PERSEVERANCE, PERHAPS PERSISTENCE, LEADS TO PROPER DISCIPLESHIP

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY 506!!!

Yes, for 506 years the Lutheran Church has been living into what it has become today.

But wait!

There is more reforming to do and with some perseverance, Lutherans will faithfully continue to reform and transform themselves into Christ’s needed presence for the sake of our neighbor today, tomorrow, and well, tomorrow.

 

This focus on tomorrow builds on nothing less than the hope we know in the liberating resurrection of Jesus. Jesus’ act of conquering death, thus opening the way to everlasting life in the presence of God, has freed us all to faithfully serve our neighbor without needing to be concerned about whether God loves us. We have been freed from seeking worthiness in the sight of God to live a life outside of our self-consuming preeminence.

In this week’s text, John 8:31-36, Jesus speaks to a number of Jewish people who have come to believe in him, and he encourages them to persevere in the word, of him. For the sake of English economy, we usually read this passage as saying, “in my Word,” but the literal Greek might have something to offer us on this Reformation Day.

We know that the name of God, that is, Yhwh, the tetragrammaton, is not to be spoken in proper Jewish parlance. Earlier in the book of John, this practice of not saying God’s name is presented as “Logos”, “the Word” when John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” To believe “in the Word” is to believe “in God”. To believe “in Jesus” who is the son of God is to believe “in the Word.”

The use of the Logos, the Word, takes on the stature of Jesus’ more famous “I am” statements, also in John. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life”; “I am the gate”; “I am the good shepherd”; “I am the resurrection and the life”; “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” These statements echo the original “I am” statement from Exodus. There, when Moses asks God to tell him whom he should tell others has sent him, from the burning bush, the voice of God says to tell the Israelites that “I AM” has sent you.

As these “I am” statements point to the divine nature of Jesus, so John points to Jesus’ divinity using “the Word.” “If you persevere/persist/continue/remain in the Word, of me, you are truly my disciples. And you will know the Truth (here truth is also an appositive for Jesus, cf. above), and the Truth will make you free.” (v. 31, my translation)

All of this seems very involved, but, if we are to penetrate Luther’s revelation, then even I, a lowly pontiki ekklesias (church mouse), am compelled to point to the power of what it might mean to persevere “in the Word, of me.” “Persevere” carries a sense of place. The place is “in the Word”. Just as I live in my little mouse house, Jesus encourages us to persevere “in the Word, of me”. “In” seems like such a little word for such a big concept, but once we have believed “in” God, we find that it is preferable to remain “in” that presence.

Rather than being a psychological commitment, persevering “in the Word” demands a lifestyle change. Much like while dieting, one can lose weight in the short run by making a radical shift in one’s eating habits, keeping that weight off requires a new lifestyle that transforms your relationship with food. Likewise, because it is so easy to become one of the profligate prodigals, we are told to “persevere in the Word, of me”, truly becoming “disciples” of Jesus. Discipleship, therefore, causes us to live into a covenant relationship of promise. It is a lifestyle that is life-long.

On this Reformation Day, it is important to pay special attention to this “in” word. It is not only found in the Reformation Gospel passage; we also encounter it whenever saying the creed: I (or we) believe “in God”…; I (or we) believe “in Jesus Christ”…; I (or we) believe “in the Holy Spirit”…. While persevering “in the Word,” we find ourselves believing “in” the encompassing love of God’s presence, “in” the body of Christ, “in” the midst of God’s own creation.

Now we need only recognize where we live; and stay there. There are times when it feels more like running along a tight rope with the vision of what it might look like when we get to the other side, but perilous in the present place. There are also times when that sense of place is like being held in the embrace of family. True discipleship is known “in” that place where it is God’s vision that directs us, where God’s word of hope for all people empowers us, where God’s elbow leads us “in” deeper relationship with God and one another.

Oh, I could go on, but I think that you can figure out why being made free does not depend on being Abraham’s descendants, but on knowing what it means to be a child of God “IN” the Word which speaks us into being today and tomorrow. May you always know the freedom of living “IN”.

Your pal,

Nicodemus, pontiki ekklesias

THIS GATE SWINGS BOTH WAYS

THE ANGELUS TRUMPET
The Unexpurgated Source for Alternative Bible Facts

THIS GATE SWINGS BOTH WAYS

by Jack D. Sypal

Dateline Jerusalem, May 7, 10:01:10

In court Sunday, Jesus of Nazareth (J.o.N.) responded to charges brought by Mr. I. Seituwel of stealing that man’s identity and life. Representing himself, J.o.N. pled innocent to all counts. In his defense, he offered an alternative scenario, confronting our city’s citizens and visionaries as the perpetrators of the theft. Claiming privilege for sheep and shepherds, J.o.N. protested his innocence while charging the greater part of society as thieves and bandits, raising the issue of, “What is a thief and a bandit?” 


In revealing testimony, the Pharisee, Rabbi Dick Highosooner responded, “Thievery is both active and passive. The active thief compels one to give up their possessions by force. The more clever, passive thief obtains wealth and power by withholding what rightfully belongs to the poorer person or to those who are not able to defend their property and rights from more powerful neighbors. This form of thieving and banditry is usually more profitable because it can be done within the law.”


J.o.N. continued to speak out against the people who made the gift of sight he gave to Seituwel a nightmarish, misanthropic reaction of alienating isolation. Claiming himself to be a gate that swings in to allow entrance of sheep and shepherds, then out to allow shepherds and sheep egress to pasture, J.o.N.  challenged Roman citizens and people of Judea, along with the Pharisees, to examine their place and role among those who have a vision of the Kingdom and their participation in it.


As a gate, J.o.N. stated that it was not his intent “to restrict the movement of those whom he protected, but to provide shelter from the storm, safety from the predators of life, to create a safe place for rest so that the flock under his protection could be equipped to go out into the world for pasture community.”


In reply to Seituwel’s charges, J.o.N. pointed to the crowds, accusing them with, “It is this community of gatekeepers that has put the fly in the ointment, the worm in the apple, the stick in the spokes of the wheel. The gift of sight was to make Mr. Seituwel more accepted, but their actions have eventuated further alienation, causing him unintended and unnecessary loss of communal identity. By their suspicious, doubting, abandoning, and faithless, exclusionary behavior, these people stole his community from him and cast him out with less than he had in the first place.” 


“As gatekeepers, they performed their duties flawlessly. They kept everybody out, even those who should be let in. But the other duty of the gatekeeper is to open the gate for those who would enter. In this duty they failed miserably.
“And, it is in their failed duty that they take greatest pride. In their pride, they demonstrate a kind of latch envy—envy of the power of the bolt to imprison the unsuspecting and secure the status quo thus preventing participation in the fullness of life’s opportunities. There is much more to life than Plato’s dismal cave of shadow verisimilitudes. There may be safety inside the walls, but the fullness of life is known in coming out. A gate is the ultimate trans-state between the when of the past, the now of the moment, and the then of the future.”


Then, almost singing, J.o.N. exclaimed, “I am the gate! I swing both ways! I swing back and forth. In comes the Southern breeze or cold wind from the North. The Holy Spirit blows where it wills, and the gate must always be ready to swing in the most advantageous direction for the sake of the sheep and their shepherd. I let the shepherd and the new members of the flock in, and I let the shepherd and the sheep out to feed. I am not a wall that stands fast against the world on the outside while imprisoning those within. I am active in the way to life and growth as well as care and protection.”


In his closing remarks, J.o.N. said, “A gate always leads the way to life. Those who dream of walls only are thieves and bandits seeking personal good at the expense of those contained by walls. They seek to steal, to kill, and to destroy life even crushing the spirit of hope. 


“I am a gate that offers hope always with the promise of abundant life beyond. Don’t you know? The grass is always greener on the other side, and the gate gets you there.”