Fifth Sunday in Easter, 2003 -- Susan J. Barnes -- John 14:15-21
St. Matthew's Episcopal Church, Austin ------------ 18 May 2003
I'm new to preaching, and to the rhythm of our seasons and of the readings
that our Prayer Book lays out in the lectionary. As you know, the Sunday
lectionary is a three-year cycle, with each year focusing on a different
gospel: year A, Matthew; year B (where we are until Advent), Mark; year C,
Luke. We read from John at special times, in special seasons. Looking
through the lectionary lately I realized that we read from John a lot in the
Easter season--as we did today. I want to talk today about why I think the
lectionary editors chose the fourth gospel for the Easter season, and why
it is such a good choice.
The Gospel of John is the Fourth Gospel. That's not just because it
comes fourth in the New Testament after Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It was
also, scholars now believe, the fourth--the last of the four--to be written.
Be that as it may, when the canon of the New Testament was put together,
that gospel was set apart from the other three, put at the end, because it
is so different from them. As you all know, those three are called the
synoptics--syn=the same, optic=point of view--because they tell the story of
Jesus ministry from his baptism to his crucifixion and resurrection in
pretty much the same way, For the most part they use the same structure,
taken from Mark, and have many of the same sayings and miracles. The
synoptic gospels have their differences, but on the whole they give us a
clear, coherent picture of the man, Jesus of Nazareth, who became the Christ
after he was resurrected from the dead.
The gospel of John, the fourth gospel is radically different. It's not
about the man, Jesus. It is about the eternal Christ, the Word, who for the
short span of a human life became Jesus. "In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God....And the Word became flesh
and dwelt among us." So begins the fourth gospel. And it continues in a
mystical vein, presenting Jesus not as a man among men and women, but as God
walking among human beings. In the fourth gospel, Jesus knows, sees,
understands all that happens, controlling his own destiny, even to the
cross.
In the fourth gospel when Jesus speaks to his disciples even during his
life, as he did in today's passage, he has God's distance, God's
perspective. He looks beyond the present, beyond his life with them, beyond
his resurrection and ascension to the Pentecost, to the coming of the Holy
Spirit. "I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be
with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth"
Why do we read from the fourth gospel during Easter? Because in that
gospel, even while Jesus is alive, he speaks as the risen Christ.
What he says can be deeply touching and comforting, giving voice to the
parental love that God has for all God's children. For example, today: "I
will not leave you orphaned".
What he says can be the essence of the Christian faith: "This is my
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
On the other hand, what he says can be really hard to understand: "In a
little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I
live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in the
Father, and you in me, and I in you."
At times in my journey, when I'm being very literal and concrete,
passages like that last one frustrate me. They baffle me. They dislocate
me, turning my sense of reality upside down and inside out. But, of
course, that is the point.
And that is why it's an excellent idea to read these texts during
Easter--Easter, the resurrection, the event in history that turned human
reality upside down forever. The crucified Jesus, dead, but risen again!
The agony of the cross transformed to eternal victory over death.
In the fifty days of Easter we celebrate with particular intensity and
joy the unfathomable mystery of our life with the risen Christ. It is, my
friends, another world, an alternative reality. If you have ever tried
seriously to explain your faith to a friend who is an agnostic you know that
what I'm saying is true. It's true even when we try to "explain" to
ourselves or share with fellow Christians the complexities of the truth that
we know in our hearts and souls. Words fail us. The time always
comes--sooner or later--when we have to stop and trail off ...."it's a
mystery." It is a mystery. Praise God! Try as we have for 2,000 years
to put words around God we have failed, and we always will fail. And fail we should, because our
life in God, in Christ, with the Holy Spirit, is an existential reality:
it's about the experience of life in the spirit and that transcends reason,
transcends words, transcends human understanding.
So, it's a great idea to read the Fourth Gospel during Easter. It
confronts us again and again with the beautiful, ineffable mystery of the
risen Christ in our lives. It opens the door of our consciousness to the
deep living truth of our eternal existence in and with our Creator and
Redeemer. It does so by jarring us with phrases that can make us feel like
Alice in Wonderland--phrases like these, that shatter the notion that there
is anything ordinary about life with Christ, life in Christ.
"In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see
me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am
in the Father, and you in me, and I in you".
That makes no sense, really. But it is true.
And, please note the present tense "I am in the Father, and you in me,
and I in you". My friends, Christ IS. God in Christ is eternally present
to us, eternally alive in us.
Another key point of grammar: in the original Greek, what Jesus said
must be translated into the plural. Here it is in Texan plural: "In a
little while the world will no longer see me, but y'all will see me.
Because I live, y'all also will live. On that day, y'all will know that I
am in the Father and y'all in me, and I in all y'all." Thus, by grace, in
Christ we can be, we are, alive together with one another in this same
mystical union.
Each of us has moments--however fleeting--when we feel the presence of
the risen Christ uniting us. St. Paul, who never met Jesus, only knew the
risen Christ. Paul gave us the inspired term for that phenomenon: the Body
of Christ. The Body of Christ is a mystical reality, an existential
reality, one that Paul knew from his experience and that we know from our
own experience together. We may feel it here at the communion table, or at
other moments in Sunday worship. It may be in our ministries,
when--suddenly--we recognize the spirit of Christ equipping us and
empowering us to do God's work together.
That happened to me first as a layperson in a new ministry called
Brigid's Place at the Cathedral in Houston. It is a ministry of outreach to
people by the church. The lay women who felt called to do this ministry felt out
of our depth at first, but we prayed and sought God's guidance, We worked
faithfully. And we found that whenever we gathered to do the ministry we
always had the complementary skills--and just the skills that were
needed--to get the job done, whatever the job was. I have had many such
experiences in ministry since then, and I know you have, too the Body of Christ in action.
So, let us rejoice, dear friends! Christ IS alive. Christ abides in
and with us, uniting us in ministry through the power of the Spirit to be
the Body of Christ, and to do God's work in the world.
And let's thank God for the Fourth Gospel.
