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I have often heard people say that they think of me when they hear the passage from Matthew where Jesus says that when you visit someone in prison, you are visiting Jesus. However, the passage that most reminds me of my own experience in the prisons is the conversion of Saul, who later became Paul. Like Saul, I was zealous against people who I thought were a danger to society. I thought that all people in prison were a danger and that everyone was safer if we just kept these people locked away. However, when I started entering the prisons, instead of finding dangerous men, I found hurting and broken people. I encountered Christ in each suffering and broken person that I met and came to realize that by creating more suffering for these people, I was in effect persecuting Christ. The scales began to fall off my eyes and I began to see suffering and humanity in a whole new way.
This morning, I would like to talk about my experiences, my own transformation, and the experiences of the men that I have gotten to know. These men have worked to repair the harm they have caused, to grow and be better people. These are the stories that don’t often get told. I often feel I am one of the few voices people in prison have. I would like to share their stories with you and give them a voice. I hope my experiences can bring you hope and light this morning.
I first began to visit the prisons in the fall of 2008. I started a meditation group in the Concord medium security prison and ran the group for about two and a half years. When I first began running this group, I immediately noticed things weren’t as I expected. The men coming to this group weren’t the scary, dangerous men that I saw in the news and on TV crime dramas. I’m not going to say that there aren’t dangerous people in prison. There definitely are very dangerous people in prison, but the men that came to my meditation group were not dangerous, nor were they scary. They were like anybody else that I knew. They could have been my next door neighbor, a co-worker or even a friend. As I got to know these men better I realized that they were in fact someone’s neighbor, co-worker, friend, father, brother, and husband.
During the time I spent in the prison, I got to know Jack who got addicted to Oxycontin after a back surgery. When he could no longer get a prescription, he started buying Oxycontin on the street and then realized he could make a lot of money selling it. Then there was Antonio from Sicily, whom I felt a camaraderie with because of my own Italian roots. Antonio burnt down one of his restaurants for the insurance money and was sentenced to three years for arson. Another man in my group, Jason, got in a fight with someone harassing his sister. He knocked the man unconscious and his sister then stole the man’s wallet. Both Jason and his sister spent some time in prison for assault and robbery. The most unexpected of all was Tee who was serving two life sentences for a crime committed twenty years earlier. He was one of the most joyful people I had ever met and would often draw me pictures of Garfield and Tweetybird. There were also a few men, like Scott and Ray, who were repeat violent offenders trying to make an effort to improve their lives. All of these men were like overgrown kids who had become lost, broken, and abandoned. Overtime, they would become like my own children. I would worry when they struggled, ask about them if I hadn’t seen one of them in a while and listen to their hopes and dreams.
I can honestly say that I am a better person from having spent time with the men in Concord. Their encouragement and acceptance of myself helped me to become the person that I am today. The faith and confidence they placed in me to guide them to a better life helped me to have faith and confidence in myself. Hearing their gratitude to be alive or the fact that even though they had lost everything, they were better off than they had been before coming to prison helped me to re-evaluate my priorities. The little things that I often took for granite no longer seemed so important, and I found more joy and gratitude with what was already present in my life.
In the prison, scripture also came alive in ways it never had before. I used to joke that I’m going to write a book titled, “Everything I Ever Needed to Know About Jesus I Learned in Prison.” Unfortunately someone has already beaten me to that title, but there is a lot of truth in it. Jesus’ life and death, and the struggle of the early Christian community took on a whole new meaning for me in the light of prison, incarceration and death row. Thought I have never met anyone on death row, I have heard that many death row prisoners identify with Jesus’ arrest and execution. A lot of prisoners can also strongly relate to the struggles of the Apostle Paul. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard prisoners remind me and one another that the Apostle Paul spent many years in prison. These are the things that the men hold on to so that they can overcome their feelings of worthlessness and maintain some sense of dignity.
Watching the men at Concord form and develop their own sense of Christian community taught me what it means to be a church. Like the early Christians, I watched the men in Concord struggle to form a community, fall apart in times of crises and struggle to come back together. Like the early Christians who were forming churches in a time and place where they were not the majority religion and often found themselves harassed and persecuted, the fledgling Christian community in Concord found itself the minority within a hostile and oppressive environment. During the times when their community began to fall apart, I became like the Apostle Paul, encouraging the men that they are all one in Christ and urging them to keep the community together.
It was especially important for these men to maintain cohesion within their new community so that they could support and encourage one another to continue in the Christian life. Just as I’m sure it would have been easier for some of the early Christians to abandon their new way of life together and go back to the ways of the culture around them, it would have been easier for the men in Concord to go back to the hostile and violent ways of the prison. However, they knew that was not the kind of life they wanted for themselves and the people they cared about. So they supported one another in their efforts to continue in their new life together, and over time this new community became stronger and began to be a light within the darkness of the prison showing other prisoners and the guards a new way to live.
The similarities to the Christian story don’t pass these men by. Some of the men pointed out to me that they are like Paul writing to various communities offering encouragement and hope. Others who have been transferred from one prison to another start up Bible studies and prayer groups in each place they stop. They see the similarities with the early Apostles who travelled throughout the region starting new churches.
Despite everything that I have learned and all the wonderful experiences I have had with the prisoners, ministering to prisoners has been a bittersweet experience. The joy that I experience is frequently met with heart ache and struggle. Over the years, I watched dedicated volunteers get barred from volunteering without being given a reason why. I watched inmates after years of working hard to improve themselves get turned down for parole because they hadn’t done enough. I watched funding that in previous years went to provide mental health and addiction recovery treatment to women diverted to expand prisons for women despite the fact that 90% of women in prison suffer from mental health issues and addictions. I watch the Christian community in Concord fracture, fall apart, and struggle to come back together again.
Over the years, I also learned a lot that I didn’t know before going into the prisons. I learned that the mistakes we make continue to define us into the future. I learned that those who enter the prisons eventually have to pick a side. My focus was to help the inmates, so it appeared to some that I had picked the side of the inmates. I was told I picked the wrong side. I also learned that while the United States has 5% of the world’s overall population, it has 25% of the world’s prison population, and that the size of the prison population in the United States is surpassed only by the former Soviet Union and South Africa during Apartheid. I learned that a system designed to enhance public safety doesn’t always work with the public in mind.
I no longer run the meditation group in Concord. I have gone from volunteer to visitor, visiting men and women in various prisons in the area. Visiting is a different experience than volunteering. Instead of spending most of my time at the prison sitting with the inmates, I started spend most of my time at the prison sitting in the waiting area with the friends and families of the prisoners. The waiting area needs a chaplain. I’ve sat with women struggling to watch their small children while they make sure that they are following the strict guidelines of the dress code. The dress code is for security reason; however, it’s very detailed and easy to miss something. It’s not unusual that after a long wait, and finally being brought into the search area, called the trap, they are sent back out again because they are wearing knit pants, shorts under their skirt or some item of clothing that doesn’t follow the dress code. They have to fix their clothing and then it’s another wait with young children and babies until they are brought into the trap again. After awhile you learn the routine and things go smoother, but, many times, there has been a long wait. There were days where I waited three hours to get in only to have five minutes remaining of visiting time.
Over time, I noticed that the longer the wait is in the waiting room, the great the sense of despair. I had heard about the despair in prisons, but I never felt it until I began sitting in the waiting room. There is a palatable sense of despair that overcomes people. Even I have struggled with this sense of despair. So, I’ve tried to bring something positive to the experience. Recently, after waiting three hours to get in, I looked at the woman next to me and said, “It’s usually like this.” She said to me, “You are smiling” and I said, “What else can I do?” I can smile or I can feel the despair.
The men at concord have frequently told me that they miss the light that I bring into the dark place. This light shows them that God is present. That’s why it is important to them that I am there. That light is also needed in the visiting room, in the waiting room and everywhere else in the prison. So, my goal is to continue to bring light into the prison, in any way that I can.
Occasionally I ask myself, with everything that I have seen and experienced, “Would I do it again.” The answer is yes, every minute of it and I wouldn’t change a thing. Despite the challenges and sometimes heart aches that come with prison ministry, the sense of joy and fulfillment are profound. So I say to you just as Jesus said to his followers, “Follow me.” Follow me into the prisons. If you do, you will be profoundly changed and you will never look back again.
When I looked at the lectionary scriptures for this Sunday my first thought was to skip the lectionary! -They seemed so negative, so troubled and despairing. I thought, there is no way I can relate these to my last sermon here in Baldwinville! After I thought about it for a while, I decided the contrast and connections with the passages were too great to pass up.
Jeremiah is the consummate prophet. He feels the weight of God’s message heavy on him. To say the least, he is not popular. The leaders of the nation see him as disloyal, to the extent that they consider him being something of a traitor. He counseled surrender to King Nebuchadnezzar after all. He said that it was inevitable that the Babylonians would conquer them and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple in the process. He said it was God’s judgement for the spiritual failure of the nation; the failure to be just and caring, and remain true to God.
He was ridiculed, beaten, and imprisoned, but he kept preaching. Finally at the last minute he escaped to Egypt. Few clergy are treated as roughly as Jeremiah. -I have known a couple of clergy people who were run out of town over the years for religious/political views, or anti-war sentiment, but nothing like the O.T. prophet. Then again few of us are quite as provocative and daring as Jeremiah.
Certainly, my time here in Baldwinville has been relatively peaceful. From the moment Jim, un-officially, but publicly and exuberantly welcomed me as minister in 2012, -before vote was even taken. I felt a welcome here and an affinity with you. His welcome was perhaps symbolic of your embrace.
While some churches had conflict over the proper response to COVID, we did not. In the strident political climate of the last few years some have found conflict in families and in churches. We have kept that on the sidelines, and you have allowed me to speak the truth as I understand it. Some might have felt I was too measured in my political speech, some might have felt I was a little too direct, but on the whole there was respect for differing views. And I always received more support and thanks for my sermons than disagreement. Ultimately, we all have been confronted by the biblical prophets like Jeremiah, Amos, and Hosea who saw that political decisions that involved moral choices around justice and equality were also religious decisions that required our best spiritual insight in decision making. Thank you for being a congregation willing to look at some of those moral/spiritual issues.
When I look at the Matthew passage, I can’t help but wonder at the pain and division that first century church must have gone through. Families torn apart over religion! -In some cases, it was Jewish families finding children, or other members, leaving the synagogue for this new variant of the faith which seemed to disrespect all the traditional rules for kosher.
In other cases, it was pagan families upset that some were joining what they judged to be a new exclusivist cult, where worshiping at a shrine to the emperor was forbidden! -You couldn’t even call the emperor “Lord.” –That all seemed unpatriotic and in fact became illegal! Some friends, and even families, were so divided that they turned others in to the authorities because of these traitorous beliefs! –And, of course, some of those friends and family were tortured and put to death for the ardency of their beliefs. Can you imagine a little house church with a dozen or two people trying to hold it together having to go through that kind of tension and struggle?
No wonder Matthew quotes Jesus saying something like, “Don’t expect discipleship to be easy! -It won’t be. It will be hard.”
But Matthew goes on to remind them that God is with them, and that Jesus presence is always in their midst. Of course, they cannot know that in another 200 years that Christianity will become the official religion of the empire. In fact I’m sure they couldn’t imagine it. It ought to remind us, as we struggle with the dwindling resources and the dwindling significance of the church in society that we can’t see the future either; we are just called to be faithful and to share God’s Good News with the world.
The next few years aren’t likely to be easy for small churches there will be changes and uncertainty, but God is still God, and God’s Spirit may yet be breathing new life into the church’s future.
I pray that you may feel God’s presence strength as you work towards that unknown future and rejoice in the hope of God’s Kingdom.
As we think about Father’s Day and families the Abraham story seems to fit right in. In fact Genesis is filled with family stories and Abraham is recognized as the father of three of the world’s great religions. This morning we had just a piece of the Abraham & Sarah story. Of course, the bible continues to trace the intricacies of this family history through multiple generations. –One of the things that makes it such an engaging story is that it’s not just their faith and goodness that is talked about in the story, it is all the foolishness and foibles of this family as well. The whole story is infused with laughter and invites playfulness.
The Bible pulls no punches. These are not saintly folks in any usual understanding of the word. –These are normal families with all the crazy dysfunctional problems of everyday families, with faith that is quite often lacking strength, and values that get twisted by emotions. It begins with audaciousness of God making seemingly impossible promises. Even Sarah laughs at these promises in today’s passage.
As for faithless foibles: Abraham as a younger man was ready to marry off his wife Sarah, to another man out of fear that the other man, who was a powerful ruler, might kill him to take her because she was so beautiful. –God saves them both from that fiasco!
Sarah, who laughs today, earlier gives up on the idea of having children and suggests a surrogate mother to Abraham. Sarah tells him to have a son with her maid, because she is convinced she is not going to bear children. Her laughter today is only a part of the absurdity she sees in continuing to hope, or expectation that that she can bear children at this point in her life. –Then once she does bear this Son Isaac, (the name by the way means laughter) she wants the elder surrogate son, the one produced by her servant, out of the picture and asks Abraham to send that mother and child both away so that her son can get the full inheritance! In Islamic tradition, Arabic nations come from this eldest son of Abraham, who is Ishmael and therefore are the rightful inheritors of God’s promises.
Certainly, the biblical story today wants to underscore that God continues to be faithful. God’s promises are sure –even when everything logical says God has let us down, or failed to deliver on expected promises. “Is anything impossible for God?” is the penetrating question posed at the end by one these strangers.
–You may note that even though Sarah’s faith is lacking, and her doubts are abundant, –she does in fact have a son. In the final analysis God’s promises really do not depend on her.
In the continuing story, Sarah’s son, Isaac, in turn has two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau the older is Dad’s favorite & is a real man’s man. Jacob, the younger, is something of a momma’s boy. But Jacob, in a bit of chicanery, manages to get his brother to giving him the eldest birthright, and with a lot of help from mom, manages to dupe the old man, into giving him the family blessing over his older brother. Jacob then has to run away to his mother’s family to escape his brother’s wrath.
–The duplicity doesn’t end there. Jacob in turn, is later tricked by his uncle into marrying a different woman than he wants to. And then he is tricked by 11 of his sons into thinking his favorite child, Joseph, is dead, when in fact the brothers have contrived to sell him into slavery to a caravan going to Egypt.
And imagine, Abraham in our story today, God shows up in the form of three strangers. It is all out of the blue and Abraham responds with the best of Mid-Eastern hospitality, bowing and inviting them to stay. Note that he tells the men he will serve them dinner, then he immediately goes to his wife and says, “ Why don’t you dig out some more flour and bake some more bread (or cakes depending on the translations) I just invited these three guys for dinner.” In the next breath he tells his servant to take care of butchering the calf and preparing the steaks. –It sounds like a classic case of masculine hospitality! – To make matters worse, you may notice that when the meal is talked about later in the story there isn’t even a mention of the bread that Sarah has had to make from scratch on a hot desert afternoon!
-A little Father’s Day tip guys, this is not the way to win points with your wife! -Maybe you want to bear in mind that it took an act of God for Abraham to have a child with his wife! Abraham ate with the three men, Sarah didn’t join them. She stays back in the tent and listens in on their conversation. Laughing at how foolish they are.
-There are a lot more intricacies and subtleties to the story of Abraham and his descendants of course, but that is the brief outline of family history. –Now, tell me if that family isn’t at least as mixed up a family as yours!
The bible includes these stories not to legitimatize family squabbles and misbehavior but to affirm God working, even in the turbulent, mixed up twists and turns of our lives. Even when faith is lacking…even when we are something less than perfect.
–Even Ishmael, the surrogate son of Abraham is blessed by God and returns to join his half-brother in burying Abraham.
—And Jacob & Esau, the two feuding brothers, embrace many years later. And of course Joseph, the one sold into slavery in Egypt, turns out to save his family from famine as he rises to prominence there. And he reminds his brothers “You meant it for evil but God used it for good”
In some sense Sarah’s laughter at the suggestion that she is going to have a son of her own now in her later years might be seen as laughter at the whole absurd story that follows.
Common sense tells her she can’t have a child, after all she has been trying for years and she knows it’s too late now.
And common sense would tell us that a family so wracked by fighting and intrigue couldn’t possibly be used by God for some greater purpose. –But there it is in the story. God always surprising. God always moving through the cracks in our lives and the chaos of our families to let in the light and bring saving hope.
If God can use Abraham and his family God can use anyone’s! I know it may seem laughable, but Genesis would beg to differ.
Maybe we don’t have to be giants of faith, we just have to go forward with a hope for God’s purposes and a willingness to take the next step! -Sometimes even when it still seems laughable!
God still makes promises for the future and invites us to be a part of them. Just remember, the larger promises to Abraham took generations to fulfill, and even that promise to have a son took a lifetime to fulfill.
At first glance this passage in Matthew seems like three unrelated little stories stuck together. Simply because they happen on the same day. But look closer and you see three desperate people from different walks of life encounter Jesus. Each of them compromises him in regards to the purity laws needs but of them come with their own desperation. A desperation that overrides the purity concerns. And they each see God’s presence in him.
The first is Matthew, who becomes a disciple. He seems to be the last of the twelve, at least the last one whose calling is spelled out. Had he heard and seen Jesus before? -We don’t know. His calling and response both seem out of the blue. One has to assume that he had had some contact with Jesus before this. He must have been looking for something else in his life, don’t you think? Tax collectors worked for the Romans and were looked down on or resented by a large part of the Jewish population. Not only were they collaborators with the overlords, they had to handle Roman money and deal with gentiles which meant they regularly came in contact with the unclean. But they also got their wages by collecting more than Rome demanded in taxes for their region and keeping the extra as profit. The very nature of the job made you despised. -Yes, some could become wealthy depending on how much they could cajole and strong-arm people, but most, simply got by on the edges of society. Most people simply tried to avoid them.
Matthew was sick of it, it seems. Jesus’ message of acceptance and a calling to a higher loyalty, and a vision of a different world gave him both hope and a reason for living that he had not known before. He was desperate for something new and for grace that might embrace him.
Of course, the religious leaders found it scandalous that Jesus not only accepted this unclean conspirator with Rome among his followers, but then he had the audacity to go to this man’s home and eat dinner with him -and a bunch of his friends. The minute Jesus walked into this house he was considered religiously unclean.
Of course, when your heart is breaking, and there seems to be no hope, you are willing to overlook a lot of things. Such was the case for the one religious leader whose daughter had just died. (In Mark and Luke, who tell the same story, the man says his daughter is dying, not already dead.) He’s a person with some religious rank who would have been well aware of the purity laws, but he just comes right in as the dinner is finishing and kneels before Jesus begging him to come bring his healing presence to his daughter. He believes God’s presence is in Jesus. Jesus holds no grudges. He immediately gets up, skips dessert I guess, and heads to the man’s house.
We aren’t told how far away the man’s house is. But along the route, with the disciples, the man, and a whole entourage of on-lookers and people interested to see what will happen, a woman who has had a menstrual cycle problem for 12 years, bleeding nonstop all that time, pushes through the crowd. This illness makes her ritually unclean according to Leviticus. Twelve years of being unclean, having to be on the outskirts of respectable society. If you think COVID restrictions were hard, imagine this woman with 12 years of keeping a distance. She just wants to touch him, or even the bottom of his cloak. She believes God’s presence is in him. She lunges forward, perhaps falling on her knees just touching the bottom of his robe. Jesus feels something, something more than just a tug on his robe. He feels grace and power has gone out of him. He feels the faith and the longing that has brought her to this point. Jesus turns and sees her. There is a gentleness in his response. He is not angry at the interruption. Interruptions in life are sometimes the most important work we do! He calls her “Daughter”. It is a term of affection and relationship, probably short for “Daughter of Abraham,” which also affirms that she is blessed, a child of God, someone with a heritage of hope and a relationship to God’s promises. Is it a coincidence that he is on his way to heal an important man’s daughter? Probably not; Jesus is emphasizing that she too is a daughter, and every bit as important as the official’s. It immediately lets her know that she is not being rebuked or called out for overstepping. He assures her that her faith has made her well. It is a beautiful story of faith and affirmation.
When Jesus arrives at the official’s house, they are already mourning her death. They assume it is too late for Jesus to do anything. Jesus dismisses all the mourners saying this girl is not really dead, only sleeping. Again, as soon as he takes the dead girl’s hand (at least dead in their minds) Jesus is unclean. There is a whole ritual you have to go through after touching a dead body before you are considered clean. Jesus once again, ignores all of that. He is simply responding to the father’s faith and grief and bringing life and hope to where there is death and sorrow. Or, as John quotes Jesus saying, “I am the Resurrection and the Life.”
Three desperate and very different people encounter Jesus on the same day. Each of them responds with remarkable faith. –Matthew, the unclean tax collector, drops everything, quits his job and becomes a disciple. -A woman, suffering from an illness that makes her unclean, brazenly pushes through the throng around Jesus to simply touch his garment. -An official in the synagogue ignores protocols, breaks into a dinner hosted by a tax collector and attended by those considered unclean, a dinner he would normally avoid at all costs, to beg Jesus to give his daughter life. Each of them from a different status and place in society yet each of them needs Jesus. Jesus reacts to each of them with the same caring and the same life-giving power. There is no differentiation in his attitude or response. Each gets what they need. Each is gifted with new life.
The three stories so clearly show God’s unconditional love in action through Jesus. It is like the UCC motto, God doesn’t care who you are or where you are on life’s journey, and neither does Jesus. Maybe that’s the reason that Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all tell these three stories. They bear a truth so important for us. Each of them is a great story individually. But taken together they are the consummate word of hope and grace. Maybe that’s the reason Matthew puts the three of them together in one day. Mark and Luke separate Matthew’s call.
It all starts with a celebration dinner Matthew, the new disciple, throws. He has invited Jesus and the other disciples, but also a bunch of other folks from the far edges of society. It is the springboard for all that happens.
We don’t know if these other two people had their life changed beyond the healing. Don’t you wonder how the synagogue official reacted to others who were considered unclean after this? -And what the woman did with her life after her healing?
Some people change their lives completely after an experience of grace. Certainly, Matthew did. But sometimes people just fall back into their old habits and mind set. There’s always the hope that encountering Jesus makes a permanent difference. I guess in my mind I think of the official having a gentler attitude towards those on the outside of society and maybe the woman found a place of service to neighbors and friends, or perhaps others suffering from diseases that put them at arm’s length from others.
The three stories are meant to let us know that no matter where we are, or who we are, we are not outside God’s grace -and that Jesus is always ready to respond to the desperation that sometimes envelopes us in life. May the presence of that Jesus be with you.
As I mentioned in the opening, this is “Trinity Sunday” in the lectionary calendar. It’s not high on the list of important Sundays in most people’s estimation. It was a doctrine that was argued vehemently in the second and third centuries, but it’s not a doctrine that most folks today get too excited about. I’m guessing that most Christians simply accept the idea of a triune God, -three in one, as of the hard to define doctrines of the church and let it go at that. I am not going to bore you with the arguments of Athanasius and Tertullian and all those others. The truth is I can’t keep it all straight in my head either. We’ll just leave it with ‘One God with three personas’. But do know that still in the Orthodox and Catholic tradition it is still true that if you are not baptized in the name of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” your baptism is not considered legit. In large part that is true because of the passage from Matthew this morning. It is the only place in scripture that this baptismal code is specifically spelled out. Matthew attributes those words to Jesus, or at least the resurrected Christ, but there are no definitions or explanations attached.
It may strike you as surprising, but this is the first appearance of the Resurrected Jesus to the disciples in Matthew. Only the women, specifically Mary Magdalene and another Mary, have seen him before this. There is no upper room appearance, no Emmaus Rd. walk, and no doubting Thomas in Matthew. And note this appearance is back in Galilee, not in and around Jerusalem where Jesus was crucified and Luke has the ascension. Matthew is second only to Mark in the brevity of the experiences of the Risen Christ. Here, Jesus appears once to the women and then here where he gives the Great Commission and then Jesus is gone.
Matthew’s overriding theme casts Jesus as the New Moses. –Moses is rescued from Pharaoh’s edict to kill male babies; Jesus is rescued from the slaughter of innocents by King Herod. Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt with the help of God, and Jesus is brought out of Egypt to Nazareth by Mary & Joseph through the providence of God. Moses delivers the 10 Commandments from a mountain, and Jesus does the Sermon on the Mount. In the end Moses goes up on a mountain and delivers a final speech pointing to the Promised Land and then simply disappears, in Matthew Jesus gives the final commission from a mountain top, as we read today, and then simply disappears.
The one little caveat that Matthew slips in here is that “Some doubted.” Don’t you find that both comforting and intriguing? Mark’s gospel tells us that Jesus told the disciples just after they had finished the Last Supper that he would meet them later back in Galilee. Matthew says that the Angels that appeared to the two Mary’s at the tomb Easter morning told them to go to tell the disciples to go to the mountain in Galilee where he would appear to them. It has to be several days later because Galilee is almost 100 miles to the north.
It is another ‘Mountain Top’ experience, and though they worship him, some doubted. Doesn’t that resonate with you? Even as they encounter the Risen Christ some are having doubts. The inference is that they can hardly believe what is going on. Can this really be Jesus? Is this really real?
The reason I chose the Common English version to read today is because it follows the majority of translations and includes the word, “some”. The RSV updated edition just says, “They doubted”. -The reason is the Greek simply says “The Ones” doubted which may imply “They” or mean “some”. Just one of the struggles of translation, does “The Ones” mean, “They”- as in all of them, or does it mean “Some?” Whichever, it gives me heart that these disciples, who gave their lives to preaching and teaching the Resurrected Christ, had their moments of doubt, even in the midst of a Resurrection appearance. Maybe faith is never as simple and certain as we imagine it is for others, even the disciples. Faith is like a living thing in us. It varies in strength and intensity. We may doubt our own experiences of grace.
They were, all together on the mountain where they encountered the Risen Christ, even so, some doubted. No one was critiqued, or criticized, or rejected because of their doubts. Jesus simply affirms that he has been given authority and power by God and then commissions them to preach & teach what he has shared with them and make disciples in all nations, assuring them that he will be with them always.
So today we come to this communion table knowing that whatever our doubts or struggles with faith, Jesus does not reject us. Instead he welcomes us to this table with an affirmation of God’s Love, made evident in the Crucifixion and Resurrection. He embraces us with the promise that he will be with us till the end of time. He encourages us with the challenge to go and make disciples calling us to make a difference in the world. He calls us to go out to the world and witness with our lives to God’s love and hope for humanity. His presence will be with us in times of rejoicing and times of struggle.
The bread and the cup today are reminders of his presence and of the love and forgiveness of God that was manifest in him. Whatever your struggles of faith he still deems you worthy; still extends his blessings and his calling. And he invites you to come and take of the Cup of Grace.
So, we have a lot going on today, with Memorial Day, Pentecost and Confirmation. It’s not too hard to see a connection between, Confirmation and Pentecost, since the disciples were in some sense confirmed in their faith and calling at Pentecost. It is often called the birthday of the church. Three thousand Luke says were added to the church that day. And Paul’s letter to the church in Corinth about the diversity of gifts speaks for itself. We, who know you Matt, know that you have a number of gifts to share with the world and are confident you will in fact use them to do good in the world. We applaud and give thanks for what you have done to bring forth those gifts so far in your life and our confirmation service today is not only about confirming you in the faith it is also a blessing this church wants to bestow on you for all your future endeavors with your God given talents and hard work
But let us make clear this is a Confirmation service, not a conformation service. We are not expecting you to conform to any set of creeds or our assumptions about what your life should be. You are only confirming your trust in the mystery of God as revealed historically in Jesus of Nazareth and through the grace of the Holy Spirit. Faith is not a static thing that you grab hold of once and put in your pocket, so to speak.
Affirming faith is a life-long process, with its own ups and downs, doubts and uncertainties. As we have looked at the big issues of life and faith over the last year I have tried to say the answers you have now will have to be revisited along the way. Life and faith are journeys, with surprises along the way. Life will look different at different stages of your life.
Life questions you, pushes you find meaning, purpose and hope in different ways along our journey. Look around this room, I would venture to say there isn’t anyone over 40 here who hasn’t lost someone they love along the way, or at least had to revisit and reevaluate their beliefs because of some event or change in their lives.
Confirmation is not ultimately about being a good citizen, loyal and patriotic…you already are that.
Confirmation is not about making your parents proud, -you already do that.
Confirmation is about confirming your connection to this journey of faith at this important transitional point in your young life. It means trying to listen to the Holy voice that speaks to the human heart along the way. Recognizing that what we find in the Bible is the sacred witness of those who have travelled this road before. They were visionaries of the faith in the past and have spoken of their experience and the revelation they found in their encounter with the Holy. What we do here is confirm a seed of faith in you. Our hope is that it will grow and develop as you continue your journey.
So this past year I have tried to give you a little introduction to the bible, how it came to be and the general issues in interpreting the text. And, of course we looked at Jesus and the Christian understanding about him. But as much as we did that, I have tried to stress the mystery of human life. Human life is not one dimensional. There is something more to life and death than simple mechanical accounting. That’s where religion and faith come into the picture. We want to use rational thought and intelligent understanding in assessing life as well as faith. But life is complex and mysterious.
The late David Foster Wallace, in a rather famous graduation speech back in 2005 (you would have been less than a year old then) began his talk with a little analogy about two fish swimming and another fish swims by and says, “Great water today!” A few moments later one of the two swimming together says to the other, “What the heck is water?” He suggests that the truth of the little analogy is that often it is the most obvious and important things all around us that we have the most trouble talking about or beginning to think about. They may be as pervasive as water to a fish, but somehow out of our realm of thinking.
Wallace goes on to also delve into religion and faith with a story of two guys meeting in a bar in central Alaska. They begin talking and one says he is an atheist, the other says he is a believer. As the conversation goes on the atheist says, “Well it’s not like I haven’t given God a chance. Last year I was riding my snowmobile in the wilderness area and it broke down in the midst of the worst blizzard of the year. I hadn’t expected it so I wasn’t prepared. I thought I might die. I broke down and prayed. “O God, if there is a God, please save me! –But nothing happened.” –The believer said, “Well something must have happened; you’re still here.” -The atheist replied, “No, I just lucked out and two Eskimos happened by heading home on their snowmobiles and they gave me a ride.”
Faith is sometimes just a different perspective in life.
–Marcus Borg, a famous theologian and writer, (he happens to have been born the same year I was- but he died in 2015) in one of his books said, “Faith is not so much about believing this or that,” (Or I might add, using religious language like calling Jesus ‘Lord’.) “Faith is ultimately simply recognizing that God IS, and out of that affirmation developing a relationship with that which we call God or Christ, or the Spirit, in some more personal and interconnected way.”
For Christians, obviously, Jesus becomes the person, the way we understand and relate to that God. He becomes the vehicle to unlock the meaning of God’s will and hope for us as human beings.
Certainly, our hope for you is that you will walk with God. Part of that is just knowing that God walks with you. God can be a strength to uphold you in difficult times and perhaps sometimes to remind us of our truer and best selves.
It has been suggested that Jesus’ prayer for the church in our John passage this morning is one of the preeminent prayers of Jesus that never gets fulfilled. –In fact one theologian has said that this prayer, which ends with “that they may be one as we are one” is likely to get the answer Jesus wants in that proverbially time “When hell freezes over!” While there was some ecumenical movement towards unity in the 50’s and 60’s everything in Christianity is going the other way these days. The United Methodist Church, the largest protestant denomination in the country is being torn apart over the Gay & Transgender issues. There are also strong pressures of divisiveness in the Baptist, & Episcopal churches as well as some other smaller denominations. And, of course, there are also tensions within the Catholic Church between conservative and more liberal factions only held in check by the power of the Pope.
The truth is, from the very beginning there were differences within the church. Luke records that early argument between Peter and Paul and James, with Paul’s more inclusive and accepting position winning out. By early 300 AD Emperor Constantine, when he converted to Christianity, felt there was too much diversity of belief and practice in the church. To eliminate haggling over differences he called the Council of Nicaea to iron out official doctrinal stands. The result, of course, was that some wound up being branded heretics. Constantine also wanted the church to be a unifying force in the Empire.
Jesus’ prayer, as John records it, is both an expression of John’s theology, and an expression of hope and blessing for the church. John’s gospel starts out telling us that Jesus was preexistent with God, “In the beginning was the Word” John 1 says, and “The Word made flesh” in John’s language. Here in the prayer Jesus puts emphasis on his unity with God. They are to “Glorify” each other. Knowing Jesus lets us know God in a more personal way. This, ‘Knowing’ is the basis of, and the meaning of, Eternal Life as John understands it. It is a life that begins here and now as one lives with a deep connection to God and Jesus. It is not about knowing about God, but living in communion with God through this deeper personal understanding. Eternal Life in John’s gospel is a quality of life lived with peace and love infused and born out of this relationship to God and Jesus.
Out of that affirmation and hope, Jesus prays for the church and its unity of purpose and commitment. He will be gone, but the church is to be an expression of his life, and God’s love for the world.
I’m guessing John has already seen a fragmenting of the church into diverse theologies and practices as he writes his gospel, and he wants to underscore the hope of Jesus for a deep unity among his followers. I imagine the memory of that little band that Luke tells about in our Acts passage, you know, those early disciples so committed and together they held everything in common, they must have had a strong nostalgic pull on the church by the end of the First Century. Christianity had by then burgeoned into a diverse group spread around the Roman Empire. We know there were different interpretations of the meaning of Jesus’ life, death, & Resurrection on the scene by the end of the first century. So it’s not surprising that John wants to spark a remembrance of the founding hope of unity and community, that special sense of cohesion and purpose that bound them together.
There have been lots of covenantal community movements within Christianity over the years trying to get closer to the early church model. From monasteries in the Middle Ages to the proliferation of groups in the 17 & 18 hundreds such as the Amish, the Shakers, the Amana community. There were actually 80 different utopian communities established in the US in the decade of the 1840’s alone. These were spurred on by reactions to the beginnings of the industrial revolution, the religious fervor aroused by the Great Awakening, as well as the a general dissatisfaction with the way society was going. From groups like Brook Farm near Boston, which was a more secular offshoot of the Transcendentalist movement, to Fruitlands, down the road in Harvard, to Oneida further west in New York. Some were stricter than others. Fruitlands, was so strict it didn’t last long, -you could eat no meat, use no animals to do physical labor, use no artificial light, like oil lamps, take no hot baths, or drink anything more than water. It’s not hard to see why that Spartan life style lost its luster pretty quickly. Some groups like the Amana Community and the Shakers lasted well into the 20th century.
Sadly, there have also been some of these groups more recently that have become self-destructive. –There was Jonestown, in 1978 -where a group that started out with noble sounding ideals embraced the paranoia of their leader and some 900 hundred of them drank the poisoned cool-aid. Or there was the Adventist group in Waco Texas back in the 90’s that wound up in a destructive standoff with the FBI. And just recently there was the Christian cult-like group in Kenya where over 200 starved themselves to death, fasting, waiting for Jesus.
John writes to Christians that were considered part of a cult by many in that day. He writes with the hope of encouraging and comforting them, but also wanting to hold them true to the teachings and principles of Jesus. John validates the church as those called out to live differently than others, but never in a way that rejects the world or dooms us to a negative view of the future or the world the world. He writes to Christians who have reasons to be afraid but are called to be faithful. He sends this prayer from Jesus but also that bold affirmation that “God so loved the world” he sent his son “that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”
A church that follows Jesus is in covenant, with God, with Jesus and with each other. But it is never an outpost seeking to estrange itself from the world or reject those outside its walls. It is bearing witness in the world God loves. It is not a bastion of negativity but of hope. It is not a place of disdain for those outside – but a place that reaches out and welcomes in!
We still need the church. The world still needs the church! And the church still needs to be a covenant of faithful people, serving in Christ’s name.
One of the big problems in American society, researchers tell us, is loneliness, lack of community and a sense of belonging. The church, John would tell us, embraces all those human needs. A covenant group that serves as a witness to God’s redeeming work in the world. And because it belongs to Jesus, the church seeks to bring justice and wholeness to human life, and universal blessing to all God’s creation.
The late Lin Yutan, a Chinese American philosopher and scholar tells about his conversion to embrace the Christian faith in his mid-60’s. He says, “Below the surface of my life, a disquiet began to set in. It was born both of reflection and experience. I saw that the fruit of the humanistic age of enlightenment was an age of materialism. Man’s increasing belief in himself as God did not seem to be making him more godlike. He was becoming more clever. But he had less and less of the sober, uplifting humility of one who has stood in the presence of God. Contemporary history seemed to indicate how dangerously near the savage state man may be even while he is more advanced technologically.”
The insufficiencies in the modern world in terms of caring and community have made us a more frazzled people. It seems to have put us more on edge and made us more likely to strike out in anger, more forgetful of simple human kindness. The church, as a covenant community faithful to Jesus, was never more needed, even if never more pushed to the sidelines.
Jesus’ prayer for the church and his call for unity is both a critique of the persistence of human divisiveness, and a reminder of who we are supposed to be. It calls us to faithfulness and service.
Someone has said recently that if you are not anxious about the future, you are not paying attention to the news! -From our tensions with Russia and China, to lingering issues in the Middle East, and of course the prospects of Global Warming, -not to mention the uncertainty in the economy, whether inflation or recession. –If that’s not enough there’s the ongoing saga of mass shootings! –Or maybe you’re just worried about the specific threats like the proposals from some politicians to cut your Social Security and Medicare benefits. –I don’t mean to depress you this morning, but I think these are all things most of us have on the back of our minds.
You can count on some politicians trying to manipulate the anxieties. They will be saying something like “Vote for me, I’ll save you!” -Whether they have any real answers or not! And surely, there will be some Christian doomsayers who take it all as a sign of ‘The End.’
Anxiety in John’s day was perhaps spread over fewer issues but no less pervasive for early Christians. By the time the gospel was written there had been state sponsored persecution of Christians for around 40 to 50 years, -resulting in the torture and death of many believers and certainly almost all of the disciples. Not to mention the war between Israel and Rome which had ended just 20 or 30 years before. That war had destroyed Jerusalem and killed up to one million people. Folks were wondering where God was in all of this. Believers were asking –Why hasn’t Jesus come back to straighten out this mess? John wanted to offer some comfort and reassurance.
John reminds them, And us, that they were not orphaned, not abandoned, just because the world is not what they expected or hoped. He recalls Jesus’ words “I will not leave you orphaned” as words of assurance and promise for God’s comfort and grace. It was a reminder that God is still God and that Jesus brought God’s presence into the world. It was an affirmation that God has not given up on us or simply left us to our own devices.
John says Jesus promised the Parakleitos, (in the Greek) (advocatus) in the Latin. English translations vary: Advocate, Counselor, Helper, Friend, Comforter, depending on what translation you use. In John’s time The Paraclete, or Advocate, was the one called on in behalf of the prisoner, or the victim, to speak in his place and in his name, or to act on his behalf. The Paraclete, then, is the universal advocate, the one on your side, to support and comfort, to stand with us in the trials of life. This Advocate/Counselor/ Comforter will be present for us in the midst of the world’s chaos and trouble helping us in all the tough times.
The image John uses is a powerful one: Jesus is leaving this world but he will not be abandoning us. Jesus will not leave us orphaned! Being orphaned, then, as now, was a tragic kind of aloneness that brings a special vulnerability.
I remember one young woman in my first church, she was in her 30’s, as I remember, and married, but when her parents were both killed in a tragic auto accident, she kept saying, in her grief, “I’m an orphan now.” -It was an expression of her sense of aloneness, of being cut off from her roots and those she had counted on and relied on for advice and nurture in her life.
-Not only in childhood but in different ways even in adulthood. She could hardly fathom not having them in her life. The old spiritual catches the feeling as it wails “I feel like a motherless child,” depicting the special aloneness and defenselessness that is imaged.
John is writing to a church experiencing some of those same feelings of abandonment. Christians were in fear of being found out. Kind of like illegal immigrants in our world. You only needed someone to accuse you of being ‘one of those’ to be accused of being disloyal to the empire –or the emperor- by virtue of your Christian faith and you could be hauled before the court with an uncertain fate. Those experiencing such hardship and pressure couldn’t help but ask themselves: –Why hasn’t Jesus returned? –Why hasn’t God done something? — The feeling of abandonment was real. Life had become precarious. Christians had real reasons for questions and anxiety.
John tries to reach out to them with words of assurance –from his own theology and from the promises of Jesus. –John’s promise is that Jesus has not left them, or us, orphaned, alone and isolated.
Just as Jesus was in God and God in him –so God’s Holy Comforter, Counselor and Advocate now is promised to be with us, helping us, supporting us, and strengthening us as we seek to persevere in perilous times and enabling us to continue the work of Christ.
John’s Gospel seems less concerned about expectations of the second coming or the end of the world than some late first century Christian writings because John has such a sense that Jesus, through the Holy Spirit is still with us, inspiring, supporting and renewing us, as well as at work in hidden ways in the world.
During his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy often closed his speeches with the story of Colonel Davenport. He was the Speaker of the Connecticut House of Representatives in the late 1700’s. Not only was this nation trying to get on its feet, the Second Great Awakening had begun and some very strong voiced preachers were making a mark on society. Many of their sermons were what you might call “Fire and Brimstone” sermons calling people to a religious reckoning. One day in 1789, the sky of Hartford darkened ominously, as the Conn. House gathered for debate. Some of the representatives, glancing out the windows, feared the end was at hand. Quelling a clamor for immediate adjournment, Davenport rose and said, “The Day of Judgement is either approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. Therefore, I wish that candles be brought.” Something like that might have been John’s thought too. The sky may be sometimes dark and ominous but the gift of God’s Spirit is still with us calling us to faith and duty.
As we reflect on this Mother’s Day weekend, celebrating mothers and praying for a world that is safer for mothers and children; still called to work towards Gods Kingdom, John would remind us that we are still in a struggle to bring God’s redeeming grace into a world that is not always ready to receive it. Indeed, the world is often obsessed with its own agendas of power and domination, as it was in John’s day. And the powers of violence and destruction may seem to hold sway –as they did in his day, – but John wants to bear testimony that God has not forgotten us–and Jesus has not abandoned us. –Notice John doesn’t say life is going to be easy, or that life is always going to go the way we want. –He was too much of a realist to do that. John just wants to reassure us that however difficult and fearful life may become — God’s Holy Spirit still stands with us, and in the end, God’s love is the final and most important force in our world.
Albert Schweitzer as he comes to the conclusion of his book, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, ends his scholarly work with an almost poetic affirmation of the mystery of Jesus continuing presence. I’ve always felt it was a powerful summation: “He comes to us as One unknown, without a name, as of old, by the lakeside, He came to those men who knew Him not. He speaks to us the same word: “Follow thou me!” and sets us to the tasks which He has to fulfill for our time. He commands. And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and, as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”
John alone gives us this summation of the extended talk Jesus had with his disciples on the night he is arrested. It is a farewell conversation. Jesus knows he is going to die, and he wants to prepare the disciples with instructions and reminders. It goes on for 4 chapters. So our scripture this morning is just brief piece of it. But there is plenty here to chew on. And John, of course, throughout his gospel, doesn’t really distinguish between what he says as sermonic reflection and what Jesus himself says. There are no quotation marks around any of this.
So, on their last evening together, John recounts Jesus telling the disciples not to be worried or stressed, and to keep believing, both in himself and God’s presence in the world. It is all part of his final conversation with them as he tries to fortify them before his death. As we know. their faith will be tested–not only by Jesus’ death but ultimately with events in the world and their own untimely deaths. Stephen, who we heard about in our first scripture, was the first martyr, but certainly not the last.
Philip – (for once you note it is not Peter speaking up) Philip asks Jesus to show them the Father. He wants one of those dramatic mystical experiences –Perhaps he feels it will be a little easier to “Keep the Faith” if he just had a little more to go on; something more dramatic he can hold on to!
Probably most of us feel that way at times, – You know –“Lord I need a little help here, -something a little more Concrete- there are so many things that don’t seem right in this world, and so many questions!” Philip apparently doesn’t remember the parable about the Mustard seed faith – Jesus says simply, –“If you have seen me you have seen the Father” —If you have heard my teaching, If you have observed my works, and my caring—healing the untouchables, and eating with those called sinners, you should know this is the way God is…and the way you need to be. If you wonder what’s happened, and why, just know that I am with God — and God is with me…. And God’s infinite and intimate embrace is there for you also.—Just keep following me and the way I have shown you. In this context Jesus’ words in this passage, which seem to have exclusivist overtones, do not actually refer to an exclusion of all other faiths, or present a hard edged condemnation of all who all who do not take him to be the messiah. Instead, his words point to the extreme nature of God’s love and grace revealed through him and the call for them to follow him in trusting God.
Jesus’ life and ministry clearly is a rejection of narrow minded exclusivism which would deny access to God for anyone not washed in orthodoxy. When Jesus tells the disciples “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places” he is speaking metaphorically. Dwelling with the Father, or being in a close loving family relationship with God, is not a narrow, exclusive club, but a spacious, roomy place to dwell. Maybe he is even suggesting: “You’ll be surprised at some of your neighbors!”
Dr. A. B. Masilamini was a Baptist theologian and evangelist in India, where he had to come to terms the exclusivity claims of some in Christianity, commented on this in one of his conferences on inter-faith dialogue:
“Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.’ Your western ears hear Jesus saying that he is the only way to God, but that is not what he says. He is an eastern mind speaking to eastern minds. They hear the emphasis being on the Father (Abba). What Jesus is saying is that he is the only way to come to know God in personal relationship similar to that of a child to his daddy”. This does not weaken a sharing of the gospel, as you might think. Instead it allows a Christian to say to someone of another faith, that Jesus offers something unique, a close relationship to God.”
So, what’s God like? God is like Jesus, who will sit down with five thousand strangers. It doesn’t matter, prostitutes and Pharisees, Greeks and Jews, peasants and priests – He shared a meal with them all, with no opportunities to check the purity of the kitchen where the bread was baked, or the cleanness of the countless pairs of hands that got the food to you. God is like Jesus, who was reviled, persecuted, tortured, and executed, and yet spoke words of forgiveness to his tormentors. God is like Jesus, who taught us that the kingdom of God would be ushered in not with the political and military muscle of kings and generals, but quietly raised from mustard seeds of faith. Faith that could touch the unclean, feed the hungry, heal those bound by disease, invite the outcast, and reconcile enemies. God is like Jesus, who could humble himself and wash other people’s feet.
All the major faiths have some exclusive edges to them. What we have to do as Christians when we encounter these passages in our multicultural society and world, is simply remember that Jesus never used, or misused religion to attack others except for the pompous and phony ones of his own faith background. His focus was on bringing the grace of God into the places of this world where it was needed most.
John doesn’t tell about the Last Supper, he knows that others have told that story. Instead he tells of foot washing and an intimate conversation underlining that God is with us, even, or maybe most especially, in the dark and uncertain times. And that by knowing Jesus we know what God is like! —
Today we come to that meal the other gospels tell of, the meal that was the sacrament of God’s grace. We eat in remembrance of Jesus, acknowledging and embracing his words of forgiveness and God’s continued embrace of us. This meal expresses what God is like! –Amen.
We read a portion of this passage from the gospel of John every year around the 4th Sun. after Easter. The image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd is one everyone knows.
To get John’s setting right we should note that this passage comes right after Jesus has healed a blind man –on the Sabbath. It had created quite a controversy because the Pharisees didn’t believe the healing was authentic and accused the man of faking blindness to support Jesus. They then kicked the man out of the synagogue. We had that story back in March. Jesus tells this parable as a response.
So, for all its bucolic imagery which we all remember from Sunday school, this parable starts with the backdrop of the religious elite being frustrated and angry. –Angry, that this upstart from the hinterlands, is causing a lot of clamor on a holy day, even though they deny the healing even happened. They are no doubt saying their equivalent of “Fake News!” about the man’s healing, on the one hand, and then chastising Jesus for violating the Sabbath by healing right in the Temple courtyard.
-And this was no ordinary holy day. It was the Feast of the Dedication (the holiday we know today as Hanukkah, when Jewish people celebrate the rededication of the Temple after the victory of Judas Maccabeus in 2nd century BCE). So this holy-day was loaded with political ramifications, especially the hope of freedom from foreign domination. It was something of a religious 4th of July celebration. With Jerusalem’s population swelling to around two to three times its normal population for this festival, the air had to be filled with religious and political anticipation. The Romans, understandably, don’t want crowds getting too excited with religious fervor as they celebrate the ancient fight for independence.
And so, here Jesus is, in trouble again! Mind you he has already done his Temple cleansing in John, you remember, overturning tables & critiquing how the Temple is being run. Not to mention he has all along been breaking some of the religious rules, and now this, stirring up this emotional crowd with a healing on a high holy day. A healing that demonstrated God’s power in the world and his own prophetic credentials.
Caiaphas, who was the High Priest during Jesus’ ministry, had the longest tenure of all the high priests appointed by Rome, -there were 18 appointed during the 80 year reconstruction of the temple- so we assume he worked the hardest to accommodate Rome’s expectations of keeping the protests and unrest down during the religious festivals as well as overseeing the workings of the temple and its staff. Perhaps he didn’t want the festival goers getting too excited about this messianic prophet during the Hanukkah celebration.
Some commentators even suggest that “The Wolf” in the parable might be a veiled reference to Rome –that dominating power that had devoured Israel –and all else in the Mediterranean area.
Rome considered Judaism an historic faith, but it wasn’t about to let any longings for independence and self-determination go unchecked. -Not unlike Russia’s attitude towards Ukraine, I suppose.
Coming as it does then, in the context of religious and political holy-day tension between Jesus and the established religious authorities this Shepherding passage takes on a harder edge in its tone. Might Jesus have been making a jab at those “Hired hands” of Rome when he contrasts himself as the true shepherd, not a hired hand who runs away when the sheep are in danger?
There was a biblical history of course of using the shepherding metaphor. –In Psalm 23 God is the Good Shepherd. The Prophets often accuse religious and political leaders as being bad shepherds in their critique of the injustice of their times.–And, of course, King David was viewed as the epitome of the “Good Shepherd King” who looked after the welfare of the people and gave the nation security –not to mention, he started out as a shepherd boy.
Shepherding in itself is far more gritty than the image often conjures up in our minds. We usually have that pastoral picture in mind of a quiet green pasture with a flock of gentle sheep with a shepherd calmly standing by leaning on his long staff… Or perhaps, the pristine picture of a smiling Jesus carrying a young lamb on his shoulders. He’s dressed, of course, in a flowing clean white robe. –Never mind that most shepherds in the first century had only one robe that they wore all the time and it rarely stayed clean –even when they got a chance to wash it every few weeks! –They were a part of pheasant class after all, out with the animals, the grass, the dirt and the manure.
Domesticated Sheep are gentle animals, but they do get sick and lost, and preyed upon, all of which the shepherd has to be on watch for…twenty four seven. –Shepherding was not a “White Collar” job…any more than herding cattle is. You are in the fields spring through fall no matter the weather.
The truth is first century Judeans may have romanticized the job just as we romanticize being a cowboy. For them shepherding had all these associations with King David, with a purer, freer, more gallant, earlier life in their history. But in truth it was a low wage pheasant job in the first century. That’s why “Hirelings” or hired hands were not the most dependable folks and not too often willing to risk their lives for some wealthy man’s sheep. –And yes, human beings do sometimes act like lost sheep! Rollo May the esteemed psychologist once said, “Humans are the strangest of all God’s creatures, because they run the fastest when the have lost their way.”
–All that added to the backdrop of the contrast between the “Good Shepherd” and the “Hired Hand”.
In the parable then, Jesus says more than one simple thing. Yes, he says rather clearly that he represents the authentic caring of God. That he is God’s representative on earth… trying to guide and nurture… lead and protect… providing security and a full life for those in his care….those who follow him. –And says rather emphatically that as the ‘Good Shepherd’ he willingly is ready to lay down his life for the sheep.
But Jesus may also be making a rather pointed jab at the religious elite who are appointed from the upper classes by Rome… to serve the interests of Rome…
He may even have been hitting at that domination system of first century politics which saw the small upper class own most of the land –which was the primary means of wealth– and hired out laborers for subsistence wages. –It was an economic system of domination as well as a political system of domination.
God’s coming kingdom, you remember, Jesus said, was to be different than this one: –“The first will be last and the last first” –A rather revolutionary statement when you consider the politics of the day. At the very least he was saying that God’s intention for the world was something totally different than the setup that had privilege for the few and poverty and domination for the masses.
From the start, John’s gospel has a very elevated sense of who Jesus is –The One who comes as the incarnation of the Creator, “The Word made flesh”, – who critiques the world and all its systems. But John also portrays Jesus as one who offers himself as reconciling gift and as a light to shine amid the darkness and a shepherd to follow and rely on through all the trials of our lives, and finally the Risen Christ who reigns on high.
May that Christ shepherd your lives and give you peace and strength.
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