Diving In

Sermon John 5:30-47 January 17, 2016 Series of four

Diving In

I know it’s winter and the last thing on our minds is a swimming pool, unless of course it is the heated one down at the Y. But, have you ever sat in those big chairs on the side of the pool and just watched how people get into the water? Some people come running to the edge of the pool and dive bomb in. They make a huge cannon ball blast in the water and the entire pool is set in motion. Others like to climb to the top of the high dive and do fancy dives into the water. Others dive from the edge, cautiously preparing for the perfect form before they take the plunge. And yet, others choose not to dive at all but

check the water temperature with their big toe before they begin the descent. Then, little by little they enter and stop, pausing until they have acclimated to the water before they go on. Eventually they have accomplished the same as the first guy that dive bombed in the water, they are all in the pool, they made it.

There are different ways to dive into pools as well as there are different ways that we approach life. Not one of them is more correct than the other. They are just different fashions of who we are and how we enter into the opportunities around us.

Yet, getting in is essential.

Getting into life and a life of faith is essential.

Often we are hesitant and unsure of how to go about it.

We are unsure of who we are and what we are to do.

Not only are we uncertain of who we are but we wonder about who God is as well. We ask others and ourselves the question, “who believes this stuff? And what keeps people believing?”

Which brings us back to the words we heard from the gospel of John about Jesus-Jesus dives right in to share with the people who he is and why he is. He doesn’t dance around the topic. He doesn’t worry about what they will think of him or if they will like him. He is careful to share all that he has, to give all he has, and to hold nothing back.

He speaks to the experts, the leaders, who have spent their life diving into God’s Word to discover all there is to know about God and yet, Jesus says to them-they haven’t a clue!

Jesus uses the very Scriptures, the prophecies (the Law & the Prophets) to declare that he is the one sent by God and then points to the blindness of the leaders who do not see him in the Word of God.

Jesus as we have read and read during Christmas-and now in the season of Epiphany-is the Word made flesh. Jesus is the Logos!

He challenges the people then to believe what is written. If they choose not to believe what is written then how can they believe what Jesus says?

The Scriptures are the Logos. The Word of God.

Part of the worry of the early church was how to interpret the Scriptures.

It was difficult back then to interpret and understand the role of Jesus in the light of the Word of God, the Scriptures and the prophecies.

It became increasingly difficult for followers of Jesus to remain welcome in the Old Testament tradition due to the interpretation of Jesus as God’s revelation of salvation.

It was a challenge to be able to show that Jesus was the continuation and the fulfillment of the promise of the Messiah.

Therefore the gospel of John was written as a witness and as an assurance for the people of the early church. The words of the gospel gave them a place to search and to find and renew their faith in Jesus. It was written somewhere between 85-95 AD. It is clear it was written after the destruction of the Temple. It was written before 100 AD since it is made reference to in documents that date from then.

And so, here we listen to Jesus come to his own defense as if he is on trial to those who oppose him. He presents his words similar to trials found in the book of Isaiah, In Biblical Old Testament tradition, for a trial to have any credibility (Deut. 19:32) it required two to three witnesses to verify the person’s claim.

SO Jesus presents his three witnesses-1. John the Baptist- 2. the works of Jesus- 3. and the Scriptures.

The Scriptures point from the beginning to the end to Jesus. Jesus reports that all the prophecies of the Old Testament point to him as the Messiah. All the words of Moses verify that Jesus is One who God has sent.

The words of the gospel are consistent.

The gospel of John consistently speaks the one truth the readers are to hear from Jesus-“I have come in my Father’s name”-“anyone who hears my word and believes in him who sent me has eternal life.”

Whenever we struggle with the question of who we are or what we are to do the gospel of John redirects our questions about ourselves, our goals, our curiosity for our life and asks, “Who is Jesus?” It is in Jesus and through Jesus where the truth of who we are lies. It is God who sent him to remind us that we are loved, we belong and we will not be let go by the God of our creation.

This Bible, ‘the Way, or Reach Out’, it’s just a New Testament, written in simple English, was given to me at fifteen. It’s just a Bible. Yet, it was something so precious to this teenager of the ‘70’s that I would hide it under my pillow to catch snippets of the words written within it. The words pointed to Jesus and the power of the Spirit-the Logos-changed my life forever.

The words we heard today make the case for Jesus.

These words are the language of our faith. They announce for us who Jesus is, what he does, and what he offers.

Hearing and believing and turning to Jesus our questions of who we are and what we do are answered. We belong to God in Christ and that gives us purpose. Christ offers life and we in turn have life to offer.

Therefore we dive in:

1.       Because Jesus did

2.      Because even when we think the words we hear have no relevance they are as fresh today as the day they were written.

3.      The words from this gospel are not a how to book of discipline. The words we hear from here are about the real presence of Jesus. The words themselves act as witnesses to those who hear them no matter where they are read and say boldy here are the witnesses to the person of Jesus-listen and believe!

4.      We need to dive into Scripture like this and hear not only who Jesus is but also witness what Jesus does.

So whether we take a cannon ball dive into the Scriptures or begin with checking the temperature with our big toe.

Let’s begin the process of diving in-we will not be disappointed.

God is with us all the way.

Amen.

Resources: NIB volume IX O'Day; WBC volume 36 Beasley/Murray