JOHN 18:33-38

Jottings on John…The Reign of Christ / Christ the King…2018

I suggest we read to v. 38, where the 2nd of two punch-lines, both from Pilate, occurs - the 1st being in v. 37. Try saying Pilate’s, ‘You’re not really a king, are you?’ & ‘Truth? What is that?’with various emphases & intonations. Get your congregation started  by doing the same.

In asking, “Truth? What is that?”, Pilate’s dismissive of both Jesus, &, Truth. Today’s political & other leaders who don’t know the difference between Truth & ‘alternative truth’ are also dismissive. Not only political leaders, but sports, business-people & other leaders. Where are we in all this? How observant are we of Jesus as the non-negotiable Truth in our lives - personal & public? Are we peddling ‘alternative truths’ rather than presenting Jesus as Truth with a capital T? Are we, even unconsciously, aligning our-selves with Pilate’s way of seeing things, rather than Jesus’; God’s Truth among us, still, by His Spirit.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus wrestled out in the wilderness with the Truth of Who He is. What kind of Messiah He’s to be. Tempted to follow devilish ways of being Messiah. Instead, He discerns there’s no Truth in that direction, & commits to being God’s Truth. Living out God’s way of seeing & doing things. Come what may. We need to get this ‘Truth’ issue out of our Bibles & into the pages of our lives as we write new chapters.

When someone sums us up, whatever the circumstances, are we recognisably a Jesus-like person? A follower of the True King? Is the likeness unmistakable? When we try to discern the truth about others, do we consider their Jesus-like-ness? The way to help anyone, inside or outside church, puzzling over Jesus’ kind of kingship, is by our living out the Truth of His kingship. People need to see God’s Truth as Jesus lives God out in us to ‘get’ it! Get Him! Get God!

Later, when Pilate refuses to change the wording over Jesus’ cross, has he simply had enough of the Jewish leaders & their complaints? Or, is that, ‘Truth-about-Jesus’ question still in the air? Perhaps it should be a lot more in the air today?

Brian

Afterthought: Jesus, nailed as King to His cross, is the Essence of the non-negotiable Truth of God. Personally, I can’t settle for the tame, ‘It is finished’, or ‘It is over’, translation. Jesus says, & means, “I’ve done it!” “I’ve brought it off!” And that’s God’s Truth! 

PS. Next Sunday we begin Advent, & with that, the ‘Year of Luke’. My blogspot for Luke is: laterallyluke.blogspot.com 

JOHN 11: 32-44

Jottings on John…All Saints…Revised 2018

(For Pentecost +24, see MK 12:13-34 at marginallymark.blogspot.com.

I’ve commented on this somewhere before, but J.A. Swanson’s bright cover for William Willimon’s ‘The Intrusive Word’¹, vibrantly illustrates the scene in the cemetery at Bethany. An icon, really. A crowd of people wending their way to Lazarus’ grave via different paths. Carrying arms-full of bright flowers. The tomb, in the foreground. Singers & musicians are playing, &, no doubt, wailing. Children are climbing on top of the tomb for a better view of what’s going on here.

Men have rolled the great stone seal aside. Martha & Mary are there, of course, comforting one another. Jesus & Lazarus are hugging. Lazarus, a grey-looking figure, still bound in grave cloths. Jesus, in bright gold, looks to be using His free hand to remove His friend’s head cloth! This vivid portrayal is brimming with life. Brings the whole scene alive. As Jesus brings Lazarus to life. As Jesus is Resurrection & Life. This picture by Swanson has helped bring the story of Lazarus alive for me more than any sermon I’ve preached - or heard! Can we bring out in our preaching how Lazarus’ raising might speak meaningfully to us now? Can we bring ourselves to let God hug us as Jesus hugs Lazarus? And pass that hug on to others?

Let’s preach to the moment, rather than as a history lesson. Vividly, vibrantly, colourfully. No more shades of grey. Resurrection’s in the air. Not only for Lazarus back then. For us, too. Now! How can we bring the story to life so it brings us all back to life? Help us all find ourselves in the picture in a today version of the story? Jesus can still raise us up from any deadness we’re experiencing. No need to wait for any raising up on some ‘Last Day’! God in Jesus can free us right now from whatever binds us & keeps us dead & ‘grey’. Once we come to the point of owning whatever it is we need ‘raising’ from. 

The ‘icon’ I’m referring to above also illustrates the way our lives are all inter-linked: with the colourful & not so colourful all caught up together with, one way or another, everyone & everything going on. And finding them all Life-giving. Can we bring today’s story out of its past & into our own present? Can we put the ‘raising’ question in a not-back-then-but-alive-in-us-all-&-making-us-all-alive-&-kicking-with-God-in-God’s-Present-Tense? God’s Now. 

Afterthought: As I join in reciting the Creed, Eucharist by Eucharist, I find myself pondering - along with other questions - whether if we don’t find & enjoy Resurrection in this world we’ll ever recognise the one we expect to experience & enjoy on That Day?

Brian

JN 6: 56-69 

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 14…Revised 2018

Breathing a sigh of relief that we’ve come to the end of JN for this year? How about going out with a bang rather than a whimper?! Take this opportunity to end on a high that leaves us all waiting expectantly. Not only for Christmas with its ‘In the beginning was the Word’, but our next stretch of JN in 2019!

Our passage is a kind of summary of ‘Jesus the Living Bread’ theme in Ch. 6. More, there’s a progression going on here. On Jesus’ part. Progressions we might consider preaching from:

Jesus encourages His contemporaries to move on from Moses & the Manna from heaven. To  progress from Moses to Him, the Greater than Moses. Something they fail to grasp with a few exceptions. We’re told in our passage that even some of Jesus’ own disciples fail to ‘get it’! ‘Get’ Him! Make the progress He expects of them / us. It’s their turn to appreciate the role Manna plays in their Hebrew forbears’ Faith. And the unique Role Jesus plays as ‘Daily Bread’ on earth in His day.

Now it’s time for us to progress our experience guided by Holy Spirit. From seeing things as 1st C. Christians saw them & on to a new & largely unexplored 21st C. version! Scripture based, of course, & true to the Faith, but a 21st C. version in which Jesus becomes ‘true & living Bread’ for today. ‘Joining all the dots’ necessarily involves risking continuing progress into an unknown future.

Making progress in the context of JN 6, feeding on the Living Bread, entails journeying into God, as much as expecting God to journey with us. Or into us. Aren’t we often told we need to ‘internalise’ understandings these days? Is it stretching the imagination too much to explore ways we can better ‘feed on’, internalise, God the Jesus Way. As Living Bread for our journey? And find ways we can become, in our turn, & as Jesus’ disciples, ‘living bread’ (small capitals) for others round us as we journey together through today’s wildernesses? Wildernesses, as the Hebrews discovered, are for making progress against the odds.

Reading our passage I’m reminded of someone I once knew who gave the appearance of over-preaching the Word & under-celebrating the Eucharistic sharing in Bread & Wine. The very first words of this passage remind us to celebrate both & celebrate them jointly & equally. We may do this in our own style, but do them both we must. To be true to Jesus & what He says in v. 56 about being part of Him & He part of us. 

Afterthought: This is our last ‘ration’ of JN for this year’s calendar. How well we tackle John, & this passage in particular, will inevitably be a test of how our preaching comes across! This will include both preacher & congregation wrestling with the ‘hard bits’! Let’s carry out our Calling by preaching confidently & enthusiastically so we make Godly progress together.

Brian

JN 6: 51-58 

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 13…Revised 2018     

In the very first verse Jesus tells us He’s life-giving Bread; that He’s come (down) from Heaven; that those who ‘eat’ Him will live for ever; & that He’ll give His humanity for the sake of the world! Pretty Deep Stuff! This verse may be a key to opening up the passage. Help us bring all this out of the 1st C. & into ours.

Themes we might build on: 

What does it mean in practice for us to become life-giving bread for the world around us? How many things happening round us are masquerading as ‘life-giving’? Is anyone for whom we have a personal concern caught up in any of these falsehoods? Can we become life-bringing for them? 

How far does Jesus expect us to go / how far are we prepared to go, in giving our humanity for those round us? What might doing so involve? Can we go that far? Do we need better equipping to take that as far as we may need to? Can we identify what any of that equipping may be?

We can’t ‘come down from Heaven’, but do we need to come down from some of our more ingrained theological ‘high horses’ & live & preach at ground level? How down to earth /earthy Jesus is! Can we learn from the approaches He takes to people, to help us help others find heaven on earth? Now, rather than at some ‘last day’? 

What might it mean in today’s language & today’s situations - for people to be able to ‘feed on us’ so they find eternal life? Can we discern any ‘entry points’ for ‘them’ or us? Entry points are really important to discern.

By God’s Grace, preach what Jesus says here as intensely practical! Jesus is no theorist. ’Living Grace-fully’ may well be the key to understanding (& preaching) all this.

Peter Gomes¹ puts it simply: ‘we may need food for our body, & have food for our body; but that in itself won’t satisfy us with life.’ That’s where Jesus being Life-giving Bread comes in. Sharing bread together in our homes, our congregation, & the wider community, is one way we could play our part in bringing this passage to life. Sharing in being raised to new life in the here & now. As a foretaste of being raised at the last day as only Jesus the Christ can raise us!

Afterthought: Yesterday, my wife & I came across a couple - good & religious, in the best sense - folk who need to be helped through a really ‘bad patch’ so they can enjoy God better in more fulfilling lives. Would you, as part of your preparation for preaching this passage, pray that a simple invite to coffee - eagerly accepted - may become a starting point in Jesus becoming life-giving bread beyond the level they’ve been experiencing for some time? Thank you. 

Brian

¹ Sermons, Harper, SF, 1999, p.142  

JN 6: 35 & 41-51 

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 12…Revised 2018. 

Though “I AM the Bread of life” is the first of Jesus' “I AM”s recorded, I do wonder if He may also have said, unrecorded, “I AM the Wine of life” at Cana? A Celebration not only of a wedding, but of Life. For those who don’t normally have much to celebrate. Today, Jesus Himself IS life! Essential as the daily bread He has us pray for. Surely He means we’re to pray for Him, too, to be as much our daily bread as the flour & water kind.

In ancient & widespread tradition, Bread is so at the heart of life that it should be respected & never wasted. Today we might focus on respecting Jesus, the Bread of Life, & never wasting Him. Never being disrespectful of God in any way. Never wasting God in any way. 

Multiple choices of food, & many other things available today to those of us who live in affluent societies, can be a confusing phenomenon of our times. Whereas the only choice for people like Jesus was poor quality bread from the poorest quality flour. Jesus may be one of the ordinariest of us so far as His humanity is concerned, but He is still the Very Best Bread available, i.e. the Bread of life. Do today’s multiple choices in so many areas play their part in our losing focus on God, the Essential at the heart of Life? Bread, representing God, as Jesus represents Himself as Bread, is a great & powerful symbol of God at the heart of Life. Those of us who make our daily bread can vouch for how much better it tastes than much of the mass-produced kind. As God tastes so much better than the many mass-produced idols on offer!

Jesus’ “I AM"s have taken on a deepening significance for me since I began to understand them in Capitals. Jesus can Word-play on the divine “I AM” because YHWH is "I AM”. The Essence of BEING. Because YHWH is “I AM”, Jesus is therefore “I AM”. Because Jesus is “I AM”, I am, too. When I live on Jesus, the Bread of God.

As we celebrate God & our relationship with God & each other in Eucharist we re-enact Jesus telling us He’s the Bread of Life. And, as He is at Cana, the Wine of Life, also. So, do look me in the eye when you pass the Peace to me as we share God in Bread & Wine.

A story from the days of the Desert Fathers - Anthony de Mello has a version - tells of a monk advised by his Abbot not to try any harder to keep the faith, but instead, become fire! Do we need to talk less about bread &, instead, become Bread? For God, for each other, for a hungry world?

Afterthought: Was it Mother Theresa who said, “To pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ & then refuse to share it is blasphemy”? 

Brian

JOHN 6:24-35

Jottings on John…Pentecost + 11…Revised 2018. 

The crowd begins with a rather trite question: “When did you come here?" Aren't they game to come straight out & ask for more bread & fish? They haven’t often eaten so well! Jesus, though, knows what they really need is to go beyond trite questioning to opening up to their real needs. As He knows what we really need, too. Worth pondering in a sermon?

It’s easy to 'spiritualise' our own, or others’, needs so we don't have to do much about them. After all, spiritual things are God's realm, aren't they, so we can leave that kind of thing to God! Here, Jesus is trying to re-connect people & their physical need (they rarely had a decent feed!) with their spiritual needs. Connect them back with eternal life, or, as I have come to appreciate, ‘real' life (‘Complete Gospels’)¹. Real life includes feeding body, mind, & spirit! How to close these gaps between the physical & the spiritual is worth keeping in mind.

When pressed, the people ask Jesus “What must we do…?:” Jesus’ reply is, “Believe in the One God has sent!” Don’t we ask that same question; perhaps often? What if it’s a matter of helping folk understand the difference between believing about, & believing in, that One God has sent?

In ‘feeding the more than 5000', Jesus is connecting himself back to Elisha. Now He goes further still & connects himself back to Moses leading the people through a wilderness that is both physical & spiritual. (Are all wildernesses both?) In the process Jesus invites us all to re-connect with our spiritual ancestors, & through & beyond them, to God-self. Is any-thing more important in any putting together process than that we ‘join up the dots’?

In his inimitable way, JN wants us to see that putting the physical together with the spiritual isn’t just a miracle, but a Sign. Of Who this is ‘putting things - & people - together’; not so much by any outside act, but by dwelling within us. As a Sign of God's love & compassion. Restoring us to that state of Grace from which our mystical / mythical ancestors fell. Man & Woman. As a Sign we’re re-connected to, restored to, that relationship with God & each other intended from the Beginning. Each time we celebrate Eucharist, bread & wine become Signs of His ‘putting together’ presence in us & among us. So we, too, become Signs of God's loving active presence in the world - God’s world. Enjoy! 

Afterthought: ‘Across the world, across the street / the victims of injustice cry for shelter & for bread to eat / and never live before they die.’ From a Lutheran (?) hymn.

¹ Polebridge, Harper, ’94

Brian

JOHN 6:1-21

Jottings on John…Pent + 10…Revised 2018

Returning to John for a period gives us the opportunity of appreciating how he sees things through ‘spiritual eyes’ different from those of the synoptists. How John interprets the stories he’s telling. Seeing things like the great feeding not just as ‘miracles’, but ‘Signs’ 

 [vv. 2, 14]. This helps us, like him, to discern Jesus, God’s Word, who tells creation into being [JN 1, cf. GN 1], come among us in the Person of one of us. Helps us discern what others refer to as miracles, being in fact Signs calling us into being, as Creation was once called into being. You may find a theme to develop among the following:

Sick people cry out for healing. How can we answer their cries? What do we, simple disciples of Jesus, & mostly not professional healers of any kind, have to offer them as a Sign of God’s eternal love for them, & ours? Whatever & wherever their circumstances.

Hungry people cry out for feeding. In so many places; some of them close to home. Are we sharing what we have, or keeping it to ourselves, for ourselves? Let’s call today’s lad Benji to keep his face & his loaves & fish before us. Reminding us there are still ways God can make small amounts of anything, given generously, a Sign of His eternal love & ours. More, challenging us to offer whatever our little may be.

Our simplest resources - like Benji’s barley loaves & tiny fish - cry out for sharing among those who need them. Is there anything so small it’s not worth sharing as a Sign of God’s eternal love & ours? 

They may be only ‘fragments’ of this or that, but, as God’s gifts to us, they deserve to be preserved for sharing; somewhere along life’s journey with someone crying out for them. What are only ‘broken pieces’ to us may be just what someone else is crying out for as a Sign indeed, of God’s eternal love & ours. 

Women & children who ‘don’t get into the count’ in this story might stand for all those in life situations who ‘don’t count’. Representatives of that Orwellian, ‘All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others’ way of looking at people. Who do we hear crying out to be recognised as an equal, as a Sign of God’s eternal love for us all, &, unselectively, them? 

Are we hearing those physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually drained crying out for replenishment in their need? Maybe what they, or we, really need is God-Space of one kind or another which they / we can experience as a Sign of God’s eternal love for us all?

After thought: Can we discern God Himself crying out His eternal Name: “I AM - It’s Me” when even He needs a Sign He’s recognised among us? Reassuring us - & God-self? 

Brian