Reality Check, Part I

Today’s Reading is from John 1:1-18. I preached about that for Epiphany 2011. Please listen to my sermon titled “Reality Check, Part I”.

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Who is Jesus to you?

Today’s reading John 1:35-51 introduces us to the first followers of Jesus and includes several confessions of faith. What do these first followers say about him?
- Lamb of God
- Rabbi
- Messiah
- son of Joseph
- from Nazareth
- real Israelite
- Son of God
- King of Israel
This is obviously an open-ended list because it only stems from one brief chapter of one Gospel. Feel free to add your own!

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Children of God

Humans are humans and only God is God, right?
Well, with Jesus the story is a little more complicated than that. In today’s reading John 10:22-42 he was confronted by temple authorities: “You are only a man, but you are trying to make yourself God!”
His answer sounds so easy but is so hard to grasp: Don’t you call all people God’s children?

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One Flock, One Shepherd

Sometimes the lost sheep do not want to be found. Today’s Reading is John 10:1-21. Please read my sermon from May 2009.

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John 21:1-25

Today’s Reading is John 21:1-25.
Here you have a second account of the miraculous catch of fish. The first instance was told in Luke 5:1-11 when Simon Peter was called to be a fisher of people. Now the problem about Peter’s ministry is that is has always had its ups and downs. Ultimately he denied Jesus three times. That does not read like a great resume for the greatest church leader. Four generations and one continent away the Peter story finally gets a happy ending. The leader is reinstated by three times confessing his love for Jesus literally reversing the triple denial. Jesus charges him with the office of a shepherd: “Take care of my sheep.” In God’s heart there is always more room than we can imagine – especially for lost sheep turned shepherd like Peter.

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John 20:1-30

Due to a busy Holy Week Schedule I have missed quite a few readings. Hopefully I will be able to catch up.
Today’s Reading is John 20:1-30.

For the first part may I refer to my slide-show Easter sermon of 2010:

For the second part may I refer to my sermon for the second Sunday of Easter 2009.

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Matthew 28:1-20

Today’s Reading is Matthew 28:1-20.
It contains three pericopes:

Verses 1-10 The Women and the empty tomb
All four gospels agree in their emphasis upon the event taking place on the first day of the week and that those who found the tomb empty were women, all give prominence to “Mary” and attention to the stone that had closed the tomb. They do not appear to agree on the time at which the women visited the tomb, the number and identity of the women, the purpose of their visit, the nature and appearance of the messenger(s), whether angelic or human, their message to the women and the response of the women to the visitor in the tomb. (from wikipedia)

Verses 11-15 The bribing of the guards
This strange episode deals with the fact that resurrection is incomprehensible. Something similar happens in the other gospels:
Mark 16:12-13 Jesus appears to two disciples
Luke 24:13-35 Jesus walks to Emmaus
John 20:24-29 Doubting Thomas needs to see
Well, relating to the mystery of Easter takes a leap of faith, the bribe is not a sufficient explanation and there really is no way the human mind could wrap around this bigger-than-death concept.

Verse 16-20 The Great Commission
Here again is that leap of faith: Baptize all people first, then secondly teach them!
Faith only works from a perspective of: What have I gotten myself into now.

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John 11:45-12:11

Today’s Reading is John 11:45-12:11. I preached about it last March. Please refer to my sermon.

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John 11:1-44

Today’s Reading is John 11:1-44. The shortest verse in many English language Bibles is about Jesus mourning the death of his friend Lazarus: “Jesus wept.”

Wikipedia knows significance has been attributed to this phrase for a number of reasons, including the following:
* Weeping demonstrates that Christ was indeed true man, with real bodily functions (such as tears, sweat, blood, eating and drinking—note, for comparison, the emphasis laid on Jesus’ eating during the post-resurrection appearances). His emotions and reactions were real; Christ was not an illusion or spirit (see Docetism). Pope Leo I referred to this passage when he discussed the two natures of Jesus: “In his humanity Jesus wept for Lazarus; in his divinity he raised him from the dead.”
* The sorrow felt by Jesus presages the suffering of his own crucifixion.

Also the Dominus Flevit Church in Jerusalem was fashioned in the shape of a teardrop to symbolize the tears of Christ:

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John 7:25-52

Today’s Reading is John 7:25-52.
The Johannine community produced this gospel in the 90s in Ephesus. That is four generations and one continent away from where it iwas supposed to be set. Now they didn’t know to much about who Pharisees were or what Jesus’ place in Judaism was. Hear Ed Parish Sanders about how common contrasts between Judaism and Christianity miss the mark:

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