Throughout John's Gospel, there are statements about Jesus and "the" Word, but mostly in the first person, possessive. "MY Word... MY commandments..." are most often what Jesus refers to in this Gospel.
Jesus, the Logos made Flesh from before the beginning, the fulfiller of Law and Prophets, the Redeemer, Savior and Judge of all the living and the dead, is our authority on God's Will and the final Word/Logos on God's Word. All of scripture should be understood through the lens of what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in the Gospels. Here, Jesus owns the Word and His authority as the one who the children of God are to listen to, because Jesus reveals the Will of the Father.
If we who claim to love Jesus really do live agape with Jesus as we are commanded, then we will live what Jesus commanded and what Jesus taught. Agape itself is a command, with all of one's heart, soul, mind and strength for God and for neighbor as self, even to the point of living agape as Jesus gave us example for the living of it.
Agape is not a feeling like Phileos or Eros. Like Philanthropia, it is about doing/living. Those loves are all lived best out of a foundation of Agape, which is committed action on behalf of the other, even stranger and enemy, and certainly the most vulnerable, according to Jesus. Agape is not about getting anything back. It is selfless, even self-sacrificial. It is not just about the recipient and especially not about their "worthiness" to receive this love, but about the giver and the giver's intentions for doing so. It is not just about the giver or liver of this and their need to give it in faithful love, however but about the need of the recipient to receive this active commitment. Agape is a COMMANDED way of life for those who would follow Jesus and live Jesus' Way. Agape IS Jesus' Way for us to live in the world around us.
When everyone gives this love, everyone receives it equally and there is shalom (completeness, wholeness and well-being for individuals and for community). That is God's Will. The whole world is to live in shalom. Without the living of Agape, that is impossible.
The Greed, lust for Power and self-centeredness of this world are antithetical to agape. We cannot live those values AND live within God's Will. Those things tear down community, cause divisions and destroy individual lives. Agape unifies, builds up and transforms lives for individuals and communities. That is what we are commanded to live and do by Jesus.
Jesus owns it. The Word, the Commandments of God and God's Will in the present and until the end of the age. To be a follower of Jesus, we must go where Jesus went and live what Jesus taught, commanded and modeled for us in how to live in this part of God's Kingdom here and now. That is agape, and living that means salvation.
Pastor Jamie
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Sunday, May 7, 2017
Belonging John 14:1-14
We belong. Jesus reconciles. The great divide between God and God's people is bridged. Redemption and Atonement are very real. We belong to God, so we belong with God.
God provides us with life, life abundant and life forever, but also presence, power and life. We are spiritual beings in a physical body. Life does not end when our broken bodies can no longer contain our lively spirits. As we have dwelt with the one "within whom (we) live and move and have our being", we have belonged with one another. If it is true that the "Kingdom of God is within/among you.", ("you" here is plural, as among you in the community, the body) then we must acknowledge the body within which the Kingdom dwells.
We are a part of the body of Christ. Our life with God was never without our life with one another. We are the body together. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life for His bride, His body. We belong to the one who bought us back from sin and death. We belong to the one who brought atonement with God. We belong to the one who says that our life in the spirit will remain. We belong to the one who made it all about the body and called those within the body to make it all about each other.
As Jesus and the Father are one, so our oneness is wrapped up in God's. We are one with God. All that Jesus' oneness with God means also means the same for us. We are connected. We have been reconciled. We have had our relationship with God restored. It draws us together with one another. That connection, reconciliation and restoration needs to happen within the Body. All the things that divide us and put us at odds with one another need to be discarded so that we can be the one body of Christ. Injustice, exploitation, judgment, refusal to forgive, "self-righteousness", pride, elitism, the fear and hatred of xenophobia and ethnocentrism, the arrogance of classism, the ignorance of racism need to be killed within the body in order that the body may be one within and one with God. We cannot, as a body, be right with God if we are not right within.
Thomas was right. They did not know to what Jesus was going. They did not know the pure unity, the absolute oneness and complete atonement with God to which Jesus was going and to which Jesus calls us. They did not know it because they were used to the divisions of this part of the Kingdom of God. We have learned to accept such a high level of division as "normative", that we do not have a concept of complete oneness. We are so used to acknowledging and living within our differences that we do not know what it is to live with one another simply focused on our commonality. We have been conditioned, not to belong with one another but to be at odds with one another. We have learned to live within the divisions and not reach across boundaries to reconcile with one another. We have adopted norms that not only accept but promote divisions among us. The unity to which Jesus calls us has been thwarted by our sinful divisions.
The Good News provides for us a vision of God's Will, and a hope that we as the body can be one with God by being one with each other. Jesus' Good News gives us a guide on how to live the Agape Love that bridges chasms, reconciles divisions and helps us celebrate our differences as strengths in unity. Jesus who is unified with the Father and Body, calls us to be unified as a body in Him, and gives us the tools for building the unity we need in the body. It is then that our faith will have allowed us as a body to do miraculous and great works. Until then, like Thomas, we just will not "get it".
Pastor Jamie
God provides us with life, life abundant and life forever, but also presence, power and life. We are spiritual beings in a physical body. Life does not end when our broken bodies can no longer contain our lively spirits. As we have dwelt with the one "within whom (we) live and move and have our being", we have belonged with one another. If it is true that the "Kingdom of God is within/among you.", ("you" here is plural, as among you in the community, the body) then we must acknowledge the body within which the Kingdom dwells.
We are a part of the body of Christ. Our life with God was never without our life with one another. We are the body together. Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life for His bride, His body. We belong to the one who bought us back from sin and death. We belong to the one who brought atonement with God. We belong to the one who says that our life in the spirit will remain. We belong to the one who made it all about the body and called those within the body to make it all about each other.
As Jesus and the Father are one, so our oneness is wrapped up in God's. We are one with God. All that Jesus' oneness with God means also means the same for us. We are connected. We have been reconciled. We have had our relationship with God restored. It draws us together with one another. That connection, reconciliation and restoration needs to happen within the Body. All the things that divide us and put us at odds with one another need to be discarded so that we can be the one body of Christ. Injustice, exploitation, judgment, refusal to forgive, "self-righteousness", pride, elitism, the fear and hatred of xenophobia and ethnocentrism, the arrogance of classism, the ignorance of racism need to be killed within the body in order that the body may be one within and one with God. We cannot, as a body, be right with God if we are not right within.
Thomas was right. They did not know to what Jesus was going. They did not know the pure unity, the absolute oneness and complete atonement with God to which Jesus was going and to which Jesus calls us. They did not know it because they were used to the divisions of this part of the Kingdom of God. We have learned to accept such a high level of division as "normative", that we do not have a concept of complete oneness. We are so used to acknowledging and living within our differences that we do not know what it is to live with one another simply focused on our commonality. We have been conditioned, not to belong with one another but to be at odds with one another. We have learned to live within the divisions and not reach across boundaries to reconcile with one another. We have adopted norms that not only accept but promote divisions among us. The unity to which Jesus calls us has been thwarted by our sinful divisions.
The Good News provides for us a vision of God's Will, and a hope that we as the body can be one with God by being one with each other. Jesus' Good News gives us a guide on how to live the Agape Love that bridges chasms, reconciles divisions and helps us celebrate our differences as strengths in unity. Jesus who is unified with the Father and Body, calls us to be unified as a body in Him, and gives us the tools for building the unity we need in the body. It is then that our faith will have allowed us as a body to do miraculous and great works. Until then, like Thomas, we just will not "get it".
Pastor Jamie
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