5^th Easter Series 2008: He is going on ahead of you

April 20, Cycle A

Title: Seeing Daddy

Introduction to Easter Season Series, 2008: He is going on ahead of you

Over these next weeks of Easter we’ll continue looking at what it means to follow a resurrected Christ home to Galilee of the nations….

into the world of ethnicities,

into the world which is still filled with many who are

“sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death.”

Theme texts for Easter series:

Acts 10:34-36: Then Peter began to speak to them:

"I truly understand that God shows no partiality,

but in every nation anyone who fears him

and does what is right is acceptable to him.

You know the message he sent to the people of Israel,

preaching peace by Jesus Christ--he is Lord of all.

Matthew 28:7: Go quickly and tell his disciples,

'He has been raised from the dead,

and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee;

there you will see him.'

Worship Leader: Linda

Music Leader: Roger

Speaker: Linda

Texts: Acts 7:55-60; Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16; 1 Peter 2:2-10; John 14:1-10b

Acts 7:55 But filled with the Holy Spirit, Stephen gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 7:56 "Look," he said, "I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" 7:57 But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. 7:58 Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 7:59 While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." 7:60 Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." When he had said this, he died.

Reading adapted from Psalm 31:1-5, 15-16, 21

ALL: In you, O LORD, I look for safe shelter;

you hold me more securely than a mountain fortress.

Women: Please don’t let me be humiliated by my own faults

but let me be shaped only by your goodness and guidance.

Men: Please listen to me, rescue me right away

from all that would trap and hold me back.

ALL: I willingly place myself in your hands;

you have rescued me, set me free.

Women: Every minute of my life is held safely in your faithful hands;

Men: your face lights up when you see me

For you love me

and are completely committed to me.

ALL: Along with all your people, I love you, Lord

and am truly grateful for all that you have done for me.

1 Peter 2:2 Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation-- 2:3 if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good. 2:4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight, and 2:5 like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 2:6 For it stands in scripture: "See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." 2:7 To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe, "The stone that the builders rejected has become the very head of the corner," 2:8 and "A stone that makes them stumble, and a rock that makes them fall." They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do. 2:9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 14:2 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 14:4 And you know the way to the place where I am going." 14:5 Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" 14:6 Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7 If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him." 14:8 Philip said to him, "Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied." 14:9 Jesus said to him, "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?”

Quotation to ponder: To love another person is to see the face of God. --Victor Hugo

Introduction:

When Gary and I lived close to Logsden, a tiny stop on a twisting coastal range road in Oregon, our main shopping destination was Newport. One of our favorite food stores there was a produce market, Boro’s. It was shopping at Boro’s where I finally made the final switch from canned mushrooms to fresh; theirs were wonderfully fresh, fragrant, and so consistently cheap that I am sure they must have been a loss leader for their market. It worked for us; we were weekly regulars.

One week we heard that the wife was due any minute and when we next came into town to shop, their big sign out front had already been changed to a proud happy “Boro and Son”!

It reminds me of another family...

a family with three generations living under the same roof, a older man who had moved in with his son and his young family. Grandpa, son, and four-year-old grandson were all named John.

On one especially trying day the phone rang.

"Hello?" said the harried wife and mother.

An unfamiliar voice asked,

"May I speak to John, please?"

"Which John would you like to speak to. John the father, John the son or John the holy terror?"

Another mother, perhaps also in a stressful moment, remarked, “Sometimes, when I look at my children, I say to myself, ‘Lillian, you should have remained a virgin.’"

--that would be Lillian Carter (mother of Jimmy, Gloria, Ruth, and Billy Carter. Remember Billy Beer? You can still find unopened cans for sale on Ebay.)

Yes, there are those moments in parenting.

Sometimes good and sometimes not so good,

being a parent offers occasional shocking glimpses

of seeing one’s self—or the other parent—

reflected back in the face of an offspring.

The gospel text we just heard opens up some things linked to these age-old issues of family identity, family expectations, family resemblance.

Sometimes these things work out well;

sometimes,

not so much.

In the Carter family, Jimmy was an amazing achiever;

his brother Billy, welllll....

we think of beer and exhibitionism.

If you have seen me, you’ve seen my daddy:

So...here’s Jesus, talking about his family resemblance...

He is so confident in his family heritage

that he takes after his dad that he is able to say

If you know me, you know my dad.

If you have seen me, you have seen my dad.

First, a bit of background on this text.

We’re not going to understand Jesus very well here unless we understand the setting and what he says before and after this.

(I think of this text as being one of the most frequently misunderstood and misused texts of the New Testament so I want to take some care here.)

The setting is Jesus’ long conversation with his scared, confused little group of disciples the night of his betrayal and arrest.

Shortly before, Judas has left the group

who were still eating their Last Supper together;

the other disciples assume that he has gone

to pick up something for the festival

or to give something to the poor. (13:27-30)

After he leaves, Jesus launches into some very heavy teaching for an after-dinner conversation.

He knows that Judas has left to betray him;

he knows that his remaining time with his disciples

is limited to a few hours.

So it is very interesting what he pulls out as being of most importance,

what he makes sure to get covered

before he is torn away from them...

At the very beginning of his after-dinner discourse,

right after Judas bails out,

he begins with the “new commandment”:

Love each other.

Love each other as I have loved you.

This is how others will know who you are:

by your love for each other. (13:34-35)

Then at the beginning of today’s lection, Jesus offers some comfort and reassurance: Don’t let your hearts be troubled...I’m going away but you know the way to the place where I am going.

Wait! Thomas sputters... No, we don’t! How can we know the way?

Jesus responds, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 14:7 If you know me, you will know my Father also.

Philip is also confused. Just show us the Father, he interrupts; then we’ll be satisfied.

Jesus must have sighed. "Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.

The way of love, the truth of love, the life of love:

This text is often used to bolster a very exclusive understanding of how one may find God—only through Christ, only through Christianity. If you can just recite the right formula about Jesus, you’re in good with God....if you can’t, you’re doomed.

I think this misses the point of this text in a dangerously misleading way. There are two important insights that can help us arrive at a far better way to understand it...

First, what is the context? As we saw, Jesus begins this conversation with the new commandment of love. He follows this conversation with several pages of discourse that twines together several key themes: First, the promise of the coming of the Spirit, called the encourager, helper, or advocate; followed by more on love, on peace, on joy, on unity.

It seems clear to me that when Jesus talks about

being the way, the truth, and the life,

he is saying,

If you want to see the Father,

if you want to have the intimacy of relationship with God that I have,

you need to express with our family traits—

follow the simple but demanding way of love and peace,

understand the sometimes difficult truth

of love and peace,

live the challenging life of love and peace

the way, the truth, and the life

that I have so carefully taught you.

So, yes—you do know the way to the place I’m going.

And you will have the Spirit who will encourage you,

advocate for you, help you.

The other way that offers important insight on how to understand this passage comes from a Baptist theologian and evangelist from India. 
Some thirty years ago he addressed a Missions conference in Canada and worked with the text focusing on the cultural implications of Jesus’ use of the word Abba, best translated Daddy: 

“Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me.' Your western ears hear Jesus saying that he is the only way to God, but that is not what he says. He is an eastern mind speaking to eastern minds. [We] hear the emphasis being on the Father (Abba). What Jesus is saying is that he is the only way to come to know God in personal relationship similar to that of a child to "daddy". This does not weaken a sharing of the gospel, as you might think. Instead it allows a Christian to say to someone of another faith, that Jesus offers something unique, a close relationship to God." (Dr. A. B. Masilamini; quoted in Midrash posting by Fred Demaray; emphasis added)

In the big adult world of reality it may not seem like a big deal

to know or not know God as intimately as a Daddy;

it may not seem like a big deal to think much

about showing the family resemblance Jesus talks about

in following the way of love and peace,

understanding the truth of love and peace,

living the life of love and peace.

But Jesus points out a couple of pages later that it is a big deal—

if this is missed, it can result in horrific acts.

At the beginning of chapter 16 he says bluntly:

Indeed, an hour is coming when those who kill you

will think that by doing so they are offering worship to God.

And they will do this

because they have not known the Father or me.

Mennonites following the way, the truth and the life as we’ve understood it:

Last week I talked about the many early Mennonites and other Anabaptists who were killed by other Christians in the 1600’s—

who thought that they were offering worship to God

by wiping out these upstarts who so challenged the status quo.

Here are a few more stories from our church history, our forbears’ efforts to follow the challenging Way of Jesus in the early years in the US:

In Germantown, now a part of the city of Philadelphia, the first permanent settlement of Mennonites was made, with the first Mennonite couple arriving in the fall of 1683. In 1688, four Germantown residents, three of Mennonite background though currently worshipping as Quakers, wrote “the first formal protest against slavery in America....Arguing from the golden rule, [just as we here at HPMF are doing with the torture statement we are writing] the petitioners declared, ‘We shall doe to all men, licke as we will be done our selves: macking no difference of what generation, descent or Colour they are.’”

During the American Revolution, Mennonites and other peace church groups were clear that “warfare was off limits, even when commanded by a king or demanded by a revolution.

“In 1775, as news of the war’s first battles reached their communities, the Mennonites addressed the new patriot government with a petition....Mennonite preacher Benjamin Hershey (1697-1789) explained that although the peace churches had dedicated themselves to serve all people in any way that they could, they would not fight. Mennonites appreciated the freedom they had found in Pennsylvania, he assured the government. But Christian freedom extended only so far.

“’We find no Freedom,” Hershey declared, “in giving, or doing, or assisting in any Thing by which Men’s Lives are destroyed or hurt.’”

“In one county, the sheriff arrested and imprisoned nine Mennonite men who would not swear [an oath of loyalty to the new state]. As punishment, the sheriff sold all of the jailed men’s property at public auction, leaving their families with almost nothing.

“Eve Yoder and Esther Bachman, wives of two of the men, appealed the harsh ruling. They sent a letter to the revolutionary legislature, protesting their husband’s imprisonment and the sale of their belongings. Moved by the women’s requests, the state freed the men and compensated their families. Eve and Esther not only reunited their households; they also helped to set a precedent for religious freedom in the emerging nation.” (quotations from Through Fire and Water, Loewen and Nolt; pp171-173, emph added.)

What about us, today?

When people see us,

do they see our Abba?

Are we living out the teachings of Christ on the way of love and peace,

within the truth of love and peace,

expressing the life of love and peace in our daily moments?

Dale Lambert of Cairo, Nebraska writes to a Canadian blog:

“Our church secretary's name is Christy.

Our Call to Worship on Sunday read:

‘Sisters and brothers, we meet to worship God

made manifest in Christy’.”

So...it’s a bulletin blooper. But isn’t it right on?

How is God being made manifest—made clear, visible, understandable—

In each of us? In our families? In our congregation?

Are we showing the family resemblance?