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.

Good Friday Sermon

GOOD FRIDAY

2^nd April 2010

Reading: The Passion Gospel

Gospel of St John - Chapters 18 & 19

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

In July 2008 Meredith and I travelled to the beautiful little town of Assisi in Umbria, Italy. We travelled up from Rome by train and then taxi to the top of the hill where the ancient town is set. We stayed there for a week and walked the narrow mediaeval streets and visited the basilica and the tomb of St Francis.

It was a wonderful experience which I will never forget.

Inevitably within the basilica is a shop (even the Queen has one at Buckingham Palace!). Within the shop was a mighty array of souvenirs, ranging from the exquisite and expensive to the downright tawdry – mass produced cheap tourist kitsch.

Prominent amongst this range was the San Damiano cross in a variety of sizes and materials – from the tiny pocket size version probably made in Taiwan and costing a few cents to the large expensive model suitable for the wall or church. I have made a copy of this crucifix and offer it to you for a little Easter reflection. There is a large one in Adelaide featured at the Catholic Church on St Bernard’s Road, Newton.

This morning it is most appropriate that I reflect on the cross and crucifixion. The cross has become the universally recognised symbol of Christianity. There are many styles of cross that people of varied cultures use as a focal point of reflection and worship. They range from the Protestant bare and simple cross, often mounted on the front wall of the church, to the most ornate and artistically contrived bearing the figure of Jesus – sometimes in grotesque agony as would befit a human body subjected to such barbarous treatment - sometimes as something approaching a God figure who is impervious to the physical agony and is reaching out to the peoples of the world in love and power.

The Romans are conservatively estimated to have crucified around one hundred thousand people from the time of the Maccabean revolts in the second century B.C.E. up until Constantine the Great, the first Christian emperor, abolished crucifixion in the Roman Empire in 337 out of veneration for Jesus Christ, its most famous victim.

A cruel prelude to crucifixion was scourging, which would cause the condemned to lose a large amount of blood, and approach a state of shock. The convict then usually had to carry the horizontal beam, but not necessarily the whole cross to the place of execution.

Crucifixion was typically carried out by specialized teams, consisting of a commanding centurion and four soldiers. When it was done in an established place of execution, the vertical beam could even be permanently embedded in the ground. The condemned was usually stripped naked — all the New Testament gospels describe soldiers gambling for the robes of Jesus. (Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24, Luke 23:34, John 19:23-25)

The 'nails' were tapered iron spikes approximately 5 to 7 inches long, with a square shaft ³⁄₈ inch across.

In his ‘Antiquities’ the Jewish historian Josephus reports that the Romans crucified many people by the walls of Jerusalem during the siege of 70 C.E. The idea was to terrorize the population and force surrender. The number reached 500 a day at one point until there was no suitable wood left in the area. We of this Australian westernised society of the 21^st century find it almost impossible to imagine such a scene of butchery and mayhem. Josephus mentions the crucifixion of Jesus.

Most scholars agree the passage is authentic. He writes:

‘Now there was about this time Jesus, a wise man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher. He drew over to him both many of the Jews and many of the Gentiles. And when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us [the Jewish leaders], had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him; And the tribe of Christians, so named from him, are not extinct at this day.’

Little did Josephus imagine the turn that history would take so that today, some 1900 years later, the name of Jesus is still almost universally revered.

There is some conflict of opinion here. I am intrigued that Josephus records that Jesus’ disciples did not forsake him. Whereas in the earliest Gospel to be written, that of Mark, he writes in Ch14:50, “[at Jesus’ arrest]... All of them deserted him and fled”. If we accept for a moment the Gospel writer’s version, we see that when the ‘chips were down’ and Jesus and his little band of followers were facing imminent danger, danger whereby their very lives were in jeopardy, they fled.

Where to? Like the ancient story of Jonah, as far away as their feet could carry them – possibly back to Galilee. It is postulated that Jesus died alone, abandoned by his friends and followers.

This is the day when we, so far removed in time and culture from all this, can stop and reflect on these horrible events at Jerusalem. In our own time death is sanitized – the facts are often ‘brushed under the carpet’. Death now is usually a gentle affair, in hospital and made easier by the use of painkilling drugs – a far cry from those barbarous days of the Roman Empire.

But people are still executed in some less enlightened countries – fortunately the human race seems to have progressed at least to the extent that the shocking barbarity of crucifixion no longer exists. In my opinion execution has no place in a civilized society, certainly one that claims to be based on Christianity. It is really based on an ethic of revenge, an ethic that Jesus completely refuted.

Where do we stand amongst our friends and community? Have we, like the disciples, fled in fear from the embarrassment of associating with this Jesus of Nazareth?

Since ordination I have to admit to finding it a little confrontational to go out in public wearing my clerical collar. I am announcing to all and sundry that I am a priest of the Christian Church and a follower of the Nazarene. But I am proud to wear that ‘uniform’ and have found that everyone with whom I have come in contact respect it. I realize that may not always be so but will face that when and if it arises.

Good Friday sets before us a mighty challenge.

Forget the often maudlin manner in which this day is portrayed. The butchery and violence of the first century Roman Empire are in our face.

Jesus rose above that violence with a message of profound love and forgiveness – even to those who drove in the nails.

Where does that leave us today? The very least we can do is to live our lives in open acknowledgement of Christ’s sacrifice. That means living in love both for our loveable neighbour and also all those unlovable people in the community.

Contemplate the San Damiano cross, its intricacies and the direction made to St Francis – “Go out and rebuild the church”.

That’s the simple message of Good Friday.

Not the violence but the love!

THE LORD BE WITH YOU