May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Trinity Sunday
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 30, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 28:16-20 - "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you."
ISSUE: The scripture from Matthew is a continuation of the Pentecost Experience for the church of today. While the disciples in Luke's Acts of the Apostles and in John's Gospel account they receive the Holy Spirit, Matthew has the disciples being commissioned by Jesus to immerse the world into the fullness of God and to teach what God commands.
the church today still needs to be aware of its calling and commissioning to be an evangelistic and educational institution.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
This Sunday is the Sunday is an important day in the life of the church. We refer to it as Trinity Sunday, a day which we recall the trinitarian understanding of the One God of Christian belief. Just as importantly, this Sunday is as far as I am concerned a Sunday which really continues the Pentecost experience of the early church. Last week we recalled the breathing upon and Jesus commissioning his disiciple to forgive sins, to blow away evil spirits by the breath of God breathed upon them. We also recalled the experience of the Apostles at Jerusalem when the wind or breath of God was breathed upon them in Luke's Acts of the Apostles. Today. we have still another commissioning and commanding of the Apostles in Matthew' account of the Gospel.
In Matthew's account, the disciples went to a mountain in Galilee to which Jesus had directed them. Once again keep in mind important things always happen on mountain tops in the scripture. The disciples are greeted by the risen Jesus. Those who come to recognize him fall down in adoration and worship. Others still remain sceptical; obviously not everyone is always immediate in their acceptance of what has happened. Remember Thomas' skepticism. In any event the disciples are commanded or commisssioned to begin their ministry. It is a ministry of making more disciples. It is just not a matter of proclamation of Good News, but of incorporating new people into the fellowship of God. The disciples are to baptize, that is, immerse, or dip, people of all nations and races into the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are to be baptized into the name of God: Father, Son, and Spirit. This part of the commissioning means that the disciples are to reveal to their new comrades the fullness of God.
At this point let me say something about the Trinitarian understanding of God. Many biblical scholars would say that Jesus himself did not go around telling people that he was the Son of God, or the second person of the trinity. The concept of the Trinitarian concept of God was the early development of the theology of the church. It does have biblical support. The doctrine of the Trinity is a theological concept that is intended to reveal a full understanding of the one God. It is like a person who writes a book. The author is the creator of the book. From the very beginning the outline of the book is in the author's mind. Eventually, what the author wishes to say is written out in words. The meaning and purpose becomes revealed by the author and the words. You get the spirit or meaning of what's being communicated when you read the book. This metaphor reveals the likeness of God, as it does in the Genesis reading today. God the Father is the creator and author of life. God speaks the word, and creation comes into being. Jesus was seen by the early church, especially in John's Gospel account, as the Word of God. Jesus is what God has to say given and revealed to us in human form, incarnate, in the flesh. Looking at the life and ministry of Jesus, looking at the mystery of creation, the Holy Spirit of God is revealed in a wonderful mysterious and bountiful creation. God's love, forgiveness, acceptance, inclusiveness, sacrificial outpouring is reveal in and through Jesus Christ. The Spirit, the mind, the meaning of God is revealed in each of these marvelous expressions that are for us the real and true revelation of and understanding of God.
So to baptize all nations is to immerse them and call them into a focused worship and adoration into the Spirit of God, as the fatherly God of bountiful, mysterious, and wonderful creation. It is to immerse and focus all people into the kind of devoted love of the Word of God, into a focus on the ways and teachings of Jesus Christ. To baptize and immerse the nations of the world into God is to have them breathe in the Spirit, the breath, the wind of God's meaning and realize the constant prevailing on going presence of God to sustain the world in love. To baptize the nations is to get their attention and to focus it on the one true and meaningful expression of God to the best of our ability.
This immersing the world into God is not especially easy. We think that the world is monotheistic. Everybody, or most, know there is one God. That is not really the way it is. Very very deeply rooted in human history is not monotheism, the belief in one God. The more common belief was and I think still is, is a kind of henotheism. The ancient Israelites believed there were many gods, but Yahweh of Israel was their own God. The commandment read, "You shall have no other gods." Yahweh was the God of the nation who traveled with them. Other nations had their own gods. When Moses and the people left Egypt that took with holy things and took a Tent of the Presence with them wherever they went, so Yahweh, God, would be with them. To leave the community or the nation was to be beyond the reach of God, God's protection. Yahweh was a moral God, unlike Baal and many other gods of the time who were largely fertility gods. When Jesus begins to call all nations to believe in only the One True God do you have a new sense of monotheism, only one God.
In our world today there still remains a kind of henotheism, or a pluralistic notion of god. God is what drives our life. God is what gives meaning and direction to our lives. God is what is the bottom line of our existence for us. For some people, and many of us Americans today the bottom line is being secure. Security comes first. The God of security is often expressed by not wanting to change anything. Keep every thing comfortably the same. It is a theology of wanting to hold on. It is often expressed in our lives of non-giving and sharing.
Another bottom line kind of god popular in American culture is the Consumerism god. We have to have and possess and buy so much. We like having it all, and sometimes seeing ourselves as failing if we do not. We turn our holidays into frenzied days of consumerism. Stores advertise that they are open all Sundays before Christmas. Memorial Day and Labor Day are occassion for gigantic and wonderful sales. Shopping malls become the seductive attractive cathedrals of our time.
For others there are lesser or more tragic bottom lines. The thing that gives life meaning or well being is success at all costs. For others it is alcohol and drugs. For still others it is the adoration of individualism. i.e. "I don't care what you say or think I'm right and that's all that matters." It's a kind of self-preservation adoration. And I'm sure you can think of others. Many of these people would all claim to believe in God, but the God of Jesus is not their only meaningful godly commitment.
For Jesus standing before his disciples in a world where Caesar was god, and was making the claim that Caesar should rule and conquer all the nations of the world, Jesus says, "No." The wonderful creator God, the God of Love, acceptance of all the expendable people of this time, inclusion, caring, nurturing, forgiveness. This God is the one true and only God that is the bottom line, the ultimate meaning for the world. You baptize and immerse the world into God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Even with Jesus there before his disciples there were some who adored and accepted him, and others who were skeptical. But the message continued keep focused on the true God that will still be there when all others fail and are diminished by time.
The second part of Jesus' commission to his disciples was the command to teach. This part of the commission is the part most neglected and forgotten. We are eager to and remember to baptize, but we often forget that disciples and the church were commissioned to teach the nations obedience to what God in Christ commanded. One of the great frustrations of my ministry has been how we fail to keep the children and people we baptize in the on going life and instruction of the church. The one commandment that is the wordiest and very explicit is the command to keep holy the sabbath. It was a day of contemplation, reflection, rest and attention to the wonder of God. Without the sabbath, without the time of reflection, adoration, contemplation of God, investment into the ways and teachings, we become so distracted by the world and influenced by all the other gods of people's lives.
Is the God of love and forgiveness, inclusion, and compassion, and caring too hard to worship and adore. Sometimes it is hard to be and keep focused on this God of Jesus Christ. It does require of us commitment, change, walking the extra mile and turning the other cheek. It does require change and conversion, and letting go of familiar old comforts and taking risks. Yet the prevailing Spirit and Presence of God still calls to us; Baptize all nations and people in the Name of God the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and teach them what is commanded: to love that God with all your being and to love one another.
Sunday, May 30, 1999
Sunday, May 23, 1999
Pentecost
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Pentecost
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 23,1999
TEXT: John 20:19-23 - "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
See also: Acts 2:1-11 - And suddenly there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
See also: I Corinthians 12:4-13 - Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit . . . .
ISSUE: In ancient times, the wind was thought to be the very breath of God in anthropomorphic terms. It was the energy of God. In John, Jesus blows the breath of God upon the disciples, empowering them to blow away the breath of evil spirits (sins). In the Acts lesson, a second report is given of the Spirit or breath of God coming upon them to use their talents and gifts to reveal the might works of God. As Christians in the world today, this pentecostal experience reminds us all of the gifts and empowerments that God bestows upon us to discern our gifts that we may witness to God in the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today many Christians around the world celebrate the Feast of the Pentecost, a celebration that ranks with Christmas and Easter. The Feast of Pentecost was originally a Jewish feast that was celebrated 50 days (thus, Pentecost) after the Jewish Passover Feast. It was a harvest festival giving thanks to God for the first bountiful harvest of wheat, and it also was a time of reminiscence of the giving of the Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. It celebrated God's people being in covenant, in relationship with God. At this pentecostal feast in Jerusalem it is reported in Luke's Acts of the Apostles, that God's spirit was bestowed upon the apostles and they became empowered to proclaim clearly the might works of God. John's gospel, however, also reports that Jesus breathed upon the disciples shortly after his resurrection appearance to some of the disciples in the locked room. Thus, we have the account, or traditions of the Spirit of God being poured out on the disciples, their commissioning or being "sent", and to forgive sins. It is the fitting conclusion of Jesus' farewell address to the disciples. He does return to be with them, and they receive the empowerment of Christ. In these events of the very early church there is a clear presentation that God's Spirit is given to them and is the power behind their work.
Historically in the church, the Feast of Pentecost became an appropriate day for baptisms and confirmations. These rites are moments in the lives of people when they too are being commissioned and initiated into the Church of God, and receive the Spirit of God to empower their lives to proclaim the wonder of God and be actively invested in the body of Christ. It is sometimes referred to as Whitsunday, or White Sunday, because the confirmands and those being baptized either wore, or became dressed in white.
I think it is interesting to understand what it meant in ancient times, and to the early church to receive the Spirit of God. This understanding will help us today to appreciate more clearly what it means for us to be people who live in the Spirit of God. In ancient times, God was seen anthropomorphically. That is, God was thought of in human terms. Even today some people still think of God as the mighty old man with the beard. There are passages in the Bible that speak of the face of God, or the arm of God. In Genesis, God walks in the garden of even in the evening breezes looking for the hiding Adam. In the Noah's Ark story God is seen as having a bow, and arrow. The lightning being his arrows, and the rainbow, God's bow for the arrows. Ancient people also perceived of the wind as God's Spirit or breath. God's breath was powerful indeed. Sometimes it was a gentle breeze, but it could also be mighty in hurricanes, tornadoes and windstorms. A hot wind or breath of God could blow the sea away to form the land. It could blow the streams, pools, and wells dry. In the Genesis story, when God forms Adam out of the clay. God breathes his breath or wind into Adam, and Adam becomes a living being. God breathes his holy spirit into Adam. The breath of God is empowering and brings life. Adam and Eve live and are empowered in the garden to care for it and claim it for God. Moses was given the wind or breath of God to part the Red Sea. When Elijah is hiding on Mt. Sinai (Ik19:11) God blows a mighty wind that spelits the rocks. The prophet Ezekiel (37) has a vision in which he prophesies to the wind, the breath of God, to blow upon the bones of a defeated nation and it comes to life again. Keep in mind too, that when there is no breath, no spirit, there is no life. When breathing stops so does life.
Now, this imagery is picked up in John's Gospel when Jesus appears in the locked room with his disciples. The disicples are locked in and frightened. There's not much in the way of fresh air or "breath" in that room. Then Jesus appears to them, tells them not to fear, "Peace be with you." He says to them, "As the Father has sent me so I send you." He breathes on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit. - (Spirit of God's empowerment which had been bestowed upon Jesus) - If you forgive the sins of any they are forgeen them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." He is bringing to life, this frightened motley crew, and empowering them with God's breath.
It is also helpful to understand that sins in this time were seen as caused by evil spirits or forces. Jesus is giving to his disciples the power to blow the evil spirits away with the spirit of God. Some people accepted the message of God through Christ and his church, others did not. Thus, sometimes evil spirits are retained. But the point is that the disciples are empowered with the Spirit of God to cast out, or blow away the evil winds or spirits that possess people. The breath of God in Christ blown upon the disciples brings them to new abundant and vital life as they continue the mission of Christ as his living body in the world.
Luke's account of the Spirit of God coming upon the apostle in Acts, is another way of conveying that the apostles became enlivened and empower with the breath of God and they were reaching people of all races and nations, conveying to them the mighty works and the love of God. God's Spirit is sent forth renewing the face of the earth (Ps.104), and blowing away that which is evil and destructive.
The pouring of the Spirit or breath of God upon the church was seen as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy in Joel 2:28-32. After a difficult time Joel writes:
"Afterward I will pour out my spirit on everyone; your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. At that time I will pour out my spirit even on servants, both men and women."
St. Paul saw the talents and gifts of the people in the church as the gifts and spirits that God had bestowed upon its members. Though at times they seemed at odds, Paul said that there was one spirit, and in their diversity, those who had received the Spirit of God could all be a part of the body of Christ. In the same way that there are many parts in the body of a person that have different functions, they work together for the common good of the whole body.
At Holy Baptism, we become through this Rite immersed into and made aware that God has breathed upon us, and within us. It is our initiation and awareness of our being a part of the body of Christ and the Family of God. While each of us are different in many ways we are called upon to bear witness to proclaim the mighty works of God, especially as they are revealed in the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. We must breathe in the breath of God revealed in Christ. We teach and love our children that they may grow in his grace. We breathe in the spirit of Christ so that we can live and move and proclaim our being as a loving caring community of God.
All of us have talents and gifts. Some preach sermons. Some teach Sunday School. Some people have an affection for visiting elderly people. Some are good with caring for, and communicating with children. Some are good at business, some at crafts. Some people are good at making things, fixing things. Some people are healers, good at nurturing and caring. Some are good at handiwork. Some are good at discerning what is just and right; some are prophetic in that sense. What we all have to ask ourselves as we live out our lives is what is God calling us to do with the gifts and talents that we have been given that proclaim the love and forgiveness of God in our world. How do we allow the breath of God to flow through us, and to blow away the evil spirits that possess human lives?
We are sophisticated enough today to know that the wind is not really God's breath. But we can also be sophisticated enough to know that God loves his world because that is basic to the meaning of Jesus' ministry. Jesus did not pick a whole crowd of orthodox rabbis to join him in his ministry, although he was likely to have been close to and influenced some, Nicodemus, maybe. Jesus saw in fishermen, tax collectors, militants or zealots, women the potential folk who had within them the Spirit of God. He evoked from them the best that was in them. They followed him as best they could. They were human as he was. They carried on supporting one another in all their various ways. They continued through the ages to allow the breath, the wind the spirit of God to surround them, and they breathed that spirit into themselves. They were not just involved in their specific church communities and synagogues. They were channels, spirited and spiritual pipe lines for the world. They see the world as the garden of God that needs cultivating with love and forgiveness.
God is present with us, we believe that as we see God revealed in Christ Jesus, and believe in that living presence of Godly love and acceptance. The Spirit of God is in our midst, if it were not we would quickly fade away.
Today we receive an infant, Margaux Anne, and an adult, Susan, into the household of God. We all also renew our own baptismal covenant. We are a part of the household or family of God. We proclaim and confess the faith of Christ who died for justice and to convey God's unwaivering love. We rejoice and proclaim how God's Spirit breathed live into him and he lives, and we share in his work as fellow servants.
Breathe on us Breath of God,
Fill us with life anew,
That we may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Hymn 508 - The Hymnal 1982
SEASON: Pentecost
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 23,1999
TEXT: John 20:19-23 - "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
See also: Acts 2:1-11 - And suddenly there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
See also: I Corinthians 12:4-13 - Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit . . . .
ISSUE: In ancient times, the wind was thought to be the very breath of God in anthropomorphic terms. It was the energy of God. In John, Jesus blows the breath of God upon the disciples, empowering them to blow away the breath of evil spirits (sins). In the Acts lesson, a second report is given of the Spirit or breath of God coming upon them to use their talents and gifts to reveal the might works of God. As Christians in the world today, this pentecostal experience reminds us all of the gifts and empowerments that God bestows upon us to discern our gifts that we may witness to God in the world.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today many Christians around the world celebrate the Feast of the Pentecost, a celebration that ranks with Christmas and Easter. The Feast of Pentecost was originally a Jewish feast that was celebrated 50 days (thus, Pentecost) after the Jewish Passover Feast. It was a harvest festival giving thanks to God for the first bountiful harvest of wheat, and it also was a time of reminiscence of the giving of the Commandments to Moses on Mt. Sinai. It celebrated God's people being in covenant, in relationship with God. At this pentecostal feast in Jerusalem it is reported in Luke's Acts of the Apostles, that God's spirit was bestowed upon the apostles and they became empowered to proclaim clearly the might works of God. John's gospel, however, also reports that Jesus breathed upon the disciples shortly after his resurrection appearance to some of the disciples in the locked room. Thus, we have the account, or traditions of the Spirit of God being poured out on the disciples, their commissioning or being "sent", and to forgive sins. It is the fitting conclusion of Jesus' farewell address to the disciples. He does return to be with them, and they receive the empowerment of Christ. In these events of the very early church there is a clear presentation that God's Spirit is given to them and is the power behind their work.
Historically in the church, the Feast of Pentecost became an appropriate day for baptisms and confirmations. These rites are moments in the lives of people when they too are being commissioned and initiated into the Church of God, and receive the Spirit of God to empower their lives to proclaim the wonder of God and be actively invested in the body of Christ. It is sometimes referred to as Whitsunday, or White Sunday, because the confirmands and those being baptized either wore, or became dressed in white.
I think it is interesting to understand what it meant in ancient times, and to the early church to receive the Spirit of God. This understanding will help us today to appreciate more clearly what it means for us to be people who live in the Spirit of God. In ancient times, God was seen anthropomorphically. That is, God was thought of in human terms. Even today some people still think of God as the mighty old man with the beard. There are passages in the Bible that speak of the face of God, or the arm of God. In Genesis, God walks in the garden of even in the evening breezes looking for the hiding Adam. In the Noah's Ark story God is seen as having a bow, and arrow. The lightning being his arrows, and the rainbow, God's bow for the arrows. Ancient people also perceived of the wind as God's Spirit or breath. God's breath was powerful indeed. Sometimes it was a gentle breeze, but it could also be mighty in hurricanes, tornadoes and windstorms. A hot wind or breath of God could blow the sea away to form the land. It could blow the streams, pools, and wells dry. In the Genesis story, when God forms Adam out of the clay. God breathes his breath or wind into Adam, and Adam becomes a living being. God breathes his holy spirit into Adam. The breath of God is empowering and brings life. Adam and Eve live and are empowered in the garden to care for it and claim it for God. Moses was given the wind or breath of God to part the Red Sea. When Elijah is hiding on Mt. Sinai (Ik19:11) God blows a mighty wind that spelits the rocks. The prophet Ezekiel (37) has a vision in which he prophesies to the wind, the breath of God, to blow upon the bones of a defeated nation and it comes to life again. Keep in mind too, that when there is no breath, no spirit, there is no life. When breathing stops so does life.
Now, this imagery is picked up in John's Gospel when Jesus appears in the locked room with his disciples. The disicples are locked in and frightened. There's not much in the way of fresh air or "breath" in that room. Then Jesus appears to them, tells them not to fear, "Peace be with you." He says to them, "As the Father has sent me so I send you." He breathes on them saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit. - (Spirit of God's empowerment which had been bestowed upon Jesus) - If you forgive the sins of any they are forgeen them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." He is bringing to life, this frightened motley crew, and empowering them with God's breath.
It is also helpful to understand that sins in this time were seen as caused by evil spirits or forces. Jesus is giving to his disciples the power to blow the evil spirits away with the spirit of God. Some people accepted the message of God through Christ and his church, others did not. Thus, sometimes evil spirits are retained. But the point is that the disciples are empowered with the Spirit of God to cast out, or blow away the evil winds or spirits that possess people. The breath of God in Christ blown upon the disciples brings them to new abundant and vital life as they continue the mission of Christ as his living body in the world.
Luke's account of the Spirit of God coming upon the apostle in Acts, is another way of conveying that the apostles became enlivened and empower with the breath of God and they were reaching people of all races and nations, conveying to them the mighty works and the love of God. God's Spirit is sent forth renewing the face of the earth (Ps.104), and blowing away that which is evil and destructive.
The pouring of the Spirit or breath of God upon the church was seen as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy in Joel 2:28-32. After a difficult time Joel writes:
"Afterward I will pour out my spirit on everyone; your sons and daughters will proclaim my message; your old men will have dreams, and your young men will see visions. At that time I will pour out my spirit even on servants, both men and women."
St. Paul saw the talents and gifts of the people in the church as the gifts and spirits that God had bestowed upon its members. Though at times they seemed at odds, Paul said that there was one spirit, and in their diversity, those who had received the Spirit of God could all be a part of the body of Christ. In the same way that there are many parts in the body of a person that have different functions, they work together for the common good of the whole body.
At Holy Baptism, we become through this Rite immersed into and made aware that God has breathed upon us, and within us. It is our initiation and awareness of our being a part of the body of Christ and the Family of God. While each of us are different in many ways we are called upon to bear witness to proclaim the mighty works of God, especially as they are revealed in the love and forgiveness of Jesus Christ. We must breathe in the breath of God revealed in Christ. We teach and love our children that they may grow in his grace. We breathe in the spirit of Christ so that we can live and move and proclaim our being as a loving caring community of God.
All of us have talents and gifts. Some preach sermons. Some teach Sunday School. Some people have an affection for visiting elderly people. Some are good with caring for, and communicating with children. Some are good at business, some at crafts. Some people are good at making things, fixing things. Some people are healers, good at nurturing and caring. Some are good at handiwork. Some are good at discerning what is just and right; some are prophetic in that sense. What we all have to ask ourselves as we live out our lives is what is God calling us to do with the gifts and talents that we have been given that proclaim the love and forgiveness of God in our world. How do we allow the breath of God to flow through us, and to blow away the evil spirits that possess human lives?
We are sophisticated enough today to know that the wind is not really God's breath. But we can also be sophisticated enough to know that God loves his world because that is basic to the meaning of Jesus' ministry. Jesus did not pick a whole crowd of orthodox rabbis to join him in his ministry, although he was likely to have been close to and influenced some, Nicodemus, maybe. Jesus saw in fishermen, tax collectors, militants or zealots, women the potential folk who had within them the Spirit of God. He evoked from them the best that was in them. They followed him as best they could. They were human as he was. They carried on supporting one another in all their various ways. They continued through the ages to allow the breath, the wind the spirit of God to surround them, and they breathed that spirit into themselves. They were not just involved in their specific church communities and synagogues. They were channels, spirited and spiritual pipe lines for the world. They see the world as the garden of God that needs cultivating with love and forgiveness.
God is present with us, we believe that as we see God revealed in Christ Jesus, and believe in that living presence of Godly love and acceptance. The Spirit of God is in our midst, if it were not we would quickly fade away.
Today we receive an infant, Margaux Anne, and an adult, Susan, into the household of God. We all also renew our own baptismal covenant. We are a part of the household or family of God. We proclaim and confess the faith of Christ who died for justice and to convey God's unwaivering love. We rejoice and proclaim how God's Spirit breathed live into him and he lives, and we share in his work as fellow servants.
Breathe on us Breath of God,
Fill us with life anew,
That we may love what Thou dost love,
And do what Thou wouldst do.
Hymn 508 - The Hymnal 1982
Sunday, May 16, 1999
Easter 7
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 7
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May16,1999
TEXT: John 17:1-11 - Farewell Discourse (cont.)
"And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. . . . . . . . . .Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
ISSUE: This high priestly prayer of Jesus is given to us by John's Gospel account. It is offered or written at a time of great anxiety in, and a time of great hostility for the early church disciples. John reveals that Jesus has glorified God. He has given enormous enlightment and a brilliant portrayal of God. Through Jesus one sees the likeness of God. What's more, the disciples are to be bonded to him, and to one another. He prays for their protection as the disciples now and in the future become uniquely those who carry on the work of Christ. They become the only Gospel that others may ever read.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The passage from John 17:1-11 is a continuation of the Farewell Address or Discourse of Jesus to his disciples. According to John this farewell situation is set in the context of the Last Supper that Jesus has with his disciples before his crucifixion. What we have in this reading today is a prayer that Jesus is now offering to God. As we try to understand this prayer, and that is not particularly easy to do because John is so mystical, it is important to remember that John was writing his Gospel nearly 70 years or so after Jesus' death and resurrection. It is not likely an exact verbatim of what Jesus said. It is more likely to be from oral tradition and a variety of sources. It could also be John's understanding of Jesus being cast in this form of prayer. John was writing to a small community of early Christians. Many of whom had been thrown out of their synagogues and thereby suffered loss of family, friends, and business contacts. Their very livelihood was threatened. The early persecutions of the church had begun. The eyewitnesses of the life and ministry of Jesus had by this time died off. There were other pagan influences threatening the early church. There were also separating factions within. St. Paul had written that some people saw themselves as followers of Peter, Cephas, Paul. It was a time of signficant uncertainty. John writes to this threatened early Chrisitian community what he believes Jesus would have said to his disciples at a time of very high anxiety prior to his own crucifixion.
It is a time for getting the message and meaning of Jesus' ministry clearly in focus. Let's get it straight and right. The time has come, it is a critical time in the ministry of Jesus as it was for John's early church community. It is time to Glorify the Son of God, in order that God may himself be glorified. Glory is not a familiar word for us. To glorify is to honor. It is to hold up to or be held in a bright light, a brilliance. What Jesus does in his ministry is to hold up to the light the truth about God. Jesus is clearly undistracted in his obedience and his effort to reveal that God is love and that God is full of compassion. He will even without hesitation accept crucifixion on the cross to bear witness to his unwaivering commitment to God the Father of love and compassion. Jesus in his obedience is glorified, held up to the light in his crucifixion to reveal the unwaivering obedience and commitment to the God of Love. At his resurrection, his being raised from death, God is glorified. God embraces the life and ministry of Jesus and holds it up for all to see that this Jesus was so closely related to the God of Love and Compassion that he is held up for all too see his honorable status.
John's Gospel reveals, in this passage, and also defines what eternal life is. He writes, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Popular religion defines eternal life as life going on and on and on. Eternal life for the early Christian community was to know God through Jesus Christ. Eternal life was a life with quality and meaning to it. To embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and as the one who gives access to the true God of love and compassion was to have a life with meaning and quality to it. To embrace God is to embrace love and compassion. It is to be truly human, and to be a reflection of God and to be in resonance with God in the life that you live. It is to be unique in an otherwise crazy world.
The second part of this prayer is Jesus' high priestly prayer for his disciples. The high priest of this period was the priest at the Jerusalem Temple who offered sacrifices and prayer on behalf of his people. In this prayer, Jesus offers prayer not only for himself that God should be honored and his obedient ministry. He also offers prayer on behalf of his disciples. He holds them up to the light of God for blessing and honor. Jesus had a profound appreciation for those who gave up so much to follow him, and to hear him, to listen, and to accept him. He would leave them now and he prayed for their protection as he left them in a hostile world to carry on the message and the work. Jesus saw this community of people as unique and wonderful people who carried on his message. John, as he wrote this passage, was trying to inform this early Christian community faced with persecution, and uncertainty that God's protection through Christ Jesus would be with them. It was a prayer and message of consolation and hope for an frightened and uncertain people. It was also a prayer statement of great admiration and respect for those who would obediently and confidently follow him, and continue in his way.
Now, I must admit to you that I sometimes find John's Gospel to be difficult to get a handle on. His style is sometimes hard to appreciate and his way of saying things tedious. It is the most spiritual and mystic of all the gospels. That in itself is hard for modern Americans. But what we have here in this reading this morning is essentially a passage which holds up God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Son to the light. It reminds us to keep our lives clearly focused upon God, to honor God, and embace and respect and study the message of love and compassion of Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the Scriptures. There are those wonderful sayings and parables that challenge the listener to be changed and aware that often the ways of God are quite different from the popular ways of the world: Making the last be first and the first last is a reminder that Jesus was often trying to turn things around.
What is also important in our appreciation of this passage is that Jesus saw his church, his people, as a unique people in the world who were to continue in carrying on the message. Often our perception of the church today is that it is a large group of people carrying on the work of Christ. I am not particularly convinced that we are really as large as we think ourselves to be, at least in terms of people genuinely committed and aware of the real message of God in Christ. Human beings are easily distracted and philosophies and easy popular religious notions infect our fellowship. Nominal Christianity, that is, fringe believers are not always as well versed in the true essence and essential meaning of the Gospel of Christ. You get a lot of folk-like understanding of the Gospel, the golden rule philosophy, as opposed to the more radical calls of Jesus to resist the world and make dramatic changes in our lives.
The passage from John today reminds the church of today of its uniqueness in the world. In a world where there is often a great disrespect for human life: the community of Christ holds life to be precious, and every the life of every human being to be respected with dignity. The community of Christ holds mercy and compassion to be more important than rigid laws, more acceptable than revenge and violence. The community of Christ's faithful hold love to be a supreme value in face of a world of indifference, conflict, hostility, hatred, prejudice. The church has not always been good at this, sometimes supporting racial hatred and conflict. We are not perfect, and world issues can be very confusing. We do not wish to see Abanians murdered by corrupt regimes. It is also hard to support cruel bombing that gets out of hand, and a violence which becomes the easy and only solution to every world problem. Yet, whenever we grasp Jesus Christ truly as our Lord, studying the message of Scripture, we have something helpful and hopeful to say to the world.
The union of Jesus with God is unique. Jesus led the way to the Father. He revealed and renewed a profound understanding of the mercy and compassion of God for his creation and his people. There is a real bond and a clearly lighted manifestation of the magnificent love of God for the world. We too who live in a world of uncertainties, anxieties, fears are prayed for and honored by Christ. He calls us into the bonding, and to be the continuing voice and message of hope in the world. He promises that God's Holy Spirit is with us. We must not underestimate what it means to be the people of God, the church in the world today. We offer the God of love to the lost, the last, and the least. To all who are oppressed and down trodden, to all who are empty and feel themselves to be meaningless, we through Christ offer eternal life, quality of life, and meaning, hope. We are one with Christ, and we must not let that slip away from who we are, and what we are about.
Jesus glorified God. He held God up to the light for all to see the True God of Love. Through his teaching, prayer life, his healing, obedient crucifixion and resurrection, God held Jesus up to the light, glorifying him as the Way, the truth, and Life. Christ holds up all who believe and trust and walk in the light to be held in honor as well. May we continue to know our calling and to walk in that light that Christ bestows upon us.
SEASON: Easter 7
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May16,1999
TEXT: John 17:1-11 - Farewell Discourse (cont.)
"And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. . . . . . . . . .Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one."
ISSUE: This high priestly prayer of Jesus is given to us by John's Gospel account. It is offered or written at a time of great anxiety in, and a time of great hostility for the early church disciples. John reveals that Jesus has glorified God. He has given enormous enlightment and a brilliant portrayal of God. Through Jesus one sees the likeness of God. What's more, the disciples are to be bonded to him, and to one another. He prays for their protection as the disciples now and in the future become uniquely those who carry on the work of Christ. They become the only Gospel that others may ever read.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The passage from John 17:1-11 is a continuation of the Farewell Address or Discourse of Jesus to his disciples. According to John this farewell situation is set in the context of the Last Supper that Jesus has with his disciples before his crucifixion. What we have in this reading today is a prayer that Jesus is now offering to God. As we try to understand this prayer, and that is not particularly easy to do because John is so mystical, it is important to remember that John was writing his Gospel nearly 70 years or so after Jesus' death and resurrection. It is not likely an exact verbatim of what Jesus said. It is more likely to be from oral tradition and a variety of sources. It could also be John's understanding of Jesus being cast in this form of prayer. John was writing to a small community of early Christians. Many of whom had been thrown out of their synagogues and thereby suffered loss of family, friends, and business contacts. Their very livelihood was threatened. The early persecutions of the church had begun. The eyewitnesses of the life and ministry of Jesus had by this time died off. There were other pagan influences threatening the early church. There were also separating factions within. St. Paul had written that some people saw themselves as followers of Peter, Cephas, Paul. It was a time of signficant uncertainty. John writes to this threatened early Chrisitian community what he believes Jesus would have said to his disciples at a time of very high anxiety prior to his own crucifixion.
It is a time for getting the message and meaning of Jesus' ministry clearly in focus. Let's get it straight and right. The time has come, it is a critical time in the ministry of Jesus as it was for John's early church community. It is time to Glorify the Son of God, in order that God may himself be glorified. Glory is not a familiar word for us. To glorify is to honor. It is to hold up to or be held in a bright light, a brilliance. What Jesus does in his ministry is to hold up to the light the truth about God. Jesus is clearly undistracted in his obedience and his effort to reveal that God is love and that God is full of compassion. He will even without hesitation accept crucifixion on the cross to bear witness to his unwaivering commitment to God the Father of love and compassion. Jesus in his obedience is glorified, held up to the light in his crucifixion to reveal the unwaivering obedience and commitment to the God of Love. At his resurrection, his being raised from death, God is glorified. God embraces the life and ministry of Jesus and holds it up for all to see that this Jesus was so closely related to the God of Love and Compassion that he is held up for all too see his honorable status.
John's Gospel reveals, in this passage, and also defines what eternal life is. He writes, "And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Popular religion defines eternal life as life going on and on and on. Eternal life for the early Christian community was to know God through Jesus Christ. Eternal life was a life with quality and meaning to it. To embrace Jesus Christ as Lord and as the one who gives access to the true God of love and compassion was to have a life with meaning and quality to it. To embrace God is to embrace love and compassion. It is to be truly human, and to be a reflection of God and to be in resonance with God in the life that you live. It is to be unique in an otherwise crazy world.
The second part of this prayer is Jesus' high priestly prayer for his disciples. The high priest of this period was the priest at the Jerusalem Temple who offered sacrifices and prayer on behalf of his people. In this prayer, Jesus offers prayer not only for himself that God should be honored and his obedient ministry. He also offers prayer on behalf of his disciples. He holds them up to the light of God for blessing and honor. Jesus had a profound appreciation for those who gave up so much to follow him, and to hear him, to listen, and to accept him. He would leave them now and he prayed for their protection as he left them in a hostile world to carry on the message and the work. Jesus saw this community of people as unique and wonderful people who carried on his message. John, as he wrote this passage, was trying to inform this early Christian community faced with persecution, and uncertainty that God's protection through Christ Jesus would be with them. It was a prayer and message of consolation and hope for an frightened and uncertain people. It was also a prayer statement of great admiration and respect for those who would obediently and confidently follow him, and continue in his way.
Now, I must admit to you that I sometimes find John's Gospel to be difficult to get a handle on. His style is sometimes hard to appreciate and his way of saying things tedious. It is the most spiritual and mystic of all the gospels. That in itself is hard for modern Americans. But what we have here in this reading this morning is essentially a passage which holds up God the Father, and Jesus Christ the Son to the light. It reminds us to keep our lives clearly focused upon God, to honor God, and embace and respect and study the message of love and compassion of Jesus Christ as it is revealed in the Scriptures. There are those wonderful sayings and parables that challenge the listener to be changed and aware that often the ways of God are quite different from the popular ways of the world: Making the last be first and the first last is a reminder that Jesus was often trying to turn things around.
What is also important in our appreciation of this passage is that Jesus saw his church, his people, as a unique people in the world who were to continue in carrying on the message. Often our perception of the church today is that it is a large group of people carrying on the work of Christ. I am not particularly convinced that we are really as large as we think ourselves to be, at least in terms of people genuinely committed and aware of the real message of God in Christ. Human beings are easily distracted and philosophies and easy popular religious notions infect our fellowship. Nominal Christianity, that is, fringe believers are not always as well versed in the true essence and essential meaning of the Gospel of Christ. You get a lot of folk-like understanding of the Gospel, the golden rule philosophy, as opposed to the more radical calls of Jesus to resist the world and make dramatic changes in our lives.
The passage from John today reminds the church of today of its uniqueness in the world. In a world where there is often a great disrespect for human life: the community of Christ holds life to be precious, and every the life of every human being to be respected with dignity. The community of Christ holds mercy and compassion to be more important than rigid laws, more acceptable than revenge and violence. The community of Christ's faithful hold love to be a supreme value in face of a world of indifference, conflict, hostility, hatred, prejudice. The church has not always been good at this, sometimes supporting racial hatred and conflict. We are not perfect, and world issues can be very confusing. We do not wish to see Abanians murdered by corrupt regimes. It is also hard to support cruel bombing that gets out of hand, and a violence which becomes the easy and only solution to every world problem. Yet, whenever we grasp Jesus Christ truly as our Lord, studying the message of Scripture, we have something helpful and hopeful to say to the world.
The union of Jesus with God is unique. Jesus led the way to the Father. He revealed and renewed a profound understanding of the mercy and compassion of God for his creation and his people. There is a real bond and a clearly lighted manifestation of the magnificent love of God for the world. We too who live in a world of uncertainties, anxieties, fears are prayed for and honored by Christ. He calls us into the bonding, and to be the continuing voice and message of hope in the world. He promises that God's Holy Spirit is with us. We must not underestimate what it means to be the people of God, the church in the world today. We offer the God of love to the lost, the last, and the least. To all who are oppressed and down trodden, to all who are empty and feel themselves to be meaningless, we through Christ offer eternal life, quality of life, and meaning, hope. We are one with Christ, and we must not let that slip away from who we are, and what we are about.
Jesus glorified God. He held God up to the light for all to see the True God of Love. Through his teaching, prayer life, his healing, obedient crucifixion and resurrection, God held Jesus up to the light, glorifying him as the Way, the truth, and Life. Christ holds up all who believe and trust and walk in the light to be held in honor as well. May we continue to know our calling and to walk in that light that Christ bestows upon us.
Sunday, May 9, 1999
Easter 6
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 6
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 9, 1999
TEXT: John 15:1-8 - "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. . . . . . Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
ISSUE: Jesus is the true vine, that is, he is the new Israel. What Israel has failed to do Jesus does. He reveals and lives out the glory of God which is what it means to bear fruit. Just as a client in the Middle Eastern Patronage system was to do, honor the patron. Jesus honors the Father. He encourages his disciples to join in honoring God. Today the world needs to know of God, and to honor his Holy Name and ways.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Farewell Address of Jesus to his disciples continues in John's account of the Gospel. In this section of the farewell discourse John has Jesus referring to himself as The True Vine. John has Jesus say, "I am the true vine." The disciples and John's community of early Christians are seen as the "branches of the vine" who are to bear good fruit. It is a beautiful metaphor, but we must be careful not to be too simplistic about what it means, lest we minimize it, and have people believe - as popular secular religion does - that all you need to do as a Christian is to do good works.
When Jesus says, "I am the true vine." several unique images would have been triggered in their minds. Common to the Gospel of John are several so called "I AM" statements. Jesus reportedly says: I am the Bread of Life. I am the Light of the World. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Door. I am the Gate. These were for the people of this time, especially the Jewish community very profound statements. The name of God in the Hebrew language was Yahweh. Yahweh meant basically, "I AM," being. God is the subject and predicate of all things. God is the Bread of Life, the Light, the Door, the Shepherd, etc., and Jesus reveals and is revealing in these statements the very Glory of God. The "I AM" statements for the early church bound Jesus together with God, it was a closely knit relationship. When he says, "I AM the true vine," this statement got people's attention.
Another thing important to understand that the imagery or metaphor of the "vine" would also get people's attention, and it would have reminded these people of some very profound parables and beliefs in the Hebrew Scriptures, Old Testament, writings. Israel and Judah, the Jewish people, were thought to be God's vine to bear fruit in the world. In Psalm 80: 8-15, Israel is seen to be God's vine saved from slavery in Egypt and planted in the Promised Land. Israel was to bear fruit for the world. Isaiah 5:1-7 writes, "Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted." Also, the prophet Jeremiah wrote: "I planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. But look what you have become! You are like a rotten worthless vine." The imagery here portrays the people of God as being God's vine, but because of their unfaithfulness and turning to false gods, they bore sour grapes and did not bear good fruit.
Jesus then is portrayed by John's Gospel account as the True Vine. He is the new vine to bear fruit in the world. Those who are faithful are invited into solidarity and fruitfulness with him. It is at this point that we begin to appreciate what it means to bear fruit. It is not merely doing good works. It is honoring God.
Jesus was known for doing some good things. But he was not really a social worker, although he embraced the poor, had a healing ministry, and did what we call some good things. What the ministry of Jesus was essentially about was honoring and revealing the accessibility of God to all disenfranchised people, as the available God of Love and God of Forgiveness. Where the first vine failed to truly honor God, Jesus does honor God through his obedience and the calling a fellowship into solidarity with God. God is the vinedresser, Jesus the vine, and the community in solidarity with him are the branches. Life for the depends upon that relationship with God the Father.
To fully appreciate what it means for Jesus to be the true vine and the church to be the branches, you need also to understand the first century Middle Eastern and Roman culture. In this time the very large majority of people were very poor. The poor were often dependent upon the small wealthier class for special favors such as for jobs, land, goods, funds, or for some position of power. Life was for some dependent upon your patron. In some instances there was a broker who would enable the poor clients to find or become associated with the appropriate patron. In some instances a city official served as a broker. Since it was not always possible because of the poverty to pay back the patron who provided certain favors, the client or poor would honor them, and speak well of them, and refer to the broker and\or the patron as their friend. A person's honor was so important in this culture, so the poor gave to their patron great honor, increasing thier prestige and connection of friends.
Out of this kind of cultural background, God was seen as the ultimate Patron. Jesus was God's broker. In the falleness, the brokeness of the community and the human condition, in a time of persecution, anxiety, and weak government, people of the dearly Christian community looked to God for God's favor. Jesus reveals the presence, the loveliness, the generosity, and the abundance of God's love for his creation. In the spiritual poverty of the human condition, the abundance of God's freely given love for his people is seen as grace, the unearned and gracious gift of God, for which we have no means to repay. (When we talk of "God's grace" in the world today, people don't understand that, because our cultural structure is different.) What, however, we can do is to be faithful and to honor God, so speak of God with tones and worship of great Thanksgiving. American culture likes to pay back and to think of ourselves as self-made men and women who don't owe anybody anything. If we owe God anything we think in terms of doing good deeds. Well, and good, but it is also presumptuous to think we can pay back God merely by good works for the Gift of Life and Breath, for the beauty of the world, for Forgiveness, and Consciousness, and Memory, and Reason and Skillfulness with a few good deeds. We as the followers of Jesus Christ who reveals the Glory of God to us owe God Honor and Thanksgiving and Praise, not just good works and deeds.
God is the Vinedresser, the one who provides and cultivates the vine. The true vine is Jesus Christ. He is the broker of God, who like a vine infiltrates the spiritual needy world. We are the branches of the vine of Christ called upon to bear fruit, that is, to honor God abundantly. In the imagery of the Vine, Israel was supposed to honor God but failed frequently in that mission. Jesus becomes to New and True Vine, and the work of the branches, the church today is to honor God's holy name for God's continuing grace.
In the reading from Acts 17:22:31 today, Paul honors God, not by great deeds, but by telling the Athenians people who have worshipped many gods of the unknown God, the God that have not known. Paul bearing fruit begins to honor the Great Patron Father God as he speaks of the Glory of God.
Today our country celebrates Mother's Day. We know only too well that usually our mothers endured much for each of us. Our gifts to them are often inadequate in comparison. How do you repay someone who has given us life, but to honor them. Is that not more certainly true of our relationship with God who gives life in all of its abundance. That fact is often forgotten, as we become distracted by the world and its demands. Jesus Christ came into the world to get our attention once again, to honor the Father, and to call us back to the source, and he calls us into the family of God, into union, solidarity, and fellowship. He is the Vine, and we are the intimately connected branches to bear fruit in terms of honoring and glorifying God.
Surely we all know that something in our world, in our culture is missing. It is a very prosperous time, but a time of great cruelty, prejudice, hatred, unkindness, ethnic cleansing, power-plays, treacherous terrorism. It is a world broken away from the source of love and creation. It is a world seemingly cut-off from its original source. It's not enough to be nice and do good things alone. We, in intimate union with the Lord of Love, and Prince of Peace, need to speak and live glowingly of the God, who has given to us all more than we could ever desire or pray for. We worship and adore and that's extremely important. Through worship, adoration, thanksgiving, prayer we become united with Christ to be the infiltrating vine that permeates the spiritual hunger and depravity of the world with the fruit that honors the Glory of God and his renewing, restoring, and reconciling way. Jesus' farewell to his people is to see him as the infiltrating, meandering, life giving spiritued vine, the source of their sustenance, and to join him in bearing the fruit that honors God in a godless world. And it is only in that intimate relationship with him, that we can doing anything of worth or to see the value in our own lives.
SEASON: Easter 6
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 9, 1999
TEXT: John 15:1-8 - "I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. . . . . . Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.
ISSUE: Jesus is the true vine, that is, he is the new Israel. What Israel has failed to do Jesus does. He reveals and lives out the glory of God which is what it means to bear fruit. Just as a client in the Middle Eastern Patronage system was to do, honor the patron. Jesus honors the Father. He encourages his disciples to join in honoring God. Today the world needs to know of God, and to honor his Holy Name and ways.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Farewell Address of Jesus to his disciples continues in John's account of the Gospel. In this section of the farewell discourse John has Jesus referring to himself as The True Vine. John has Jesus say, "I am the true vine." The disciples and John's community of early Christians are seen as the "branches of the vine" who are to bear good fruit. It is a beautiful metaphor, but we must be careful not to be too simplistic about what it means, lest we minimize it, and have people believe - as popular secular religion does - that all you need to do as a Christian is to do good works.
When Jesus says, "I am the true vine." several unique images would have been triggered in their minds. Common to the Gospel of John are several so called "I AM" statements. Jesus reportedly says: I am the Bread of Life. I am the Light of the World. I am the Good Shepherd. I am the Door. I am the Gate. These were for the people of this time, especially the Jewish community very profound statements. The name of God in the Hebrew language was Yahweh. Yahweh meant basically, "I AM," being. God is the subject and predicate of all things. God is the Bread of Life, the Light, the Door, the Shepherd, etc., and Jesus reveals and is revealing in these statements the very Glory of God. The "I AM" statements for the early church bound Jesus together with God, it was a closely knit relationship. When he says, "I AM the true vine," this statement got people's attention.
Another thing important to understand that the imagery or metaphor of the "vine" would also get people's attention, and it would have reminded these people of some very profound parables and beliefs in the Hebrew Scriptures, Old Testament, writings. Israel and Judah, the Jewish people, were thought to be God's vine to bear fruit in the world. In Psalm 80: 8-15, Israel is seen to be God's vine saved from slavery in Egypt and planted in the Promised Land. Israel was to bear fruit for the world. Isaiah 5:1-7 writes, "Israel is the vineyard of the Lord Almighty; the people of Judah are the vines he planted." Also, the prophet Jeremiah wrote: "I planted you like a choice vine from the very best seed. But look what you have become! You are like a rotten worthless vine." The imagery here portrays the people of God as being God's vine, but because of their unfaithfulness and turning to false gods, they bore sour grapes and did not bear good fruit.
Jesus then is portrayed by John's Gospel account as the True Vine. He is the new vine to bear fruit in the world. Those who are faithful are invited into solidarity and fruitfulness with him. It is at this point that we begin to appreciate what it means to bear fruit. It is not merely doing good works. It is honoring God.
Jesus was known for doing some good things. But he was not really a social worker, although he embraced the poor, had a healing ministry, and did what we call some good things. What the ministry of Jesus was essentially about was honoring and revealing the accessibility of God to all disenfranchised people, as the available God of Love and God of Forgiveness. Where the first vine failed to truly honor God, Jesus does honor God through his obedience and the calling a fellowship into solidarity with God. God is the vinedresser, Jesus the vine, and the community in solidarity with him are the branches. Life for the depends upon that relationship with God the Father.
To fully appreciate what it means for Jesus to be the true vine and the church to be the branches, you need also to understand the first century Middle Eastern and Roman culture. In this time the very large majority of people were very poor. The poor were often dependent upon the small wealthier class for special favors such as for jobs, land, goods, funds, or for some position of power. Life was for some dependent upon your patron. In some instances there was a broker who would enable the poor clients to find or become associated with the appropriate patron. In some instances a city official served as a broker. Since it was not always possible because of the poverty to pay back the patron who provided certain favors, the client or poor would honor them, and speak well of them, and refer to the broker and\or the patron as their friend. A person's honor was so important in this culture, so the poor gave to their patron great honor, increasing thier prestige and connection of friends.
Out of this kind of cultural background, God was seen as the ultimate Patron. Jesus was God's broker. In the falleness, the brokeness of the community and the human condition, in a time of persecution, anxiety, and weak government, people of the dearly Christian community looked to God for God's favor. Jesus reveals the presence, the loveliness, the generosity, and the abundance of God's love for his creation. In the spiritual poverty of the human condition, the abundance of God's freely given love for his people is seen as grace, the unearned and gracious gift of God, for which we have no means to repay. (When we talk of "God's grace" in the world today, people don't understand that, because our cultural structure is different.) What, however, we can do is to be faithful and to honor God, so speak of God with tones and worship of great Thanksgiving. American culture likes to pay back and to think of ourselves as self-made men and women who don't owe anybody anything. If we owe God anything we think in terms of doing good deeds. Well, and good, but it is also presumptuous to think we can pay back God merely by good works for the Gift of Life and Breath, for the beauty of the world, for Forgiveness, and Consciousness, and Memory, and Reason and Skillfulness with a few good deeds. We as the followers of Jesus Christ who reveals the Glory of God to us owe God Honor and Thanksgiving and Praise, not just good works and deeds.
God is the Vinedresser, the one who provides and cultivates the vine. The true vine is Jesus Christ. He is the broker of God, who like a vine infiltrates the spiritual needy world. We are the branches of the vine of Christ called upon to bear fruit, that is, to honor God abundantly. In the imagery of the Vine, Israel was supposed to honor God but failed frequently in that mission. Jesus becomes to New and True Vine, and the work of the branches, the church today is to honor God's holy name for God's continuing grace.
In the reading from Acts 17:22:31 today, Paul honors God, not by great deeds, but by telling the Athenians people who have worshipped many gods of the unknown God, the God that have not known. Paul bearing fruit begins to honor the Great Patron Father God as he speaks of the Glory of God.
Today our country celebrates Mother's Day. We know only too well that usually our mothers endured much for each of us. Our gifts to them are often inadequate in comparison. How do you repay someone who has given us life, but to honor them. Is that not more certainly true of our relationship with God who gives life in all of its abundance. That fact is often forgotten, as we become distracted by the world and its demands. Jesus Christ came into the world to get our attention once again, to honor the Father, and to call us back to the source, and he calls us into the family of God, into union, solidarity, and fellowship. He is the Vine, and we are the intimately connected branches to bear fruit in terms of honoring and glorifying God.
Surely we all know that something in our world, in our culture is missing. It is a very prosperous time, but a time of great cruelty, prejudice, hatred, unkindness, ethnic cleansing, power-plays, treacherous terrorism. It is a world broken away from the source of love and creation. It is a world seemingly cut-off from its original source. It's not enough to be nice and do good things alone. We, in intimate union with the Lord of Love, and Prince of Peace, need to speak and live glowingly of the God, who has given to us all more than we could ever desire or pray for. We worship and adore and that's extremely important. Through worship, adoration, thanksgiving, prayer we become united with Christ to be the infiltrating vine that permeates the spiritual hunger and depravity of the world with the fruit that honors the Glory of God and his renewing, restoring, and reconciling way. Jesus' farewell to his people is to see him as the infiltrating, meandering, life giving spiritued vine, the source of their sustenance, and to join him in bearing the fruit that honors God in a godless world. And it is only in that intimate relationship with him, that we can doing anything of worth or to see the value in our own lives.
Sunday, May 2, 1999
Easter 5
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 2, 1999
TEXT: John 14:1-14 - Jesus' Farewell Discourse (Section)
"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works then these, because I am going to the Father."
ISSUE: Jesus work is to bring God's people to the Father. They like himself are to be at one with the Father. In this relationship they are able to do significant works as Jesus himself had done. This passage addresses a very idfficult time for the early church. Jesus' farewell address is providing assurance and hope. His people presently dwell in peace with him if they accept him as Lord, and as the way to the Father. They'll never be abandoned. It is a message for our world in a period of great anxiety. We find in Christ the way and what is truly authentic and meaningful. Maintain a relationship with Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from the Gospel of John is a passage which is taken from what is called "The Farewell Address" of Jesus to his disciples. We have a portion of it read this morning. Farewell addresses are fairly common in the Bible. Jacob when he is near death, makes a farewell address in Genesis 49 to all of his twelve sons. Moses in Deuteronomy 31-33 makes a farewell address to his people before his death, and before the people cross the Jordon River into the Promised Land. Paul gives a farewell address in Acts 20. They tell usually what must be watched for and guarded against in the future. They are something like pep-talks to the troops. So John tells us some of what he believes are last words, or what he thought Jesus may have said Jesus to his disciples in his Farewell Address, in his last days before his death.
The Farewell portion of the address that we read today is in the true Johannine style. It is addressed to two disciples: Thomas and Philip. Thomas is Jewish, and Philip is Greek, and thus it is an address to both significant cultures of the period. True to the Johannine style both disciples appear to be dense, and express lack of understanding. Remember some of the other recent passages of John that we've read. Nicodemus did not understand how to be born again, and did you have to get back into mother's womb. The woman at the well could not understand how Jesus could be living water. Did that mean she would not have to come to the well again? The healing of the blindman is not aware of what has happened to himself, and has to encounter Jesus a second time to know that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
In this passage, Jesus says to Thomas that he will go away for a time, and that the disciples will follow. But Thomas becomes very anxious declaring, "Lord, we do not knowwhere you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus has to reassure Thomas with his words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father expect by me." Philip also who has been very close to Jesus, brings another disciple, Nathaniel to him. But Philip, similar to Thomas who cannot imagine where they would find enough bread at the feeding of the multitude, asks Jesus to show them the Father. And Jesus somewhat impatiently must say, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." You get the impression that Jesus wants to shake these guys into a greater awareness of what is going on, and what they have been up to. They have a hard time catching on.
As we read and study passages like this one we have to keep in mind what was going in this early Christian Community, when John was addressing his community.
1. All the eyewitnesses to Jesus' life and ministry were gone. It was imperative that true faithfulness be an essential part of the community's life together. There were dissentions within the church itself.
2. It was clear that in the Jewish community it was being declared that anyone who believed Jesus to be the Messiah were being thrown out of the synagogues. This excommunication was a significant threat to people's livelihood. To be excommunicated was to lose family ties, and to lose economic business connections, and I suppose to lose honor and standing in the community.
3. There were influences on the early church from the Greek and Roman cultures that included superstitions and questionable beliefs unrelated to the life and ministry of Jesus.
4. It was also a time when the early church was beginning to feel the pain of outright persecution for their beliefs.
Thus, John is writing in a style that works at repeating and clarifying, and saying things sometimes in an almost repetitious way to solidify the church's beliefs and to keep clarifying for newcomers entering the community.
As the passage reveals itself you see Thomas as a symbol of a very anxious community. But John is telling that anxious community: Though Jesus has died and goes away, his work has been to reassure his people that God has a place for them. That God will not abandon them. Jesus died, was crucified, rose again, and appeared to them. He is the living Lord and there is plenty of room for them. Though the world may reject them, i.e. their excommuniction, God has room for all, and takes all into his family. God, Yahweh, is the Father of the family. Jesus is the truth about God. Jesus is the Way to God, and through him you have life, inspite of your fear of death. Remain faithful and be assured.
Philip also somewhat dense, but John is impressing upon the community through Philip's questioning "Show us the Father." How do we know the Father? How do we know God is with us? The answer is that if you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father. Jesus is the expression, the incarnation of God, the enfleshment of God into human existence. Look at him, believe in him, and pay attention to what he has done. Be aware of the work that Jesus has done. Jesus is the full expression of God's love. He is redemption, the buying back of his people. Not a soul is lost from God, because Jesus has come to reclaim the creation for God.
Look at what Jesus has done. He is the profound expression of God's love in this sacrifice upon the cross. He dies for the world to see that he loves the world of God's creation. His ministry has been one of a healer, and one who enlightens the blind. He loves the least, the last, the lost, and restores them to a place of honor and dignity in the eyes of God. Jesus is a lover of true justice and works for justice among his people. Note the parables in which he honors and loves those who are beaten and down trodden. He calls for the last to be first. He calls for transformation of human existence and of the world of this time.
It is clear for John that if you accept Jesus Christ as Lord, if you see in him a whole new way of life. If you see in him the truth about God, God is love and grace, then you have life and hope without end. He calls his community into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the restoration and the renewing family of God. Those who embrace and trust Jesus as Lord, who accept his love and forgiveness and live that way, will become able to do what he did and more. They are, in fact, called into partnership. The love that John is talking about is the love of Jesus Christ that transforms people, and that gives them peace and hope, and an assurance in view of their terrible anxiety and uncertainty. Jesus is the expression of God. He is the hope that God is present and cares. He calls them each by name and loves them, and reassures them.
This teaching is often greatly misunderstood by our culture, and popular religion. Many people have come to believe that Jesus comes to the world and does some good things, dies on a cross, gets resurrected, and ascends to heaven somewhere in outer space to build a gigantic motel for good people. That is not the meaning of this passage, for John's time or for ours. The point is that Jesus lived and died and came back resurrected to reassure the faithful community that God continues to live and be with his people, and that there is ample room in the Kingdom of God, now! Here in this present time. God in Christ and through Christ is with us.
The world we live in today is tricky, and we must be careful what we believe. We have never known a time in history when, at least in this country, there has been so much prosperity. Success and prosperity has often been the measure of godliness in the world. But our prosperity has not really saved us. It is also a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. It is an age so complex that it is particularly difficult to know the answers to some of the problems, issues, and involvements of the world. We hardly know what to believe. Our country is now engaged in a war and we hardly know what to make of it. We do not want to see peoples discriminated against, or murdered, bacause of their race or economic or religious beliefs. On the other hand we seem to become easily involved in using tremendous force through bombing, as a kind of solution to every problem. We can't get at finding ways to negotiate understanding and peace.
We have seen as a result of only two very sick teenage children in the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, raise the anxiety level of this country to a phenomenal level. It knocked the war in Kosov right off the networks for several days. It raised all kinds of anxieties over gun control issues, over appropriate kinds of video games. It raises the issues of how can we be safe in such a violent world in which we all seem so vulnerable. It raises the issue of whether or not both parents in homes where there are children should be working full time. It raises the issues of what is the place of the church and the Sunday School in the world. We are confronted with what may well seem to be a tremendous failure, and a lack of influence on the world.
People and especially children have never before in history been so exposed to pornography, sex, bombs, racial hate, terrorism, drugs and alcohol like the world we know today. The wonderful and awesome internet has come upon us, and nearly everything that is good, and that is so very bad is at the finger tips of everyone of us. What are we to do?
What is the truth for us? What is the way for us? How do we find God. How do we re-enter into the family of God in the awful age of great anxiety. The foundations of our lives are shaken, aren't they? We have difficulty in finding what to hold on to. The very idea that someday when we die there is heaven in the sky is not a satisfactory response to our basic human need.
Jesus said to Thomas who was really quite anxious, as we are. I'll be gone awhile through my dying and sacrificial love. But my work is to assure you and to prepare a place for each of you, and I will come again and you will see me risen and alive. Trust that my way of love and forgiveness, my way of healing and restoring is the way of God. Trust that I am authentically the truth about God, and the way to God, and you will have life, life without fear.
Philip said in his anxiety: How do we know the Father, how do we know God. Jesus said to him if you have seen me, and know that I am with you, you have seen God, you see the Father.
The world, along with ourselves, may well know fear and anxiety. Yet, we have a faith that calls us to trust that God is still with us. That God is with us. Embrace the Christ, embrace the Father, be in relationship with him and with one another. Be in union and love with one another. Carry on in the light of Christ and there will be healing, hope, and peace. We may not know all the answers. We may still be confused about the world. But we shall be in the Kingdom of God do our work with Christ, as the body of Christ, transforming the world into the Garden of God.
SEASON: Easter 5
PROPER: A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: May 2, 1999
TEXT: John 14:1-14 - Jesus' Farewell Discourse (Section)
"Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works then these, because I am going to the Father."
ISSUE: Jesus work is to bring God's people to the Father. They like himself are to be at one with the Father. In this relationship they are able to do significant works as Jesus himself had done. This passage addresses a very idfficult time for the early church. Jesus' farewell address is providing assurance and hope. His people presently dwell in peace with him if they accept him as Lord, and as the way to the Father. They'll never be abandoned. It is a message for our world in a period of great anxiety. We find in Christ the way and what is truly authentic and meaningful. Maintain a relationship with Jesus Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today's reading from the Gospel of John is a passage which is taken from what is called "The Farewell Address" of Jesus to his disciples. We have a portion of it read this morning. Farewell addresses are fairly common in the Bible. Jacob when he is near death, makes a farewell address in Genesis 49 to all of his twelve sons. Moses in Deuteronomy 31-33 makes a farewell address to his people before his death, and before the people cross the Jordon River into the Promised Land. Paul gives a farewell address in Acts 20. They tell usually what must be watched for and guarded against in the future. They are something like pep-talks to the troops. So John tells us some of what he believes are last words, or what he thought Jesus may have said Jesus to his disciples in his Farewell Address, in his last days before his death.
The Farewell portion of the address that we read today is in the true Johannine style. It is addressed to two disciples: Thomas and Philip. Thomas is Jewish, and Philip is Greek, and thus it is an address to both significant cultures of the period. True to the Johannine style both disciples appear to be dense, and express lack of understanding. Remember some of the other recent passages of John that we've read. Nicodemus did not understand how to be born again, and did you have to get back into mother's womb. The woman at the well could not understand how Jesus could be living water. Did that mean she would not have to come to the well again? The healing of the blindman is not aware of what has happened to himself, and has to encounter Jesus a second time to know that he is the Messiah, the Son of God.
In this passage, Jesus says to Thomas that he will go away for a time, and that the disciples will follow. But Thomas becomes very anxious declaring, "Lord, we do not knowwhere you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus has to reassure Thomas with his words: "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father expect by me." Philip also who has been very close to Jesus, brings another disciple, Nathaniel to him. But Philip, similar to Thomas who cannot imagine where they would find enough bread at the feeding of the multitude, asks Jesus to show them the Father. And Jesus somewhat impatiently must say, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." You get the impression that Jesus wants to shake these guys into a greater awareness of what is going on, and what they have been up to. They have a hard time catching on.
As we read and study passages like this one we have to keep in mind what was going in this early Christian Community, when John was addressing his community.
1. All the eyewitnesses to Jesus' life and ministry were gone. It was imperative that true faithfulness be an essential part of the community's life together. There were dissentions within the church itself.
2. It was clear that in the Jewish community it was being declared that anyone who believed Jesus to be the Messiah were being thrown out of the synagogues. This excommunication was a significant threat to people's livelihood. To be excommunicated was to lose family ties, and to lose economic business connections, and I suppose to lose honor and standing in the community.
3. There were influences on the early church from the Greek and Roman cultures that included superstitions and questionable beliefs unrelated to the life and ministry of Jesus.
4. It was also a time when the early church was beginning to feel the pain of outright persecution for their beliefs.
Thus, John is writing in a style that works at repeating and clarifying, and saying things sometimes in an almost repetitious way to solidify the church's beliefs and to keep clarifying for newcomers entering the community.
As the passage reveals itself you see Thomas as a symbol of a very anxious community. But John is telling that anxious community: Though Jesus has died and goes away, his work has been to reassure his people that God has a place for them. That God will not abandon them. Jesus died, was crucified, rose again, and appeared to them. He is the living Lord and there is plenty of room for them. Though the world may reject them, i.e. their excommuniction, God has room for all, and takes all into his family. God, Yahweh, is the Father of the family. Jesus is the truth about God. Jesus is the Way to God, and through him you have life, inspite of your fear of death. Remain faithful and be assured.
Philip also somewhat dense, but John is impressing upon the community through Philip's questioning "Show us the Father." How do we know the Father? How do we know God is with us? The answer is that if you have seen Jesus you have seen the Father. Jesus is the expression, the incarnation of God, the enfleshment of God into human existence. Look at him, believe in him, and pay attention to what he has done. Be aware of the work that Jesus has done. Jesus is the full expression of God's love. He is redemption, the buying back of his people. Not a soul is lost from God, because Jesus has come to reclaim the creation for God.
Look at what Jesus has done. He is the profound expression of God's love in this sacrifice upon the cross. He dies for the world to see that he loves the world of God's creation. His ministry has been one of a healer, and one who enlightens the blind. He loves the least, the last, the lost, and restores them to a place of honor and dignity in the eyes of God. Jesus is a lover of true justice and works for justice among his people. Note the parables in which he honors and loves those who are beaten and down trodden. He calls for the last to be first. He calls for transformation of human existence and of the world of this time.
It is clear for John that if you accept Jesus Christ as Lord, if you see in him a whole new way of life. If you see in him the truth about God, God is love and grace, then you have life and hope without end. He calls his community into a relationship with Jesus Christ. It is the restoration and the renewing family of God. Those who embrace and trust Jesus as Lord, who accept his love and forgiveness and live that way, will become able to do what he did and more. They are, in fact, called into partnership. The love that John is talking about is the love of Jesus Christ that transforms people, and that gives them peace and hope, and an assurance in view of their terrible anxiety and uncertainty. Jesus is the expression of God. He is the hope that God is present and cares. He calls them each by name and loves them, and reassures them.
This teaching is often greatly misunderstood by our culture, and popular religion. Many people have come to believe that Jesus comes to the world and does some good things, dies on a cross, gets resurrected, and ascends to heaven somewhere in outer space to build a gigantic motel for good people. That is not the meaning of this passage, for John's time or for ours. The point is that Jesus lived and died and came back resurrected to reassure the faithful community that God continues to live and be with his people, and that there is ample room in the Kingdom of God, now! Here in this present time. God in Christ and through Christ is with us.
The world we live in today is tricky, and we must be careful what we believe. We have never known a time in history when, at least in this country, there has been so much prosperity. Success and prosperity has often been the measure of godliness in the world. But our prosperity has not really saved us. It is also a time of great anxiety and uncertainty. It is an age so complex that it is particularly difficult to know the answers to some of the problems, issues, and involvements of the world. We hardly know what to believe. Our country is now engaged in a war and we hardly know what to make of it. We do not want to see peoples discriminated against, or murdered, bacause of their race or economic or religious beliefs. On the other hand we seem to become easily involved in using tremendous force through bombing, as a kind of solution to every problem. We can't get at finding ways to negotiate understanding and peace.
We have seen as a result of only two very sick teenage children in the Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, raise the anxiety level of this country to a phenomenal level. It knocked the war in Kosov right off the networks for several days. It raised all kinds of anxieties over gun control issues, over appropriate kinds of video games. It raises the issues of how can we be safe in such a violent world in which we all seem so vulnerable. It raises the issue of whether or not both parents in homes where there are children should be working full time. It raises the issues of what is the place of the church and the Sunday School in the world. We are confronted with what may well seem to be a tremendous failure, and a lack of influence on the world.
People and especially children have never before in history been so exposed to pornography, sex, bombs, racial hate, terrorism, drugs and alcohol like the world we know today. The wonderful and awesome internet has come upon us, and nearly everything that is good, and that is so very bad is at the finger tips of everyone of us. What are we to do?
What is the truth for us? What is the way for us? How do we find God. How do we re-enter into the family of God in the awful age of great anxiety. The foundations of our lives are shaken, aren't they? We have difficulty in finding what to hold on to. The very idea that someday when we die there is heaven in the sky is not a satisfactory response to our basic human need.
Jesus said to Thomas who was really quite anxious, as we are. I'll be gone awhile through my dying and sacrificial love. But my work is to assure you and to prepare a place for each of you, and I will come again and you will see me risen and alive. Trust that my way of love and forgiveness, my way of healing and restoring is the way of God. Trust that I am authentically the truth about God, and the way to God, and you will have life, life without fear.
Philip said in his anxiety: How do we know the Father, how do we know God. Jesus said to him if you have seen me, and know that I am with you, you have seen God, you see the Father.
The world, along with ourselves, may well know fear and anxiety. Yet, we have a faith that calls us to trust that God is still with us. That God is with us. Embrace the Christ, embrace the Father, be in relationship with him and with one another. Be in union and love with one another. Carry on in the light of Christ and there will be healing, hope, and peace. We may not know all the answers. We may still be confused about the world. But we shall be in the Kingdom of God do our work with Christ, as the body of Christ, transforming the world into the Garden of God.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
