Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent - March 22, 2013
Friday of the Fifth Week of Lent
John 10:31 – 38
Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
I am part of an institution, the Church, that has pretty much codified what it means to follow Jesus, that has institutionalized discipleship into certain corporate structures and activities. Much of this institution’s life is self-generating and self-perpetuating.
Our clearest connection to characters within the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry would be with the “religious leaders” – usually described as Pharisees, scribes, teachers of the Law, and so on – who were part of the formal religious structure of the day. They were their own day’s keepers of the institution. I believe the contemporary Church can be most identified with these persons.
[I have to be careful at this point, because I am every bit as much a keeper of the institution in my day, as they were in theirs. I draw a paycheck from the institution. I have health insurance through an institution. At some level – and by some definitions of “well-being” – my well-being is dependent upon the institution.]
In upholding tradition, these persons in the Gospel thought they were doing the work of God. “This is what God does: God maintains systems of truth . . . God perpetuates institutions that dare to put God’s name on the sign out front.”
Bless their hearts, they thought they were a part of what God was doing . . . just as I tend to think that my institutional service is part of what God is doing today. And some of it probably is the work of God. It does, however, stand starkly in contrast to the work that Jesus engaged in.
Jesus dared to say to them, “I am doing the work of God. I am doing what God does.” This is a radically different vision of what God is concerned about . . . very different from what an institutional person might argue about God.
If you follow Jesus’ premise by looking at his life, what is God’s work? What is God concerned about?
God is concerned about the welfare of the marginalized.
God hangs out with cheats and persons of questionable morality.
God brings wholeness (healing) to those who are broken.
God feeds – physically, spiritually, emotionally – those who are hungry.
God brings life where there looks to be only death.
God is not scared of death and dismantling.
God is more interested in relationship and connection than maintaining or perpetuating the institution.
If Jesus is doing the work of God, then these things are the work of God. These are the things Jesus is doing.
If the religious leaders are doing the work of God, than all Jesus’ actions originate from some other, self-serving source.
John 10:31 – 38
Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”
Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are “gods”’? If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside— what about the one whom the Father set apart as his very own and sent into the world? Why then do you accuse me of blasphemy because I said, ‘I am God’s Son’? Do not believe me unless I do the works of my Father. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
I am part of an institution, the Church, that has pretty much codified what it means to follow Jesus, that has institutionalized discipleship into certain corporate structures and activities. Much of this institution’s life is self-generating and self-perpetuating.
Our clearest connection to characters within the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ ministry would be with the “religious leaders” – usually described as Pharisees, scribes, teachers of the Law, and so on – who were part of the formal religious structure of the day. They were their own day’s keepers of the institution. I believe the contemporary Church can be most identified with these persons.
[I have to be careful at this point, because I am every bit as much a keeper of the institution in my day, as they were in theirs. I draw a paycheck from the institution. I have health insurance through an institution. At some level – and by some definitions of “well-being” – my well-being is dependent upon the institution.]
In upholding tradition, these persons in the Gospel thought they were doing the work of God. “This is what God does: God maintains systems of truth . . . God perpetuates institutions that dare to put God’s name on the sign out front.”
Bless their hearts, they thought they were a part of what God was doing . . . just as I tend to think that my institutional service is part of what God is doing today. And some of it probably is the work of God. It does, however, stand starkly in contrast to the work that Jesus engaged in.
Jesus dared to say to them, “I am doing the work of God. I am doing what God does.” This is a radically different vision of what God is concerned about . . . very different from what an institutional person might argue about God.
If you follow Jesus’ premise by looking at his life, what is God’s work? What is God concerned about?
God is concerned about the welfare of the marginalized.
God hangs out with cheats and persons of questionable morality.
God brings wholeness (healing) to those who are broken.
God feeds – physically, spiritually, emotionally – those who are hungry.
God brings life where there looks to be only death.
God is not scared of death and dismantling.
God is more interested in relationship and connection than maintaining or perpetuating the institution.
If Jesus is doing the work of God, then these things are the work of God. These are the things Jesus is doing.
If the religious leaders are doing the work of God, than all Jesus’ actions originate from some other, self-serving source.
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