A Question of Trust
Fourth Sunday of Easter - April 25, 2010
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Please note: The following sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him. |
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A neighborhood is a very different place in the winter. Instead of there being the sounds of laughter and the smell of barbeques and the splash of pool water, there is darkness and cold when we walk around. Lights glimmer through Thermopane windows. Each house is a shelter from the wind and storm. Each house separates people from persons or things or elements that would harm the family. Each house a place that is warm and safe from things that go bump in the night.
Our Lord Jesus went walking in the Temple area. It was winter, John says, and he means that in two ways. It was the season of winter, and also the situation was wintry. Dark and cold was the attitude of those who surround Jesus; but there was no shelter for him, no wall behind which he could hide.
The wolves gather around him and demand an answer from him: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” And they are ready to pounce when he answers. They do not trust him or his word.
A bit earlier in this 10th chapter of John's Gospel, Jesus had talked about being the “gate of the sheep.” When the shepherd is there at the doorway of the sheepfold, it is safe. If he is not there, then the sheepfold becomes a trap for the sheep by anyone who would claim the shepherd's place.
Let's take the idea a bit further, and say that wherever Jesus is, there is shelter, food and drink, light, and future. Where he is not, there is danger, hunger and thirst, darkness, and hopelessness.
How then does Jesus deal with the wolves who think that they have him surrounded, the wolves who are circling for the kill?
We are rooting for him to demonstrate his power. “Show them, Jesus, just who is boss. Prove to them who you are and what you can do!”
But whenever we pray that prayer, we are moving the wrong direction. It is a battle, make no mistake, but not the kind of battle which Jesus will win with the use of force. He could make a spectacular display, more impressive than the most violent volcano. But he knows that no number or size of demonstrations of power, miracles, healings, or impressive events will ever be enough to convince someone of the truth of the situation.
He does not answer the wolves with any of those. Instead of answering the demand for proof, Jesus asks the questioners: “Are you willing to trust me? Follow!”
It makes the scene vastly different for Jesus to speak and act in this way. Jesus refuses to be defensive or act in our typically offensive way. He refuses to play the power game. He simply states the truth, and invites all who will listen to step into it.
Remember the story of the man who refused to come to Jesus when his son was sick with a high fever. Jesus asks him if he wants a sign, and then says that he will not give him one. He is simply to go home, and find his son well. again. Then the choice is put before the man, to trust with his feet and go home, or to look somewhere else for other kinds of help. It is a question of trust.
Remember another story, the rich man and Lazarus the beggar. They both die: Lazarus goes to Paradise, and the rich man to torment. “Oh please,” begs the rich man, send one from the dead to warn my brothers about this torment.” “No,' says God, “they already have Moses and the prophets and they refuse to listen to them.. Neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” It is a question of trust. “Follow,” says Jesus.
It would make not a bit of difference if and entire gaggle of scientists proclaim that after objective study of all of the empirical evidence that there is a God. Faith cannot be built up that way. Those who rely on miracles, demonstrations of power, impressive wonders, or careful reasoning will fall away when the wonders cease and reasoning falters. It is a question of trust. We believe because we have heard the promise of our risen Lord, and hang onto it.
I am the living Word come down from heaven, and we believe him. I am the Bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never be thirsty, and we trust him. This I command you – to love one another, and we set out to live that way.
Follow me. It is a matter of trust.
Wherever Jesus is trusted, there is the spring of hope. Wherever Jesus is not trusted, there the winter winds of hopelessness still howl.
It is not by some great effort of ours that hope is here among us. ...we are what we are not because we are extraordinary people especially gifted, but because our extraordinary God, who, by the gift of his grace, forms from ordinary persons, instruments of his purposes. [Welford Hobbie]
Indeed, to any who will listen, Jesus will show that they have been acting like sheep in wolves' clothing.
Their roaring has been loud and long, however, it has not been their own roaring, but a mimic of that true wolf, the power of evil himself.
Remember the First Lesson from last Sunday. Paul, the wolf-mimic was transformed into a true sheep, an apostle of the Lord, sent out with a true word to speak. If Jesus can do that with so strong, forceful, and determined a person as Paul, he can do it also with us.
What happens in baptism and all of the days that follow, is that Jesus pulls off the wolf's dark cloak from around us to reveal our true nature as his sheep. There is a different way of life for us, Jesus shows us, a life that is based not on the wolf's lonely howl, but on the hymns being sung by the multitude which no one can number, the multitude standing before the throne, and singing the hymn which at length we will join in singing.
The old baptismal customs point to this contrast of darkness and light, to old life and new. --To renounce Satan, one faced west and the dying sun. --To confess faith in Christ, one faced east and the rising sun. --When ready to enter the baptismal pool, the candidate took off all of the old clothes, like the wolf's dark cloak. --When coming out of the water, the neophyte is clothed in the new white garments of Revelation's vision. And all of this happens not because of proof, but because of trust in the word and promise of Jesus.
And from that trust, there follows action. Salvation, the “new you”, your fresh beginning...however one wishes to phrase it... is not a badge to be worn, but a commission to fulfill.
Jesus saw it that way. He says: The works that I do in y Father's name bear witness to me. What about us and our actions? In what ways are they bearing witness to Christ Jesus?
The Gospel has a stern word for us here, that even after we are clothed in white at Baptism, the wolf continues trying to throw his dark cloak over us. Each day we must put away the sloth and indifference of darkness, and rejoice in the gifts and the tasks of the Light of Christ.
Those who hear the Word of God most clearly are not likely to be clinging to the walls of the sheep-fold, piously waiting for heaven. This precious bit of time together in this building is not a place to hide, but is instead a bit of refreshment coupled with a strong and positive commissioning to get on with what we are sent to do.
On this particular day, it is hard for us not to be thinking about Family Promise and our Iron Chef competition for its benefit. We note with thanks those who will be attending, those who will be serving, those who have contributed to the patron list, those who have conversed about it with friends, as well as those who are preparing to be volunteers when we host Family Promise guests, and are giving items, time, and encouragement for the work in Jesus' name. If this particular project has not caught up your excitement, there are plenty of others from which to choose.
Because Jesus says I am the Good Shepherd who is ready to help, guide, and protect us, and because we dare to trust that word, when this hour concludes...off we go, to discern and do the tremendous variety of things that we are being called to do. It is a matter of trust.
Amen.
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