Scripture texts (NRSV): Psalm 67, John 14:22-29 (see John 13,14 for reference)
Our Scripture readings follow Jesus towards his Ascension
40 days after his resurrection that we honor this Thursday, and Pentecost, fifty
days from Easter two weeks hence when we honor the descent of the Holy Spirit
to the disciples. As I prepared my sermon, I read about books and stories.
We often forget that very few people could read or write
in the days of Jesus. There was no printing press or actual books with pages
for 100 - 200 years after Christ. There was no paper, only clay that was
scribed and fired, fragile papyrus made by criss-crossing reeds to make a sheet, parchment
made by a complicated treatment of animal skins that were stitched together to
form a large scroll, or if you had money and resources, thin sheets of copper,
bronze, or lead.
Making a scroll was a monumental and costly undertaking.
The length of the longest book in what we call the Old Testament, Isaiah, was
determined by how much writing could fit on the longest scroll that could be
rolled up. A parchment scroll is rare, delicate and cannot be touched lest the
ink smudge or wear away. Therefore, the majority of people depended on oral
history, or some one reading ancient scrolls that captured that oral history.
There are two very important but often-overlooked points
about the written scripture and oral history for us Christians. First, much of our
religious tradition depends on how well people remembered and handed down the
stories of Jesus and the disciples until scribes and monks began writing the Scripture
in words of books in the second century.
It is remarkable how accurately their orally transmitted
stories captured knowledge before they were written down. People depended so much on memory they developed
tricks to get very, very good at remembering. For example, Homer’s epic sagas, Illiad
and Odyssey (27,800 lines) were passed on orally for hundreds of years before
being reduced to text.
Second, we bring our own bias to the situation thinking
the Scripture was transmitted to us literally and perfectly because it is
divinely guided inspiration. There are multiple examples of scribal errors in
the fragmentary documents used to create our current Gospels, epistles and Old
Testament. One scribe would annotate a critical comment in the margin of a manuscript
interpreting what a line meant that he had copied, or wondering if it belonged
elsewhere. Later another scribe making a subsequent copy may incorporate that
remark into the text. Sometimes a sentence is
copied out of place. Some times entire passages are out of place in different
manuscripts. In my mind however, that does not diminish the importance and the
sacred preeminence of Scripture.
We actually lose something when we rely totally on
reading the written record of remembered experience. We can easily fall into
the habit of putting more faith in the actual words than listening for the
message in the story. Today’s reading in
John tells us exactly why we have the Holy Spirit to remind and help us
understand the Lord’s Word. Our children followed the Holy Spriti when they
performed their play.
For me, the Gospel story begs to be heard in worship as the story of Good News, just like the old hymn,
Tell me the old, old story. Hearing the recounted story magnifies the
importance of the message more than its words.
A story paints a picture of real life, and a good story puts you right
in the action.
I’m going to preach this text in John differently; I’m
going to tell a story.
They call me the disciple Jesus loved. I enjoy the
compliment and we were really close, but calling me that causes a lot of
trouble with Peter.
It has been over a month since the troubles. You cannot
imagine what we have been through. We have gone from feeling the highest of
highs to the pit of despair and back again. We are all still pretty confused.
Think about it. We saw Jesus raise Lazarus from the dead
and we were so overjoyed we took six days to get everybody together for a great
supper to celebrate his resurrection; but it was a strange supper. It was the
day before we went to Jerusalem for Passover. Mary started anointing Jesus’
feet with costly nard and he ended in an argument with Judas and telling us he
was going to be buried. It made no sense.
Then the night of the day we got to Jerusalem we had
another puzzling supper. Jesus took off his robe and wrapped a towel around his
waist and washed our feet. We protested but he kept saying the pupil isn’t
greater than the teacher but neither is the teacher greater than us. He talked
about going away where we couldn’t come. It was all really strange to me - this burial talk and saying he was leaving
us.
Then he gives us a new commandment - to love each other.
I think he was repeating the most important of our Laws to make a point that we
should love the Lord with all our heart and mind because The Lord created us
and loves us; and if the Lord loves us we must love all of his creation, our
neighbors and even our enemies. But I’ve got to tell you, after seeing what
happened next that is a hard commandment to love the Romans and those priests
after what they did. What they did was really bad, but Jesus said we have to
love them anyway. Then He said one of us
would betray him, and it turned out Jesus was right. I can’t believe Judas did
it, but he got his reward I guess. What
a supper.
He said a lot of things then that I didn’t really
understand until now, and still I’m not yet sure I know what to do. How did he
know all this? How am I supposed to find the will to love those people who
killed him? How can I face all that hostility?
When he began talking to us he said not to worry. His
exact words were, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.” He was preparing us.
Then he said something really amazing. Jesus said he and
the Lord were the same person, that the Lord’s home was his home AND the Lord’s
home would be our home, even for our enemies. Philip said if that is true then show us the
Father. Jesus got sort of mad and accused us of not believing what he said
after all this time together. He told us if we didn’t want to believe the words
of the Lord, then believe his works.
And then he said even stranger things. I’m still thinking
about what he said because I don’t understand it. It just does not make sense,
it isn’t logical, I can’t reason it out.
He said he was telling us these things while he was still
here. He said that even though he was
going away, he wouldn’t leave us like orphaned children. I was thinking what is
he talking about? I had no idea then that he was going to be crucified.
What I can’t understand is that He said when he went away
he was going to send somebody back. I thought he meant some person, but then he
said it was the Holy Spirit, the breath of God! I was wondering if he had maybe
one too many glasses of our wine, but he said his Father would send the Spirit
and it would teach us and remind us of everything he said. He said it more than once.
I hope he is right. I am a pretty good storyteller, I
have had a lot of practice memorizing things so I can tell a story properly, but
his story, I don’t know. So much has happened, so many bad things, so many good
things. Sometimes I feel dazed like somebody slapped me on the side of the
head. I worry about remembering all He said. I sure hope he is right about that
Breath of God. He also called it “our Advocate.” He said it would teach us
everything he said and remind us of it. I sure hope so.
Actually after talking to you about it and telling this
story, I feel a little better now. Like I said, I don’t understand it all yet,
but I feel better. It is something about this place.
He said two more things at supper on that night before
the bottom fell out of everything. He said he was leaving it to us to make
peace in the world. I guess he was thinking about that greatest commandment he told
us, to love God and our neighbor. I’m not sure he thinks we can do it perfectly
because he told us next, “my peace I give to you.” I sure hope he is right, because he was so peaceful
even as things got so crazy. No matter what kind of evil and suffering he saw,
he didn’t get mad, except once. I guess if he really is the Lord, he has the
right to get mad when he saw all the mess in the temple. I wasn’t there but I
heard about it, the time at Passover when he went into the temple and saw all
the buying and selling and cheating widows and then chased all the moneylenders
out. I could use his peace, I actually feel it a bit when I stop and think about him.
When he began talking to us at the last Supper, he
started off saying, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to
you as the world gives.” Now that his crucifixion and resurrection is
all over, what was so unusual at the end of the supper after he told us he was
giving us his peace, he repeated what he said when he began talking, “Do not
let your hearts be troubled.”
And then it all happened. Everything went dark. They
arrested, tried and crucified him in the space of a day. Before he died he told
me that Mary, his mother, was now my mother. He really loved me, even as he was
about to die he was worried about me. Everybody ran away and Peter denied him.
We still can’t believe Peter did it but we are all glad it wasn't us in the
courtyard. We were all so terrified we would be next on the cross, and the fact
is, I still am.
Now I know what he meant, he was telling us not to worry
about what was to happen next because he would becoming back, and he did, he
really did.
Jesus has been here over a month. We went fishing
yesterday and caught an unbelievable amount of fish. We wonder how can he do
this, but we are all afraid to ask him again who he is.
You can ask Thomas though, he was the one who was so
insistent on seeing the wounds. As
usual, Jesus made a big lesson out of Thomas, he told him to think how blessed
are those who haven’t seen Him but believe. I haven’t yet figured out exactly
what he meant by that but I’m praying about it.
I feel change is in the air though. What worries me so
much is what he whispered to me at the fire last night while all of us were all
eating. He said that very soon he was going to leave again for good, some time
this week. I wonder if he will be here on Thursday? He will have been with us
forty days then.
If he is leaving for good, I don’t see how we can do
what he told us to do without some help. Love everyone like God loves us. He
told us three times to feed his sheep. How
are we going to do it? I have a feeling
he is going to show us how and it has something to do with that Holy Spirit. I
can only wait and listen. He did say, “Do not let your hearts be troubled.”
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