Easter 7

Sermon, 16^th May 2010

Easter 7

Text: John 17: 20 – 26.

In the name of God – Creator, Pain-bearer and Spirit of Life and Love.

I sometimes wonder what the author of John’s Gospel would think if he heard some of the interpretations of his writings as presented in the 20^th and 21^st centuries. I imagine he would be amazed to think that his writing was still being read, studied and discussed some nineteen hundred years after his time.

It’s fair, I think, to adopt a something of a midrashic interpretation of these writings.

Midrash is a Jewish method of interpretation which conveys many layers inherent in a text. So we can believe, if we wish, that Jesus actually spoke these words and their meaning is plain. I for one find that an impossible ask. There is no doubt that these are not the actual words of Jesus as ostensibly recorded here. Preservation of speech and text was not as easy as it is today. We take for granted audio and video recording whereby a person’s speech can be recorded and stored to be replayed at some time in the future. The video camera even preserves the nuances of expression that aid immensely in interpreting the speaker’s meaning and intent. In John’s day no such devices existed and it was only through the skills of the oral traditions that particular sayings were preserved.

John wrote about the turn of the first century CE – some sixty or seventy years after Jesus’ crucifixion – at least one - maybe two generations later.

First then, the practical application of the Gospel in its own time – its “sitz im leben”.

This Gospel addresses specific circumstances that were being faced by a Christian community. The writer is urging his church to beware of internal factions and also seeks to strengthen their resolution in the face of hostility and persecution.

Barnabas Lindars, an Oxford theologian, writes," ...it is now widely accepted that the discourses are concerned with the actual issues of the church and synagogue debate at the time when the Gospel was written." The community of John was particularly strong in its criticism of Orthodox Judaism of its time. It would not have been many years since the followers of “The Way” of Jesus – the Christian sect – had been acrimoniously expelled from the synagogues.

It is only in the Gospel of John that we see these long speeches of Jesus where he speaks about himself in such divine terms. The discourses found in this Gospel are considered by many reliable scholars to have originated in sermons that are predominantly the evangelist's own composition but which may be loosely based on a saying or act of Jesus derived from the oral and synoptic Gospel tradition.

Many contemporary scholars regard the Gospel of John as more theological and certainly less historical than the Synoptics. John's picture of Jesus is very different from that which emerges in the Synoptic Gospels. In John Jesus is the pinnacle – he is very definitely presented as God incarnate and is to be greatly venerated.

So we can immediately see threads of varying layers in the text this morning.

We see how the writer is exhorting his community to stick together in the face of persecution by both The Orthodox Jews and the Romans. “Unity is strength”, he is saying. So Jesus, truly Yahweh’s Son in human form, is speaking to his disciples on the very evening of the final night of his arrest and death. He is offering words of hope and strength. He is telling them all that will befall him in the next few days.

Then, in a long prayer, he asks God to bless them and give them strength in their coming adversity. He is strengthening their understanding of him as God’s son and prays that the ancient God of Israel, his father, will uphold them and cause them to remember all he has told them about himself. He peaks in such intimate terms with Yahweh, reminiscent of the patriarchs of the Old Testament but in MUCH more intimacy. Here is a son speaking with a loving father not a servant bowing before an omnipotent God.

Across the centuries this story has gathered around it all sorts of connotations tailored for the particular time. Using the Midrashic principle we can adapt it as a lesson for our own community. There would be few communities where there is not dissent bubbling away either covertly under covers or overtly in obvious destructive acrimony between members. This phenomenon is not restricted to Christian churches of course but it is within a Christian context that I would address it.

For any community to flourish and succeed in its task there needs to be unity. Bring dissent and disunity and the community suffers and is weakened. Disunity can originate in many places and in many people. It can be deliberately broadly destructive or arise from personal and even unthinking selfishness.

There is an old Nigerian proverb that says: “The pebbles are the strength of the wall”.

So that traditional wisdom is saying that each individual is vital if unity is to be maintained. What is the purpose of this unity? The Gospel writer’s purpose was clear. In Verse 23 he explains that ‘they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me’- that is, as a son! The deepest illustration of human love – parent for child!

What a wonderful thing this sense of family is? The illustration infers a deep bond that says, “Together we can overcome all adversity”.

Another proverb; this time from Ghana – “It is because one antelope will blow the dust from the other's eye that two antelopes walk together”. What a lovely insight. It’s not what we can get out of a relationship or our community – it’s what we can do to help our friend and neighbour – even if it is just ‘blowing the dust from the other’s eye.’

Professor Mary Shore , Luther Seminary St. Paul, Minnesota points out that this morning’s text is lifted from a PRAYER not an exhortation or instruction. So, she says, “Jesus is not offering instructions to the disciples or to the church they will lead. This means, for instance, that as important as evangelism is, when Jesus tells his Father that he is asking "not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word" (verse 20) he is not exhorting the church to participate in evangelism.

Likewise, as commendable as ecumenical partnerships are, when Jesus asks that those who believe and those who do not yet believe "may be one" (verse 21), he is not exhorting involvement in ecumenical dialogue.

Jesus is not exhorting the church here. He is not instructing. He is not preaching, teaching, or rallying the troops.

Jesus is praying.”

The question is raised, “How do you feel when someone prays out loud for you?

Comforted, vulnerable, grateful, honoured, humbled, awkward but appreciative, like someone really cares? It can make us feel uncomfortable to be the focus of another’s attention – even in love.

Perhaps that is why we have so often on the past made this passage into a list of orders or instructions. We wish to avoid the intimacy of prayer.

Professor Shore adds, “If Jesus were exhorting his disciples, and by extension us, we could strive to meet his expectations then. If he were exhorting us, we would have a mission - namely, not to disappoint him. Instead, we overhear a prayer on our behalf and are not called to action in that moment as much as wonder that the Father and the Son spend time discussing the likes of us and our little community of faith.”

When someone prays for us in our hour of need it is because they love us. When God, the very Spirit of love, is part of that and responds by bringing deep peace and joy into our lives, regardless of our circumstances, we are truly blessed.

THE LORD BE WITH YOU.

John the Baptist

IN THE NAME OF GOD – CREATOR, PAINBEARER AND SPIRIT OF LIFE AND LOVE.

3rd Sunday of Advent 2009

John the Baptist (or Baptiser) – what a character!

His ministry pre-dates the work and ministry of Jesus.

Here John is portrayed as an Old Testament prophet in the style of Isaiah and Jeremiah.

In fact he is the last of the Old Testament prophets – when Jesus came upon the scene there was to be no going back – no returning to the old ways of the law and the prophets for the people of Israel.

They were offered another way – an alternative to the rigours of the Torah.

If we look back into last week’s reading we see in verse 3 that John was in the vicinity of the Jordan river ‘proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins’. The text of the ancient prophet Isaiah in chapter 40 is quoted - “all flesh shall see the salvation of God”.

The salvation of God was not to be limited to a select few – not the religious elite – not the king and the aristocracy – but ‘all flesh’ – everyone – of high estate or of no estate – rich or poor – the whole gamut of humanity.

The ‘salvation of God’ that John was talking about offered a chance to start life anew – to clear the decks of the mind and conscience from the accumulated detritus of wrong-doing and careless living. To put aside the things that were troubling the conscience and dragging the person down into the depths of remorse and possibly depression.

Here was a chance to be helped up – to be able to stand again on one’s own two feet and renew relationships in a re-invigorated life.

John was dealing here with the lower end of society – the poor (whose poverty would make our poor of the 21st Century look rich) – the bent tax collectors who had the reputation of extracting more than was required and pocketing the difference – and the Jewish mercenary soldiers working within the Roman army who often ‘stood over’ people and bullied them into giving protection money (and we think Al Capone of the 1920’s had invented something new!).

Let’s make no mistake – these were generally an unsavoury lot – people about whom you would think very hard before inviting them into your home.

They did have their traditions and hopes though.

It’s all very contemporary. “Surely God will accept us as we are Jews – the chosen people of God!’ it doesn’t matter about our lifestyles – it doesn’t matter that we are a bit crooked – it doesn’t matter that we hardly have enough to get by and feed our families – we are all descended from Abraham – the Abraham who received the promises from God that his descendants would be favoured for ever”.

John’s instruction to these people is all too clear.

John is scathing – ‘God is able to from these stones to raise up children to Abraham”.

Don’t think you are anything special – God will judge you not on your ancestry or place in human society but on who you really are underneath all that.

I am reminded that the author of this gospel of Luke also wrote the Acts of the Apostles – remember the scene in acts where peter addressed a derisive crowd on the morning of Pentacost?

He preached a sermon that would be the envy of any aspiring preacher and evangelist – the result – Acts 2: 37 – “they (the people) were cut to the heart and said to peter and the other Apostles, “brothers, what should we do?”

This phrase – ‘what should we do?’ is repeated here by the people listening to John.

But what strikes me most powerfully about this piece of the gospel is the virulent attack by John on these people as they came to seek him out.

He abuses them in the most violent language possible. There is nothing genteel here! How often we Anglicans want to close our eyes at this sort of language?

It doesn’t belong in church! It is offensive in the extreme – we don’t use language like that – one doesn’t swear in church!

During the course of the last 2000 years the church has carefully wrapped the Gospel stories and Jesus in particular in many layers of cotton wool. The base reality of these stories and situations has long been forgotten – it was dirty and people smelt!!

John’s attack comes because he knew these people were not genuine in their approach to him. They came because they had seen others come and thought that ‘we might as well join in’. They came because it seemed like a bit of fun at the time - they came because they were curious about this amazing spectacle of a ludicrous eccentric who seemed to be ranting about some new way that was to come.

People still attempt to come to God today – they think that maybe God is to be found in the church so they timidly come into church and more often than not sit quietly at the back so as not to become too involved in something they either do not understand or only have vague memories of from a distant childhood. They often come at major festival times which are widely known in what is now the post-Christian community of Adelaide.

The festivals of Easter and more so Christmas are so widely celebrated and commercialised that people cannot fail to become aware of them.

Christmas particularly appeals. The lovely gentle story of a woman giving birth in a stable surrounded by animals – shepherds in the fields – wise kings from the east – angels singing in the heavens – guiding stars – what more could we want for the ingredients of a beautiful story - very appealing!

So some people will be intrigued and want to find out a bit more – they gather their courage and come into church.

What is the response from us who own this story that people want to know more of?

In our genteel age of political correctness and fear of litigation it would be most rare to see the reaction that John dished out to the crowd in the story this morning – we don’t turn on these seekers with violent words of abuse – we don’t tell them to – ‘get out and go away as you are not worthy to be here in this church – you are not one of us’!

No - we have a much more subtle approach – we can simply ignore them – treat them with coolness – they are different after all – not one of us.

Or there is another approach – we take them aside and quietly tell them all the problems that our church community is currently struggling with – basically saying in effect – “you won’t want to become involved with all this –the priest is a ratbag – the church council is trying to rebuild the old hall and we don’t have the money – Mrs so and so is nothing but a hypocrite – etc etc.

The crowd berated by John were not to be intimidated however – they were not to be put off. They hung around and in genuine repentance asked what they should be doing. John told them in no uncertain terms.

His answer did not require them to renounce anything in their lives nor to enter into some sort of ascetic lifestyle. They were not asked to undertake a pilgrimage to some shrine nor go to the temple and make expensive sacrifices. No, God’s kingdom was to be available to them there and then – all they needed was to have faith and to understand what was really sacred in life – their relationship with others and with God could be mended.

The answer was all too easy – “share –even if you have little – be fair and honest in all your dealings – don’t use the power given to you to intimidate others for your own advantage – don’t bully!

It did not mean that they had to become heroes – it was something they could do. It was something, when you think about it, that anyone can do. That means it is something that we can do, too.

Does it not concern you that our churches are at best stable in numbers but more likely set on a gentle downward slope? Can we dare ask ourselves the hard questions that are so discomforting?

That is, why have the strangers who have dared to come into our midst not remained to become one of our communities – why is our church not growing? Why have we seen families come and then disappear without word or further comment?

Is it because they could not find God here? We are comfortable in the knowledge that our God is here but is that the God of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth – the all welcoming and all-embracing and loving God we wish we knew better? It’s a good question isn’t it?

I ask you to pray with me that this Christmas season will see our hearts opened to welcome the stranger who comes into our midst.

If you should think about this selfishly – our rewards will be great and our community can only be richly blessed.

The Lord be with you!