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Lent
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
This is not a lumberjack with a chainsaw attacking your story. This is the gentle hand of the garden artist who painstakingly dedicates creativity and thought and care to help you become you. Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week.
Speaker 1:Head to commons.church for more information. Well, said, let's get back into John. Because last week, we worked our way through John 14, where there is a brief q and a with JC. Thomas goes first, how can we know the way? Philip follows up, why don't you just show us the father?
Speaker 1:And Judas rounds out the chapter by asking, what's the big secret? Why are you telling us and not everyone else? And part of what's fascinating here is that Jesus gives very similar answers to each of these questions. How can we know the way? I am way.
Speaker 1:How can we see the father? Pay attention to me. If you've seen me, you've seen the father. Why don't you tell everyone? You might be surprised by who finds their way to me.
Speaker 1:And there's a ton of interesting stuff here. But for me, understanding that when Jesus says, I am way, I am truth, I am life, he is actually taking Jewish concepts of the divine, almost names for God, and applying them to himself. This puts everything in a whole new light. Because that should give us pause whenever we want to too tightly box Jesus into our categories. Over and over again, Jesus' answer is, do you trust me to do good for you?
Speaker 1:And one of the interesting pieces that comes out of his comments is this question of who exactly has access to Jesus? You see, if Jesus is saying, don't worry about anyone else, they may in their end find their way to me anyway. Then is he saying that something like evangelism doesn't matter? And I put together a quick video for social media this week talking about this, but briefly here, the question is, is Jesus a universalist? And there's actually a lot of different ways we can think about that word.
Speaker 1:There is religious universalism. This is the idea that all roads lead to God. It doesn't really matter what you believe. In the end, it's basically all the same anyway, so the way is irrelevant. And immediately, that has problems when you try to square it with the fact that Jesus calls himself way.
Speaker 1:He very explicitly points to the unique nature of his identity within God so that doesn't quite work. We have Christian universalism, which is the idea that it is only through Jesus that we are reconciled to the divine. But the work of Jesus is so absolute and so perfect that everyone, regardless of their choices, will eventually be brought into relationship with God in the end. Now the problem with that is that it can seem to contradict the fairly consistent theme in the bible and in Jesus that our choices really do matter. In fact, in John 14, Jesus says that those who do not love me will not obey me.
Speaker 1:So it's tough at least here to imagine that Jesus is making a case for that type of universalism. There is also something that we call hopeful universalism. This is the idea that yes, salvation is about coming to embrace God through Jesus. And, yes, without that choice, we continue to stand at odds with God. But perhaps, the time scale for that choice is infinite.
Speaker 1:So maybe grace doesn't end the moment you're hit by a bus. Maybe it is always available to you. And if that's the case, if we have forever to turn and choose God, well then we could hope at least that eventually, in eternity, everyone who has ever been given breath would ultimately choose to embrace life, to repent and turn toward God's heart. Now, even Martin Luther at least left the door open to this idea. He wrote in 1522, God forbid that I should limit the time of acquiring faith to this present life.
Speaker 1:In the depth of divine mercy, there may be opportunity in the end. And that's a really compelling idea, except there's not much here in John 14 to suggest that Jesus has it in mind right now. However, there is another way to think about this. And this is perhaps less about universalism and more about an inclusivism. And this is actually what I think Jesus is getting at here.
Speaker 1:Jesus tells us to go into all the world to preach the gospel, to tell his story, and to make disciples. So very clearly, Jesus invested in evangelism and us telling his story. But at the same time, Jesus reserves the right to show up. When and how and wherever he chooses, regardless of whether we had anything to do with it. And I think this is his point.
Speaker 1:Judas says, why are you telling us and not them? And Jesus says, listen, trust me, I am telling them. I am present in a thousand different ways that may not make sense to you right now, but trust me, I am active in the world. And for me, all this does is make me more excited to share the story and invite people to discover Jesus because it reminds me that the Jesus I love is already at work in the places I can't even begin to imagine. Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching.
Speaker 1:And the father will love them and we will come to them and make our home with them. That's Jesus in John fourteen twenty three. Now, today we have John 15. But first let's pray. Living God who is active in this world, speaking life and truth, inviting people to discover your way, would you remind us today of just how tenacious your love is?
Speaker 1:That attracts us down and finds us when we hide. How it comes to us even when we have turned and walked away from you. So God of grace, when we catch sight of your love, we pray that it might captivate our hearts and soften our stance, and that we might turn and run toward your embrace. Where we have experienced something of that welcome. And perhaps, we have been too shy to share that story.
Speaker 1:Might we be bold, knowing that you are already at work in the places we have not yet ventured. Thank you for grace that shines into our darkest places and moments everywhere in our story. And thank you that you are already there. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray. Amen.
Speaker 1:Okay. Today, we have gardens and vines and commands and conflicts. But first, let's read from John 15. And I'm gonna read a longer section here, and I'm going to jump a bit through the chapter so that we can cover the main sections. But I'll put the scriptures on the screen, and I'll let you know where I'm reading from as I go.
Speaker 1:So in verse one, we start. I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. Remain in me as I also remain in you.
Speaker 1:No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I and you, you will bear much fruit. But apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers, and such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Speaker 1:Verse 12, my command is this, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. And finally, verse 18, if the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first. If you belong to the world, it would love you as its own. But as it is, you do not belong to the world, for I have chosen you out of this world.
Speaker 1:And once again, Jesus has packed a lot in here for us and we have a lot of work to do, so let's dive in. We'll do that by starting at verse one. Jesus says, I am the vine. And hopefully, if you were paying a bit of attention last week, this may have caught your attention this week. Because this is the last of the I am statements in John's gospel.
Speaker 1:So throughout this particular gospel, we read, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the door. I am the good shepherd. I am way, truth, and life.
Speaker 1:And now, I am the true vine. And we spent a lot of time on this last week exploring this idea, but the key here is that all of these are titles that Jesus applies to himself. They are Jewish metaphors for the divine, And Jesus says that in some way, somehow, they have always actually been pointing to me. Now, what's fascinating here is that he says he is the true vine. And that's because vine is used as a metaphor all throughout the Old Testament for Israel.
Speaker 1:So Isaiah five tells a long story about a vineyard that the Lord planted and cared for. And then at the end it says, the vineyard of the Lord is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delights in. Jeremiah two says, I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. So how now have you turned against me into a corrupt wild vine? Then one more.
Speaker 1:Hosea 10, the prophet says that Israel is like a spreading vine that brought forth fruit. And as the fruit increased, the land prospered, and so he adorned the sacred spaces. So it's a very common metaphor. It's used in positive and in negative critiques. But here, when Jesus uses it to describe himself, everyone would have understood what he was doing.
Speaker 1:He's not replacing Israel. He's not saying Israel is passe. He's saying that all of our best attempts to understand and honor God in the past, these have all been pointing to me. They have found their full expression here. And that's interesting because it leads into a really fascinating dynamic between Jesus' relationship to the father.
Speaker 1:He says, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that does not bear fruit. And he prunes the ones that do so that they might produce even more. Now, if you are familiar with how Christianity tends to deal with the divinity of Jesus, this might sound a little bit shocking. Because traditionally, we have held that Jesus is both fully human and without sin because Jesus is at the same time fully divine.
Speaker 1:So what does it mean that Jesus has branches that do not bear fruit? Or to ask it another way, why does Jesus need to be pruned? And one of the ways to deal with this is to note that in the very next section, Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches. So perhaps the pruning that God does is really about pruning us, and that makes a lot of sense, and it almost certainly is a big part of what Jesus is saying in this larger section. So a lot of people are happy to leave it at that.
Speaker 1:However, it does mean that there's sort of an awkward flow to the argumentation, which leads a lot of us to wonder if there's not more going on here. You see, if our approach to Jesus affirms that he is both human and divine, that union, not part human and part God, but somehow fully human and fully God, that is really hard to make sense of. For instance, Jesus is a baby at one point, who cries and crawls and can't look after himself. Doesn't sound very divine. And Jesus is a boy at one point, who falls down and scrapes his knees and needs care and coaching and correction from his mom as he grows.
Speaker 1:Doesn't sound like God. Jesus is a man at one point who starts his public ministry with a very common sense approach to God. You can see that in the sermon on the mount. But as he moves closer and closer to the cross, he becomes more and more enigmatic. And he starts telling parables and stories and inviting people into this mysterious idea of the one who lays down his life to find it.
Speaker 1:And yet through all of that, as he is being shaped and guided and formed and taught by parents and mentors, and of course God directly through the spirit, we still believe that in that without sin Jesus is becoming who he is meant to be. And this is important. Because I think at times, we tend to imagine that any cutting away that needs to happen in our lives, or any pruning that needs to take place in our story. This is only because somehow we have missed the mark. And that may be true, But equally, it may be that this season that you are going through right now, this period where old things are being left behind and where change is subtly and slowly but steadily happening in and through you.
Speaker 1:Maybe this is simply part of your journey with God. I am not a gardener. I have two very delicate thumbs that are carefully guarded for turning pages in large books and gently caressing my keyboard, which is actually a lie, because I tend to type like a maniac who's desperately trying to pound his fingers through his keyboard. I don't know how to type properly. I didn't learn Mavis Beacon.
Speaker 1:However, I know that the image of a gardener is not one that should scare us away from the presence of God. This is not a lumberjack with a chainsaw attacking your story. This is the gentle hand of the garden artist who painstakingly dedicates creativity and thought and care to help you become you. And please hear me. Seasons of pruning and cutting away are hard enough as it is without that voice in the back of your head telling you it's all your fault.
Speaker 1:And if there were stages and relationships, even people that Jesus needed to leave behind in order to become who he was meant to be, then you do not need to beat yourself up over the gardening that is happening in your life. If God is close enough to you to reach out and touch you, even if it's to remove something from you, then this is life giving. So know that you are loved by the gardener. Now, from there, Jesus expands the meaning. He says, I am the vine and you are the branches.
Speaker 1:And this is where that image of God as gardener really starts to come into focus. Jesus says, if you remain in me and I in you, then you will bear much fruit. But if you do not, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers, and such branches are then picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned, and everyone said, amen. Am I right? Okay.
Speaker 1:Couple things here. First, this is a gardening metaphor, not a hell metaphor. And even people who are really into the idea of hell generally don't point to scriptures like this to make their case. It's just too much of a leap. That said, this is a metaphor with some teeth to it.
Speaker 1:Because it does seem to suggest that there is an option to walk away. And that option has consequences. However, the central idea here is actually the idea of remaining. In fact, this Greek word, to remain or abide or dwell or stay where you are is used 10 times in this chapter. Which is interesting because last week Jesus used the image of God's home being full of rooms for us to remain in.
Speaker 1:But there's two things that are important for me here. One, to remain in and with Christ, you don't need to manufacture anything. I love that Jesus says, if you just remain, like if you sit still, if you can just simply wait here in my presence, you will grow. And I don't wanna turn his words into license to be lazy. That's not the point.
Speaker 1:But at the same time, the kingdom of God is not about ambition. It is about the natural rhythms of life and care and growth in our life. And as you grow well, not ahead of schedule and not on a timetable and not measured against your neighbor with the weight of expectation, but as you simply grow well, what you will find according to Jesus is that you will begin to produce the kind of fruit that drew you to him in the first place. Now, one of the early Christian writers, a man named Paul, described this as love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self control. And sometimes, some of those things are really hard to notice from the outside.
Speaker 1:And so when you do notice yourself, able to slow down and breathe in new ways, Or to rest in a new peace, or to speak with a new gentleness to your kids, or care for your employees, or maybe just concern for the person who comes at you with a little bit frustration and angst in their voice. Know that this is what Jesus invites out of you. Now at the same time, let's notice here that Jesus uses this remaining and staying and dwelling language to speak of the good he produces in us. And then he uses the language of leaving and departing and choosing something else to speak of the harsh. So we have to remember here, it is possible to walk away from God.
Speaker 1:But it will always be harder to evade God's love than it will be to simply sink back in. Which is quite beautiful. Because Jesus then says that this natural embrace of God is actually what leads us to love. In fact, he says in verse 12, this is the command I give you, love each other as I have loved you. Now, this command that he's talking about here is actually a throwback to something he talked about in chapter 13.
Speaker 1:And if we flip there, we'll see in verse 34 Jesus saying, a new command I give you, love one another. By this, everyone will know that you are my disciples if you love. And what's interesting here is that this is of course in no way a new command. Jesus himself, earlier, summarizing the entire Old Testament said, love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's Deuteronomy six.
Speaker 1:And love your neighbor as yourself. That's Leviticus 19. That's the whole sum of the law. So love is not a new command. And yet Jesus here says that it is.
Speaker 1:So what's this all about? Well, here's how I tend to think about it. In Matthew 13, Jesus has been talking about the kingdom of God, this new presence of God in the world and he tells a whole series of stories and parables. But then when he's done he says, every teacher who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old. And this is one of the real insights of Jesus.
Speaker 1:That even when we think we have truth in our possession, we are constantly in need of discovering it in new ways. They say that nothing is new under the sun. And that actually comes from the book of Ecclesiastes and it's true and yet, we are, all of us, constantly experiencing and expressing old things in new ways all the time. Have you ever had a teacher who took something that seemed so complex and esoteric that you thought you were never going to be able to wrap your head around this? And then one day, this teacher talked about it in a way that just made it seem like so simple and clear and accessible for the first time.
Speaker 1:Was like a light bulb just went on in your head and you're like, okay, now I get it. Amazing. That's what Jesus is talking about. We all know we should love each other. We have always known we should love each other.
Speaker 1:And yet we cloud it and we complicate it and we bury it under exemptions and exceptions and all of a sudden love seems very cryptic. And yet when we look at Jesus and we observe his compassion and we watch the way he speaks and interacts and he invites and he welcomes and we notice that he reserves his frustration only for the voices that exclude and marginalize. Well, then it's almost like we're seeing love for the first time all over again. And it's like it clicks on in our mind and we're like, yeah. That's the thing I was trying to get.
Speaker 1:Old command is love each other. The new command is watch how I love you. This is from the letter of first John. The writer says, dear friends, I am not writing to you a new command, but an old one. One which you have had since the very beginning.
Speaker 1:The old command is the message you have already heard and yet in some ways I am writing to you something new. Because this truth is seen in him and in you. The darkness is passing and the true light is already shining through. See, we all already know we're supposed to love. We sense it, we feel it in our bones, and yet sometimes the issue is that we struggle to remember what it means.
Speaker 1:And so Jesus says, as I have loved you, you now love. That's how people will know you're with me. But that brings us to Jesus' last point in the chapter because this is where I think we sometimes lose the plot. We're tracking with him here, but then he says, remember, if the world hates you, it hated me first. Now, I don't know if you're aware of this, but apparently, the ill fated XFL, a football league that was started by the guy who owns the WWF, that sounds like a good idea, it's coming back.
Speaker 1:And I don't remember much about the first iteration of the XFL, but I do remember that one of the things that they thought would make football awesome was that if players could have their nicknames on the back of their jerseys. Now the only one that ever seemed to stick was a guy named Rod Brown who played for the Las Vegas Outlaws and he plastered the name, he hate me on the back of his uniform. That is not what Jesus has in mind here. That we as Christians go around with he hate me on our backs. This does however seem to be the point where we start piling on a lot of asterisks to Jesus command to love.
Speaker 1:And I mean, sure, we love people. We got it. Okay. But what about the haters? I mean, obviously, we're not gonna love them.
Speaker 1:Am I right, Jesus? And sometimes, it seems like a lot of people want to use these words here to justify all kinds of bad behavior that doesn't line up with what Jesus has said earlier. See, if you're going to be hated like Jesus, then you need to be hated for the same kinds of things. And the truth is, what Jesus was hated for was who he refused to hate. Look, our entire social world is built on this idea of in groups and out groups.
Speaker 1:And there's actually a lot of research that shows that as human beings, feeling included by defining who is excluded is our fundamental social need. In fact, Rene Girard, who is the French sociologist slash theologian that I have done my graduate work studying, even suggests that the invention that made human culture possible was the idea of a scapegoat that we could collectively blame for all of our problems. That's what drew us together. And cultures are built around the concept of an enemy. But when Jesus says, you've heard it said an eye for an eye, but I tell you that has not worked.
Speaker 1:So love your enemy. That is a challenge to our system. It threatens the balance and it makes him the one we want to blame. And we hated him for it. So if you're going to align yourself with Jesus and you're going to be hated, then you need to be hated for who you love.
Speaker 1:You see this warning about hate is actually about an invitation to love recklessly the way that Jesus did. And so his encouragement here is to love your neighbor. But it's to love your homeless neighbor, and your Muslim neighbor, and your black neighbor, and your gay neighbor, and your immigrant neighbor, and your atheist neighbor, and your addicted neighbor, and your neighbor who drives you nuts because they built their fence a little too close to your property line, and your neighbor who has an NDP sign on their lawn, and your neighbor who has a UCP sign on their lawn. Because if you're going to take Jesus seriously when he gives you a new command to love, then you need to take him seriously when he asks you to follow through with that when it gets hard. And if you find the courage to love across all of those lines that have come to define your in group, then you will inevitably find yourself at odds with a culture that thrives on conflict.
Speaker 1:But that is worth being hated for. So I hope that you hear in the words of Jesus. This encouragement to remain in Christ. Even when God does the work of pruning back some of your rougher branches to make room for some more tender shoots. Because if you do, you might be surprised by the fruit that you see in your life when you love across those lines.
Speaker 1:Let's pray. God, be with us as we continue this Lenten journey towards your cross. The ultimate expression of where you take all of these nice ideas and you put them into practice. And you lay down your life not just for those who like you, but for those who hated you and despised you, for those who were threatened by the fact that you crossed the boundaries and barriers they thought were important. God, for all of the ways that we want to be near to you, would you remind us that you're pruning and you're cutting back, you're gardening that you are doing in our lives.
Speaker 1:This is so that we might live well. And as we move closer and closer to your son, as your spirit remains in and through us guiding us as we go, might we love in ways that challenge the structures and systems around us. Might we push back against barriers that seem so important to us. And might we build your kingdom as we go. In the strong name of the risen Christ we pray.
Speaker 1:Amen.