Easter 7A
Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-25; 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11; John 17:1-11
So if Jesus rose from the dead, where is He? Why isn’t He still around, perhaps making visits to other countries like the Pope and the U.S. President do? We really NEED Him!
Well, we answer: The reason is that He ascended into heaven! Some people say they have seen him AFTER the Ascension, beginning with Saul, the man from Tarsus, whom many say is responsible for the international spread of what is now called Christianity. There are many other stories of people through the centuries that have had visions of Jesus, though none so compelling as the appearances to the first Apostles. Those Apostles were encouraged to touch him, to eat breakfast with him, to feel his breath on them, to insert fingers into gaping wounds.
But then one day he gathers them together, says two sentences, and disappears into a cloud. The irony is that he had just spoken to them about power. They, of course, wanted to know if now was the time he would restore the kingdom to Israel. That would be such a great event in their eyes, the one thing they were waiting for, the thing that had been foretold. When the Messiah comes, he will restore the kingdom.
So Jesus’s last words on earth were about power and about witnessing. After a few decades of persecution, when they surely experienced that the Greek word for witness is translated “martyr,” they would have to take another look at what power meant.
They may have forgotten that He warned them His kingdom was NOT of this world. This forgetting is understandable, since He taught them to pray “Thy Kingdom come.” And they may have taken a while to remember what sort of power he wielded while on earth. After so many of their number were killed, they may have felt like an ancient version of Beetle Bailey—beaten to a pulp again and again.
The power, it seems, was in getting up and continuing to do good works, tirelessly, one foot after the other, responding to the needs of the least powerful around them. Peter is able to write: “rejoice insofar as you are sharing Christ’s sufferings…7Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you” (1 Peter 4:13, 5:7). So the power from the Spirit Jesus sends is going to be in sticking to your values in the face of serious opposition, devoting your energies to the disadvantaged and downtrodden while being accused of ineffective “do-gooder-ism,” in being dismissed as a serious player in this world where it’s political power and wealth that count.
Jesus has ascended into heaven. Wherever you think heaven is or what ascending to it might mean, the fact remains that He is no longer in the world even in His transfigured form, but we are. And those of us who have been traumatized by apocalyptic stories of rapture and cataclysm and people left behind can hardly take much consolation from the angels’ assurance that He will come again. Luckily, in John’s Gospel, Jesus prays that we may be protected. He can’t mean protected from suffering and death. He must mean protected from losing contact with His Father and from losing our “oneness.” Perhaps, in Him, we can regain it.
And maybe as we mourn the Ascension as the loss of our Master, we can ponder what Barbara Brown Taylor meant in her wonderful book Leaving Church, when she wrote: “I wanted to recover the kind of faith that has nothing to do with being sure what I believe and everything to do with trusting God to catch me though I am not sure of anything” (p. 111).
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Monday, May 23, 2011
Commentary on Lectionary for May 29, 2011
Easter 6A
Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
The featured speaker at Ursuline College’s graduation this year was an astrophysicist, Dr. Evalyn Gates. She is currently the CEO and Executive Director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. One of the points she made to the graduates was that if you consider the earth and all the stars and galaxies we can see, the total mass of them represents only a fraction of the matter in the universe. The reason is that most matter is “Dark Matter,” and we cannot see it. But we search for an understanding of it, and when we do come to more understanding, it will hold answers to many of our questions about energy and the architecture of the universe.
Put more simply, what we can see is only a tiny part of what actually exists.
If you are reading this, you know that the world did not end, as predicted, on May 21, 2011. But, we still have 2012 to look forward to, according to other predictors. At the graduation, Dr. Gates did not mention any of these predictions. She came across as a very positive person, and saw her new position as a way to encourage science education and thus make a difference in the world. She told the graduates: “Follow your passion…Find what you can contribute...Explore… Do not limit yourself by someone else’s lack of imagination.”
Isn’t this exactly what Paul was doing in his speech in front of the Areopagus? Jesus had taught him something about God, and now Paul was teaching his listeners what he had learned. And he used their own statue to an unknown God as his jumping off point. When you live in a perilous, disease-ridden, and fragile world (don’t we all?), and if you believe that there are great forces outside (call them gods) who have power to make things turn out well or badly depending on whether they are pleased with you, then you are very careful to please and appease them. You even offer sacrifice to the “unknown God,” just in case there is one—and for these Athenians, there WAS!
Some might say we have come a long way in understanding the universe and our place in it. Only 20 years ago, we were learning a mnemonic to remember the nine planets. Then Pluto was demoted, and then when astronomers looked farther, they have found 531 planets to date, with another 1200 up for verification. We no longer believe that everything in the universe revolves around the earth, although astronomers have found nothing yet to match its atmosphere.
But how about our understanding of God? Has it evolved? Developed? And then the key question: Do we know God well enough to have a relationship with Him (realizing “He” has no gender)?
What if we reflected on just that first line in today’s reading from John, John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We could interpret that as meaning, if we haven’t kept his commandments, then he won’t love US. Seems like the opposite of unconditional love. It certainly points to our need for a Helper, an Advocate, a Counselor.
But we can also imagine a mother saying that to a child, a teacher to her students, a spouse to her husband: If you love me, you will do as I say. But wait a second. Jesus may have been referring to the “new” commandment he was just talking about in John 13:34: “…that you love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples…”
What he may have been saying is, if you develop a relationship with me, become full of my Spirit, you will find yourself looking at others in a new, much more positive way, with “gentleness and reverence,” as Peter wrote (1 Peter 2:16). If that should happen, we will indeed be able to sing with the Psalmist: “Come and see what God has done!” (Psalm 66:6). And we will have added light to the dark matter of the universe.
Acts 17:22-31; Psalm 66:8-20; 1 Peter 3:13-22; John 14:15-21
The featured speaker at Ursuline College’s graduation this year was an astrophysicist, Dr. Evalyn Gates. She is currently the CEO and Executive Director of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. One of the points she made to the graduates was that if you consider the earth and all the stars and galaxies we can see, the total mass of them represents only a fraction of the matter in the universe. The reason is that most matter is “Dark Matter,” and we cannot see it. But we search for an understanding of it, and when we do come to more understanding, it will hold answers to many of our questions about energy and the architecture of the universe.
Put more simply, what we can see is only a tiny part of what actually exists.
If you are reading this, you know that the world did not end, as predicted, on May 21, 2011. But, we still have 2012 to look forward to, according to other predictors. At the graduation, Dr. Gates did not mention any of these predictions. She came across as a very positive person, and saw her new position as a way to encourage science education and thus make a difference in the world. She told the graduates: “Follow your passion…Find what you can contribute...Explore… Do not limit yourself by someone else’s lack of imagination.”
Isn’t this exactly what Paul was doing in his speech in front of the Areopagus? Jesus had taught him something about God, and now Paul was teaching his listeners what he had learned. And he used their own statue to an unknown God as his jumping off point. When you live in a perilous, disease-ridden, and fragile world (don’t we all?), and if you believe that there are great forces outside (call them gods) who have power to make things turn out well or badly depending on whether they are pleased with you, then you are very careful to please and appease them. You even offer sacrifice to the “unknown God,” just in case there is one—and for these Athenians, there WAS!
Some might say we have come a long way in understanding the universe and our place in it. Only 20 years ago, we were learning a mnemonic to remember the nine planets. Then Pluto was demoted, and then when astronomers looked farther, they have found 531 planets to date, with another 1200 up for verification. We no longer believe that everything in the universe revolves around the earth, although astronomers have found nothing yet to match its atmosphere.
But how about our understanding of God? Has it evolved? Developed? And then the key question: Do we know God well enough to have a relationship with Him (realizing “He” has no gender)?
What if we reflected on just that first line in today’s reading from John, John 14:15: “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” We could interpret that as meaning, if we haven’t kept his commandments, then he won’t love US. Seems like the opposite of unconditional love. It certainly points to our need for a Helper, an Advocate, a Counselor.
But we can also imagine a mother saying that to a child, a teacher to her students, a spouse to her husband: If you love me, you will do as I say. But wait a second. Jesus may have been referring to the “new” commandment he was just talking about in John 13:34: “…that you love one another. By this, all people will know that you are my disciples…”
What he may have been saying is, if you develop a relationship with me, become full of my Spirit, you will find yourself looking at others in a new, much more positive way, with “gentleness and reverence,” as Peter wrote (1 Peter 2:16). If that should happen, we will indeed be able to sing with the Psalmist: “Come and see what God has done!” (Psalm 66:6). And we will have added light to the dark matter of the universe.
Monday, May 16, 2011
Commentary on Lectionary for May 22, 2011
Easter 5A
Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
John 14: 1-14 is one of the passages taken on by Brian McLaren in his book A New Kind of Christianity because it seems so exclusionary, especially in verse 6: “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If used as a ‘proof quote,’ this verse seems to imply that those who do not know or accept Jesus (as Lord and Savior?) cannot be in God’s good graces nor among his chosen people. You can carry that thinking to the conclusion that such a person will NOT be in one of the mansions Jesus is preparing for his followers, but will end up in Hell.
McLaren counters this conclusion by having us look closely at the context—that Jesus is responding to Peter’s insistent request that he explain why they can’t go where he is going. He is not talking about all peoples in all places of the globe, but is talking to his followers, hoping they will get it that his body will die and be in a tomb for three days. He also wants them to understand that his Father’s house does not mean heaven. He is most likely referring to the Temple, which John reminds us is a metaphor for His body.
If that is correct, Jesus may be saying that in Him—that is, in God—there are many opportunities for contact, for dwelling, for connection. In the words of Psalm 31: “In you, O Lord, I take refuge.” As a crying baby may unconsciously wish she were back in her Mother’s womb, so we hope for that incorporation into the Being of God: “Into your hand, I commit my spirit” (Ps. 31:6).
McLaren makes an eloquent plea that if we Christians could refrain from considering people of other faiths as outside the good graces of God, we then could “offer Jesus to the world” as a person who through his words and actions could show us all how to save the world from its self-destructive practices and attitudes.
One thing Jesus would tell the world would be to get or remain connected to God in whatever way they think of Him. This being connected with God would certainly be the cornerstone that 1st Peter talks about, and we could even imagine that all peoples of whatever faiths could taste and see ”that the Lord is good.”
This smacks, as the May 17 issue of The Christian Century makes clear, of a very bad word for some Evangelical Christians: “Universalism.” The word implies that everyone or nearly everyone will be saved. If that’s the case, the critics proclaim, then there is no need for the Church, for Jesus, or for His Cross.
Those who are so accused, however, would strongly maintain that it is absolutely NOT true. Jesus is supremely necessary. Where else would we have such an example, such a Way to follow towards peace and justice, such words of challenge, consolation, and wisdom? Who else would give the world such hope, and call so many to collaborate with him in saving it? And where else would we believers learn what to think of God?
He calls us from darkness into “his marvelous light.” And—without denying others’ right to their own beliefs—we are proud to let our light shine into whatever darkness lies upon the earth.
Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-14
John 14: 1-14 is one of the passages taken on by Brian McLaren in his book A New Kind of Christianity because it seems so exclusionary, especially in verse 6: “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” If used as a ‘proof quote,’ this verse seems to imply that those who do not know or accept Jesus (as Lord and Savior?) cannot be in God’s good graces nor among his chosen people. You can carry that thinking to the conclusion that such a person will NOT be in one of the mansions Jesus is preparing for his followers, but will end up in Hell.
McLaren counters this conclusion by having us look closely at the context—that Jesus is responding to Peter’s insistent request that he explain why they can’t go where he is going. He is not talking about all peoples in all places of the globe, but is talking to his followers, hoping they will get it that his body will die and be in a tomb for three days. He also wants them to understand that his Father’s house does not mean heaven. He is most likely referring to the Temple, which John reminds us is a metaphor for His body.
If that is correct, Jesus may be saying that in Him—that is, in God—there are many opportunities for contact, for dwelling, for connection. In the words of Psalm 31: “In you, O Lord, I take refuge.” As a crying baby may unconsciously wish she were back in her Mother’s womb, so we hope for that incorporation into the Being of God: “Into your hand, I commit my spirit” (Ps. 31:6).
McLaren makes an eloquent plea that if we Christians could refrain from considering people of other faiths as outside the good graces of God, we then could “offer Jesus to the world” as a person who through his words and actions could show us all how to save the world from its self-destructive practices and attitudes.
One thing Jesus would tell the world would be to get or remain connected to God in whatever way they think of Him. This being connected with God would certainly be the cornerstone that 1st Peter talks about, and we could even imagine that all peoples of whatever faiths could taste and see ”that the Lord is good.”
This smacks, as the May 17 issue of The Christian Century makes clear, of a very bad word for some Evangelical Christians: “Universalism.” The word implies that everyone or nearly everyone will be saved. If that’s the case, the critics proclaim, then there is no need for the Church, for Jesus, or for His Cross.
Those who are so accused, however, would strongly maintain that it is absolutely NOT true. Jesus is supremely necessary. Where else would we have such an example, such a Way to follow towards peace and justice, such words of challenge, consolation, and wisdom? Who else would give the world such hope, and call so many to collaborate with him in saving it? And where else would we believers learn what to think of God?
He calls us from darkness into “his marvelous light.” And—without denying others’ right to their own beliefs—we are proud to let our light shine into whatever darkness lies upon the earth.
Saturday, May 14, 2011
Commentary on Lectionary for May 15, 2011
Easter 4A
Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
I am preaching this Sunday and so I’ll just summarize here. The sermon title is “Kicking it up a Notch” because I’ve always been impressed that Chef Emeril can make something taste entirely different by adding a few ingredients or cooking it differently or re-envisioning the dish entirely.
I combine Emeril with Karen Armstrong (now there’s a match made in heaven!) because of Karen’s introduction of the Charter of Compassion to all of us and her mandate to “kick every Scripture passage up a notch” (my quote, not hers) if it does not result in compassion.
Today's passage that will need this turn toward compassion is the one from John, since so much of John’s Gospel has been used by Scripture quoters and apologists to exclude and condemn nonbelievers in Jesus Christ. The passages have also been used for centuries by missionaries and proselytizers in their sincere efforts to save non-Christians from eternal torment in hell.
And so how do we deal with such passages? I imagine that when Chef Emeril’s program comes on the Food Channel, some people immediately turn it off. Their vision of what food preparation should be, that may come from how their Mother or Father cooked, does not include any of the methods nor ingredients Emeril uses. And so to sign on to the Charter of Compassion will be very difficult for those who feel religion’s primary purpose is to sort sheep from goats and blow chaff away from wheat. They may also believe that every word of Scripture is inspired by God and cannot be interpreted beyond its literal meaning. They refuse to quibble about what literal means nor to acknowledge that a translation is already an interpretation.
But some others are willing and able to wrestle with a passage like this, to coax compassion out of it, and to let themselves be “wounded” by God’s message as Jacob was wounded in his wrestling match with the Angel in Genesis 32.
John’s Gospel makes the point over and over that Jesus is the embodiment of God; that he shows us what God is like. Those of us who believe in Jesus have that belief as our “Good News.” But just as there was a development in the mentality of those first Christians, who were all Jews, so also there can be and is a development in the mentality of modern day Christians. The Jews came to understand that you didn’t have to become a Jew in order to be a chosen member of this new community. In fact, you didn’t have to observe the law and the practices described in the Torah in order to be beloved of God.
And so development occurs in Christian circles as well over the centuries. People get freed from literalism and start thinking: “Wait a minute! Jesus Himself says later in this same passage: ‘I have sheep that are NOT of this fold.’” But they’re still able to hear His voice. Why can’t people who don’t know about Jesus but DO know about God, hear God’s voice in its many different guises—from nature to Allah to Buddha to simple goodness in their fellow people?
Does this mean that it doesn’t matter what you believe? Absolutely not. But it MAY mean that to discover God is to discover Jesus, no matter where or how or who. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is ONE.” No wonder compassion is common to all religions—compassion is of God. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long” (Ps. 23:6)
Acts 2:42-47; Psalm 23, 1 Peter 2:19-25; John 10:1-10
I am preaching this Sunday and so I’ll just summarize here. The sermon title is “Kicking it up a Notch” because I’ve always been impressed that Chef Emeril can make something taste entirely different by adding a few ingredients or cooking it differently or re-envisioning the dish entirely.
I combine Emeril with Karen Armstrong (now there’s a match made in heaven!) because of Karen’s introduction of the Charter of Compassion to all of us and her mandate to “kick every Scripture passage up a notch” (my quote, not hers) if it does not result in compassion.
Today's passage that will need this turn toward compassion is the one from John, since so much of John’s Gospel has been used by Scripture quoters and apologists to exclude and condemn nonbelievers in Jesus Christ. The passages have also been used for centuries by missionaries and proselytizers in their sincere efforts to save non-Christians from eternal torment in hell.
And so how do we deal with such passages? I imagine that when Chef Emeril’s program comes on the Food Channel, some people immediately turn it off. Their vision of what food preparation should be, that may come from how their Mother or Father cooked, does not include any of the methods nor ingredients Emeril uses. And so to sign on to the Charter of Compassion will be very difficult for those who feel religion’s primary purpose is to sort sheep from goats and blow chaff away from wheat. They may also believe that every word of Scripture is inspired by God and cannot be interpreted beyond its literal meaning. They refuse to quibble about what literal means nor to acknowledge that a translation is already an interpretation.
But some others are willing and able to wrestle with a passage like this, to coax compassion out of it, and to let themselves be “wounded” by God’s message as Jacob was wounded in his wrestling match with the Angel in Genesis 32.
John’s Gospel makes the point over and over that Jesus is the embodiment of God; that he shows us what God is like. Those of us who believe in Jesus have that belief as our “Good News.” But just as there was a development in the mentality of those first Christians, who were all Jews, so also there can be and is a development in the mentality of modern day Christians. The Jews came to understand that you didn’t have to become a Jew in order to be a chosen member of this new community. In fact, you didn’t have to observe the law and the practices described in the Torah in order to be beloved of God.
And so development occurs in Christian circles as well over the centuries. People get freed from literalism and start thinking: “Wait a minute! Jesus Himself says later in this same passage: ‘I have sheep that are NOT of this fold.’” But they’re still able to hear His voice. Why can’t people who don’t know about Jesus but DO know about God, hear God’s voice in its many different guises—from nature to Allah to Buddha to simple goodness in their fellow people?
Does this mean that it doesn’t matter what you believe? Absolutely not. But it MAY mean that to discover God is to discover Jesus, no matter where or how or who. “Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is ONE.” No wonder compassion is common to all religions—compassion is of God. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me, all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord my whole life long” (Ps. 23:6)
Monday, May 2, 2011
Commentary on Lectionary for May 8, 2011
Easter 3A
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35
The weather this past April makes a fitting context for today’s readings. Howling wind, downed trees, power outages and so many tornadoes that ravaged so many parts of our country. All of us were calling friends or acquaintances to make sure they were okay. Some people in those states went down into their basements and came up to find their houses and all their belongings flattened and strewn over what used to be their neighborhood.
“Only one thing is permanent,” my wife reminded me, “and that’s God.” In a second, all of our goods can look like a department sale after Black Friday—all of those brand new, stylish clothes now looking like so much trash strewn about everywhere.
1 Peter has the same sentiment as my wife’s: “23You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.”
In a way, it’s encouraging that these readings speak to how difficult it was then—and is now—to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus (see Acts 14:2). People didn’t recognize him—neither Mary at the tomb nor those two walking disconsolately toward Emmaus. The disciples thought he was a ghost.
The Scripture writers go to great lengths to “prove” Jesus arose (he appeared to his disciples—to people who would recognize him immediately--and then to “500 brothers at once” according to Paul (1 Cor. 15:6). He had people touch him, notably Thomas. He dispelled doubts. He even ate some broiled fish. He broke bread just as he did at his last supper.
The writers also take great pains to tie Jesus’s life to the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, the Anointed, the One Who Was to Come, even (in John) to the “I AM.” They remember the Exodus and tout Jesus as the new Lamb, whose blood enables God to Pass Over their sins. They claim that He lives on in this world—even after His ascension—through His Spirit. This Spirit is a creative force similar to the Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis. What the Spirit brings is new life.
Apparently, the new life means turning AWAY from selfish pursuits and turning TOWARDS the needs of your fellow human beings, as Peter says, in “genuine mutual love.” With this new life comes great hope. Like the Psalmist, we could sing: “8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. 9I walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 116). Not only could Jesus’s followers find new ways of structuring communities that prevented an unequal and unjust distribution of wealth (see Acts 2:42-47), but also they began to understand that their physical deaths were not synonymous with the end of life!
These understandings did not descend upon their heads full blown at Pentecost. They developed slowly, with difficulty, amid persecution, and…they are STILL developing. For example, they began to understand that they could reach out to and take Gentiles into their communities. And today we are beginning to understand that people who have never known Jesus can still be saved! Consider this sentiment from the 14th century non-Christian Persian Sufi Master, Hafiz:
If one
Is afraid of losing anything
They [sic]have not looked into the Friend’s eyes;
They have forgotten God’s
Promise (The Gift, p. 146).
What we followers of Jesus have and cherish is the Good News that Jesus came to share with us; that we might never have known without him; and that we are willing to share with anyone, anywhere, anytime. And this Good News is news about who God is and how much he loves us, forgives us, and is STILL WITH US, present and accessible. We do not have to make a career out of condemning those who do not know Jesus, or who reject one or other of our images of him. We can cherish his words: “I have sheep that are not of this fold (John 10:16).” We can see his Spirit everywhere, working, creating, saving, renewing.
--Permanently working, in all kinds of weather.
Acts 2:14a, 36-41; Psalm 116:1-4, 12-19; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35
The weather this past April makes a fitting context for today’s readings. Howling wind, downed trees, power outages and so many tornadoes that ravaged so many parts of our country. All of us were calling friends or acquaintances to make sure they were okay. Some people in those states went down into their basements and came up to find their houses and all their belongings flattened and strewn over what used to be their neighborhood.
“Only one thing is permanent,” my wife reminded me, “and that’s God.” In a second, all of our goods can look like a department sale after Black Friday—all of those brand new, stylish clothes now looking like so much trash strewn about everywhere.
1 Peter has the same sentiment as my wife’s: “23You have been born anew, not of perishable but of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God.”
In a way, it’s encouraging that these readings speak to how difficult it was then—and is now—to believe in the Resurrection of Jesus (see Acts 14:2). People didn’t recognize him—neither Mary at the tomb nor those two walking disconsolately toward Emmaus. The disciples thought he was a ghost.
The Scripture writers go to great lengths to “prove” Jesus arose (he appeared to his disciples—to people who would recognize him immediately--and then to “500 brothers at once” according to Paul (1 Cor. 15:6). He had people touch him, notably Thomas. He dispelled doubts. He even ate some broiled fish. He broke bread just as he did at his last supper.
The writers also take great pains to tie Jesus’s life to the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah, the Anointed, the One Who Was to Come, even (in John) to the “I AM.” They remember the Exodus and tout Jesus as the new Lamb, whose blood enables God to Pass Over their sins. They claim that He lives on in this world—even after His ascension—through His Spirit. This Spirit is a creative force similar to the Spirit that hovered over the waters in Genesis. What the Spirit brings is new life.
Apparently, the new life means turning AWAY from selfish pursuits and turning TOWARDS the needs of your fellow human beings, as Peter says, in “genuine mutual love.” With this new life comes great hope. Like the Psalmist, we could sing: “8For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. 9I walk before the Lord in the land of the living” (Ps. 116). Not only could Jesus’s followers find new ways of structuring communities that prevented an unequal and unjust distribution of wealth (see Acts 2:42-47), but also they began to understand that their physical deaths were not synonymous with the end of life!
These understandings did not descend upon their heads full blown at Pentecost. They developed slowly, with difficulty, amid persecution, and…they are STILL developing. For example, they began to understand that they could reach out to and take Gentiles into their communities. And today we are beginning to understand that people who have never known Jesus can still be saved! Consider this sentiment from the 14th century non-Christian Persian Sufi Master, Hafiz:
If one
Is afraid of losing anything
They [sic]have not looked into the Friend’s eyes;
They have forgotten God’s
Promise (The Gift, p. 146).
What we followers of Jesus have and cherish is the Good News that Jesus came to share with us; that we might never have known without him; and that we are willing to share with anyone, anywhere, anytime. And this Good News is news about who God is and how much he loves us, forgives us, and is STILL WITH US, present and accessible. We do not have to make a career out of condemning those who do not know Jesus, or who reject one or other of our images of him. We can cherish his words: “I have sheep that are not of this fold (John 10:16).” We can see his Spirit everywhere, working, creating, saving, renewing.
--Permanently working, in all kinds of weather.
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