This sermon was heard at The Federated Church in Weatherford, Oklahoma on May 1, 2016, the Sixth Sunday in Easter.
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5
John 5:1-9
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Words, they are such imprecise things. What I mean is that when I use a word it may not mean the same thing to you it means to me. Still, we are people of the Word, the Word of God. No matter how imprecise words are, the Lord used them to communicate with the prophets, priests, and kings. Jesus used words with his apostles and disciples, but it is still no wonder that we get confused by them.
My favorite Hebrew word is ruach. I love to hear it, I love to say it. I love what it means, both its simple definition and all of the wonderful meanings it carries. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “Spirit” [1] or “wind.”[2] Listen to the word again, ruach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me. Say it with me, ruach.
In Genesis, this breath of God, this is the spirit imparted just before light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, the darkness, the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.
This is the wind that comes off the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew that falls on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge regardless of the chaos of the world around us. It is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God with us. This is the wind, the Spirit we read about a couple of weeks ago from John’s gospel when the disciples received the breath of Jesus. It’s the wind that will blow in two weeks on Pentecost.
Our gospel reading begins during a Jewish festival and Jesus is walking past the Sheep Gate by a pool the New Revised Standard Version called Beth-zatha. In Hebrew this could mean House of Shame or House of Disgrace. There are five porticoes in this pool, five porches reaching into the waters. These porches were loaded, overloaded with sick men and women; blind, lame, and paralyzed. They came to the pools to be healed.
Legend said that when the pool was stirred, its healing power was activated, and the first person in the waters would be healed. Angels bathing in the waters were said to cause those ripples. Since the pool was surrounded on all sides by the city walls or the slope of the hills, breezes in the pool would be infrequent. The pool was fed irregularly by an underground spring which would cause rippling. So the waiting game had to be played with patience.
In chapter nine of John’s gospel the disciples will ask “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” Their understanding of disease was based on first century traditions. They had no understanding of germs and viruses. Illness was caused by sin, and maybe not even the sin of the ailing. Illness could be due to someone else’s sin. The sick were literally “sin sick.”
Further, the blind, lame, and paralyzed on the porticoes probably didn’t have much opportunity for wound care or basic hygiene. We have already established that because of location and architecture the pool had poor air circulation, so there would have been a stench that only a hospital worker with hazardous waste experience or a butcher whose power has been off all weekend can truly appreciate.
Remember too that this pool was used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the Temple. This use of the pool gave the water a halo of sanctity,[3] and I imagine it gave the pool a another distinct set of aromas.
The point I want to make is that our gospel reading is happening at a place where we would least expect to find a King. It’s loaded with the sick and infirm. It smells like infection and people who have been sitting in their filth because they have been waiting on healing. It smells like a sheep pen which would be a combination of barnyard and wet wool. While we don't know whether the spring had a harsh odor or not, we know there's a reason Glade doesn't make "Hot Spring." Oh, I forgot the flies. It would be safe to say Beth-zatha would not have been on the Chamber of Commerce tour.
So Jesus arrives at the pool seeing the sick: the blind, the lame, and the paralyzed. There, Jesus spotted a man he wanted to know. He learned that this man had been lying there for a long time, thirty eight years to be exact. Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”
Oh what a wonderful question! “Do you want to be made well?” How would you answer this question? “Oh my Lord, yes, I want to be made well!” Imagine people being asked this question all over the world? Imagine people crying from the roof tops, “Oh yes Lord, I want to be made well!” But you know, this isn’t the answer Jesus gets.
The man tells Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
So, is that a yes or a no?
Really, I’m asking. This isn't rhetorical.
Is this a yes or a no?
It really isn’t an answer as much as it’s an explanation. The man explains that he is unable to reach the healing waters. He tries. He really tries to make it on his own, but he cannot because there is no one there to help him. Alas, woe is he. He is unable to make it to the waters first.
So Jesus says to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
This man has waited thirty-eight years for the wind to blow across the pool. He has waited so very long for the wind to blow and for the healing power of the water to be activated for him. He waited to be caressed by the ripples in the pool caused by angels bathing.
Instead, he got something new. He got what he expected least in this world. He didn’t feel the wind blow causing the pool to ripple. He met the wind.
He met the wind. He met the living God. He met the one who causes the healing wind to blow. He didn’t meet an angel, he met God incarnate. He was waiting to feel the breeze so that he could race to the pool. Instead he met the one who is the wind. In the most real and least expected way, he met God with him; he had a personal encounter with Emmanuel.
This passage in the New International Version does not call the pool Beth-zatha. It says Bethesda. Bethesda means “House of Mercy” or “House of Grace.” That name is fitting for a group of invalids who seek the unmerited favor of healing by the restorative powers of the waters. Is it any wonder that a Presbyterian Church founded near the sight of a bubbling spring in rural Maryland in 1820 would be called Bethesda? Is it any wonder one-hundred-and-twenty years later a Naval Medical Center built nearby would come to be called Bethesda?[4] A place named for the House of Grace would be the place to receive special treatment, both medical and spiritual.
For this man, there was no more “House of Shame.” He has met the one who brings the living waters of the “House of Grace.” In a glorious new way, he was baptized not in water, but in the Spirit of the Lord, by which he took his mat and walked. That day, that Sabbath day, Jesus showed that he is come to reconcile all creation into right relationship with himself. As the wind blew across the water in Genesis beginning all creation, Jesus blew across this man who was not able to get himself to the pool, not even able to say he wanted to get himself to the pool, and gave him new life.
I love words, and in one act, Jesus changes Beth-zatha to Bethesda. He takes the House of Disgrace and makes it a House of Grace. He makes this House of Shame a House of Mercy. This is the wind that blows across the healing waters. This is ruach.
Jesus has taken something old, the ancient myths and legends of the healing waters of a pool of water. A pool called the House of Shame and Disgrace because these afflictions were considered shameful and disgraceful. The Messiah, Jesus the Christ instead offers something new, grace and mercy, where neither existed before. He takes the stench of what kept them unclean and gives new life. Gone is the old, in Christ new life has come in abundance.
Our Lord, our Messiah is the one who is able to do more than we could ever hope or imagine. He is able to do the unexpected. We read this in Acts. Acts 16:13 tells us that on the Sabbath, Paul and his traveling party went down to the river, down to the place of prayer, and spoke to the women who had gathered there. I am not going to go into the big explanation about why the women are the people we would least expect Paul to speak with on that day, we know about the subordinate roles women played in ancient times. Paul had crossed into Europe to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Roman Empire and first shared it with women.
One of the women in the group, a believer in God named Lydia, was listening to Paul at the river. She was a dealer in purple cloth. To decode this phrase, she was in her way rich and powerful. Her clients were rich and powerful because only the rich could afford to purchase purple and only the powerful were allowed to wear it.
This woman, rich and powerful in her own right, brought her household to Paul for baptism. In effect, her household is the first toehold of Christianity in Europe. A woman’s home in Thyatira becomes the site of the first European Christian church. This easily qualifies something new. [5]
This gives us hope in Christ. This bit of Bethesda, this slice of the “House of Grace” comes again to the water and the wind blows across it bringing something new, the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ to the world where it is least expected. By the grace and mercy of God, these women are reconciled to all creation.
Even more unexpected is the vision of New Jerusalem found in our reading from Revelation. The winds of change, the winds of reconciliation, the winds of life blow across the river of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. If you noticed, there is no temple in the city because there is no need. There is no need for a temple because all of New Jerusalem, the city where nothing accursed will be found, becomes the new temple.[6]
This is the wonder and the glory of new life in Christ. The most glorious things we could never expect are just the beginning. The wind of new life blows across Bethesda lifting a man who had not walked in thirty-eight years. The wind blows across the river where the women pray and opens Europe to the gospel. The Gospel Incarnate, the Lamb of God will be seen again on the day of the New Jerusalem when there will be no more night.
Pope John Paul II took the opportunity to “put Bob Dylan right” when the two headlined a gig together in Bologna, Italy in 1997.[7] Dylan met His Holiness on stage during a Catholic youth event before playing three of his best-known songs. After the two men had shaken hands and exchanged a few words, the Pope stepped up to the microphone and took the singer to the theological cleaners.
“You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend,” he observed. “So it is. But it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, ‘Come!’”
Clearly enjoying the thunderous applause that greeted these words, the Pope continued in a style that would not have disgraced a television evangelist: “You ask me, how many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man? I answer: One! There is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said I am the Way and the Life.”
Rejoice! The wind that blows over the creation of creation blows today. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, God in Christ is doing something new. It is up to the Body of Christ to listen for the word. It’s time to feel the wind, stand up, take up our mat, and walk.
Amen.
[1] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations
[2] New Revised Standard Version
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda, accessed May 12, 2007
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda%2C_Maryland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Naval_Medical_Center accessed on May 12, 2007
[5] Cousar, Charles B, Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D. “Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C.” Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, pages 314-316.
[6] Ibid, pages 318-320.
[7] Ship of Fools Magazine Online, September 29, 1997 as found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1887, May 7, 2010.
Showing posts with label ruach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ruach. Show all posts
Sunday, May 01, 2016
Sunday, May 09, 2010
The Least Expected
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday May 9, 2010, the 6th Sunday in Easter.
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5
John 5:1-9
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.
My favorite word in Hebrew is ruach. I love to hear it, I love to say it. I love what it means, both its simple definition and all of the wonderful meanings it carries with it. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “the Spirit”[1] or “the wind.”[2] Listen to the word again, ruach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me, ruach.
In Genesis, this breath of God, this spirit is imparted just before the light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.
This is the wind that comes off of the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew that falls on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge and regardless of the chaos of the world around us, it is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God is with us. This is the same wind, Spirit we read about a couple of weeks ago from John’s gospel when the disciples received the breath of Jesus. It’s the same wind that will blow in two weeks on Pentecost.
Our gospel reading this week begins during one of the Jewish festivals and Jesus is walking by the Sheep Gate by a pool called Beth-zatha. In some translations this pool is called Bethesda. The Sheep Gate separated the North Eastern part of Jerusalem from the Temple Mount. The pools at the Sheep Gate were used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the Temple. This use of the pools gave the water a halo of sanctity.[3]
Many invalids came to the pools to be healed Local legend said that when the pool was stirred, its healing power was activated, and the first person in the waters would be made well. Legends from the third century said the ripples in the pool were caused by angels bathing in the waters. Since the pool was surrounded on all sides by the city walls or the surrounding slope of the hills, breezes in the pool would be infrequent, so the waiting game had to be played with great patience.
The name of this spot means “House of Grace.” The name of this spot would be appropriate for a group of invalids who seek the unmerited favor of healing by the restorative, mystical powers of the waters. Is it any wonder a Presbyterian Church was founded near the sight of a bubbling spring in rural Maryland in 1820 would be called Bethesda? Is it any wonder one-hundred-and-twenty years later a Naval Medical Center built nearby would come to be called Bethesda?[4] A place named for the House of Grace would be the place to receive special treatment, both medical and spiritual.
So Jesus arrives at the pool seeing the sick: the blind, the lame, and the withered. There, Jesus spotted a man he wanted to know more about. He was probably one of the oldest men at the pool. He learned that this man had been lying there for a long time, thirty eight years to be exact. So Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”
Oh what a wonderful question! “Do you want to be made well?” Imagine how you would answer this question. “Oh my Lord, yes, I want to be made well!” I can imagine people being asked this question all over the world and just as easily imagine people crying from the roof tops, “Oh yes Lord, I want to be made well!” But you know, this isn’t the answer Jesus gets.
The man tells Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
So, is that a yes or a no?
No, really, I want to know.
Is this a yes or a no?
It really isn’t an answer at all. It is an explanation. The man explains to Jesus that he is unable to reach the waters. He tries. He really tries to make it on his own, because there is no one at the pool to help him. Alas, woe is he. He is unable to make it to the waters first.
So Jesus says to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
This man has waited thirty-eight years for the wind to blow across the pool. He has waited so very long for the wind to blow and for the healing power of the water to be activated for him. He waited to be caressed by the ripples in the pool caused by angels bathing.
Instead, he got something different. He got the thing he expected least in this world. He didn’t feel the wind blow causing the pool to ripple. He met the wind.
He met the wind. He met the living God. He met the one who caused the healing wind to blow. He didn’t meet an angel, he met God incarnate. He was waiting to feel the breeze so that he could race to the pool. Instead he met the one who is the wind. In the most real and least expected way, he met God with him; he had a personal encounter with Emmanuel.
For this man, there was no more need for the Pool of Siloam. In a way more real than I can imagine or expect, he was baptized not in water, but in the Spirit of the Lord, by which he took his mat and walked. That day, that Sabbath day, Jesus proved that he was present to reconcile all creation into right relationship with him. As the wind blew across the water in Genesis beginning all creation, Jesus blew across this man who was not able to get himself into the pool and gave him new life.
Our Lord, our Messiah is the one who is able to do more than we could ever hope or imagine. He is able to do what we least expect him to do. We read about this in Acts. We read about Paul’s first missionary journey into Europe. We are so familiar with our modern geography that it may be a surprise that this is the first recorded Christian mission to Europe, but this is not the big surprise.
No, verse 13 tells us that on the Sabbath, Paul and his traveling party went down to the river, down to the place of prayer, and spoke to the women who had gathered there. I am not going to go into the big explanation about why the women are the people we would least expect Paul to speak with on that day, we know about the subordinate roles women played in ancient times. Paul had crossed into Europe to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Roman Empire and chose to share it with women.
This slice of Bethesda, this slice of the “House of Grace” comes again to the water and the wind blows across it bringing the grace and peace of God to the world where it is least expected. By the grace and peace of God, these women are reconciled to all creation and begin their relationship anew with Jesus Christ.
This leads us to again, the thing we least expect. One of the women in the group, a believer in God named Lydia, was listening to Paul at the river. She was a dealer in purple cloth. To decode this phrase, she was rich and powerful. We know that she had very rich and powerful clients because only the richest people could afford to purchase purple and only the most powerful were allowed to wear it.
This woman, rich and powerful in her own right, brought her household to Paul for baptism. In effect, her household is the first toehold of Christianity in Europe. A woman’s home in Thyatira becomes the site of the first European Christian church. This easily qualifies as one of the things we least expect from this world.[5]
Even more unexpected is the vision of New Jerusalem that we saw in our reading from Revelation. The winds of change, the winds of reconciliation, the winds of life blow across the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. If you noticed, there is no temple in the city, simply because there is no need. You see, there is no need for a temple because New Jerusalem, the city where nothing accursed will be found any more becomes the new temple.[6]
This is the wonder and the glory of new life in Christ. The most glorious things we could least expect are just the beginning. The wind of new life blows across Bethesda lifting a man who had not walked in thirty-eight years. The wind blows across the river where the women pray and opens Europe to the gospel. The Gospel Incarnate, the Lamb of God will be seen again on the day of the New Jerusalem when there will be no more night.
This is the wind that blows. This is the ruach.
Pope John Paul II took the opportunity to “put Bob Dylan right” when the two megastars headlined a gig together in Bologna.[7] Dylan met His Holiness on stage during a Catholic youth event before playing three of his best-known songs. After the two men had shaken hands and exchanged a few words, the Pope stepped up to the microphone and took the singer to the theological cleaners.
“You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend,” he observed. “So it is. But it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, ‘Come!’”
Clearly enjoying the thunderous applause that greeted these words, the Pope continued in a style that would not have disgraced a television evangelist: “You ask me, how many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man? I answer: One! There is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said I am the Way and the Life.”
As the wind blows, let us be blown by it.
[1] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations
[2] New Revised Standard Version
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda, accessed May 12, 2007
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda%2C_Maryland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Naval_Medical_Center accessed on May 12, 2007
[5] Cousar, Charles B, Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D. “Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C.” Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, pages 314-316.
[6] Ibid, pages 318-320.
[7] Ship of Fools Magazine Online, September 29, 1997 as found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1887, May 7, 2010.
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 21:22-22:5
John 5:1-9
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, or rock and our redeemer. Amen.
My favorite word in Hebrew is ruach. I love to hear it, I love to say it. I love what it means, both its simple definition and all of the wonderful meanings it carries with it. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “the Spirit”[1] or “the wind.”[2] Listen to the word again, ruach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me, ruach.
In Genesis, this breath of God, this spirit is imparted just before the light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.
This is the wind that comes off of the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew that falls on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge and regardless of the chaos of the world around us, it is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God is with us. This is the same wind, Spirit we read about a couple of weeks ago from John’s gospel when the disciples received the breath of Jesus. It’s the same wind that will blow in two weeks on Pentecost.
Our gospel reading this week begins during one of the Jewish festivals and Jesus is walking by the Sheep Gate by a pool called Beth-zatha. In some translations this pool is called Bethesda. The Sheep Gate separated the North Eastern part of Jerusalem from the Temple Mount. The pools at the Sheep Gate were used to wash the sheep prior to their sacrifice in the Temple. This use of the pools gave the water a halo of sanctity.[3]
Many invalids came to the pools to be healed Local legend said that when the pool was stirred, its healing power was activated, and the first person in the waters would be made well. Legends from the third century said the ripples in the pool were caused by angels bathing in the waters. Since the pool was surrounded on all sides by the city walls or the surrounding slope of the hills, breezes in the pool would be infrequent, so the waiting game had to be played with great patience.
The name of this spot means “House of Grace.” The name of this spot would be appropriate for a group of invalids who seek the unmerited favor of healing by the restorative, mystical powers of the waters. Is it any wonder a Presbyterian Church was founded near the sight of a bubbling spring in rural Maryland in 1820 would be called Bethesda? Is it any wonder one-hundred-and-twenty years later a Naval Medical Center built nearby would come to be called Bethesda?[4] A place named for the House of Grace would be the place to receive special treatment, both medical and spiritual.
So Jesus arrives at the pool seeing the sick: the blind, the lame, and the withered. There, Jesus spotted a man he wanted to know more about. He was probably one of the oldest men at the pool. He learned that this man had been lying there for a long time, thirty eight years to be exact. So Jesus asks him, “Do you want to be made well?”
Oh what a wonderful question! “Do you want to be made well?” Imagine how you would answer this question. “Oh my Lord, yes, I want to be made well!” I can imagine people being asked this question all over the world and just as easily imagine people crying from the roof tops, “Oh yes Lord, I want to be made well!” But you know, this isn’t the answer Jesus gets.
The man tells Jesus, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; and while I am making my way, someone else steps down ahead of me.”
So, is that a yes or a no?
No, really, I want to know.
Is this a yes or a no?
It really isn’t an answer at all. It is an explanation. The man explains to Jesus that he is unable to reach the waters. He tries. He really tries to make it on his own, because there is no one at the pool to help him. Alas, woe is he. He is unable to make it to the waters first.
So Jesus says to him, “Stand up, take your mat and walk.”
This man has waited thirty-eight years for the wind to blow across the pool. He has waited so very long for the wind to blow and for the healing power of the water to be activated for him. He waited to be caressed by the ripples in the pool caused by angels bathing.
Instead, he got something different. He got the thing he expected least in this world. He didn’t feel the wind blow causing the pool to ripple. He met the wind.
He met the wind. He met the living God. He met the one who caused the healing wind to blow. He didn’t meet an angel, he met God incarnate. He was waiting to feel the breeze so that he could race to the pool. Instead he met the one who is the wind. In the most real and least expected way, he met God with him; he had a personal encounter with Emmanuel.
For this man, there was no more need for the Pool of Siloam. In a way more real than I can imagine or expect, he was baptized not in water, but in the Spirit of the Lord, by which he took his mat and walked. That day, that Sabbath day, Jesus proved that he was present to reconcile all creation into right relationship with him. As the wind blew across the water in Genesis beginning all creation, Jesus blew across this man who was not able to get himself into the pool and gave him new life.
Our Lord, our Messiah is the one who is able to do more than we could ever hope or imagine. He is able to do what we least expect him to do. We read about this in Acts. We read about Paul’s first missionary journey into Europe. We are so familiar with our modern geography that it may be a surprise that this is the first recorded Christian mission to Europe, but this is not the big surprise.
No, verse 13 tells us that on the Sabbath, Paul and his traveling party went down to the river, down to the place of prayer, and spoke to the women who had gathered there. I am not going to go into the big explanation about why the women are the people we would least expect Paul to speak with on that day, we know about the subordinate roles women played in ancient times. Paul had crossed into Europe to share the Good News of Jesus Christ in the Roman Empire and chose to share it with women.
This slice of Bethesda, this slice of the “House of Grace” comes again to the water and the wind blows across it bringing the grace and peace of God to the world where it is least expected. By the grace and peace of God, these women are reconciled to all creation and begin their relationship anew with Jesus Christ.
This leads us to again, the thing we least expect. One of the women in the group, a believer in God named Lydia, was listening to Paul at the river. She was a dealer in purple cloth. To decode this phrase, she was rich and powerful. We know that she had very rich and powerful clients because only the richest people could afford to purchase purple and only the most powerful were allowed to wear it.
This woman, rich and powerful in her own right, brought her household to Paul for baptism. In effect, her household is the first toehold of Christianity in Europe. A woman’s home in Thyatira becomes the site of the first European Christian church. This easily qualifies as one of the things we least expect from this world.[5]
Even more unexpected is the vision of New Jerusalem that we saw in our reading from Revelation. The winds of change, the winds of reconciliation, the winds of life blow across the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. If you noticed, there is no temple in the city, simply because there is no need. You see, there is no need for a temple because New Jerusalem, the city where nothing accursed will be found any more becomes the new temple.[6]
This is the wonder and the glory of new life in Christ. The most glorious things we could least expect are just the beginning. The wind of new life blows across Bethesda lifting a man who had not walked in thirty-eight years. The wind blows across the river where the women pray and opens Europe to the gospel. The Gospel Incarnate, the Lamb of God will be seen again on the day of the New Jerusalem when there will be no more night.
This is the wind that blows. This is the ruach.
Pope John Paul II took the opportunity to “put Bob Dylan right” when the two megastars headlined a gig together in Bologna.[7] Dylan met His Holiness on stage during a Catholic youth event before playing three of his best-known songs. After the two men had shaken hands and exchanged a few words, the Pope stepped up to the microphone and took the singer to the theological cleaners.
“You say the answer is blowing in the wind, my friend,” he observed. “So it is. But it is not the wind that blows things away, it is the wind that is the breath and life of the Holy Spirit, the voice that calls and says, ‘Come!’”
Clearly enjoying the thunderous applause that greeted these words, the Pope continued in a style that would not have disgraced a television evangelist: “You ask me, how many roads must a man walk down before he becomes a man? I answer: One! There is only one road for man, and it is the road of Jesus Christ, who said I am the Way and the Life.”
As the wind blows, let us be blown by it.
[1] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations
[2] New Revised Standard Version
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pool_of_Bethesda, accessed May 12, 2007
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethesda%2C_Maryland and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Naval_Medical_Center accessed on May 12, 2007
[5] Cousar, Charles B, Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D. “Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, Year C.” Louisville, KY: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994, pages 314-316.
[6] Ibid, pages 318-320.
[7] Ship of Fools Magazine Online, September 29, 1997 as found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?item_topic_id=1887, May 7, 2010.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Blowin' in the Wind
This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the Second Sunday of Easter, April 15, 2007.
Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
One of the several jobs I held while in seminary was as a teaching assistant for New Testament Greek. I was a Greek tutor for a group of ten students. I wasn’t a language geek, on the contrary. The other teaching assistants were all planning to go on to Ph.D. programs and becoming professors. Me, I was just a guy going into parish ministry who loved the New Testament in Greek. I even told my students on the first day that if they needed to take the class for a grade (most students took language classes pass/fail) or if they were looking at going on to a doctoral program, then going to a different tutor it might be a good idea and wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I knew I wasn’t going to be their professor; I was going to be their tutor, their guide, and their pastor.
I knew I had to be pastoral with these students. You see, they had a horrible experience with Hebrew, their first seminary language. Their experiences, or rather their wounds, were still fresh. They were like deer in the headlights that only five months earlier had been hit by a big truck. So on the first day, I spent about an hour getting to know my students.
To break the ice, I asked them some questions about their aspirations, and what they hoped to get from Greek, things like that. The last thing I asked them to do was share their favorite word from Hebrew. Just one word. I knew they had an awful experience, but I hoped if they could remember one Hebrew word that they liked, it might give them that one little toe hold that would begin to let light shine from their terrible experience. I hoped if they were able to make one connection, just one, then the entire Hebrew experience might not be so bad. I hoped this bridge could help them begin to forgive the professor and the seminary for their horrible Hebrew experience.
I started by sharing my favorite Hebrew word, ru-ach.[1] Please, say it with me, ru-ach. How’s that, you’re speaking biblical Hebrew! I love this word. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “the Spirit”[2] or “the wind.”[3] Listen to the word again, ru-ach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me, ru-ach.
In Genesis, this breath of God, this spirit is imparted just before the light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.
This is the wind that comes off of the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew to fall on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge and regardless of the chaos of the world around us, it is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God is with us.
This is the same breath, wind, Spirit received by the disciples in our reading today. This reading picks up where we left off on Easter Sunday in John’s gospel. It is probably a week later since Peter and the disciple Jesus loved had returned and Thomas had left. The disciples are together in a room and the doors had been shut because they were afraid of the Jews. Then, suddenly, Jesus appears in the room standing in their midst and offers his blessing, “Peace to you.”
Jesus offers his peace to them, the peace which surpasses all understanding. He shows them the wounds to his hands and his side. Such violence which would be so grotesque gives reassurance to the disciples. They recognize their Lord and they rejoice in his presence. Then he repeats his blessing, “Peace to you,” then gives them their commission.
“Just as the Father has sent me I send you.” As the Father sends the Son, the disciples are now sent as sons of the Lord. The disciples are no longer helpers or assistants. They are not servants, or slaves, or hired men; they are brothers and sons of the Lord. With this honor, they receive great responsibility. After receiving their commission, they receive their authority. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain them, they are retained.” This is an awesome responsibility given to the disciples. The power and authority to forgive sin, authority which belongs to God alone, is now shared with them.
But because of the “retain” phrase, it is often assumed that the disciples are given the authority to judge others. But the story of Thomas gives us insight about how to interpret this part of the passage.
Thomas, of course, wasn’t with the other disciples the first time Jesus appears in this reading. So when the others tell him that they have seen the Lord, he tells them that unless he sees Jesus’ hands, unless he sees the marks of the nails, unless he puts his finger into the marks of the nails, and unless he puts his hand in Jesus’ side, surely he will not believe what he has been told. Thomas says “show me.” He must have been from Missouri.
So eight days later with all of the disciples present, Jesus returns to their midst, Jesus invites Thomas to examine his hands and the marks of the nails. He invites Thomas to put his fingers in the holes of his hands and a hand in the hole in his side. The Lord invites Thomas to do the very things he had asked to do. Then the Lord says to him, “be believing, not unbelieving.” Thomas proclaims, “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus then tells Thomas, “Since you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are the ones who are not seeing yet believing.”
This saying is often thought to imply that Thomas is not as blessed as those who will come later because he had to see to believe. But this leap is not found in the text. Thomas had to see Jesus before he believed. The other disciples had to see Jesus before they believed. But Jesus does not say that the disciples are more or less blessed than any other believers. They are blessed differently, but all are still blessed. Jesus’ actions are not about Thomas’ unbelief. Jesus’ actions are rooted in his grace and peace and sovereignty. And this interpretation can help us interpret the forgiveness passage.
In this passage when the disciples forgive sin, the sins are forgiven; sin forgiven is robbed of its power. And when the disciples retain the sins of any, the sin is retained, but scripture does not say who retains it. When the disciples do not forgive the sins of others, they keep the sins themselves. Sins are not kept on behalf of others. When the Lord forgives the repentant, others cannot be forced to retain their sins. That forgiveness is about Jesus’ action, not the disciples.
Both passages accent the sovereignty of Jesus as he blesses and forgives. The disciples’ forgiveness does not overwhelm God’s sovereignty. God’s ability to forgive sin is not dependent upon the choices of the disciples, or any body else. The disciples’ ability to forgive and retain sin affects their relationships with others and with God, not the other’s relationship with God.
It is the responsibility of the disciples to share what they have seen, and heard, and learned from the Lord. It is their responsibility to share the gospel. But it is not the responsibility of the disciples to judge how the listeners respond. “Those who hear are judged by how they respond to the offer of life.” [4]
Wonderfully, gloriously, we are given this same blessing, commission, responsibility, and authority. As the disciples passed these blessings onto the church, we continue this ministry today. Through the breath of God that blew across creation in the beginning, we continue to receive the blessing and power of the Lord’s Holy Spirit.
We are called to take the disciples vocation and make it our own. We are called to do as they did. They were called to receive, believe, and respond. Likewise we are called to receive the Holy Spirit. We are called to believe in the word and the power of the Lord. And we are called to share the word of God; God’s loving words of grace and forgiveness.
Many of us are familiar with the old Bob Dylan song from 1962, Blowin’ in the Wind. It has been covered by folk singers, country singers, blues singers, jazz singers, and even a punk band over the last 45 years. The lyrics themselves ask questions, questions that have no real answers. The song asks things like:
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
While these questions are not answered in the song, Dylan teaches the listener where to find the answer to these questions:
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.[5]
I am here to tell you that it is true; the answer to these questions is blowin’ in the wind, the same wind that blew across the void in Genesis and began all of creation. It is the wind that blew across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. It is the breath that preceded life, the breath that gave life to all of creation. It is the breath that still comes from God and is still imparted on creation. It is the wind that comes from the breath of God, given to the disciples which we still receive today. It is the breath that calls us to believe. It is the breath that calls us to share the word, sharing the breath of God. It is the breath that calls us to forgive.
And still, it calls us to listen and believe. Because when we stop listening to the word of God, when we quit feeling the breath of the Lord blowing across our faces, across our lives, we are not able to respond according to the word. We instead pay attention to the words we hear from other voices. When we stop listening to the voice of God, we stop forgiving and start retianing other’s sins. When we hear other voices, we do not hear the blessing of the Lord, “Peace to you.”
Listen and believe. Listen, and receive the Lord’s blessing. Listen, and forgive. Listen, and read the word of God. Listen, and let us worship together. Listen, and respond to the sick and the poor that surround us. Listen, and be filled with the breath of God. Listen and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
[1] To pronounce this word the accent is on the first syllable and the “ach” in the second is soft.
[2] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations
[3] New Revised Standard Version
[4] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, page 282.
[5] Dylan, Bob, “Blowin in the Wind.” From “The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.” Music and lyrics published April 1962, song released 1963. Publishing information unknown.
Acts 5:27-32
Psalm 118:14-29
Revelation 1:4-8
John 20:19-31
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
One of the several jobs I held while in seminary was as a teaching assistant for New Testament Greek. I was a Greek tutor for a group of ten students. I wasn’t a language geek, on the contrary. The other teaching assistants were all planning to go on to Ph.D. programs and becoming professors. Me, I was just a guy going into parish ministry who loved the New Testament in Greek. I even told my students on the first day that if they needed to take the class for a grade (most students took language classes pass/fail) or if they were looking at going on to a doctoral program, then going to a different tutor it might be a good idea and wouldn’t hurt my feelings. I knew I wasn’t going to be their professor; I was going to be their tutor, their guide, and their pastor.
I knew I had to be pastoral with these students. You see, they had a horrible experience with Hebrew, their first seminary language. Their experiences, or rather their wounds, were still fresh. They were like deer in the headlights that only five months earlier had been hit by a big truck. So on the first day, I spent about an hour getting to know my students.
To break the ice, I asked them some questions about their aspirations, and what they hoped to get from Greek, things like that. The last thing I asked them to do was share their favorite word from Hebrew. Just one word. I knew they had an awful experience, but I hoped if they could remember one Hebrew word that they liked, it might give them that one little toe hold that would begin to let light shine from their terrible experience. I hoped if they were able to make one connection, just one, then the entire Hebrew experience might not be so bad. I hoped this bridge could help them begin to forgive the professor and the seminary for their horrible Hebrew experience.
I started by sharing my favorite Hebrew word, ru-ach.[1] Please, say it with me, ru-ach. How’s that, you’re speaking biblical Hebrew! I love this word. In Genesis 1:2, this is the word our bibles translate as “the Spirit”[2] or “the wind.”[3] Listen to the word again, ru-ach. It sounds like wind and spirit. There is a breathy, otherworldly quality to this word that mystifies me, ru-ach.
In Genesis, this breath of God, this spirit is imparted just before the light is created. It is the breath that blows across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. This is the breath that precedes life. This is the breath that gives life to all creation.
This is the wind that comes off of the water in the morning. It’s the cool breeze that brings the dew to fall on the grass. It’s the summer breeze that rustles the leaves in the trees and tells us that all is right in the world. It is the Spirit that reminds us that God is in charge and regardless of the chaos of the world around us, it is the Spirit that says Emmanuel, God is with us.
This is the same breath, wind, Spirit received by the disciples in our reading today. This reading picks up where we left off on Easter Sunday in John’s gospel. It is probably a week later since Peter and the disciple Jesus loved had returned and Thomas had left. The disciples are together in a room and the doors had been shut because they were afraid of the Jews. Then, suddenly, Jesus appears in the room standing in their midst and offers his blessing, “Peace to you.”
Jesus offers his peace to them, the peace which surpasses all understanding. He shows them the wounds to his hands and his side. Such violence which would be so grotesque gives reassurance to the disciples. They recognize their Lord and they rejoice in his presence. Then he repeats his blessing, “Peace to you,” then gives them their commission.
“Just as the Father has sent me I send you.” As the Father sends the Son, the disciples are now sent as sons of the Lord. The disciples are no longer helpers or assistants. They are not servants, or slaves, or hired men; they are brothers and sons of the Lord. With this honor, they receive great responsibility. After receiving their commission, they receive their authority. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you retain them, they are retained.” This is an awesome responsibility given to the disciples. The power and authority to forgive sin, authority which belongs to God alone, is now shared with them.
But because of the “retain” phrase, it is often assumed that the disciples are given the authority to judge others. But the story of Thomas gives us insight about how to interpret this part of the passage.
Thomas, of course, wasn’t with the other disciples the first time Jesus appears in this reading. So when the others tell him that they have seen the Lord, he tells them that unless he sees Jesus’ hands, unless he sees the marks of the nails, unless he puts his finger into the marks of the nails, and unless he puts his hand in Jesus’ side, surely he will not believe what he has been told. Thomas says “show me.” He must have been from Missouri.
So eight days later with all of the disciples present, Jesus returns to their midst, Jesus invites Thomas to examine his hands and the marks of the nails. He invites Thomas to put his fingers in the holes of his hands and a hand in the hole in his side. The Lord invites Thomas to do the very things he had asked to do. Then the Lord says to him, “be believing, not unbelieving.” Thomas proclaims, “My Lord and my God.”
Jesus then tells Thomas, “Since you have seen, you have believed. Blessed are the ones who are not seeing yet believing.”
This saying is often thought to imply that Thomas is not as blessed as those who will come later because he had to see to believe. But this leap is not found in the text. Thomas had to see Jesus before he believed. The other disciples had to see Jesus before they believed. But Jesus does not say that the disciples are more or less blessed than any other believers. They are blessed differently, but all are still blessed. Jesus’ actions are not about Thomas’ unbelief. Jesus’ actions are rooted in his grace and peace and sovereignty. And this interpretation can help us interpret the forgiveness passage.
In this passage when the disciples forgive sin, the sins are forgiven; sin forgiven is robbed of its power. And when the disciples retain the sins of any, the sin is retained, but scripture does not say who retains it. When the disciples do not forgive the sins of others, they keep the sins themselves. Sins are not kept on behalf of others. When the Lord forgives the repentant, others cannot be forced to retain their sins. That forgiveness is about Jesus’ action, not the disciples.
Both passages accent the sovereignty of Jesus as he blesses and forgives. The disciples’ forgiveness does not overwhelm God’s sovereignty. God’s ability to forgive sin is not dependent upon the choices of the disciples, or any body else. The disciples’ ability to forgive and retain sin affects their relationships with others and with God, not the other’s relationship with God.
It is the responsibility of the disciples to share what they have seen, and heard, and learned from the Lord. It is their responsibility to share the gospel. But it is not the responsibility of the disciples to judge how the listeners respond. “Those who hear are judged by how they respond to the offer of life.” [4]
Wonderfully, gloriously, we are given this same blessing, commission, responsibility, and authority. As the disciples passed these blessings onto the church, we continue this ministry today. Through the breath of God that blew across creation in the beginning, we continue to receive the blessing and power of the Lord’s Holy Spirit.
We are called to take the disciples vocation and make it our own. We are called to do as they did. They were called to receive, believe, and respond. Likewise we are called to receive the Holy Spirit. We are called to believe in the word and the power of the Lord. And we are called to share the word of God; God’s loving words of grace and forgiveness.
Many of us are familiar with the old Bob Dylan song from 1962, Blowin’ in the Wind. It has been covered by folk singers, country singers, blues singers, jazz singers, and even a punk band over the last 45 years. The lyrics themselves ask questions, questions that have no real answers. The song asks things like:
How many times must a man look up
Before he can see the sky?
Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?
While these questions are not answered in the song, Dylan teaches the listener where to find the answer to these questions:
The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
The answer is blowin' in the wind.[5]
I am here to tell you that it is true; the answer to these questions is blowin’ in the wind, the same wind that blew across the void in Genesis and began all of creation. It is the wind that blew across the chaos, across the darkness, across the void. It is the breath that preceded life, the breath that gave life to all of creation. It is the breath that still comes from God and is still imparted on creation. It is the wind that comes from the breath of God, given to the disciples which we still receive today. It is the breath that calls us to believe. It is the breath that calls us to share the word, sharing the breath of God. It is the breath that calls us to forgive.
And still, it calls us to listen and believe. Because when we stop listening to the word of God, when we quit feeling the breath of the Lord blowing across our faces, across our lives, we are not able to respond according to the word. We instead pay attention to the words we hear from other voices. When we stop listening to the voice of God, we stop forgiving and start retianing other’s sins. When we hear other voices, we do not hear the blessing of the Lord, “Peace to you.”
Listen and believe. Listen, and receive the Lord’s blessing. Listen, and forgive. Listen, and read the word of God. Listen, and let us worship together. Listen, and respond to the sick and the poor that surround us. Listen, and be filled with the breath of God. Listen and be filled with the Holy Spirit.
[1] To pronounce this word the accent is on the first syllable and the “ach” in the second is soft.
[2] Jerusalem Publication Society, New American Standard Bible, New International Version, New Living translations
[3] New Revised Standard Version
[4] Cousar, Charles B., Gaventa, Beverly R., McCann, Jr., J. Clinton, Newsome, James D., Texts for Preaching, A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV, YEAR C. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994, page 282.
[5] Dylan, Bob, “Blowin in the Wind.” From “The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan.” Music and lyrics published April 1962, song released 1963. Publishing information unknown.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)