And so it begins…
Today we heard about John, Peter and a couple other
Apostles going back to fishing, when they are called by Jesus from the
shore. Called to follow… It’s strange because last week it seemed
pretty clear that John’s Gospel ended.
Jesus is resurrected, appears to Mary; appears to the Apostles; comes
back for a little show and tell with Thomas and then
“Now Jesus did
many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in
this book. But these are written so that
you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that
through believing you may have life in his name.”
Sounds like an ending to me. Curtains close, the band plays and the
Apostles come out and take a bow. THE
END!
But it seems an epilogue has been added. A story that takes us back to the original
call to the disciples: Follow Me. It
seems to me that John wants us to NOT stay fixated on the cross and
resurrection, but to allow them to empower us to go forward and continue to
follow: To love the unloveable, reach out to the untouchable, be the Kingdom of
God, rather than debate the style and substance of the resurrection of simply
bask in God’s victory. Add about 18
minutes, and you’ve got my sermon.
The first comment that I got was “if you want us to comment on your sermon, you have to say something
more controversial; something more debatable…we all agree”.
That’s good to know… and I think that most of us do
agree, and yet we often seem to gather to bask in glow of Jesus’ victory; to
debate the finer points of our theology… and too often we forget that worship
should also inspire and equip us to Follow Jesus!! I’d much rather debate Substitutionary
Atonement then talk to a convicted sex
offender and help him find work. I get
the whole Jesus thing… but I really don’t ever intend to talk to my
sister-in-law who was so rude to me. How’m I doing being a follower of
Jesus?? So, I hope that some of us heard
the challenge and invitation offered today.
Dear Norm, you
made many excellent points today and one which I hadn’t thought about
before: that as Christians we’re focused
on Christmas through Easter and not much beyond. Are there other major/signigicant events in
the Christian calendar that further indicate or inform us of the character of
Jesus by which we can model ourselves?
(Again, excellent sermon and you’re a wonderful minister)
I thought that I should keep that last line in… for the integrity of the blog, it’s wrong to
edit. But, to answer… I think that our calendar tends
to be Christmas-Easter oriented… Feast of the Presentation, Palms Sunday, etc.
all part of the calendar with a particular eye to “event” of Jesus – his birth,
death, resurrection and what it means to humanity. The time after Easter and before Advent when
we begin again is called “Ordinary Time” for goodness sake! As is if matter less than the “Extraordinary
Time”. I think that we would benefit
from regular calendar recognition of the Beatitudes (Matthew 5); Parable of the Good Samaritan; Parable of the
Vineyard Workers; the Samaritan Woman… all of these, and others, do a great
deal to reveal the “character” of Jesus’ person and mission, offering us an
example and inspiration rather than simply a figure to honour and glorify. But
that’s just me… reasonable people may disagree.
The Star said that
700 languages a year are dying. Is this
one of what the Bible said would happen?
I’m not sure how to answer that. So, I did some quick research and found that there
are approximately 6 000 languages spoken worldwide today. However, half of
these are likely to disappear within this century. Alongside these languages,
entire sections of human culture are threatened with extinction. According to
the Sorosoro website (www.sorosoro.org)
During the past three centuries, hundreds of languages
have thus disappeared from the surface of the Earth, but it was during the 20th
Century that the situation worsened, and it is expected that the 21st century
will witness a disaster from which there will be no return.
Today, the situation is truly disastrous, and the
following figures give an idea of the urgency:
- 500 languages are spoken by less than 100 people
- 96% of the world’s languages are spoken by only 4% of
the world’s population
- 90% of Internet pages are written in only 12 languages
- According to UNESCO experts, on average, a language
dies out every other week.
- the scientific community states that over half of
existing languages could disappear during the course of this century.
Much of the blame lies with colonization and conquest and
the disappearance of languages is seen as the destruction of culture. The Government of Quebec would seem to agree
with their strict French Language Laws…
I wonder if I’m any more Irish when I speak a little Gaelic. In embracing the culture of my ancestors I
was motivated to learn Gaelic, so it would seem that I also agree. AND yet… is it a bad thing for us to be able
to communicate clearly with each other?
I’m not pushing for Esperanto, but it might be nice to go to England and
admire somebody’s “pants” without getting strange looks…(because trousers or
slacks are pants; pants are underwear).
In the Gospel today we heard about Peter fishing… recognizing that Jesus
was on the shore calling, Peter put on clothes because he was naked, jumped
into the water and swam to shore. To us
that seems very peculiar. Who fishes
naked? Who gets dressed to go
swimming? And yet, in the first century
you did fish naked: it hot, wet.. you
didn’t want to ruin your clothes (and they weren’t using hooks). How better to carry your clothes to shore
than wear them… so, Peter gets dressed to jump in the water and swim to
shore. But when we first hear the story
there is a cognitive disconnect; a cultural assumption that makes the story
seem odd.
Translating stories from one language to another does the
same thing… idioms are lost and assumptions are made. When Jesus said that he would be resurrected
on the third day, was he predicting our Easter story or using an idiom for “not
today, not tomorrow… but later… like on the third day”? How many of us thought that Naomi was
suggesting to Ruth that she give Boaz a food rub in the barn, when she told her
to go and “uncover his feet”? (she was
using a euphemism and idiom.. suggesting a more intimate act).
So, if we all spoke the same language would that be so
bad?
I don’t know..
I also don’t know if it is Biblical or prophesied. That we may all be one? Perhaps.
Dear Norm,
Where did you get
the phrase that begins each sermon?
I stole it from my mentor and first partner in ministry,
Rev. Dr. Bob Wallace. He began each
sermon with that prayer and I have followed suit for over 20 years.
Loving God, May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts, be acceptable unto you. And may I never lightly presume to
preach Your Word and may we never lightly presume to hear Your Word, for in
Your Word is Abundant life, Amen.
The first line comes from the Psalm 19 and connects me to
the tradition of preaching and worship.
The second line is a reminder to me not to take this awesome privilege and
responsibility lightly… people are listening to me; they have invested in the
authority that I have to share my inspirations and insight… and it’s not all
about me, I should never presume that it is, it is about each of us hearing
what God has to say to us in a given time and place… and what is heard by one
may not be the same as is heard by another, or even be what I intended to
communicate. Then there is a reminder
that we are in community, and therefore are not bound to a single meditative
response: the meditations of ALL our hearts.
Finally, the reminder that God offers us Abundant Life: A life that is full and free… not filled with
stuff or wealth – but abundance. Hearing
and living in concert with the Word of God, makes my life full (no matter how
many channels I have on my TV… or how much money I have in the bank. All life can be abundant)
So, there we are…. Our first Q&A Blog. What do you think?
Let’s keep the conversations going… and see how we can
continue the conversation begun this morning at Jubilee.
Norm
No comments:
Post a Comment