evidence.
So, enjoy this story. It is very entertaining. And realize that you are learning about yourself and about Jesus without even knowing it!
Sermon:
I promised I wouldn’t preach long on this text and I won’t. But there is something very powerful in it that is worth noting. This is not unique to this part of John’s gospel, but it is at work here. It has to do with judgment.
Many people envision some great future judgment day where each person stands before God and gets basically a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Of course you want to be in the thumbs up crowd! But that’s not how it’s envisioned in John’s gospel. For John’s gospel judgment day is the day you encounter Jesus. For regardless of whatever future judgement there may be, it is ultimately irrelevant. If you’ve encountered Jesus and decided to follow, then you’re a follower and already saved. If you’ve encountered Jesus and decided not to follow, then you are staying in your sin and taking the consequences. And those consequences do not necessarily mean damnation. That whole concept, while popular in some branches of Christianity, isn’t all that developed in the Bible.
In the blind man’s journey from physical blindness to spiritual sight, we are able to watch as someone comes to the light and is given new life. In the Jewish authorities’ journey from physical sight to spiritual blindness we watch as they close themselves to the light and place themselves under judgment. Ironically it is the religious leaders who present themselves as the judges of others who ultimately judge themselves!
For us who want to live out what we learn from John’s gospel, what does living in the light really look like?
There’s nothing new here. It is putting into action what we believe about Jesus and ourselves. But when I say belief I don’t mean intellectual facts about Jesus. I mean, believing that God is ultimately loving and gracious. And believing that God made you to have a value that cannot ever be taken away; not by anyone else, and not even you. And also a value that cannot be enhanced by someone else. Sure, you can learn and grow and increase your capabilities. But you cannot change your value before God.
Perhaps put in your mind regularly a reminder that you are a child of God who lives in the light of God. What are other people’s opinions of you? …based on things like your wealth or your clothes or your brains or how smart your life decisions have been?
Sure, let’s be honest with ourselves. All of those things are powerful motivators. We want to be liked. We want to look basically successful. It’s embarrassing if we feel we’re looking bad. We’re going to work really hard to be liked and look like we’ve got it together in life. Perhaps we’re not vain or shallow or anything like that. But we still have social acceptability as a big driving force in our lives. It feels good when we feel like we are successful and fit in.
But I’d suggest all of that is darkness. All of that is building our sense of worth based upon the world’s standards. It’s precarious and it’s not true.
The religious leaders were worried about technicalities of the law. They were worried about being in control of things and having everything be orderly according to the world as they knew it and had built it. But they were blind.
The blind man, receiving his sight and eager to know more about what God is up to, was living in the light. He truly was free!
Living in God’s light is being freed from the world’s judgment, and sharing the news of that freedom.
I want to once again give an introduction to our gospel text before we read it. Hopefully that will alert our minds to what is coming and help us to understand it better. Ideally John 9 would a text that is not followed by a sermon at all. (You won’t be so lucky though!) For the text itself is intended for the reader to identify with its dynamics with no interpretation needed. Much of John’s gospel is that way. It provides its own interpretive frame. In any event, I will speak to it at least a little bit.
People often ask of the Bible, “Did that really happen?” Easy question. Tough to answer. Some will simply say, “Yes. The Bible says it. It literally happened that way. Don’t ask any questions.” Perhaps the opposite view is that the Bible is a collection of old legends and myths from the past; that at best can teach some morality, but is ultimately not particularly authoritative.
Lutheran thought is willing to wade into the murkiness of the space in between. It is God’s divinely inspired word, yes. But as to interpreting it, that is complex, for the Bible has many contexts and uses many means of truth telling. For example, each of the gospels is written to different communities of faith. Each author has his, or potentially her, own way of communicating.
John’s gospel employs a technique used in ancient Greek plays and dramas. That technique is to never have more than two characters on the stage at the same time. Thus, ancient Greek dramas are a series of dialogs. If you think back about what we’ve read in John’s gospel thus far you see this. We had Jesus and Nicodemus. Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus and the religious leaders. Jesus and the disciples.
In what we’re about to read there are several characters: Jesus, the disciples, the Pharisees, a blind man, his parents, and a crowd of neighbors. Notice that the characters come and go but there’s never more than two on the stage at once.
There’s also tension, confusion, and some comedy; much like any good play that you’d watch. Is that the way this historically played out? Unlikely. But this is John’s technique of telling us about Jesus based upon his evidence.
So, enjoy this story. It is very entertaining. And realize that you are learning about yourself and about Jesus without even knowing it!
Sermon:
I promised I wouldn’t preach long on this text and I won’t. But there is something very powerful in it that is worth noting. This is not unique to this part of John’s gospel, but it is at work here. It has to do with judgment.
Many people envision some great future judgment day where each person stands before God and gets basically a thumbs up or a thumbs down. Of course you want to be in the thumbs up crowd! But that’s not how it’s envisioned in John’s gospel. For John’s gospel judgment day is the day you encounter Jesus. For regardless of whatever future judgement there may be, it is ultimately irrelevant. If you’ve encountered Jesus and decided to follow, then you’re a follower and already saved. If you’ve encountered Jesus and decided not to follow, then you are staying in your sin and taking the consequences. And those consequences do not necessarily mean damnation. That whole concept, while popular in some branches of Christianity, isn’t all that developed in the Bible.
In the blind man’s journey from physical blindness to spiritual sight, we are able to watch as someone comes to the light and is given new life. In the Jewish authorities’ journey from physical sight to spiritual blindness we watch as they close themselves to the light and place themselves under judgment. Ironically it is the religious leaders who present themselves as the judges of others who ultimately judge themselves!
For us who want to live out what we learn from John’s gospel, what does living in the light really look like?
There’s nothing new here. It is putting into action what we believe about Jesus and ourselves. But when I say belief I don’t mean intellectual facts about Jesus. I mean, believing that God is ultimately loving and gracious. And believing that God made you to have a value that cannot ever be taken away; not by anyone else, and not even you. And also a value that cannot be enhanced by someone else. Sure, you can learn and grow and increase your capabilities. But you cannot change your value before God.
Perhaps put in your mind regularly a reminder that you are a child of God who lives in the light of God. What are other people’s opinions of you? …based on things like your wealth or your clothes or your brains or how smart your life decisions have been?
Sure, let’s be honest with ourselves. All of those things are powerful motivators. We want to be liked. We want to look basically successful. It’s embarrassing if we feel we’re looking bad. We’re going to work really hard to be liked and look like we’ve got it together in life. Perhaps we’re not vain or shallow or anything like that. But we still have social acceptability as a big driving force in our lives. It feels good when we feel like we are successful and fit in.
But I’d suggest all of that is darkness. All of that is building our sense of worth based upon the world’s standards. It’s precarious and it’s not true.
The religious leaders were worried about technicalities of the law. They were worried about being in control of things and having everything be orderly according to the world as they knew it and had built it. But they were blind.
The blind man, receiving his sight and eager to know more about what God is up to, was living in the light. He truly was free!
Living in God’s light is being freed from the world’s judgment, and sharing the news of that freedom.
Wednesday, August 16, 2023
August 13, 2023 John 8:12-59
Introduction to the text:
Our gospel reading is again a long one. It will be hard to follow and seem complex to our ears. It is tempting to break this long chapter into a series of small pieces and preach on each. But doing that would turn it into a series of morality lessons and heady theological concepts. That is not its point. Hopefully by doing it all at once we can understand its point.
I doubt John 8 was complex to its original hearers. It probably made perfect sense. We need to understand the context of their lives. If their context sounds familiar it is because they appear to be in the same situation that the original readers of Matthew’s gospel were in. We just read Matthew earlier this year.
John was probably written late in the first century. Scholars tend to date it to the year 80. If that’s correct then there was a lot going on in the lives of Jewish people. In the late 60’s there were violent Jewish revolts against the Romans. The Romans had eventually had enough of it and decided to destroy Jerusalem in the year 70. That meant more than just the destruction of the temple. It was the destruction of the heart of Judaism. It also appears as if most of the Jewish sects were either killed or too scattered to continue. One and only one branch of Judaism survived the Roman destruction. That was the Pharisees. They were the ones who had local synagogues throughout the region. Even so, their existence was precarious late in the first century. And so when the subsect of the Nazarenes, or “Christians” as they would come to be called, continued to exist and expand within the already weak and scared Pharisees, the situation boiled over. The Christians were kicked out. Those who were kicked out had likely lost family, friends, and their social support system. Being a Christian was also potentially dangerous as they never knew what the Romans would do. And so gospels like Matthew’s and John’s are the writings of these scared and weak communities who followed Jesus. We have to remember as we read these texts that their opponents, the Pharisees, were dealing with their own problems that felt overwhelming. In what we are about to read the Pharisees are made out to be the bad guys, but the text is really using them as a means to give hope to a church community that is struggling to have any hope in God at all.
Sermon:
The gospel reading started off with Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) That reminds me of the time several years ago I was at synod assembly at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. It was a break time between the business sessions and one of my colleagues asked me if I could help her husband use the rest room. He is completely blind and needs to be led when he’s in unfamiliar territory. Wanting to be helpful, I agreed. But I didn’t realize what I’d agreed to!
I couldn’t guide him by the arm because there were too many people around. Plus, the entrance to the bathroom is narrow with multiple doors. He put a hand on my shoulder and walked behind me. It was hard to walk trying to anticipate his pace as he too navigated a complex space he could not see. I got him to the line of urinals and tried to explain the type they were. It is absolutely true that a picture is worth a thousand words! Despite my attempts to describe them, he determined the best thing to do was to reach out his hands and feel the shape. I immediately made a note to myself that he was going to wash his hands thoroughly after this. And despite the narrow space and crowded conditions I did grab his upper arm and lead him to the sinks. But once again, it took a lot of words to describe where the faucets were, and how they worked since they were the electronic eye kind. I had to get the soap for him. (He needed it!) And I had to navigate him to the hand dryers. What I thought would be a simple thing turned into a lengthy tiring experience.
How simple it is to use a public bathroom when you can see. How difficult it is to do such a simple thing when you are blind!
How difficult is it to navigate a strange room in the dark? How difficult is it to navigate a familiar room in the dark!?! Spatial reality is not what you expected! Yet turn the lights on and everything becomes easy.
Jesus says he is the light of the world. It would be wonderful if simply bringing Jesus into your life lit up all the darkness of the world around you and everything became crystal clear and easy. If that is your faith experience, then consider yourself very fortunate and blessed. That is not the case for most people. It was not the case for John’s original readers. If Jesus was the light of the world then why was life still so difficult? Why was it so hard to see? And why was it so hard for their opponents to see as well?
We get answers to that in verse 28 for that is the key to the whole passage. Jesus says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he…” By lifting up he means his crucifixion and death.
That is the eternally ironic truth of Christianity. It is that the way to be your truest fullest self is to give yourself away. Now be careful with that. I did not say give up yourself. That would be depressing and it would suggest that you have no value. But when you give yourself away then you realize you are giving something of great value. Jesus never gives up his life. He gives away his life.
In so doing, in Jesus’ crucifixion and death God shows first hand his deep and abiding love for all, even those who want nothing to do with God. The cross is paradoxical. It always has been and it always will be. I often wonder as people wear crosses as jewelry, do they really realize they are displaying an execution device as a symbol of love?
That is the light of the world. But it certainly looks like foolishness to the world!
Today we have the baptism of Ariana Barnes. As always, it’s a joyful time for a family. But baptism begins the paradoxes of faith. Being baptized is being baptized into the death of Jesus. It is dying to the old way of sin so as to rise to the new life in Christ’s light. But the world is still a dark place and it does not see the light of Christ. The light of Christ remains a paradox.
Ariana’s parents and godparents will make promises. They may seem like a long and ponderous list:
“to live with her among God’s faithful people,
to bring her to the word of God and the holy supper,
to teach her the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,
place in her hands the holy scriptures,
to nurture her in faith and prayer”
But this is not to be a long and demanding list. This is a realization that the ways of “giving of self” are counter to the ways of the world. They are ironic, paradoxical, or whatever word you want to use for them. Light doesn’t always seem like light. And they recognize that we all learn and grow in different ways. From a psychological perspective that list embraces intellectual connections, physical connections, community connections, and individual connections. In other words, those things embrace the fullness of her. It is to shed light on her so that she may see the world and navigate it with faith and confidence.
Though almost 2000 years old, our gospel reading speaks to us today quite clearly. Though the technicalities of the issues may have changed, the truth is that the world is still in darkness. People work long and hard in the dark bumping into things and not getting anywhere. But God’s light is always there and always around. It’s just not visible if you demand that it fit human ideas of success.
May Ariana begin a journey of light today. And may we all live in the light of Christ witnessing to it to in the world.
Our gospel reading is again a long one. It will be hard to follow and seem complex to our ears. It is tempting to break this long chapter into a series of small pieces and preach on each. But doing that would turn it into a series of morality lessons and heady theological concepts. That is not its point. Hopefully by doing it all at once we can understand its point.
I doubt John 8 was complex to its original hearers. It probably made perfect sense. We need to understand the context of their lives. If their context sounds familiar it is because they appear to be in the same situation that the original readers of Matthew’s gospel were in. We just read Matthew earlier this year.
John was probably written late in the first century. Scholars tend to date it to the year 80. If that’s correct then there was a lot going on in the lives of Jewish people. In the late 60’s there were violent Jewish revolts against the Romans. The Romans had eventually had enough of it and decided to destroy Jerusalem in the year 70. That meant more than just the destruction of the temple. It was the destruction of the heart of Judaism. It also appears as if most of the Jewish sects were either killed or too scattered to continue. One and only one branch of Judaism survived the Roman destruction. That was the Pharisees. They were the ones who had local synagogues throughout the region. Even so, their existence was precarious late in the first century. And so when the subsect of the Nazarenes, or “Christians” as they would come to be called, continued to exist and expand within the already weak and scared Pharisees, the situation boiled over. The Christians were kicked out. Those who were kicked out had likely lost family, friends, and their social support system. Being a Christian was also potentially dangerous as they never knew what the Romans would do. And so gospels like Matthew’s and John’s are the writings of these scared and weak communities who followed Jesus. We have to remember as we read these texts that their opponents, the Pharisees, were dealing with their own problems that felt overwhelming. In what we are about to read the Pharisees are made out to be the bad guys, but the text is really using them as a means to give hope to a church community that is struggling to have any hope in God at all.
Sermon:
The gospel reading started off with Jesus saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) That reminds me of the time several years ago I was at synod assembly at the Rochester Riverside Convention Center. It was a break time between the business sessions and one of my colleagues asked me if I could help her husband use the rest room. He is completely blind and needs to be led when he’s in unfamiliar territory. Wanting to be helpful, I agreed. But I didn’t realize what I’d agreed to!
I couldn’t guide him by the arm because there were too many people around. Plus, the entrance to the bathroom is narrow with multiple doors. He put a hand on my shoulder and walked behind me. It was hard to walk trying to anticipate his pace as he too navigated a complex space he could not see. I got him to the line of urinals and tried to explain the type they were. It is absolutely true that a picture is worth a thousand words! Despite my attempts to describe them, he determined the best thing to do was to reach out his hands and feel the shape. I immediately made a note to myself that he was going to wash his hands thoroughly after this. And despite the narrow space and crowded conditions I did grab his upper arm and lead him to the sinks. But once again, it took a lot of words to describe where the faucets were, and how they worked since they were the electronic eye kind. I had to get the soap for him. (He needed it!) And I had to navigate him to the hand dryers. What I thought would be a simple thing turned into a lengthy tiring experience.
How simple it is to use a public bathroom when you can see. How difficult it is to do such a simple thing when you are blind!
How difficult is it to navigate a strange room in the dark? How difficult is it to navigate a familiar room in the dark!?! Spatial reality is not what you expected! Yet turn the lights on and everything becomes easy.
Jesus says he is the light of the world. It would be wonderful if simply bringing Jesus into your life lit up all the darkness of the world around you and everything became crystal clear and easy. If that is your faith experience, then consider yourself very fortunate and blessed. That is not the case for most people. It was not the case for John’s original readers. If Jesus was the light of the world then why was life still so difficult? Why was it so hard to see? And why was it so hard for their opponents to see as well?
We get answers to that in verse 28 for that is the key to the whole passage. Jesus says, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he…” By lifting up he means his crucifixion and death.
That is the eternally ironic truth of Christianity. It is that the way to be your truest fullest self is to give yourself away. Now be careful with that. I did not say give up yourself. That would be depressing and it would suggest that you have no value. But when you give yourself away then you realize you are giving something of great value. Jesus never gives up his life. He gives away his life.
In so doing, in Jesus’ crucifixion and death God shows first hand his deep and abiding love for all, even those who want nothing to do with God. The cross is paradoxical. It always has been and it always will be. I often wonder as people wear crosses as jewelry, do they really realize they are displaying an execution device as a symbol of love?
That is the light of the world. But it certainly looks like foolishness to the world!
Today we have the baptism of Ariana Barnes. As always, it’s a joyful time for a family. But baptism begins the paradoxes of faith. Being baptized is being baptized into the death of Jesus. It is dying to the old way of sin so as to rise to the new life in Christ’s light. But the world is still a dark place and it does not see the light of Christ. The light of Christ remains a paradox.
Ariana’s parents and godparents will make promises. They may seem like a long and ponderous list:
“to live with her among God’s faithful people,
to bring her to the word of God and the holy supper,
to teach her the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments,
place in her hands the holy scriptures,
to nurture her in faith and prayer”
But this is not to be a long and demanding list. This is a realization that the ways of “giving of self” are counter to the ways of the world. They are ironic, paradoxical, or whatever word you want to use for them. Light doesn’t always seem like light. And they recognize that we all learn and grow in different ways. From a psychological perspective that list embraces intellectual connections, physical connections, community connections, and individual connections. In other words, those things embrace the fullness of her. It is to shed light on her so that she may see the world and navigate it with faith and confidence.
Though almost 2000 years old, our gospel reading speaks to us today quite clearly. Though the technicalities of the issues may have changed, the truth is that the world is still in darkness. People work long and hard in the dark bumping into things and not getting anywhere. But God’s light is always there and always around. It’s just not visible if you demand that it fit human ideas of success.
May Ariana begin a journey of light today. And may we all live in the light of Christ witnessing to it to in the world.
Monday, August 7, 2023
August 6, 2023 John 7:53-8:11
In the musical The King and I the King of Thailand hires British schoolteacher Anna Leonowens as part of his attempt to bring his nation into the modern world. To say that she upends his comfortable little world is an understatement. The king begins to question lots and lots of things. Things that he thought were clear are no longer so clear. What is right and what is wrong? And not just about morality, about politics, business, education, and more. He comes out with the song Puzzlement. Here are some excerpts:
When I was a boy
World was better spot
What was so was so
What was not was not
Now I am a man;
World have changed a lot
Some things nearly so
Others nearly not
There are times I almost think
I am not sure of what I absolutely know
Very often find confusion
In conclusion I concluded long ago
In my head are many facts
That, as a student, I have studied to procure
In my head are many facts
Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!
When my father was a king
He was a king who knew exactly what he knew
And his brain was not a thing
Forever swinging to and fro and fro and to
Shall I, then be like my father
And be willfully unmovable and strong?
Or is it better to be right?
Or am I right when I believe I may be wrong?
There are times I almost think
Nobody sure of what he absolutely know
Everybody find confusion
In conclusion he concluded long ago
And it puzzle me to learn
That tho' a man may be in doubt of what he know
Very quickly he will fight
He'll fight to prove that what he does not know is so!
It's a puzzlement!
Perhaps we could sum up the whole song with the sentence, “The more you learn the less you know.” I think that is a message Jesus would have liked to get across to the scribes and Pharisees in the gospel reading. They certainly needed to reconsider what they thought they knew about God’s ways and the religious laws.
But interestingly the text itself is also one where the more you learn the less you know. Most of you don’t have your Bibles with you, but I invite you to look it up sometime soon. When you read the text you’ll find a footnote saying something like this… This is what is in my Bible, “On the basis of the best manuscripts and other ancient evidence, scholars generally agree that this story was not originally part of the Gospel of John. It may, however, be based on early oral traditions about Jesus.” (Harper Collins Study Bible, 1993, Pg. 2028)
So, it’s a text about not being too certain that has its own uncertain background! This text does remind us that not everything Jesus did shows up in the Bible, and that the Bible’s own history of formation is often a convoluted thing. It’s scraps, fragments, contradictions that came to shape over centuries. The formal codified books that we have didn’t come into being until centuries after Jesus. If we say that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, then let’s make sure we take seriously what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, especially John’s gospel, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) We have to remember that Christian faith does not fit into a tidy little box with ribbons and a bow.
The story itself also has confusing and incomplete information, but not from Jesus. A woman who has been caught in adultery is brought to Jesus while he is in the temple in Jerusalem. There are several irregularities in the scribes’ and Pharisees’ actions. They say they have caught her in the “very act” and yet they have no witnesses to prove the case. Plus, where’s the man? If they want Jesus to offer his thoughts then they’d better have more information.
They also show they don’t really know the law. They speak as if the religious law requires the death penalty only for adulterous women. By absence of the man involved and by overlooking his consequences according to the law, you’d get the feeling that only the woman is to be punished. Not so. According to Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22 the punishment is to be equal. In fact, the religious law is mostly concerned with the protection and stability of the man’s actual wife and children. The thrust of the law is based on keeping family stability. The thrust of the law is not about God demanding death for a sin committed.
Interestingly the Mishnah, a 2nd century Jewish writing about ways and applications, explicitly mentions only the man’s punishment and nothing for the woman. Thus, whether we like or agree with all these old religious laws or not, their actual language and intent is to be lenient on the woman involved and focus on the man’s accountability. But in the scene we find in the gospel the woman is to be stoned and the man is nowhere to be found!
What does Jesus do? Does he point out to them their legal missteps and misunderstanding? No. He bends down and starts writing in the ground.
Much speculation has been made over the centuries about what he wrote. But the truth is no one knows for sure – which all fits into this text full of unknowns and uncertainties. The fact that we aren’t told what it wrote tells us that we’re not to worry about what he wrote. The key thing is that Jesus does not engage the scribes and Pharisees. He refuses to acknowledge their trap, for a trap it is. The scribes and Pharisees have created a situation where the religious law and the life of this woman are merely pawns in their greater agenda. Jesus simply will not play along. He will not let himself be defined by other people’s categories.
I believe we all find ourselves in that sort of place quiet often. People want situations to be black and white, either or. Either you’re pro-choice or pro-life. Either you’re for the death penalty or you’re not. Either you’re pro-immigration or you’re anti-immigration. And so on and so on. But don’t you often find yourself getting uneasy about being pushed to choose? What about all the nuances of the situation? Must your life be defined one way or another based upon society’s categories and not your own?
God is the ultimate decider. Not the religious laws. Not the national laws. Not social norms and customs. Jesus refuses to be so categorized, and so do we.
Look at what Jesus does. When they keep questioning him and questioning him (I think it is important for us to pause in our imagination of the story to realize that Jesus stays silent for quite a long time. His response is not immediate), Jesus finally straightens up again and says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Then notice Jesus does not stay standing tall and defiant. He does not dare them to start stoning her. He bends down and writes on the ground again; effectively disengaging himself from the situation. Jesus will not play by their rules.
I suppose we could think it a reckless move. The life of a woman is on the line here and Jesus is calling their bluff. But what if he was wrong? What if they did stone her? We’ll never know. Again, the text does not give us as many answers and certainties as we may want.
The people begin to leave one by one, beginning with the elders. Eventually it is just Jesus alone with the woman standing in front of him.
Then Jesus does something that I think is key to all of this. He speaks to her. Notice that she has not spoken until now. She has been a silent pawn in the manipulation of others. No one has noticed her humanity or value. But Jesus does.
The problem with either-or categories in social and political debate, and this goes for both conservative and liberal thinking, is that ultimately people become objectified. Or perhaps they are stood up as examples, but not for their own needs, for the political agenda of others.
Jesus, with no agenda, no point to make, no nothing, simply sees the fullness of the human in front of him and acknowledges her true worth. He then tells her that he does not condemn her. He says to go and sin no more.
Tyrants and bullies over the centuries have taken the phrase, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” and used it to get away with all sorts of things. But that is an abuse of this text. Similarly those who make this into a morality tale about the woman’s sin miss the point.
The point, going back to the song Puzzlement, is to acknowledge that we cannot claim absolute knowledge, power, or authority. God alone knows all. God alone can decide with truth. God alone can judge. That is God’s role. God has not given us such decisive authority.
Any parent knows that raising children does not happen by a rule book. What works for one child may not for another. And you try lots of stuff hoping that it will work but never being sure. Should you be lenient? Should you be severe? You never know for sure. The point is to do so with humility.
And I think that is our great takeaway from this text. It is not to live in uncertainty or live by walking on eggshells. No, that is not what God intended. It is to live with humility in your decisions, not gloating when they are right and not becoming defensive when they are wrong.
Ultimately that is how God’s love is shared in its most powerful form, when it is done with a knowledge of our own limits and shortcomings; and sins. And then applied with care.
When I was a boy
World was better spot
What was so was so
What was not was not
Now I am a man;
World have changed a lot
Some things nearly so
Others nearly not
There are times I almost think
I am not sure of what I absolutely know
Very often find confusion
In conclusion I concluded long ago
In my head are many facts
That, as a student, I have studied to procure
In my head are many facts
Of which I wish I was more certain I was sure!
When my father was a king
He was a king who knew exactly what he knew
And his brain was not a thing
Forever swinging to and fro and fro and to
Shall I, then be like my father
And be willfully unmovable and strong?
Or is it better to be right?
Or am I right when I believe I may be wrong?
There are times I almost think
Nobody sure of what he absolutely know
Everybody find confusion
In conclusion he concluded long ago
And it puzzle me to learn
That tho' a man may be in doubt of what he know
Very quickly he will fight
He'll fight to prove that what he does not know is so!
It's a puzzlement!
Perhaps we could sum up the whole song with the sentence, “The more you learn the less you know.” I think that is a message Jesus would have liked to get across to the scribes and Pharisees in the gospel reading. They certainly needed to reconsider what they thought they knew about God’s ways and the religious laws.
But interestingly the text itself is also one where the more you learn the less you know. Most of you don’t have your Bibles with you, but I invite you to look it up sometime soon. When you read the text you’ll find a footnote saying something like this… This is what is in my Bible, “On the basis of the best manuscripts and other ancient evidence, scholars generally agree that this story was not originally part of the Gospel of John. It may, however, be based on early oral traditions about Jesus.” (Harper Collins Study Bible, 1993, Pg. 2028)
So, it’s a text about not being too certain that has its own uncertain background! This text does remind us that not everything Jesus did shows up in the Bible, and that the Bible’s own history of formation is often a convoluted thing. It’s scraps, fragments, contradictions that came to shape over centuries. The formal codified books that we have didn’t come into being until centuries after Jesus. If we say that the Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit, then let’s make sure we take seriously what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, especially John’s gospel, “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:8) We have to remember that Christian faith does not fit into a tidy little box with ribbons and a bow.
The story itself also has confusing and incomplete information, but not from Jesus. A woman who has been caught in adultery is brought to Jesus while he is in the temple in Jerusalem. There are several irregularities in the scribes’ and Pharisees’ actions. They say they have caught her in the “very act” and yet they have no witnesses to prove the case. Plus, where’s the man? If they want Jesus to offer his thoughts then they’d better have more information.
They also show they don’t really know the law. They speak as if the religious law requires the death penalty only for adulterous women. By absence of the man involved and by overlooking his consequences according to the law, you’d get the feeling that only the woman is to be punished. Not so. According to Leviticus 20:10 and Deuteronomy 22:22 the punishment is to be equal. In fact, the religious law is mostly concerned with the protection and stability of the man’s actual wife and children. The thrust of the law is based on keeping family stability. The thrust of the law is not about God demanding death for a sin committed.
Interestingly the Mishnah, a 2nd century Jewish writing about ways and applications, explicitly mentions only the man’s punishment and nothing for the woman. Thus, whether we like or agree with all these old religious laws or not, their actual language and intent is to be lenient on the woman involved and focus on the man’s accountability. But in the scene we find in the gospel the woman is to be stoned and the man is nowhere to be found!
What does Jesus do? Does he point out to them their legal missteps and misunderstanding? No. He bends down and starts writing in the ground.
Much speculation has been made over the centuries about what he wrote. But the truth is no one knows for sure – which all fits into this text full of unknowns and uncertainties. The fact that we aren’t told what it wrote tells us that we’re not to worry about what he wrote. The key thing is that Jesus does not engage the scribes and Pharisees. He refuses to acknowledge their trap, for a trap it is. The scribes and Pharisees have created a situation where the religious law and the life of this woman are merely pawns in their greater agenda. Jesus simply will not play along. He will not let himself be defined by other people’s categories.
I believe we all find ourselves in that sort of place quiet often. People want situations to be black and white, either or. Either you’re pro-choice or pro-life. Either you’re for the death penalty or you’re not. Either you’re pro-immigration or you’re anti-immigration. And so on and so on. But don’t you often find yourself getting uneasy about being pushed to choose? What about all the nuances of the situation? Must your life be defined one way or another based upon society’s categories and not your own?
God is the ultimate decider. Not the religious laws. Not the national laws. Not social norms and customs. Jesus refuses to be so categorized, and so do we.
Look at what Jesus does. When they keep questioning him and questioning him (I think it is important for us to pause in our imagination of the story to realize that Jesus stays silent for quite a long time. His response is not immediate), Jesus finally straightens up again and says, “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Then notice Jesus does not stay standing tall and defiant. He does not dare them to start stoning her. He bends down and writes on the ground again; effectively disengaging himself from the situation. Jesus will not play by their rules.
I suppose we could think it a reckless move. The life of a woman is on the line here and Jesus is calling their bluff. But what if he was wrong? What if they did stone her? We’ll never know. Again, the text does not give us as many answers and certainties as we may want.
The people begin to leave one by one, beginning with the elders. Eventually it is just Jesus alone with the woman standing in front of him.
Then Jesus does something that I think is key to all of this. He speaks to her. Notice that she has not spoken until now. She has been a silent pawn in the manipulation of others. No one has noticed her humanity or value. But Jesus does.
The problem with either-or categories in social and political debate, and this goes for both conservative and liberal thinking, is that ultimately people become objectified. Or perhaps they are stood up as examples, but not for their own needs, for the political agenda of others.
Jesus, with no agenda, no point to make, no nothing, simply sees the fullness of the human in front of him and acknowledges her true worth. He then tells her that he does not condemn her. He says to go and sin no more.
Tyrants and bullies over the centuries have taken the phrase, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” and used it to get away with all sorts of things. But that is an abuse of this text. Similarly those who make this into a morality tale about the woman’s sin miss the point.
The point, going back to the song Puzzlement, is to acknowledge that we cannot claim absolute knowledge, power, or authority. God alone knows all. God alone can decide with truth. God alone can judge. That is God’s role. God has not given us such decisive authority.
Any parent knows that raising children does not happen by a rule book. What works for one child may not for another. And you try lots of stuff hoping that it will work but never being sure. Should you be lenient? Should you be severe? You never know for sure. The point is to do so with humility.
And I think that is our great takeaway from this text. It is not to live in uncertainty or live by walking on eggshells. No, that is not what God intended. It is to live with humility in your decisions, not gloating when they are right and not becoming defensive when they are wrong.
Ultimately that is how God’s love is shared in its most powerful form, when it is done with a knowledge of our own limits and shortcomings; and sins. And then applied with care.
Monday, July 24, 2023
July 23, 2023 Bread of Life John 6
If I ask you to imagine a life of abundance what comes to mind? Since I’ve had time to think about it, and I’ve just sprung the question on you, I’m going to answer for myself. As I imagine a life of abundance I imagine a five bedroom house on Canandaigua Lake. There’s be a large lawn sloping gently to the lake. In the water I’d have a dock with a motorboat on one side and a sailboat on the other. I’d have a garage big enough for my cars and an oversize bay for a camper. I’d also have an upstairs room in the garage which I could use as a wood shop.
A life of abundance would have enough cash reserves so that I wouldn’t have to worry. While I know I’d have to have a decent job to I’d also have enough leisure time to enjoy the water and some exotic travel. Let’s throw into the image a perfect spouse, perfect children, and a perfectly behaved dog.
Oh, and I would want to be able to eat what I wanted, whenever I wanted, and still have the buff figure of a body builder.
An abundant life would include no medical problems and no medical emergencies either.
Maybe I’d go for an airplane too. That might be fun!
Okay, that’s about it. All I need for that image to be true is for you to increase my salary about thirty-fold. (Shouldn’t be a problem I figure!)
We haven’t gotten to John 10 yet, but there we will hear Jesus say, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Somehow though, I don’t think my vision of an abundant life is what Jesus meant! There it is part of the Good Shepherd Discourse, but I think I can apply it here.
With Jesus’ ability to feed thousands with just a couple fish and several loaves of bread, plus his ability to walk on water, you think he’d be well positioned to provide abundant life. But what is abundant life?
At first thought a life of ease and relaxation sounds like it would be abundant. But I don’t think it would be. I remember being in elementary school and it was the first time we had field day. The whole day was given over to field day events. There were no classes. My favorite part of the school day was recess. I thought it’d be great to have a whole day with nothing to do but participate in the couple events I had to be in, and then play on the playground otherwise! The day turned out to be tedious and long. I discovered the only way recess was fun was because it was a break from class. But endless time on the playground really wasn’t all that fun.
The Netflix series The Good Life explores, among other things, what an existence of constant fun and leisure would be. And it eventually gets around to recognizing that endless fun is not fun at all.
Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life. He says that whoever comes to him will never be hungry and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty. This is, of course, not to be taken literally, but yet it can be quite literal. Jesus envisions a community for his followers where they do care for each other’s basic needs. And a life of abundance is not one where there is abundant food and drink. It is one where there is an abundance of worth and meaning.
Like many of the discourses in John’s gospel, the Bread of Life Discourse seems to meander all over the place. It is also filled with intricacies. Let’s try to aim for the thrust of it though.
The crowd follows Jesus after the miraculous feeding. They don’t seem to know about him walking on water. Why are they following him? Because they want more bread! They figure this Jesus guy is a good thing! Getting food in those days was a lot harder than going to a grocery store and buying it off the shelf. It was harder than making everything from scratch too. It meant planting seed. Raising the crop. Fending off predators. Backbreaking labor to harvest the crop. Then there was threshing the crop, another labor-intensive act. Then there was hauling and storing the grain. Then grinding the grain. Finally the ground grain could be used to bake something. A loaf of bread was A LOT of work! If you met a guy who could cut out most of those steps, you’d surely follow him!
The crowds follow Jesus because they want more bread. But Jesus tells him they are following him for the wrong reasons. Following Jesus is not about a short cut through life’s work. Following Jesus is about finding meaning in life’s work.
When Jesus says, “Do not work for the food the perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They reply, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” The crowd and Jesus are using the same words but with different meaning. The crowd is thinking about the performance of works. Jesus is talking about the work of God. Which he explains, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
That’s not particularly clear. People get mixed up with it easily. It easily becomes a statement that believing in Jesus is an act of intellectual acceptance of a fact; even if that fact is supernatural. But in practice there’s nothing supernatural about believing Jesus’ is God’s definitive revelation to the world.
The practice of believing Jesus is the Son of God is living in a way that recognizes God’s love and grace as supreme. It means living in a way where you know your value is held surely and safely by God. You are not driven by peer pressure to fit in or be acceptable. Being acceptable to God is enough. It also means seeing the value in other people and the creation. If we are made in God’s image then we must treat each other as such. That means that greed and manipulation and deceit to get ahead are not acceptable.
Have you ever bought or sold something in Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, or any other similar platform? You know that lies and deception are often part of it. People pass off second rate goods at a premium price. Flaws are hidden and deceptions are complex. On a few occasions I’ve called people out for their lies, right to their faces, and they don’t look the least bit embarrassed for being caught. It’s just part of it all. If they can get away with it they will. If they get called out, well then they’ll wait for someone ignorant to come along and profit from them. But none of that is honoring the value of other people. None of that is ever the work of God.
The work of God will bring about a life of abundance, but it will not be a life of an abundance of luxuries. It will be an abundance of value, purpose, and sense of identity. The work of God is often hard, very hard. It can be stress inducing. It can mean setbacks. It can mean overcoming problems and obstacles. But you all know that nothing worth having ever came easily. While works do not win us a ticket to heaven, works will affirm our value.
Think about highly successful people, especially those who have risen through the ranks of their field. All of them have made mistakes. They have had setbacks. The path has not been easily. But they have learned from their mistakes and gained wisdom. Through wisdom they have gotten ahead.
Believing in Jesus is not a means to move up the corporate or social ladder. But it is a sure way to feel like a worthwhile person.
I want to wrap up with a slight shift in focus, but it is also one of abundance. You’ll remember the first of Jesus’ signs was turning water into wine – an abundance of excellent wine. Here we have Jesus multiplying bread into an abundance to feed a multitude. Jesus also says about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. That sounds absolutely disgusting and cannibalistic! But our brains should be taking us to holy communion.
In the early church communion was not a scrap of bread and a tiny shot glass of wine. It was a meal shared among the community of believers. It was a tangible expression of their togetherness and their dependence upon Jesus. We’ve lost that in our communion practices, but in those days it truly was a meaningful nourishment for their bodies.
May we find such nourishment in our lives – literal nourishment for our bodies, emotional nourishment for our minds, and spiritual nourishment for our souls, which will give us life abundant.
A life of abundance would have enough cash reserves so that I wouldn’t have to worry. While I know I’d have to have a decent job to I’d also have enough leisure time to enjoy the water and some exotic travel. Let’s throw into the image a perfect spouse, perfect children, and a perfectly behaved dog.
Oh, and I would want to be able to eat what I wanted, whenever I wanted, and still have the buff figure of a body builder.
An abundant life would include no medical problems and no medical emergencies either.
Maybe I’d go for an airplane too. That might be fun!
Okay, that’s about it. All I need for that image to be true is for you to increase my salary about thirty-fold. (Shouldn’t be a problem I figure!)
We haven’t gotten to John 10 yet, but there we will hear Jesus say, “I have come that they may have life and have it abundantly.” Somehow though, I don’t think my vision of an abundant life is what Jesus meant! There it is part of the Good Shepherd Discourse, but I think I can apply it here.
With Jesus’ ability to feed thousands with just a couple fish and several loaves of bread, plus his ability to walk on water, you think he’d be well positioned to provide abundant life. But what is abundant life?
At first thought a life of ease and relaxation sounds like it would be abundant. But I don’t think it would be. I remember being in elementary school and it was the first time we had field day. The whole day was given over to field day events. There were no classes. My favorite part of the school day was recess. I thought it’d be great to have a whole day with nothing to do but participate in the couple events I had to be in, and then play on the playground otherwise! The day turned out to be tedious and long. I discovered the only way recess was fun was because it was a break from class. But endless time on the playground really wasn’t all that fun.
The Netflix series The Good Life explores, among other things, what an existence of constant fun and leisure would be. And it eventually gets around to recognizing that endless fun is not fun at all.
Jesus says that he is the Bread of Life. He says that whoever comes to him will never be hungry and whoever believes in him will never be thirsty. This is, of course, not to be taken literally, but yet it can be quite literal. Jesus envisions a community for his followers where they do care for each other’s basic needs. And a life of abundance is not one where there is abundant food and drink. It is one where there is an abundance of worth and meaning.
Like many of the discourses in John’s gospel, the Bread of Life Discourse seems to meander all over the place. It is also filled with intricacies. Let’s try to aim for the thrust of it though.
The crowd follows Jesus after the miraculous feeding. They don’t seem to know about him walking on water. Why are they following him? Because they want more bread! They figure this Jesus guy is a good thing! Getting food in those days was a lot harder than going to a grocery store and buying it off the shelf. It was harder than making everything from scratch too. It meant planting seed. Raising the crop. Fending off predators. Backbreaking labor to harvest the crop. Then there was threshing the crop, another labor-intensive act. Then there was hauling and storing the grain. Then grinding the grain. Finally the ground grain could be used to bake something. A loaf of bread was A LOT of work! If you met a guy who could cut out most of those steps, you’d surely follow him!
The crowds follow Jesus because they want more bread. But Jesus tells him they are following him for the wrong reasons. Following Jesus is not about a short cut through life’s work. Following Jesus is about finding meaning in life’s work.
When Jesus says, “Do not work for the food the perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.” They reply, “What must we do to perform the works of God?” The crowd and Jesus are using the same words but with different meaning. The crowd is thinking about the performance of works. Jesus is talking about the work of God. Which he explains, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”
That’s not particularly clear. People get mixed up with it easily. It easily becomes a statement that believing in Jesus is an act of intellectual acceptance of a fact; even if that fact is supernatural. But in practice there’s nothing supernatural about believing Jesus’ is God’s definitive revelation to the world.
The practice of believing Jesus is the Son of God is living in a way that recognizes God’s love and grace as supreme. It means living in a way where you know your value is held surely and safely by God. You are not driven by peer pressure to fit in or be acceptable. Being acceptable to God is enough. It also means seeing the value in other people and the creation. If we are made in God’s image then we must treat each other as such. That means that greed and manipulation and deceit to get ahead are not acceptable.
Have you ever bought or sold something in Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, or any other similar platform? You know that lies and deception are often part of it. People pass off second rate goods at a premium price. Flaws are hidden and deceptions are complex. On a few occasions I’ve called people out for their lies, right to their faces, and they don’t look the least bit embarrassed for being caught. It’s just part of it all. If they can get away with it they will. If they get called out, well then they’ll wait for someone ignorant to come along and profit from them. But none of that is honoring the value of other people. None of that is ever the work of God.
The work of God will bring about a life of abundance, but it will not be a life of an abundance of luxuries. It will be an abundance of value, purpose, and sense of identity. The work of God is often hard, very hard. It can be stress inducing. It can mean setbacks. It can mean overcoming problems and obstacles. But you all know that nothing worth having ever came easily. While works do not win us a ticket to heaven, works will affirm our value.
Think about highly successful people, especially those who have risen through the ranks of their field. All of them have made mistakes. They have had setbacks. The path has not been easily. But they have learned from their mistakes and gained wisdom. Through wisdom they have gotten ahead.
Believing in Jesus is not a means to move up the corporate or social ladder. But it is a sure way to feel like a worthwhile person.
I want to wrap up with a slight shift in focus, but it is also one of abundance. You’ll remember the first of Jesus’ signs was turning water into wine – an abundance of excellent wine. Here we have Jesus multiplying bread into an abundance to feed a multitude. Jesus also says about eating his flesh and drinking his blood. That sounds absolutely disgusting and cannibalistic! But our brains should be taking us to holy communion.
In the early church communion was not a scrap of bread and a tiny shot glass of wine. It was a meal shared among the community of believers. It was a tangible expression of their togetherness and their dependence upon Jesus. We’ve lost that in our communion practices, but in those days it truly was a meaningful nourishment for their bodies.
May we find such nourishment in our lives – literal nourishment for our bodies, emotional nourishment for our minds, and spiritual nourishment for our souls, which will give us life abundant.
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