Coloring Outside the Lines

Each week we have a Wednesday evening service at the church I serve. Often I will deliver reflections on one of the lessons I will not be preaching on on Sunday. Sometimes I will reflect on one or another themes that my preparation for preaching the upcoming Sunday has turned up. But this coming Sunday's lectionary offers a choice of texts for the Gospel, so this Wednesday, my homily was based on the gospel text we will NOT hear on Sunday.

 

John 14:23-29

Jesus speaks of his word in our text today. Just what is the “word” of Jesus? Jesus’ word is truth.

But then that begs the question: What is truth?

Here is truth – the gospel of John has spoon-fed it to us over the past several weeks.

The truth is that God is love. The truth is that God loves us and that God loves the whole world. The truth is that God desires that all people know the life-giving mercy and grace made possible in Jesus Christ.

The truth is that the love of God is for all people.

The truth is that Jesus shows us and calls us to servant love – love that places the needs and good of the other before our own.

The truth is that if we follow the first and most important commandment, to love God with all our being ; to love God above all else and then to follow that with loving our neighbor as ourselves, then God makes God’s home with us. 

But there are so many competing voices in our world who want to define the truth of Jesus by their own self-serving vision of holy hierarchy, where their own needs and desires, status, prosperity or whatever it is that is most important in their lives must be met and anything that threatens or impacts acquisition of the same creates fear and animosity. Those voices all too often seek to place boundaries like lines on God’s love, and color it in.

When I was little, I loved to color. I’m not sure that kids today color the way we colored. It was a major activity and we had loads and loads of coloring books and crayons – good, old0fashioned crayons – in our house to prove it. I was a perfectionist even then. I abhorred coloring outside the lines. So, I discovered that if I outlined the portion of the picture I wanted to color first, then I was more likely to be able to keep within the lines of the picture and not cross the crayon boundaries I had created.

The competing voices that confront us in our daily lives are a lot like the coloring pages I created, and the theory behind my outlines. They declare that all God has drawn borders around us. God wants our individual happiness and well-being, and Jesus came to achieve that for us. Since Jesus died on the cross for it and for us, we’re all good, right? We can color away – just stay inside the lines.

And anything that might threaten our personal goal of happiness for ourselves at all costs – even the cost paid on the cross, is what extends past the lines, and induces deep fear in us.

Next week we will be observing the ascension of Jesus into the heavenly realm, and once again in our text tonight, Jesus is in preparation mode. Not preparing himself – but preparing the disciples for what is to come.

Following the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus spent some time with his disciples in the time between Easter and the ascension. But this time, when Jesus leaves, they will not see him again on this side of glory. We will not see him again until his return.

After the ascension, no longer would Jesus walk in the world and continue to school his disciples as he has done since the resurrection.

That might have been a really scary realization for the disciples. Jesus is leaving them with an enormous mission, and it’s up to them to carry on this work of loving and caring and showing what godly compassion and mercy look like.

Jesus is leaving them with a message for those in the world that will be cherished by some and despised by others. It will be dangerous at times, and it will be challenging, but it’s a vital message and will also be work worth doing; and Jesus promises they will not be alone in it.

Once again, Jesus wishes the disciples peace. It is the thing that they need the most, perhaps because Jesus will be sending them to color outside the lines. Jesus eradicates the boundaries we place in order to keep our lives neat and pretty. They – and we – will need the peace of Jesus when we are going to color outside the lines. So, Jesus wishes them peace – so that their hearts will not be consumed by fear and grief once more. Indeed, they need peace, and they need faith. [which the Holy Spirit will grow in them as the Holy Spirit does in us.]

It might feel like a pretty tall order that Jesus is leaving them with, and that by extension, Jesus give to us. But Jesus reassures them that it really will be okay. Because Jesus doesn’t leave them – or us – alone. God sends the Advocate – that pesky and wondrous Holy Spirit, to guide us in the ways of truth, to us them, and to remind us of what it is that Jesus commands of us.

This promise that God will be sending forth the third person of this symbiotically working godhead, the Holy Spirit, is God’s investment in the continuation of the work of Jesus in the world.

This Holy Spirit will, teach, remind, console, empower, and enliven the work they – and we - will do in Jesus’ name . The Holy Spirit is, in fact, God’s power unleashed in us, enabling us to tell truth, to show love, to invite in, and to go out.

The Holy Spirit inspires us all to share God’s word.

The Holy Spirit empowers us to speak truth to the powers of the world.

The Holy Spirit gives each of us gifts to use to further the work of the Kingdom of God.

The Holy Spirit comes to us and goes forth from us in prayer, in sighs too deep for words.

Keeping Jesus’ word is the primary point of order for disciples, and will be the proof of our love for Jesus. It’s all about keeping Jesus’ word. And therein lies the rub, because we human beings are so good at deceiving ourselves, and convincing ourselves that keeping Jesus’ word as Jesus’ gave it is negotiable. It is hypocrisy to claim to know and love Jesus but to act in ways contrary to the ethic of love of neighbor and care for all people that Jesus himself illustrated with his life.

This text appears in what is known as the Farewell Discourse of Jesus. Because Jesus knows that following his word and speaking his truth will get us rejected at times, thrown out of the groups to which we belong at times, and will make us hugely unpopular at times. So, Jesus drives home again and again this truth: “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them”.

Because here’s the thing: abiding in Jesus’ love and keeping Jesus’ words are the only things that will make it possible to withstand the rejection that comes with believing that God really does love the whole world – that God loves all people, and all means all. Those people who are inside the drawn lines and boundaries of our society, and those who are outside. Those who keep the little world we try to create around us neat and clean, and those whose inclusion makes it a bit messy.

But Jesus reminds us that we are created for this, and so we are not left alone to be the hands of Jesus in the world. Jesus came that all people might have life in his name, and Jesus shines the light on us, as we carry out life-giving love and mercy through sharing the truth known through Jesus Christ. through the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, dear friends, we are encouraged, empowered, and strengthened through the Holy Spirit to keep Jesus’ words. We are not alone. The Holy Spirit will teach you everything and remind you of all the words Jesus has spoken to you. Let it be so.

Intelligence Assisting and The Meaning of Life

Luke 9:28-36

I don’t own an iPhone, - a smartphone, yes – but not the Apple iPhone. But I know many people who do have iPhones, and a favorite pass-time among them seems to be to pull out their phones and ask ‘Siri’ all kinds of questions.

In case you’re wondering, “What or who the heck is “Siri?”, ‘Siri’ is a software application or app, which the Apple company, makers of the iPhone, refers to as a “built-in “intelligent assistant.”

This “app,” ‘Siri,’ enables users of the devices on which it is installed, to use voice commands to ask for information and carry out certain tasks.  You can ask ‘Siri’ questions practical, profound, or mundane, and you will receive an answer.

For instance, you can ask ‘Siri’ “will I need an umbrella tomorrow?” And she might say, “There is a 40 percent probability of rain in your area tomorrow,” or, she might answer, “You can forget the umbrella tomorrow. All sun, all day long is forecast for Easton, Maryland.”

Some people I know (you know who you are) like to ask Siri existential, tough, or silly questions, just for the fun of it. For this reason, I know that if you ask Siri a question like, “When will the world end?” one of the responses she might give is, “I don’t know, but maybe we should put bags over our heads or something.” Siri has a sense of humor.

I was reading the blog of a pastor recently, who she wrote that she had inquired several times of Siri, “What is the meaning of life?” and received different answers each time.

“As you can imagine,” she writes, “[Siri’s] answers ranged from the ridiculous to the humorous to the surprisingly profoundly practical. For instance, these are some of the responses Siri gave her to this question:

“Life: a principle or force that is considered to underlie the quality of animate beings. I guess that includes me.”

“And then, contradicting 'herself' [Siri answered]: ‘I find it odd that you would ask this of an inanimate object.’

This was my favorite answer to the meaning of life question: ‘All evidence to date suggests it's chocolate.’

She has also advised: ‘I don't know, but I think there's an app for that.’

“Finally, in an entirely practical vein, [Siri] seems to offer advice to give content or texture to life's 'meaning:” ‘Try and be nice to people. Avoid eating fat. Read a good book every now and then. Get some walking in. And try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.’

“Perhaps if you ask, you'll get different answers,” the pastor continues. “Either way, it is a universal quest, this trying to make sense of it all.”

Trying to make sense of it all may be a little of what the disciples did on that mountaintop so long ago, as it is what we try to do when we read this beautiful, wonderful, complex, mysterious, and puzzling story. Existential questions like this underlie much of our searching, seeking, and questioning.

What the disciples witnessed at the transfiguration was no doubt surprising, confusing and alarming to them. There had been and would continue to be so many questions for them about how God was answering their own search for meaning. How could they make sense of this wondrous vision they beheld, when Jesus was transfigured – transformed before them, entirely changed, from the clothing he wore to the appearance of his face?

While they were still digesting the sight of the transformed Jesus and what it meant, two men appeared with Jesus, and they talked to him, and then a mysterious cloud descended on them all as the whole vision is swallowed up by the cloud. The disciples clearly heard a voice then, God’s voice, speaking clearly to them out of the cloud, instructing them, “This is my Son, my chosen. Listen to him.” What does this mean?

What are they to make of this whole event? I am not even sure Siri would have an answer to that question.

The text tells us the disciples were sleepy, and it is no wonder that they were exhausted. Consider what has come before this passage, in the 9^th chapter of Luke’s writings. Imagine that you were one of those disciples who, within a short bit of time have been commissioned by Jesus and sent out to proclaim the kingdom of God, which you have done all over the Galilean countryside in fact, traveling from village to village and healing people everywhere.

Tired yet exhilarated from your travels, you returned to report to Jesus all that happened on your mission trip. Together you took off for Bethsaida, a quiet little place where you can get some R & R and where you might unpack all that you have experienced and explore what it means for the ministry you are engaged in, but in the end, there is no time for that – because crowds follow you there.

It is the demands and questions and needs of the crowds that Jesus then addressed and where more healing took place until finally, you and your fellow disciples had to prevail on Jesus to send the crowd away, for it is too large, and you are in too remote a place to be able to feed and care for all these people. “C’mon Jesus, give us a break!” Jesus, of course, had other ideas, and with just five loaves and two fish, at Jesus’ command you fed that great crowd, with plenty left over.

After that, as Peter spoke up on behalf of all the disciples and confessed that Jesus is God’s Messiah, Jesus made the prediction that soon he would be rejected, killed, and would rise again; to be his disciple, he said, would mean picking up his cross and following him.

Peter, James and John, along with the other disciples, must not only be exhausted, they must be reeling. How could Jesus die? God can’t die. The messiah is to come to bring victory and vindication – the messiah can’t die!

Then, just a week later, this.

The transfiguration bears witness to the identity of Jesus Christ. The disciples heard the declaration, “Listen to him!” God’s voice pronounces the definitive word about Jesus’ identity in the account of the transfiguration: “This is my Son, my Chosen.” This is God making sense of it all. This journey of Jesus’, this mountaintop experience, the healings and teaching the disciples have been witness to, and what is to come.

This transfiguration episode marks a transition point in the life of Jesus and in the lives of his disciples – including us. This mystical moment, when the curtain of the divine is pulled back and we get a glimpse of something holy, can change the way we see and experience the world around us.

Moses’ presence makes the connection unavoidable; he led the People of Israel on the first exodus. Now Jesus will accomplish a second exodus, leading people safely through the waters of death, even as his own flesh is parted in waves of pain on the cross.

While this talk of exodus and death in the midst of transfiguration may be lost on the disciples, it is not lost on us. Today as we make ready to put aside our alleluias, we acknowledge that the remarkable epiphany of Jesus, the revelation of God with us as the light that marks our way takes a different form.

As Jesus is praying, something remarkable happens to his divine face. As the face of Moses was transfigured on Mount Sinai, Jesus’ own face takes on a luminescence. It shines with the light of glory.

As we mark the end of epiphany, we remember that as Jesus’ authority and divinity have been revealed in varying ways at his birth, in the temple, at the waters of the Jordan, and now on the mountaintop, the revelation is for us. It is for our sake. It is a sign of God’s love that extends itself into a world of hunger, and pain, of searching for meaning, and for existential wandering.

The journey Jesus leads us on is the one true answer for any of our seeking or questioning, hungering and thirsting, struggling and doubting. This is my Son. This is my Son. This is my Son. My chosen. Listen to him!

It is as we listen to him, as we follow his teachings, his example, his life – it is as we take our learning from Jesus and make it a way of life; loving, caring, healing, forgiving, and wrapping all of this in prayer as did Jesus himself (note that in the gospel of Luke Jesus prays a lot – and that this transfiguration occurred as he was praying) – that we ourselves are transformed as children of God and recipients of God’s grace and mercy, into disciples of Christ, whose entire lives have shifted, altered, and been transformed in remarkable ways.

 “Two men” appear miraculously three times in Luke’s gospel accounts: to these disciples at the transfiguration, to the women at the tomb on Easter morning, and again to the men in Galilee on the day of the Ascension of Jesus.

In the words spoken during these three encounters, we discover valuable lessons, for our mountaintop experiences and for the day-to-day lives which can be so exhausting. May the words of Jesus' teachings and the modeling of Jesus’ actions be the ultimate guide for our decision making and our interactions with other people. Listen to him, for in his words lie the secrets to justice among peoples and the peace that passes understanding.

At the resurrection, the two men ask the women, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here; he is risen." The message for us is, be prepared to be surprised by God. Do not dwell on the things that make for death, but seek the way of Jesus Christ among the hustle and bustle of daily life, and the opportunities for discovering new meaning in life through discipleship.

And on the Day of Ascension, they asked the men of Galilee, "Why do you stand here, looking up?" The same may be asked of us as Jesus bids us to look forward. It does us no good to stand rooted to the ground gazing into the skies. Rather, we need to look one another in the eye and move forward together, across lines of difference, so that the world can be a better place. And in so doing, experience the eternal in the present, the transcendent in the mundane, the mountaintop at the intersection. May it be so for you this day and every day.

Illustrations used by permission, www.freebibleimages.org.

 

 

iPhone image courtesy of Wikipedia.