The text today is well, it is a farewell speech. Pretty much John 13-17 is Jesus saying
goodbye to his disciples. I think it is
a little strange that we should hear Jesus giving a farewell speech and
offering assurance to his followers after the fact, I mean after the fact for
us, but this is what is happening.
Karoline Lewis, a preaching professor at Luther seminary,
gives us:
A brief Johannine theological summary: Jesus’ farewell words
to his disciples in this discourse anticipate and assume the events that lie
ahead: the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the ascension. Each one of these
realities is the result of the primary theological event in the Gospel of John,
the incarnation. The disciples are going to be faced with the end of the
incarnation, the end of Jesus’ presence on earth as God. Jesus needs them to
know that there is more beyond the crucifixion which, for John, is the
inevitable outcome of being human. That which becomes human must die.
At the same time, the resurrection and then the ascension
are the next realities in store, for Jesus and for his believers. Note that
even the resurrection is not the end all. The resurrection presumes that there
is something even beyond itself, the ascension. The beginning of chapter 14, in
fact, a good portion of the Farewell Discourse as a whole, describes not
resurrected life but ascended life with God. Just as Jesus will ascend to the
Father, so also will Jesus’ believers, where he goes to prepare an abiding
place for them. It is from this particular theological perspective that we need
to hear and interpret these introductory claims of the Farewell Discourse.[1]
John is writing for a particular set
of Jewish believers who, have just been kicked out of their synagogue for
believing in Jesus. The temple has been
destroyed. There is confusion, fear and
suspicion in the Jewish community and the ones on the margins are to be
feared. At the time of this writing that
would be anyone in the Jesus movement.
So, if we look at the mindset of the
people who John is writing for and the setting of the context of this story
itself, we see similarities and may hear, the emotion, the promise and the love
John is offering through Jesus words.
The disciples were incredibly confused. According to the narrative of John’s Gospel
starting with chapter 12, Jesus entered triumphantly into Jerusalem, only to
immediately tell his disciples that the mountain top experience was a mirage
and he was going to die a brutal death.
Then he takes the role of a slave and washes their feet, indicating that
they are called to do the same. Finally,
he rebukes the favored disciple Peter in front of them by saying Peter will
reject him three times. The heads of the
disciples must have been spinning. In an
effort to comfort them and bring them peace Jesus speaks to them in language of
love.[2]
“Do not let your hearts be
troubled.” “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Ahhhh that is comforting
“I am the way the truth and the
life…no one comes to the father except through me.” these are words of comfort
We Christians for so long used this
text as exclusionary, to say who is in and who is out; “I am the way and the
truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me.”. yet these are just a continuation of I am
going to prepare a place for you… Listen to these words in this context. In
ancient Jewish times a man would bargain with a father for his daughter’s hand
in marriage and then during a twelve-month waiting period he would return to
his father’s house and make ready a room for her, sometime this was literally
building a room onto the house for the married couple. Jesus followers would have known and
recognized this language of marriage and love.
He was reassuring them that he was true to them and that his love would
reach way beyond the troubled future.
Throughout John’s Gospel are a
series of statements that Jesus makes called the “I am” statements. Actually,
what is interesting is after the opening of John’s Gospel we get to John’s I am
not statements. Basically, John the
baptizer explains that I am not the messiah, I am not Elijah and I am not worthy
to untie the sandals. (John 1:20, 21, 27)
After john has clarified who the
baptizer is not, Jesus starting in John 6 starts making the “I am”
statements. He makes 5 statements
referring to himself as the bread of life or that came down from heaven. “I Am the Bread of Life.” (John 6:35). Jesus goes on to proclaim; “I Am the light of
the world” (John8:12). “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58) I am the gate as we discussed last week.
John is using these I am statements
intentionally. “It might help to note
that the form of “I am” in the Greek of John is the exact form of the Greek
translation of Exodus 3:14”[3]
“God said to Moses; ‘I AM WHO I AM.’ He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to
the Israelites, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” (Exodus 3:14) “In effect, John is
saying that the same God who was at work revealing himself to the Israelites in
the exodus, is now again at work in human history revealing himself in Jesus
who is the Christ.”[4]
These “I AM” statements now become
something more than just a metaphorical saying or an affirmation of Jesus. These statements “that the same God who has
revealed himself throughout human history, and who has been known by those self-revelatory
actions in history, is now revealing himself yet once again in Jesus as the
Christ.”[5]
With all of this in mind “I Am the
way, the Truth and the Light” (John 14:6) Not only are words of comfort but can
also be a challenge to us. As Jesus the Christ, the I Am, is the way we must
ask what is that way and how are we called to participate in the way. How are we called to participate and honor
Jesus’ way, the way of an active, participatory God who has been active in
human history since the beginning of time and is still active today.
We do this by being good Christians
and showing the world that Christianity is still relavent today. ““Christianity
matters because it reveals the deep mysteries of God and the meaning of all
life. It shows us what life is for and when it is at its best. And what is this
ultimate revelation? The answer is surprisingly and profoundly simple:
Christianity reveals the life of God and therefore also the meaning of life as
a way of love.”[6]
Kara Pearce writes;
Everyone is in favor of love. Great. But it is a word thrown
about so much it barely means anything anymore. I love that movie! I LOVE that
restaurant. We mean we appreciate an attribute of something else – the movie
stirred up emotion, the restaurant’s atmosphere or salmon filled us. Media and
television and movies are soaked with love stories, too often about warm fuzzy
feelings or misplaced sexual expression. But these simple words, spoken and
backed up, change the world. I bet many of us remember the first time we
expressed our love to the person we would one day marry, or the first time it
was really said to us. The vulnerability that is required to tell someone you
love them is both thrilling and terrifying.[7]
Saying I love you is challenging
enough but then living into that love.
Walking with someone and loving them though they just said something so
stupid you cannot believe it even came out of their mouth. Staying with someone when only one can work
and finances and thus relationships become strained. Staying with someone and
slowly watching them fade away as this journey comes to an end. But the Way,
the way we are called too is more than that.
This way of Love that we are
challenged into goes beyond the personal relationship. We are called to try to find a way for all of
us not only to live well together on this planet but seek out the least of us
and figure out what we can do to make this a better place.
Our life together can be better. Ours is a shallow and selfish age, and we are
in need of conversion- from looking out just for ourselves to also looking out
for one another. It’s time to hear and heed a call to a different way of life,
to reclaim a very old idea called the common good. Jesus issued the call and announced the
kingdom of God-a new order of living in sharp contrast to all political and
religious kingdoms in the world. That better way of life was meant not to just
benefit his followers but everybody else too.[8]
All of Christ’s message was about
breaking down barriers. Seeking out
those who had less or were marginalized and lifting them up. Inviting them to
table or better yet he invited himself into the homes where no one of any
reputation would be seen. Christ’s message and ministry was not some magic
formula where one claims to be a Christian therefore they have a passport to
heaven and a license to demean or alienate the other.
Christianity is not a religion that gives some people a
ticket to heaven and makes them judgmental of all others. Rather, It’s a call
to a relationship that changes all our other relationships. Jesus told us a new relationship with god
also brings us into a new relationship with our neighbor, especially with the
most vulnerable of this world, and even with our enemies. But we don’t always
hear that from the churches. This call
to love our neighbor is the foundation for reestablishing and reclaiming the
common good, which has fallen into cultural and political –and even
religious—neglect.[9]
I believe we went through a radical
shift on the occasion of 9/11. Suddenly,
more than ever in my lifetime, it was okay to make all things about us or them!
I was living alone in downtown palm springs at the time and I awoke to watching
the crash over and over again then the 2nd plane hit and I just
watched for hours till the towers collapsed.
I was numb and decided to go to the local gathering place to be around
some from friends. Hoping to find comfort in our time of national grief. The
first thing I heard someone say was we need to go bomb the heck out of
them. My heart sank.
Someone once said “an eye for an eye
and a tooth for a tooth si a very quick way to a blind toothless world!”
I think in many ways this world has
not recovered from that. That tonality
that it is either us or them. In today’s
culture the language is much the same.
It is a war on the middleclass. It is they are stealing your jobs. It is the top 1% vs the 99. It is the big city vs the small farm. Our language our cultural way of looking at
stuff has become so dichotic that everything is measured against the other.
We have forgotten the greatest
commandment of them all. Love one another.
Jesus’ way is Love. I think we
need to start addressing some of these issues from a place of love. We have to find a way to leave the us vs them
behind and reach out in the purest and simplest and honest place of love. Then it is it is about serving and caring for
something that requires no comparison.
I am not sure this is coming out
right. I do not reach out to serve the
poor. The poor is an objectified term
where one human is measured against another.
I am called to love my neighbor to serve my neighbor and in that we are
all neighbors and the language of lesser than or greater than diminishes. I
serve because I am called to serve period.
I reach out to the stranger, the marginalized, the person in pain
because we are neighbors and I am called to act in the language of love. This is the way.
In the same way when I address some
views that I know are harder for some than others I must approach it from a
place of love. I know this world is
changing fast. Faster than many can keep
up with or may choose not even to try. I
am not going to change their heart by forcing my version of the truth down
their throat. We change hearts and lives
by living into what we believe, by living into who we are called to be. Not by preaching but by acting. In this way, we can be as a river is to a
stone, slowly rounding out the sharp corners.
The Truth. Jesus is the Truth. The truth is we cannot do it without Jesus’ example. The truth is we cannot do this work if we do
not maintain an honest and constant relationship with God. Jesus taught us to pray. Jesus told us to pray. Prayer needs to be a daily exercise that
feeds you and inspires you and strengthens your resolve to love your neighbor.
I have said this to others and now I
am going to tell you, it is hard to love your neighbor. What is even worse It is hard to love your
neighbor as you love yourself. Quite frankly
you do not want me to treat you like I treat myself because somedays I am
really bad about my self-care, I bet you are too.
We allow ourselves to be over
worked, we neglect our health or put off our own care till It’s too late. We
allow ourselves to be overwhelmed about bad news, bad habits and bad
posture. I would not encourage us to
treat each other as we do ourselves and that is why it actually says as you
would.
It is through a prayerful
relationship with the other, the creator, with the one who cannot be named,
with the great I Am, with God, with Jesus Christ. That we can see how we should be treating and
caring for ourselves. It is through prayer a good relationship with God that we
can see how we should be treating and caring for our neighbor and even how we
should be treating and caring for our most challenging enemy.
When we are frustrated with
ourselves. When we are frustrated,
scared or even angered by the world we live in, by our neighbors or even when
we are angry with ourselves we must turn back to today’s Gospel. We must turn back to the most gentle and
comforting words of Jesus. “let not your
Hearts be troubled.”
I find todays words even more
comforting than “Peace be with you!” when I am hurting my silent prayer becomes
Jesus words to us. I listen to hear
these words in my heart and encourage you to do the same. The first words of today’s scripture I will
leave with you as my final words in this sermon and my prayer to you and to the
world. Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Amen.
[1] Karoline Lewis,
Commentary on John 14:1-14, 05, accessed May 9, 2017,
http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1994.
[3] Dennis Bratcher,
"I am" in John's Gospel, 10, accessed May 10, 2017,
http://www.crivoice.org/IAM.html.
[4] Dennis Bratcher,
"I am" in John's Gospel, 10, accessed May 10, 2017,
http://www.crivoice.org/IAM.html.
[5] Dennis Bratcher,
"I am" in John's Gospel, 10, accessed May 10, 2017,
http://www.crivoice.org/IAM.html.
[6] Norman Wirzba, Way
of Love: Recovering the Heart of Christianity (New York, NY: HarperOne, an
imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2016).
[7] Karen Pearce, The
way of Love as the way of Jesus, March 5, 2017, accessed May 10, 2017,
http://www.wpcdurham.org/way-love-jesus/.
[8] Jim Wallis, On
God's Side: What Religion Forgets and Politics Hasn't Learned about Serving the
Common Good (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Brazos Press, 2013).
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