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)