Over the last four weeks our church has been reading from the Gospel of John. The first week we read from John 10 which includes a strange mixture of metaphors in which Jesus says, "I am the gate" as well as "I am the shepherd." There are certainly many layers of meaning here, but we focused on the way in which these metaphors work together to point the church toward a very "relational God." Because I have a rather simple mind, I decided that the point our church needed to remember from these passages is this: "Stay close to Jesus." Follow him. Go through him. Stay close to him. That's the kind of church we are called to be.
The second week we read from John 14 - A favorite at funerals and arguments with non-Christians. Ironically, the context of the passage includes neither of those occasions. The context of this passage is a small band of Jesus followers who are out numbered by fellow Jews who think the Jesus followers are nuts, Romans who could care less and Jesus who had just announced he was leaving them soon. "What are we supposed to do now?" was the question on these disciples mind. Had they given themselves to the wrong Messiah? To which Jesus answers, "No you've followed the right Messiah." [my paraphrase]. "I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." "You can trust me even when it appears that evil and death are having their way . . . they are not!" [my paraphrase again.] So, we too are called to place our trust in Jesus THE WAY, even when it looks as if evil and death are having their way. That's the kind of church we are called to be.
The third week we read more of John 14 when Jesus tells his followers that he would not leave them orphaned. Jesus promised that even though he wouldn't be with them physically, they would experience his presence and power through the Holy Spirit when they put "love in action." Further, they would be capable of this "love in action" because of the Holy Spirit as well. Jesus presence is both the foundation and the result of the church's obedience to put love in action. So, I suppose this passage is calling us to be the kind of church that "makes God's love real" - putting love in action. [By the way, much easier to write about than do because it requires such surrender and vulnerability to God's Spirit.] Nonetheless, it is the kind of church we are called to be.
And on the fourth week we read John 17. Here Jesus stops talking to his disciples and starts talking to God on their behalf. That's a good thing as the church needs all the prayer it can get! The neat thing about this passage is that it moves away from "stuff the church is supposed to do" and focuses on "stuff that Jesus does for the church." What does Jesus do? He prays a prayer entrusting the church to God. That's the kind of church we are called to be, "entrusted to God." Like a group of whitewater river rafters who entrust themselves to the River, the church has been entrusted to God by Jesus. While we don't always work together well, take the right fork, or even stay in the boat, we ought to acknowledge that this still doesn't change the fact that we are still in the River - entrusted to God. And it is God's "current" - the Holy Spirit, that leads us most powerfully toward God's [and our] destination - the redemption of the world.
To conclude this "Sermon series synopsis"I want to share a neat quote from a new book by Daniel de Roulet, "Finding Your Plot in a Plotless World." I found that the quote captures the essence of this series.
"What I would like church to be like is a meeting place of authenticity, in which everyone, believer and nonbeliever alike, is acknowledged to be human and flawed and in need of a God who can do something about it—and we love one another with no strings attached."
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