It's Way Over Your Head

John 16:12-15

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. He will glorify me, because he will take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”

I like Trinity Sunday. 

Maybe this is the most fitting time to read from the Gospel of John. A bit murky. Sorta hard to understand. 

Kinda like God.

Willimon - in some of his latest podcasts - has some lectures he must have given to some Methodist colleagues. They are titled: God Talk Preaching.

They include a number of stories he uses over and over. Good stories, worth hearing a number of times. He likes to refer to Robert Jenson, who says that the way you can tell that you are in the presence of a living God is that this God surprises. A dead god is totally predictable. Nice.

At a text study group the other day. A good bit of the conversation was looking at how awesome creation is. 

True, God is pretty awesome. Space is pretty big. We’re quite small. YET, that great God does love us, does condescend to reach out to us. 

I thought of the Monty Python bit, where the monk is praying: “O God, you are so huge. So incredibly large. We’re all right impressed down here.”

Talk of the magnitude of creation can be pretty interesting. (Ever see the videos “The Blue Planet”? AWESOME!) Yet, there will not be a lot of Gospel there. 

I thought of this quote while sitting at this text study:

God is in all things, in the stone, in the fire, in the water, and in the rope, but he wants us to seek him only in the Word, which is clear and plain. Luther Sermon on the Sacraments, paraphrased in Wingren, Luther on Vocation p 122

"I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth...”

We might wonder at  how the Spirit might guide you into all the truth. Might this guiding be a bit like believing itself? Willimon makes the point that he has preached on Jesus’ call “follow me.” The fitting questions are: “what are you about?” “Why should I follow you?” But those questions aren’t asked. Faith seems to be lived in a backwards order. One learns who Jesus is by following. Perhaps the teaching the Holy Spirit will do will be lived out in a backwards order. You will learn about this one with whom you live, by living with this one in the community the Holy Spirit calls together.

I think of a quote the Norse Horse will often share with us; suggesting that for Luther:

the only dis-embodied spirit is the devil.

Indeed.

May our preaching of the Holy Trinity be embodied by the one in whom we live and move and have our being.

Quite "Gifted"

John 14:8-27

Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it. "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 have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.

Pentecost. 

John.

Talk about a double whammy. 

In the conversation on Sermon Brainwave, something was said that caused me to think a bit differently about the gift of the Spirit. 

So often, I find myself doing one of two things with Holy Spirit “gift” talk. 

One: I try (in one of the many odd conversations in my head) to argue with the charismatics who see the gift of the Holy Spirit as an ability to speak in tongues - or some other such manifestation of a spiritual gift. 

Two: I try to construe the gifts of the Spirit that we are given in more everyday sorts of ways. The gift of faith, the gift of love borne to the lives of those in need, the gift of a community of forgiveness and hope. . .

The sermon brainwave comments (which, upon listening again I don’t see how or why) made me begin to look at the gift of the Spirit in a different light. 

They made me consider how this gift God has given - is not so much for me to have the gift - but for God to love the world.

It made me think of a sermon by Willimon, titled:  “One Day God Will Finally Get What God Wants.” Willimon, preaching on Revelation 5 says that 

“Heaven is that time - that place - that set of arrangements - where God gets what God wants.”

Might that offer a more “fruitful” path for Holy Spirit talk than the odd conversations in my head?

The Spirit is given.

Where do you go from here?

And who will accompany you, and how will that accompaniment be manifested?

Help!

Or, to be more Markan: “I believe; help my unbelief!”

One is the Loneliest Number

John 17:20-26

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

Mary Hinkle Shore connects this prayer with the prayer at Gethsemane (in the synoptics) when  the disciples fell asleep. Reading this prayer, I find it hard to criticize the disciples so much.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

It is interesting, that in some of the reading I’ve done on this text, folks have not really addressed the “oneness” thing. 

How do you not? 

What else could this text be about?

Granted, I don’t understand it. 

But that sure seems to be what it is about.

One who seems not to speak about oneness is Mary Hinkle Shore in Workingpreacher writes: 

How do you feel when someone prays out loud for you? When I asked a few friends this question, these words surfaced: comforted, vulnerable, grateful, honored, humbled, awkward but appreciative, like someone really cares. Maybe one of the reasons it is so easy to turn John 17 into a "to do" list for the church is that such a list is easier to manage than such an experience as intimate as being the subject of another's prayer. . .

Not bad, eh? 

That made me think about the people who won’t let the congregation pray for them, won’t let their weaknesses (or those of family members) be mentioned in the announcements. . . 

Still, I have his nagging feeling that the text is about oneness. 

What is it about the Gospel of John that sends one off, waxing poetic?

That is, people other than me. . . 

Some excerpts from some good comments by William Loader

It was not that Jesus came offering new information. Rather his life is to be seen as an offer of relationship, a hand stretched out from God. 17:23 ensures we do not miss the essential ingredient: the relationship is not any kind of relationship; it is one characterised by love.

. . . Unity is not an extra; it is the essence of what it means to be Christian. The key words like reconciliation, atonement, assume its centrality. Did John imagine uniformity? It is striking that the gospel depicts considerable diversity in responses to Jesus. 

. . . Oneness in sharing God’s life as love is a broad and inclusive platform upon which many can stand and which can tolerate great diversity. There is no place for hate, prejudice, writing people off. . .  John’s style of theology gives support to a generous theology.

Also not bad. But, I’m not sure what to do with it. 

In this prayer, Jesus asks the impossible. Could there be some insight in this very fact? Some insight for preaching? A sort “aim high” thing? I don’t mean that sardonically. I mean to ask whether there is something to the fact that Jesus asks for this which Jesus might well have known would not - could not - be realized this side of glory?

For all my whining about the Gospel of John, I suspect that there is some good stuff to be said from here. . . 

any ideas for good direction?

It Passes Understanding

John 14:23-29

Jesus answered him, "Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me. "I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, ‘I am going away, and I am coming to you.’ If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

John again?

I thought we had a new lectionary.

And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

OK I’m not even going to try to understand that one. . . 

How about the rest of this pericope. . . 

We are, of course, among those who love Jesus.

And, we are loved by the Father. 

Does this passage say that our being loved by the Father is dependent upon our keeping Jesus’ word? 

Hmmm

Of course, we want to have Jesus and the Father make their home with us. . . 

And, we need the Advocate to teach us everything and to remind us of all that Jesus has said to us. . .

Now, help me here, what did he say?

Is that the question when dealing with this text?

Again. Thought we had a new lectionary.

Given that my New Church (Never Admit Limitations Church) has been so slow in this matter, I guess we’re dealing with John 14 this time around.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.“

When engaging this lesson from John 14, I always conclude that the most fruitful question here is to wonder how it is that the world gives, and how it is that Jesus gives differently.

It is in our DNA to suspect that the difference might best be discerned by looking to the cross. 

. . . 

Speaking of peace, David Lose had some nice comments in his - now seemingly weekly - column “Dear Working Preacher”

. . . [Jesus] promises peace – not merely the cessation of disturbance but instead a confident expectation and hope about the future.

With that, I wish you peace.