Making Choices

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday May 6, 2012, the 5th Sunday in Easter.

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Acts 8:24-40

Psalm 22:25-31

1 John 4:7-21

John 15:1-8

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

Last week’s sermon was called, “What It Means to Be Who I Am.” I used that title because I wanted to share who Jesus is and what that means when he says “I am the Good Shepherd.” It was also about who we are and what it means to be who we are as followers of the Good Shepherd. There was one piece that I left out of the sermon because it just would have made the thing too long, but that’s okay because it is still good today.

Last week Jesus said “I am the Good Shepherd.” Today we read Jesus saying “I am the true vine.” What doesn’t get lost in the translation gets lost in common language; what Jesus meant when he said “I am.” It gets lost for us because we’re all used to being something or other.

Those of us with a social media presence are asked to describe ourselves, sometimes very briefly. On my sermon blog, I joyfully tell the world, “I am the Reverend Paul A. Andresen of the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas.” On Twitter I describe myself as, “Child of God, Husband of Marie, Teller of Tales, Fortunate Son.” (I think that’s pretty good considering Twitter only gives you 160 characters to describe yourself.) On Facebook, I don’t have a personal description. I use a quote from the movie “Tango and Cash” that goes a long way toward describing why I use Mr. Potato Head as my avatar.[1]

When Jesus says “I am,” it means more than when we say it. Ancient Jews were very stingy with the words “I am.” When they used the Hebrew word we translate “I am” it was only used for the name of the Lord. When they said “I am,” they meant “The Great I AM.” They meant “I AM who I AM.” So when Jesus says “I am,” he invokes the name of the Lord for himself. When he says “I am the Good Shepherd” or “I am the true vine,” he uses these images to describe what it means for him to be fully God in the flesh and in the world.

This linguistic twist is lost on us because we don’t know to look for it. It’s not a part of our culture. It wasn’t lost on his audience. So what does this mean? Let’s answer that using what we are given in John’s gospel. Jesus declares himself the true vine while invoking the name of the Lord. He then says his Father the gardener.

Jesus says “[The gardener] cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” Honestly, except for those who have gardened vines, we don’t really know what it means. So here’s a quick primer: When looking at a grape trellis, the vine is a trunk that comes out of the ground. That’s all there is to the vine, relatively speaking it doesn’t take up much space in the field at all. The branches sprout from the vines. Most of what we see growing are the branches, fruit, and leaves. The fruit of the vine is borne on the branches, not the vine. Like with the “I AM,” this wouldn’t have been lost on Jesus’ first century audience either.

From what Jesus says we know that the father does two things with the branches, he cuts off the dead wood and he prunes the live growth. This does two things to the plant. The first, cutting off the dead wood prevents any fungus or what not in the dead branches from making its way to the healthy ones. It’s like amputating a finger before gangrene infects the whole hand. On a lighter note, cutting off the dead wood prevents the strain that the weight of the dead branch puts on the vine. It also provides valuable space for good growth to spread.

The benefits of cutting off the dead wood are obvious, and there is one more thing to remember about cutting off the dead, it’s painless to the plant. To us, it would be like clipping a toe nail. It doesn’t really hurt and as for me, my shoes fit better. It’s a win-win.

The second thing pruning does is focus the growth of a plant. Left to their own devices, a vine branch will tend to grow outward producing lots of branch length, lots of leaves, and little fruit. Proper pruning will reduce the length of growth and increase the amount of fruit. It is true after all that the closer the fruit is to the vine the more nutrients it will receive. The closer to the vine, the better the fruit.

Jesus is the vine and the Father is the gardener; as for the branch, that’s us. The fruit, well, that’s a wildcard isn’t it. John’s gospel doesn’t say what the fruit is. Let’s just say that whatever the fruit is, it’s valuable and desirable.

Jesus says “Remain in me and I will remain in you.” This is an adequate translation, it sure isn’t wrong. But in my opinion there is a better way to say it. The New Revised Standard Version has Jesus saying, “Abide in me as I abide in you.” When I hear “remain” I think of a waiting room. It’s not bad, it’s better than being on the outside looking in, but to remain has no sense of action, no real sense of relationship.

When I hear the word abide, I hear the word rest, I hear the word stay, and I also hear that I will be nourished. To abide in one another is to deal in relationship. To abide requires more than just waiting. We were never meant to stay in the waiting room of the Lord, we are meant to be together in word and deed, that is how abiding in Christ we bear God’s desirable fruit.

There is something else I want to share with you. If there is one thing people who come to faith wonder about, it’s how is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ going to change their life. I say this from personal experience. While I went to church as a boy, I wouldn’t say I was raised in the church. Neither would any of the pastors who knew me as a boy. I finally came to faith in my late twenties, certainly old enough to be set in my ways. As you might hear someone say, “I was a grown man.”[2]

Frankly, there were some things I didn’t want to change. I like making myself and others laugh. I love sports. I love trivial garbage knowledge and facts. I love jokes. I love wit. I love making others think. I really love good stories. There are days that I would love to sit around with a beer and a cigar and talk about the good-old-days that frankly from the perspective of 20/20 hindsight weren’t all that good. So yes, being a disciple of Christ has changed me. The dead branches get cut away and pruning happens regularly. But has this changed who I am?

At my core, I am the man God made me, but I am a better man because God shapes me. I’m a better man because God cuts away what is useless and ultimately harmful. My branches don’t grow so wild anymore. I am a better man because cutting away early buds produces more and better fruit later. Yes, I am changed, but at the heart I am who God made me.

To me, this is what it means to abide in Christ. To me, this is what it means when scripture says Christ abides in me.

One of the ways I can confirm that is by the folks who told me that they weren’t surprised I became a minister. I was flabbergasted, I never imagined ministry as a vocation. People saw things in me I never saw, and as I often say, I am glad God was looking out for me long before I was looking out for God.

I have had an internal debate about this next paragraph, but have finally decided to share this. More proof that some things don’t change is that I do still enjoy a Churchill and a Shiner Bock from time to time, just not every night.

Now, excessive pruning and pruning out of season can be harmful. You can’t prune too quickly, if you do you can kill the plant. Using fruit trees as a good example for this, if a tree is pruned too much too quickly, it can fall into shock and die. Too much pruning too quickly is harmful. Being rid of an addiction is a fine example of pruning, but if it’s not done properly the patient can become seriously ill maybe unto death during detox.

Another worry about pruning happens often in the church. It has happened with Christians since the year 35 and it still happens today. People try to do the work of the gardener. People try to do the pruning on their own. The Jerusalem Council from Acts 15 decided whether gentiles had to become Jews before they became Christians. To the old school disciples this made perfect sense. To newer gentile Christians, this was a stumbling block. Looking at our reading today, the Jerusalem Council’s work looks like two sides of a church argument trying to do the pruning and training of the vine that is God’s prevue alone.

Our reading from 1John teaches us that the pruning the Father does is done in love; not in anger or hate or fear. Fear has to do with punishment, but pruning is not punishment, it is shaping us to bear much good fruit. God does this in love. So it is up to us to remember, that Jesus is the vine, God is the vinedresser, and we’re the branches. We’re in the system, but we’re not in charge of it.

Last week’s sermon was called, “What It Means to Be Who I Am.” This week’s sermon is called “Making Choices.” I hoped to share that it’s about the choices the vine and the gardener make, the choices they make because they are who they are, two-thirds of the Holy Trinity of God. It is also about the choices we make because God sometimes lets a branch run wild because that’s what it needs to do before the pruning takes. Finally, it is about also knowing that being pruned, like discipleship, is a continuing process. What lives on the vine today may be tomorrow’s dead wood.

Only by the Lord’s careful tending will we ever live the lives that bear good fruit. Jesus wants us to do nothing less than bear good fruit, because this is to God’s glory.

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[1] The quote: “It wouldn’t be a party without Potato Head” was spoken by Sylvester Stallone.

[2] So the expression is “grown-ass man,” I didn’t think the lovely widows really needed to hear me to say that.

Harder Than It Has To Be

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday May 15, 2011, the 4th Sunday in Easter.

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Acts 2:42-47

Psalm 23

1Peter 2:19-25

John 10:1-10

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

In our gospel reading today, we heard the first half of what is known as the “Good Shepherd” discourse. There is no more endearing image of Jesus from scripture than the Good Shepherd. Ask any biblical scholar, and I mean any biblical scholar.

One of the things that I do when preparing a sermon is look at scholarly books about scripture called commentaries. Sometimes I look at them extensively, sometimes hardly at all. Sometimes they provide insights that I share at length. Sometimes I find a word or phrase that sends me off on my own path into interpreting the scripture. Our reading from John this week has a piece of information that is interesting to scholars. I’ll let you decide for yourself if you find it interesting.

There are scholars who look at this passage and see two different figures of speech; the image of the shepherd and the image of the watchman at the door of the sheep pen. Of course these scholars can’t decide how to separate the figures. Renowned New Testament scholar Raymond Brown separates the shepherd imagery from the gate and watchman imagery twice.[1] Once within verses two through five and again in verses seven through ten. Other scholars simply separate the figures at either side of verse six.[2]

I’m not so taken with this splitting of proverbial hairs. This is just too much scholarly analysis and not enough Jesus in my opinion. In say separation of this figure of speech or these figures of speech makes interpretation more difficult than it has to be.

In the commentaries I read, one of the facts missing from the analysis is a description of the sheep pen. When this figure of speech was created nobody with any sense of sheep and shepherds needed to be told what a sheep pen looks like. In our largely urban world, the same is even true for everyone who has ever driven past a ranch or has been to a ranch supply store. We don’t need to be told what a sheep pen looks like either. The matter lies in knowing that the technologies of first and twenty-first century sheep pens are quite different.

When we think of a pen and a gate, we think of some kind of fencing with some sort of metal gate that’s hinged and hasped. It’s how my fence looks at home. It’s how I’ve seen dozens of sheep pens across Kansas, Missouri, Texas and Colorado. But I’ve seen something else; I have seen a replica of a first century sheep pen.

Marie and I saw it at a bible theme park in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. As we saw, the first century pens were not the product of barbed wire and steel. The pens were within earthen embankments. The earth formed a wall around the pen like a levee. The barrier separates the sheep from the outside world. The earthen wall was circular and stood several feet high with one gap where the sheep would enter and exit the pen.

There would also be bramble planted along the top of the abutment that was not only effective in keeping the sheep in the pen, it also meant that any predator or thief would have to navigate thorns and spines before reaching their prey. In its way, it was first century barbed wire. Between the piercing thorns and the rattling bramble, not even the wind could come into the pen without being noticed. A decent description of the walls, there is still a missing piece in this picture. I have yet to mention how the gap was closed. I haven’t mentioned what the New International Version calls the gate and the watchman.

Of course the first century sheep pen did not have the metal gate you get at Tractor Supply. In the first century, the shepherds themselves were the gates. Remember that the shepherds were the young boys, each night one of the young boys would stay in the mouth of the gap. He was gate and gate keeper. He was the shepherd and the watchman.

Of course this would be a dangerous position. The remaining shepherds would be with the sheep asleep inside the pen. Like any sentry duty, sitting the gate was left to the youngest of all the shepherd boys, the boy of lowest status. The least of the least was in the most precarious position.

So here we are, scholars say we have two images; the shepherd and the door, the gate and the watchman. As for me, I say they’re splitting hairs. Yes, the shepherds and the watchmen are two different figures of speech. But no, they aren’t really two different things; they are both young boys who are to put their lives on the line for the sheep and their family.

This is where I believe commentary writers make it harder than it has to be. Scholars have written volumes showing other scholars the differences between these images. What I say is that it’s fundamentally the same thing. It’s the same boy serving two different roles. A young boy who is a shepherd by day becomes the watchman at night. Biblical scholars pine on these differences over volumes without making one simple overreaching point.

Jesus says I am the shepherd.

The shepherd leads the sheep. The sheep know the shepherd’s voice. When the shepherd calls, he calls them by name. The sheep follow because they know the shepherd’s voice. There are only a few reasons for the shepherd to call, among them to lead the sheep to pasture and water. Notice the verbs; the sheep follow, the shepherd leads. The sheep don’t know the way; it is up to the shepherd to lead them to where they need to go.

Oh to be in the presence, in the fold of the great shepherd. Scripture is filled with glorious images of the shepherd. The 100^th Psalm[3] reminds us of this as we sing “Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.” We are the sheep of his pasture. We are the people of the Lord God who calls us each by name.

Some scholars[4] say this gospel passage rings the bell tolled in Isaiah 40 when the prophet says, “He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.”

In Numbers[5] as he is about to leave the children of Israel, Moses begs “that the congregation of the LORD be not as sheep which have no shepherd.” Moses prays for a shepherd for the people. One who will watch them and protect them after he is taken by the great shepherd.

Others[6] say this passage harkens back to 1Samuel 16 where David is identified as the ideal Shepherd King. David, the man who knows God’s heart, foreshadows the King of kings.

Oh the many images of the shepherd scattered in the Word. Each of these figures give us a slightly different insight into the Lord God. They give us a different shade of who Jesus says he is in this passage from John’s gospel.

Jesus says I am the shepherd. Jesus says I am the gate. Jesus says I am the watchman. Jesus says I am.

I AM, the ancient name of God from the Old Testament is also found in the gospels. Jesus says I AM thirty six times in the gospels. Two-thirds of these sayings, twenty four I AM statements are found in this fourth Gospel. Jesus says I AM the true vine. He says I AM the bread of life. He says I AM the way. He says I AM he, which is just how Jesus says I AM who I AM. I am the I AM.

Perhaps the most encouraging of the “I AM” statements is when Jesus tells his disciples and all of creation I AM here. The joy of the presence of God who is here is the most glorious sign of all.

Jesus is who he is. He is the Good Shepherd. He is the way, the truth and the life. This is important. This is the truth. Yet there is one more truth that must be mentioned. Karl Barth said that a good sermon points to God. A good sermon reveals God to the congregation. I pray that I have done this so far. Yet there is one more truth that tends to go unmentioned. We are the sheep.

As the sheep we are powerless. We have no defense against predators. We have no defense against the raging floods that sweep the plains. We have no defense against the thieves that would steal us from our flock.

As the sheep, we have one thing, we have the good shepherd. We have the shepherd whose voice we recognize. We have the shepherd who cares for us. We have the shepherd of the 23^rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. This is the shepherd we celebrated as we rejoiced our Call to Worship this morning:

Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long.[7]

This is the shepherd who we follow.

St. John Chrysostom was the Archbishop of Constantinople in the late fourth and early fifth century. A stalwart of the early church Chrysostom was a great theologian. Nearly fifteen-hundred years ago, he said these words about the good shepherd: “For so long as we are sheep, we conquer: though ten thousand wolves prowl around, we overcome and prevail. But if we become wolves, we are worsted, for the help of our Shepherd departs from us.”[8]

Chrysostom reminds us that we are the sheep protected by the shepherd. When we choose to become the wolf our God our help in ages past leaves us, for we have left the fold.

We don’t have to rejoice in what scholars tell us, whether this is two figures of speech or one. We rejoice in what we know, God is God and we are not. The Lord is our shepherd and that makes us the sheep. The Lord is the good shepherd who leads us and protects us. The Lord is the gate who stands between us and harm’s way. The Lord is our shepherd, we shall not want. Everything else is just taking the truth and making it harder than it has to be.

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[1] New Interpreter’s Bible, Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, page 666-667.

[2] “Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year A” Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, James D. Newsome, Editors. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995, pages 288-290.

[3] Psalm 100:3

[4] Feasting on the Word, Year A, Volume 2, David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor, Editors. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2010, page 442.

[5] Numbers 27:17

[6] Ibid, page 443

[7] Kirk, James G. “When We Gather” Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, page 66.

[8] John Chrysostom, “Homilies of John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople on the Gospel According to St. Matthew.” http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/200133.htm, retrieved May 14, 2011. Thanks to the Rev. Dr. David L. Johnson of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary for the suggestion.

Bread of Life

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday August 16, 2009, the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14
Psalm 111
Ephesians 5:15-20
John 6:51-58

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

In John’s gospel, Jesus says “I AM” twenty-four times.[1] In each of these phrases the text invokes something very special; each of these phrases uses the Greek version of the Holy Name of God. I was reminded last week that it was C. S. Lewis who said that it is foolish to believe that Jesus is a wonderful teacher, but not the Son of God and the Son of Man. Jesus declares that he is the Son of God and the Son of Man. He clearly says “I AM,” at least in John’s gospel. Lewis tells us that our choices are to believe that Jesus is either exactly who he says he is, or that he’s a complete and total whack job. It is foolish to believe that a man can be a wise teacher if he claims to be God and is not. This is eminently logical, but logic is not where we should be coming from today.

Logic and knowledge and interpretation were the wheelhouse of the Jewish leadership. Jesus says I am the living bread that came down from heaven…and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh. The first thing that the temple leaders can think to say is “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” Yes, of course it’s a good question. It’s a very good question especially from someone and for someone who is so locked up in the legal aspects of faith that mystical and metaphorical symbols have no other expression than those of their fathers and their fathers before them. This is probably what Jesus finds disappointing. These are leaders who are ordained to serve the people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love fail to exercise a grain of imagination. Well, actually I misspoke, that question comes from my ordination vows, not the Jewish leaders. Too, they are in the vows taken by all Presbyterian Elders.[2]

Jesus offers eternal life, life in Christ, life that is available not just in the future, but today too. Eternal life is connected to physical life; after all, Jesus existed in this world, he is the Word become flesh. But eternal life is more than physical life. Eternal life is life in Christ, life in God. Eternal life is life worth living. Very early on in John’s gospel we read this as it is written, “What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.” In a very real way, John teaches that before the Word, before the life and the Word of Jesus how people lived wasn’t really life at all. Instead, at its best it was a step toward what life could be.

Some people lived well in that first step of life; David and his son Solomon were great examples of glorious lives lived in the Lord before Jesus lived. Our reading today demonstrates this showing that when the Lord asked Solomon what gift he wished to receive, Solomon was wise enough to ask for an understanding mind to govern the Lord’s people and the ability to discern between good and evil. It’s not too much of a leap to connect this request with our call to serve God’s people with energy, intelligence, imagination, and love.

Because Solomon sought wisdom instead of riches and power he received wisdom and was also given riches and power. Yet, neither David nor Solomon had the connection to the Lord that we have today. As from words of the Lord Jesus, “Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me.” As glorious and blessed as their lives were, they could not partake of God incarnate and live because of him, not in the way available to us through the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We participate in this action when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. It is in the supper that we celebrate our continuing to abide in Christ and that Christ abides in us. By abiding, our lives and our faith are nourished in the love of the Lord Jesus. According to John Calvin, with the participation of the Holy Spirit, faith is nourished and strengthened by the sacrament. He calls the Lord’s Supper “a secret too sublime for my mind to understand or words to express. I experience it rather than understand it.”[3]

It is this choice of Calvin’s that further invites us to experience that mystery rather than to try to pick it apart. Denominations have done this dissection for hundreds of years, but it is to no avail. Rather, let us know that Jesus said “this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” Let us know that his body, his very flesh to us is bread for life. Let us remember this as we partake of the supper together. This element of togetherness is too important. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes of coming together as the family of God together at the table which Christ invites us to share.

“The simple act of sitting down around a table is something a lot of people don't find particularly important - but for Christians, the shared supper is a vital aspect of spiritual life.

“‘The Scriptures speak of three kinds of table fellowship that Jesus keeps with his own: daily fellowship at table, the table fellowship of the Lord's Supper, and the final table fellowship in the kingdom of God. But in all three, the one thing that counts is that 'their eyes were opened, and they knew him.’

“‘The fellowship of the table teaches Christians that here they still eat the perishable bread of the earthly pilgrimage. But if they share this bread with one another, they shall also one day receive the imperishable bread together in the Father's house.’”[4]

We are called to eat the flesh, but we are to come together to eat it, not on the run like a holy sort of drive-thru window. We do this together because when we receive the Lord we receive one another too. Jesus came to be with the whole congress of creation, not just bits and pieces.

Thomas Merton wrote, “There is not one of us, individually, racially, socially, who is not fully complete in any sense of having in himself all the excellence of all humanity. And this excellence, this totality, is built up out of the contributions of the particular parts of it that we all can share with one another. I am therefore not completely human until I have found myself in my African and Asian and Indonesian brother because he has the part of which I lack.”[5]

We come together because separately none of us are complete.

Barbara Williamson tells this story: “Each year at lambing time, there are lambs and ewes who do not make it. Inevitably, on one side of the field is a ewe whose lamb has died. The ewe is filled with ilk but will not nourish any lamb she does not recognize as her own. Inevitably, on the other side of the field is a lamb whose mother has died. That lamb will starve because no ewe will accept and nourish it. So the shepherd takes the dead lamb and slits its throat, and pours its blood over the body of the living lamb. Recognizing the blood, the ewe will now nurse and save the orphaned lamb. Through the gift of the blood of the lamb who has died, the living lamb is recognized and restored to the fold, nourished and saved. That is the Lamb of God.”[6]

By his stripes, by his blood, we are saved. The bread of life feeds us and allows us to be recognized by the Father…or as this illustration tells us, the mother. This is a paschal way to express the invitation we receive to come to the table.

The words of the Orthodox liturgy call us to the table this way:

Come, O faithful ones,
let us enjoy the Lord’s hospitality,
in the banquet of immortality
In the upper chamber, with minds uplifted,
let us learn the Word from the Word
whom we magnify.[7]

We are called to the table to share the bread of life. Another ancient word used for the bread of life is Eucharist. The words of the ancient church describe the Eucharist as “either by good grace, or by thanksgiving. And rightly, indeed it is to be called good grace, as well because it signifies eternal life, concerning which it has been written: The grace of God is eternal life, and also because it contains Christ the Lord, who is true grace and the fountain of all favors.”[8]

Consider these words from Paul Bernier: “If we understand Eucharist as the mystery of Christ’s continuing ability to feed his people, if we know that his bread is broken to be shared with the needy and the poor, this will form out attitude and lend the dynamism of faith too our efforts. We need a clear ideal of what kind of world we are striving to build and the ideal we take from the Lord’s table is that he has given us brothers and sisters the world over who have a claim on us because we accept the bread broken in order to be shared.”[9]

These favors, this life, nourished by the bread of life calls us to more than simply taking from the loaf; we are to offer the loaf just as the Lord offered it to us. As the author Flannery O’Connor wrote, “You will have found Christ when you are concerned with other people’s sufferings and not your own.”[10] In the words of Mother Teresa, “The Eucharist and the poor are but one love for me.”[11]

As bloody and as violent as some of these images of are; twentieth century theologian Karl Rahner reminds us that “The Lord gave himself to us precisely as food to be enjoyed.”[12] In a world that is often more focused on the suffering of Good Friday, we are called to be the people of Easter. Grace came to us violently, but Jesus went to it voluntarily so that we may enjoy him forever.

I know I have piled many, many images together. Sometimes the connection is well explained, sometimes the imagery opens us to new ways to taste and see that the Lord is good, and sometimes it’s just baffling. It is my hope that these images can help spark a new look at the bread of life for all of us, a new look at the great I AM and who HE IS. Jesus is the bread of life; it is by his flesh that we are fed with the gift of eternal life. He is the fountain of all favors and we are the fruit of his work.

But in a spiritual way, many live like the Dickens character Oliver Twist. We are orphans in a strange place, hoping for even a morsel of bread so that we may know life, and so that we may share this new life with others. It is our hope that we may eat of this bread and drink of this cup; and when we do, we should hunger and thirst for new life, holy life, life in Christ. It is my hope that we can all leave here with Twist’s words on our lips, begging to the Lord our God with anticipation of living life eternal; life with, by and through God. “Please sir, I want some more.”

[1] BibleWorks search for the Greek phrase “ego eimi,” the equivalent to the Hebrew Tetragrammaton.
[2] PC(USA) and Cumberland Presbyterian Church, Book of Occasional Services, pages 58 and 24.
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Calvin.
[4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1954), 66.
[5] Eucharist, Liturgical Training Publications 18
[6] Eucharist
[7] Orthodox liturgy, Eucharist
[8] Eucharist
[9] Eucharist 86
[10] Eucharist 120
[11] Eucharist, 123
[12] Eucharist, 82

The State of Show-Me

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the 4th Sunday of Easter, April 19, 2007.

Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

The Jews wanted a word from Jesus. Oh, a quick note on the structure of John’s Gospel, when John’s gospel refers to “the Jews” what it refers to is the leaders of the Jews, the Pharisees.[1] It would be like saying “the Presbyterians” and meaning the leadership in Louisville.[2] Let me begin again. The Pharisees wanted a word from Jesus, “If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” They wanted a word, a special word from Jesus telling them explicitly who he is.

Oh Jesus of Nazareth, who are you? “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Asking the question says more about the Pharisees asking it than about Jesus answering it because the Pharisees all ready have the answer. The answer, the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, the Word became flesh is standing right in front of them, and they ask if he is the Messiah.

Now, it’s not as if Jesus hasn’t been saying who he was. In the preceding verses from this chapter, Jesus tells all who were present, including the Pharisees, “I am the Good Shepherd” who keeps his sheep. He says “I am the gate” and the only way to enter is past him. The sheep who know him and know his voice have a place with Jesus, but the predators who would take the sheep do not.[3] In another example, Jesus tells those who have ears “I am not of this world, I am from above.” Jesus even tells the Pharisees “I am not like you; you were born from below.”[4]

Then in John 8:24, Jesus makes an “I am” statement which makes the others pale by comparison. Jesus says, “You will die in your sins unless you believe that I am.” If all of these “I am” statements remind you of something familiar from the Old Testament, if it reminds you of the Lord telling Moses that he is the I AM, it is because this is exactly what Jesus intended.

The Pharisees want Jesus to give them a private word. They want Jesus to tell them who he is in words they can understand. What’s funny is that Jesus has used the words of the Law and the Prophets. The words the Pharisees know. He has told the world who he is in ways the Pharisees are better equipped to understand than anybody else on earth; and they didn’t get it.

When asked to “speak plainly,” Jesus answers the Pharisees by saying “I have told you, and you do not believe.” Jesus has told them exactly who he is using words they are best qualified to understand. He has told them “I am.”

There are a number of stories and legends behind Missouri's nickname “The Show-Me” state. According to Missouri’s Secretary of State, the slogan is not official, but is common throughout the state. It is even found on automobile license plates.

The most widely known legend attributes the origin of the phrase to Missouri's U.S. Congressman Willard Duncan Vandiver, who served in the United States House of Representatives from 1897 to 1903. While a member of the U.S. House Committee on Naval Affairs, Vandiver attended an 1899 banquet in Philadelphia. In a speech there, he declared, “I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me.”

An earlier version of the “Show-Me” legend places the slogan's origin in the mining town of Leadville, Colorado. There, the phrase was first employed as a term of ridicule and reproach. A miner's strike had been in progress for some time by the mid-1890s, and a number of miners from the lead districts of southwest Missouri had been imported to take the place of the strikers. The Joplin miners were unfamiliar with Colorado mining methods and required frequent instructions. Pit bosses began saying, “That man is from Missouri. You'll have to show him.” So while Vandiver didn’t coin the phrase, he helped popularize it and make a complement.[5]

So it’s not uncommon to the human condition that if words don’t get the point across, use actions. So Jesus reminds the Pharisees that has not only used words, he has used actions.

Jesus tells the Pharisees “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” He provides the finest wine for the wedding banquet in Cana[6] and feeds the five thousand.[7] He heals the son of the royal official[8] and the beggar at the pool of Siloam.[9] Jesus feeds the people and heals the sick. Knowing the Law and the Prophets, the Pharisees should have been able to see that Jesus is the Messiah, but they don’t.

The Pharisees were told in words, and they were shown in acts. Comparing this to the Show-Me story, the Pharisees were mining engineers stuck in the Colorado lead mines that can neither follow the Pit Boss’ directions nor his example. They were experts without the ability to recognize or follow the wellspring of their knowledge. Even the Missouri Miners would see they were clueless.

Jesus tells the Pharisees that what his Father has given him is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. God the Father has given Jesus all of creation. There is nothing and no one outside of the saving grace of Christ. If the Pharisees knew this; they didn’t understand it or what it means. Jesus’ presence with them should have been a time of rejoicing and celebrating. Instead it became a threat to all that they knew and understood. They would come to know that because of Jesus, the little niche they have carved out and secured in this life would be tossed tea kettle over spout. And they deserved to feel that way because they were right.

So what does this mean to us? There are two very important things to take from this reading.

The first is that we are called to believe. Believing we become the sheep of Jesus’ pen and are able to hear Jesus’ words. More than just hearing, we are called to abide in and respond to the shepherd in faith and in love.

The second thing to take from this reading is a caution: don’t follow the example of the Pharisees. They wanted the plain word of the Lord for their agenda. In the final verse of our reading they get the answer to their question when Jesus boldly changes the I AM into the WE ARE.

So what do they do with their answer? They accuse Jesus of blasphemy and gather stones to kill him. Funny how they get the plain answer they beg for and respond by taking up arms when they get the answer they don’t want. Jesus gave them the Good News, but they did not understand. He gave them what they asked for, but not what they wanted. The Pharisees wanted their own word, not knowing the word was with them and all around them. Don’t make their mistake. The Pharisees got the truth, truth that did not meet their expectations.

So how do we respond? How do we respond to the Good News of Jesus Christ? Engage the Lord; through the Word, through prayer, through work, engage the Lord. When John’s people engage the Lord, they come in praise.

Find how the Lord is engaging you. When Jesus engages others he asks, “What do you want?” In John’s gospel, more often than not, people want healing. Sometimes the healing is for their wounds, sometimes it is for another. Wounds are healed. And with this physical healing comes deeper healing, there is a joy and peace which comes with the grace of our Lord. Even for the people who do not receive direct healing, those who ask for healing for others, they are lifted in the word and the work of Jesus.

We are called to believe in Jesus and find how our life intersects the work of the Lord, how work connects to eternal life. There are places in all of our lives where we connect with the eternal: It comes when we touch the lives of children. It comes when we meet our obligations to loved ones. It comes when we visit the sick and the elderly. The Pharisees of every age forget is that the Lord is not contained by our expectations. The Lord is found with the sick, the poor and the unclean. This was true two thousand years ago and is true today. Looking at our reading from Acts today, the widows in Joppa were an impoverished group of women, castoffs from decent society. Jesus was pleased with Peter’s actions when he went to be with them. Jesus was pleased when Peter prayed for Tabitha’s healing. Jesus showed this by Tabatha’s healing.

In a world that says “Show-Me,” Jesus says look around and see. The word and the work of the Lord is around us. The grace and peace of God has enveloped us like the air that we breathe. The Holy Spirit dwells in us to teach us what we need to know so that we can respond in a way pleasing to God and God’s good creation. We don’t need a special word, we need to discern the word around us and respond to it. We need to find where the Lord is working in this life and join. In a world in the state of Show-Me, the Lord says I am here, follow. The Lord says I am here, share. The Lord says I am here, respond. The Lord says I am here, come unto me. And as we are fed at the table today, we are invited by the Lord to come, taste, and see; the Lord is good.

[1] Excursus from The New Interpreters’ Study Bible, “I am” sayings
[2] Louisville is the site of the Presbyterian Church (USA) national offices.
[3] John 10:7-14
[4] John 8:21-30
[5] State of Missouri Secretary of State Web Site, “Why Is Missouri Called the “Show-Me” State?” http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/history/slogan.asp accessed April 28, 2007. This site resources: Rossiter, Phyllis. "I'm from Missouri--you'll have to show me." Rural Missouri, Volume 42, Number 3, March 1989, page 16. This can also be found in Why Do We Say It? Edison, NJ: Castle Books 1985, page 166.
[6] John 2:1-12
[7] John 6:1-15
[8] John 4:43-54
[9] John 9:1-12