As we continue to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic, we again have a pre-recorded worship service for Sunday, May 10. The link is below, along with the text of Interim Pastor David E. Mueller’s message.
Thanks to those who have assisted this week, including John Lasher, director of music and worship arts, Cheryl Powell, worship assistant, and this week’s virtual choir: Dave Herrmann, John Lasher, David McClure, John Nichols, Cheryl Powell and Teresa Stebner, along with vocalists Fred and Jan Meckley.
And don’t miss the continuing saga of Leroy the Lion and Larry the Lamb, today with a new friend: Lenny.
Here is today’s service:
“There Are a Few Troubling Matters Remaining”
John 14:1-14 & 1 Peter 2:9 & 10
Interim Pastor David E. Mueller
Our appointed Gospel lesson for today from John 14 is a favorite to many. The statement by Jesus “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places,” is one of those holy hints about eternal glory. Jesus also said “I go to prepare a place for you,” giving his promise a personal sense. We may have heard elements of this section of John at funerals previously. We need this sort of biblically grounded hope during difficult and dangerous times like right now.
A few weeks back I mentioned the familiar phrase: “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” I attempted in a simple way to interpret the original Greek so as to give further understanding of “way, truth, and life.” Immediately following this “I am” of Jesus (there are seven of those “I ams” in John’s Gospel), we read: “No one comes to the Father except through me!” I am not troubled by this last statement, but I am troubled in the extreme by how it is often interpreted, that is, to exclude others who may not believe in Jesus as we do.
The conversation happening here between Jesus and His disciples, two of whom are named (Thomas and Philip), is itself intimate and personal. Their hearts were troubled and in the face of their troubled hearts, Jesus draws them closer to himself. Jesus invites their belief in God and in him. He makes a clear association throughout this whole section of himself and the Father. “Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (14:11)
Precisely because of this eternal relationship of Jesus and the Father, Jesus makes promises, some extraordinary, that the disciples were to trust. If they had a problem with that or with the Father/Son relationship, Jesus simply invited them to review the “works” (miracles, healings, etc.) and conclude that no such things could possibly have happened were they not from God.
Earlier in his ministry, the disciples of John the Baptizer, came to Jesus on John’s behalf and asked, “Are you the one or should we look for another?” (See Matthew 11 & Luke 7) Jesus’ response was for them to look around to notice the blind seeing, the deaf hearing, the lame walking and the like. Look at the “works.” Notice well the product. Even the Pharisees on occasion acknowledged, if reluctantly, that only God could do that which Jesus did, especially in healing.
I operate with one fundamental assumption when it comes to reported miracles and healings of Jesus, namely, that I want and need a God who is bigger than me and larger and more powerful than any other force we might name. One might argue about a particular miracle or healing in the Christian scriptures, including those accomplished by various disciples AFTER Jesus had ascended, but what good does it do to argue the miraculous itself? Miracles — that is, events usually of a positive kind that defy science, reason and our limited imaginations — happen.
I have personally experienced several miracles. I am careful about sharing them and sensitive because I know of scores of human beings who have prayed and prayed for a healing of their own or a loved one’s illness or a miracle and it didn’t happen. I am no more worthy of God’s attention than any other human being. Many of you know however, that after five years apart, Gigi and I were remarried right here at St. Mark’s 35 years ago, a genuine miracle. Yet after even more prayer than ours, there are broken marriages that are never healed.
Here in our Gospel, Jesus assures the disciples that they have good reasons to not let their hearts be troubled any longer. In effect, “It will be OK as you trust me!”
The Gospel ends with what shouldn’t be but all too often is troubling. “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, and in fact, will do greater works than these….” (14:12) Who me? Who us? Yep! The troubling aspect: where is our faith, faith strong enough to move mountains? This seems to strongly suggest that in faith, since I believe in Jesus, I need to believe in myself, not my unredeemed mired-in-sin self, but my loved and redeemed self. We learn elsewhere in Scripture that when loved and redeemed selves get together forming a loved and redeemed Church, all sorts and kinds of great healing, miraculous and caring things can happen.
Turn with me to our second lesson from 1 Peter 2:9-10.
“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 and into his marvelous light. 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.”
We are among those communities of believers in Christ, mercifully drawn to him in grace, and, as such, have a very special place in God’s heart. “I am the way, truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Remember that this was said in a personal and private context by Jesus toward His disciples, who were troubled in heart. Now, as a chosen, royal and holy people, how can we stand before others, any others, and treat them with anything less than dignity and love? I am not chosen to judge others, not royal to lord it over others, not holy to condemn others, but God’s people are to proclaim to others God’s grace, mercy, and steadfast love for them as well.
In my decades of attending national Jewish-Christian conferences, nothing has stood out to me more than a workshop on “Chosen-ness.” It had to be 30 years ago in that workshop that the Jewish and Christian attendees were told by a Rabbinical scholar that “we should never use our chosen-ness to denigrate anyone.” My chosen-ness allows me and enables me to be about those “even greater works.” Denigrating or judging others is not among the greater works.
More than ever, perhaps especially in our own USA, we need to be touching people as Christ touched people, heal as He healed, help as he helped, feed as he fed, forgive as he has forgiven us, love as he has loved us, lead as he has led us! I believe this a time when more than ever we must proclaim the mighty acts of God. Unfortunately there are all too many who are proclaiming the judgment, condemnation and wrath of God.
If God is, indeed, larger and mightier than us, then God can do the judging, but in the meantime, we are charged with doing the loving. After all “Faith, hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13) It remains for us to understand, celebrate, and share the greater works. Oh, in case you are feeling inadequate about this, “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it!” Amen.
Please allow me a brief postscript. Today might be the fifth Sunday of the Easter Season, but it is also Mother’s Day and about that I would simply say: “As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you….” (Isaiah 66:13a) We have plenty of reasons for making a connection between good and loving parenting and a good and loving God! Enough said except again: Happy Mother’s Day!