Signs of the Messiah: The Seventh Hour - Jn. 4:46-54

One of the first things that I like to do when I through a particular passage of scripture is to take note of things that stand out to me in some way.  It may turn out that they don’t really mean anything at all, or they might shed light on what’s going on in this passage in ways that I would not have otherwise guessed.

So one of the very first things that I put down on my little ‘list,’ is that this, the second of Jesus’ signs, occurred in Cana, just like the first one.  Jesus performed his first sign in Cana - the same place where he changed the water into wine at the wedding feast - where he teaches us that the Kingdom of Heaven will be like a party; we’ll all be celebrating our eternal life with the Lord.  Perhaps because of this, he already had a reputation building up for him there.  

“And his disciples believed in him,” it says at the end of our story about the wedding feast.

But now, it’s not until Jesus returns to Cana that the Gospel of John recognizes Jesus’ 2nd sign.  After he left Cana, which is in Galilee, Jesus traveled south to Jerusalem, which is more than 80 miles away.  That would have taken him about 4 or 5 days.  While he is there, Jesus preaches to people and he witnesses to them, and although there is a reference to him doing signs which caused many to believe in him, there is no mention of what those signs were.  They are sort of ‘played down.’  I believe there is a reason for this.

Jesus then sets out north once again, towards Galilee, and returns to Cana, which is another 4 or 5 days.  While he is there, a man from Capernaum, which is 20 miles away, hears about him, and goes to see him about his son, who is ill and close to death.  

While Cana itself may not be much of a big deal, there is a story to be told simply in the fact that Jesus traveled all the way down to Jerusalem, met with mostly opposition, but then traveled all the way back to Cana where people were going a day’s journey out of their way just to see him.  

That must have been some party!

So here we haven’t even gotten into the story itself yet, and look at what it’s already saying about Jesus Christ.  This is a sign in and of itself.  Christ drew people to him.  People sought him out.   

The next thing to really stand out to me in this story is that Jesus never had any actual contact with the official’s son.  He didn’t touch him, he didn’t approach him, he didn’t throw anything at him, or spit at him or anything, because Jesus wasn’t there.  Now, on the one hand, there appears to be a movement from Jesus performing small miracles to spectacular ones; from Jesus being distant to Jesus being close and personal.

But on the other hand, there’s this: when Jesus assured the official that his son would live, the man believed him, and left Jesus to go home again.  He originally asked Jesus to go with him to his home, did he not?  And “as he was going down, his servants’ met him and told him that his son was recovering.  So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” (!!)

We don’t really know the exact time frame when all this happens, but it is certainly implied that the fever has left the boy before the man leaves Jesus, and possibly before the man has asked Jesus to heal him.  

I would imagine that this man is not one to linger very long, since his son is so sick.  His intent was probably to hurry down to Cana, catch Jesus real quickly, then hurry back home.  But it would have still been about a day’s journey, maybe slightly less, since he was rushing things.  So he could have gone down there one day and been back by the next night.  So his boy might have been healed even before the official arrived in Cana to speak with Jesus.

You see, just as with the wedding feast, where the whole water into wine trick was just a handy metaphor (I mean, he’s God, right?  He can turn stones into bread, he can turn water into wine.  He can cast out demons and raise the dead.  No big deal for him), the sign is not the healing of the official’s son.  The miracle points to the sign, but the miracle is not the sign.  

There’s a thing behind the thing here.  A truth behind the truth.  A story behind the story.  Cana was not close by to Capernaum.  But the people there believed in him.  That’s why the official tore himself away from the bedside of his dying son to go see him.  Not out of some hope that he may be able to heal him, but because he believed in Jesus.

He was convicted in his faith, or else it is doubtful that he would have gone at all.  That’s why, even though Jesus did signs in Jerusalem while he was there, there is no mention of what those signs were.  That’s what makes this the second sign, and not one of those he did in Jerusalem.  The official believed in Jesus, which caused him to engage in a course of action which lead to the healing of his son, just as Jesus’ mother believed in him, which caused a chain of events which led to the turning of the water into wine.  These are the signs that manifest his glory, they reveal him to be the Messiah, the Christ, apart from the miracles, not because of them!   But if no one can see that, then its no revelation at all.  That’s why we don’t have traffic signals for deer.

We need to see the signs that Jesus is showing to us every day of our lives.  The things behind the things.  I had an ambulance call in the middle of the night the other day to the upper end of Frostburg.  I was annoyed.  I was tired, and it took a long time to get there.  But that lady just happened to be someone that I knew once upon a time, and she really blessed me.  I think that I’m going out to help people, but the experience so often ends up giving me more than I can ever give to them.  

That’s the thing behind the thing.  It’s not what we expect, it’s not what we look for, or even want; it’s what we need that Jesus gives to us.  That official believed in Jesus, and had the conviction to act on his faith, and so his son was healed.  Would that have happened if the man had not gone to Jesus?  He took an awful risk.  What if Jesus wasn’t who he believed him to be?  His son might have died while he was away.

So was Jesus right about the official, when he said to him, “unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe?”  Or was he challenging him - daring him - to believe.  The man got his signs and wonders, which is what he wanted, but he believed in Jesus before the miracle took place, because Jesus assured him of what was to take place.  That’s what he needed.  That was the sign that revealed his glory.  Maybe this is a story about healing, but not about the healing of the son, it is about the healing of the official, who believed.

I invite you to take a chance at radical faith, faith that moves you to do things that may seem a bit crazy, but that you know Jesus is calling you to do, so that you might find healing.  So that you might find wholeness in Christ.  Amen.

Stretching

I'm getting back into my workout routine, after a three-week(!) break over the holidays, and I'm so sore.

The first line that catches my eye when I open the newest edition of my (current favorite) theological journal is "is the Reformation over?" The entire journal was centered on a sort of revival of Roman Catholic theology in the millenial generation.

My denomination is shattering itself over controversies that some view political, while others deem missional, and, still others, theological in nature, causing me to question my own theological convictions and, consequently, take a trip back through seminary-level educational material to help me rediscover my  identity as a disciple of Jesus Christ.  What do I really believe, and why?

One of my martial arts instructors linked all this together very well for me, while we were going through some stretching exercises.  "Push yourself to the point of feeling discomfort.  Hold there until you begin to relax, then push a little further.  Repeat the process.  If you only hold yourself in a comfortable position, you will not develop strength or flexibility."  I think he actually surprised himself with that, because he commented on how this applies to just about everything in life.

Don't get too comfortable, only by stretching ourselves can we grow.

Home Again

After a bit of a hiatus, here I am again.  I'm not sure that I won't be writing to anyone but myself, but I've been writing my entire life, and sharing my thoughts publicly (also called preaching) for almost a decade.  So if anyone is out there and finds themselves attracted to, and enriched by, the nonsense I have to say about "whatever," then I welcome you to the dialogue!  Because that is truly how we grow, isn't it, through dialogue with others, and with ourselves.

Going to Hell

What a catchy title, huh?

So, I'm plugging a book for a friend of mine, Fr. Rick Morley, an Episcopal priest who used to live right here in my little town of Lonaconing, MD. Rick's book discusses the difference between what people/churches/etc. say we need to be "saved," and what Jesus says about how to be "saved" throughout the gospels. Is salvation based on faith alone? Works-based faith? Something more than that?

Who's "right" when it comes to issues of salvation?

from page 70: "The Good News here is that there is no checklist of good deeds to fill out. Jesus is talking about a manner of living here, and it’s one that isn’t motivated out of the fear of Hell or the hope of heaven, but a life that’s driven by an authentic love."

Specific parables and dialogues from the gospels are presented, which offer different perspectives on this question, which Rick then asks, "Right here, what exactly does Jesus say that salvation depends on?"

My prediction is that this book will be a bit offensive to fundamentalists, challenging to radical liberals, and, hopefully, somewhat uncomfortable to us all, because Jesus came to call us out of our comfort zones and truly examine our lives lived in relationship with Him.

Rick approached me with this book, still only in digital format and not yet published, and asked me what I thought. Very humbled, but also very excited to be a part of his editing process, I did as he asked, read it, and responded to the questions that he asks. When the book was published, and I received a print edition, I was once again humbled to see that some the comments I offered him became small changes in the book's content.

So, yes, there is a little bit of me in there too.

Read the book, it's a dialogue, and is written in such a way as to spark further dialogue, not only with others, but with yourself, and with Jesus Christ. Jesus, what exactly are you saying that salvation depends on?

God and Tao

I read an article today, by a fellow named Michael Gleghorn, called Philosophical Taosim: A Christian Appraisal. Gleghorn briefly introduces Taoism and Lao Tzu, who wrote the Tao Te Ching, which is foundational to Taoism. Quoting an outside source, Gleghorn says that the whole point of Taoism is "to live in a way that conserves life's vitality by not expending it in useless, draining ways, the chief of which are friction and conflict."

He goes on to discuss, what he believes, to be the principle difference between Taoism and Christianity: that Tao is unavoidably impersonal, whereas the Christian God is fundamentally personal.

However, he later quotes Chapter 67 of the Tao Te Ching, which seems to indicate that Tao is not the same as God(heaven):

Everyone under heaven calls my Tao great, and unlike anything else.

It is great only because it is unlike anything else. If it were like anything else it would stretch and become thin.

I have three treasures to maintain and conserve: The first is compassion. The second is frugality. The third is not presuming to be first under heaven.

Compassion leads to courage. Frugality allows generosity. Not presuming to be first creates a lasting instrument.

Nowadays, people reject compassion, but want to be brave. Reject frugality, but want to be generous. Reject humilty, and want to come first.

This is death.

Compassion: attack with it and win. Defend with it and stand firm.

Heaven aids and protects through compassion.

-translation by Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo, Copyright 1993, Hackett Publishing Co.

Gleghorn also quotes Chapter 62 of the Tao Te Ching which, reading through fully (his article does not present the reader with the entire text of this chapter), does not seem to support his argument:

Tao is the mysterious center of all things, a treasure for those who are good, a refuge for those who are not.

Beautiful words can be traded, noble deeds can enhance reputations, but if people lack them, why should they be rejected?

When the Son of Heaven is enthroned and the Three Ministers installed, presenting jade discs and four-horse chariots cannot compare to sitting still and offering the Tao.

The ancients honored this Tao. Didn't they say: through it seekers find, through it the guilty escape? This is why Tao is honored under Heaven.

-This text comes from the same source as the above translation.

Gleghorn keeps returning to his argument that Tao cannot be God, because Tao is impersonal, and God is personal. But is he not missing the point? Perhaps that is not what the Tao Te Ching says at all, perhaps Lao Tzu was not trying to assert that Tao is God, or Heaven, but rather, Tao is the Way of Heaven, as Tao means Way?

Look at the very last section of Chapter 62, which was all that Gleghorn quoted in his article. The idea of Tao, as presented here, does not seem mutually exclusive to theism at all, or Christianity, as Gleghorn asserts.

My, albeit, limited knowledge of the Tao Te Ching leads me to see it this way. Tao is not meant to replace God; at least Tao does not necessarily have to replace God, because Tao is, as Gleghorn himself describes, "the way of all things: the way of nature, of society, and of oneself." Therefore, Tao is a concept, not a being, as God is a being.

So how is this exclusive to the Christian God?

When the "I" is Silent

As a part of my Lenten discipline this year, I have been attempting to be more focused on spiritual reading. Along with this, I have also recognized a need within myself to better understand and explore the Old Testament. The need to strengthen these two disciplines in my life have led me to Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, who is writing a series of spiritual commentaries/devotionals on the parashat hashavua - the weekly portion of Torah (Old Testament) that is normally read at synagogue. The parasha readings are basically like the Lectionary in the Christian Church, which divide the bible into weekly or daily readings. Rabbi Sacks writes four 'articles' on each parasha reading, as they are usually about 3-4 chapters in length anyway. Drawing from rabbinical sources and Talmudic sources, with which most Christian authors I've read are unfamiliar, Rabbi Sacks engages the Torah in a dialogue that opens up the world of the Old Testament to me in ways I, myself, have never known.

This week's parasha is from Gen. 28:10-32:3, the story of Jacob when he leaves home, fleeing his brother Esau, from whom he stole his father's birthright. Jacob camped at Bethel, and that night had a dream. He saw a stairway or a ladder reaching from the heavens down to the earth, and angels were ascending and descending upon it.

When Jacob woke later, he said to himself, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I, I knew it not." Rabbi Sacks points out that there is a repetition of the word "I" in this statement, which appears to be superfluous. But the extra "I" is not superfluous; it is, in fact, important. He writes "we sense the "Thou" of the Divine Presence when we move beyond the "I" of egocentricity." When we are centered on ourselves, we lose sight of the world around us; we begin to lose the ability to recognize God when we see only ourselves, when the "I" gets in the way.

Rabbi Sacks points out that the medicine for this is prayer. Lehitpalel is the Hebrew verb, meaning "to pray." It "is reflexive, implying an action done to oneself. Literally, it means 'to judge oneself. It means to escape from the prison of the self and see the world, including ourselves, from the outside." Prayer is how we set aside the "I" for a time and become aware of the reality that is God - above us, around us, within us, beyond us. And when the "I" is silent, when we pray, our lives begin to change. Prayer changes us.

I remember reading Walter Wangerin and Richard Foster years ago, both of whom emphasized this as well. Prayer has the effect of changing us because it removes the "I," and focuses on "Thou," the Divine Presence of God. Rabbi Sacks says that it is in that moment that we can say, with Jacob, "I know not the I. I know only God."

Matthew 6.24-34

It seems like I’ve been saying to you a lot lately, “This is a difficult passage.” But as I read today’s gospel lesson, it is a difficult passage. Really though, all of the Sermon on the Mount is more than a little challenging to us. Today’s lesson, though, is a bit different than the last few Sunday’s about following the Law. Today’s lesson is about trust.

Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Well, you may have heard this passage differently before, as the Greek word that is translated here as wealth is mammon. Mammon does not exclusively refer to wealth, but is a derivation of a Hebrew word that comes from Aramaic...to make things simple. And if my Hebrew is bad, my Aramaic is even worse, but thankfully I went to seminary that taught us how to use certain tools, and, well basically I cheated. The word is used for anything of value: property, slaves, earthly goods.

That’s about as far as the translation goes. Other things in Greek that I look up, have pages and pages and pages about just one word. Mammon has one and a half. But it says a lot.

Where do we put our trust? What do we hold on to in life for security? Jesus says don’t worry about what you will eat, drink, or wear. Really? Does he not understand that “Western economies depend on massive spending on commodities people do not need?” Does he not know that our large and growing industry of mood-altering drugs is based on our inability to not worry? And I’m not just talking about illegal drugs. More people now than ever before in history are being medicated for one psychiatric condition or another. The problem is getting worse, not better.

And Jesus says don’t worry. Aren’t some things worth worrying about, though? Like starving, homeless refugees in war-torn parts of the world. They are innocent, and many of them were driven away from their homes because they are Christians. Shouldn’t we worry about them, even just a little bit? Shouldn’t we worry for them?

I give thanks to God every time I sit down to a meal, because there really are those who won’t get to eat today, or tomorrow, and did not eat yesterday. Did you know that, after a while, you actually stop feeling hungry?

Now, when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, he fasted forty days, and so the Devil tempted him with food, but Jesus refused to break his fast, saying that we do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. And because Jesus said that, this passage in the Sermon on the Mount has often been spiritualized to show Jesus saying that we shouldn’t worry about our next meal, but instead we should worry about our spiritual well-being.

I disagree with that interpretation of the text, I think it completely robs the text of its intended meaning, but so often it is easier to avoid what Jesus actually says in favor of what we want him to say. Jesus said do not worry. He didn’t say don’t worry only about physical things so that we can focus on spiritual things, he simply said, do not worry. And that is hard to do.

In 2000, I went to East Africa with a group of college students on a short-term mission tour. Among many things, we visited the slums. Now, before I get too far into it, I have to point out that Africa is not like what they show on those sponsorship commercials on TV, where everyone is starving and naked and lying in the street. The standard of living is simply different, people can live well on very little, unlike America.

But after visiting that slum, I would venture to guess that some of those commercials are filmed right there. Starvation literally looked me in the face, through the eyes of little children, whom we were told had probably either not eaten in two or three days, or ate the crumbs that their parents gave to them, which meant of course that their parents went hungry.

It didn’t take us long to distribute every scrap of food that we had with us to those children, and what happened next utterly shook me. They didn’t expect more, they didn’t fight over what we gave them. They didn’t give us any looks of why-don’t-you-do-more-for-us-you-fat-white-American (and believe me, in that place, I probably would have been considered more than well-fed).

They praised God. They sang to the Lord and thanked the Almighty for what He had given them. It was a snack. I probably eat five times that much for dinner, but I doubt that many of these kids had ever held that much food in their hands at one time.

We do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. The world today produces enough food to feed the entire world today. Did you know that? The United States gives more money to missionary-type organizations than any other country in the world, but considering that we are still one of the largest and most economically stable countries in the world, our giving is dead last compared to others.

So after all is said and done here, I now have to tell you that I don’t have an answer to the question that is on my mind from this passage, and probably on each of your minds as well. How in the world are we to stop worrying? It’s hard enough to stop worrying about ourselves, but when we look at the state this world is in, it’s almost enough to make me sit down and cry.
It’s almost enough to make me want to do something about it. What did worrying ever bring us, what did it ever get us? More worries. Fear. Depression.

But the opposite of worrying is trust. Trust in God. Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all these things: food, drink, clothing, life, will be given to you as well. They will also be given to others, because that is what God wants for us in His Kingdom.

Food and drink, clothing, life. That covers just about everything that we have that we worry about, around here, isn’t it? I think that this message might need to be a little bit different for the people in the slums of Emanyatta, but to us it is just that. Trust in God, not in material gain. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

Living a life of worry means living a life of fear, as it is fear that fuels worry. Where there is fear there is little room for trust and hope, which is what Jesus offers us. So what I have learned from my time with the people of East Africa is that I need to constantly remind myself and challenge myself to let go of my fears, and to focus on what is positive, what is of God and give thanks. That is probably the biggest difference that I saw between them and us. They gave thanks, we ask for more.

I cannot alleviate the sufferings of the world, I cannot alleviate all of your sufferings or even my own, but that’s life. What I can do is live that life in witness to God’s Way. I can be changed by it, I can be the change that I want to see in others. And while it may not be so easy to stop worrying, especially when we are so good at it, we can practice. Amen.