John 9:1-41 ~ Blind to the Obvious

Once again, we have a really long reading for this Sunday. Even so, this story is so crazy, so messed up, I have to read the whole thing for our congregation. As I read through this passage again and again this week, I couldn’t help by wonder if John himself realized what all was coming through this passage. Well, here we go!

9:1-12 ~ The discussion here is rich and flies in the face of much contemporary thinking that—knowingly or not—thinks there is some kind of ‘karma’ that rules the universe...the attractive but misguided idea that good earns favor and evil brings suffering (last I checked, rain falls on the righteous and unrighteous alike...). This guy’s blindness is not the result of his sin or his parents’—it’s the result of living in a broken, sin-wracked world...and it’s an opportunity for God’s grace and power to be revealed.

Again, John provides no name. Maybe there is a sense of “everyman” behind these stories, but this narrative is so specific, I want to give this fellow a name. Can we call him Daniel?

So, Daniel’s great neighbors are completely thrown of kilter by this miracle. I’m guessing that his blindness somehow affected his eyes so that he could not or would not open his eyelids...or the blindness affected the coloring of his eyes. His face was so changed by the healing, by opening his eyes, that the very people who lived around him weren’t even sure if this was the same guy!

When asked who did this and where he was, Daniel answers appropriately—“I dunno! I COULD NOT SEE!” ha,ha...

9:13-23 ~ “They” brought him to the Pharisees. Who are these “they”? John again doesn’t indicate it, but I’m guessing there was a crowd...and, since it was the Sabbath, there was nothing better to do. All of the closet theologians and front-porch-Pharisee-wannabes take poor Daniel to the Pharisees—either to show off the grand event or to question it. The Pharisees are ticked off that someone is working miracles on the Sabbath.

They interrogate the newly seeing fellow, asking him questions that he may not be able to answer—he’s been blind since birth. Since there was no Braille in those days, we can be fairly confident that he didn’t learn to read and write at the local Hebrew school. Perhaps he has listened well to the many conversations taking place around him, people talking freely since a blind man is often unseen himself in this time (today as well?)

The parents are brought in to testify in this now-established court case. Their response? He’s of age; ask him. John provides one of his ubiquitous parentheticals in v.22—anyone who gets close to Jesus is going to be in trouble! So, Mom and Dad let Daniel answer for himself.

9:24-34 ~ There seems to have been a lull in this. Maybe they took a lunch break. We don’t know, but “a second time they summoned” Daniel, really pressing him for the ‘who’ and ‘how’ and all of that. And here, Daniel proves himself a thinking fellow. He answers tit for tat, not backing down in the face of this increasingly frustrated and angry group of Pharisees. “Why are you so interested? Do you want to follow Jesus? You don’t know what’s going on here—you actually think this guy is against God?...” Well, in the end, Daniel is kicked out of the synagogue. Cut off. But, my guess is, he wasn’t one of their more active members to begin with.

9:35-41 ~ Jesus hears about all the brouhaha and finds Daniel. Of course, Daniel doesn’t recognize him, but I have a feeling he recognized the voice (you see, my wife, Jeanne, and I are watching Covert Affairs on Prime, and Auggie—blind CIA agent—remembers voices). Daniel is so grateful for this gift of sight that he believes, trusts, puts his faith in “Son of Man” and worships him.

This is crazy stuff. When someone receives their sight—someone born blind—this is a time to REJOICE! Celebrate! Go nuts! The neighbors, the parents, the local congregation completely miss the miracle! As I read this, I felt soooo badly for Daniel. I wanted someone to step forwards and say, “WOW! This is great!! God is good!!!” But, no. And, to be honest, when I’ve read and heard this story before, I didn’t either. I guess, I couldn’t see the forest of God’s love and grace for the trees of details, theological questions and pharisaical arguments.

This narrative leaves me a little unsettled. Daniel didn’t ask for the miracle...at least as far as John tells the story. Then, Daniel’s life is turned on its head. What should be the best day of his life turns into a nightmare—no celebration; his neighbors can’t recognize him; his parents basically save their own butts by throwing Daniel under the bus; and then, Daniel gets kicked out of the local congregation! What does this passage really say to us?

Perhaps this passage is a reminder—

First, it’s a reminder of God’s desire to bring wholeness to a broken world, of God’s love for each of us in our brokenness, of God’s power before the brokenness of the world.

Then, this is a reminder that once we are sure that we see, we immediately become blinded to important things around us. The blind are the ones who see; those who claim to see so clearly are blind. We all want to say, “Yes, yes, I was one of the blind, but now I see....” But, as soon as we claim to see, we are blind again. It’s too easy to think we see and yet be blind to things that are before us. How many times have we failed to see the best intentions behind an act because we were blinded by their failure to go through the proper channels, to ‘get permission’? Perhaps this passage reminds us that we need to celebrate whatever good thing comes our way, comes to our congregations, whatever act of good intention...and worry about the details later.

And finally, maybe it’s a reminder, too, that inviting people to follow Jesus just may turn their lives and their world upside-down. Experiencing God’s grace can really shake up our lives. Knowing God may open doors...and close doors. Not everyone is going to be happy for the good things that happen in our lives. And, we don’t see all the ways that a seemingly simple event may affect or impact a life—in positive or negative ways.

Did Daniel regret this miracle? My guess is, he was set free—from blindness, from a bad family, and from a judgmental congregation. No regrets.

(Go HERE to read my intro to this series.)

John 4:1-42 ~ Jesus and Sam...Water and Worship in Samaria

       This is a LONG passage. I doubt many pastors will try to actually preach the whole thing—especially those of us who have Communion to serve as well. But, I guess it’s do-able. Rather, I’ve broken up the passage into manageable pieces. Here are those pieces and what I find:

4:1-6 – This, I’ll paraphrase quickly...and get on to the dialogue.

4:7-18 – We have the beginning of a very interesting conversation between Jesus and a Samaritan woman (What was her name? Can we call her ‘Sam’...like, short for Samantha?) The talk begins around ‘water,’ and like the conversation Jesus had with Nick (John 3), there’s are two planes of discourse. Like Jesus talked of rebirth with Nick, this talk of ‘living water’ just goes over Sam’s head—she doesn’t get it. Some may make the mistake of thinking that Jesus is interested in just the spiritual, but I think he wants to help people see that there is more than just the physical. After all, Jesus is tired and thirsty—he really does want a drink of water...plain, old, wet water. But, that conversation serves as a segue for something deeper than the well and more satisfying than the water.

4:16-18 – This is a strange and rather abrupt change of direction: “Go, call your husband and come back.” And then we have that implicating reality set before us: “...You have had five husbands, and the man you now have it not your husband....” Woah! Here is where in my childhood and early adulthood the pastor would go off on this ‘woman of ill repute,’ this brazen, unfaithful woman. But, those pastors and preachers may have jumped the gun.

Here’s what I see. Later in this passage, this woman proves herself no dummy—she knows theology, belief and practice. In fact, to read the rest of the conversation one would get the idea that this woman is in fact fairly well-read when it comes to issues of faith and may even be a faithful follower of God...in the Samaritan practice. If that is so, she may be so conservative and faithful that when her first husband died and they had had no children, she actually married his brother...and when he died...and when died.... So, multiple marriages may even be a sign of faithfulness rather than unfaithfulness! Anyway, she perceives that Jesus is a prophet, and the conversation goes theological.

4:19-26 – Many focus on this part of the discourse...and with good reason. Jesus, who has just recently cleared the temple, posits that God ‘is leaving the building.’ In fact, God is leaving ALL buildings...at least those of stone and mortar. Worship is not about place; worship is about heart. The Jews no longer have a corner on worship space. Now all space is become worship space. Worship begins within, not without—in spirit and in truth. And, this conversation between Jesus and Sam certainly has been focused on truth. This passage ends with Jesus making a reality-shaking self-revelation—I am the messiah!—that is sort of missed, brushed aside, falls flat because the noisy disciples appear on the scene....

4:27-30 – The disciples show up ‘looking cross-eyed’ at Jesus. He’s talking to a woman...a Samaritan woman. But, are these feelings that seem to come through the text those of the disciples...or of John the writer? John already has revealed his hand, showing that he likes to add commentary here and there. Is this some of John coming through? Well, no matter—we can only discuss it and not find a definitive answer. Seems like a good time to leave the scene, so Sam runs off to town to tell others about this person she’s met.

4:31-38 – These verses practically relate a story within a story, a theological discourse within a discourse. Since this passage takes off talking about food and harvests, I’m not going to read this on Sunday nor will I tackle the themes. This passage might be a sermon in itself someday.

4:39-42 – That verse 39 is amazing: “Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony.” Here, in the opening chapters of John’s Gospel, we find the first evangelist, first missionary...and she’s a woman of Samaria. Okay...right, Andrew and Phillip also told their brothers...each one brought one. But, here’s a woman who brings part of her village to Jesus...or who brings Jesus to her village. Jesus crossed borders in reaching out to Sam, but Sam crossed borders as well, boldly taking up the challenge to engage in conversation with a Jewish man at the end of the day by the village well...and then tells the village about her cross-cultural, border-crossing adventure.

What do we take away? Oh, let’s cross borders—talk to the shunned, engage people who are other, chat with folks at the local watering hole. Let’s not get so caught up in where we worship...but let’s get caught up in worship. And, if someone comes and tells us they’ve found something good, we ought to get up off our duffs and see what all the hoopla is about—it might save our lives.

(Go HERE to read my intro to this series.)

John 3:1-21 – Nicodemus Revisited...

I call this “Nick Revisited” simply because parts of this passage are sooooo well known. In fact, they are so well known, we and our congregants may not really hear the words unless we slam on the brakes and intone them in a new way. Some of these words may be so familiar that we don’t even notice what they’re really saying, what they mean for us. So, let’s dive into this passage and see what we can learn as we visit again with Nicodemus and Jesus, and hear the words John has recorded.

v.1-14 – Born Again

There is a lot here in this passage, so in the interest of time, I’m just going to focus on the theme of the conversation—you must be born again. We rarely find this curious metaphor elsewhere in Scripture (see I Peter 1:3,23). Even so, many of our Baptist friends use this phrase almost exclusively today when talking about the conversion experience. “Have you been born again?” Some of our Pentecostal brethren take this talk of being born again to refer to baptism...and the talk of ‘water’ and ‘Spirit’ (v.5) to mean a baptism of water and a baptism of Spirit. However, Jesus clarifies immediately and removes all questions—“born of the flesh” and “born of the Spirit.” Jesus is talking about our first, natural, out-of-the-womb birth and a Spiritual birth.

This talk of rebirth is wonderful! We often pine for a ‘do-over’ in our lives. We often think about that moment, that day we’d like to live over because we said or did something we wish we could undo. Well, the rebirth is about as close to that as we’re going to get! God offers us the opportunity to start life over, to experience a re-birth...and that is good news. In my own experience, I’m convinced that rebirth, in a sense, can happen over and over and over. My congregation hears me say often, “Our God is a God of second chances.” (This works well in our Latino culture where many have come from Mexico. There, if someone fails a test or even the final exam, the expectation is that there will be ‘una segunda oportunidad’—a second opportunity, a second chance. So, “Nuestro Dios es un Dios de segunda oportunidades.” )

There’s enough ‘Good News’ right there—we could stop this sermon here!

v. 15, 16 – Believe

Believe. This comes from the Greek word pisteu.  Whenever I come to this word anywhere in Scripture, I take time to remind our people that this is not ‘belief’ as we understand it in our Western culture. For us, to believe is to offer intellectual assent to something, to recognize its truth or reality. I believe there is a mountain in the Himalayas called ‘Everest.’ Belief—pisteu—for the Greek-speaking, New Testament world was much more than mere intellectual assent. Belief for the writers and early readers of the NT was an assent that led to action. Belief in something impacted their behavior. Ask your congregation how many of them believe avoiding meat and eating veggies is good for them, for their health. Most will raise their hands. Ask how many have acted on that belief, and the showing may be a bit different. Biblical belief—by definition—leads to action. To ‘believe in Him’ results in a change of behavior.

Now, why is that? Well, that same word pisteu actually translates in at least three ways in our New Testament. Every time we see the words belief, trust and faith, we are seeing pisteu or some variant. To believe is to trust, to have faith in. That’s a bit more than simply recognizing the truth of something! So, if we believe in Jesus, besides acknowledging his reality, we are trusting in him—in what he says, does and call us to; we are placing our faith and confidence in who he is and what he says.

I’m reminded of the tight-rope walker, Blondin, who crossed the river above Niagara Falls. Legend has it that after crossing once, he asked, “Who believes I can cross with a person on my back?” A lot of hands went up. “Who will volunteer?” No one stepped forward. This is NOT belief in the Biblical sense! (Later, he did cross with his manager on his back.) How many times do people say, “Yes, I believe in Jesus!” but really never step forward, never change their lives or allow Jesus to change their lives?

v.18-21 – Our Actions Reveal Us

After affirming that God’s intentions clearly are salvation rather than judgment, John wraps things up talking about how we live—doing evil or practicing the truth. What we truly believe is revealed in what we do or don’t do. That’s fairly simple. We can talk social justice, but if we do nothing, it’s just talk. We can talk faith-sharing and evangelism, but if we do nothing, it’s just talk. We can talk church and mission and faith and trust, but if we don’t go, don’t give, don’t talk...it’ll say much more about our true beliefs than the words coming out of our mouths.

But wait! There’s good news: You can be born again! Today is a good day for a second chance, no?

(Go HERE to read my intro to this series.)

John 2:13-25 – Crack the Whip!

Okay. It’s happening already...after just five weeks. John is starting to grow on me. However, things have been rather ‘narrative’ so far, and that’s what I love. Soon, things are going to move to ‘discourse,’...and we’ll see how things go then. For now, let’s see what we can find here in John 2....

V.13 – Passover.

This provides us an opportunity to summarize the narrative we began with back in September. What is the Passover? When did this happen? Why did this happen? “In the beginning...” and then Adam and Eve sinned...and God called Abraham, whose grandson took the people to Egypt...and God called Moses...and part of making good on the Promise included God bringing His people back to the ‘promised land.’ So, whenever we have a chance to remind folks of the story, to repeat important parts of the narrative, we should do so. “Repetition is the mother of all learning.”

V.14-17 – Jesus clears the Temple.

I’ve read through this passage this week in several translations (NIV, NVI, NASB, Message), and I’ve not found anywhere that says or even indicates that Jesus was angry. Even so, I’ve noticed several postings this week in the Narrative Lectionary Facebook group I’m a part referring to or about God or Jesus being or getting “angry.” Nowhere in this passage can I find where it says that Jesus is enraged about what is happening in the Temple. I often worked with parishioners in north Georgia on their cattle farm when I lived and served there. The cows had to be rounded up, and some went off in the wrong direction. One of the fellows redirected the cows with a cattle-prod. He wasn’t angry. He was simply correcting the direction of the animals. Could it be that Jesus wasn’t angry, furious, going nuts on these folks? There was certainly zeal...but John doesn’t really say what that looked like. If we focus on Jesus’ “righteous anger,” we may be forcing something that is not in this text.

We will see below that Jesus is very clear as to his own purpose and identity, so he is probably very clear as to the purpose of the temple...and the buying and selling of merchandise is NOT part of that purpose. Commerce in itself may not be bad, but there is no place in the Temple. So, Jesus makes a whip (scourge) to clear things out. I love this image. He doesn’t fly off the handle; he takes time to make a whip to get the animals out of the temple, to show folks that he means business (even if he’s not terribly angry. 😊 )

V.18-22 – The Jewish leaders demand a sign.

(It always bothers me when John writes, ‘the Jews demanded...’ as if all the Jewish people were doing this. “Over-generalization” simply wasn’t caught by John’s editor....) The sign to which they refer is a sign of authority. Basically, the question is, “By whose authority are you doing this?” Jesus finds the authority within himself...as we will see below. And the sign he offers? “Destroy this temple, and in three days I’ll raise it up” (v.19, NASB).

In this passage, the transition begins of understanding the temple as flesh and blood rather than stone. God no longer (if ever) lives in stone constructs. Now, the temple is finally and forever flesh and blood...as indicated by Paul in I Corinthians 6:19-20 and by Peter in I Peter 2:4-5. We’ve been trying to extract God from stone ever since...and we’re still working on it. Just ask your folks about “the church” and they’ll likely give you a physical address. They talk about going “to church.” It’s a place. Jesus begins what Paul and Peter expand on...the church is the body of Christ.

V. 23-25 – Jesus knows people.

He knows us—how we are, how we think. There’s a sense here that Jesus doesn’t really trust the people around him to know who he is. That “he did not need any testimony” indicates that Jesus DOES knows who he is. He understands who he is and doesn’t need anyone else to confirm or affirm what he is about. In fact, contextually, we have to think about who this Jesus is in terms of how John introduces him at the beginning of this Gospel—“the Word” who was “with God”... “was God.” This Jesus has a very clear self-understanding in John.

I believe that this whole passage has to be understood in light of this final bit—Jesus does what he does, says what he says, out of a crystal clear understanding of who he is and what he is here to do. The question is, are we crystal clear as to who Jesus is? Do we have a clear understanding of who he is and what he was/is about? Our clarity on this point helps the rest of theology fall into place.

So, what do we do?

What do we do with this passage? How do we bring it home? What does it have to say to us, to our congregations? Jesus is cleaning house...his own house. It’s Passover—he remembers part of where things started, the price paid. He sees the Temple...the disorder, the distraction, the mix of holy and profane. He decides he needs to act, so he sits...sits...and makes a whip. And, then he cleans house.

Every Sunday can be a “Passover” for us—a time to remember part of what it’s all about. When we walk in, hopefully we see the baptismal font and remember our baptism and our calling. When we see the Bible on the altar, we remember that we have a standard for living. When we see the candles, we remember that God’s Spirit has been poured out upon us to empower, guide, teach, correct. And we should take a look inside our own temples, our own body, and see what has crept in, what is clogging the passage-ways. What commerce or other activity is threatening to become more important than the worship of God, the interchange of prayer? And we must sit and make a scourge, a whip—not of leather and wood and scraps of metal but of prayer and determination and contrition...under-girded by the power and presence of God’s Spirit. And we must clean house. Clean house so that God reigns in this temple—our individual bodies and our congregational body.

Is it time to crack the whip in your life, your congregation’s life?

(Go HERE to read my intro to this series.)

John 2:1-11 – Water to Wine: A Wedding Story

I come to this story, vignette, feeling that it is all too familiar. What new do I see here? What connections can I find? How do I tell this story anew? What does this—water to wine—have anything to do with our lives today?

“On the third day....” Third day of the week? Third day after the Jesus-Andrew-Peter events of 1:35-42? I’m not convinced that understanding the ‘third day’ makes or breaks our preaching of this passage. Best thing is, Jesus & Co. were there!

Wedding. In a previous post, I wrote about the power of words, that words convey ideas...and ideas usually take the form of images in our minds. We need to take the time to talk about 1^st Century weddings. This was not a nice, clean, virgin white and black tux affair. The ‘betrothal’ –the real wedding agreement—took place months earlier between the families. Dowries were paid, agreements reached...then, she stayed home and he stayed with his family. Now, it’s time for the consummation and celebration of the familial agreement. These weddings usually lasted 5 – 7 days! So, this is a big, long, feasting, celebrating, loud, drinking, eating event. To run out of wine—that’s bad news. It’s like having a Super Bowl party at your house and running out of snacks and drinks before half-time. That would be embarrassing. This situation in John 2 could be the social disaster of the year that is talked about for decades! “Yeah, remember when Benjamin’s family ran out of wine on the third day of his son’s wedding?! Ha,ha.... Wow... How could they let that happen?” Might have been social suicide. So, Jesus steps in. Wine appears. And all is well.

What part does Mary play in this wedding? Is she the caterer? Is she related to the family? She seems to have a voice of authority in this setting, but John the Evangelist doesn’t think we need to know her part. Okay....

Jesus turns the water to wine. I serve in a tradition that has as many conservatives as liberals. Some folks are going to question whether Jesus turned this water in “wine” or simply ‘grape juice.’ Some will not want this to be real wine. (I hear a real whine.) So, I’m going to state what I believe and what archaeology & church history indicate: Jesus turned the water into wine. This is not the issue of the story or the miracle. He could have turned it into Coca-cola or iced-tea. But, if I were at the wedding, I’d be happy that it was wine.

So what? What’s the big idea or big ideas here??

1) Jesus is not just about the ‘spiritual’ issues of our lives. He is concerned about the common, the ordinary...things like whether we have enough wine for our guests. He is about redeeming ALL of our life...not just the interior, prayer, soul-related stuff that we may be too tempted to focus on. This makes me think of those folks who get it, who have enough faith to pray for their car when it doesn’t start, to pray over electronic devices that don’t work, to pray for food for the rest of the week, to pray that their child can have shoes for school. They’re not ‘crazies;’ they simply get what we may not have gotten—Jesus is concerned about the ordinary, common things of life.

2) How are we doing as a church, as Christians, when it comes to turning water into wine? How are we doing about taking the ordinary and—by God’s grace and power and gifts—turning it into something that has body, color, texture, depth...that brings joy and levity...that takes the edge off of life? Are we content with ‘water’...and forcing everyone else to be content with water? Or, are we stepping in where we can and bring about joy-making, face-saving, reputation-reviving, respect-giving, honor-bestowing changes in the lives of others?

Jesus had just promised his disciples that they would “see greater things” (1:50). I guess Jesus is taking us along in baby-steps. Let’s turn some water into wine....

Happy Preaching!

(Go HERE to read my intro to this series.)

Facing the Future

What is the most beautiful building you’ve ever seen? What is the most majestic construction project you’ve ever come across in your life? What is biggest skyscraper you’ve looked up at…or looked down from?

I am not one to be much about architecture—I notice big, I can see beautiful, but few things stick in my mind. One place I saw a few years ago has, however, stayed in my mind—the Hindu Temple in Atlanta, Georgia.

I’m sure it was a combination of the completely other-worldly look and its location in the suburbs of an all-American city. It is quite a spectacle.

Now, imagine I take a walk on the grounds of the temple. I see some Hindu pilgrims who have come to worship. We greet each other. They stop and ask me, “The Temple, it is amazing, yes?! You like it?” What would they think, say or do if I responded, “Hmmmm. In time, it’s going to fall down—in time, this will just be a pile of rubble…..”

We’ve had this tendency from the beginning to love what we create…just as God loves what He creates. But then we start trusting in and relying on what we create. We persist in hanging on to the physical rather than pursuing the spiritual, preferring the temporal over the eternal, trusting in the human over the Divine. Jesus reminds us that we have things upside-down and backwards…and calls on us to focus on faith over physical.

Mark 13  ¹As Jesus was leaving the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher! What massive stones! What magnificent buildings!”

² “Do you see all these great buildings?” replied Jesus. “Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down.”

As the disciples see the Temple, they are rightly impressed. Historians tell us it was constructed of huge blocks of white stone…some weighing up to 100 tons! The historian Josephus tells us that, from a distance, these gleaming white stones made it look like there was snow-capped hill in Jerusalem. Some parts of the Temple were covered with gold panels…panels that blindingly reflected the sun if one stood in the right place. It was an impressive building, and the disciples were obviously taken with its beauty.

Jesus sees things differently—It’s gonna come down.

Now, how would the disciples hear that? How would any Jew hear that? The temple, after all, was that place where heaven and earth intersected. The Temple was that place where the Divine and the human touched. The Temple was THE symbol of “God in our midst” or “God with us.” Effectively, Jesus says, “God no longer with us!”

The fact is, everything we make falls apart. Everything. If humans build it, it crumbles—even holy places. Perhaps that’s why Jesus prepares his disciples and prepares us for that truth through what he shared with the Samaritan woman. Do you remember that encounter?

Jesus and the disciples are traveling through Samaria. The disciples go off to get food and provisions, and Jesus has a ‘chance’ encounter with a woman at a well. In that discussion, the question comes up about where to worship:

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

In the Kingdom, in God’s divine economy, things are ‘in the Spirit’.

Our religious faith, Jesus reminds us, is not about buildings, places and things.

Two thousand years after Jesus says the words we’ve just heard, people are still clamoring to “rebuild the Temple!” Jews, Muslims and Christians are fighting for control of the old “Temple Mount”…the Jews and well-intentioned Christians with a desire to rebuild a Temple that Jesus says is no longer needed.

We have a tendency to focus on buildings as well. How often do we talk about “the Church” yet we refer to the building? I remind you again that “The Church” is the people of God, the gathered People of God. Do you remember the song we sing from time to time? “I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together….” For the first 350 years of the Church, there were NO church buildings. None—Christianity was illegal. Now, for the convenience of gathering, we build buildings. The Church gathers in the building. We eventually call the building the Church. The people all leave, the “church” sits on the hill-top.

Wrong. This building, all buildings…are just buildings. WE are the church.

In recent news stories, we’ve seen ignorant, violent, racist people burning the church buildings of Black congregations. Have those churches ceased to exist? Was the burning of the building the end of the congregation? NO. The same is true of other sister congregations that have been destroyed by storm, tornado or flood. They find somewhere else to meet, somewhere else to gather…and they continue being the people of God, the Church.

How often we wrap up our lives in things, homes, cars, buildings, possessions…all of which will be brought down, not one stone left on another.

For the disciples, thinking of the beloved, historical, beautiful Temple—where they had gathered, where they had ended pilgrimages, where they taken and fulfilled vows, where they had offered sacrifice—this was a hard thing to hear. How would we hear Jesus say to us today of our own gathering place—Not one stone here will be left on another; every one will be thrown down?

³ As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, ⁴ “Tell us, when will these things happen? And what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?”

Do you want to know the future?

How would you like to know what will happen tomorrow…next week…next year?!

We are fascinated with the future. What? Not you?

Do you watch the weather FORECAST each evening?

Do you look at economic predictions?

Do you follow the trends of interest rates…fashion?

Do you sit and daydream about next summer? Next planting season? Next party? Next meal?

Yeah, we’re all about knowing the future…and people always have been.

We humans are a curious sort. We want to know the answers to things. What? When? Where? Who? Why? How? These are some of our favorite words. We asked them all the time as children…and now we think them, even if we don’t ask them.

So, the disciples come with questions—When is this grand destruction going to happen to the Temple? How will we know that it’s going to happen? Give us a clue, give us something. Tell us the future!

I remember as a child begging God for a sign that He was real. Sitting in my room, I would pray, "God, if you are real, I don't need a major miracle—just make the book fall off my desk...just leave a mark on the piece of paper here...just, just, just....." No, the book never fell, no marks appeared. I had to move forward in faith rather than base my life on visible certainties.

So, it is no wonder these men want signs, signals. They want to be ready. Like the patriots in Boston, they wanted a "one if by land; two if by sea" sort of signal, so they could be ready.

⁵ Jesus said to them: “Watch out that no one deceives you. ⁶ Many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am he,’ and will deceive many. ⁷ When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. ⁸ Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places, and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.

³² “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. ³³ Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come. ³⁴ It’s like a man going away: He leaves his house and puts his servants in charge, each with their assigned task, and tells the one at the door to keep watch.

³⁵ “Therefore keep watch because you do not know when the owner of the house will come back—whether in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or at dawn. ³⁶ If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. ³⁷ What I say to you, I say to everyone: ‘Watch!’”

When I started working on my sermon on Tuesday, I could not know how unfortunately appropriate this Scripture would be today. With the world still reeling from the attacks in Paris, we hear these words today with even greater interest.

In our own life-time, works like The Late, Great Planet Earth, the Left Behind series and movie, and other movies and books aplenty have tried to illustrate, grasp and understand ‘last days’ issues. Entire denominations have grown up around ‘end times’ issues. We are enthralled at times with the notion of the end.

While Jesus parts the curtain a bit here in Mark 13 and shows us something of the apocalyptic, end-times world, we would do well to remember that only 2% of all Jesus’ teachings focus on end-times and last days. By far, the greater bulk of His teaching focuses on the here and now, how to live day to day.  Thinking about the future is interesting for some, and for others it’s also easier focusing on the future so they don’t have to think about today.

So we take a peek behind that curtain today, Jesus’ own focus here calls us to look…but then we’re going to move on. In fact, that, too, is part of the message of his teaching.

One of the most important things to remember in reading this is that Jesus only ever spoke like this to his disciples. That is, He never spoke of these things or of things like this to the masses. He never took aside a leper seeking healing and warned him of coming wars. He never added an aside in His discussions with the Pharisees that earthquakes were coming. He never whispered to the woman caught in adultery that

the sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will not give its light;
²⁵ the stars will fall from the sky,
    and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.

In other words, Jesus never tried to scare people into the Kingdom. Since He only told His disciples about these things, then, makes us realize that none of this was shared with the purpose of scaring people! So why did He tell his disciples about these things?

As our son was preparing all last year to leave for college, we talked about college, college life, and our own experiences in college. We talked about the long study sessions in the library. We talked about all the different kinds of professors we had—the good, the bad, and the completely weird. We talked about cafeteria food…dorm life…and social life. We talked about lean financial times, and about those kids whose parents gave them everything, about the kids who had nothing. We talked about books, books, books…and exams and the importance of self-discipline. We talked about the peer pressure…and the crazy things college kids do.

Some of the things we talked about, no doubt, were kind of scary. But, was our purpose to scare Andrew? Was our intention to leave Andrew with lingering doubts and lasting fears and concern? NO! Our purpose was simply to prepare him, to give him a heads-up on what he was walking into. We wanted him to have a sense of what his future life would be like so he would not be blind-sided, so he wouldn’t be walking into the world with ‘rose-colored glasses.’

Jesus is doing the same thing for his disciples. “If you follow me, if you are a part of God’s Kingdom, tough times are coming. The Temple is coming down. Your way of seeing the world and your way of living the faith is going to change. Suffering is on the horizon…but, the suffering will be like birth pangs—something that you will endure in order to give birth to the Kingdom in your lives.” In this whole chapter, while he talks about wars and disasters and persecution, the real message is repeated over and over and over in the ‘commands’ we find scattered throughout :

Be careful

Do not be troubled

Take care of yourselves

Do not worry

Hang in there

Pray

Don’t believe just anything—even if it’s said in my name;

Watch, listen and learn

Watch and pray.

In short, TRUST...keep living the life of faith.

In spite of the uncertainty and upheaval, TRUST.

Even though the world is going to hell in a hand-basket, TRUST.

Wars? Droughts? Natural disasters? TRUST.

Betrayals? Broken promises? Beatings? TRUST.

So, what do we take away today?

Changes are coming our way.

Our families change as children grow, and move, and marry.

Our lives change as we move from school to work, from job to job, from work to retirement.

Our congregation is changing. More and more people are finding our congregation, and we are more and more welcoming of those who come to be a part of who we are. ‘New people’ means change.

We as individuals are growing in our lives of faith—we grow closer to God, we read the Bible more, we pray more, we fellowship more. All good, WONDERFUL steps…and they lead to change.

And, as the Scriptures indicate today, as we align ourselves with God’s plans and God’s will, we can expect push-back from the world and from those whose minds are set on things of this world…on the physical, the temporal, the human.

We cannot see the future. Even so, I am thoroughly convinced that we have an exciting future ahead us as Rio First. I am completely certain that God has good things for you and for me and for US. Yet, I cannot see the future. Going forward requires faith, trust.  Now…now is the time—with changes and a certain yet unknown future that God unfolds before us—now is the time to hold on to the promise we find in Scripture, in Proverbs 3: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths. 

We can face the future with confidence—falling stones and all—if we but heed Jesus’ call to ‘hang in there,’ ‘watch’, ‘don’t worry,’ ‘pray’…if we embrace Jesus’ call to trust.

Amen.

John 1:34-51 ~ New Names and Dreams

On we go through this Gospel of John. It seems that we’ll never get out of this first chapter...but this Sunday will be our last time in chapter one. Finally...we’ll move on!

Many who preach this passage—and I’ve even preached it in the past—focus on how people come to Jesus, come to know Jesus. This is good stuff, without a doubt. Andrew goes and gets his brother, Simon (Peter), and brings him to Jesus. Phillip goes and gets his brother, Nathaniel, and brings him to Jesus. People today come to know Jesus because others whose lives have been impacted by Jesus bring their family and friends to Jesus. When you find something good, you tell others other about it!

However, in my reading, meditation and prayer this week, some other things come to the forefront for me. First, when Jesus meets Simon, he gives him a new name—Peter. Now, Simon is not such a bad name—in the Hebrew, it means something like ‘hearer’ or ‘listener.’ So, Simon was good at listening, perhaps. But, Jesus wanted to give this man a new name, a new identity. This is not unheard of: Abram was renamed Abraham; Jacob became Israel. Now, Simon the Listener has become Peter the Rock. In fact, God wants to give us all a new name.  In Rev. 2:17, we see an indication that God wants to give us new names. Of course, for Jewish culture, a name was more than what someone was called; it reflected, shaped or indicated their character. Jesus was changing Peter’s character! Not just a listener anymore; now Simon would become a rock, a foundation, a brick in this new ‘temple’ Jesus was building that would become the Church. And, Jesus comes to bring us new names...new character. We who may have been ‘lazy’ are now called ‘active;’ the ‘loser’ becomes ‘valued;’ who thought themselves ‘just here’ becomes ‘precious’ or ‘beloved.’ It may be that our character is not ‘bad.’ But, we may not be who God wants us to be. One who was ‘talkative’ may need to become ‘Simon;’ and the one who has been a ‘Simon’ may be renamed ‘teacher’ or ‘preacher.’ Jesus comes into our lives and changes our character.

Second, we find that Jesus knows us and accepts us. We may think that we need to be a certain way in order to come to Jesus, to step into the family of God. But, not so. Nathaniel was seen and known before he ever came to Jesus. He even questions Jesus’ origins—“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” He comes as a skeptic. Yet, he is already seen and known. While my primary text for study and preaching is the NIV (no need to comment—I’ve heard all the arguments, but I get one Bible to preach from, and it needs to be bilingual...and I’ve yet to find an NRSV/NVI combination....), I have decided to keep The Message at hand as I preach through the Gospel this year. I like the way Peterson renders this passage:

45-46 Philip went and found Nathanael and told him, “We’ve found the One Moses wrote of in the Law, the One preached by the prophets. It’s Jesus, Joseph’s son, the one from Nazareth!” Nathanael said, “Nazareth? You’ve got to be kidding.”

But Philip said, “Come, see for yourself.”

47 When Jesus saw him coming he said, “There’s a real Israelite, not a false bone in his body.”

48 Nathanael said, “Where did you get that idea? You don’t know me.”

Jesus answered, “One day, long before Philip called you here, I saw you under the fig tree.”

That last verse—“...long before Philip called you here....” Peterson sees something in the grammatical construct in the Greek that indicates that Jesus sees Nate some time before this day, before the events of this day. And, I get the idea that Jesus sees us all from afar...yet knows us in the same way. We don’t have any surprises for Jesus. Nothing shocks Jesus. And, when we come to Jesus, Jesus just accepts us as we are...and gives us a new name to live into.

One more thought. Verse 51 was a verse I almost axed from the reading (yep, I can do that if I want to!) But, after meditating on that verse, I realized that it’s about dreams...and I’m all about dreams and hopes and plans and expectation (sort of comes with the Christian territory....). Here, Jesus references Jacob’s dream in Gen. 28. Jesus indicates that if these disciples follow him, if we follow him, we’re going to see some amazing stuff...and we’ll see dreams come true, dreams become reality. Now, let’s be clear—not just any dreams; rather, God-given dreams will become reality. But, this happens only if we follow Jesus, if we’re walking with Jesus.

So, in my readings this week, this passage indicates that Jesus gives us a new name; he comes into our lives to change our character. Jesus doesn’t demand or expect that we’re anything more than interested in order to come to him—he knows us long before we come to him. And, if we will but come to him...walk with him...we will see amazing things, dreams will become reality. What better way to be walking into 2018, into this new semester of studies, into this new year, into an new job?

These are my gleanings. What are yours?