Coming and Going and Abiding

John 14:23-29

Jesus answered him, "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. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; and the word that you hear is not mine, but is from the Father who sent me." I have said these things to you while I am still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. You heard me say to you, 'I am going away, and I am coming to you.' If you loved me, you would rejoice that I am going to the Father, because the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.

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Well, the time sure flies, doesn’t it?  It’s been just over three months since my first week at Littlefield, and it has gone by so fast. And as fast as it seems for me, some of you have expressed that it is even more so for you because your other interns have been here for the better part of a year. And so today is my last Sunday as an intern with you, and so I suppose this might be called my Farewell Discourse.

That is also what this section of Scripture is drawn from – it’s known as Jesus’ Farewell Discourse – the four chapters in the middle of the gospel according to John where Jesus prepares his disciples for the future.  He explains that he is going, but they will not be left alone. He gives them a sneak preview of the arrival of the Holy Spirit who will remain with them while he is gone. He reassures them that he will come back for them. He tells them to love one another, and to not be afraid. And he tells them how important it is for them to abide in God, even when God incarnate is no longer pitching his tent on earth with them.

This is not welcome news to the disciples, and it’s not easily understood, either. This beloved teacher, this rabbi who has told them, “I AM the Way, the Truth, the Life” , I AM the bread of life, I AM the light of the world, I AM the gate for the sheep, is heading out the door, so to speak.

He tells them he is going to the Father, to prepare a place for them, in his Father’s house where there are many dwelling places, abiding places.

This word “abide” shows up over and over again in the gospel according to John. The Greek word is meno – to abide, to remain. There is a permanence to it, a continuing and  enduring nature. According to John’s gospel, Jesus abides in God and God in him. Jesus calls us to abide in him, most directly in the passage just after this. “I am the vine, you are the branches. Abide in me as I abide in you.”  “Remain in me as I remain in you.”

It’s not the same word used in the first chapter of John’s Gospel, that well-known prologue: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. “And then a few verses later: “and the Word became flesh and lived, or dwelt (depending on the translation), among us.” That word is skeno – literally, to pitch a tent. It’s temporary housing.  God incarnate came to live among us for a brief time, pitched a tent among us, to live and walk among us for a season.

The Triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, abides with us, remains with us, forever.  We are adopted, and we are children of God. God’s house is our permanent residence, our abode.

The first two verses in our passage spell this out, although Jesus refers to this over and over again in his Farewell Discourse. Jesus says,“if you love me, you will keep my word, and my Father will love you and we will come to you and make our home with you.” The word used for home in this passage is menon – from meno – to abide, to remain. Our permanent home.

Then he continues, and says, “Those who do not love me do not keep my words…and the word that you hear is not my word, but is from the Father who sent me.”

In these two verses he is telling us that his Father remains in him, just as Jesus remains, or abides, in God. We will come to you and make our home with you.  The words you hear from me are from God. Jesus remains in God; God remains in Jesus. They will come to us and abide in us, remain in us.

The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will come and remain with us, and will teach us everything. Don’t be troubled or frightened in your hearts, Jesus says. I leave you my peace, much more than the world’s peace. What a comfort and security these words are!

Our human tendency, when we want something to be permanent, is to build a strong and secure structure that will withstand the tests of time.  This might be a physical structure, or it may be a financial one, or a military one, or a structure created for our own personal control. We remember clearly the story of the three little pigs and so we build our houses from brick, never straw.

If we live near water, we put our house up on stilts, or pylons strong enough to withstand whatever amount of flooding has been calculated as probable for that area.  We build up our 401k’s, to fund a secure and comfortable, predictable future. We do extensive leadership development and succession planning in our businesses to assure our future success.

We build and store bombs we don’t ever intend to use, as deterrent against enemies, potential and real. We try our best in all things to surround ourselves with complete protection and security.

But we know, deep down, the truth, that everything we rely upon for security and protection and stability is as temporary as a tent.

Our homes, our nest eggs, our corporations, our churches, the protections we build up will one day be used up or will come tumbling down. Our nuclear families grow up, change, move away, come apart, shift into different forms. The 30-year careers come to an end, just like the four month internships.  All these things are much more like pitching a tent than abiding.

We truly abide in God, and remain in God alone.  And when we abide more fully, remain totally dependent, leaning completely on the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit over and above any of these so-called permanent structures, then we truly are becoming disciples. We do not know where on earth this may lead.  But we do know where it ultimately leads; it leads to where Jesus has prepared a place for us, where our Lord waits at table for us. And we know that we are part of a community of faith, and that we need the community so that we can sustain each other along this journey.

Just as Jesus abides in God, so do we abide with one another and with Christ. Our security is in Christ, and only when we abide in Him, when we remain in Him, are we truly secure forever. Not just later, but here and now. And this is security that far exceeds the imaginary protection of the temporary structures we build.

St Augustine once wrote a beautiful explanation of this. It not only speaks to the contrast between temporary and permanent, but also it speaks to the musician, the singer in us all.  He wrote:

"Let us sing alleluia here on earth, while we still live in anxiety, so that we may sing it one day in heaven in full security...We shall have no enemies in heaven, we shall never lose a friend.

God's praises are sung both there and here, but here they are sung in anxiety, there in security; here they are sung by those destined to die, there, by those destined to live forever; here they are sung in hope, there in hope's fulfillment; here, they are sung by wayfarers, there, by those living in their own country. So then...let us sing now, not in order to enjoy a life of leisure, but in order to lighten our labors.  You should sing as wayfarers do – sing, but continue your journey...Sing then, but keep going."

What a joy and privilege it is to have become part of this Littlefield community. And as temporary as it may seem, I know that together in this community we abide in Christ. When we go out as wayfarers from this community, we abide in Christ. When we carry God’s mission into the world every day, we abide in Christ. With believers in every time and place, wherever we are, wherever we go, we abide in Christ.

Thanks be to God! Alleluia!

Tangible Evidence

John 20:19-31

When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”  After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.  Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”

A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.”  Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”  Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”

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.

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I took a survey recently; I don’t recall exactly what it was for, but one of the questions was “I would have liked to live during…”Biblical Times, the Renaissance, the Wild West, or the Roaring Twenties.”

I scratched off the Wild West right away – too much shooting, too many horses and all that comes along with them.  I thought about choosing the Renaissance, with all the amazing new explorations and discoveries happening during that time, and I was tempted for a minute to say “the Roaring Twenties,” mainly just to stay as close to the present time as possible.

But I ended up choosing Biblical Times. Of course Biblical Times spans a huge amount of time, and I am sure I didn’t want to land around the time of Noah’s Ark, for example.  

But the past four years of seminary, and the opportunity I’ve had to study the Bible and learn about God’s work in the world more deeply than I ever have before, made me wish that I could have seen and heard Jesus during his ministry on earth, or else to be able to talk to his disciples, to those who knew him first-hand, who had up-close-and-personal experiences of him.

So, if I could wave my magic wand, I think I’d go back to the time of Christ, just for a visit, to gather some tangible evidence of what I believe.

Wouldn’t it be great to be able to validate our faith with an up-close-and-personal experience? To get that kind of tangible evidence that would come from really having been there?

It seems like keeping the faith would be so much easier if we had tangible evidence, if we could still today have an up-close-and personal encounter with the living Christ.

Jesus’ followers clearly needed this kind of encounter to recognize Christ.

On the road to Emmaus, the two disciples walked with the resurrected Christ for much of the day, and listened to him explain the fulfillment of the Scriptures in the things that had happened to Jesus, and went in to have supper with him, and it was not until he took the bread, and blessed it, and broke it, that their eyes were opened and they recognized him.

Mary went to the tomb, encountered Jesus, and thought he was the gardener.

It wasn’t until Jesus called her by name, that for her that personal encounter happened, and she turned and saw that the man she had been speaking with was her Rabbouni, her beloved teacher, the Christ.

When the women, including Mary, told the disciples that they had encountered the risen Lord, the disciples didn’t believe them. Instead, they locked themselves in a room in fear until Jesus came to them personally, and then – only then - they rejoiced at his resurrection.

In the same way as the others, Thomas wasn’t convinced by the words of the disciples. He proclaimed his need for tangible evidence, which was really no different than all the rest. And Jesus came, again into a locked room, and met Thomas’ need for a personal encounter. And Thomas proclaimed his belief with the first confession of faith after Christ’s resurrection, when he said, “My LORD and my GOD!”

All of us who believe still need that same personal encounter with the living Christ.

We are human, and the fact that we have come to believe does not change the fact that we all continue to cycle through the stages of fear, and doubt, as well as peace, and trust, and faith, throughout our lives.  But it is into that cycle that Jesus comes, over and over, through the locked doors of our hearts, and says to us,

“Peace be with you”;

“Do not be afraid”;

“Do not doubt, but believe.”

We cannot directly encounter Jesus, God, the Holy Spirit through our five senses, those things that usually provide tangible evidence for us. We cannot see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch the Triune God.  What’s interesting is, we can’t see, hear, touch, taste or smell our doubts or our fears either.

They are really no more or less tangible to us than God is. But so often they seem so much more real to us than the presence of the living God.

But God is present to us.

When Jesus breathed on the disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit”, he gave the Holy Spirit to all the world, for all time, to all those who would receive it. And the Triune God continues to be revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit causes Scripture to become the Living Word.

The Spirit gives us the words we speak and hear when we pray.

The Spirit comes to us in our sorrow, our anger, our joy and gratitude.

The Spirit of the living God is revealed to us in the loving acts of one another – those that we offer in humble service and those that we receive. 

There’s a quote from Henri Nouwen that says, “When a friend touches us with free, nonpossessive love, it is God's incarnate love that touches us and God's power that heals us. “

We experience the Holy Spirit through the light that shines in the darkness, sometimes even that one tiny glimmer of light that is almost hidden in the darkness we feel.

We encounter the living God today through the power of the Holy Spirit, working in us and others throughout the world.

Nonbelievers also need the tangible evidence of a personal encounter with Christ, whether they realize it or not. And just like anyone else, the way this encounter happens needs to be first-person, direct, up-close-and-personal. This means it won’t happen merely through the words of another believer to them.

Much like Thomas’ experience, it’s not the same when all you have is someone telling you what their encounter was like. We have to realize that this sort of loving dialogue is important, but we can only be one chain in the link that brings a person to know the living Christ – and that personal encounters with Christ are essential for anyone, in order to complete the chain.

A professor of anthropology at Stanford University, named T.M Luhrmann, recently completed a study of the way evangelicals learn to experience themselves in conversation with God. She describes herself as a skeptic. She discussed an aspect of her study in a recent column in the New York Times, and she said this: “…[B]elievers and nonbelievers are not so different from one another, news that is sometimes a surprise to both. When I arrived at one church I had come to study,

I thought that I would stick out like a sore thumb. I did not. Instead, I saw my own doubts, anxieties and yearnings reflected in those around me. People were willing to utter sentences — like “I believe in God” — that I was not, but many of those I met spoke openly and comfortably about times of uncertainty, even doubt. Many of my skeptical friends think of themselves as secular, sometimes profoundly so.

Yet these secular friends often hover on the edge of faith. They meditate. They keep journals. They go on retreats. They just don’t know what to do with their spiritual yearnings.”

Her words express the same cycle of fear, doubt, peace, trust, and faith that we as believers still experience. And the spiritual yearning she describes is that yearning that is filled, over and over, by personal encounters with the triune God, the risen Christ, the living Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Sharing our experiences with one another can help us all see the common parts of our journeys. And this can open the door for us all to greater understanding of the different ways people come to know God.

But ultimately, everyone needs tangible evidence, and that sort of evidence is there for everyone, through the living Word of God we find in Scripture read and proclaimed, and through the loving work of the body of Christ, each and every one of us, for the reconciliation of the world.

And that, my friends, is very Good News!

Jesus, Our Host - Maundy Thursday Meditation

 John 13:1-17, 31-35   

Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.  The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him.  And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself.  Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. 

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”  Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” 

Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” 

Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” 

Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.”  For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

 After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 

You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am.  So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.  For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. 

Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them.  If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. 

Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.  If God has been glorified in him,

God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. 

Little children, I am with you only a little longer.

You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you,

‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’  I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

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When the other three gospels describe the Last Supper, the focus is on Jesus breaking the bread and sharing the cup, and what this really means for the disciples and for us. And of course this is how we received the sacrament of the Eucharist, which is here at the table prepared for us this evening, and which we do in remembrance of Christ.

But John’s gospel describes a different element of the Last Supper.  

His focus is on Jesus’ washing the disciples’ feet. Now I am guessing that most of you are glad to be remembering Christ through the meal rather than through the act of foot washing.  Some congregations do share in foot washing as part of their Maundy Thursday worship. And yes, it can feel awkward. I will confess – I have actually skipped a Maundy Thursday worship service once upon a time because there was foot washing offered. And I just wasn’t feelin’ it. So I have some sympathy for Peter as he resists letting Jesus kneel down next to him with a basin and a towel to wash his feet.

But whether or not we actually do footwashing during this Holy Week, there’s a deeper message here that Jesus wanted his disciples to understand, just as he wants us to understand today. 

In the same way that the bread and wine was about so much more than nourishment, this washing of the feet is also about so much more than cleanliness.  The meaning behind the foot washing can be found in Jesus’ actions, in Peter’s resistance, and in Jesus’ explanations.

The footwashing was clearly an act of service. In fact, that’s why Peter protested it so strongly. Why on earth was Jesus, whom he had come to know as Messiah, kneeling next to each of them and serving them in such a lowly and humble way?

Peter knows that Jesus is greater and that he is insignificant relative to Jesus. But Jesus is acting like it’s the other way around. There is an inequality being represented here, and from Peter’s perspective it’s completely backwards. Often times, the act of serving one another is based on a hierarchy. Slaves serve their master because that’s their place, because they are unequal in status, because they have no choice.  The rich give to the poor, often out of charity or even love; but there is still an inequality expressed in this – the haves and the have nots, the superiority of one compared to the dependence or need or weakness of the other.  Peter’s brain could not wrap itself around Jesus behaving like the lesser party in this hierarchy. It did not compute.

But the way Jesus explained it was all about treating each other as equals, as friends. To love one another as he has loved them. To show brotherly love, sisterly love, Agape love, which has nothing to do with hierarchy, or whether it’s deserved, or what result it will bring.

Jesus washes the feet of everyone there that night, even those whom he knows will betray him – both Judas AND Peter. And he teaches us to do the same, In the same spirit of love for one another.

But there’s something more to this foot washing than a simple, humble act of service. We know this because Jesus says to Peter, unless you let me do this, you have no share with me. Or, to reverse the statement, in order to have a share with me, you need to allow me to wash your feet.

In the ancient Mediterranean world, the reason for foot washing at the time of a meal would be to show hospitality. It was a way for the host to welcome the guests. To turn it down would be the same as to reject the invitation, to turn away from the meal. 

John tells us that Jesus knows his hour has arrived. Jesus tells the disciples that he will only be with them a little longer. And he offers them, through the washing of their feet, an opportunity to have a share with him going forward; a share in his destiny; a share of eternity. This act of hospitality is an intimate, personal invitation into full relationship with Christ, into the eternal household of God. This is why he tells Peter that even though he can’t understand it now, he will understand it later.

What Jesus offered to Peter and the disciples that night is what he still offers us today – the choice, the option, the opportunity to open our hearts to him, to let him take hold of us, to let him abide in us as we abide in him.

Christ wants to be as close as the bread we eat, and the cup we drink. Christ wants to take hold of us, to wash us clean. Christ wants to invite us into God’s house, as the beloved community. This is why God came incarnate into the world in the person of Jesus, so that we could connect with God in a personal way, in a way that allowed us to personally experience God’s steadfast love for us.

But it’s our choice to make. To truly follow Christ is to let Christ fully connect with us; which frees us to love God with our whole heart and soul and mind and strength. Then, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we are able to fully connect with one another – as friends, loved ones, neighbors, and enemies - as those who know Jesus - and those who resist – even as those who will betray him.

Jesus invites us all to the table. Come, receive his invitation!