THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER
THE EPISTLE LESSON
1 Peter 2:2-10
Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
“The stone that the builders rejected
has become the very head of the corner”, and
“A stone that makes them stumble,
and a rock that makes them fall.”
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.
Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.
THE PSALM
Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16
In te, Domine, speravi
1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame; *
deliver me in your righteousness.
2 Incline your ear to me; *
make haste to deliver me.
3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
for you are my crag and my stronghold; *
for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.
4 Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, *
for you are my tower of strength.
5 Into your hands I commend my spirit, *
for you have redeemed me,
O Lord, O God of truth.
15 My times are in your hand; *
rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
and from those who persecute me.
16 Make your face to shine upon your servant, *
and in your loving-kindness save me.”
THE GOSPEL
John 14:1-14 [italicized insertions are mine - Norm Wright]
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe [have faith] in God, believe [have faith ] also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe [have faith] that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe [Have faith ] me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe [have faith in] me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes [has faith] in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
REFLECTION
By Norm Wright
+In the Name of our loving and life-giving God+
As I started writing these reflections, I received word that a faithful member of our parish,Toots, that wisp of a woman so full of determinate joy who brought a smile to everyone’s face, had passed away.
So I find it serendipitous that our Gospel lesson for this Sunday is taken from John 14, where we find Jesus saying, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. [Have faith] in God, [have faith] also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
The passing of a faithful member of our parish family always comes with mixed feelings. There is sadness over the loss and, perhaps, a sense of relief that a loved friend, a family member, and a parishioner no longer has to be troubled and is no longer suffering. There is, of course, a sense of joy that he or she is now in the loving embrace of our heavenly Father; being caught up in the Risen Christ.
So I pause and think about Toots and her daughter Pam at this time. I think of all the people whose lives have been brightened and touched by her, and I thank God for her life and having known her.
Life is changed for Toots, not ended. And with Toots’s memory fresh in our hearts and minds, our lives continue; remembering the power of her smile, the love in her laughter, and her happiness at making others happy.
“Do not let your hearts be troubled” is what Jesus was telling his disciples on the night he was betrayed; the night when he would be arrested ; the night that would give way to the light to the day he would be tried as rebel, crucified, and die.
While these verses for John 14 are often used during funeral service, they were said by Jesus to prepare his disciples for what was to come and to engage them in a discussion about “What next?”
After Jesus says, “… I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also,” he adds, “And you know the way to the place where I am going.”
That verse, verse 4, can be easily glossed over because of the tendency to view it as a statement Jesus is making to the disciples at the time and not applying to us because we think we know where Jesus is going with this. We think we know what Jesus is talking about.
But do we?
The point of John’s parabolic Gospel is to place and find ourselves in it, and ultimately, to find ourselves in Christ. And so the author of John has our friend, good old questioning, doubting Thomas coming to our assistance and speaking on our behalf, “Lord we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way?”
Jesus’ answer to Thomas - to us - is one of the most quoted lines from John: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Now if we’re honest, that statement doesn’t tell us much and, in fact, begs more questions than it provides an answer. Unfortunately, there are Christians who take that statement and run with it; not really knowing what it means or make any attempt to explore its meanings. They’ll say, “Just believe it. If Jesus said it, that’s the way it is. Period!”
If that were the case, the Gospel of John would have ended right there, but it doesn’t.
In fact, Jesus baits begging the question when he continues, “If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Phillip takes the bait and says, on our behalf, “Show us the Father and we will be satisfied.” Jesus response, “How long have you known me and still don’t get it” comes across as a criticism of Phillip, but it is said to challenge us; to make us ask ourselves, “Do we get it?”
If all we knew of Jesus is what is found in the Gospel of John, we wouldn’t know much more than what Jesus is saying about himself and we wouldn’t get it any better than Phillip. How would Phillip know what Jesus is talking about unless Jesus is referring to the information he and we have of Jesus’ story as found in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke?
All of Jesus’s “I am” statements in John are not meant to stand alone as something we should merely believe with an attitude of certitude, but rather should be understood as invitations to explore their meanings. Every one of them begs the question, “What does this mean?”
The purpose of the Gospel of John is to deepen our understanding of Jesus as the Incarnate Word and Risen Christ of God. Its purpose is to deepen us in what we identify in the Eucharist liturgy as “the mystery of Faith.” This not a Gospel to be believed as a historical fact because by itself it makes little sense as such.
The Gospel John was never meant to be a stand-alone Gospel. It’s an in-house Gospel written for those who know the story of Jesus’ ministry, his teachings , and his parables as found in the Synoptic Gospels. If you don’t know them, you should be asking the questions Thomas and Phillip are asking and that’s the point the Gospel of John is making when Jesus says, “You know the way,” and “From now on you know [the Father]. It’s a quiz of sorts - what do we know and what of that knowledge applies to what Jesus is talking about in today’s Gospel lesson.
For the next three chapters of John’s Gospel Jesus explains not only his relationship with Father and the Spirit, but also our connection and involvement in that relationship.
In John 15 Jesus says, “I am the vine and you are the branches” and throughout this entire Eucharistic supper discourse, without ever making direct reference to Holy Communion, Jesus explains Holy Communion in the most intimate terms in which we come to find ourselves intimately connected to Jesus and by extension intimately connected to God.
It ends in John 17 with Jesus saying to our heavenly Father, “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Given the relational pathway Jesus establish throughout this Eucharistic discourse, let’s return to Jesus’ original answer to Thomas, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Given the context of this Eucharistic meal where Jesus tells us not let our hearts be troubled, there is one word that stands out and is used time and time again throughout this discourse.
And that word is love.
One cannot understand any of Jesus’s “I am” statements in the Gospel of John without referencing that word, “Love.”
The way of Jesus is, as our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry calls it, the Way of Love. The truth of Jesus is that God in Christ Jesus truly loves us, and not just us, but every one, even those who don’t know Jesus or who don’t have faith in Jesus as implied in today’s Gospel lesson. The Life of Jesus, as demonstrated in all the Gospels, is the Love of God poured out for the whole world.
Love is what calms the troubled waters of life. Love is what eases our aching hearts and embraces us even when distanced and apart from each other.
When I asked Toot’s friend, Jennifer., if Toot’s daughter Pam would be okay with sharing the news of Toot’s passing, she responded, “Sure. Tell the church!!! She loved us just like we loved her.” Indeed she did, and indeed we do.
LOVE IS THE WHOLE OF IT. GOD IS LOVE.
Love shows us the Way. Love speaks the Truth. Love give us Life.
Gracious Father, we know you through the love you have shown us in your Son, our brother Jesus. Calm our troubled minds and our aching hearts during this time of separation. Give us vision to know the way, hearts that seek to hear the truth, and lives lived in love, through the same Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit.
Amen
The Bible texts of the Old Testament, Epistle and Gospel lessons are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Church of Christ in the USA, and used by permission.
The Collects, Psalms and Canticles are from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979
No comments:
Post a Comment