Charting the course without the chart
Commentary
Object:
People have all sorts of travel styles. I am constantly amazed at those who can just pick
up and go on their journeys with minimal amounts of preparation and packing. For me,
even the simplest of journeys requires hours of preparation. When recent security
concerns required the average traveler to show up at the airport hours before their
planned flight I remained largely unaffected. I had been doing that for years. You never
know when a mix up might land you at the wrong place or the wrong time. It is best to
allow time just in case. Requiring a passport for all air travel was no big deal for
me. I have had one for years in which I slip the phone number of the American Counsel
at my destination. You just never know. Currency exchange required: done before I leave
the airport along with letters of credit, Travelers Checks, and plenty of secret pockets to
hide away my traveling financial empire. My checklist, which is gone through at least a
dozen times before departure, is longer than the pilot's list.
Perhaps it is a sign of neurosis that my obsessive compulsive planning kicks in, though it is usually confined to over thirty miles, no matter what the distance I am going. Ask me to go sixty miles and I will show up with at least two atlases, one satellite view of my destination, and several computer generated sets of directions. Believe me, I wish that I was exaggerating. It seems all that is required is to ask me to go some place I have never been before or that I have not been in the last month and I face hours of detailed research and planning.
How do those folks who can leave on journeys beyond my safety perimeter do it? To me they seem to be able to defy the laws of nature and of nature's God. I do not think that my approach is entirely neurotic, although it may have something to do with growing up in a household that did not have a car and that depended on public transportation. It was hard to go wrong when you went by foot although journeys into New York City required the security of carrying a detailed a map. Growing up, it was public transportation that took care of the nasty business of getting you from here to there. Neurotic or not, by and large I believe I hold the world's record for the least time spent lost for a 58-year-old.
For the most part, this facet of my personality has not put too much of a dent in my quality of life. However, I wonder if I had lived in the first century if I would have ever become a Christian. The early church was sent on a journey of discovering just how it would be church in light of the reality of the resurrection. Certainly, there were some precedents in the Jewish experience to go by, yet that experience alone was not sufficient to guide the early Christians as they proclaimed that Jesus was Messiah, that Gentiles should be welcomed on an equal footing into the community and as they moved the sabbath to a new day. This is new territory well beyond the comfort of my safety parameter.
Each of these texts shows a faith community entering into uncharted waters. Certainly, the adoption of communal property places them well beyond the comfort zone of most of the readers of this journal. The fact that this is the only mention of this practice in Christian scripture suggests that it did not meet with universal acceptance. The epistle lesson portrays an early church struggling through the meaning of a new ethical basis for their actions. The community of John struggles with an identity that probably was no more popular and comforting in their day than in ours. Just how many sports teams do you know that have adopted sheep as their mascot? The gospel proclaims, "All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them." Yet the community, as it parted ways with its Judaic parents and families split over the claims of Jesus, must have felt that they were being robbed of domestic tranquility. These are waters that most churches will do just about anything to avoid.
The post-resurrection church found itself on a journey where no one could predict where it would lead. Scriptural attestation to the variety of church forms and missions in the first century paints a picture of a church that, somewhat like the big bang, goes off in all directions simultaneously. There is sufficient communality of experience to suggest that each of these texts may help us negotiate uncharted waters.
Acts 2:42-47
When I was growing up in a thoroughly middle-class to upper-middle-class church with a sprinkling of the significantly wealthy this text was not exactly enshrined in the hearts of its members. As a matter of fact, if there was any way to diminish or dismiss these words it would be found. People who normally showed no interest in biblical scholarship demonstrated an amazing intellectual agility and thoughtful higher criticism in blunting the thrust of this text.
The radical step of selling all your possessions and having all things in common was attributed to youthful irrational exuberance, quixotic experimentation, or a misdirected attempt to attract the poor rather than challenge them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and so discover their potential. Folks who previously had shown no awareness of the variety of witnesses in the scripture suddenly discerned that this model of church did not catch on in other branches of the Christian community. It was made clear above all and under no circumstances were we to take this text as a model for our church or our commuting community.
Economic determinists will certainly note how this text would conflict with the material reality of my home church. Nonetheless, despite this well-worn path of interpretation I think that something more universal was going on here. Certainly, the model of church portrayed in the book of Acts might not be right for all Christian people. One of the arguments my home community offered against taking this text seriously was that it did not seem to catch on in 2,000 years of church history.
I think this text is spiritually and materially difficult for many Christians. You wonder how the church as portrayed in the book of Acts could embark on such a course of action without a plan that would take account of possible difficulties or the necessity of having a plan B just in case things didn't work out. This all seems highly irresponsible: a major sin in the community where I grew up.
I went to undergraduate school in the South and in regard to the issues of race and integration I heard the same warnings that I heard when I was growing up: You don't understand the consequences of integration; you have no plan to deal with the what-ifs, you have no idea where all this might lead, what if you fail?
Of course, the truth of the matter was that we had no way of anticipating just where integration might lead and how things would play out. We could not foresee who would be sitting with whom or working for whom, or who would be marrying each other. We had no idea how many failures it would take or how much pain there would be in the course that we were marching down. We did not even have any idea how we would be changed in the process.
I can well see how this must have seemed like madness to many. The gospel does not offer us a plan but it clearly brings a turning point to our lives. The early church in the book of Acts turns away from the safe and familiar toward an unfamiliar, uncharted course. They turn from self-sufficiency toward mutuality in all things including their material life. Who knows where this might lead in our day. Who knows? Perhaps in the midst of the current environmental and energy crises the risen Christ is once again standing in our midst calling us and bestowing upon us a new spirit that it might be said of us and our generation that, "Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles."
I am struck by the repeated emphasis on the breaking of bread together in this text. Now I am not sure that current communion practice in all churches is the end all to be all. However, it is much better than the once-a-quarter patterns that I grew up with that seemed to be merely an add-on to our usual worship. Recent works such as Unbinding the Gospel by Martha Grace Reese suggest that the mainline church's inability to add to their number is not the result of an inability to ape the evangelical churches, but an inability of its members to pray with and for each other. This is a new turn of events. Who knows where it may lead. Reese does not so much offer a plan but a call to prayer. I do believe that it will eventuate in signs and wonders.
The text reminds us also that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Currently, rabbis report a renewed interest in Torah study. Increasingly enrollments in Bible study and course covering faith fundamentals in many churches suggest a new turn of events. Who knows where it may all lead as we head into uncharted waters, but rather than a plan we are offered a turning point as part of the post- resurrection fellowship.
1 Peter 2:19-25
Several years ago, I had the distinct honor to be a part of a western tour group that was invited to enter the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site in Islam. The group entered, not knowing what to expect, with all the grace and bearing of the first people landing on the moon. To use the vernacular, clearly we were playing an away game. We had no idea what to expect or any sense of how we would be treated. We removed our shoes as according to custom and left them outside. I do not believe I ever felt as naked and vulnerable in my life. I must admit that we were greeted initially with stares and bemusement by the gathered worshipers. I suspect that the stilted walk that many of us had came from a fear we had that we might violate some ancient protocol that would lead to an international incident of some sort. Given the tenor of our times, I suspect that some of us were afraid that a thoughtless move or careless action on our part might lead to World War III.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a woman started approaching various members of our group distributing candy mints for each of us. Suddenly, we were embraced by a friend who acknowledged our awkwardness and embraced our humanity. A pattern of fear and anxiety was broken.
The shrine commemorates two things, the ascent of Mohammed into heaven and the actions of Abraham in sparing his son from being sacrificed (in Islam it is Ishmael who is spared, in the Judeo-Christian tradition it is Isaac who is rescued). In this story of Abraham the pattern of fear is also broken.
The text from the first letter of Peter describes Jesus as one who breaks the pattern of fear and violence, "When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly." Paul reminded the Romans, "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." Behind his admonition is the awareness that vengeance is something that humans cannot handle. Unleashed by humans it leads to disaster. Gandhi put it this way, "When it is an eye for an eye the whole world goes blind." Any social worker will tell you that patterns of abuse will lead to the abused becoming the abuser unless the previous patterns are broken. This is not to suggest that the abused merely take it but it does mean that they do not return abuse for being abused.
Who knows where all of this will lead? If nothing else it plunges us into uncharted waters. It might lead into praying for our enemies and Lord knows where they might take us. We might discover that many of our enemies are the result of our need to have enemies to divert, blame, and be the objects of our transference. Lord knows where that might go. I am not sure where we might land but I suspect that it will be in the direction of the signs and wonders that the early church experienced. It might lead in the direction of finding that we are more like our enemies than we care to admit. It might head us in the direction of spending more time trying to find common ground than demonstrating that we have taken the high ground. It might lead us in the direction of taking an inventory of our wounds and seeing what they have done to us and to others through us.
Lord knows where all this is headed. Yes, the Lord knows, for "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls."
John 10:1-10
As I write this we here in New Hampshire are living with the continued build up to be the first in the national presidential primary. It seems that this year I cannot remember a time when we were not being bombarded by all sorts of candidates trying to access our attention. No evening goes by without a call from this or that candidate inviting me to this or that rally, coffee, or town meeting. It becomes quite a challenge to sort through what you believe to be the authentic and inauthentic voices. Who speaks with authority and character to back them up? It is hard to know six months from now, or a year or five years from now which voice you may come to believe was a voice that robbed America of something, in what feels like a giant shakedown.
Of course, in America, there are always voices trying to access our attention and our wallets through advertising. Easier said than done to know which voice is for real. "Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them." Just how do we know which is the real voice that can shepherd us through life as we stand in the self-help section of the local bookstore and peer out at the hundreds of pathways we can choose to go down?
Yet, the post-resurrection community does have an authentic voice in the presence of the living Christ with his gift of the Holy Spirit. As the epistle lesson for this day puts it, "... no deceit was found in his mouth." Of course there are voices in our time that tell us that it will be as easy to end a war as to begin one. There will be voices that claim we will feel better if we can retaliate against others or that there is more safety and security in building walls against each other than in building bridges that connect us with each other.
Certainly, the church will hear voices that say it is time to bunker down in a time of depleted resources, settle in for the downward ride by making ourselves as comfortable as possible for the duration. Is that the voice the sheep should follow? Or, should we recognize that this is a time to focus on forging a new identity? We fear downsizing without having come to terms with what is the right size for our work.
The Acts text says that we should listen to the voice that leads us not to the comfortable downslide but to the voice that charts a course through the uncharted waters of performing the wonders and signs that those whom Jesus sends into the world do together. John's gospel reminds us that those who belong to Jesus do not listen to the voice that would rob us. We do not listen to the voice that would rob us of what we have to offer to each other as human beings because we are more alike than different. We do not listen to the voice that robs us of our ability to love by chronically lifting up reasons to fear each other.
John reminds his readers that those who first heard these words did not get it. They could not. It is only in the context of the post-resurrection community these words take on power. Perhaps our befuddlement comes as a result of neither seeing ourselves as community nor as living in the post-resurrection epoch that shapes and creates the community that is entering the uncharted waters that will lead to the abundant life.
Application
Whom we see as the original audience for these words will very much shape how we apply these texts. There can be little doubt that these words are addressed to a Christian community living their life in light of the resurrection and empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are also communities that are somewhat fragile and endangered. They seem to be reminded they are at a turning point that requires them to think and act in new ways, such as having all things in common. We might not wind up holding all things in common but church people have little doubt that we are at a turning point that requires new thinking. Living in a world that has long suffered from an eye for an eye ethical approach to things, we can appreciate the need for a more creative approach to the challenges of living together on planet earth. Like the early Christians, we long to be able to discern the real voices that will not rob us.
While we are like the first Christians in many ways we are less certain about moving beyond gross individualism and self-sufficiency. We are less certain what it means to live in community in light of the resurrection. If we are to have good news for the world and perform signs and wonders, the dimensions of community and resurrection that need to be brought together. When they are, we not only have good news to proclaim, we are good news.
Alternative Application
John 10:1-10. Reading John's gospel is often like riding a roller coaster. Certainly, anyone reading the first ten verses of John is in for quite a ride. In the midst of it, Jesus switches from the image of himself as the good shepherd to the representation of his being the gate to the sheepfold. The ride is not for the faint of heart.
However, the text invites us to hold both images in our mind at the same time. The shift that comes in verse 9 moves us from considering what voice has access to our attention to considering how to gain access to the world. As the gate, Jesus swings both ways, permitting entrance into the community and the community's entrance into the world: "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture."
Through what will we gain access to the world? Will it be the voice that speaks from on high or that speaks because it knows how to handle the low times? Will we speak with the authority that knows how to draw a line in the sand or that is shaped by the experience of drawing circles that include many different people? Will it be a voice that knows more about original sin than "original blessing"? The text asks how, having been part of the community, we go out into the world.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 23
My daughter hates going down into our basement. Adolescent fears, real and imagined, coalesce within her, making it impossible to go down there with a load of laundry unless our family dog, Charlie, is with her. Charlie makes it okay. He wags his tail and follows her faithfully downstairs and she does the chores required and returns happily to the upstairs world, as long as she is accompanied by Charlie.
Make no mistake, there is no attempt here to equate God with a trained puppy. There is, however, one significant similarity that this psalm underscores. Like Charlie the faithful family dog, the Lord our God is a God of accompaniment. This is a God who comes with us. The metaphor of the shepherd is more than apt. Always present, guiding, protecting, accompanying the flock, the Lord is simply there. God walks us to green pastures for rest and restoration. God guides us on the pathways of justice and hope.
Even in the worst of times, God is present. This constant, ever-present Spirit gives comfort and even removes our fear. Why? Simply because we know God is there? Truth be told, we don't know it. But we do trust that it is so, and this is the core of faith. Just like my daughter who trusts that the dog is trotting down the steps behind her as she descends into the basement, we know that God walks with us, too, even in our darkest hours.
And at the end of the day this proves to be enough. In fact, it's abundance. Our cup overflows, even when it is set on a table across from our worst enemy. There is goodness, mercy, gladness, and yes, a palpable sense of wonder as this God is both contemplated and experienced.
What could be better? Our own accomplishment? Our own ability to define ourselves or to control our environment? We all know how that works. No, in all this, as Saint Paul so powerfully writes, "We are more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37). Because there is nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that can separate us from this God who accompanies us. There is nothing that can remove us from the flock of this shepherd who is our Lord.
Perhaps it is a sign of neurosis that my obsessive compulsive planning kicks in, though it is usually confined to over thirty miles, no matter what the distance I am going. Ask me to go sixty miles and I will show up with at least two atlases, one satellite view of my destination, and several computer generated sets of directions. Believe me, I wish that I was exaggerating. It seems all that is required is to ask me to go some place I have never been before or that I have not been in the last month and I face hours of detailed research and planning.
How do those folks who can leave on journeys beyond my safety perimeter do it? To me they seem to be able to defy the laws of nature and of nature's God. I do not think that my approach is entirely neurotic, although it may have something to do with growing up in a household that did not have a car and that depended on public transportation. It was hard to go wrong when you went by foot although journeys into New York City required the security of carrying a detailed a map. Growing up, it was public transportation that took care of the nasty business of getting you from here to there. Neurotic or not, by and large I believe I hold the world's record for the least time spent lost for a 58-year-old.
For the most part, this facet of my personality has not put too much of a dent in my quality of life. However, I wonder if I had lived in the first century if I would have ever become a Christian. The early church was sent on a journey of discovering just how it would be church in light of the reality of the resurrection. Certainly, there were some precedents in the Jewish experience to go by, yet that experience alone was not sufficient to guide the early Christians as they proclaimed that Jesus was Messiah, that Gentiles should be welcomed on an equal footing into the community and as they moved the sabbath to a new day. This is new territory well beyond the comfort of my safety parameter.
Each of these texts shows a faith community entering into uncharted waters. Certainly, the adoption of communal property places them well beyond the comfort zone of most of the readers of this journal. The fact that this is the only mention of this practice in Christian scripture suggests that it did not meet with universal acceptance. The epistle lesson portrays an early church struggling through the meaning of a new ethical basis for their actions. The community of John struggles with an identity that probably was no more popular and comforting in their day than in ours. Just how many sports teams do you know that have adopted sheep as their mascot? The gospel proclaims, "All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them." Yet the community, as it parted ways with its Judaic parents and families split over the claims of Jesus, must have felt that they were being robbed of domestic tranquility. These are waters that most churches will do just about anything to avoid.
The post-resurrection church found itself on a journey where no one could predict where it would lead. Scriptural attestation to the variety of church forms and missions in the first century paints a picture of a church that, somewhat like the big bang, goes off in all directions simultaneously. There is sufficient communality of experience to suggest that each of these texts may help us negotiate uncharted waters.
When I was growing up in a thoroughly middle-class to upper-middle-class church with a sprinkling of the significantly wealthy this text was not exactly enshrined in the hearts of its members. As a matter of fact, if there was any way to diminish or dismiss these words it would be found. People who normally showed no interest in biblical scholarship demonstrated an amazing intellectual agility and thoughtful higher criticism in blunting the thrust of this text.
The radical step of selling all your possessions and having all things in common was attributed to youthful irrational exuberance, quixotic experimentation, or a misdirected attempt to attract the poor rather than challenge them to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and so discover their potential. Folks who previously had shown no awareness of the variety of witnesses in the scripture suddenly discerned that this model of church did not catch on in other branches of the Christian community. It was made clear above all and under no circumstances were we to take this text as a model for our church or our commuting community.
Economic determinists will certainly note how this text would conflict with the material reality of my home church. Nonetheless, despite this well-worn path of interpretation I think that something more universal was going on here. Certainly, the model of church portrayed in the book of Acts might not be right for all Christian people. One of the arguments my home community offered against taking this text seriously was that it did not seem to catch on in 2,000 years of church history.
I think this text is spiritually and materially difficult for many Christians. You wonder how the church as portrayed in the book of Acts could embark on such a course of action without a plan that would take account of possible difficulties or the necessity of having a plan B just in case things didn't work out. This all seems highly irresponsible: a major sin in the community where I grew up.
I went to undergraduate school in the South and in regard to the issues of race and integration I heard the same warnings that I heard when I was growing up: You don't understand the consequences of integration; you have no plan to deal with the what-ifs, you have no idea where all this might lead, what if you fail?
Of course, the truth of the matter was that we had no way of anticipating just where integration might lead and how things would play out. We could not foresee who would be sitting with whom or working for whom, or who would be marrying each other. We had no idea how many failures it would take or how much pain there would be in the course that we were marching down. We did not even have any idea how we would be changed in the process.
I can well see how this must have seemed like madness to many. The gospel does not offer us a plan but it clearly brings a turning point to our lives. The early church in the book of Acts turns away from the safe and familiar toward an unfamiliar, uncharted course. They turn from self-sufficiency toward mutuality in all things including their material life. Who knows where this might lead in our day. Who knows? Perhaps in the midst of the current environmental and energy crises the risen Christ is once again standing in our midst calling us and bestowing upon us a new spirit that it might be said of us and our generation that, "Awe came upon everyone, because many wonders and signs were being done by the apostles."
I am struck by the repeated emphasis on the breaking of bread together in this text. Now I am not sure that current communion practice in all churches is the end all to be all. However, it is much better than the once-a-quarter patterns that I grew up with that seemed to be merely an add-on to our usual worship. Recent works such as Unbinding the Gospel by Martha Grace Reese suggest that the mainline church's inability to add to their number is not the result of an inability to ape the evangelical churches, but an inability of its members to pray with and for each other. This is a new turn of events. Who knows where it may lead. Reese does not so much offer a plan but a call to prayer. I do believe that it will eventuate in signs and wonders.
The text reminds us also that the early church devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching. Currently, rabbis report a renewed interest in Torah study. Increasingly enrollments in Bible study and course covering faith fundamentals in many churches suggest a new turn of events. Who knows where it may all lead as we head into uncharted waters, but rather than a plan we are offered a turning point as part of the post- resurrection fellowship.
1 Peter 2:19-25
Several years ago, I had the distinct honor to be a part of a western tour group that was invited to enter the Dome of the Rock, the third most holy site in Islam. The group entered, not knowing what to expect, with all the grace and bearing of the first people landing on the moon. To use the vernacular, clearly we were playing an away game. We had no idea what to expect or any sense of how we would be treated. We removed our shoes as according to custom and left them outside. I do not believe I ever felt as naked and vulnerable in my life. I must admit that we were greeted initially with stares and bemusement by the gathered worshipers. I suspect that the stilted walk that many of us had came from a fear we had that we might violate some ancient protocol that would lead to an international incident of some sort. Given the tenor of our times, I suspect that some of us were afraid that a thoughtless move or careless action on our part might lead to World War III.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a woman started approaching various members of our group distributing candy mints for each of us. Suddenly, we were embraced by a friend who acknowledged our awkwardness and embraced our humanity. A pattern of fear and anxiety was broken.
The shrine commemorates two things, the ascent of Mohammed into heaven and the actions of Abraham in sparing his son from being sacrificed (in Islam it is Ishmael who is spared, in the Judeo-Christian tradition it is Isaac who is rescued). In this story of Abraham the pattern of fear is also broken.
The text from the first letter of Peter describes Jesus as one who breaks the pattern of fear and violence, "When he was abused, he did not return abuse; when he suffered, he did not threaten; but he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly." Paul reminded the Romans, "If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave room for the wrath of God; for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, I will repay,' says the Lord." Behind his admonition is the awareness that vengeance is something that humans cannot handle. Unleashed by humans it leads to disaster. Gandhi put it this way, "When it is an eye for an eye the whole world goes blind." Any social worker will tell you that patterns of abuse will lead to the abused becoming the abuser unless the previous patterns are broken. This is not to suggest that the abused merely take it but it does mean that they do not return abuse for being abused.
Who knows where all of this will lead? If nothing else it plunges us into uncharted waters. It might lead into praying for our enemies and Lord knows where they might take us. We might discover that many of our enemies are the result of our need to have enemies to divert, blame, and be the objects of our transference. Lord knows where that might go. I am not sure where we might land but I suspect that it will be in the direction of the signs and wonders that the early church experienced. It might lead in the direction of finding that we are more like our enemies than we care to admit. It might head us in the direction of spending more time trying to find common ground than demonstrating that we have taken the high ground. It might lead us in the direction of taking an inventory of our wounds and seeing what they have done to us and to others through us.
Lord knows where all this is headed. Yes, the Lord knows, for "He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls."
John 10:1-10
As I write this we here in New Hampshire are living with the continued build up to be the first in the national presidential primary. It seems that this year I cannot remember a time when we were not being bombarded by all sorts of candidates trying to access our attention. No evening goes by without a call from this or that candidate inviting me to this or that rally, coffee, or town meeting. It becomes quite a challenge to sort through what you believe to be the authentic and inauthentic voices. Who speaks with authority and character to back them up? It is hard to know six months from now, or a year or five years from now which voice you may come to believe was a voice that robbed America of something, in what feels like a giant shakedown.
Of course, in America, there are always voices trying to access our attention and our wallets through advertising. Easier said than done to know which voice is for real. "Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them." Just how do we know which is the real voice that can shepherd us through life as we stand in the self-help section of the local bookstore and peer out at the hundreds of pathways we can choose to go down?
Yet, the post-resurrection community does have an authentic voice in the presence of the living Christ with his gift of the Holy Spirit. As the epistle lesson for this day puts it, "... no deceit was found in his mouth." Of course there are voices in our time that tell us that it will be as easy to end a war as to begin one. There will be voices that claim we will feel better if we can retaliate against others or that there is more safety and security in building walls against each other than in building bridges that connect us with each other.
Certainly, the church will hear voices that say it is time to bunker down in a time of depleted resources, settle in for the downward ride by making ourselves as comfortable as possible for the duration. Is that the voice the sheep should follow? Or, should we recognize that this is a time to focus on forging a new identity? We fear downsizing without having come to terms with what is the right size for our work.
The Acts text says that we should listen to the voice that leads us not to the comfortable downslide but to the voice that charts a course through the uncharted waters of performing the wonders and signs that those whom Jesus sends into the world do together. John's gospel reminds us that those who belong to Jesus do not listen to the voice that would rob us. We do not listen to the voice that would rob us of what we have to offer to each other as human beings because we are more alike than different. We do not listen to the voice that robs us of our ability to love by chronically lifting up reasons to fear each other.
John reminds his readers that those who first heard these words did not get it. They could not. It is only in the context of the post-resurrection community these words take on power. Perhaps our befuddlement comes as a result of neither seeing ourselves as community nor as living in the post-resurrection epoch that shapes and creates the community that is entering the uncharted waters that will lead to the abundant life.
Application
Whom we see as the original audience for these words will very much shape how we apply these texts. There can be little doubt that these words are addressed to a Christian community living their life in light of the resurrection and empowered by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They are also communities that are somewhat fragile and endangered. They seem to be reminded they are at a turning point that requires them to think and act in new ways, such as having all things in common. We might not wind up holding all things in common but church people have little doubt that we are at a turning point that requires new thinking. Living in a world that has long suffered from an eye for an eye ethical approach to things, we can appreciate the need for a more creative approach to the challenges of living together on planet earth. Like the early Christians, we long to be able to discern the real voices that will not rob us.
While we are like the first Christians in many ways we are less certain about moving beyond gross individualism and self-sufficiency. We are less certain what it means to live in community in light of the resurrection. If we are to have good news for the world and perform signs and wonders, the dimensions of community and resurrection that need to be brought together. When they are, we not only have good news to proclaim, we are good news.
Alternative Application
John 10:1-10. Reading John's gospel is often like riding a roller coaster. Certainly, anyone reading the first ten verses of John is in for quite a ride. In the midst of it, Jesus switches from the image of himself as the good shepherd to the representation of his being the gate to the sheepfold. The ride is not for the faint of heart.
However, the text invites us to hold both images in our mind at the same time. The shift that comes in verse 9 moves us from considering what voice has access to our attention to considering how to gain access to the world. As the gate, Jesus swings both ways, permitting entrance into the community and the community's entrance into the world: "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture."
Through what will we gain access to the world? Will it be the voice that speaks from on high or that speaks because it knows how to handle the low times? Will we speak with the authority that knows how to draw a line in the sand or that is shaped by the experience of drawing circles that include many different people? Will it be a voice that knows more about original sin than "original blessing"? The text asks how, having been part of the community, we go out into the world.
Preaching The Psalm
Psalm 23
My daughter hates going down into our basement. Adolescent fears, real and imagined, coalesce within her, making it impossible to go down there with a load of laundry unless our family dog, Charlie, is with her. Charlie makes it okay. He wags his tail and follows her faithfully downstairs and she does the chores required and returns happily to the upstairs world, as long as she is accompanied by Charlie.
Make no mistake, there is no attempt here to equate God with a trained puppy. There is, however, one significant similarity that this psalm underscores. Like Charlie the faithful family dog, the Lord our God is a God of accompaniment. This is a God who comes with us. The metaphor of the shepherd is more than apt. Always present, guiding, protecting, accompanying the flock, the Lord is simply there. God walks us to green pastures for rest and restoration. God guides us on the pathways of justice and hope.
Even in the worst of times, God is present. This constant, ever-present Spirit gives comfort and even removes our fear. Why? Simply because we know God is there? Truth be told, we don't know it. But we do trust that it is so, and this is the core of faith. Just like my daughter who trusts that the dog is trotting down the steps behind her as she descends into the basement, we know that God walks with us, too, even in our darkest hours.
And at the end of the day this proves to be enough. In fact, it's abundance. Our cup overflows, even when it is set on a table across from our worst enemy. There is goodness, mercy, gladness, and yes, a palpable sense of wonder as this God is both contemplated and experienced.
What could be better? Our own accomplishment? Our own ability to define ourselves or to control our environment? We all know how that works. No, in all this, as Saint Paul so powerfully writes, "We are more than conquerors" (Romans 8:37). Because there is nothing that can ever separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ. There is nothing that can separate us from this God who accompanies us. There is nothing that can remove us from the flock of this shepherd who is our Lord.
