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Part 1. This series will run 3 Sundays and be followed by a special interactive exercise on Thursday, Nov 26. To register head to www.commons.church and click on Next Steps.
Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.
Welcome to the CommonsCast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Church Today. If we haven't met, my name is Bobbie, and I am one of the pastors here at Commons. If you're new to Commons, welcome! We can hardly believe the kinds of people who rock up in the community and call this place home. Even with our imperfections, and we have them, you choose Commons as your community.
Speaker 2:If you've been around for years, you're likely aware of some of those imperfections and still you stay. And we love you for it. We're so grateful. We begin a new series today called Making More Room. And if you're like, Bobby, that sounds awfully familiar, well you are not wrong.
Speaker 2:Last year we did a series called Making Room where we talked about the sacred work of hospitality. And maybe it's the effect of the pandemic, but we want to drag those themes with us into this new reality. I mean really, what does hospitality mean if we aren't opening our doors to one another and there are fewer people in the room when we gather and we literally have to social distance everywhere we go, if we go anywhere at all? So in your journal where we outline the entire teaching year, you can find these words as introduction to making more room. The narrative arc of the gospel from creation to restored earth keeps expanding to include individuals, families, tribes, kingdoms, and finally, the multitude of nations.
Speaker 2:God never stops making more room. And while I'm opening this series today talking about the divine presence in our one on one encounters, we're going to expand that to include small groups, large groups, and culture. So here's how this is going to work. You will hear three Sunday sermons in this series, but the fourth is one that we preach together. We're going to have an interactive conversation on Zoom around the topic of making more room by engaging cultures that are different or unfamiliar.
Speaker 2:And there will be time to reflect together, Jeremy will do some teaching around engaging culture, and you'll talk to each other, making more room in our community relationships. And you can register at commons.churchnextsteps for part four of Making More Room. It will take place on Thursday evening, November twenty sixth, from seven to 08:30PM. And we really, really hope that you'll join us. We promise it will be worth your time.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's enough church admin for the moment. Today, we are taking a look at a story in John four forty six-fifty four. And if you take notes in your journal, your outline is this: Part one: One on one. Part two: Needy conversations. Part three: The exact moment.
Speaker 2:And part four: What does a sign really mean? Now let's just take a deep breath and turn inward before we dive into the text together. So let us pray. Loving God, we pause to consider what's going on inside of us today. Maybe we feel a great sense of gratitude.
Speaker 2:Maybe we feel worried about the world right now. Maybe we aren't feeling much of anything. No matter what's going on in our inward spaces, the world it keeps turning and your love always sustains us and who we are matters to the people around us. So Jesus, thank you for the example of how to live our full humanity in touch with divinity and today spirit of the living God. Will you show us what it means to make a little more room for each other?
Speaker 2:Amen. All right. Let's get into the story from John, chapter four. Once more, Jesus visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick in Capernaum.
Speaker 2:When the royal official heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to Jesus and begged him to come and heal his son who was close to death. Now, this is not the first of Jesus' one on one interactions in John. And the variety of people and places is impressive. He's been in Jerusalem (John three), where a Pharisee named Nicodemus approaches him in the night and the two of them have a fierce back and forth about Jesus' teaching on the kingdom. And Jesus has been in Samaria earlier in John four where he has a revealing conversation with a woman at the well, and she is sure they should not be speaking.
Speaker 2:And he is sure that she could use living water. And now Jesus has returned to Galilee, where he's approached by a royal official who wants healing for his son. Like what a triad! An elite religious leader, a woman closed off from community, and this royal official who represents imperial rule. And you can't exactly say that Jesus has a type, right?
Speaker 2:And whether he approaches them or they approach him, there's always some tension below the surface. There's a betrayal of social and cultural boundaries meant to keep people in their place, and the very ground that they stand on, it kind of vibrates with conflict. Now John considers Galilee a little more hospitable to Jesus but like only by a little bit. And under the surface there are these North South tensions that inform the gospel. Judea in the South where Jerusalem was was thought of itself as much more pious.
Speaker 2:And of course, Samaria is hardly on the map, or at least that's what people hoped by doing everything they could to avoid going there. And then Galilee in the North, where Cana was, represented, resented Judea for thinking Galilee was so backwoods. And right as Jesus's ministry is taking off, Rome has this grip on Galilee, filling storehouses by exploiting Galilean peasants. So when this royal official travels some 20 miles to find Jesus, we're not supposed to like this man. But over and over again, Jesus transcends social boundaries and the tensions of geography by narrowing in on the one.
Speaker 2:By focusing on one, Jesus makes room for all. Room for a Pharisee who wants to believe, room for a woman who wants to be known, room for a royal official who wants his son to be well. But before any of these individuals come close to what they long for they clash with Jesus. There are questions and misunderstandings and the feeling of disorientation. And whether you're around someone for a long time or a short time there are tensions in so many of our one on one interactions, too.
Speaker 2:We clash about where we come from, what we value, what makes us happy, what makes us mad, how we navigate a global pandemic. We clash about who is right and who is totally wrong. And how we vote and how to fix things, we clash about how we drive and who we love to despise and how you remember this and how there's no way, I'll admit to that. We clash all the time. And it helps to remember that Jesus didn't skip around the region having everyone swoon and fall in love with him.
Speaker 2:He navigated tough conversations and mismatched motivations and he did so in a number of one on one relationships. And those relationships are surprisingly reciprocal. They're give and take tension and resolve a tug of war and transformation. Now, is the three sentence conversation that changes everything. Jesus told him, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.
Speaker 2:And the royal official said, sir, come down before my child dies. Go, Jesus replied, your son will live. And the man took Jesus at his word and departed. And this exchange, it just gets me. So let's take it line by line.
Speaker 2:Jesus says, unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe. So first he communicates a larger message. Rather than speaking only to the official, Jesus says, You people. It's plural. Now, the interesting thing about this criticism over signs is that John's gospel is arranged around signs.
Speaker 2:Some scholars even divide the gospel into two sections: chapters one to 12 as the book of signs and chapters 13 to 20 as the book of glory. But why construct a book of signs and then have Jesus critique the love of signs? Well, it helps to remember what John's gospel was written to do. It addresses a community of people left to work out their encounters with Jesus after Jesus is gone. John says, You can't rely on signs and wonders.
Speaker 2:You got that? We're past signs and wonders but that doesn't mean that we should forget the stories where signs and wonders happen. Those stories shape us and more they tell us about the God we encountered in Jesus. And there's something for us here too. Like sure, maybe once in a lifetime you get a pyrotechnic explosion of God's work like right before your eyes.
Speaker 2:But so much more often, the subtle work of God is present in an honest, everyday conversation. The philosopher Simone Weil said, The only truly intimate conversation is between two or three, and Christ is always the third in face to face intimacy. So the second line in the conversation is my personal fave. The royal official cannot be bothered with Jesus' sermonizing sentence. He says, I don't care what you have to say to all the people.
Speaker 2:I only care about what you can do for me. I need you to heal my son. Please, my son. Now, there are versions of this story in the synoptic Gospels of Matthew and Luke, and in all three, Capernaum is named, a person of rank approaches Jesus, and the request is for a boy. But then there are differences too.
Speaker 2:In Luke, Jesus doesn't reply but goes with the official's delegation. In Matthew Jesus does respond but the tone is a bit confusing and here in John Jesus is displeased by those who beg for miracles but don't bother to meet their source. And you can spin around and around in circles wondering what the similarities and the differences all mean but trust this: there is room for different perspectives. I mean could we make more room for each other by seeing different perspectives as holy like the Gospels do themselves? So what's John's perspective on the story?
Speaker 2:Well, John's gospel has paired this sign with another sign, the turning of water into wine. And there are similarities in both stories. Jesus is approached with a request. Jesus then refuses the request. And in both stories the questioner persists like there is a need I will not let up.
Speaker 2:And maybe it's just me but I love the audacity it takes to argue with the divine. Like maybe your gut for the good that God can do isn't wrong but so very right. So in the third sentence we read Jesus's words in the NIV is Go, your son will live. But the Greek verb in Jesus's affirmation simply means he lives. And Fredrik Bruner says a more helpful way to read it is with the present tense English idiom he is alive and well.
Speaker 2:And that makes sense because the Gospel of John is big on the theme of life. And life doesn't just happen, it's always happening. So what does it mean when the divine hears your need and speaks life? Maybe it means working with creation as it really is and being ready to say, okay, okay, I see your point. Let's do it your way.
Speaker 2:God makes more room for you and your needs and making more room for each other looks like this. When your friend says something that's hard you stop what you're doing and you listen. And when your child's behavior is driving you bananas you dig and you dig until you find a solution to what's wrong. Or when your neighbor could use a hand and no you don't exactly have the time but sure, you'll work to find some. And when indigenous communities say we need clean water and black lives say we matter, stop killing us.
Speaker 2:And when LGBTQ friends say, This is what it is like to be me in my body, we listen. My God, we listen. And then we set aside our agenda, our sermon, our own story, and we say, Okay, let's focus on what would bring you back to life. And the timing of new life, it's perfect. When the royal official is on his way home, his servants meet him with the news that his boy is living, he's alive.
Speaker 2:So the official asks what time, like what time exactly did my son get better? And the servants say yesterday, when in the afternoon the fever left him. Then, and notice this, the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, your son is alive and well. So he and his whole household believed. And as the story moves along the titles for the royal official shift first, he's this royal official.
Speaker 2:And then partway through the story, he's referred to as a man. And finally, he's a father. We witness this character soften. And I love this, that the work of God's word traveling about in the world would turn us into softer versions of ourselves. And you might think, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:God's word traveling about like it gets on a bus in the Northeast and jumps off on Stephen Avenue to grab a drink with a friend. But let me tell you, I am not so wrong about the word of God traveling and getting up to all kinds of good in the world. The Greek word logos was a technical word in pre Christian Greek philosophy, and it was used in the Greek New Testament to communicate Hebrew ideas. Logos refers to scripture, logos refers to a title for the Messiah, the Christ, and logos refers to divine utterance. So it's less about the words that you read on a page.
Speaker 2:That Greek word would be lexus. Logos is a more performative and active aspect of speech. And to understand logos, you need to understand the word is having an elocutionary function, meaning the act of speaking or writing in itself constitutes the intended action. God's word is at work in the world always. So if logos in the New Testament isn't just something that is spoken, but is something that travels and transforms and heals and brings us back to life, Like, what does that have to do with you and with me in 2020?
Speaker 2:Well, stories are my best way to big ideas. So here's one about a professor. Thirteen years ago, I was chipping away at my grad school degree, a sweet, sweet master of divinity, and I sat through a lecture that, and it's not even an exaggeration to say this, it changed my life. It was a lecture by an English professor from UBC, and the lecture was called Allegories, Metaphors, Worlds, and I loved it. Over a decade later, and I am still bringing it up in conversations with friends.
Speaker 2:But as much as I tried to reconstruct the lecture in my mind, I couldn't quite make it sing the way I felt that it sung to me in class. So recently, a friend encouraged me to write to this professor. She said, Just send him an email and see if he has some notes or slides. At the very least, he'd probably love to know that his work mattered to you. Now, I don't have the time to read it all to you, but my email started like this.
Speaker 2:I wrote, Hi, Dennis. My name is Bobby, and I was in a lecture you taught at Regent College in the 2007. It's been a long time since that lecture, but in my imagination, I go back to it all the time. I remember the moment when you made a connection between Dante's love of Beatrice and the love that you felt for your new grandchild. I believe you even showed a picture of your grandbaby.
Speaker 2:It is one of the moments in my academic career that really stands out and deeply shaped my theology and my devotion. And I went on a little bit from there. And guess what? A day later, I got this reply. Again, it's adapted for length.
Speaker 2:Dear Bobby, I can't thank you enough for this wonderfully encouraging email. Reading it was made all the richer for me because yesterday, when your message arrived, I was sitting in the atrium at Regent. I had traveled to Vancouver from my retirement place to lead a Regent faculty retreat and was enjoying the lunch break. So I was sitting only yards away from the chapel where in 2007, I gave the talk you asked about in the email. Such a delightful coincidence.
Speaker 2:Now, after saying that unfortunately he didn't have any notes, he did say this: I do remember referring to the strong sense of revelation, even epiphany, I have more than once experienced upon looking into a newborn child's face, a sense of divine or semi divine presence mediated by a face. I think I linked this to Dante's vision of Beatrice and I wanted to offer a model of his experience that didn't just make it appear idolatrous. The picture I showed would have been of my first grandchild who was only weeks old at the time, but I talked to her the day before yesterday for it was her thirteenth birthday. Of course she's as amazing and special now as ever. Sincerely, Dennis Dee.
Speaker 2:Dennis Danielson's lecture used the words of Dante and Milton to tie worship to our lived experience that we can pass through the beauty of a creature, a craving, a vision, a sign and we can find God on the other side. And you have to admit, like there is a mystery to timing lectures when you are just so open to new ideas, emails when you should have probably written them a decade earlier, conversations with people who meet up on a road and who listen while one person shares their need. In whatever its shape or size, its container or its refusal to be contained, the Word of God travels between us to bring us back to life. And if we are so sure of how interaction should go with people who aren't like us, if we aren't ready to make a little more room for each other, we might very well miss God looking out at us through the face of another. The last verse reads, this was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Speaker 2:Now, John's Gospel counts signs. He marks this healing as sign number two. And by the end of John, he's almost lost count of all the signs. Chapter 21 verse 25 reads, Jesus also did many other things. If they were all written down, I suppose the whole world could not contain the books that would be written.
Speaker 2:John hopes that anyone who reads this gospel would add up the signs for themselves and that in doing so, they too will believe in Jesus, the word who gives life. Now, this whole sign thing is a bit weird. Jesus isn't so keen on showing a sign when asked for a healing, but John is like, keep counting, like count up all the signs. And here's where Jesus and John fully agree. Behind every single sign of life, a healing, a genuine human encounter, you can find God.
Speaker 2:The point of a sign is to see not just the gift, but the giver. But we don't stop there. We share the signs of God with one another. And the weeks to come might be very hard. Winter twenty twenty might pack a very bruising punch and we are going to need signs of life, signs that we are not alone, signs that our sadness and our worry will not ultimately overtake us.
Speaker 2:So I ask you, please, will you be signs to one another? Start with what you have to receive and receive it. When a friend texts to check-in receive it as a sign. When your partner looks you in the eye and says I've got this go draw a hot bath receive it as a sign. And when you take a walk in a fresh snowfall and say hello to a stranger and their smile is enough to bring you to tears receive it as a sign.
Speaker 2:And maybe you're wondering like a sign of what Bobby? And I say whatever it is you need a sign of connection of companionship of provision a little bit of peace a sign of healing and wholeness and the lift in your sad mood The good hard work of change a sign of resurrection. And then consider what you have to give. Be the friend who sends a text give it as a sign And be the partner who listens without defense and seeks to understand, give it as a sign. And be the stranger who offers kindness and generosity to someone no one else seems to notice.
Speaker 2:Give it as a sign and add up the signs until you have more than you can count and trust that we will make it through this cold pandemic winter together making a little bit more room for each other one by one. Let us pray. Loving God, there are so many needs that we each carry with us. We carry the needs of family. We carry needs for our friends who are hurt and we carry the needs of a world so divided.
Speaker 2:And we take a moment to breathe in your peace and we exhale just a bit of our worry. When you surround us and you give us life, Jesus, thank you for welcoming us in the full participation of bringing your word to life for one another. We consider just one interaction that we can lean into this week where we can sense your nearness in the presence of another. Whether we agree or disagree with them may we open our hearts to learn as your spirit teaches and in our learning may we love. Amen.