JN 17: 20-26 

Jottings on John… Easter 7…Revised 2019

As my late, great, teacher, Leon Morris wrote,¹ ‘The dominant concern in this section is for Unity & for the divine Glory’ (capitals mine). His two points offer us a focus more likely to be helpful than any more complicated theologising on prayer we may be tempted to try. In a passage harder to preach than Jesus’ more concrete teachings, let’s look at the Unity with Him & God & each other that Jesus prays for us to have. In the light of the divine Glory we recognise in Him.

That we can have any kind of One-ness with God is mind-boggling in itself. A One-ness literally brought down to earth in a new kind, a Personal kind, of One-ness we can enjoy with God & others. Jesus isn’t praying two things here, just the One. Being at One with God & each other is product of, & inseparable from, giving God that Glory that’s His due. Jesus shares His praying with us to encourage us to focus on that One-ness He’s praying for. Encourages us to become as One with God as He is. As One with our fellow human beings as He is through giving God the Glory. Does this mean many of us will need to re-focus our praying to the Jesus Way? Can we illustrate this in our congregation’s situation? 

Jesus’ praying focuses on His Servanthood among us, & the Self-Sacrifice He is about to accomplish on the Cross. (JN sees the Cross as Jesus’ Glory, rather than His Resurrection as others do, & we may be inclined to preach.) Jesus expects us not only to pray about changing ourselves & the world, but to go out & do it! Be that change for a world that doesn’t see itself belonging to anyone but itself! Cost what that may!  

I don’t believe Jesus is praying for what we refer to as 'Christian Unity' here. That kind of 'Unity' will be unachievable till we’re forced into it as a last ditch survival attempt! Too late! Jesus is praying here, for us to follow, in Unity with the ‘Mind of God’.Can we practise & preach a One-ness stemming solely from Glorifying God?

Jesus prays here that those God has ‘given Him’ will be with Him where His Glory is; i.e. wherever He sacrifices Himself & we identify ourselves with Him. He still prays we'll stay the distance, though His kind of Unity & giving Glory, is costly! ‘But, lo there breaks…..’ As the old hymn put it. 

Brian

Afterthought:  Can we be One with anyone, let alone whole in ourselves, until we are restored to the Oneness & Glory built into the Creation? Restored to Grace by Jesus the New Adam (in whom we can recognise the New Eve too.) 

¹ Gospel According to John, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1971, p. 733

JN 14: 23-29 

Jottings on John…Easter 6…Revised 2019

That magnificently & imaginatively evoking of how everything came into being in the first Creation story in Gn1 has YHWH-God saying again & again, “Let there be…..” God tells everything into being. Telling can be so Creative! From that point, ‘Word’ becomes a key word in the Scriptures as they develop. Just for fun I did a rough count of how many words Jesus speaks in our passage in the NRSV. About 238 in English by my count. (These weekly blogs are normally c. 500 words!) How many words are we going to speak in this sermon we’re about to preach? What new life are we going to tell into being?

In that Gn1 account we’re not told God gets as far as ‘loving’ what He’s bringing into being. Though again & again as Creation comes into being, ‘day’ after ‘day’, the ancient story-teller has God seeing everything is ‘good’. ‘Good’ is a starting place for the Love God will later tell into the story in the Person of, & earthly presence of, Jesus. Now it’s our turn to go on beyond merely ‘good’ to tell of, tell on, that love. More than by preaching about it; by living lives that tell it out loud & clear. How can we best share this with our congregation?

Love is always as self-giving as YHWH God is in Jesus & by His Spirit. Self-giving tells God’s love into being in us, over & over again, as we Love as God-in-Jesus loves.  

Nor is ‘Word’ shorthand for 'wordiness', a trap it’s all too easy to fall into! Being ‘wordy’, rather than ‘of the Word’, can too easily be ‘telling’ in another, wrong sense; can put at risk our being productive for God. 

The Paraclete, God's 'Living Reminder' (who first used that expression?) is called by God to our side to make Jesus, God’s Love in us & for others, possible.

Do you & I, & our congregation & the peoples of the world, need more than anything else for God’s ‘peace that passes all understanding’ to break out, rather than wars? 

What is it that troubles us? Or should that be ‘who’ is it who troubles us? Is the true answer more often than not, “I am!”? Where to from here in our story telling? 

Do we experience much rejoicing when & where we worship? If not, should we leave & go somewhere else? Surely God’s Word tells us to stay & play our part in making rejoicing happen? Might voting with our feet, & going off to another congregation, mean transferring our problem with us? How telling would that be?!

Brian

Afterthought: No matter how well we preach Christ’s ‘coming again’ at ground level, the Creeds' often appear to ‘futurise’ it, &, therefore Him, in people's hearts & minds. The Spirit is our Present, Living Reminder that there’s no future Jesus without a Present One.

JOHN 13: 31-35

Jottings on John…Easter 5…Revised 2019

It’s a long time till next Maundy Thursday, but seeing that’s when our passage is set, let’s explore it in that context. A question to start with may be to ask if the symbolic liturgical foot-washing we experience each Maundy Thursday in our churches also closes the door - as Judas does here - on our truly discovering what Jesus’ ‘New Commandment’ really means. What it demands of us in practice. There’s nothing wrong with liturgical symbolism, but by definition, it can’t be the whole story. 

A few days before, Judas is testy with Jesus when He allows Mary to anoint His head with precious oil; a truly Messianic gesture on Mary’s part, recognising Jesus for whom He is. Now, is having Jesus wash his feet & the feet of the other Apostles the last straw for Judas? No true Messiah would do that kind of lowly thing! So, out he goes, shutting the door! We do find Jesus doing things like this as a matter of course; as Isaiah’s, YHWH’s, Suffering Servant.

 Looking at things the wrong way around inevitably shuts Judas & us out from taking the next step in true discipleship; that of following the True Messiah. When Judas closes that door on Jesus (& the others), he’s closing the door of opportunity on finding the kind of God who has, in Christ, come among us in Person. Are we doing any such ‘door-closing’ in our own discipleship? Is our God as down to earth as Jesus shows us YHWH is?

Perhaps more than anything else He does, washing dusty feet demonstrates just how down to earth Jesus is. How down to earth God is. Not in any merely symbolic way like our foot-washing, but day by day. But, as Judas sees it, enough’s enough! You have to draw the line somewhere. Whatever good there might be in this Jesus, He can’t be the Messiah! Messiahs don't do that kind of thing! Don't get their hands dirty like that! Is there a connection between the way today’s church symbolically washes feet on Maundy Thursday, but often appears to  preach another version of ‘Glory’? Remote from getting our hands dirty for others on a day by day basis as Jesus does?

Can we keep Jesus’ 'new commandment’ to 'love one another’ until we accept loving Servanthood as the free Gift of Grace that makes that possible? Judas can’t go that far, & shuts the door on Jesus - & himself in the process. How open is our door?

Is it going to church, thumping the Bible, preaching our heart out & others' ears off, that show we’re Jesus' disciples? Or, getting down to the seriously dusty business of loving one another? With basin & towel, whatever form they may take, where they’re needed? And not just symbolically once a year!

Brian 

Afterthought: There are, of course, those in ancient times, &, still, today, who argue that Foot-washing should be established or restored as a formally recognised Sacrament. But that’s another matter!

JOHN 10:22-30

Jottings on John…Easter 4…New 2019

A theme that stands out for me in our passage is ‘Atmosphere’! First, it’s Hanukkah, the Festival of Lights to celebrate the rededication of the Temple in 164 BC after its retaking from profane hands. It’s winter! It’s dim, despite the festive lights. It’s cold! Despite the sacrificial fires burning. It’s smelly! From the smoke & the animal fats burning. The Atmosphere is amazing! You can taste it! How’s the Atmosphere where we lead or participate in worship? Whether we’re at the ‘smoke & bells’ end of the scale, or a more restrained conservatism, doesn’t matter as much as an Atmosphere of worship, flowing from our Attitude to YHWH God & each other. If the Atmosphere is God-centric in the way Jesus demonstrates God in His Own Person, that’s Great!

Contributing, too, to the Atmosphere that day is a restlessness among those who’ve come to town for the Celebration! Not least those who’ve come hoping to see Rabbi Jesus strolling among them & discover if He’s the Messiah. “If you’re the Anointed One, tell us!” Tell us! Are we making it clear in our living & preaching that Jesus is God’s Anointed One as He says? Or is there a restlessness, perhaps, in the way we’re coming across. Any uncertainty on our part will reverberate, creating its own Atmosphere. Not a good one, at that!

That people take Jesus to task isn’t one way traffic, though. Jesus takes those crowd-ing round Him to task! In no uncertain words. “I have told you, but you don’t believe!” Are there times when God moves us to take people to task, too? If we fail to do so, surely the Atmosphere of Faith & the worship that stems from it will reflect that? 

To be able to put this all together in our preaching, we need to hang on what Jesus says at the end of our passage: “The Father & I are One!” And, ‘the Jewish people took up stones to stone Him!’ 

Preaching the Truth of Jesus & His Oneness with the Father will make many restless today. People are not likely to throw stones at us in our pulpits, but there are those who would probably like to, if they dared! But Jesus’ Oneness with the Father by the Spirit is non-negotiable! It is Jesus Himself who creates that Atmosphere of ‘One-ness’ for us & among us.

Brian

Afterthought: If we’ve developed any habit of praying to our ‘favourite’ Member of the Holy Three-some, we’re nevertheless praying to The One-ness of God. Whether we realise it, or not, we’re being embraced by the Atmosphere of the total Holiness of One God.

JOHN 21:1- 19

Jottings on John…Easter 3…New 2019

Trains of thought that occur to me & invite imaginative exploration are, in order: I’m going fishing…Have you caught any fish?…Throw the net out to the right side of your boat…Peter jumped into the water…&, Bring some of the fish you’ve caught. 

When Peter tells the others, “I’m going fishing”, has a restlessness, or, an uncertainty, crept back into his life since the Jesus events that have unfolded thus far? When we don’t know what to do next, do we, too, ’Go fishing’ in a manner appropriate to us? Settle back into an old status quo, rather than risk venturing into God’s future for us?

When some ‘interfering stranger’ on the shore of our life asks us, “Have you caught any fish?” & then, “throw your net out on the right side”, are we likely to respond, “Mind your own business & I’ll mind mine!”? When we obey, though, we may find our ‘Interfering Stranger’ knows what He’s doing making it His business! Grasping God-Opportunities lead to grasping Faith-windfalls & sharing them with others. 

Instead of letting our ‘superior’ experience hold us back, go for the un-expected & un-known! You never know….! Remember how Jesus once talked of His fishermen followers becoming ‘fishers of human beings’. How’s our ‘human fishing’ been going lately? The ‘Stranger on the Shore’ could be much more the Promise of a good ‘catch’ than any threat we may fear!

Peter’s ‘diving into the water’ encourages us, too, to ‘dive in at the deep end’! I know it can be easier, though, to postpone taking any real action. (Can a church sometimes do that by setting up committees, rather than prayerfully discerning it’s time to take the plunge & dive in?) Where are we personally in this discerning process?

Last, but by no means least, Christian Faith has always been about sharing.  Sharing God-self with us firstly through the Prophets, & then in the Person of Jesus, & by His Spirit.  Sharing God with each other as ‘small p’ prophets, again by Holy Spirit, is the next step from the Jesus shore into the Jesus boat.  Let’s not avoid another issue that concerned Jesus (& JB); that of sharing the tangibles of daily life with one another.  

Brian

Afterthought: Easter is all about our jumping out from our ‘old old stories’ & into God’s new future for us. What Easter is all about isn’t simply Jesus being raised to new life, but His raising us to new life with Him. When God-in-Christ calls us from the beaches of our lives, let’s ‘do a Peter’ & jump to it; jump to Him. There’s no Easter for us in staying on an old shore, or returning to the safety of our old boats.