Category: bible

The Crown of Life – Revelation Bible Guide Day 3

Previously in Revelation

As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Day 3

Revelation 2:1-11

1“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: These are the words of him who holds the seven stars in his right hand, who walks among the seven golden lampstands:
2“I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance. I know that you cannot tolerate evildoers; you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them to be false. 3I also know that you are enduring patiently and bearing up for the sake of my name, and that you have not grown weary. 4But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5Remember then from what you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent. 6Yet this is to your credit: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To everyone who conquers, I will give permission to eat from the tree of life that is in the paradise of God.
8“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: These are the words of the first and the last, who was dead and came to life:
9“I know your affliction and your poverty, even though you are rich. I know the slander on the part of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Beware, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison so that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life. 11Let anyone who has an ear listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Whoever conquers will not be harmed by the second death.

Points of Interest

  • “To the angel…” Given that an angel signifies a messenger, this could refer to a leader in the church or poetically to a guardian angel or to the Spirit of God who will help each person receive the message.
  • “Ephesus” – A very large city, one of the biggest in the Roman Empire, famous for its wealth, trade, and ornate temple of Diana that was as large as two football fields.
  • “These are the words…”Each of the seven addresses follows a formula that includes Jesus speaking to the church. Jesus knows each community intimately and is revealing their true strengths and weaknesses. Each time, an aspect of the opening vision of Jesus (Ch 1) is emphasized.
  • “your toil and patient endurance” – This church is cautious, steady, and cares about truth and correct beliefs.
  • “…abandoned the love” – Yet this church also lacks love – perhaps lacking deep love for God, perhaps lacking deep love for others, perhaps both.
  • “remove your lampstand” – The risk is that without love, this church will cease to exist. Love of God and others is the central command of Jesus and the core to a faith community’s vitality.
  • “the tree of life” – Adam and Eve and all their descendants were banished from this source of abundant, eternal life. Apparently, the tree is still waiting, and people who listen to and respond to the Spirit of Jesus can enjoy it.
  • “Smyrna” – As Rome conquered other cities, they’d often build temples to the goddess of Roma or to Roman emperors and vie to show their loyalty and patriotism, knowing that in return they would gain favor and wealth from the capital. Smyrna was well-known for its Roman allegiance and accompanying rewards.
  • “your affliction and your poverty” – Yet the early house churches are poor, made up of members of the lower classes who aren’t benefitting from the city’s wealth.
  • “synagogue of Satan” – This has often been read with anti-Semitic overtones. Today, we can repudiate this anti-Semitism and recognize the challenge of people who are marginalized, misunderstood, and slandered for their faith.
  • “the crown of life” – This isn’t a royal crown but an Olympic wreath of joy and victory.
  • “Whoever conquers” – a military term. A life of faith can lead to hard work & struggle.
  • “the second death”- Just as there can be life after death, there can apparently also be a death after death in the age to come. Part of the crown of joy and victory in following Jesus is no fear for anything that death might bring.

Spiritual Exercise

What might the Spirit of God be saying to you through today’s passage? Has anything struck your mind or heart? Looking back over the last 24 hours – yours highs and lows, times of joy or sorrow, presence or distraction, anxiety or peace, has the Spirit of God spoken to you through your life or though any other person? Pay attention for a moment, listen, and ask God how you can respond to whatever comes to mind.

A Direction for Prayer

Are you or any of your six discouraged? If so, pray that the Jesus who has conquered death will bring encouragement. Are you or any of your six lacking in deep love for God and others? If so, pray that Jesus who has God’s Spirit to give will fill you/them up with God’s love.

Bible Guide – Day 4

The Bible Guide

This blog post is part of a Lenten journey through the book of Revelation. Every year during the season of Lent, we take a focused look at a portion of Scripture as part of our communal spiritual practice. This year, we are exploring what it means to be Children of God in a Fractured World, with Revelation as our lens. The series starts here.

In The Spirit of God – Revelation Bible Guide Day 2

Previously in Revelation

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Day 2

Revelation 1:9-20

9I, John, your brother who share with you in Jesus the persecution and the kingdom and the patient endurance, was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10I was in the spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet 11saying, “Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamum, to Thyatira, to Sardis, to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”
12Then I turned to see whose voice it was that spoke to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, 13and in the midst of the lampstands I saw one like the Son of Man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash across his chest. 14His head and his hair were white as white wool, white as snow; his eyes were like a flame of fire, 15his feet were like burnished bronze, refined as in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. 16In his right hand he held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining with full force.
17When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he placed his right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last, 18and the living one. I was dead, and see, I am alive forever and ever; and I have the keys of Death and of Hades. 19Now write what you have seen, what is, and what is to take place after this. 20As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lampstands: the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Points of Interest

  • “Patmos” – a Mediterranean island, off the Western coast of Asia (modern-day Turkey). John reports being exiled there for his faith leadership. Persecution of Christians by Rome was less common in the first century, but many scholars think there may have been persecution in the 90s under the emperor Domitian. Revelation likely was written then.
  • “in the spirit” – In writing Revelation, John reports both auditory and visionary hallucinations – the Spirit of God communicating to him vividly through his imagination. Yet the whole book is also an impressive work of literary genius. John makes exhaustive and creative reference to Hebrew scripture and other apocalyptic literature outside the Bible. However much of Revelation came into John’s imagination in prayer, he also worked out the details of his writing carefully with a small library of scrolls on hand.
  • “the seven churches” – The order of these seven churches represents the order a messenger would have travelled to them all after taking a boat from Patmos to the mainland. The number seven, one of John’s favorites, represents completion, and so these seven churches can poetically stand for all churches in the region or maybe even all churches in the world.
  • “seven golden lampstands” – These represent a neat poetic image for churches, as places for God’s light to shine. John’s good news is that Jesus (called by Jesus’ own favorite nickname for himself, also a reference to Daniel 7) is with the churches, not absent, whether they see him or not.
  • I find the vision in this paragraph arresting and utterly beautiful. To do so yourself, you have to embrace Revelation as poetry and symbol. Try to draw a literal picture, and it will be odd or creepy. Let this book’s images work on your right brain creativity and emotion more than your left brain linear logic. In that spirit, the vision of Jesus:
    • “head and hair were white as wool” – like God in Daniel 7, who is called the Ancient of Days – wise and old. Also, with the bronze, indomitable, stable, not going anywhere.
    • “sound of many waters” – evocative of the richness and power of God’s voice (Ezekiel 43:2) Jesus’ weapon is also his voice, his words
    • “eyes … like a flame a fire… face like the sun” – piercing and penetrating in beauty and life and insight
  • “seven stars” – The lampstands of the churches won’t just be lit by torches but by stars, here stars that are angels. As we mentioned yesterday, this may be a poetic, early Christian way of speaking of the Holy Spirit as the presence and light of Jesus.
  • “I am the first and the last” – Just like the Almighty God, Jesus is alive forever.

Spiritual Exercise

What might the Spirit of God be saying to you through today’s passage? Has anything struck your mind or heart? Looking back over the last 24 hours – yours highs and lows, times of joy or sorrow, presence or distraction, anxiety or peace, has the Spirit of God spoken to you through your life or though any other person? Pay attention for a moment, listen, and ask God how you can respond to whatever comes to mind.

A Direction for Prayer

Pray for your six, that however much or little they know about Jesus, they would come to understand God to be as beautiful and living and good and alive as today’s vision paints God to be. If you don’t have six non-churchgoing friends in mind to pray for yet, during this season, take a moment to choose six people you’ll pray for in this season.

Bible Guide – Day 3

The Bible Guide

This blog post is part of a Lenten journey through the book of Revelation. Every year during the season of Lent, we take a focused look at a portion of Scripture as part of our communal spiritual practice. This year, we are exploring what it means to be Children of God in a Fractured World, with Revelation as our lens. The series starts here.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ – Revelation Bible Guide Day 1

read the Introduction to this Bible Guide

Day 1

Revelation 1:1-8

1The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place; he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2who testified to the word of God and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, even to all that he saw.

3Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and who keep what is written in it; for the time is near.

4John to the seven churches that are in Asia:

Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, 5and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, 6and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

7Look! He is coming with the clouds;
every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him;
and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.

So it is to be. Amen.

8“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.

Points of Interest

  •  “The revelation of Jesus Christ” – The first two verses are a title to the book and tell us what genre we’re in – revelation, or literally, apocalypse. We hear that word and think of the destruction of the world, or at least the end of the world as we know it. But the Greek word for this literally means “uncovering” or “revealing.” Apocalyptic literature was an enormously popular form of Jewish spiritual writing in the first century A.D. and in the few centuries preceding. As Babylonian, then Persian, then Greek, and then Roman empires dominated the known world, Jewish writers – including first century followers of Jesus – kept returning to symbols, imagery and poetry to try to pull back the curtain on this known world and see what God might be up to.
  • “prophecy” – John’s writing is also prophetic. Prophecy is a timely word of comfort or challenge from God. It’s often about the present as much or more than the future.
  • “John” – Tradition holds that he is the disciple of Jesus that also wrote the gospel of John and the three letters of John in the Bible, but we don’t know that this is true.
  • “from him who is and who was and who is to come” – This is a rich statement about God’s lifespan through all time, maybe even outside of time. God is alive now, always has been and always will be. It’s also an indication of the different time spans in which we can understand Revelation. It’s partly a book about the future end of history as we know it, but probably less so than many modern readers have imagined. Revelation isn’t some kind of codebook for our geopolitical future, as some have imagined it to be. It’s also partly a book about the past. Revelation cites Old Testament scripture exhaustively and can be read as a coded story about followers of Jesus surviving and thriving under the Roman Empire. We can also read Revelation as providing timely insights into our present. Revelation gives us poetic language and imagery to reflect on the nature of God, evil, history, and more. It also gives us insight into following Jesus while living within a corrupt, bankrupt, unjust human culture and empire.
  • “from the seven spirits who are before his throne” – the seven spirits are most likely a poetic description of the Holy Spirit, imagined in angelic terms. There may be roots in Isaiah 11, where the Spirit of God is described with seven qualities. ¬
  • “ruler of the kings of the earth… made us to be a kingdom” – In John’s praise of Jesus, he gives us one of the first anti-imperial encouragements for followers of Jesus. Jesus – not Rome’s Caesar or our president or anyone else – has authority over all the kings of the earth. And followers of Jesus are being shaped into a kingdom – a people or family of God who are loved and free, and available to serve God’s good purposes in our times.
  • “He is coming with the clouds… the tribes of the earth will wail” – Jesus coming with or on the clouds is a metaphorical image drawn from the late Old Testament book of Daniel. It tells us Jesus is here with us, or he’s coming soon. While Jesus famously brings good news, apparently some people – those who pierced him for sure – will have some different emotions, some reckoning when they next see him.
  • “the Alpha and the Omega” – the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. The God who lives within and outside of all time – present, past, and future, is the beginning and the end and everything in between.

Spiritual Exercise

Revelation is presented as a word from Jesus, spoken by the Spirit of God, to followers of Jesus. Seven churches, representing churches all around the world, are also told to listen to what the Spirit is saying. So our first week’s spiritual exercises are about listening. What might the Spirit of God be saying to you through today’s passage? Has anything struck your mind or heart? Looking back over the last 24 hours – yours highs and lows, joy or sorrow, presence or distraction, anxiety or peace – has the Spirit of God spoken to you through your life or though any other person? Pay attention for a moment, listen, and ask God how you can respond to whatever comes to mind.

A Direction for Prayer

As you begin the 40 Days of faith, pray that you and your church are encouraged by an experience of Jesus with you and by a fresh word from Jesus to you.

Bible Guide – Day 2

The Bible Guide

This blog post is part of a Lenten journey through the book of Revelation. Every year during the season of Lent, we take a focused look at a portion of Scripture as part of our communal spiritual practice. This year, we are exploring what it means to be Children of God in a Fractured World, with Revelation as our lens. The series starts here.

Daily Readings in John – Day Forty-Three

John 12:36b-50 (NRSV)

After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them. 37 Although he had performed so many signs in their presence, they did not believe in him. 38 This was to fulfill the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah:

“Lord, who has believed our message,
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

39 And so they could not believe, because Isaiah also said,

40 “He has blinded their eyes
    and hardened their heart,
so that they might not look with their eyes,
    and understand with their heart and turn—
    and I would heal them.”

41 Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke about him. 42 Nevertheless many, even of the authorities, believed in him. But because of the Pharisees they did not confess it, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue; 43 for they loved human glory more than the glory that comes from God.

44 Then Jesus cried aloud: “Whoever believes in me believes not in me but in him who sent me. 45 And whoever sees me sees him who sent me. 46 I have come as light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me should not remain in the darkness. 47 I do not judge anyone who hears my words and does not keep them, for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. 48 The one who rejects me and does not receive my word has a judge; on the last day the word that I have spoken will serve as judge, 49 for I have not spoken on my own, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment about what to say and what to speak. 50 And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I speak, therefore, I speak just as the Father has told me.”

John collects some thoughts and some quotations from Jesus and wraps up the first half of his book with a huge flourish of a coda. So many of the themes are here – God as source of life and eternal life, those who believe and those who don’t believe, Jesus as the light sent from God so we can see God and see ourselves and see everything clearly, Jesus saving instead of judging even though he could do either if he chose, and the nature and source of glory.

All those big things are here, in a short set of verses at the end of John’s Book of Signs. John 13 takes us into the second half of the book, which focuses on Jesus’ last words and actions with his apprentices, his suffering and death, and scenes from the first days of his resurrection.

 

Read ahead if you like, but the blogging will come to a pause for now. I’m going to post a weekly reflection and invitation to fasting and prayer during our Advent season we call Light in the Darkness. And then in mid-February, 2018, we’ll start out annual 40 Days of Faith before Easter, which will include a set of daily readings in the so deep, so crazy final book of the Bible called Revelation.

See you around the blog!

Meanwhile, a final thought from John, well more from me, on the signs.

Almost five years ago, our family of five drove from Boston to Florida. During the second of two 12-hour days of driving, we saw sign after sign after sign – dozens and dozens of them – for this roadside attraction called South of the Border. One article describes the place this way: “If Las Vegas hooked up with Route 66 and had a baby, this would be it.” Sounds about right.

It’s bad Mexican food meets dollar store meets racial stereotypes meet roadside kitsch. We pulled over for a few minutes and then kept on going. We followed the signs to where they were going, but the destination disappointed. No glory.

As Jesus briefly goes into hiding, a few weeks before the explosive final final week before his crucifixion, John says the reverse has happened. There were so many signs – John has told us about several – that Jesus is from God, that Jesus shines the light of God, that Jesus connects us with God’s wonders, what John calls John’s glory.

But following those signs to where they lead takes a new way of seeing, different from our usual blindness to what’s most important. Following the signs takes open and courageous hearts. Following the signs might even take setting aside “our own glory” – our own reputation and narrow self-obsession.

Many people don’t follow the signs to the end, don’t take the exit and “come and see” for ourselves what’s there.

If John could write a little coda just to us, I think he’d urge us to keep looking at the signs he told us about, keep listening to the words that Jesus said, and go where they lead. Because there we’ll find God, there we’ll find glory.

Daily Readings in John – Day Forty-Two

John 12:20-36a (NRSV)

20 Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21 They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22 Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23 Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25 Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.”

Today, something different from me – a letter to Jesus. Do with it what you will.

(a) Eavesdrop, and pray. (b) Write your own letter. (c) Do something entirely different. (d) None of the above. (e) All of the above.

Jesus, your soul was troubled as you prepared for what might be the end. You watched the dying of the light at sunset, and I’m imagining that in that way that flashes of divine insight – just knowing everything you had no cause to know – may have overcome you. Seeing all the things that happen at night. Perhaps you heard children’s shattering teeth at they trembled in their nightmares of monsters and falls and loneliness. Perhaps you saw the preparation of thieves or the drunken man arriving home to beat his wife before sleeping by her side. Perhaps you smelled the weariness of the old and injured and disabled in their beds.

And this time you let yourself think of yourself as well, of the impending dying of your light. Your compassion and your power, your breath and your consciousness ceasing, and soon. You hoped, you believed this was necessary, and this was the seed’s death that yields great harvest. You’d be lifted up, all people would be drawn, life would return. But could you have known?

I too hate death and dying in all its many forms. I’m a little bit afraid if I let myself stop and think about my elder friends and family, the sick ones too, and wonder how much time they have left. I have this pain in my side today after moving chairs – it will be gone soon, but it never would have happened ten years ago, maybe even not last year or last week. I’m getting older too.

And then I think about the things that ask for my grief, waiting to be remembered in tears. And I imagine the choices I’ve made and the ones that must be made that will shrink my choices, abandon my rights, lessen my options and my pleasures – they will be for the good if I have the courage for completion, but they will each be their own small seed-like death.

Can I trust you today, Jesus, that all life comes from dying seeds? Buried in the ground to decay before their transformation and mixing with soil and light and water and all the other stuff of the earth, they will rise and bear fruit. Could this be true of me and all that I hold dear?

I hope that it is so, because as much as anything else, I too wish to see Jesus, and to be with you Jesus in your dying and rebirth, in your humble place covered in dirt, and in your sprouting up and shooting off leaves and fruit.

May it be so.

Daily Readings in John – Day Forty-One

John 12:9-19 (NRSV)

9 When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10 So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, 11 since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus.

12 The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. 13 So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!
Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—
    the King of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written:

15 “Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion.
Look, your king is coming,
    sitting on a donkey’s colt!”

16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him. 17 So the crowd that had been with him when he called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead continued to testify. 18 It was also because they heard that he had performed this sign that the crowd went to meet him. 19 The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see, you can do nothing. Look, the world has gone after him!”

There’s so much in this passage, that I don’t know where to start commenting or where to focus. There’s the utter meanness, the cold political calculus of the plot against Jesus extending to Lazurus as well.

By contrast, there’s the jubilant celebration of the crowds as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey. John has Jesus in and out of Jerusalem throughout the book of signs (first half/first twelve chapters of his memoirs), but usually arriving in secret. This time, it’s public. This time, there’s a symbolic gesture associated with messianic prophecy. This time, the crowds are shouting a Hebrew word of praise – Hosanna – he saves!

And then there’s John’s quiet reflection at the end. Crowds are testifying – something true and important is being noticed. Closest apprentices are confused. Cultural and religious elites are befuddled. Truth, confusion, chaos…

Let’s try lectio divina – divine reading – again. Read the passage once, asking what words or phrases stick out to you. Read it a second time, asking what those words or phrases mean to you. And read it a third time, asking if you’re compelled to do anything.

Peace to you today.

We’re nearing the end of the Book of Signs and the end of this blogging for now. Two more days.

Daily Readings in John – Day Forty

John 12:1-8 (NRSV)

12 Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2 There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3 Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5 “Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6 (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7 Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8 You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”

One of the hallmarks of the Jesuit spiritual tradition, called Igantian spirituality after their founder Ignatius of Loyola, is imaginative reading of scripture. Let’s practice.

Imagine yourself in the one common room of a very small, old stone house. One wall has windows that open into a little courtyard. Another leads to a private sleeping room. Another has a doorway through which the host, a young woman named Martha, has come in and out with bread, humus, and some olives and vegetables. It’s a simple meal, as the family is just days away from the largest meal of the year at Passover.

Still, the friend of the family, a travelling teacher named Jesus is here, as the guest of honor. The room is crowded, as his apprentices are with him, as is the host family and some other friends. The young man of the family, Lazurus, isn’t eating much. In fact, he can’t stop staring at Jesus; his mouth hangs open a little, even when he’s not talking. Rumor has it he was wrapped in grave clothes and lying in the family tomb not too long ago, before Jesus called him out and he actually got up and walked again. Here he is, a few people to your left.

There’s no table here. Everyone is reclining on a rug, leaning on one elbow as they talk and eat. A few sit up, leaning back against the wall, bellies full.

And now, Mary, sister of the host enters and pours perfume over Jesus’ feet. The smell has filled the room, its sweetness mixing with the aromas of garlic and olives and bread. Mary has no towel, but is using her own hair to rub the fragrance into Jesus’ feet, like an ointment or lotion. Jesus has the trace of a smile on his face; he looks calm, content.

The whole room is quiet, shocked. What is Mary doing? Will someone tell her to back away? It’s almost indecent. You’d do this for your lover, perhaps, or for a corpse you’re preparing for burial. Not for a guest, not for a rabbi.

The silence is interrupted, as Judas complains about the waste of it all. Ironic, as he’s wearing new, clean clothes and people say he’s a thief. But Jesus doesn’t confront him; he barely acknowledges what he’s said.

He just looks around slowly and then turns back toward Mary by his feet and says, “Let her be. This is what love looks like. She’s preparing me for my burial, which is coming soon.”

What do you see and feel? Who do you relate to? What troubles or inspires you? Do Mary or Judas or Jesus remind you of anyone you know, or anything in yourself?

Is there anything you want to say to Jesus now? If so, go ahead.

Daily Readings in John – Day Thirty-Nine

John 10:45-57 (NRSV)

45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what he had done. 47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and said, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. 48 If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” 49 But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all! 50 You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” 51 He did not say this on his own, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus was about to die for the nation, 52 and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the dispersed children of God. 53 So from that day on they planned to put him to death.

54 Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.

55 Now the Passover of the Jews was near, and many went up from the country to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. 56 They were looking for Jesus and were asking one another as they stood in the temple, “What do you think? Surely he will not come to the festival, will he?” 57 Now the chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that anyone who knew where Jesus was should let them know, so that they might arrest him.

 If John had a soundtrack, it would have just changed in mood, rhythm, meter, and tone rather abruptly. We move from the soaring glory-of-God-on-full-power raising of Lazurus from the dead, to smoky room political conspiracy, fearful rumors, plots of death, and hiding out in the wilderness.
I used to feel more judgmental or shocked about the actions of the elites in the gospel stories. The council hears rumors that Jesus has performed miracles, and all they can do is fear for their own security? Don’t they have an ounce of curiosity or wonder in them?
I guess over time I’ve taken a dimmer view of political processes and how much good happens in council and committee meetings. So often our collective group psychologies tend drift toward expression of our fears and resentments, that why should it surprise us that this Jerusalem council would be any different? They had a fearful and complex role – try to manage the Roman occupation and preserve a limited degree of civic and religious freedom, keep the hopeful and resentful masses at bay, and see if they could hold on to their own power and positions all at once.
No wonder that Jesus, who had no real interest in their concerns represented a problem. He didn’t have much sympathy for human prestige and ambition. And while he had no interest in direct confrontation with Rome, he didn’t exactly keep people’s wildest hopes in check. No, he increased them. People around him got restless and hopeful and motivated for change – they started to believe. Which may have been great for them, but not so helpful for the cause of political stability.
So the council wants him dead.
Here, though, John things that the possibility that God works for good in all things for those who love God may once again be at play. Even in Caiaphas’ Machiavellian moral calculus, God manages to turn things for good. Jesus’ death will turn for the good of the whole nation, if not in the way that the council intended. Within a generation, their city, their temple, their council will all be gone. But Jesus will have thousands of people scattered about the Eastern Roman Empire saying that he died and has risen again, and all peoples on earth – Palestinian Jews, Romans near and far, and everyone beyond has a stake and blessing and a hope in this.

Daily Readings in John – Day Thirty-Eight

John 11:38-44 (NRSV)

38 Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. 39 Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” 40 Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

So from the start of the chapter, we’ve heard that this awful tragedy would be the grounds for revealing the glory of God – the beauty, the transcendent other-ness, the stunning reputation, all that is special about God that stops us in our tracks in wonder.

I think we’ve seen it already. The glory of God in Jesus’ courage to go to the region where his life is in danger, just to be with his grieving friends. The glory of God in filling Martha’s mind with insight and hope that Jesus is the promised one of God who is bringing life and hope into the world. The glory of God in Jesus’ weeping with Martha, in the deep compassion and anger of God for how things are in our world.

And here the glory of God reaches a climax. The glory of God is seen in rolling away the stone of death’s finality, in upending the closure of loss, and in calling out new life with a word from God. The glory of God is here in a dead man walking.

Even in this climax of the glory of God, there’s a place for mere mortals, though. The once grieving, now shocked funeral assembly is given a task to do. They are to unwrap Lazurus from his stench-filled graveclothes and to release him into renewed life.

God includes people as partners in just about everything God does. There is always a piece for us to do, and this too reveals the glory of God.

It might be a simple prayer, to which God responds in power. It might be a word of appreciation or gratitude or encouragement, which God uses to keep someone going. It might be an act of service, or work done faithfully in your job that God uses to provide for economic or physical needs.

Yesterday, a friend of mine took the courage to share with me an insight she had when she prayed for me. She shared it humbly, in the event it might be helpful, and it unlocked something really helpful in my mind today.

How is God at work for glory today, and what part are you invited to play in this?

Daily Readings in John – Day Thirty-Seven

John 11:28-36

28 When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29 And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32 When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. 34 He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Jesus began to weep. 36 So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37 But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

In our last entry, we met one sister – Martha, the practical one, the gracious one, and the theological one. Martha then gets her sister Mary, whose grief is thicker than Martha’s, it appears. On Meyers-Briggs terms, for those of you that know your personality assessments, Mary is an NF – perceiving the world more through intuition than data, and making decisions that are influenced more strongly by her feeling than her thinking. I’m an “NF” too, so I get Mary. Jesus seems to get her too. In fact, he’s unusually responsive to her.

They are close enough, or Jesus is so compassionate, that his psychological mirroring function kicks in strongly and he feels what she feels. Soon her grief becomes his, and Jesus too is weeping.

In many translations, verse 35 is just a two word sentence: Jesus wept. It’s famously the shortest verse in the Bible and maybe one of the more significant.

Cate Nelson gave a stunning sermon on this passage at Reservoir this fall, and I will simply repeat her insight in brief. Jesus weeps out of the sadness of God, that shares our pain and mourns the pain and loss of hurt and death. And Jesus weeps out of the anger of God, that sees death – in all its literal and metaphorical forms – as a violation of the good world God made and the flourishing life that God is recreating in the world.

 

Where is Jesus weeping with you today? Where is Jesus’ sadness or anger active that you can perceive? Try asking Jesus. What does this mean to you?