May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Palm/Passion Sunday
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 28,1999
TEXT: The Passion Narrative - Matthew 26:36-27:66
"But Jesus was silent." . . . . "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"
ISSUE: The crucifixion of Jesus is intended to totally dishonor and humiliate him. It is meant to negate the meaning of all of his ministry. As an honorable Mediterranean man he remains silent without complaint. His only utterance according to Matthew's account is the opening passage of Psalm 22. The human Jesus stands fully assured through the ordeal that God is with him. The post-Easter appreciation of Jesus' crucifixion is that he died for our sins, but the human Jesus also significantly died on the cross to express his complete belief, confidence, trust, and loyalty in God who loved the poor and disenfranchised. Jesus stands firmly and silently against the injustices of his time. Claiming him as Lord, we stand with him against the secularist culture of our world.
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Today we gather to meditate and reflect upon The Passion Narrative, as it is told in Matthew's account of the Gospel of our Lord. Most of us who have regularly gathered over the years to appreciate this awesome and awful story are consoled by the belief that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. His death takes away the sins of the world. We see gathered before him humanity at its worse, and from the cross comes a great, if not mystical, appreciation that Jesus reveals the forgiving love of God. As theologians, biblical scholars. preachers, and you all gathered reflect on the story, we see Jesus as the great sacrifical victim. He is the Lamb, the human sacrificial lamb, of God that takes away the sins of the world. He is a victim. He is victimzed by Judas the betrayer. He is victimized by fleeing disciples. He is victimized by Jewish and Roman authorities. All of this horror taking place around the Jewish Passover feast where lambs were slaughtered as an offering to God for a kind of appeasement, and celebrating Israel's release from bondage in Egypt came to mean for Christians that Jesus is the victimized lamb who dies to forgive sins, and who enables us to feel release from the bondage of sin and separation from God. He offers himself silently for the slaughter. He is seen in retrospect as the suffering servant.
As we once again reflect on these early Christian understandings of the crucifixion of Jesus, and rejoice in the awesome beauty of the story we may well feel a sense of warm personal relief and personal coziness. Jesus died for my sins, and now I am right with God and the world. We can surely rejoice in that liberation.
There is still another understanding of the crucifixion that we need also to appreciate. We must also try to understand what the crucifixion was about from a more history point of view. In retrospect, we see the death of Jesus as salvific, salvation. But what of Jesus himself? In his very humble ministry, did he see himself as the mighty savior of the world? Was that the interpretation of his own work? Would there be a crucifixion if Jesus were seen merely as one whose ministry was solely a matter of forgiving sins that people might merely feel good about themselves? Why do Romans and Jewish authorities join forces to condemn him to the most humiliating form of death. Crucifixion was used for major capital crimes, not for religious offenses. It was used to totally discredit and dishonor a person's cause as a leader of people against the government and against systemic evil.
Crucifixion publicly humiliated a person and dishonored them. Jesus, although we dress him up with a loin cloth, was crucified naked, totally dishonoring and humiliating him. Not only was nakedness dishonoring, but if he were truly of God, God would not let this happen to him. If Jesus were be a sweet and lovely religious man he would not have come to cruxifixion. We have to remember some of the things that Jesus taught. He talked and taught about the blessedness of the poor: Blessed are the poor, or honorable are the poor. He embraced the Samaritan outcasts and entered into a relationship with them. People who were poor, sick, alone, were embraced by him. Women were given by Jesus a new status. He said things like: "The last shall be first, and the first last. Honorable and blest are those who seek, hunger and thirst for righteousness. Honorable and blest are those who suffer persecution for what is right. He taught parables that were great reversals. The prodigal son is taken back into the community and restored to an honorable position. The laborers who come last get the same wage as those who bore the heat of the day. These were threatening stories to the powerful and the rich.
In Jesus' time the large majority of people were poor, very poor. They died young. Many infants died, around 40 percent. A poor man or woman might live to be 26 years of age was old. Only the rich, a very small percentage lived to three score and ten. All the poor had one-third of the wealth, while about two percent of the rich held two-thirds of the wealth of the land. (Marcus Borg Lecture) Jesus had been a follower of John the Baptist who had been an anti-temple establishment preacher in the wilderness. John was martyred for it. Jesus knew well the teachings of the Jewish Torah that called for justice and fair treatment of the poor, which often included certain years for forgiving debts, and restoring lands. Jesus was not only healer and wonderfully loving and fuzzy guy. He was a social prophet and a critic of of the politics of the culture and of the Temple-establishement that abused people. He dared to challenge them in the Temple by upsetting the tables of corrupt money changers. In the story of the Raising of Lazarus you have a story in the Gospel of John about how Jesus was raising up the dead, the poor were the living dead, abused and vicitimized.
Unless we appreciate the humanity of Jesus, seeing him as a truly great man and prophet, we miss just how great he really was. As a man, it is not likely that he saw himself as the lamb of God, as some divine figure. He saw a corrupt world and dared to challenge it.
He maintains honor in his trial and crucifixion by remaining silent. That's how a Mediterranean man held onto his honor and dignity in the face of injustice and oppression. Matthew is telling us, even though he was being so totally dishonored, he died in an honorable way, because he was an honorable man. He was a great man! What's more, Jesus cries from the cross: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" This psalm is not the cry of a beaten man. It is the words of Psalm 22. When you read the psalm in its entirity it is the words of a man who is badly beaten down by his enemies and his world. But in the Psalm he is confident that God is with him always from the beginning of his life to the end of his life. "I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born; you were my God when I was still in my mother's womb. . . . . I will declare your Name to my bretheren; in the midst of the congregation I will praise you. . . . . . For he does not despise nor abhor the poor in their poverty neither does he hide his face from them; but when they cry to him he hears them." (verses10, 21, 23)
Even in the face of crucifixion and death, Jesus believes God is with him and God's justice and righteousness will prevail. Jesus is seen, and is a great man on that cross, and we must not minimize his real greatness. He is not just a victim; he is a martyr. He is a hero. And God knows the world needs some real heroes. Jesus did not live just to die. He lived to transform the world into the world of God's justice and righteousness.
We can go home today rejoicing that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. So be it. But we also must remember too that Jesus confronted the injustices, the cruelty, the abuses, the corrupted us of power and wealth in the world. Jesus was crucified, martyred for that very cause. Following him were great men and women in the history of the church who also died, not to take away sins, but to bear witness to God, and God's justice in the world.
As we embrace a forgiving Lord, I hope that we can also embrace a courageous Lord who lived and died for justice. We live in world that teaches us to be aggressive, achieveing, proud, affluent, climb the ladder to the top. Be competitive and make a good appearance. Be individualistic, take care of yourself, and consume all that you can get you hands on. That's quite at odds with the courageous Jesus who lived and died for the last, the least, and the lost. . . for the depressed, the oppressed.
I praise God that my sins have been taken away, but now can I walk courageously with the Jesus?
Sunday, March 28, 1999
Sunday, March 21, 1999
Lent 5
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 21, 1999
TEXT: John 11:1-44 - The Raising of Lazarus - "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it" . . . . . . . . Jesus told her [Martha], "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
ISSUE: The story of the Raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John is best not taken literally, but in terms of what it means. It is the last of the great "signs" in the book. In Jesus we find life and hope. He is the one who transforms and transcends all that blinds, stifles, and kills us. Through him we are born again, born from above. Through him we receive life giving water. Through him we have new enlightened sight. Through him we are raised above death and all that binds us. Believe in Jesus and live, and be transformed.
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Here again this morning we have another one of the great signs that tell us who Jesus is. He is the Messiah, the Christ, and all who believe in him will know resurrection and fullness of life.
Over the past several weeks we have dealt with several of the great signs in the Gospel account of John. In a sense these are creation and renewal stories that were extraordinarily important to the early church. Nicodemus a rabbi of Israel is born again, born from above through is faith in Jesus Christ. The disenfranchised woman at the well receives fresh living water from Jesus Christ. The degradated blindman receives his sight and enlightment through Jesus Christ. Now today, Mary and Martha receive hope and new life when their beloved brother Lazarus is raised and called forth from the tomb. Lazarus is born again through Jesus Christ.
Once again be reminded that the Gospel of John called people who were being shunned and tossed from their synagogues to hold dearly to their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord. For his is their transforming hope and salavation. He is their light and life.
The story of the Raising Lazarus is the last straw, and is the cause of Jesus being crucified for John's Gospel. Remember that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the final cause of Jesus crucifixion is his anger and cleansing of the Temple. In the Gospel of John it is the raising of Lazarus. Such an event will bring so much attention that the Romans will sure seek to destroy Israel, and the Judean authorities cannot accept this.
In any event, Jesus who has already been threatened by the Jewish authorities, and almost stoned by them, but he slips away. Now he receives word that his good and beloved friend is ill, about to die. But Jesus says, "The illness will not lead to his death; rather it is for God's Glory, so the Son of God may be glorified through it." These are words similar to what he said about the blindman. His blindness was that God would be glorified. Jesus delays his going to Lazarus for several days. When he tells his disciple to go with him to Bethany, Thomas says, "Let us also go that we may die with him." They are aware that Jesus is entering very hostile territory. At his arrival Jesus is made aware that Lazarus is already dead. Martha, another devoted friend of Jesus', expresses significant distress over the fact that Jesus has been so long in coming. Martha says that if only he had been there her brother would not have died. Others comment, that if he could give sight to the blindman, he may well have been able to save Lazarus. Mary who comes to Jesus repeats her sister's refrain: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." There is that scene of great anguish in which Jesus weeps with the women, and his weeping is perceived as being the result of his great love for Lazarus. Ultimately, Jesus at the tomb tells them to remove the stone that covers the burial cave. They warn him there will be a smell, for by now Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Jesus persists that if they believe in him they will see the glory of god. Jesus prays thanking God for hearing him, and calls "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man comes out of the tomb, and the he is unbound of his funeral clothes and set free. It is as if Lazarus is born again! Lazarus is born from above.
What's going on here. It is a statement of the human condition. Lazarus is sick and dying. The sisters in this culture were totally dependent upon their brother as their sole source of support. Single women without their brother they are very vulnerable, and their future hopeless. They are afraid and terrified of death. "If only" Jesus had been there. "If only" things were different. Jesus himself who comes to them is himself on the verge of stoning and crucifixion. Jesus weeps and is in anguish over the human condition. He weeps with the women; he weeps over the human condition with all of its death, hostility, anger, rage, hate. He weeps over a world that knows so much violence, hatred, death, pain, suffering, feuding. Yet, he has come to the world to glorify God, and to transform the world. Thus, the raising of Lazarus is not about resuscitating corpses. It is not about pearly gates and what heaven looks like. The resurrection is about transformation, rebirth, and renewal. God so loved the world that he sent his Son to love, to forgive, to transform the world.
Mary, Martha, Lazarus . . . these are the people God loves through Jesus. Their lives are not easy. There are times of great hopelessness. The woman have not prestige or clout. Lazarus is at the mercy of the world and its ways. Lazarus stinks. Yet if they believe and trust in Jesus as Lord, they will be born again from above. They will receive living water. They will be enlightened. They will be resurrected and transformed. They need not fear anything, not even death. As St. Paul said it: There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
This story, and the signs in Johns' Gospel mean for us today, that we have the potential of being born again, born from above, enlightened, our sights renewed, transformed and brought out of death experiences so that God can be glorified in us and through us. Life is not hopeless with Christ. Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord; place your confidence and loyalty in him and find continuing meaning and hope.
From time to time all of us have to take an honest look at our lives and the world around us. There are times when it can be dismal. We are will aware of the prejudice, the crime, the continuing agonizing hostilities that go on in the Bulkan States, Ireland, the Middle East. There are recent vicious hate crimes here in our own country. We all experience losses and uncertainties in our own lives. Life in the world can at times be pretty dismal. It can make a person weep. Yet our Faith, our Christianity, our holy and religious tradition is about telling us how we and the world can be born from above. It can have refreshing life giving waters of hope. We can have new insights of hope. We can even in our stench be lifted up, and called forth into new and abundant life. Though we seem hopelessly lost and dead, that our illnesses, problems seems so devastating, Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in him, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believe in him will never die. Do we believe and trust in this hope?
Can you remember what it was like when you were a child, and you were afraid of the darkness, and feared the images were created by the dark shadows. And your parent came to you turning on the light and reassured you that you were going to live and make into the morning. there was great comfort in that. Out of that experience you could then yourself reassure a younger brother or sister that everything would be okay. We pass on that confidence and assurance to our children. In much the same way our faith reassures that whatever our fears are, whatever the problems of our lives, God will be with us. Yes there will be sicknesses and even death. There will be troubles and heartaches. But in our pain and in our weeping God is with us, and God will be our light and our hope, our ultimate uplifting. We have nothing to fear, not even death. Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil for God is with us.
John's Gospel tells his community that though they walk in the valley of the shadow of death and significant difficulties and uncertainties, God will not abandon them. He is their hope, and may they allow God to be glorified through their confident faithfulness.
SEASON: Lent 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 21, 1999
TEXT: John 11:1-44 - The Raising of Lazarus - "This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God's glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it" . . . . . . . . Jesus told her [Martha], "I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
ISSUE: The story of the Raising of Lazarus in the Gospel of John is best not taken literally, but in terms of what it means. It is the last of the great "signs" in the book. In Jesus we find life and hope. He is the one who transforms and transcends all that blinds, stifles, and kills us. Through him we are born again, born from above. Through him we receive life giving water. Through him we have new enlightened sight. Through him we are raised above death and all that binds us. Believe in Jesus and live, and be transformed.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Here again this morning we have another one of the great signs that tell us who Jesus is. He is the Messiah, the Christ, and all who believe in him will know resurrection and fullness of life.
Over the past several weeks we have dealt with several of the great signs in the Gospel account of John. In a sense these are creation and renewal stories that were extraordinarily important to the early church. Nicodemus a rabbi of Israel is born again, born from above through is faith in Jesus Christ. The disenfranchised woman at the well receives fresh living water from Jesus Christ. The degradated blindman receives his sight and enlightment through Jesus Christ. Now today, Mary and Martha receive hope and new life when their beloved brother Lazarus is raised and called forth from the tomb. Lazarus is born again through Jesus Christ.
Once again be reminded that the Gospel of John called people who were being shunned and tossed from their synagogues to hold dearly to their faith and trust in Jesus Christ as their Lord. For his is their transforming hope and salavation. He is their light and life.
The story of the Raising Lazarus is the last straw, and is the cause of Jesus being crucified for John's Gospel. Remember that in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, the final cause of Jesus crucifixion is his anger and cleansing of the Temple. In the Gospel of John it is the raising of Lazarus. Such an event will bring so much attention that the Romans will sure seek to destroy Israel, and the Judean authorities cannot accept this.
In any event, Jesus who has already been threatened by the Jewish authorities, and almost stoned by them, but he slips away. Now he receives word that his good and beloved friend is ill, about to die. But Jesus says, "The illness will not lead to his death; rather it is for God's Glory, so the Son of God may be glorified through it." These are words similar to what he said about the blindman. His blindness was that God would be glorified. Jesus delays his going to Lazarus for several days. When he tells his disciple to go with him to Bethany, Thomas says, "Let us also go that we may die with him." They are aware that Jesus is entering very hostile territory. At his arrival Jesus is made aware that Lazarus is already dead. Martha, another devoted friend of Jesus', expresses significant distress over the fact that Jesus has been so long in coming. Martha says that if only he had been there her brother would not have died. Others comment, that if he could give sight to the blindman, he may well have been able to save Lazarus. Mary who comes to Jesus repeats her sister's refrain: "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." There is that scene of great anguish in which Jesus weeps with the women, and his weeping is perceived as being the result of his great love for Lazarus. Ultimately, Jesus at the tomb tells them to remove the stone that covers the burial cave. They warn him there will be a smell, for by now Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days. Jesus persists that if they believe in him they will see the glory of god. Jesus prays thanking God for hearing him, and calls "Lazarus, come out!" The dead man comes out of the tomb, and the he is unbound of his funeral clothes and set free. It is as if Lazarus is born again! Lazarus is born from above.
What's going on here. It is a statement of the human condition. Lazarus is sick and dying. The sisters in this culture were totally dependent upon their brother as their sole source of support. Single women without their brother they are very vulnerable, and their future hopeless. They are afraid and terrified of death. "If only" Jesus had been there. "If only" things were different. Jesus himself who comes to them is himself on the verge of stoning and crucifixion. Jesus weeps and is in anguish over the human condition. He weeps with the women; he weeps over the human condition with all of its death, hostility, anger, rage, hate. He weeps over a world that knows so much violence, hatred, death, pain, suffering, feuding. Yet, he has come to the world to glorify God, and to transform the world. Thus, the raising of Lazarus is not about resuscitating corpses. It is not about pearly gates and what heaven looks like. The resurrection is about transformation, rebirth, and renewal. God so loved the world that he sent his Son to love, to forgive, to transform the world.
Mary, Martha, Lazarus . . . these are the people God loves through Jesus. Their lives are not easy. There are times of great hopelessness. The woman have not prestige or clout. Lazarus is at the mercy of the world and its ways. Lazarus stinks. Yet if they believe and trust in Jesus as Lord, they will be born again from above. They will receive living water. They will be enlightened. They will be resurrected and transformed. They need not fear anything, not even death. As St. Paul said it: There is nothing that can separate us from the love of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Whether we live or die, we are the Lord's.
This story, and the signs in Johns' Gospel mean for us today, that we have the potential of being born again, born from above, enlightened, our sights renewed, transformed and brought out of death experiences so that God can be glorified in us and through us. Life is not hopeless with Christ. Trust in Jesus Christ as Lord; place your confidence and loyalty in him and find continuing meaning and hope.
From time to time all of us have to take an honest look at our lives and the world around us. There are times when it can be dismal. We are will aware of the prejudice, the crime, the continuing agonizing hostilities that go on in the Bulkan States, Ireland, the Middle East. There are recent vicious hate crimes here in our own country. We all experience losses and uncertainties in our own lives. Life in the world can at times be pretty dismal. It can make a person weep. Yet our Faith, our Christianity, our holy and religious tradition is about telling us how we and the world can be born from above. It can have refreshing life giving waters of hope. We can have new insights of hope. We can even in our stench be lifted up, and called forth into new and abundant life. Though we seem hopelessly lost and dead, that our illnesses, problems seems so devastating, Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in him, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believe in him will never die. Do we believe and trust in this hope?
Can you remember what it was like when you were a child, and you were afraid of the darkness, and feared the images were created by the dark shadows. And your parent came to you turning on the light and reassured you that you were going to live and make into the morning. there was great comfort in that. Out of that experience you could then yourself reassure a younger brother or sister that everything would be okay. We pass on that confidence and assurance to our children. In much the same way our faith reassures that whatever our fears are, whatever the problems of our lives, God will be with us. Yes there will be sicknesses and even death. There will be troubles and heartaches. But in our pain and in our weeping God is with us, and God will be our light and our hope, our ultimate uplifting. We have nothing to fear, not even death. Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we will fear no evil for God is with us.
John's Gospel tells his community that though they walk in the valley of the shadow of death and significant difficulties and uncertainties, God will not abandon them. He is their hope, and may they allow God to be glorified through their confident faithfulness.
Sunday, March 14, 1999
Lent 4
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 14,1999
TEXT: John 9:1-38 - Jesus heals a blind man, who believes and worships him.
Blind man says: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind now I see." . . . . . . . "Lord I believe." And he worshiped him.
ISSUE: The story of the healing of the blindman is a rich and insightful story in John. It tells of the new creation that Jesus brings, of new light for the darkness. It is hard for many to believe and trust. They are engrained in old beliefs of sin and alienation. Christ brings the light and new ways of seeing the Glory of God revealed as one who loves and restores, and gives new enlightenment. Can we also claim it?
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When we read this account in the Gospel of John of Jesus healing the blindman, you cannot but help feel a tremendous tension going on. We know that John's Gospel was written at a time when many early Christians, that is, people who were trusting that Jesus was the Messiah, were being excommunicated from the synagogues and shunned. In this passage you have the presentation of the healing of a blindman by Jesus. Then you have a long story of tension with the beliefs of the time: A blind man must be a sinner with a darkened heart. A man born blind must have had parents who were sinners causing the blindness of the child. There is argument among the Jews with the blindman and the parents over the healing. How could Jesus, whom then believed to be a sinner, have performed the healing. The parents or the blindman must be lying. Are they even sure of his identity. Is he the blindman, or just someone who looks like the blindman. The parents fear for what they say that they might be tossed out of the synagogue. There is in the story a significant reflection of the enormous tension of the early Christians with their Jewish authorities and their Jewish background. There is also like to be some tension over what various Christians themselves thought about who Jesus was.
In the tension of the story there is a struggle to know the truth. The truth did not always come easy in these times. People lied a lot. The tended to keep secrets. Lying and deception were a significant part of the Mediterranean culture which was very public. But in order to maintain your place and especially your honor, you didn't want people to know things about your private life that might jeopardize your honor and status. Thus, the blindman and his family are suspect, and you have this all out effort to get at the truth of what has happened and what is going on.
John tells the story in the midst of all the tension to ultimately reveal a new truth. It begins with the disciples asking Jesus who see the blindman who sinned, the blindman or his parents. It was the common belief of the time that if you were afflicted it must be the result of some sin. If you were born blind, it could be your parents, because it was believed that the sins of the fathers were passed on from one generation to another. It was a punishment reward system. But Jesus replies to this concept that neither the man nor his parents sinned, but the man is blind that the world might see the Glory of God. They are asking the wrong question. The issue is not who sinned, but what is God doing in his creation? God seeks to heal and make a new creation.
Understand that blindmen were seen pretty much as outcasts. They were not allowed to live in the city. They could only come into the city to beg during the day. They were degraded by virtue of this illness. Jesus, who is a folk healer does what folk healers do; he puts dirt mixed with spittle on the mans blind eyes. Spittle was believed to have healing cleansing power. (Actually we believe this today too. What mother has not spit on her handkerchief and cleaned and healed a distraught child?) He then sends the blindman to the pool of Siloam which means sent, as Jesus was "sent" to the world, and tells the man to wash in the pool. What you have here is a creation story. The man is a new creation, just as Adam was molded with the clay and scooped up out of the water to be the first man of God's creation. Here is a blind, rejected and degraded man spit upon spittle and mud and raised up out of the pool. He has his sight. He is healed. He is restored to community. He is enlightened. He is no longer sinner but redeemed. He's a new creation, and all this through Jesus Christ, the one who has come to give Light and Life, which light is for the world.
Now inspite of this wonderful gift that has been given, many people can't trust it or grasp it, understand it or "SEE". its significance. The world often remains blind to what God is doing in Christ. The arguments begin. He did this healing on the sabbath, which was against the law. You don't work, or even heal on the sabbath. The healing challenges the system of bad people being condemned sinners, often beyond redemption. Then you get the arguments and the tensions. Is this really the same man who was born blind? Is Jesus really a healer? Is Jesus the Messiah of God? The parents who are challenged are afraid of what to say for fear of their expulsion from the synagogue which would have effected every aspect of their lives, not just their religious life. They would have been shunned with no business connections for their livelihood. Expulsion or excommunication who have been very dramatic in that time.
Then too there is the tension between the healed blindman and the authorities. They challenge his identity and the witness he makes to having been blind and new seeing. They try to get him to "Give Glory to God" and deny what Jesus the healer did for him. The confront him with his heritage: they are the disciples of Moses. Would he deny his heritage? But the healed blindman speaks courageously. He stands up to his challengers: This healer could not do the things that he does unless he is from God. "Lord I believe" he concludes and worships Jesus. Courageous belief is what John's Gospel seeks so desperately to convey. He is a new and healed creation who has been given not just his physical sight but his enlightenment, his spiritual vision to see the Glory of God, to see the Light of God revealed in Christ Jesus the Lord.
The message here in this story is that no one is so truly blind as those who cannot believe, trust, have confidence, and courageously stand up for the fact that Jesus is Lord, that he reveals in the flesh the renewing health and beauty of the God of forgiveness and love.
We all know well what it is like to be in the dark. In the darkness we stump our toes on the bed boast. As children the shadows in the dark took on some frightening, if not terrifying images. As children and as adults as well, bad dreams come in the darkness. If you have ever done any spelunking, caving, and once deep in a cave you turned out the lights, as guides often do in commercial caves, you know without light there is no way out in a life time. We know darkness is dangerous. As a matter of fact without light except for a small number of species essentially nothing lives, and certainly not human beings. We need light to live.
We also know that in a metaphorical sense humanity has had periods of stumbling in the darkness. We refer to them sometimes as the dark ages. These were times of widespread ignorance. There have been in our history dark times, when we were involved in civil war, in World War, and the Vietnam war. Often prejudices and human hatred and distrust were at the root of these difficult times. We may even wonder why it is that the peoples in Bosnia and the Bulkan States, why the leadership of Iraq cannot see that continued hatreds and prejudices compound the darkness and the dismal futures of it people.
We experience dark and dismal times in our own personal lives in our relationship with one another. There are times when we so desperately need healing, rejuvenation, new enlightment, new engergies to restore us. Many people for the the life of themselves cannot break free from the addictions to drugs and alcohol that creates such terrible darkness in their lives. Sometimes we are foolish and do really dumb things like people fumbling in the dark, too dumb to turn on the light. Sometimes we cannot allow ourselves to see the light of day for the problems and the anxieties that surround us and in which we become absorbed.
According to John's Gospel, the light was coming into the world, and the world often rejected it. But to those who did receive the light, the light of Christ, he gave them power to become his children, restored, hopeful, forgiven and loved. Jesus came to the blindman, to all who are blind, to give them the Light, the Light of God that reveals truth, love, forgiveness, hope, the Kingdom of everlasting life. John's Gospel account calls people to believe, to trust, to be open to the light that will heal and change their lives. He calls them and us to courageous witness to our faith.
SEASON: Lent 4
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 14,1999
TEXT: John 9:1-38 - Jesus heals a blind man, who believes and worships him.
Blind man says: "One thing I do know, that though I was blind now I see." . . . . . . . "Lord I believe." And he worshiped him.
ISSUE: The story of the healing of the blindman is a rich and insightful story in John. It tells of the new creation that Jesus brings, of new light for the darkness. It is hard for many to believe and trust. They are engrained in old beliefs of sin and alienation. Christ brings the light and new ways of seeing the Glory of God revealed as one who loves and restores, and gives new enlightenment. Can we also claim it?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
When we read this account in the Gospel of John of Jesus healing the blindman, you cannot but help feel a tremendous tension going on. We know that John's Gospel was written at a time when many early Christians, that is, people who were trusting that Jesus was the Messiah, were being excommunicated from the synagogues and shunned. In this passage you have the presentation of the healing of a blindman by Jesus. Then you have a long story of tension with the beliefs of the time: A blind man must be a sinner with a darkened heart. A man born blind must have had parents who were sinners causing the blindness of the child. There is argument among the Jews with the blindman and the parents over the healing. How could Jesus, whom then believed to be a sinner, have performed the healing. The parents or the blindman must be lying. Are they even sure of his identity. Is he the blindman, or just someone who looks like the blindman. The parents fear for what they say that they might be tossed out of the synagogue. There is in the story a significant reflection of the enormous tension of the early Christians with their Jewish authorities and their Jewish background. There is also like to be some tension over what various Christians themselves thought about who Jesus was.
In the tension of the story there is a struggle to know the truth. The truth did not always come easy in these times. People lied a lot. The tended to keep secrets. Lying and deception were a significant part of the Mediterranean culture which was very public. But in order to maintain your place and especially your honor, you didn't want people to know things about your private life that might jeopardize your honor and status. Thus, the blindman and his family are suspect, and you have this all out effort to get at the truth of what has happened and what is going on.
John tells the story in the midst of all the tension to ultimately reveal a new truth. It begins with the disciples asking Jesus who see the blindman who sinned, the blindman or his parents. It was the common belief of the time that if you were afflicted it must be the result of some sin. If you were born blind, it could be your parents, because it was believed that the sins of the fathers were passed on from one generation to another. It was a punishment reward system. But Jesus replies to this concept that neither the man nor his parents sinned, but the man is blind that the world might see the Glory of God. They are asking the wrong question. The issue is not who sinned, but what is God doing in his creation? God seeks to heal and make a new creation.
Understand that blindmen were seen pretty much as outcasts. They were not allowed to live in the city. They could only come into the city to beg during the day. They were degraded by virtue of this illness. Jesus, who is a folk healer does what folk healers do; he puts dirt mixed with spittle on the mans blind eyes. Spittle was believed to have healing cleansing power. (Actually we believe this today too. What mother has not spit on her handkerchief and cleaned and healed a distraught child?) He then sends the blindman to the pool of Siloam which means sent, as Jesus was "sent" to the world, and tells the man to wash in the pool. What you have here is a creation story. The man is a new creation, just as Adam was molded with the clay and scooped up out of the water to be the first man of God's creation. Here is a blind, rejected and degraded man spit upon spittle and mud and raised up out of the pool. He has his sight. He is healed. He is restored to community. He is enlightened. He is no longer sinner but redeemed. He's a new creation, and all this through Jesus Christ, the one who has come to give Light and Life, which light is for the world.
Now inspite of this wonderful gift that has been given, many people can't trust it or grasp it, understand it or "SEE". its significance. The world often remains blind to what God is doing in Christ. The arguments begin. He did this healing on the sabbath, which was against the law. You don't work, or even heal on the sabbath. The healing challenges the system of bad people being condemned sinners, often beyond redemption. Then you get the arguments and the tensions. Is this really the same man who was born blind? Is Jesus really a healer? Is Jesus the Messiah of God? The parents who are challenged are afraid of what to say for fear of their expulsion from the synagogue which would have effected every aspect of their lives, not just their religious life. They would have been shunned with no business connections for their livelihood. Expulsion or excommunication who have been very dramatic in that time.
Then too there is the tension between the healed blindman and the authorities. They challenge his identity and the witness he makes to having been blind and new seeing. They try to get him to "Give Glory to God" and deny what Jesus the healer did for him. The confront him with his heritage: they are the disciples of Moses. Would he deny his heritage? But the healed blindman speaks courageously. He stands up to his challengers: This healer could not do the things that he does unless he is from God. "Lord I believe" he concludes and worships Jesus. Courageous belief is what John's Gospel seeks so desperately to convey. He is a new and healed creation who has been given not just his physical sight but his enlightenment, his spiritual vision to see the Glory of God, to see the Light of God revealed in Christ Jesus the Lord.
The message here in this story is that no one is so truly blind as those who cannot believe, trust, have confidence, and courageously stand up for the fact that Jesus is Lord, that he reveals in the flesh the renewing health and beauty of the God of forgiveness and love.
We all know well what it is like to be in the dark. In the darkness we stump our toes on the bed boast. As children the shadows in the dark took on some frightening, if not terrifying images. As children and as adults as well, bad dreams come in the darkness. If you have ever done any spelunking, caving, and once deep in a cave you turned out the lights, as guides often do in commercial caves, you know without light there is no way out in a life time. We know darkness is dangerous. As a matter of fact without light except for a small number of species essentially nothing lives, and certainly not human beings. We need light to live.
We also know that in a metaphorical sense humanity has had periods of stumbling in the darkness. We refer to them sometimes as the dark ages. These were times of widespread ignorance. There have been in our history dark times, when we were involved in civil war, in World War, and the Vietnam war. Often prejudices and human hatred and distrust were at the root of these difficult times. We may even wonder why it is that the peoples in Bosnia and the Bulkan States, why the leadership of Iraq cannot see that continued hatreds and prejudices compound the darkness and the dismal futures of it people.
We experience dark and dismal times in our own personal lives in our relationship with one another. There are times when we so desperately need healing, rejuvenation, new enlightment, new engergies to restore us. Many people for the the life of themselves cannot break free from the addictions to drugs and alcohol that creates such terrible darkness in their lives. Sometimes we are foolish and do really dumb things like people fumbling in the dark, too dumb to turn on the light. Sometimes we cannot allow ourselves to see the light of day for the problems and the anxieties that surround us and in which we become absorbed.
According to John's Gospel, the light was coming into the world, and the world often rejected it. But to those who did receive the light, the light of Christ, he gave them power to become his children, restored, hopeful, forgiven and loved. Jesus came to the blindman, to all who are blind, to give them the Light, the Light of God that reveals truth, love, forgiveness, hope, the Kingdom of everlasting life. John's Gospel account calls people to believe, to trust, to be open to the light that will heal and change their lives. He calls them and us to courageous witness to our faith.
Sunday, March 7, 1999
Lent 3
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Lent 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 7,1999
TEXT: John 4:5 - 42 - The Samaritan Woman at the Well
Jesus said to her . . . "The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." . . . . . .They (the men) said to the women, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
ISSUE: The meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman is a rich and deep story of transformation. John's Gospel account reveals Jesus reaching out to the impure and polluted. He claims the both women and the bastard Samaritans as worthy of God's salvation. He is the saving water to accept and cleanse them. The woman becomes catechized and transformed. She becomes an evangelist. The developing initmacy of the scene makes the outcasts a new fictive family.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
During several of the weeks of Lent our readings shift from Matthew's gospel account to a series of stories from the Gospel of John. The Johannine Gospel is the last of the gospel accounts to be written. It is written to a community of people who were facing persecution. They were being thrown out of the local synagogues. It was also a time when most of the eyewitnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus were gone. They'd deceased. John's Gospel then calls for the community to believe, to trust, to trust that truly Jesus was the Son of God, the world, and especially Israel's savior.
In this story that John relates he tells of an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. It was and is in deed a most scandalous story. Jesus arrives at Jacob's Well in Samaritan territory. It was noon. A woman comes to the well to draw water and a conversation begins. To us this is quite innocent. At the time it was scandalous. Men in this time did not talk to strange women in public, the community well being a public place. What's more Jews, which Jesus was, did not speak to Samaritans. Samaritans were considered half breeds, and therefore impure and polluted. They had abandoned worshipping at Jerusalem. The very idea that Jesus would speak to the woman, and that she would reply is outrageous. Jesus asks her for a drink of water. To think that a Jew would drink from a vessel that belonged to a Samaritan, and a woman was unheard of.
It is also thought to be quite significant in terms of heightening this scandalous scene that the woman comes to the well at noon day. Women came to the well in the early mornings and later evenings to draw water. They did not appear in public much during the day. The idea that the woman comes at noon day suggests to biblical scholars that she was being shunned by other women in the community for some inappropriate behavior, which might have been related to her having had five husbands, and living with one who was not her husband. Her impurity is heightened. (As a side note, the Samaritans had on occasion worshipped a variety of pagan gods over the years, which was seen as a form of religious adultery.)
The woman is stunned that Jesus would speak to her and ask her for a drink. He retorts, "How is it that you a Jew, would ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" And Jesus replies to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is say to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The exchange of question and answer is a catechism lesson and the woman in the process of the ongoing exhange becomes increasingly enlightened to a deeper understanding that this is a Jew, a teacher, a rabbi, a prophet, and ultimately Savior of the world.
The woman then becomes a disciple and an evangelist by going to the city market place to begin giving a testimony of what had happened to her and had she had met The Messiah. Women did not go to the market place to talk with men in those days. This action again is unheard of. The men fascinated by the witness that she gives themselves go to Jesus and become believers and ask him to stay with them several days. They hear from him themselves - they couldn't just take the word of a woman - and become believers.
What is John saying to his community. First that Jesus is the cleansing water that washes away the impurity and the pollutions of God's creation. He is new life. Water is life. Baptism is immersion in the life giving water of God in Christ. Jesus is the rescuer of all bastards, which is what Samaritans were thought to be. Second the early church had a whole new place for women that previously had not existed. The woman is catechized, ordained as disciple and becomes a masterful evangelist of men. She becomes a believer through her ongoing catechesis with Jesus. In the Hebrew Scriptures this morning the Jews were wandering in the wilderness with Moses, and they raised the question, "Is the Lord among us or not?" John's gospel responds with a resounding, "YES." Jesus is God with us. He is the living water, the one who gives real life in our human experience. God's healing and redeeming grace comes through Jesus Christ, embrace it and believe.
As outrageous as it appeared - Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman, and his staying with and relating to the Samaritan men - you see in the passage the development of an intimacy. What Jesus is doing is talking to the woman not like she is an alienated Samaritan, but as family. A man would talk with a woman at a well if she were family. The woman in turn goes to the men in the city, presumably at the market place, and gives testimony as if they were family. There is developing a closer and closer intimacy between Jesus and the woman, the woman and the men to which she seems to become almost an equal, and the Samaritan men with Jesus. God's family in Christ is being born out of the living water. Transformation and enlightenment are taking place. Jesus claims all Samaria as part of God's family and as part of the New Israel.
It is also interesting to be aware of the fact that several of Israel's greatest leaders met their wives at wells. Abraham's servants find a wife Rebekah for Issac at a well. Gen. 24:11f) Jacob meets and falls in love with Rachel at the well. (Gen.29:1f) Moses sat beside the well at Midian and meets his wife Zipporah. (Exodus 216f) It is as if Jesus is the Bridegroom at the well who seeks to be wedded to a world that needs new hope, acceptance, love, transformation, and salvation.
This passage is a wonderful story for the world today as it tells how God in Christ seeks to reachout to the world. He comes to the world as a free gift of grace. He has the life giving water, spirituality that is often lacking in human life. We go through life wanting food and water but are never truly satisfied. We try to buy up everying thing we can and surround ourselves in material goods. We are often estranged from one another through prejudice and old hatreds and misunderstandings. We are sometime caught in poor self-esteem created by our shortcomings and our afflicted humaness. We get so afflicted by our addictions to violence, cruelty, drugs and alcohol in some instances. Life can feel dry, and become a daily drudgery without much purpose or meaning. We can be impure and polluted, and pollute the world. Yet God in Christ seeks to embrace us and call us into his refreshing presence: "Come to me all of who travail and are heavy ladened, and I will refresh you." Matt.9:28)
Many of us probably saw the Monica Lewinsky interview with Barbara Walters this past week. In her story I could not help but feel that we saw much of the human condition laid bare. She came across as spiritual bankrupt. She revealed all her flaws, impurities, pollutions, her immaturity. She is in a sense also a victim of a society that just throws things away that are inconvenient, her abortion. She sought power and flirted with the most powerful person in the world. But she has been left high and dry with total uncertainty about her future. She is maybe something of a microcosm of us all. We also have our flaws, our infatuations with the world, and are so empty. We thirst for the stuff that lasts that gives us hope, love, forgiveness.
If we knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to us, 'Give me a drink,' we would ask him, and he would have give us living water.
SEASON: Lent 3
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: March 7,1999
TEXT: John 4:5 - 42 - The Samaritan Woman at the Well
Jesus said to her . . . "The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." . . . . . .They (the men) said to the women, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."
ISSUE: The meeting of Jesus and the Samaritan Woman is a rich and deep story of transformation. John's Gospel account reveals Jesus reaching out to the impure and polluted. He claims the both women and the bastard Samaritans as worthy of God's salvation. He is the saving water to accept and cleanse them. The woman becomes catechized and transformed. She becomes an evangelist. The developing initmacy of the scene makes the outcasts a new fictive family.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
During several of the weeks of Lent our readings shift from Matthew's gospel account to a series of stories from the Gospel of John. The Johannine Gospel is the last of the gospel accounts to be written. It is written to a community of people who were facing persecution. They were being thrown out of the local synagogues. It was also a time when most of the eyewitnesses to the life and ministry of Jesus were gone. They'd deceased. John's Gospel then calls for the community to believe, to trust, to trust that truly Jesus was the Son of God, the world, and especially Israel's savior.
In this story that John relates he tells of an encounter between Jesus and a Samaritan woman. It was and is in deed a most scandalous story. Jesus arrives at Jacob's Well in Samaritan territory. It was noon. A woman comes to the well to draw water and a conversation begins. To us this is quite innocent. At the time it was scandalous. Men in this time did not talk to strange women in public, the community well being a public place. What's more Jews, which Jesus was, did not speak to Samaritans. Samaritans were considered half breeds, and therefore impure and polluted. They had abandoned worshipping at Jerusalem. The very idea that Jesus would speak to the woman, and that she would reply is outrageous. Jesus asks her for a drink of water. To think that a Jew would drink from a vessel that belonged to a Samaritan, and a woman was unheard of.
It is also thought to be quite significant in terms of heightening this scandalous scene that the woman comes to the well at noon day. Women came to the well in the early mornings and later evenings to draw water. They did not appear in public much during the day. The idea that the woman comes at noon day suggests to biblical scholars that she was being shunned by other women in the community for some inappropriate behavior, which might have been related to her having had five husbands, and living with one who was not her husband. Her impurity is heightened. (As a side note, the Samaritans had on occasion worshipped a variety of pagan gods over the years, which was seen as a form of religious adultery.)
The woman is stunned that Jesus would speak to her and ask her for a drink. He retorts, "How is it that you a Jew, would ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" And Jesus replies to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is say to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." The exchange of question and answer is a catechism lesson and the woman in the process of the ongoing exhange becomes increasingly enlightened to a deeper understanding that this is a Jew, a teacher, a rabbi, a prophet, and ultimately Savior of the world.
The woman then becomes a disciple and an evangelist by going to the city market place to begin giving a testimony of what had happened to her and had she had met The Messiah. Women did not go to the market place to talk with men in those days. This action again is unheard of. The men fascinated by the witness that she gives themselves go to Jesus and become believers and ask him to stay with them several days. They hear from him themselves - they couldn't just take the word of a woman - and become believers.
What is John saying to his community. First that Jesus is the cleansing water that washes away the impurity and the pollutions of God's creation. He is new life. Water is life. Baptism is immersion in the life giving water of God in Christ. Jesus is the rescuer of all bastards, which is what Samaritans were thought to be. Second the early church had a whole new place for women that previously had not existed. The woman is catechized, ordained as disciple and becomes a masterful evangelist of men. She becomes a believer through her ongoing catechesis with Jesus. In the Hebrew Scriptures this morning the Jews were wandering in the wilderness with Moses, and they raised the question, "Is the Lord among us or not?" John's gospel responds with a resounding, "YES." Jesus is God with us. He is the living water, the one who gives real life in our human experience. God's healing and redeeming grace comes through Jesus Christ, embrace it and believe.
As outrageous as it appeared - Jesus talking with the Samaritan woman, and his staying with and relating to the Samaritan men - you see in the passage the development of an intimacy. What Jesus is doing is talking to the woman not like she is an alienated Samaritan, but as family. A man would talk with a woman at a well if she were family. The woman in turn goes to the men in the city, presumably at the market place, and gives testimony as if they were family. There is developing a closer and closer intimacy between Jesus and the woman, the woman and the men to which she seems to become almost an equal, and the Samaritan men with Jesus. God's family in Christ is being born out of the living water. Transformation and enlightenment are taking place. Jesus claims all Samaria as part of God's family and as part of the New Israel.
It is also interesting to be aware of the fact that several of Israel's greatest leaders met their wives at wells. Abraham's servants find a wife Rebekah for Issac at a well. Gen. 24:11f) Jacob meets and falls in love with Rachel at the well. (Gen.29:1f) Moses sat beside the well at Midian and meets his wife Zipporah. (Exodus 216f) It is as if Jesus is the Bridegroom at the well who seeks to be wedded to a world that needs new hope, acceptance, love, transformation, and salvation.
This passage is a wonderful story for the world today as it tells how God in Christ seeks to reachout to the world. He comes to the world as a free gift of grace. He has the life giving water, spirituality that is often lacking in human life. We go through life wanting food and water but are never truly satisfied. We try to buy up everying thing we can and surround ourselves in material goods. We are often estranged from one another through prejudice and old hatreds and misunderstandings. We are sometime caught in poor self-esteem created by our shortcomings and our afflicted humaness. We get so afflicted by our addictions to violence, cruelty, drugs and alcohol in some instances. Life can feel dry, and become a daily drudgery without much purpose or meaning. We can be impure and polluted, and pollute the world. Yet God in Christ seeks to embrace us and call us into his refreshing presence: "Come to me all of who travail and are heavy ladened, and I will refresh you." Matt.9:28)
Many of us probably saw the Monica Lewinsky interview with Barbara Walters this past week. In her story I could not help but feel that we saw much of the human condition laid bare. She came across as spiritual bankrupt. She revealed all her flaws, impurities, pollutions, her immaturity. She is in a sense also a victim of a society that just throws things away that are inconvenient, her abortion. She sought power and flirted with the most powerful person in the world. But she has been left high and dry with total uncertainty about her future. She is maybe something of a microcosm of us all. We also have our flaws, our infatuations with the world, and are so empty. We thirst for the stuff that lasts that gives us hope, love, forgiveness.
If we knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to us, 'Give me a drink,' we would ask him, and he would have give us living water.
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