Moving in Love

Sermon John 10:11-18 February 18, 2018 Lent 1

Moving in Love

Our theme this year in Lent is-‘Moving Toward the Cross’. Each week we will explore a Scripture that will support the various statements on the ways in which we move toward the cross. This week our movement toward the cross is in love, other weeks we move toward it in peace, in strength, in suffering, in faith. 

As we approach Scripture with these pre-set themes it sheds new light on how we explore and examine the Word of God before us. Everything we read, hear, touch, taste, and participate in is colored by the lenses of our experience, often our most recent experience. 

And it is also colored by the thoughts and ideas we might project upon it.

As we cross over into this movement of Lent on this first Sunday in Lent, perhaps what might be important for us, is to know a few things about Christ with whom we journey and a few things about ourselves.

Our reading this morning begins with the declaration from Jesus that he is the Good Shepherd. This entire chapter 10 is heralded as the Shepherd discourse. 

In John’s gospel this evangelist writes in a manner that puts us front and center in time with Jesus. 

As he declares to his disciples, “I am the Good Shepherd”, he declares it to us. We have no doubt about the identity of Jesus in these few words. He not only declares his love but also declares his purpose and his utter commitment to his purpose no matter what the cost, even the cost of his life.

Perhaps, this is what we need from Jesus as we begin our journey along this path of Lent. 

We need Jesus to be strong for us. 

We need Jesus to be certain and not wishy washy about who he is. 

We need Jesus to lead us as a leader who is firm in the knowledge of himself, not only as we travel through Lent but as we travel through life. 

An identified Shepherd leader is one who needs his sheep to do his job and I like that and find it quite refreshing. 

Jesus and the sheep cannot be separated from one another. 

We are his sheep. 

We are his beloved. 

We follow him and he guides us through thick brush, 

into the valley of death, 

and up to the river of life. 

Just as Jesus describes his relationship with the Father, 

he bring us into relationship with him.

However, for some, these 40 days can be daunting, as one of my friends said to me, “Lent is depressing. I stop going to church and don’t come back until Easter when its happy again.” 

Perhaps it is difficult to hear about the wilderness and chaos that confronted Jesus. And perhaps it is too challenging to witness him walking among those who suffered, and those who were in despair. Maybe what we find most distasteful is his own frailty and his own suffering and loss of life.

Yet, I find that is where our lives with Christ most often intersect. 

As we began our journey on Wednesday, Ash Wednesday, we began with the smudge of love, the smudge of God’s eternal love that claims us and calls us by name. 

Yes, we are finite creatures, but creatures who have a Good Shepherd who lies down at the gate of our lives, protecting defending, holding, and even giving up for us. There is no one else who would defend us to the end as he does. 

Jesus proclaims he is the one sent by God and will fulfill the promises of God in order to protect the flock. Jesus is the one who draws the sheep and the Father together. As God’s sheep we are God’s most loved treasure. Not just those sheep who call Jesus by name but all sheep, the ones who don’t even know God’s name, everyone of them are God’s most loved treasure.

 Perhaps, in the wake of the murders at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida this week, you are angry to even hear these words about God. 

Senseless loss challenges our faith statements about the love of God. 

It throws our faith into turmoil and locks us into asking questions that have ambiguous answers. We get lost as ministers try to validate their faith in God with bad theology-such as God’s plan, and God’s purpose. We hear strange proclamations about God’s love for some and not others…As ministers we often fail those who most need to hear about God’s love in times of greatest need.

Our theology, our understanding of God might still be skewed. We aim for the bull's-eye of the target and continue to miss the mark. We seek to do well, we yearn to do well. So what do we know in times like these? 

These things we know -God too lost a child. 

God too, lost a most beloved Son. God too watched and witnessed a world that would seek to destroy love by destroying and maligning that Son. 

We know-God was there in the midst of that suffering and God is there in the midst of all of our suffering. God’s presence (no matter how it shows up) brings comfort.

One most poignant photo from the scene of the school tragedy was that of a mother embracing another mother. 

Upon her forehead she bore the cross from Ash Wednesday service. 

An author (Valerie Shultz) writes this: We receive our ashes as a sign of repentance, of our yearning for God’s forgiveness, of our intent to live our faith more truly in the face of our mortality. “Remember you are dust, and to dust you will return,” says the priest or lay minister, blessing us with a blackened thumb. The ashes that mark our foreheads only last for a day, but the mark this makes on our hearts is meant to endure for the entire 40 days of Lent. And so, how sadly, tragically, wretchedly fitting is the front-page photo from this Ash Wednesday. We will carry these stories with us. Again, again. 

AP photo credit Jerry Auerbach

We, as God’s sheep, have the privilege of carrying along with this mother the burdens, the barriers, the wounds, the wonderings, the fears and the failings, of our sisters and brothers throughout the community.  (Susan McGhee) That photo reminds us that we are not alone. It reminds us that we are a community that holds and acts together for the love of God through and in all circumstances. 

God’s fellowship of love with Jesus is so beautifully woven into these words of John’s gospel. It is an intimate fellowship that intertwines every movement Jesus makes and grants him assurance as he goes. This expression, this knowledge of God and Christ offers us the mystical communion with the Shepherd who knows us by name and calls us to follow. We have the knowledge of God and ourselves as we enter this season. 

Let us go together through Lent with the watchfulness and tenderness of Jesus. In our ears we hear God whisper a blessing to us as we go-“You are my beloved”. Amen.

Resources: NIB; Word Biblical Commentary; Carolyn C Brown-Preaching to Kids Too; AmericanMagazine.org "Spiritual Lessons from a School Shooting"; Rev. Susan McGhee Holy Days and Holidays-Ash Wednesday 

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