Pray Away

John 17:1–11
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, 2since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. 4I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. 5So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
6I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

I have an ordained person in my congregation. She attends my ramble-on-the-text class between services. I have mentioned in that gathering that I don’t really like John. She loves John, and she gets a sort of hurt puppy look as she chimes in with her great love of the Gospel of John. Last Sunday, she walked out of worship and thanked me for the sermon which she really liked. “Now do you like John?” she said.
“No.”
I’m looking at William Loader’s reflections on the text.
I cannot recommend this reflection highly enough.
I’m going to quote extensively from Loader. Perhaps he likes John, and is therefore able to find something here. Perhaps (read certainly) he is also smarter than me, and can give some helpful insights, and maybe even help to cure me of my misJohnogy. . .
He opens by talking about how John is using a convention in summing up Jesus’ teaching in a prayer as part of his farewell words. . . He states this with this well crafted thought:

“It is not that there was such a prayer which Jesus spoke in this distinctively Johannine way of which the rest of the tradition, reflected in the other gospels, had no knowledge. Rather in John’s story of Jesus’ life and importance he has creatively imagined what Jesus might have said and what would have been the issues for him in this final prayer.”

What do you do with this notion, if you don’t like John in the first place? Preach on the Ascension instead? aaaaarrrgggghhh (ok, I'll quit whining now.)
Let me continue with Loader - he points to salvation as relationship. That Jesus has come to bring an “offer of life in relationship” with God the Father.
Really - read Loader - as he works through a pretty nifty read of this High Priestly Prayer - he tosses off some wonderful lines:

Christianity has been plagued with the ‘thinging’ of eternal life and John’s gospel is an excellent antidote.
John helps us avoid the commodification of the gospel and invites to an understanding of being good news by being community in which love is lived out. Jesus had needs. It is not about pretending we do not have them and that the gospel does not address them. Jesus states that he wants the closest relationship with God possible. That is what he is asking for. It is OK to ask for that. But that is not a commodity. It is a hope for communion. John’s gospel is also pointing us to that as our hope. It does have a future - generously Jesus wants nothing less than that we share the same hope which awaits him. It has a future because it has a present in which already here and now we share and delight in the life of God who is always taking initiatives of compassion. The greatest antidote to greed is to want only the reward of being one with the God whose being is self giving love.
John’s gospel has a wonderful way of bringing it all together in focus and within the gospel John 17 does this especially. It can help us recognise what matters. Its distinctive model of christology helps make this possible, but also offers us a way of thinking of Jesus and his significance which works where John’s elaborate model is not assumed, such as in the earlier gospels and in the earliest traditions. Combined with their earthiness you can then see how what John is saying in abstract takes us into being a community of compassion which touches every area of life and challenges all systems and instances where it is absent.

Could it be? that John is gives us a great way to conclude our Easter season.
The resurrection is FOR YOU - and in living this good news, you are called out to a life of relationship - with God the Father, with the crucified and risen one, and with this world in need. . . this is calling, responsibility and promise - made sure and certain in the gift of the Spirit. . .
That dog will hunt.

Advocate now

John 14:15-21.

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you. "I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them."

How long, O Lord, must we deal with the Gospel of John?
How long must we suffer so? Have compassion on your servants
Hasten to our side, and deliver us from this ethereal stuff.
May Holy Trinity Sunday come quickly and not tarry!
Oh Matthew, first of the Gospels, how long has it been since last we looked upon your words?

OK. I’m done with that. . .

"I will not leave you orphaned...”
This is a rich and abiding promise of the rich and abiding presence of God in Jesus Christ. I think often of something that Pat Kiefert said - he claimed that a Gallup poll asked Americans if they could be described as an “emotional orphan” - and over half said yes. . .
I wonder at how loneliness is among the pervasive issues of our lives. Two songs come to mind, the Beatles “All the Lonely People” and America “Lonely People”. The Gospel of Jesus Christ comes to lonely people and promises. . . what? Friends? a life of purpose and meaning? presence and calling?

The Advocate - here’s a question - from Stoffregen - “for whom does the Advocate advocate?” Well, I always thought, “for me.” But he suggests that the Advocate advocates for Jesus. And there are probably many directions we could go with that. Stoffregen goes off on a sin/judgment/forgiveness track. That we're convicted of our sin, judged etc. Kinda negative.
But what if the Advocate advocates for Jesus - calling you to forgiveness and love received, and sending you to live forgiveness and love shown toward others. The Advocate - not as the Spirit acquired - not the Spirit making me better, giving me powers, not even as the Spirit sanctifying (which might be kinda positive, but ultimately, I think, fruitless and inspiring to self righteousness) - RATHER the Spirit equipping and sending. That is an interesting way to speak of the advocating that the Spirit does. . .

Now You See Him Now You Don't

Luke 24
Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, 14 and talking with each other about all these things that had happened. 15 While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, 16 but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. 17 And he said to them, “What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?” They stood still, looking sad. 18 Then one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered him, “Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?” 19 He asked them, “What things?” They replied, “The things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20 and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him. 21 But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things took place. 22 Moreover, some women of our group astounded us. They were at the tomb early this morning, 23 and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. 24 Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said; but they did not see him.” 25 Then he said to them, “Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have declared! 26 Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?” 27 Then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them the things about himself in all the scriptures. 28 As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on. 29 But they urged him strongly, saying, “Stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. 31 Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us?” 33 That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem; and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together. 34 They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!” 35 Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

There is a meditation on this text from the Christian Century that has this paragraph

One Sunday I heard a preacher claim that the point of the Emmaus story is that we can recognize Jesus only in the broken bread. I hadn’t become an Episcopalian until I was in my 20s, so my inner Presbyterian child began to mutter, "And what about their hearts burning when they heard the word?" I was certain that I was missing some deep Anglican truth, so I sought out a fellow parishioner with a strong Anglo-Catholic bent, knowing that she would set me straight. I found her in the kitchen opening and slamming the cabinet doors. I ignored her frustration and asked her to explain how we find Jesus only in the Eucharist. She answered me between gritted teeth: "That’s just baloney! It’s all about power. If Jesus is only in the bread, then the priest is the only one who can dole him out, as it were.”

I know that is a bit much, but here is my point in quoting it- - >
Luke says that the knowing is in the “breaking of the bread.” I suspect the priest was a bit off in pointing to worship. The meditation I quote goes off and finds the knowing in “the everyday” in “hospitality”. But Luke says that the opening of the scriptures is to show that the suffering was “necessary” - that the scriptures pointed to Jesus. Luke says

“Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. . .”

Looking back to Luke 22 we hear. . .

“This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

Susan Briehl used this text to speak of the “heart of the matter” for worship. She spoke of the disciples walking the “sorrow road” with Jesus on the way to Emmaus.
Not only is Jesus made known in the breaking of the bread, the cross, the resurrection, the presence of God in this singular event is made known.
That might preach, but it seems kinda tough.
Easier to just say that you have to go to church and take communion. . .

Going Nowhere Fast

Matthew 28:1-10

Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb

What did they go to see? Were they “disappointed” by what they found?
I suspect that we often make a similar journey - venturing to a tomb that no longer bears the death and defeat we expect to find.
One thought. The angel, sitting on top of the stone seems sort of brash.
I think of the story of The Lord of the Rings where Pippin and Merry are at Isengard after Saruman the wizard has been overthrown. Gandalf has them watch over things until the rest of the Fellowship arrives. They make the most of the time there, having found some excellent brew and good weed to smoke, and when the Fellowship rides in, there they sit, atop the wall, drinking, smoking and welcoming their friends. . .

Whatdyaknow?

Text - John 9

I really like that line:
“One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.”
I guess that this can be used to serve a sort of head-in-the-sand approach - it must be a favorite verse of those who don’t want to do any theological reflection - but there is a simplicity here that is rich. “well, you guys are after all sorts of stuff - but I know that he healed me...”
Perhaps this appeals to my inner pietist.

One thing we can do is turn to this story to speak about how each one of us can speak to our neighbors and invite them to Church. You don’t need to have it all down. . .

There’s so much here, it is easy to get lost. . .
Richard Lischer has a real nice sermon that opens

In a church I served, one of the pillars of the congregation stopped by my office just before services to tell me he'd been "born again."
"You've been what?" I asked.
"I visited my brother-in-law's church, the Running River of Life Tabernacle, and I don't know what it was, but something happened and I'm born again."
"You can't be born again," I said, "you're a Lutheran.." . . . He was brimming with joy, but I was sulking. Why? Because spiritual renewal is wonderful as long as it occurs within acceptable, usually mainline, channels and does not threaten my understanding of God.
In her novel Revelation, Peggy Payne tells of a Presbyterian minister who experiences a theophany. One afternoon, while grilling steaks in the backyard, he hears the voice of God speaking to him. It's a revelation. It's the kind of revelation that will change his life; he will never be the same. The rest of the story tells of the price he pays for revelation, Do the leaders of his congregation rejoice with him? Not exactly. They do provide free psychiatric care and paid administrative leave.

Of course, there is a deep danger that when we hear this text, as we judge the Pharisees, we become Pharisees ourselves. . . we are the judgmental ones. . .
As Lindy Black quotes Barbara Brown Taylor:

One reason they are so repellent to us, I think, is because they remind us of ourselves. However much we prefer the role of the blind man, we are not naturals for the part. We are not outcasts, most of us. We have not been set outside the community for our sins. We are consummate insiders--fully initiated, law-abiding, pledge-paying, creed-saying members of the congregation of the faithful--or in shorthand, Pharisees,

I’m not sure what all that means, but one thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see.

Boundaries

John 4:5–42

⁵So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon. ⁷A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink." ⁸(His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) ⁹The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) ¹⁰Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water." ¹¹The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? ¹²Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?" ¹³Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life." ¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back." ¹⁷The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; ¹⁸for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!" ¹⁹The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem." ²¹Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²²You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. ²⁴God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." ²⁵The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ). "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us." ²⁶Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."

²⁷Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?" ²⁸Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, ²⁹Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he? ³⁰They left the city and were on their way to him.

³¹Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, "Rabbi, eat something." ³²But he said to them, "I have food to eat that you do not know about." ³³So the disciples said to one another, "Surely no one has brought him something to eat?" ³⁴Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵Do you not say, 'Four months more, then comes the harvest'? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. ³⁶The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. ³⁷For here the saying holds true, 'One sows and another reaps.' ³⁸I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor."

³⁹Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done." ⁴⁰So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. ⁴¹And many more believed because of his word. ⁴²They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

Boundaries. I'm struck by the issue of the boundaries raised by this Gospel text for Sunday. Geographical - A Jew crossing through Samaria to get from Judea to get to Galilee. The boundary of social custom being crossed when Jesus asks for a drink. The boundary of clean versus unclean of righteous and immoral. Here Jesus moves outside of religious certainties. We have no trouble affirming the need for boundaries. (We know of the "down side" of boundary free living) But we test them and we cross them much to our demise and/or suffering but also for life. Jesus engages this woman in a conversation which reeks of honesty but also leads for her to desire that which will quench the thirsting of her soul. "Living water." Living (Greek - zao) Something spiritual which leads to eternal life. Jesus' crossing of the boundaries to meet and to engage this woman in conversation leads to her desiring of the gift which leads to life. "Sir, give me this water...."

Jesus' taking risks...his crossing boundaries...led to his suffering and death but to our life. No, we are not called to "boundary free" living but we, too, are called to take risks..to cross some boundaries in order that honest conversations with self and others can take place. In order that we might drink "living water" that will "become in us (and others) a spring of water which gushes up to eternal life."

Follow Me

While all sorts of folks get interested in the fishing imagery - I don’t fish, and I don’t like people who do. . . strike that . . .
While all sorts of folks get interested in the fishing imagery, I have been nudged to simply look at the call “follow me.”
What is contained in this call to follow? Where will Jesus lead you?
I saw an interesting article that suggests that Jesus is not making a polite request for one to consider following him. . . "'Follow Me'" The Imperious Call of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels” by F. Scott Spencer, a NT prof at Baptist Th. Sem. in Richmond. [I looked up imperious, "assuming power or authority without justification. arrogant or domineering" - interesting word choice] He opens with a reference to the song “I have decided to follow Jesus” and does a nice riff from there to suggest that the Jesus we actually encounter is no Mr. Rogers.

[Jesus] insists that they follow him on his own terms — period. Jesus does not negotiate with disciples. He does not force anyone to follow, but those who do follow fall under the force of his call and agenda. Bluntly put, it is his way or the highway.
Such a pushy, peremptory Jesus is scarcely in vogue today. . . . . . . The rule that Jesus promotes, while as totalitarian in scope as anything Caesar might imagine, runs directly counter to the tyrannical character of Caesar's regime. Jesus advances the basileia ton theou, the just and merciful empire of Israel's God, before whom no other gods or kings, deities or powers, are worthy of honor.

In conversing with Pay No Toll, he mentioned the Quo Vadis, and this caused me to take a peek at this reflection in The Cross in Our Context
for a reminder:
Peter is in the act of fleeing Rome, where many Christians are undergoing terrible persecutions under Nero. As he is rushing along the Appian Way, he is apprehended by a vision of Jesus, heading in the opposite direction. "Quo vadis, Domine?" Peter asks him. "Where are you going, Lord?" And the vision answers “Into Rome, to be crucified again.” Then Peter, once more humbled by truth, turns around and returns into the city, where, legend tells us, Peter was martyred, crucified, head down.
Hall offers this reflection:

“What informs this legend. . . is a remarkable sense of the world-orientation of this faith. It is not the SUFFERING of [Peter] that is held up here as the goal we should all emulate, but the indelible connectedness of this faith with responsibility in and for the city of earth - civitas terrena - God’s world. The risen Christ, in his eternal reign as in his historical sojourn, is always going toward this world, the world's rejection not withstanding, and discipleship, when it is authentically so, is always a matter of being taken up into this world-directedness, despite one’s own preference for security and peace.” pg 54

One more line from DJ - this is a bit out of context, but a rich line none the less: he says that God is one - “who will be loved only as one who loves the world. (John 3:16)” pg. 55

Let me suggest that we are called to follow Jesus, not as an idea, nor even as God incarnate. We are called to follow this one who - as God incarnate - ventures to the cross, who loves the least and the lost and expects his followers to do the same.

Baptism - Again

Matthew 3:13–17
Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 But Jesus answered him, "Let it be so now; for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness." Then he consented. 16 And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased."

I - sometimes - find myself not too excited about Baptism of Our Lord. In fact, I sorta grimace at the thought of once again going down to the Jordan. . .
However, usually, by the time I preach on it, I see it as a good starting point for the venture into the Epiphany season and the new year.
As the year begins, as folks have thought - a little - about New Years’ resolutions, having thought about themselves in a sort of critical or abstract way, this might well be a good time to touch on Baptism as God’s gift of identifying you as God’s own. As one in whom God is “well pleased.”
I like Daniel Patte’s commentary on Matthew - and he goes on quite a bit about Jesus’ vocation, his identity given in the name Emmanuel, and the name Jesus - “he will save his people from their sins.”
I suspect that our congregations (and our own darn selves) might be well served by reflecting on Baptism - Vocation - other Baptism themes abound, and they are probably all fitting for our preaching on this text. Reflecting on the theme of God’s claim on you in Baptism - I like this line from my sermon last year. Noting that some think their baptism is not meaningful to them because they can’t remember it. . . (names have been changed to. . . ) -

If Bilbo or Frodo were to complain that they did not remember the day when their adoption was finalized, I would tell them, it didn’t matter. “What matters,” I would say, “is that your daddy held you in his arms at the court house and cried happy tears, he knew that no matter what, for all our lives, we belonged to one another.”

As you venture into the year ahead, you are God’s own. You are called. You are sent. I like this idea from Loving Jesus by Mark Allen Powell. He says that we sometimes talk as if forgiveness means that God loves you in spite of who you are. Yet, could the Good News of the Gospel be heard in a fresh way, if the congregation heard ? - “God loves you because of who you are.” God has proclaimed about you, “with you I am well pleased.”

Where is the child?

Matthew 2:1–12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage." 3 When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; 4 and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. 5 They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:
6 'And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,
are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;
for from you shall come a ruler
who is to shepherd my people Israel.'"
7 Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. 8 Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage." 9 When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. 10 When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. 11 On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. 12 And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

One great thing about following an absolute dipwad, is that you end up on all sorts of wacky mailing lists. . . A packet of materials just arrived from Christian Tools of Affirmation. CTA.
I believe that the liturgical response to such a load, is “Uff Da!”
We might well ask whether the Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh were very affirming.
After I thought of that - admittedly, not very affirming - shot, I began to wonder. Continuing down that road, one might suggest that the gifts do affirm the calling Jesus bears as Messiah, as suffering servant, as one who will bring life and salvation through suffering and the cross.
I know that is a sort of pedestrian reading. Sort of common. The “We Three Kings” carol and all. But, it might not be common at all.
How might that be? Where do we go with this wonderful tale?
I like the bulletin cover art from Sundays and Seasons for this week.
Three kings bow before Jesus, (in a manger - oops). The Magi in front looks to be Asian, the middle, maybe Indian? maybe feminine? the third looks African.
This one, whose calling is foreshadowed in the gifts, has come for ALL.
There is much here.
Which path shall we follow?