The sermon begins with a game called “Party Quirks.” I act as a host setting up for a party, and three people enter separately, pretending to be guests. Each will also pretend to be either an animal, a character in a movie, or a Biblical character, and I have to try to guess who they are.
Well, that was fun – but how does it glorify God? My hope is that we glorify God when we express our creativity, when we are vulnerable together, and when we experience joy together. That may not be a very clear exploration of the passages we’ve read today, but I think it’s a good place to start.
There’s a lot going on in our readings – clearly more than we can engage in just a few minutes of talking and listening – so I’d like to focus on the idea of “glory” as an interpretive lens.
Our reading from John is all about glorifying God; or is it Jesus; or is it God through Jesus; or is it glorifying God through Jesus through the disciples? Yes. It’s all of that.
Acts may not use the word “glory”, but there is clearly some serious holy stuff going on and the disciples are left kinda gobsmacked. Then the angels come up to them like Ferris Bueler after the credits to ask, “What are you looking at? He’s gone. He’ll come back. Go on home now.”
1 Peter reminds us that the glory of God is within us, sustaining us in times of trial, particularly when we struggle for the sake of the cause of Jesus. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t with us when we struggle because of our own limitations or our own choices, but the glory of God is what sustains us when we stand with others in the way that Jesus stands with us.
Looking back to John’s Gospel, I think we have to talk a little more about the cause of Jesus that is being promoted here. V.5 reminds us that John wants us to remember that Jesus is not just from God, he is of God. That’s important because it helps us understand what Jesus means when he talks about his word being received and his work being finished through his invitation to receive the truth about eternal life with God.
For Jesus to be of God means that when he invites others to receive his word, he is inviting them to receive him as God’s generative presence which forms order out of chaos. Receiving him is to receive the Spirit of God that came to abide with us (John 1). The truth that sets us free (John 8:31), is that God came in the form of Jesus so that we will know that God abides in us just as we abide in God (John 15:4).
Abiding with God means that eternal life with God is not something we have to die to receive. It has already begun! It is like a stream that flowed well before us and moves well beyond us, and we who have received this invitation are already swimming in it!
Now, admittedly, this is where it gets complicated. I know I said earlier to consider what it would be like for Jesus to say these words to you and about you – and I hope that was meaningful because I believe they are for you – but Jesus was speaking to a specific group in a specific context. That’s why he said, “I’m not asking on behalf of the world,” even though he previously said, “I came not to condemn the world but to save it.”
Yes, he also said in John 3:16-18 that “some are already condemned,” because they have rejected the relationship with God that he offered. That’s because, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is very concerned about bringing people into an awareness of the active presence of God. When he says in v4 “I glorified you by finishing the work you gave,” he has not even gotten to the cross, though he knows it is coming. The “glory” that he has brought to God is in the fact that the work he has done has all been done to bring people into an experience of the active presence of God.
The celebration at Cana, healing a man born blind, forgiving sins, raising Lazarus, eating with outcasts, and challenging religiosity that separates and condemns those whom God loves – all of this was done to bring people into an experience of God’s abiding and restorative presence, a presence which the world denies but disciples of the way of Jesus embrace.
Now it comes down to you and me. Are we the ones whom Jesus prayed for? Are we the ones who are willing to do as Jesus commissions the disciples to do in Acts 1:8 and become his witnesses to all the earth?
Yes. Well, sometimes. You see, even the first disciples still expected the Kingdom of God to be on their own terms – until they received the Holy Spirit. Even though they had been with the resurrected Jesus for about a month, or so we assume since Pentecost was 50 days after the Passover, they still wanted to know if Jesus was going to re-establish Isreal as an earthly power.
We know this because they said, “is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” not of but to. Then he promised them it would make more sense once the Holy Spirit came along, and he commissioned them to be witnesses before returning to his former glory.
The disciples, being good Presbyterians, went back to Jerusalem and formed a committee to elect a new disciple to take the place of Judas. Sometimes we can be like that. Sometimes we can get overly focused on the nuts and bolts of “doing churchy things” rather than being the church in the world. Sometimes we can be so focus on the need for restoration on our terms that we forget what it looks like on God’s…but not always.
Sometimes the “ends of the earth” are closer than you think. Sometimes they are right outside our door and they look like the parts of town or the types of people that are the last people or places we would ever choose to have a relationship with on our own. Sometimes it looks like delivering meals on wheels in some of those very same spaces. Sometimes it looks like maintaining relationships with our partners in ministry. Sometimes it looks like electing officers and task forces.
Sometimes it looks like loving someone for the sake of loving them and welcoming someone who has been rejected. Sometimes it looks like hospital visits and cards and helping someone get their groceries when they’ve had car trouble. Sometimes it happens when we are present in the community in such a way that people know about the love of God because they know about us.
The important thing is that all we do is an extension of the invitation of Jesus to come to God’s party, to swim in the stream of life eternal, and to experience life lived in God’s presence here and now as we will there and then – and to God be the glory for this and all else, now and always. Amen!
Well, that was fun – but how does it glorify God? My hope is that we glorify God when we express our creativity, when we are vulnerable together, and when we experience joy together. That may not be a very clear exploration of the passages we’ve read today, but I think it’s a good place to start.
There’s a lot going on in our readings – clearly more than we can engage in just a few minutes of talking and listening – so I’d like to focus on the idea of “glory” as an interpretive lens.
Our reading from John is all about glorifying God; or is it Jesus; or is it God through Jesus; or is it glorifying God through Jesus through the disciples? Yes. It’s all of that.
Acts may not use the word “glory”, but there is clearly some serious holy stuff going on and the disciples are left kinda gobsmacked. Then the angels come up to them like Ferris Bueler after the credits to ask, “What are you looking at? He’s gone. He’ll come back. Go on home now.”
1 Peter reminds us that the glory of God is within us, sustaining us in times of trial, particularly when we struggle for the sake of the cause of Jesus. That doesn’t mean that God isn’t with us when we struggle because of our own limitations or our own choices, but the glory of God is what sustains us when we stand with others in the way that Jesus stands with us.
Looking back to John’s Gospel, I think we have to talk a little more about the cause of Jesus that is being promoted here. V.5 reminds us that John wants us to remember that Jesus is not just from God, he is of God. That’s important because it helps us understand what Jesus means when he talks about his word being received and his work being finished through his invitation to receive the truth about eternal life with God.
For Jesus to be of God means that when he invites others to receive his word, he is inviting them to receive him as God’s generative presence which forms order out of chaos. Receiving him is to receive the Spirit of God that came to abide with us (John 1). The truth that sets us free (John 8:31), is that God came in the form of Jesus so that we will know that God abides in us just as we abide in God (John 15:4).
Abiding with God means that eternal life with God is not something we have to die to receive. It has already begun! It is like a stream that flowed well before us and moves well beyond us, and we who have received this invitation are already swimming in it!
Now, admittedly, this is where it gets complicated. I know I said earlier to consider what it would be like for Jesus to say these words to you and about you – and I hope that was meaningful because I believe they are for you – but Jesus was speaking to a specific group in a specific context. That’s why he said, “I’m not asking on behalf of the world,” even though he previously said, “I came not to condemn the world but to save it.”
Yes, he also said in John 3:16-18 that “some are already condemned,” because they have rejected the relationship with God that he offered. That’s because, in John’s Gospel, Jesus is very concerned about bringing people into an awareness of the active presence of God. When he says in v4 “I glorified you by finishing the work you gave,” he has not even gotten to the cross, though he knows it is coming. The “glory” that he has brought to God is in the fact that the work he has done has all been done to bring people into an experience of the active presence of God.
The celebration at Cana, healing a man born blind, forgiving sins, raising Lazarus, eating with outcasts, and challenging religiosity that separates and condemns those whom God loves – all of this was done to bring people into an experience of God’s abiding and restorative presence, a presence which the world denies but disciples of the way of Jesus embrace.
Now it comes down to you and me. Are we the ones whom Jesus prayed for? Are we the ones who are willing to do as Jesus commissions the disciples to do in Acts 1:8 and become his witnesses to all the earth?
Yes. Well, sometimes. You see, even the first disciples still expected the Kingdom of God to be on their own terms – until they received the Holy Spirit. Even though they had been with the resurrected Jesus for about a month, or so we assume since Pentecost was 50 days after the Passover, they still wanted to know if Jesus was going to re-establish Isreal as an earthly power.
We know this because they said, “is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?” not of but to. Then he promised them it would make more sense once the Holy Spirit came along, and he commissioned them to be witnesses before returning to his former glory.
The disciples, being good Presbyterians, went back to Jerusalem and formed a committee to elect a new disciple to take the place of Judas. Sometimes we can be like that. Sometimes we can get overly focused on the nuts and bolts of “doing churchy things” rather than being the church in the world. Sometimes we can be so focus on the need for restoration on our terms that we forget what it looks like on God’s…but not always.
Sometimes the “ends of the earth” are closer than you think. Sometimes they are right outside our door and they look like the parts of town or the types of people that are the last people or places we would ever choose to have a relationship with on our own. Sometimes it looks like delivering meals on wheels in some of those very same spaces. Sometimes it looks like maintaining relationships with our partners in ministry. Sometimes it looks like electing officers and task forces.
Sometimes it looks like loving someone for the sake of loving them and welcoming someone who has been rejected. Sometimes it looks like hospital visits and cards and helping someone get their groceries when they’ve had car trouble. Sometimes it happens when we are present in the community in such a way that people know about the love of God because they know about us.
The important thing is that all we do is an extension of the invitation of Jesus to come to God’s party, to swim in the stream of life eternal, and to experience life lived in God’s presence here and now as we will there and then – and to God be the glory for this and all else, now and always. Amen!
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