Easter

Dec 10 2024

Churchy Words

Churchy words have gone flat. Like a car tire sitting flat on the ground, some words have no air of experience to pump them up. Mercy and salvation, repentance and incarnation, are some words that come to mind. We hear them in church; we do not use them in ordinary life. On the other hand, some churchy words are used so glibly that they lose meaning, words like “ awesome” and “love.”

For me, the word “glorify” is a “churchy” word. Jesus uses it five times in the reading today. I skim those “glorify” verses (a word of which I have little experience) and gravitate toward the later ones that talk about love (a word of which I am fond). Do you do that, too?

Synonyms for “glorify,” when I looked it up, didn’t evoke much for me either. Why is that? Maybe because we “moderns” have more experience with its antonym—to give someone the reputation of “scumbag.” The opposite of glorify is to denigrate, to make to seem worthless, to lower someone’s reputation: that is familiar. We don’t worship leaders, we dig up dirt on them. We don’t elevate heroes, we fell them. We don’t praise, exalt, deify, adore, or worship anybody. To “glorify” is not in the air that we breathe.

In 2006, my college-age son and I went to the Philippines. He was taken aback by the air of optimism among college students at Silliman University. It made him realize how very cynical the U.S. world in which he lived was.

Was “the air” also more positive in Jesus’ day? Could you actually think well of someone? Honor them? Did the word glorify have some air of experience: to think the best of another, to see God in them? Jesus glorifies God. God glorifies the Son of Man—not denigrates him, not trashes his reputation. Glorifies. Lifts up. It makes you think, doesn’t it?

Consider/Discuss

How empty is a life devoid of glory! How do we pump the air of experience back into the word glorify so that it extols the richness and grandeur of God? It obviously meant something to Jesus, that he would use the word five times in today’s Gospel. Maybe this week, we could set cynicism aside and glorify something by saying, “This is great!” or “He/she is wonderful” or “God is good!” Try it at least once each day. See if it changes the words you say and the air that you breathe.
When I give workshops for preachers, I offer the thought that churchy words have gone flat. One of the purposes of preaching (and writing reflections) is to translate the rich theology of the church into the language of everyday experience. Abstractions mean little to how we live our ordinary Christian lives. Are there churchy words that you hear often that don’t have much life experience in them? What phrases would you like to ponder or learn more about?

Living and Praying with the Word

Jesus, you preached so concretely: you told stories of fish and farming, the soil and the sea. Help us to make your Good News clear and plain. In the world in which we live and breathe, move us from cynicism to hope, from bitterness to peace, from trashing each other to lifting each other up.

We adore you. You are the King of Glory. You are the Prince of Peace. We glorify you, we swell with admiration for what you have done and who you are. Help us to make praising you a way of life. Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ!

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

Having traveled for some time proclaiming the gospel and making disciples, Paul and Barnabas now return home, reversing course and revisiting earlier regions. They emphasize to these fledgling Christian communities that their discipleship will bring hardship, but that this is a necessary result of their fidelity to God. They also serve the communities by appointing religious leaders (presbyters), who will guide and strengthen them. Upon returning home to Antioch (of Syria), the apostles report with great joy what God has done in extending his gifts to the Gentiles. So ends Paul’s first mission to the Gentiles, which has already borne great fruit by spreading the gospel throughout much of the Mediterranean world.

The book of Revelation culminates with a dramatic scene of recreation, in which everything is renewed by God. All of the damage done to God’s creation through human sin and violence is undone or transformed in God’s new creation. The sea is a common scriptural metaphor for chaos, the hostile forces in the world that oppose God’s creation. That it is “no more” indicates the final conquest of chaos and the definitive triumph of God’s saving will for all of creation. The old order has passed away, death and mourning are no more as God “makes all things new.” The heavenly Jerusalem, as it often does in the Old Testament, represents God’s people. God will now dwell with the people (as God did originally in Eden); the estrangement between God and the people is now brought to an end.

In the Gospel of John, Jesus’ “glory” begins and is most clearly manifested in his death on the cross, an example of Johannine irony. The glory of Christ consists in his showing forth the Father, and in his death, he exhibits the Father’s love for what God has created. In this way he also glorifies God. Jesus and the Father thus glorify one another and are glorified in one another. The glory is in the divine love shown by both, and it is this love that Jesus insists his followers must also exemplify (and thus, we may say, give glory to both the Father and the Son). Those who meet them will know they are true disciples of Jesus not by their teaching but by their love, which is the true test of Christian discipleship.

Dec 10 2024

Darkness. Silence. Danger.

True art awakens us. As I gaze at Henry Ossawa Tanner’s 1902 painting of the Good Shepherd, mystery and longing arise in my chest. Tanner sets up the atmosphere with blues and dark greens. The shepherd is seen against the lighter sky behind him. The sheep are almost imperceptible brushstrokes in the shadow beneath two trees. Bodies brush together—wool to wool, wool to knees, sheep’s wool to man’s wool coat. As one moves, they all move, as much by touch as by sight. The one thing that breaks the monochrome of blue and green is the white of the moon, which peeks out from behind the clouds and lights the earth behind them. It is dark, silent. The shepherd leads his sheep home by the moonlight.

City dwellers may not know how dark darkness is, how silent is silence, how truly hazardous is rural hazard. To be apart from the shepherd in Tanner’s painting, to be separated from the flock, is darkness, is silence, is danger. That shoulder-to-shoulder-bumping into-each-other is safety in a barren land.

Art can lead us to pray. Without words, without light, we move into silence, into the blessed darkness of prayer, longing to sense that touch, that bumping of shoulders with the divine. The Good Shepherd leads us through dark valleys, keeping us close. Sometimes a shard of light illumines our prayer, like Tanner’s moon; mostly though, prayer is dark, more felt than seen, a glancing touch of the Shepherd’s wool coat brushing against us. Shoulder to shoulder, we move, the Shepherd leading us home. Home: where no one can take us out of the Father’s hand. Home: where God will wipe every tear from our eyes. Home: where we will dwell in the land of the Lord forever. Home with the Shepherd and our fellow sheep.

Consider/Discuss

Jesus tells us that his sheep hear his voice. But sometimes that voice is hard to hear. Good and evil, right and wrong, black and white, can seem like a hazy shade of gray in the lights of the city. This week, what is one thing that we could do differently in prayer to bump shoulders with the Shepherd so that we know which way to go?
The comfort of the Shepherd isn’t just for our personal satisfaction. When we arise from prayer, strengthened and encouraged, we are to be sources of peace and surety for others. With whom in God’s flock do we need to be more in solidarity? Who is being left out? What can we do to make that right?

Living and Praying with the Word

Good Shepherd, we are your people, the sheep of your flock. You have made us, and we are yours. Refresh and bless us this day. We want to be close—and yet we wander away. We take our own paths. Lead us back. We have allowed others to lead us astray. Sometimes you take us by the neck with your crook and pull us away from the cliffs. Sometimes a simple brush of your cloak steers us straight. As we enter into the darkness of prayer, reveal to us how that redirection is your love. We want to be near you. You are our safety. Keep us close, Lord. Lead us home.

Dec 10 2024

Scripture Study for

The apostolic mission has extended beyond Jerusalem and Judea and is making its way along the Mediterranean coast. Paul and Barnabas are now in the southern regions of modern-day Turkey. As we have come to expect, they are not favorably received by all Jews. In response, the apostles announce that they are now taking the gospel to the Gentiles, which has been God’s plan all along, once the gospel had been announced to Israel. The Gentiles in the crowd are delighted to hear that the gracious gift of life offered first to the Jews is available also to them, and through them the message begins to spread even further. Once again, even though they have been rejected and persecuted, the apostles are filled with joy that they are fulfilling their mission.

The Lamb seated on the throne receives worship not only from the angels and elders, but also from the multitude from every nation who have remained faithful to Christ in the face of persecution. The fact that they “survived the time of great distress” may mean either that they lived through the persecution without apostasizing or that they died faithfully as martyrs, and thus survived into eternal life. In either case, they are now in the Lamb’s presence, washed clean in his blood and ready to receive their reward. Although they suffered much on earth, now they can rest in his shelter. The vision is clearly intended to encourage those in John’s audience who struggle to stay faithful under the Romans. That time of struggle will end, he assures them, if only they will persevere in Christ.

The metaphor of shepherd is used often in the Old Testament to describe religious and royal leaders in Israel, as well as to describe God (Ezekiel 34, Psalm 23). The image evokes care and protection, especially against predatory animals. Yet in Israel, human leaders often failed in their task, abusing their “sheep” rather than caring for them. In response, God promises either to shepherd them personally or to raise up a proper shepherd (Ezekiel 34:16, 23–24). Jesus, of course, is this Good Shepherd, who protects them not necessarily from physical harm in this world but from eternal harm. Unlike regular sheep, which can be stolen, none of Jesus’ sheep can be taken from him because they are guarded by divine power, that of the Father, which the Son shares because they are one.

Dec 10 2024

“It is the Lord!”

There is something transcendent about early morning. The cold of the air begins to warm. The stars fade as new light emerges in the east. The dew on the grass glistens in the glimmer of the first rays of the sun. In the dawn, there is a sense of Presence, a perception that there is Something More here than you and I can see and hear and touch and taste and smell.

The disciples have had a night of fruitless toil. The sun is now coming up. Last night’s refuge of “I am going fishing” has turned into this morning’s forlorn “I have caught nothing.”

The One-who-is-Something-More stands on the shore. He has been on that shore before, calling them to follow him. He has told them to throw out their nets before. He has given them a huge catch before. All of this feels vaguely familiar. The Beloved Disciple recognizes the stranger: “It is the Lord!”

“It is the Lord!” every creature on earth also sings. “It is the Lord!” the elders and the living creatures of heaven sing.

For the disciples, this morning is the new day. The forlorn night is over. This is Jesus’ last appearance in the Gospel of John. Jesus makes all things new, including the broken heart of Peter: “Yes, Lord, I really love you!” “Follow me,” he says. A new era is about to begin.

The disciples do not just give up fishing. With Peter, they plunge wholeheartedly into the water; they offer their whole strength and the last drop of their heart’s blood for the truth of that resurrection. They are willing to give all they have for the sake of that name.

Each new day gives us that opportunity as well. At today’s sunrise, Jesus says to you and me as well, “Follow me.”

Consider/Discuss

At what time of day does the Spirit of God touch you most? Different people thrive at different times. Are you an early-morning person like I am? Do you share that same elation of the new day? If you are a night person, the joy of morning may not be yours; is there something transcendent, something more, about the night for you? Talk to someone with a different biorhythm than yours. How does God move you and at what time of day?
The early martyrs gave all that they had for Jesus. Christians in many parts of the world are persecuted for their faith. That may or may not be your experience. What does it mean to you to give all that you have for God?

Living and Praying with the Word

Lord, today we begin again. It is the Easter season, the time to rejoice in newness. You give us the morning. You give us the evening. You give us the night. We really do love you. We want to follow you. Let us put no limit on where we allow you to lead us, no end to our faithfulness in following you. We do not know what we are capable of, for your vision for this new day is grander than our own. Today, this day, help us to start anew.