Good Things

A Sermon preached on May 26, 2019, Easter VI, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden (Family Service)

Acts 16:9-15, [Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5], John 4:23-29

Our Collect or prayer for the day, began with the words: “O God, you have prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding.” Surpass is an old word that means exceed or greater than. It seems strange though on a day when we are celebrating Sunday school – both the pupils and the teachers - to pray about good things that we don’t or can’t understand. Surely, Sunday school is all about helping our children know and understand our faith? Does that mean that the teachers have not being doing their job well? [Let’s check shall we: children, have your Sunday teachers being doing a good job? If you agree, cheer.]

This is not about the quality of their teaching, or their qualification as saints: both are sure and certain! But it would seem simply that there are some good things that are beyond our understanding. What are these good things? Why can’t we understand them? And what does it mean that God has prepared them for those God loves, who are they and do we belong to that group?

Yes, we do, but not just us. God’s love is – thankfully – not just restricted to the good people of St. Augustine’s.  According to John’s Gospel this morning, the Father will love those who love Jesus by keeping his word, or in some translations “obeying his teaching.” (John 14:23) That is why Sunday school, and Adult Formation too, are so important. We can’t keep Jesus’ word or obey his teaching if we don’t know what it is. We find this teaching of course in the Bible. Just last week Robert told us all about that most important of all of Jesus’ teachings, so important that he framed it as a command, to love one another as he loves us. We also learn all about Jesus’ teaching through his actions as recorded in Scripture, but also through the actions of those who follow him. To keep his word, to obey his teaching, is to live a life of love.  God loves those who reflect the love God shows for us in Jesus.  

And what about those good things that surpass our understanding? A couple of them at least are identified in the Gospel passage. 

The first Good Thing that Jesus promises is the “Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.” (14:26) The Greek word is Parakletos and we have lots of different translations: Comforter, Helper, Friend, Intercessor, or Strengthener. They all sound pretty good to me! One thing that this advocate will do for us is to “teach us everything and remind us of all that Jesus said.” When Jesus said this, the only Scripture that existed was what we call the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. One way in which the Spirit helped and helps teach us everything is through the Scripture that people were inspired to write: the stories about Jesus, and about the apostles, Paul’s and the other apostles’ letters, even the weird and wonderful Book of Revelation. But it is also to the Spirit that we pray to help us understand the true meaning of Scripture, and to make it relevant to our situation and context. 

The second Good Thing that Jesus names is “peace.” “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives.”  (14:27) The only peace people knew at that time was the pax romana, the Roman Peace. And while it did lead to an absence of war and an increase in trade it was enforced and for a colony or client state like Judea often very violently. It was peace after war and conquest and the winner dictates the terms of peace. That is not the peace that Jesus is promising. In his letter to the Philippians, (4:7) Paul prays that “the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” There we have that word “surpass” again! God’s peace, God’s shalom is harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare, tranquillity, and the constant presence of God through God’s Spirit in the heart of all believers. With this gift they need not be afraid nor worry about Jesus’ departure: “Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid,” Jesus says. (John 14:27) He goes on to say (14:28) “I am going away, and I am coming to you.” His departure, first seemingly in his death, then in his Ascension is only the end of his earthly, human presence, not his spiritual presence in and with us. 

The third and final Good Thing I want to highlight today is God’s love embodied, made real in Jesus. Love is not a condition for the good things, love is one of them. In the letter to the Ephesians, (3:19) Paul prays that they will “know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” How can you know what surpasses knowledge? You know it by experiencing it, receiving it, and then reflecting it back by loving others. In the words of our Collect: “Pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things may obtain your promises.” God’s love comes first, we respond to this love by loving God in all things and in all people.

God’s presence, God’s Peace, and God’s Love. These are very good things that surpass our understanding. We don’t need to understand them; we just need to accept them in faith and love.

Amen.

Talking about sheep and shepherds

A Sermon preached on May 12, 2019, Easter IV, at St. Augustine’s, Wiesbaden

Acts 9:36-43, Revelation 7:9-17, John 10:22-30

This Sunday is also known as Good Shepherd Sunday because, in each year of the liturgical cycle on this 4th Sunday after Easter, the Gospel is always taken from the 10th chapter of John where Jesus speaks of himself as the "good shepherd". But the readings we heard this morning must be the least “shepherdy” of all the texts available for this day. With the exception of Psalm 23, we heard nothing about shepherds, let alone good ones, and in the Gospel, sheep were mentioned only twice. Where did they go? Who left the paddock gate open?

When Jesus talks about sheep or shepherds, he is using them as metaphors, as codes if you like for something else. Sheep are mentioned in the Bible more than 500 times, more than any other animal, and for two main reasons. Sheep were common, the most important livestock for the nomadic tribes that had once made up Israel, and for the agricultural society that Palestine still was in Jesus’ day. So, the listeners would understand examples that referred to or made use of sheeplike characteristics: social, willing to follow their leader, and in popular myth if not reality, stupid and prone to get themselves into trouble. Throughout the Bible, sheep are also used Bible symbolically to refer to God's people. 

The same goes for shepherds. They were common too – you might remember running into them in one of the stories about Jesus’ birth. And many biblical figures were shepherds, at least for a while, among them the patriarchs Abraham and Jacob, Moses – it’s what he was doing when he spotted the burning bush, King David, and the Old Testament prophet Amos. As a listener you would know what a shepherd did, and that their primary responsibility is the safety and welfare of the flock. And again, in the Bible, shepherd was used as a metaphor for the rulers of Israel. Ezekiel (34) prophesies against the shepherds of Israel, both the temporal and spiritual rulers, because they have ruled the sheep, the people, harshly and brutally. And in that passage, as well as in today’s Psalm, it is the Lord God who is the shepherd: “I will shepherd the flock with justice,” says God in Ezekiel (34:16) or in our Psalm (23:1) “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.”

When Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd he expects his listeners to recall all these other meanings: that the sheep he claims responsibility for are the people of Israel, that he is motivated by a desire to care for their safety and welfare, and that he has a leadership role, and that he acts on God’s behalf or even in God’s place. Yet if we look at the gospel reading it would seem that he has miscalculated and that these very weighty claims he has been making have not been properly or fully understood. Why else do the people ask him “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” (John 10:24) And this is not the first time some of the people have struggled with his message. At the very beginning of this chapter, right after his first shepherd and sheep illustration, we hear that “Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.” (10:6) 

Something has gone wrong. Why is his message not getting across? For over 70 years now, social scientists have developing models of how we communicate, the first major model dates to 1949 and was developed by Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver. In this standard view of communication, also called the transmission model, communication is viewed simply as a means of sending and receiving information and consists of three main components: a sender (Jesus), a channel (language, in his case metaphorical language), and a receiver (the other Jews). 

Where can things go wrong? Shannon and Weaver argued that there were three levels of problems for communication. The “technical problem”: how accurately can the message be transmitted? I don’t think this was the problem, I’m sure they heard what Jesus said. Either he taught in small groups or made use of natural features to be heard: a boat just off shore, a mound. 

Then there is the “semantic problem”: how precisely is the meaning 'conveyed'? Is this the case here? Is it the use of metaphor? Again, I don’t think so – the additional meanings of the words sheep and shepherd were well established and would have been particularly clear to the “clergy” of the day – including the implicit criticism of their role as shepherds to the nation. 

Finally, there is the “effectiveness problem”: how effectively does the received meaning affect behavior? This is the key issue. The problem was not that they did not understand what Jesus said, but that they did not want to accept it. Other communication researchers have critiqued the standard model for being a little too mechanical. Those communicating are not isolated individuals but part of systems. They have differing purposes and interpretations, that effect how we understand what is said. All these factors play a role here too. Accepting that Jesus was speaking as God, would have meant being willing to give up their position of power and privilege, and following him instead. The issue was not the sender, or the message, but the recipients. 

Sure, Jesus has not said simply, "I am the Messiah." But he has told them this in more ways than one. By word, including metaphor, as well as by what also what he has done, by the signs of power, plenty, and healing: “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.” (John 10:25). The problem is not his lack of clarity, but their lack of faith: “I have told you, and you do not believe,” he says. They have chosen not to belong to his sheep – and his sheep are no longer just the people of Israel but any and all who hear Jesus’s voice and follow him. His care for their, for our safety and welfare is both unlimited and eternal. His sheep will be safe for ever. No predator or enemy can snatch them out of Jesus’ hand, not even death, the last great enemy. 

The visions of John of Patmos in the Book of Revelation offer a poetic glimpse of what this glorious promise means: “They will hunger nor more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” (Rev. 7:16-17) This is a vision of the satisfaction of all physical and spiritual needs.

The security of the sheep rests on the shepherd. How can Jesus promise this? Because of who he serves and who he is. Jesus is not acting on his own apart from the Father. Jesus acts in unity with God the Father: “The Father and I are one.” (John 10:30) Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and the Good Shepherd is God.

And what do we do with this message? Communicate it of course – so that is heard, understood, and accepted. But most of all, simply rejoice that when we hear Jesus’ voice, we know that we are called by name, and that we can follow where he leads, to the very springs of the water of life, (Rev. 7:17) where we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. (Psalm 23:6)

Amen.