What’s New?

JOHN 13:31-35

When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

I’m starting a new church

NALC

Never Allow Losers Church.

This church won’t be like those others. 

We won’t have ANY of those folks who are so disagreeable.
Just uniformity here. 

We’ll find unity in the Bible. 

Yup

Now, one great advantage about starting your own church (I know you're in with me here)
-- in addition to being unburdened by that terrible difficulty, diversity --
would be that you could start your own lectionary.

No more RCL for us, no sir. 

The NALC will use the official NALC lectionary, which will have a few basic rules. 

Rule #1 - If it is from the Gospel of John - we use it once every three years.
EXCEPTION: We’ll use John for the Passion Reading on Good Friday, and the Christmas Day reading. 

That’s plenty of John. In fact more than enough.
Rule #2 - If it is read for the Passion Reading in ANY of the three years, you won't have to read it in Easter.

From there it is pretty dang easy to make a lectionary. Must be.
We’ll take the RCL, and when there’s a text from John, replace it with something else.

And, I guess, we'll keep John 3:16 when it shows up in Lent Year A, OR when it shows up 4 Lent Year C Or Holy Trinity Year B.  We’ll decide on that.
AND we’ll have complete agreement. No dissension. That will be easy.

Done.

You know, as annoying as I find John to be, the one good thing about having this text for Sunday, not much can get me to preach from Revelation. It’s something I wouldn’t do, without John’s . . . .  encouragement.

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Interesting, isn’t it, that I don’t really feel like preaching on that.
Sorta seems like what we’re supposed to be about.

I got yelled at the other day. Seems the folks who run the preschool at our building opted to upgrade the sand box in the play area. Poured concrete around it. Didn’t ask for permission.

They should have. That’s true.

They didn’t.

Hmmmmmmmmm

Yell at the pastor.

Makes sense in someone’s world.

Don’t feel like preaching love to him though.

Revelation's "Behold I make all things new" proclamation seems fitting.
Need to be made new.

Its sorta cynical to say that. 

Sorta cynical of you to agree with me.

Heckity.

Love one another.

What’s new about that?

That’s the question, isn't’ it?

I Hear Voices

John 10:22-30

At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, "How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." Jesus answered, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one."

Good Shepherd Sunday Does anybody really care about such designations? 

I do. 

But does anyone who is normal?

Will any people walk in to worship on Sunday morning having thought to themselves on the way; “I wonder what the preacher will say about the Good Shepherd”?

No.

Which, I guess, is fine. 

I don’t know why I started this way.

Let me say this. . . 

I like Good Shepherd Sunday. 

I think it is a chance to proclaim the abiding promise of God’s presence in our world and in our lives. 

I have found this exchange to be compelling 

"If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly." 

Jesus answered, "I have told you . . . My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me."

What is compelling is that while the question of Jesus is essentially about terms and titles, a theological question; Jesus’ answer is about relationship.

His sheep hear his voice and he knows them.

A lot of the claims that we will make about Jesus are that WE know HIM. 

Yet Jesus proclaims that what matters is the he knows us. 

Interesting.

I ran across this;  by Duane Olson in a Word & World piece. “Our security is found not in what we have or who we are but in whose we are. It is located in the faithfulness of the shepherd.”

That’s pretty dang basic, but maybe that is what Good Shepherd Sunday is about. Basics.

While the Girardians can get pretty dang earnest - and they may border on a sort of gnosticism - I liked this from Preaching Peace:

Today we must ask: Is God like Jesus? This is what our text does and in so doing asks us to reconsider who we think God is and what God is like.

This was after complaining about GW Bush leading us to war. I think that the conclusion is that Jesus would vote Democrat.  (actually, it might not have concluded that)

I saw this:  

The word for 'one' is the neuter hen not the masculine heis: Jesus and his Father are not one person, as the masculine would suggest, ...Rather, Jesus and his Father are perfectly one in action, in what they do: what Jesus does the Father does and vice versa. D.A. Carson The Gospel According to John

This might visit with the Girardian rumination on what God is like.  Does God use power? Is omnipotence the primary attribute of God? Or does Jesus show forth different attributes that might be more definitive of who God is?

What was that bumper sticker?

“My Jesus thinks your Jesus isa greedy war monger” 

In many, many, contexts, I believe that there are important issues around the voices we are listening to.

I will ask people who are beating up on themselves for some perceived inadequacy: “Is God the author of that thought?” 

I think that can be a fitting way to unmask (sound Girardian?) some of the destructive voices that are out there. 

Well. This may be a start. 

May we listen to the Shepherd’s voice. 

Might we find that shepherd to be the slaughtered lamb, who loves us to the end.

Can We Talk About Something Else Now?

John 21:1-19

After [he appeared to his followers in Jerusalem,] Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias; and he showed himself in this way. Gathered there together were Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of his disciples. Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We will go with you." They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing. 

Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to them, "Children, you have no fish, have you?" They answered him, "No." He said to them, "Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some." So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, "It is the Lord!" When Simon Peter heard that it was the Lord, he put on some clothes, for he was naked, and jumped into the sea. But the other disciples came in the boat, dragging the net full of fish, for they were not far from the land, only about a hundred yards off. When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, "Bring some of the fish that you have just caught." So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, "Come and have breakfast." Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, "Who are you?" because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead.

When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs." 

A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep." He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep. Very truly, I tell you, when you were younger, you used to fasten your own belt and to go wherever you wished. But when you grow old, you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will fasten a belt around you and take you where you do not wish to go." (He said this to indicate the kind of death by which he would glorify God.) After this he said to him, "Follow me." 

Imagine how uncomfortable Peter must have been.

Maybe some of you have heard this story. 

One night I was reading to my son, and our dog, Bingo was lying there.
He reached out to pet the dog, and the dog growled.
I scolded him, (NOT THE DOG!) and said “What have you done to cause Bingo to growl like that?”
“Nothing!”
“Oh yes, you did something, Bingo never growls.”
“I didn’t do anything!”
“Well, I have to say, I’m disappointed in this.”
We read for a few minutes, then he said, “Dad, let’s not tell mom that this happened.”

Makes sense. 

Peter probably would have concurred. “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

There is so very much in this story.

It seems to me to really brings us up against the fact that sometimes forgiveness is a difficult thing. 

Willimon tells a great story. (As with many of his stories, one wonders if it actually happened that way.) (and, as with many things I write or say, this is how I remember it. . . ) 

One Sunday, after preaching on the forgive 70 times 70 text, a woman walked out of Church and accosted him. She said; “Are you telling me that I am supposed to forgive my ex-husband who abused me for years until I was able to leave him? Are you telling me I am supposed to forgive HIM?”

Willimon then stutters that, having only fifteen minutes, it is hard to cover every possibility, but in the end, the answer is “Yes, it seems that Jesus is saying you are to forgive him.” 

Then, Willimon says, the woman hiked herself up to her full height, looked him in the eye and said; “Thanks, just checking.”

Willimon’s point, in part, is that we should not protect people from Jesus, that where he saw a victim, Jesus saw someone with whom he is going to change the world.

Some questions. 

In what ways does this speak to the fact that love hurts? 

That to live in community is to be in need of forgiveness? (I think of Bonhoeffer in Life Together, saying that the key to Christian community is disappointment.)

In what ways does forgiveness give rise to mission?

In what ways might forgiveness be about more than relieving my own sense of guilt and shame?

Does the encounter with the risen Jesus go hand in hand with a sending to share and tell, to live and love?

Idle Tales, Errant Searching

Luke 24:1–12

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again." Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; then he went home, amazed at what had happened.

This telling of the Easter story is quite stark.

Take a look. No exclamation points.

Not one!

Save those for the liturgy and the hymns, I guess. 

I note two rich things in this telling of the story. . . 

"These words seemed to them an idle tale."

Lest you forget, the idea of resurrection is a bit out of the ordinary. A tad unexpected. . . 

And then this: "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"

Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Seeking the Gospel in the Law.

Seeking peace in violence. 

Seeking justice in vengeance.

Why do you look for the living among the dead?
I hadn't thought of any other possibility!
Why indeed!

Palm Sunday - A Little Bit of Glory - Before. . .

With the Palm Sunday observance being sort of crowded out by "Passion Sunday" I wonder.

It seems that the liturgical folks betray a great lack of confidence. A lack of confidence in the Church, and in preachers.
It is as if they asked; "How can we steer these theologians of glory to attend to the cross?"
And their answer was "PASSION SUNDAY"
"No more fun!"
"No Palms! Heck, only John has Palms anyway"

I am having new member Sunday this Palm Sunday Passion Sunday.
I'm thinking of talking about how this could be experienced as a huge "bait and switch."
Join when we're having parades and Palms, then the moving service on Thursday evening, only to be shocked by Friday's tragic turn.

There was a fascinating story on NPR - I guess yesterday.
Brian McLaren has thrown some folks off their game by suggesting that the satisfaction theory of the atonement might not be the way to see the work of the cross.
The response is . . . how do I say this? ? ?
Strong. . .
At least, as communicated in the NPR story I read. . .
The book is
A New Kind of Christianity by Brian D. McLaren

Recently, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., convened a school-wide event to talk about a new book by a popular evangelical Christian. It wasn't pretty.
"It is a new kind of Christianity that is no Christianity at all," says Southern Baptist theologian Jim Hamilton.
Evangelical author Bruce Ware adds, "I've thought of Brian McLaren for years as a wolf in sheep's clothing, but I think in this book, he took the sheep's clothing off."

It is interesting to see such reaction.
These folks are sometimes a bit a-historical.
There is wisdom in the fact that the Church has never determined that a single understanding of the atonement be set as doctrine for every time and every place
The article says that McLaren is

rethinking Jesus' mission on Earth, and even the purpose of the crucifixion.
"The view of the cross that I was given growing up, in a sense, has a God who needs blood in order to be appeased," McLaren says. "If this God doesn't see blood, God can't forgive."
McLaren believes that version of God is a misreading of the Bible.
"God revealed in Christ crucified shows us a vision of God that identifies with the victim rather than the perpetrator, identifies with the one suffering rather than the one inflicting suffering," he says.
McLaren says modern evangelicalism underplays that Jesus — who spent most of his time with the poor, the sick and the sinners — saved his wrath primarily for hard-core religious leaders.
Others, such as Al Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, say McLaren's view of Jesus and the crucifixion is like a shot to the heart of Christian beliefs.
"Did Jesus go to the cross as a mere victim? If so, then we have no Gospel, we have no hope of everlasting life," Mohler says. "Did Jesus go merely as a political prisoner, executed because he had offended the regime? Well, if so, that's a very interesting chapter of human history, but I'm not going to stake my life on it, much less my hope for eternity."

Mohler.
Settle down.
No hope?
None at all?
No hope if your reasoning is not followed by all of us, if the crucifixion did not accomplish that which YOU have decided it accomplished?
We are all theologians of glory - some just more glorious than others, I guess.

The thing I like about Passion Sunday - the thing I like about reading the WHOLE PASSION READING, which we do at the close of the service - is that we are confronted by the story. We are included and incorporated into the telling, once again, and God does God's saving work there. Right in the cross and the resurrection. Not in some theory or idea or any sort of neat transaction.
The Work of Christ is - once again - made real and made present.
This ain't history follks, this is life.

May you proclaim life in the days ahead.
Life won for you in this one who suffered and died and who (yes, folks, we won't rush there too fast, we'll visit the betrayal, the denial, the sham trial, the cross, the suffering, the dieing, for this makes us to see the wonder more clearly) rose triumphantly that wonderful Easter day.

Lazarus Saturday

This is from some whacky orthodox / used-to-be-Episcopal - Priest
it was linked on workingpreacher's facebook page
Kinda nice

Lazarus Saturday
March 25, 2010 by fatherstephen
Largely ignored by much of Christendom, the Orthodox mark the day before Palm Sunday as “Lazarus Saturday” in something of a prequel to the following weekend’s Pascha. It is, indeed a little Pascha just before the greater one. And this, of course, was arranged by Christ Himself, who raised His friend Lazarus from the dead as something of a last action before entering Jerusalem and beginning His slow ascent to Golgotha through the days of Holy week.

One of the hymns of the Vigil of Lazarus Saturday says that Christ “stole him from among the dead.” I rather like the phrase. Next weekend there will be no stealing, but a blasting of the gates of hell itself. What he does for Lazarus he will do for all.

Lazarus, of course, is different from those previously raised from the dead by Christ (such as the daughter of Jairus). Lazarus had been four days dead and corruption of the body had already set in. “My Lord, he stinks!” one of his sisters explained when Christ requested to be shown to the tomb.

I sat in that tomb in September 2008. It is not particularly notable as a shrine. It is today, in the possession of a private, Muslim family. You pay to get in. Several of our pilgrims did not want to pay to go in. I could not stop myself.

Lazarus is an important character in 19th century Russian literature. Raskolnikov, in Crime and Punishment, finds the beginning of his repentance of the crime of murder, by listening to a reading of the story of Lazarus. It is, for many, and properly so, a reminder of the universal resurrection. What Christ has done for Lazarus He will do for all.

For me, he is also a sign of the universal entombment: that even before we die, we have frequently begun to inhabit our tombs. We live our life with the doors closed (and we stink). Our hearts are often places of corruption and not the habitation of the good God. Or, at best, we ask Him to visit us as He visited Lazarus. That visit brought tears to the eyes of Christ. The state of our corruption makes Him weep. It is such a contradiction to the will of God. We were not created for the tomb.

I also note that in the story of Lazarus – even in his being raised from the dead – he rises in weakness. He remains bound by his graveclothes. Someone must “unbind” him. We ourselves, having been plunged into the waters of Baptism and robed with the righteousness of Christ, too often exchange those glorious robes for graveclothes. Christ has made us alive, be we remain bound like dead men.

I sat in the tomb of Lazarus because it seemed so familiar. But there is voice that calls us all.

http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/lazarus-saturday/
A blog by a Fr. Stephen Freeman,  an Orthodox Priest who lives and serves in East Tennessee.

Missed By One Week

Here's a little bit on the 5th Sunday in Lent. . . 

(for posterity donchaknow)

I fully intended to post something each week of Lent
Heck. . .
Good intentions and all that. . .
Which is what Judas would contend he had. . .
I found this a difficult text. (of course, they ALL are) with not much help from commentators
This was good
From a sermon by Kathryn Huey, who writes at the UCC web site. . .

she begins. . . 

Remember way back at the beginning of Lent, weeks ago, when we began our Lenten journey by reflecting on the story of Abraham & Sarah, sort of a "remembering who we are" by remembering "whom we came from"? Today, we turn full attention to who Jesus is, & our teacher in today's text from the Gospel of John is Mary of Bethany, a woman, which happens so often in the Bible, especially the Gospels, where the women – the last & the least – seem to hit just the right note, to get it, while the Apparently Chosen –the Apostles & other disciples – stumble & blunder their way along, trying to figure everything out.

and this was nice from BBT

Whatever Mary thought about what she did, and whatever anyone else in the room thought about it, Jesus took it as a message from God - not the hysteric ministrations of an old maid gone sweetly mad but the carefully performed act of a prophet. Everything around Mary smacked of significance - Judas, the betrayer, challenging her act; the flask of nard - wasn't it left over from Lazarus' funeral? - and out in the yard, a freshly vacated tomb that still smelled of burial spices, waiting for a new occupant. The air was dense with death, and while there may at first have been some doubt about whose death it was, Mary's prophetic act revealed the truth.

She was anointing Jesus for his burial, and while her behavior may have seemed strange to those standing around, it was no more strange than that of the prophets who went before her - Ezekiel eating the scroll of the Lord as a sign that he carried the word of God around inside of him (Ezekiel 2), or Jeremiah smashing the clay jar to show God's judgment on Judah and Jerusalem (Jeremiah 19), or Isaiah walking around naked and barefoot as an oracle against the nations (Isaiah 20). Prophets do things like that. They act out. They act out the truth that no one else can see, and those standing around either write them off as nuts or fall silent before the disturbing news they bring from God.

Broken and Bound

LUKE 15:1-3, 11B-32

Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, "This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them." So he told them this parable:
"There was a man who had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.' So he divided his property between them. A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. But when he came to himself he said, 'How many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands."' So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. Then the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his slaves, 'Quickly, bring out a robe-- the best one--and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!' And they began to celebrate. "Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. He replied, 'Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.' Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. But he answered his father, 'Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!' Then the father said to him, 'Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.'"

If you are diligent, you might look at the entry by P-basement from aught 7... and the ensuing discussion. . .

The discussion of PB and PNT is rich and gets me thinking...
Surely the focus on the younger son skews our read of this parable. (Or should I say “our hearing of the this parable”?)
For me, Helmut Thielicke first turned my eyes in a new direction with the title “The Waiting Father” - (I’ve preached whole sermons on a parable simply walking through the many different titles given it - and the ways a different title might re-direct our hearing, so that God’s Word works on us afresh.)
PNT - speaking of both sons says that

“each in their own way . . . break [the Father's] heart. If this father is revealing God to us, it is a pretty startling image.”

Startling indeed. . .
PB speaks of this story revealing

“The broken-hearted God. Part of the heart-break results from the freedom he allows each son. In their bondage to sin they misuse it. And in the father's bondage to love he can't give up on either of them.”

Broken and Bound.

Perhaps there are times when we take a text and hold it in higher regard than it might deserve. . . Perhaps I should not say so, but it comes to mind to suggest that the whole nativity stuff seems a bit overdone at times. (Not that there’s anything wrong with it, it just comes to mind.) I might add, I'm not talking about Christmas shopping.
Yet this greatest - and most well known of parables seems to me to deserve to be held in high regard, and to merit our delving as deeply as we can into its riches. It is a story that bears power.
Power to open my eyes to the wonder of our broken hearted God.


I should stop writing at this point. . . but I won't

Family Values
Listening to sermon brainwave, I had the notion to title a sermon on this: “It’s the Economy Stupid” and focus on the ways people imagine God to be, and the deeply different economy by which God works in the world. . .
Mindful of the fact that to allude to Clinton in any way positively might well bring on a coronary or two. . . I won't do that.
Not only that, it is sort of overly “girardian” I suspect. . . borderline gnostic.
But an interesting tack.
I saw a title for an article in JBL. "The Indentured Labor of the Prodigal Son”
And I thought, not of the younger son, who had hired himself out to indentured servitude, but of the older son, and his sad, sad comment - “Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you”
It is so striking when the older son portrays his residing in his father’s house in such a way.
Servitude. Without pay
Heart breaking indeed. . .

HAVING IT BOTH WAYS

Luke 13: 1-9
"At that very time there were some present who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. He asked them, "Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them — do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did." Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to the gardener, 'See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?' He replied, 'Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.'"

This is an intriguing text.
Judgment and grace. Both.
An under-performing fig tree in a bull market. The threat of removal.
Another year asked for and granted.

'Sir, let it alone for one more year. . . If it bears fruit next year, well and good..."

Grace.

"...but if not, you can cut it down.'"

doh!

I have learned to say that the questions we ask are quite important. If you ask bad questions, it is hard to come up with good answers.
“How is your life different since you decided to put God first in your life?”
Well. . . . . . I did? Its supposed to be different? Different than what?
It seems an interesting dance, this suggestion that those who suffered from the earthquakes in Chile or Haiti were not any different than us. And seeing their plight, you should repent.
I would not go there.
Yet, Jesus did.
Charged right off that cliff.
The Vicar of Vice had a good entry for this text three years ago.
He quoted from The Parables of Grace by Robert Capon

“The world lives, as the fig tree lives, under the rubric of forgiveness. The world, of course, thinks otherwise. In it’s blind wisdom, it thinks it lives by merit and reward.” (pg. 97)

Inspired by PayNoToll’s comments, (again- 3 years ago) I note that we live under God’s word of grace. I might well note that I am currently living in that “one more year” that the gardener had negotiated for me. Honesty will force me to further note that I’ve had that year extended nigh unto 50 times.
Yikes!
What time is it?
Time to repent, to turn to this one who does not keep score, but simply loves.
Look with his eyes to those who suffered in Galilee, in Haiti, in. . . in. . . in. . . and there see brothers and sisters, fellow forgiven ones, called to life with God and with me.
Time is short.
Very short.
Let’s reach out in love.

Cross Purposes indeed

Luke 13:31–35
At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, "Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you." He said to them, "Go and tell that fox for me, 'Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.' Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you. And I tell you, you will not see me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.'"

Last time with this text, I was inclined to title the blog entry “Nobody Here But Us Chickens” I still find BBT’s sermon a powerful meditation on the mother hen, who has no defense but to offer up her life. . .
There is a lot going on metaphorically here. A fox, a hen and a bunch of defenseless chicks. . .
In a comment, Pay No Toll weighed in with a look at the determination of Jesus to go to Jerusalem and the determination of the fox to stop him. The determination of Jesus to love Jerusalem, and the corresponding determination of Jerusalem to have none of it.
Quite a determined crew.

Akin to these athletes who have dedicated their lives to skating or skiing or curling.

These characters in the Gospel of Luke are on a crash course of conflicting determinations. Seems sort of Olympic in its scope.

Pay No Toll’s actual quote

Aside from the fox and the hen, what impresses me about this text is the various determinations, i.e. that Jesus is determined to go to Jerusalem, that the fox is determined to stop him, that Jesus is determined to love Jerusalem, that Jerusalem is determined to have none of it. Some collision course is unfolding, some crashing of cross purposes. It seems inevitable. Jerusalem always does this. They were not willing to be gathered in. Yet the "hen" stretches out "his" arms in love even so. He is determined to love them. They are determined to have none of it. What is the resolution of this impasse? Just how stubborn is God?

It’s tempting. . . but not THAT tempting

Luke 4:1–13

Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread." Jesus answered him, "It is written, 'One does not live by bread alone.'"

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, "To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus answered him, "It is written,

'Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'"

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

'He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,' and

'On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'"

Jesus answered him, "It is said, 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

When addressing this text for the First Sunday in Lent, I oten think about preaching on temptation, but then, I’m tempted not to. I mean, I wonder what the heck to say on temptation and how that might serve the proclamation of the Gospel.

As I’ve said before, I find the temptations of the devil not all that tempting.

Is there some profit in connecting with how these temptations are tempting to Jesus?

Or is the preaching task on the First Sunday of Lent to encourage people to avoid temptation by turning to their favorite Bible verse?

Or, is the task to remind people where to turn for forgiveness when they’ve failed to resist?

Once again, I’m tempted to begin a series on Christian financial management or something. . .

or not

I wonder at this. . . it would be in danger of descending into homiletical meanderings to no purpose - but . . .

I wonder at suggesting that the primary temptation for us all, is not a temptation to concupiscence, but to idolatry. Of course, the primary idol is the self, or a god constructed to serve the self. . .

Ash Wednesday

Any insights for Ash Wednesday?

Matthew 6

Seems I've preached on this before too!

I'm thinking about something I saw that scolded us for not giving things up for Lent. Something to be said for that. Not necessarily the scolding. But the encouragement to consider self denial. I think of the title to Nicholas Kristof's 1/23 column about the girl who - taking note of the inequities in our world - convinced her family to sell their house and give half of the proceeds from that sale to charity. "What Could You Live Without?"

I like her line. . . "Everyone has too much of something, whether it's time, talent or treasure. Everyone does have their own half, you just have to find it."

This is culled from an entry for Lent almost 3 years ago. . .

I’ve told a few people this great story. After worship on Wednesday, I was home, and my 5 year old was curious about the cross on my forehead. He asked me about why it was there.
A few minutes later he said, “Dad, that cross makes you look smart!”
Yup.
As Dr. No Toll said in response to this insight, we are smart when we admit that we do not know.
I wonder at the metaphors we use, the images we live by.
Just saw a bumper sticker. US Flag, with big letters STANDING TALL.
What if standing tall simply puts you in the line of fire?
You have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked with the cross of Christ forever.

How Do I Get There?

What to do, what to do. . .

I’ve been ruminating on this Transfiguration thing. . .

One of the problems I have, is you have to get to the mountaintop to come down from the mountain, don’t you?

And so, what of this non-mountaintop existence I seem to have.

Have I somehow sought to tame God, so that I do not have to experience the terror of the encounter?

The question begs the answer, does it not?

I liked one sermon I read, (Altitude Adjustment by Heidi Neumark pastor of Trinity Lutheran Church of Manhattan) where she suggested that although she usually hasn’t been all that interested in staying on the mountaintop - that she has pretty much been fine with the call to get back down off the mountain - that maybe this time she’d like to hang out on the mountaintop for a bit and listen to Jesus. . . . She has a number of good lines - one about how the link between the Transfiguration and Gethsemane (I'd add - the cross which I suspect is referenced in Moses and Elijah and Jesus speaking of his "exodus") are

“. . . unlikely twin sites of glory's face and backside.”

Glory's face and backside.

Nice.

I think about a comment I heard at Luther Lectures this year - alas - not by the lecturer who had too little to offer. But by Pay No Toll, who said something to the effect of "what is hidden in the deus absconditus is the glory of God." What then, when the glory shines forth? Oddly, it seems still hidden in suffering and the cross. . .

Finally, more from Neumark

“Unlike Peter, I have found the mountaintop of this text an uncomfortable place, perhaps because, unlike Peter, I have not been there. Each year when this story comes up, I am eager to move off the mountaintop and down to more familiar terrain. I feel more at home when they're back down with the needy crowd.

. . . This year, I'm less eager to rush down to the bottom of the hill. I'd like to linger on the mountain. I'd like to listen to the voice that interrupts Peter and brings balm: "Listen to him," we are told. Listen for dear life. Listen to words of forgiveness and mercy, promises of paradise, words from the cross. Listen without ceasing, on the edge of glory and on the brink of death.”

Well - what to do, what to do...

I may have an idea. . .

here’s a nice piece by William Loader

A Prayer for Transfiguration Sunday

Call to Prayer

Let’s go up the mountain.

Let’s go up to the place where the land meets the sky

where the earth touches the heavens,

to the place of meeting,

to the place of mists,

to the place of voices and conversations,

to the place of listening.

Prayer

O God,

We open our eyes and we see Jesus,

the months of ministry transfigured to a beam of light,

the light of the world,

your light.

May your light shine upon us.

We open our eyes and we see Moses and Elijah,

your word restoring us, showing us the way,

telling a story,

your story, his story, our story.

May your word speak to us.

We open our eyes and we see mist,

the cloud of your presence

which assures us of all we do not know

and that we do not need to fear that.

Teach us to trust.

We open our eyes and we see Peter’s constructions,

his best plans, our best plans,

our missing the point,

our missing the way.

Forgive our foolishness and sin

We open our eyes and we see Jesus,

not casting us off,

but leading us down, leading us out -

to ministry, to people.

Your love endures forever.

We open our ears and we hear your voice,

‘This is my beloved Son, listen to him!’

And we give you thanks.

Amen

prepared by William Loader 2/2001

http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/TransfigurationPrayer.htm

I'm Thinkin'

I'm thinkin' that I'd like to post some dolessharm pieces during the season of Lent. . .

I'll take the 1st Sunday - any takers for any of the others?

The Underminer

btw: anyone got any ideas for Transfiguration?

Seems like I've preached on this story before

Late for What?

MARK 11:1-11

When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and bring it. 3 If anyone says to you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ just say this, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here immediately.’” 4 They went away and found a colt tied near a door, outside in the street. As they were untying it, 5 some of the bystanders said to them, “What are you doing, untying the colt?” 6 They told them what Jesus had said; and they allowed them to take it. 7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. 9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” 11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

“It was already late”
What if it had not been late?
Now that it is late, what is going to happen?
I like this line I just heard on a podcast by Willimon, that the people were offended, not by the message that Jesus saves, but who he saves, AND HOW he saves. . .
Yes, that is the problem, isn’t it?
Give me Palm Sunday glory.
Of course, some might suggest that the Palm Sunday parade is more pathetic than majestic.
That is the problem, isn’t it?


p.s. I used this Sunday as a sort of “prelude” comment for my sermon it is a good story. . . from REvSis of RevGalBlogPals. . .

"I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts" reminded me of this Hasidic tale I heard at a recent Spiritual retreat
"A disciples asks the rebbe, 'Why does the Torah tell us to "place these words upon your hearts"? Why does it not tell us to place these holy words in our hearts?'
The rebbe answers, 'It is because as we are, our hearts are closed, and we cannot place the holy words in our hearts. So we place them on top of our hearts. And there they stay, until, one day, the heart breaks and the words fall in.'"
Through heartbreak, we find compassion and grace. The cross can be seen as "God's heart broken for the sake of humankind, broken open into a love that Christ's followers are called to emulate."
Jesus' words about the grain of wheat dying in order to bear fruit seem to point to our need to have our hearts broken open in order for us to bear fruit.

Wait. We Wish to See Someone Else!

John 12:20-33
Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
"Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven,
"I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

Interesting, isn’t it? That we never hear about Jesus actually meeting the Greeks? Or, should we say, the Greeks seeing Jesus? In some way or another, the seeking is more interesting for the story, than the actual meeting. Perhaps it serves the story to leave that open, so that we might all place ourselves in there, and OUR meeting of Jesus. I can’t help but think that the Greeks - and you and I - would like to meet a Jesus a little less oriented toward the cross. Willimon has a nice opening in a sermon on this text. . .

“…I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” (John 12:32)
The latest ruckus to hit the house of God here at 435 Summit Drive was precipitated (as was the previous one) by the pastor. All I did was to suggest to an amateur woodcarver in the congregation that it would be nice if he turned his talents toward the carving of a processional cross for our church.
I had in mind something simple, modern and clean, something congruent with Northside Church’s minimalist architecture, something light enough for a white-robed adolescent to carry on Sundays. What we got on the first Sunday of Lent was a dramatic sort of cross, heavy, complete with a realistic, bleeding corpus, a hanging, crucified Christ, blood and everything.
. . . many were upset because it was “more Catholic than Methodist,” “gory and depressing,” or didn’t “go with our colors.”
What is a modern, progressive, slightly liberal, well-budgeted Methodist church to do with a bloody cross these days?
A few Lenten seasons ago, my friend Ed Covert put up three crosses draped in black on the front lawn of St. Stephen’s Episcopal and received a dozen calls complaining that the crosses made the neighborhood look bad.

What is ANY modern to do with a bloody cross these days?
Or, is the question to ask, "What will the cross do to us?" or "How do we proclaim this one whom the Greeks wished to see? Or, more accurately, the Jesus they didn't know they wished to see, rather than the Jesus they [probably I guess, but I suspect I'm right] thought they wished to see? "

WHAT TO DO, WHAT TO DO

John 3:14-21
And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
17 Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God."

I wonder if - part of the problem of preaching on a text like this, is that we don’t know what the heck to do with it. . .
Yes, the text is to do it’s thing with us, THEN we do something with it.
But, texts this familiar are easy to keep at arms length. It is easy to skip the “text working on me” step altogether.
Another thing I wonder: Can ANYONE preach this text WITHOUT mentioning placards at ball games? (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!)
I find myself thinking of a rich line by DJ Hall, in The Cross in Our Context, page 55. Concluding the opening of his chapter “Engaging the World” - Hall says,

Faith, if is faith in the God revealed in “Jesus Christ and him crucified,” is a journey toward the world; if it said that such a definition confuses God with God’s creation, confuses theo-centrism with geocentrism, one must answer, as a Christian, that that confusion seems to have been introduced by God himself, who will be loved only as one who loves the world.”

If like me, this leaves you confused, I suspect the confusion is worth engaging, and we might consider the “geocentrism” which Hall finds in Christ crucified. Makes one wonder at the disconnect, that this Word from John - which points to God’s great love for the world - that this Word has been appropriated in such a frighteningly individualistic - shall we say? - solipsistic manner.
For God so loved. . .
I have to quote more from this chapter (a bit earlier)

That suffering will accompany discipleship, that one will have to become a participant in the suffering of the crucified one - this is inevitable, in one form or another. Why, asks the writer of the first epistle general of Peter, should any Christian be surprised at the “fiery ordeal” that accompanies the companioning of the crucified? (1 Peter 4:12) All the same suffering is not the object of disipleship, only its consequence. The object is greater and ever greater solidarity with the creation that God loves and, in Jesus Christ, seeks to redeem from within. pg 55

While I have no idea what to do with that - I suspect there is the possibility that it might help our text do its thing to me, and then. . . .

Turning it Over in My Mind

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, "Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!" His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for your house will consume me." The Jews then said to him, "What sign can you show us for doing this?" Jesus answered them, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." The Jews then said, "This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?" But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

I found a few folks who argued that Jesus is not acting violently here. That Jesus does not set aside his pacifistic ways here. I didn’t read the entire articles, but I think that later, they suggest that Jesus drove a Prius with a “save the Whales” bumper sticker next to their Obama Got Hope? sticker. Sorta like the article (linked in textweek last week) that said that in calling us to take up our cross, Jesus did not mean for us to be self sacrificing. That would be a fundamental misreading. It is the suffering of persecution - not suffering of self sacrifice - that is included in the call to take up your cross.
ok
I am not sure I like Jesus turning over the tables any more than the next person. Yet, I’m not sure that one can find Jesus the pacifist here. “He turned over tables, did not do violence to people” sorta thing. (Of course, if it was your table, you couldn’t exactly describe it as “an economic stimulus” either.)
I wonder.
It seems folks want to talk about this event in terms of systems. It was the “sacrificial system” Jesus went after. It was the systemic economic oppression of the common people.
yeah
Maybe he turned over the tables in the temple.
Maybe the questions to ask might be more about how Jesus turns the tables on us. . .
Perhaps the talk of systems and non-violence and such - seek to keep this story at a distance.

Jesus turns the tables, here in John, at the beginning of his ministry.
Rather than make apologies about Jesus. Rather than try to figure out a way to keep Jesus in the box we’ve placed him. . . I wonder if we might best wonder at how Jesus enters the temples we’ve constructed and turned things on their head.
Jesus turns over all our pretensions - all our self-righteousness - our selfishness - our certainties - our self-sufficiency - all.
Jesus turns over whatever we set as our center - our palaces (I meant to write place, accidentally added an a, and that looked strangely right) - the lives we construct and defend.
It is Lent. . . a season of repentance.
A season to re-center - on God.
A season to re-center on our mission to love.
Jesus turning over the tables shows how urgent and radical this is. It is time to throw off those things that separate us from God. Throw off, the self-absorption that blinds us to the needs of the poor. Throw off, the selfishness that makes us so uncharitable. Throw off, the violence we justify in the name of security. Throw off, perhaps even our religious answers to life, and to take on the way of the cross.
It crosses my mind that Jesus already did the throwing. Then he did the lifting.
Time to follow. . .

Not Much

Mark 8:31-38

Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things."
He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, "If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."

It seems to me, that this is kinda a central text - and I have no idea what the heck to do with it.
Sorta disconcerting.
Perhaps part of the problem is that there is not much you CAN do with it.
It does something to you though. . .
We might well wonder together at the theology of the cross.
It is much easier to talk about what it is NOT, than what it is.
It is so dang elusive. The moment you start talking about it. . .
Like a lot of things in the Church.
I don't want to denigrate talk.
Words are our only tools. That's it.
Unless you're one of those "ministry of presence" types.
If your presence is as depressing as mine, you'd have set that aside a long time ago...
Here's a quote from Berntsen Cross-Shaped Leadership

For Luther, “true theology and recognition of God are in the crucified Christ” (Forde) God reveals God’s self not by lifting us out of this world, but by hiding in its midst, and exactly in the thick of things as they have been disfigured by human sin. In Christ, God does not bypass fallen human existence but enters into it as God’s dwelling. Our “vision” of God, therefore, shines forth from an unwelcome baby in a manger, a criminal on the cross, and a body in the grave. Knowing God in this way is a “knowing’ in the bliblical knowing: not a theory or even information, much less a blueprint, but rather God’s act of radical and intimate trust. We know only as we are known. Our knowing isn't’ something we do, but something we undergo. Our knowing is cruciform, partial and patiently awaiting the promise of its completion not in this life but in the next. So, too, any vision for mission is cruciform. We don’t “lift up” the vision; it call out from the depths of the assembly’s often tangled existence. True vision is always blurred and unfinished, and it emerges from below, not above. Visionary leaders are made - indeed, forged - by their solidarity with the Body’s suffering in the depths of its crucified Self. pg 72

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.