You Might Br a Disciple If…

                                            John 13: 31-35

          I think Jeff Foxworthy is a pretty talented man. But he got famous on one simple idea. No matter what else he ever does, Jeff Foxworthy will always be famous for being the man who coined the phrase: “You might be a redneck if…” “You might be a redneck if your working television sits on top of your non-working television… You might be a redneck if you’ve spent more money on your pickup truck than you have on your education. You might be a redneck if you’ve ever made change in the offering plate.”

          You get the picture. I’m sure you have your own favorite redneck joke. Foxworthy was really good at poking fun at us in a way that hurt a little and hit home a lot. He drew word pictures that we could see in our mind’s eye, and we could identify with those images.

          Foxworthy could have learned his craft in any number of ways. One person he might have picked up a tip from is Jesus. Jesus spoke that way more than once. He did it in the thirteenth chapter of John. Oh, he wasn’t talking about rednecks. He was talking about disciples.

You know what’s funny! I googled redneck. Wikipedia defines redneck as “a working-class white person, especially a political reactionary from a rural area.”  If you step back and look at that for a moment, it really is not a bad working definition of Jesus. He wasn’t white; he was Jewish. But he was certainly working-class. He was a political reactionary, even a revolutionary. And he was from a rural area up in the north country. Ever thought about Jesus being a redneck? It might come in handy when you’re witnessing to someone who doesn’t know him like you do.

In this text, Jesus was in the upper room this night before he went to his death on the cross, and he had supper with the faithful. He washed their feet. He gave Judas his marching orders. He told them he was about to be glorified. Those present really didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. He knew that. He went on to tell them that where he was going they could not come. He didn’t mean forever, but it didn’t matter to the disciples. They were still trying to figure out what he meant by glorified. Then Jesus gave the disciples something to live by. He called it “a new commandment.” He was about to lay on them one of those one-liners that can make people famous, just like it did Jeff Foxworthy.

          Jesus said something very simple but so profound. “Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are to love one another.” So simple. Love one another. He was talking to a hand-picked group which had been with him from the beginning of his ministry. And it had been a boots on the ground ministry that went up and down the road from Galilee to Jerusalem and points in between, always covering the synagogue but never omitting the crowds that gathered on the banks of the river or the side of a mountain.  Jesus was working-class. That’s the way God planned it. Even Foxworthy picked up on it in the many sayings for which he is quoted. Here’s another one: “Look at where Jesus went to pick people. He didn’t go to the colleges; he got guys off the fishing docks.”

And what did Jesus mean? What was his point? Well, I suspect he had more than one point. The first should be pretty obvious. If you love one another like the Son of God loves you, you are right in the short rows of righteousness. You are exactly where Jesus wants you. The second point Jesus made himself in this passage.  “By this all people will know that you are my disciples.”

There it is. You might be a disciple if people see that you love one another. How much? The same as Jesus loves you. That’s how much. They were just like us, those disciples. Working-class people. But they became disciples. Disciples of Christ. And it all started with that new commandment: Love one another.

Can you remember the New Commandment? Jesus gave it to the ones he loved on the night when it was all about to come to an end, or at least, a new beginning. He wanted them to remember just one thing. Love one another. That way, people would know. They would know that they were looking at disciples…followers…of our Savior. By this all people will know. Love one another. There’s a line to remember.

Listening For His Voice

                                            John 10: 22-30

          It’s winter time in Jerusalem and Jesus is walking along the colonnade called Solomon’s Portico. It’s more protected there than out in the open air of the temple court, and Jesus is probably enjoying a little protection from the weather. He is there during the Feast of the Dedication, also called the Feast of Lights. John tells us that the Jews gathered around him. In this context, we should take this to mean those Jews who were antagonistic toward Jesus rather than those who were friends. They want to know if he is the Christ. They keep pressing him for an answer. And his first words to them are “I already told you.”

There is a story by an unknown author.  You have heard it before. It’s about a very religious man who was caught in rising floodwaters. He climbed onto the roof of his house and trusted God to rescue him. A neighbor came by in a canoe and said, “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll paddle to safety.” “No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me”

A short time later the police came by in a boat. “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll take you to safety.” “No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me”

Not long after the boat left, a rescue services helicopter hovered overhead, let down a rope ladder and said. “The waters will soon be above your house. Climb the ladder and we’ll fly you to safety.” “No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve prayed to God and I’m sure he will save me”

All this time the floodwaters continued to rise, until soon they reached above the roof and the religious man drowned. When he arrived at heaven he demanded an audience with God. Ushered into God’s throne room he said, “Lord, why am I here in heaven? I prayed for you to save me, I trusted you to save me from that flood.”

“Yes you did my child” replied the Lord. “And I sent you a canoe, a boat and a helicopter. But you never got in.”  The Jews who questioned Jesus, probably very religious in their own way,  had much in common with this religious man, who couldn’t see the truth right in front of his face.

Just because you’re hearing doesn’t mean you’re listening. Hearing is an atmospheric disturbance that we call sound. Our ears perceive it, report it to the brain, and often that’s the end of it. Listening is something else altogether. Listening, real listening, takes your attention. Listening entertains thoughts, points of view, beliefs. Listening is what we do when we engage ourselves for participation mentally, emotionally, even physically. It’s not automatic. It takes practice and intention. Jesus understood this principle well. He often ended his parables with the statement: “He who has ears, let him hear.” Jesus wasn’t talking about physical ears. He was talking about listening.

So Jesus answers his critics, who want him to commit. They want him to incriminate himself. Claiming deity was not just insanity; it was illegal under Roman law and blasphemy under church law.  Jesus said that he had already told them. He was speaking about his works, which by this time were many. Everything about Jesus’s works screamed divinity. The things he did were not magic tricks. They were miracles. They could not have been done without the blessing of God. And yet, there were many who saw the acts and understood nothing. It’s like hearing, but not listening.

“I already told you,” said Jesus. He wasn’t just saying that.  He had told them at different times in different ways. According to John, Jesus had already said that he was the good shepherd, the gate by which we enter in, that he was alive before Abraham. They heard him, but they weren’t listening. They didn’t have “ears to hear.” Jesus said to them, “You do not believe because you are not among my sheep.” Wonder how that statement hit those who questioned him? You’re not among my sheep. You’re not part of my group. So what, they may have said. We are God’s chosen. We are the religious leaders. We don’t need to be your sheep. But they did.

The words of our Savior cannot be escaped. You don’t believe. You don’t believe because you aren’t one of mine. If you aren’t one of mine, you can’t hear me or even if you do, you won’t be listening. There is no question of the predestinational ring to this tune.  In the mystery that is God’s sovereignty, there are many who do not hear, who will not listen, who take the wide road and miss the turn to salvation, not because they weren’t invited, but because they turn a deaf ear to the truth. There’s no getting around the fact that heaven, while available to everyone, is not the destination for everyone. But everyone does have a destination.

The Scot’s Confession, one of the three great confessions of the Protestant Reformation and part of our Constitution, says this about eternal life:

…in the general judgment, there shall be

given to every man and woman resurrection

of the flesh…the dead shall arise to receive…

glory or punishment…Such as now delight in

[their own] vanity…shall be condemned to the

fire unquenchable, in which [they]… shall be

tormented forever, both in body and in spirit.

                                                          Chapter XXV 3.25

 

Almost five hundred years old, the truth of that statement still cautions us of that which awaits those who choose to find their own way and listen to their own rules. It echoes the words of John’s gospel. While John 3: 16 stands at the ready on the lips of every Sunday school child, John 3: 18 is seldom recited. Perhaps it should be as well. “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

          You don’t believe because you are not one of mine, said Jesus. He answered his critics. He said Look. My works bear witness. Look at what I have done and please, tell me, who else can I be? My sheep hear my voice and they follow me. Those who believe listen and then they act on their understanding, on their conviction. “But you, you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.”

          I want to cry out to those Jews and to those today who would try foolishly to maintain that everything is ok, that it’s enough to be a good guy or gal, to lead a good life, to live and let live, to turn a deaf ear in the name of tolerance. I want to, but it will do no good. For to live in such a way is to ignore the plain teaching of the Bible. When tolerance is the mask that disguises our rejection of obedience to God, it is a mask behind which our faces serve a god, but it is the god of self. And the god of self, or inaction, or disobedience, is a god who will lead us to an eternal life of damnation.

No matter how many times I read verse 26, it leaves me shivering. “You are not among my sheep.” Does Jesus mean it’s over for this group? Is there a chance for them? Certainly the teachings of the Bible offer salvation to those who believe the gospel. But is there a point after which there is no return? Hebrews 6 cautions that it is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, and then fallen away, to be restored again to repentance. So there is a point of no return for those who have heard the gospel. For them, there is a point where, having been exposed to the light, returning to the darkness is no longer an option. If they do so, they are lost. Is this the case for those who are not among his sheep? If they have not yet tasted enlightenment, can there be hope that they will? Are there those among us who are not among his sheep?

Where are you? Are you a spectator? Are you a bona fide ticket holder in God’s visible church membership, but only a drop-in in the real church of faith? There is a difference between membership in a church and membership in God’s family. Jesus said that he “knows his sheep, and that they follow him.” Don’t miss that. It’s not enough that he knows you. You have to follow him.

You see, we all are going to live forever. That issue has never been in doubt. The question, friends, is not our existence, but our address. Among all those other voices around you, are you listening for his voice?  It’s not enough to hear. You have to listen, and then…you have to follow.

  Coming With the Clouds

                                      Revelation 1: 4-8

        In the seventh chapter of the book of Daniel, Daniel has a vision in a dream. Many think the vision has to do with the coming change in power; many also believe that it also prophesies about the end times, the times when Jesus, the Son of Man, will return. Daniel sees a night vision in which he says that “there came one like a son of man,” and he came with the clouds of heaven. He was given everlasting dominion and glory and an indestructible kingdom. And all people, nations and languages should serve him. This passage sums up the central theme of the book of Daniel, that God is sovereign over history and empires, that while all other kingdoms and governments will end, God’s kingdom will never pass away. Written in the sixth century, the words of Daniel ring as true today as they did in the time of the exile of God’s people.

          Jesus himself echoed Daniel’s vision in his statement to Caiaphas the high priest. He tells the high priest that “from now on, you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Caiaphas called such talk blasphemy. Pretending to be God.  But Jesus was no pretender.

          In today’s text, John the elder or John the apostle, we know not whom for sure, uses the phrase again. In his greeting to the seven churches in Asia, he sends grace and peace from God, the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ. John refers to Jesus here in three ways:  faithful witness, firstborn of the dead and the ruler of kings. John says Jesus loves us, that he freed us from our sins by his blood, that he made us—those who believe in him-- a kingdom where we will be priests of God.

And John goes on in his doxology ---doxology, by the way, is a short hymn of praises to God---John goes on to say that God’s glory and dominion will last forever, that Jesus is, guess what, coming with the clouds! John also says that everyone, believers and unbelievers, every tribe on earth, will answer to Jesus when he comes. From the words of Daniel to those of Jesus to the echo of John, we are promised that Jesus will come again and that he will come on the clouds of heaven.

          We have just ended the long march through Lent, through our sympathetic denial, up the road to Calvary to the cross. We have tried to remember and learn what it must been like…and much more importantly, why. Why did he do what he did? Who was it who allowed himself to be nailed to a cross, to take on our sin?

          In Revelation, John tells that Jesus was the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, the ruler of kings. He was the rainmaker, the bringer of salvation. His death and resurrection are the central message of Revelation, indeed the central message of Scripture, that Jesus is our Savior, that he changed all the rules, that by his love, his sacrifice, his grace, we are forgiven. That’s who Jesus was!

          On Maundy Thursday, we partook as a family of God in the Last Supper. We remembered. We ate and drank, knowing the symbolism of the body and blood of Christ. This morning, we have taken part in the other sacramental event in the life of God’s people. We witnessed the baptism of a young woman and her infant child. We also bear witness to the joining of the church by her and her fiancé. Each event has its own special significance. In each, the members of the church covenanted to help, to accept, to join with these young adults and their child in corporate worship and fellowship.

          Why baptism? Why join the church in this twenty first century when everything seems relative and truth seems only a buoy marker in the water to keep us from the sandbars of life? Why bother?  Revelation tells us why. Because if you believe what old John is telling you in Revelation, if you believe what all those other evangelists in the gospels and letters of the New Testament are bearing witness to, then you realize. You realize that no matter how you got here, no matter how unworthy you might be, no matter how old or how young you are, this is it. This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as the oath makers say.

Jesus is Who. Jesus is Why. Jesus is How. The day is coming, a promised day, when he will come with the clouds of heaven. Why do we still join the church? Because it is the family of God we are joining. Why do we baptize? Because it is a sign; a sign that we are part of that family. There is nothing more important. There is no life insurance policy ever created by man that can give the benefit of this simple belief: that he died, that he has risen, that he lives, that he will come again with the clouds of heaven for you and me!

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