JOHN 9: 1-41

Jottings on John…Lent 4…Revised 2020

Are longish passages like this in the liturgy (as distinct from in studies) a ‘turn-off’ instead of the ‘switch on’ we hope they will be? David Lose, in a reflection on his former site ‘In the meantime’ , suggests reading only the Gospel that day; is this worth considering? 

Today’s passage centring on Jesus & Reuben (let’s give him a name & a face!) has me pondering Holy Spirit taking the initiative in the Lenten Gospels. Leading / driving (MK) Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. Next, leading Nicodemus to take it in secretly visiting Jesus by night. Then, leading Jesus to ask ‘Samara’ for a drink at Jacob’s well, giving Reuben his sight, & raising Lazarus. Jesus then sets in train the events of Palm Sunday, & lets the authorities take the initiative on the evening of Maundy Thursday, & in His being tried, condemned, & crucified on ‘Good’ Friday.

God takes back the initiative at Easter, but who’s taking the initiative in the events we’re hearing & preaching about today? Jesus, then ‘neighbours’, Reuben, some Pharisees, Reuben’s parents, Reuben again, who weathers abuse, & confesses faith in Jesus as Messiah. Pharisees try to re-take the initiative, but instead Jesus retakes the initiative that gives Reuben his physical & deep spiritual sight now. ‘Taking the initiative’ opens up a lot of preaching possibilities, does it not? 

Isn’t it odd that people who know Reuben well as a blind person, can’t - or won’t  - recognise him now he can see? Scene after scene builds up to make a real-life parable for us all. Are there people we know whom we define by their disabilities, short-comings, or perceived failure to meet some standard we set? Instead of seeing the possibilities of God taking the initiative in them & their - & our situations? 

Are our inner eyes wide open to the Deep Wisdom of God & initiatives God may want to take in our own lives, or, with His blessing, in someone else’s? Are we as aware, as Reuben becomes, that the Messianic age has come in Jesus? That that age isn’t something only to be looked forward to? Does that the raise the issue of letting God take the initiative in overcoming our human obsession with clocks & calendars. 

However we choose to preach this passage, how can we preach it as a matter of now rather than then! It is our story, in whatever form it takes, as well as Reuben’s?

Brian

Afterthought: In vv.25 onward, Reuben becomes feisty! That may not be a word we would often use of our living out Gospel, but may we need to re-think that? 

JOHN 4: 5-42

Jottings on John…Lent 3…New2020

Let’s call the woman of today’s passage ‘Samara’ . Everyone deserves a name if not a face! In v.11 Samara says to Jesus, “Whoa there! I’m the one with the bucket!” Jesus’ response is to tell her, “You may have the bucket, but I Am the water of eternal life”. 

How might we be able to convey Jesus’ & Samara’s open-ness to each other as being at the heart of Gospel? Is there an open-ness to each other in our congregation? If so, how are we going to build on that? If not, how may we help & encourage them to open up to each other as Jesus & Samara do?

The other Samaritans make an important contribution to our understanding of Gospel when they tell Samara, “Now we no longer believe Him through what you have told us, but we have heard Him for ourselves & believe!’ Does this suggest anything about 2nd-hand’ religion being 2nd class religion’? Or is there more to it than that?

When (v.28) Samara leaves her water pot behind, is this the equivalent of others who leave their nets, boats, families, tax booths…? Are there things, or even people, we may need to leave behind to become ‘first class’ disciples? 

In a world where religion is in many cases determined by physical geography, how can we help people become more interested in ‘spiritual’ geography? What can we learn from the way both Jesus & Samara cross their physical borders that might help us & others cross theirs? Do we first need to recognise such borders exist? And help others do the same?

Does the thought of having Our Lord Jesus Christ ‘springing up within us’ excite us or merely puzzle us? Do we need to go beyond simply having such thoughts, to real ‘tasting & seeing’ as Samara & her fellow Samaritans do here?

Does what Jesus says to Samara in v.23 mean that worshiping in St Thingamee’s or St. What’shername’s needs to become a matter of worshiping in Spirit & in Truth if that’s not already the case? 

Anyone & Everyone everywhere should be able to ask for a drink of water & be able to get it

Brian

Afterthought: That Jesus & Samara become open to each other is itself a gift of God. Think of Adam & Eve in the Garden being open to God & each other before they choose to fall from Grace. How Godly are the choices we are making? Are they Life Giving? Or are we, too, falling, falling, falling? If the latter, let’s not try picking our-selves up, but pray God will open us up to God-self & each other.

JOHN 3:1-17

Jottings on John…Lent 2…Revised 2020

Nicodemus knows in his spiritual bones he doesn’t have the kind of relationship with God he discerns in Jesus. How do we see our own relationship with God? Have we yet reached N’s point of discerning that if anyone can help us, Jesus can?  As a leading Pharisee, N discerns sound doctrine, & obedience to it, isn’t enough by itself. He’s been led - by Holy Spirit - to come to a point, where doctrine isn’t enough. He needs a relationship with God he isn’t yet experiencing. Have we reached that point yet?

There are so many possible approaches to preaching this passage, but I’ll highlight just a couple of possibilities I see. Firstly, the incident of a bronze snake being lifted up on a pole is always stirring in Jesus’ psyche. It ‘burns’ there, & becomes more & more central to His understanding of His Messiahship; to His being a ‘greater than Moses’ & to His own eventual being ‘lifted up’ on the cross. How can we make that same understanding central to our own discipleship? Focussing neither on N, nor on Moses, but on Jesus? Bringing it into today, not leaving it back in the 1st C.? 

Is N’s approaching by night & being enlightened by Jesus, symbolic of one of JN’s great themes; the contrast between Light & Darkness? If so, & I believe it is, where do we see ourselves along the spectrum? If we’re only part way along, we haven’t reached the Light yet, have we? 

If N were to remain where he reaches on that first tentative visit by night, he won’t have reached the Light, either, will he? Yet we know from later in the Gospel, after Jesus has literally been lifted up, N champions His cause. He uses his position in society to go so far as approaching Pilate to seek Jesus’ body &, that being granted, helps inter Him. N is now ‘living in the Light’ & passing that Christ-Light to others. 

If we’re to live in the Christ Light, doesn’t it follow that we, too, will be passing that Light on to those around us living in darkness of all kinds?  

Brian 

Afterthought: Hildegard of Bingen somewhere says, ‘God stirs everything into quickness’. Today we hear Nicodemus being stirred by Holy Spirit into the ‘quick-ness’ of coming to Jesus, God the Son, that night. When the time is ripe God stirs! Have you & I yet reached the point of being so stirred that we come to the Light thrown on everything & everybody by Jesus?