August 24, 2008

21^st Sunday in Ordinary Time

John 1:1-14

John 3:16-17

John 4:31-34

John 20:19-23

“John: A Sent Community”

There is an old saying that goes, “Your life is the only Bible some people will ever see.” That sums up a key part of the idea behind our fourth installment in our sermon series, which today focuses on the Gospel of John.

Our readings today begin with the beautiful poetry of the prologue to that gospel found in John 1. It talks in grand and mysterious language about the Word – capital “W” – of God, and creation, and light. I don’t know what you think about when you hear this passage, but in my mind’s eye I see some of the awesome images captured by technology such as the Hubble telescope – galaxies and clouds of stars swirling through the dark vastness of outer space, a universe that was immensely old before the baby Jesus was ever born.

And then this passage ends with the words that move from the distant and untouchable to human reality: “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.”

The Word became flesh. There’s a fancy theological term for this – incarnation. Literally, it means “enfleshment.” God became flesh and bones, just like us. Take a look at your hand. Touch it. Jesus had hands, just like you and me. Hands that you could take hold of and grip. The Word became flesh . . .

And the Word lived among us. There was a reason, according to John, for this amazing event of the incarnation. Jesus was sent into our world to bring not just light, but enlightenment.

This is a huge theme in the gospel of John: individuals coming from the darkness of unknowing into the bright light of faith, because they witnessed something that opened their eyes to the truth of who this man Jesus really was.

Scholars believe that the gospel of John was the last of our four gospels to be put into written form, although like the other gospels, parts of it had probably been circulating within the early Christian communities for a long time. It stands apart from Matthew, Mark and Luke for several reasons. Those three gospels seem to share some similar sources, including a collection of the sayings of Jesus which some scholars call the “Q source.” But John is different. It looks like the core of the gospel of John may have been not a collection of sayings and parables, but a collection of stories about miracles performed by Jesus, stories contained only in John and not the other three gospels. Rather than being built around the Q source, the gospel of John appears to be built around a “signs source.”

One story which is unique to John is the one about “doubting Thomas.” If you remember, John tells us about how the disciples were gathered in a locked room following Jesus’ death, when all of a sudden Jesus appeared in their midst and greeted them – all of them but Thomas, who was not there. When he returned and heard about this unbelievable event, Thomas refused to believe his friends unless he, too, saw Jesus and could actually touch his wounded body. And of course, what happened? Jesus did come a second time and offered his hands to Thomas to touch. And then the author breaks in with these words: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”

Seeing is believing. That’s what the signs source is all about. Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding at Cana. Jesus made a man see again who had been blind from birth. Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. Jesus himself rose from the dead. For the author of John, we are all very much like the much maligned “doubting Thomas.” We need to see in order to believe. He wants to give undeniable evidence that Jesus was indeed the Son of God so that, faced with this evidence, we can have our eyes of doubt opened and come to full faith.

In John, Jesus didn’t just preach the good news of salvation. He embodied the good news. He himself was the good news. “Through his own being and coming, living and teaching, dying and rising, Jesus Christ revealed the truth about God, about himself, about the life and destiny of humanity.”¹

Our other gospels have taught us about discipleship, about proclaiming the good news through our actions, and about being a sign and foretaste of the reign of God. But the gospel of John is more vague about our mission. In John 20:21 Jesus gives the gathered disciples their commission: “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

These are mysterious directions! No “go and heal the sick” or “feed the hungry” or “make disciples.” Just “As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

The clue is in the words, “As the Father has sent me.” The Word became flesh and lived among us. Just as Jesus embodied the Word, we are meant to embody the light that has broken into our world.

Our Bible study resource puts it this way: “The disciple community is neither to withdraw from the world into a religious sanctuary; nor is it to engage with the world on the world’s terms. Following the pattern of the incarnation (John 1:14), the church is sent into the world to incarnate – to witness to and to be the bearer of – the reconciling peace of God accomplished in Jesus Christ. Following Jesus, the mission of the sent community is to proclaim and embody God’s love in such a way that persons are drawn into communion with God.”¹

At our last Genesis covenant meeting, we started asking the question, how do we as the church convince people that there is a way to live that embodies values that are very different from our prevailing culture? Well, we can do it through worship and preaching and providing hospitality and welcome to those who come through our doors – but what if they never enter a church? One of the women suggested that maybe this is something that we do one on one with the people we meet. She told us about how her father has a neighbor who, due to illness, has needed a lot of help lately with things like being driven to the doctor or the grocery store. Her dad was able to help and did so willingly and cheerfully. And one day his neighbor told him, “I’d like to know where you go to church, and if I could, I’d like to go there with you one day.” Her dad hadn’t preached at him or quoted the Bible. He just drove him around in his car at a time when the man needed help. Your life is the only Bible some people ever read.

At the end of our worship each week, our bulletin says we have the “charge and benediction.” The benediction, of course, is the blessing, but as one of my clergy friends jokingly pointed out, what the heck is a charge? Well, the charge is, in a way, your marching orders, and most often it is “And now go forth to love and serve the Lord.” That is a common formula used in many churches. And some pastors precede it with the words, “Our service is ended; our service has just begun… go in peace to love and serve the Lord.” In other words, it isn’t just about what happens within these four walls once a week. On Sunday mornings, we are the church gathered, drawn together for worship and fellowship. And then we become the church sent forth into the world, sent with a job to do. According to the gospel of John, that job is to manifest, to embody God’s redemption of the world in Jesus Christ.

Almost since I first came to this church six years ago, I have served on the Professional Advisory Group which oversees the chaplaincy program at MacNeal Hospital. One of the things we do is to meet with each group of students at the end of their program and ask them questions about their experience, including what their challenges were and what they learned. Almost every time, the students have talked about the fears they had in the beginning about walking into a patient’s room. What should I say? What if I say the wrong thing? What if they don’t want me to be there? I always can relate to this because I went through exactly the same thing when I was a student chaplain at MacNeal. And all of them have found out what I found out: it isn’t what you say that matters at those times as much is it matters that you were there for the patient at a time of need. And it doesn’t matter what your name is because they don’t know you from Adam. It doesn’t even matter what denomination you represent. It matters that you wear the cross of Jesus. When a patient desperately needs to know that Jesus is there with them, your warm hand on their shoulder becomes the hand of Jesus.

The Word became flesh and lived among us.

Please pray with me.

Lord, it is a tall order to embody the love, peace and forgiveness of Christ in a hurting and broken world. Lead us through the power of your Holy Spirit to go out into the world and to bring your light to all we meet so that their eyes may open to the wonder and beauty of your eternal love and grace. Amen.

¹“Becoming a Missional People: A Bible Study.” The Center for Parish Development, Chicago, IL