Archives for October 2019
Free Indeed
Life in Christ is abundance and blessing, even in this frightening world, and it is freedom: freedom to truly live, and freedom to help others also find life and freedom in Christ.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Sunday of the Reformation
Texts: John 8:31-36, with references to much of John’s Gospel; Jeremiah 31:31-34
Note for online readers: This sermon came on the heels of doing a five week Bible study on John’s view of salvation – life in Christ in God’s reign – and John’s theology, along with Jesus’ words in John, were fresh in my mind as I wrote. But the sermon was written out of John 8:31-36 (with brief note to Jeremiah 31:31-34), the text for the day. There was so much in this brief Gospel reading that resonated in my heart with the rest of John’s Gospel, after being so immersed in it for two months. This wasn’t an exercise in fitting in Scripture quotes, in other words; I simply wrote the sermon I felt God was calling out. But after Sunday’s liturgy, I was curious to see if I could track all the references in the whole of John that ended up in this sermon, so I went through and noted them. (There are a couple instances of repeat references I didn’t include.) In hopes that it might be helpful for those who read the sermon online to look up things for themselves, for further study, I offer them here. If they’re not needed, try to ignore the footnote markers! I think they’re a little distracting to reading and to flow, so you could also simply watch the video and avoid them. – Pr. Joseph Crippen
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“If you continue in my Word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”1
Try to grasp what Christ Jesus is offering you: “If you remain in my Word, that means you are, in truth, my disciples, and in that reality, you will also know the truth, and in that knowing, you will be made free.”2
We know these beloved words well. Yet we often seem to just admire them and regularly miss the profound, life-shaping gift Jesus offers in them. Do you ever experience it?
That’s John’s question in writing this Gospel.3 John believes if you did realize just what Jesus was offering you, you’d have an abundant life,4 a life that experiences light in the darkness of this world,5 a life that quenches your deepest inner thirst,6 a life that feeds and satisfies you like nothing else you know.7 A life where you are truly free.8
If such a life sounds wonderful to you, then listen to Jesus’ words today and consider whether you can trust him.
The path to trusting begins with remembering: Jesus is the Word.9 Jesus is the truth.10
“Remaining in my Word” simply means living life connected to the very life of Christ, God’s eternal Word in the world.11 It’s God’s Word written on your heart, as Jeremiah promises.12 It’s being joined to the Vine that fills you with life, as Jesus says later in John.13 “Knowing the Truth” is simply knowing Jesus,14 God-with-us,15 the Word-Made-Flesh,16 and as Jesus repeatedly says in John, that means knowing God,17 through life in the Spirit.18
So Jesus says: stay with me, connected to me,19 and you will know God’s intention for you and the creation – God’s Word – and you will know the very heart of God for you and for the creation – God’s Truth.
That’s how you find light in the darkness, by trusting in Jesus and holding tight.20 That’s how you are quenched to your very core, by trusting in Jesus and being filled.21 That’s how your deepest hungers are met, by trusting Jesus and taking him into your deepest center.22 The Meal of Life we celebrate each week is a real eating and drinking of Christ’s life into you. But this connection with Christ is also available to you always through the Spirit,23 not just at Holy Communion. God’s very Word24 and God’s very Truth25 – Christ Jesus – in your heart. That’s where you find true freedom.26
And Jesus’ promise assumes that this Truth, this Word, are given you because this world is frightening and challenging, to help you live freely in it.
In John, Jesus offers life to a foreign woman, estranged from her community, and fills her with conviction of God’s love and welcome, even in her challenging circumstances.27 Jesus heals a man blind from birth, but more, is God’s presence with him, changing this man’s life.28 Jesus offers himself to Mary and Martha and they know him as God’s living, resurrection life, even in their grief, and even before he raises Lazarus.29 Again and again, knowing and trusting Jesus in John doesn’t always change people’s outer circumstances.30 But they find freedom and joy and hope in God’s new birth31 that trusting Jesus gives them. They live in God’s Word, they know God’s Truth, and they are changed.
Listen to what Jesus promises you and the world:
I am the Light of the World, Jesus says.32 The world is still filled with darkness, but you can see when you hold on to me.
I am the Bread of Life, Jesus says.33 You might still have physical pain and difficulty and needs, but if you hold me within you, I will satisfy you fully.
I am the Gate of the sheep34 and I am the Good Shepherd,35 Jesus says. Even with the wolves of fear and doubt threatening and the beasts of hatred and oppression crushing so many of God’s children, I will be with you and all my children, always.
I am the Resurrection and the Life, Jesus says.36 So even if you die, you will live, and better, if you trust in me now, remain in me, you’ll find life in God now that will change you forever.
I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, Jesus says.37 Holding on to me, you’ll find your way in this world, you’ll know the truth that God loves you and all things, and you will have life within you, no matter what happens to you.
And I am the True Vine, Jesus says.38 Stay connected to me, which means you’re connected to God, and the life that I flow in you will produce the same sacrificial love that I have for the creation that will save all things.39 Your love will be a part of saving all things for God, too.40
This is true freedom, freedom indeed, that Jesus offers you.41
Freedom from anxiety and worry: you belong to God and no matter what happens, God will always be with you, in life or in death.42 Freedom from fear of your sinfulness and flaws: you are loved forever by God and your sins are forgiven, forgotten.43 Freedom from the possessions that claim ownership of you: you have the life of Christ in you, and are free to let go of these false gods that can’t truly satisfy you.44 Freedom from blindness to your privilege and power: you are a branch of the Vine of love that gives up all power and privilege, even divine life, for the sake of love of the other,45 and you are free to love in that same way.46
This is the freedom Jesus offers you. Freedom indeed, true freedom to live, no matter what the circumstances of your life might be.47
And living this is true discipleship.
Because knowing this freedom makes you Christ, like Jesus.48 You become a servant:49 a washer of feet,50 a bringer of light to others’ darkness.51 You become someone whose vulnerable, sacrificial love fills up others in their deepest need,52 quenches the thirst of a world longing for justice.53 You become a shepherd who not only works to protect others from the harm of this world but who works to change this world so that all might find green pasture and clean water, hope and life.54
When you are free in Christ, you not only know the abundant life Jesus longs for you to know.55 You become a sign of that resurrection life in the world, so others might be drawn to the love of God in Christ and be free indeed themselves.
“If you remain in me,” Jesus says, “this is what will happen to you, and to the world.” 56
So where else would you want to remain, to be, to live?
In the name of Jesus. Amen
Note: Scripture footnotes are below the video.
Scripture references:
[1] John 8:31-32
[2] John 8:31-32
[3] John 20:31
[4] John 10:10
[5] John 1:3-4; 8:12; 9:5; 11:9; 12:46
[6] John 4:13-14; 6:35; 7:37-38
[7] John 6:27, 33, 35, 50-51
[8] John 8:36
[9] John 1:1, 14
[10] John 14:6
[11] John 1:1-2
[12] Jeremiah 31:33
[13] John 15:4-5
[14] John 14:6-7; 18:37
[15] John 1:1, 18
[16] John 1:14
[17] John 1:1-3, 18; 5:19-23, 37-38; 7:28-29; 8:18-19; 14:7-9; 15:23
[18] John 3:5-8, 34
[19] John 15
[20] John 1, 8, 9, 11, 12
[21] John 4
[22] John 6
[23] John 3
[24] John 1
[25] John 14, 18
[26] John 8
[27] John 4
[28] John 9
[29] John 11
[30] Sometimes it does – Cana, a man healed on Sabbath. Sometimes it doesn’t – the woman caught in adultery. Sometimes it takes time for people to trust Jesus for life because of their circumstances – Nicodemus, Joseph of Arimathea – but they come around. And sometimes there’s faltering in the trust – the disciples on Thursday through Saturday of Holy Week, including Peter and Judas – but they are welcomed back into trust, forgiven, loved (which would have included Judas had he lived, I’m convinced.)
[31] John 3
[32] John 8:12; 9:5, 39; 11:9-10; 12:35-36, 46; 16:1
[33] John 6:35, 48, 51, 53-58
[34] John 10:7-10
[35] John 10:11-18
[36] John 11:25-26
[37] John 14:6-7
[38] John 15:1
[39] John 15:5, 9
[40] John 15:16-17
[41] John 8
[42] John 10:11-18, 27-29
[43] John 3:16-17
[44] John 6:27, 49, 58, 63, 66-68
[45] John 3:14-15; 8:28; 12:31-32; 15:13, 20
[46] John 13:12-16, 34-35
[47] John 8
[48] John 17:18, 21
[49] John 13:16
[50] John 13:12-15
[51] John 12:36
[52] John 13:34-35; 14:21; 15:12-14
[53] John 4
[54] John 21:15-17
[55] John 10:10
[56] John 8:31-36
The Olive Branch, 10/23/19
My People
You belong to God, and you are God’s justice answer to the world.
Pr. Joseph G. Crippen
The Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost, Lectionary 29 C
Texts: Jeremiah 31:27-34; Luke 18:1-18; 2 Timothy 3:14 – 4:5
Beloved in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
“They will be my people,” God says.
That’s God’s new promise Jeremiah declares today: God will bring all God’s people together and start over. “I will write my law on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they will be my people,” God says. “Everyone will know me.”
And God means everyone. Twice God says that this new covenant, this new promise, will be made with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. All God’s people, all the chosen ones, are included.
It’s hard to imagine the impact of this promise. If Judah had little hope in their own return from exile, they certainly had long since abandoned any hope for their siblings and cousins to the north, lost for 150 years by this time. But God says, “I know where everyone is, and I’m blessing them all.” Everyone will be God’s people again.
This new promise is fulfilled in Jesus, God-with-us, the Anointed of God, and in Christ we see the true breadth of the Triune God’s promise: it is for all people, the whole world, all God’s children. Everyone is now chosen, everyone now belongs.
You belong. You are God’s. So, Jesus tells you, pray always.
That’s why he tells this story.
Jesus says, “If someone as corrupt as this judge finally gives justice because he’s tired of all the asking, how much more will your God give justice to God’s chosen ones? That is, to you, to everyone.
So don’t lose heart, Jesus says. You matter. You can pray and God will hear, God will answer. If this widow doesn’t give up trying to connect with this wretched public official, who doesn’t care for God or for people, don’t give up trying to connect with the God who loves you and wants justice and mercy in this world. God will not delay in giving help.
This prayer Jesus talks about is an invitation to trust that you are God’s beloved and God wants to talk with you, listen to you, help you. It’s an invitation into a relationship with God just like Jeremiah says God promises.
Prayer for Jesus is living into a life of trust in God. It’s not words to operate a divine vending machine.
God’s voice in Jeremiah says, “They will be my people, and I will be their God. They will all know me. My words, my law, will be written on their hearts.”
God gave the chosen people the Torah, the written law, and again and again they failed to follow it. Everything they needed for life was there, and yet they went their own way. But now, when half of them seem lost forever and the other half are stuck in exile, God says, “let’s try again.” This is God’s answer to our inability to follow the written law of God: I’ll just put it inside you, so you know it by heart. This is the whole point of Scripture, Timothy says today, to “equip those who belong to God to be proficient for every good work.”
So God comes in person, in Jesus the Christ, to do this. To meet us face to face. To place in our hearts, through the Holy Spirit, the love of God and love of neighbor that is the backbone and heart of God’s law. As you live into the life of the Triune God, and know God’s love and grace, God’s Spirit changes your heart into God’s heart.
That’s where you hear God’s answer to your cries for justice, to the world’s cries for justice.
It’s always been God’s answer. But now, in relationship with God, changed in your heart, you can hear it. God says, “I will quickly grant justice. Come, let’s do it together.” God can only make the justice and mercy God dreams for the world through your hands and mine, your hearts and mine.
So persistently pray for justice, Jesus says. Just be ready for God’s answer: “you’re with me; let’s go do this.” God’s justice answer to the world is a changed you, a changed me. A changed everyone who belongs to God. This isn’t individual salvation. God needs widespread heart transformation, millions of children of God with God’s love and grace written on their hearts, living God’s justice, knowing they belong and that all belong.
This is the faith Jesus wonders if he’ll find when he returns.
He wonders if he’ll find people who live in trusting relationship with God, knowing they are loved and forgiven. People who are transformed in their very hearts to love and care for the world as God does. To hear all the cries for justice, and to answer with their bodies, their voices, their hearts, their love.
Given how we’ve tended to pray for God’s justice and expected God to do it, Jesus’ concern is valid.
But it needn’t be. You belong to God. You are loved and forgiven always, your sins wiped away and forgotten in the Triune God’s sacrificial love. You are God’s chosen one. You can live in trust with God through Christ Jesus, and have your heart changed. You can expect to work with God for justice in this terrifying and toxic world we live in. This is God’s dream for you. And the world.
Ponder this deeply. Because there’s another possibility to this parable.
Maybe Jesus looks at us sometimes and sees the unjust judge. Acting as if we don’t fear God or respect people. Closing our ears to the cries of those crushed by this oppressive world we’ve built, our hearts to the pain of anyone who isn’t us. It’s not how we always are; but it can be. Keep this corrupt official in mind when you consider sitting out an issue, or avoid looking for ways to make a difference, or are tempted to resist the sacrifice God’s justice for all will mean for you.
The artist Sara Bareilles has a breathtaking new album about living in the midst of the chaos of these days, where she sings, “Be the hand of a hopeful stranger, little scared, but you’re strong enough. Be the light in the dark of this danger, till the sun comes up.” 1
That’s God’s dream for you, beloved child of God. You are God’s answer to the cries for justice. God says to those who cry out: Have you met my child, my light, my beacon of hope? They will hold out their hand to you, and help you find a safe place to be.
So, my friends, do not lose heart. Pray always. And let God’s love move you as God’s hope in the world.
In the name of Jesus. Amen
1 Sara Bareilles, in “A Safe Place to Land,” on Amidst the Chaos, 2019, Epic Records
The Olive Branch, 10/16/19
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