John 5:28-38

"Don't act so surprised at all this. The time is coming when everyone dead and buried will hear his voice. Those who have lived the right way will walk out into a resurrection Life; those who have lived the wrong way, into a resurrection Judgment.

"I can't do a solitary thing on my own: I listen, then I decide. You can trust my decision because I'm not out to get my own way but only to carry out orders. If I were simply speaking on my own account, it would be an empty, self-serving witness. But an independent witness confirms me, the most reliable Witness of all. Furthermore, you all saw and heard John, and he gave expert and reliable testimony about me, didn't he?

"But my purpose is not to get your vote, and not to appeal to mere human testimony. I'm speaking to you this way so that you will be saved. John was a torch, blazing and bright, and you were glad enough to dance for an hour or so in his bright light. But the witness that really confirms me far exceeds John's witness. It's the work the Father gave me to complete. These very tasks, as I go about completing them, confirm that the Father, in fact, sent me. The Father who sent me, confirmed me. And you missed it. You never heard his voice, you never saw his appearance. There is nothing left in your memory of his Message because you do not take his Messenger seriously.” // John 5:28-38, The Message

//

This is another passage where there is a lot going on. It is thick with meaning. We could be here for hours working our through it. But, that’s not the purpose of this little semi-daily devotional. The purpose is for me to share one thing that stuck out to me and that I will be meditating on for the rest of the day. Then, perhaps you will too.

What hit me today was that last little bit.

“There is nothing left in your memory of his Message because you do not take his Message seriously.”

I wonder if many Christians in America get so sideways because we have not taken his Message seriously?

We get pretty worked up about particular data points in the story of Jesus. But, we seem to have missed the Message. I am so guilty of this. I see it everyday in my interactions with others. There are times that I’m sarcastic, cutting, and mean. Many times what is happening inside my mind is so ugly, that as I review the day, I realize again how much in need of grace I am.

When we boil down everything about Jesus into a set of data points then what matters most is intellectual ascent. It seems that these data points are:

1. Intellectual ascent to a virgin birth

2. Intellectual ascent that Jesus lived

3. Intellectual ascent that Jesus died by means of crucifixion

4. Intellectual ascent that Jesus rose from the dead

I am in no way belittling these beliefs. I think they are important and crucial beliefs. I hold to them.

What I am finding in my own life as I continue to learn more about what it means to follow Jesus is that his life and his message was so much more than those four beliefs. These data points are not life changing.

When I first became aware of this, I was sitting in my friend Bob’s living room. He is a mentor and father figure to me. Amy and I were there with a handful of other couples for a small group bible study. It was a wonderful time of fellowship and going deep into one another’s lives. One night he asked the question, “What does grace mean?” Everyone sat in silence. So, Bob said, “Dan and Amy, you’re on staff with Campus Crusade, what’s the definition?” Me, being the self-righteous, self-important know-it-all exclaimed, “Unmerited favor!”

Bob asked the follow up, “What’s so amazing about that?”

Silence.

As we walk with Jesus we are confronted with one who invites the outsider in. We are confronted by one who is the embodiment of love. I understood the “grace data point,” but I didn’t understand the depths of it, the beauty of it, the reality that it was an idea that changed the world.

I had yet to take the Message seriously.

When we take the Message seriously we are transformed into people who are seeking to be like Jesus. A people who try to take with us in our bodies the death and resurrection of Christ. We try to embody grace, truth, and love. To take the Message seriously is to be transformed in how we live, not just in what we believe.

John 5:24-27

"It's urgent that you listen carefully to this: Anyone here who believes what I am saying right now and aligns himself with the Father, who has in fact put me in charge, has at this very moment the real, lasting life and is no longer condemned to be an outsider. This person has taken a giant step from the world of the dead to the world of the living.

"It's urgent that you get this right: The time has arrived—I mean right now!—when dead men and women will hear the voice of the Son of God and, hearing, will come alive. Just as the Father has life in himself, he has conferred on the Son life in himself. And he has given him the authority, simply because he is the Son of Man, to decide and carry out matters of Judgment. // John 5:24-27, The Message

//

Jesus doesn’t care about what we think about who is in and who is out.

Jesus doesn’t care that we don’t like “those” people, whomever those people are.

Jesus cares about bringing in those who have been condemned as outsiders and bringing them into community.

It’s interesting isn’t it that for Jesus the one who is outside the circle of friends is the one who is experiencing the “world of the dead”?

I’m struck by the statement of Jesus, where he says that it is up to him to carry out matters of judgment. If it’s up to him, do you know who it’s not up to? You or me.

That is so freeing.

Seriously.

I have spent a lot of years trying to figure out how to pass judgment on others. When I was younger, it was easy. You see, in our youth we have everything figured out and we know that we are pretty much perfect. As you age and mature you become aware of the reality that you don’t have much, if anything, figured out. You realize that your Mimi was right when she said, “But by the grace of God go I.”

So, yeah. Jesus being the arbiter of judgment is a way better system than a pastor or anyone else being an arbiter of judgment.

Now, to be clear I think what he’s talking about here is the judging of who belongs on the outside to experience the “world of the dead.” That’s not my call. That’s not your call.

As I let this passage sit in me, I think we have the twin responsibilities of being sure that we are aligned with Jesus and also to welcome outsiders inside.

Could you imagine the way the world would look different if those of us who bear the name, “Christian,” understood ourselves as greeters not gatekeepers?

My goodness! We might take another step toward being known by our love!

John 5:19-23

So Jesus explained himself at length. "I'm telling you this straight. The Son can't independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. The Father loves the Son and includes him in everything he is doing.

"But you haven't seen the half of it yet, for in the same way that the Father raises the dead and creates life, so does the Son. The Son gives life to anyone he chooses. Neither he nor the Father shuts anyone out. The Father handed all authority to judge over to the Son so that the Son will be honored equally with the Father. Anyone who dishonors the Son, dishonors the Father, for it was the Father's decision to put the Son in the place of honor. // John 5:19-23, The Message

//

I don’t know if you have noticed this or not, but we live in a tribal age. Everyone is so concerned about which team you’re on. I remember a number of years ago there was a segment on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where he sent one of their correspondents to one of the political parties’ national convention. The correspondent was interviewing people and asked what made their party better than the other? The response was that their party was the “big tent” party and welcomed everyone. The correspondent then began asking people who were their political “other” were welcome. Predictably, the people he interviewed said, “no! Not THOSE people.”

It was a stark example that the age we are living in seems to be first and foremost about figuring out who is with us and who against us. Then, we can determine who our enemies are.

It’s easy to have enemies.

There’s just something about hating someone that is animating.

So, when I read this passage this morning I was struck by how it subverts the “Us vs Them” mentality of our culture. It also was subversive of Jesus’ own culture. He too lived in an age where the lines were clearly drawn.

Jew or Gentile.
Greek or Barbarian.
Slave or Free.
Man or Woman.

He lived in a world that was full of distinctions and separations. You couldn’t worship with those who were in different categories than you. Men and women were separated at Temple and in the synagogue, for example. Distinctions ruled the day even when it came to worship.

Yet, here is Jesus saying that neither he nor the Father will shut anyone out. Jesus’ work was about bringing reconciliation to the world. This reconciling work meant that the lines of distinction were being erased. The tribalism was being undercut by grace. It didn’t matter who you were to Jesus, you were welcomed at his table.

Jew or Gentile,
Greek or Barbarian,
Slave or Free,
Man or Woman,

…all were welcome at his table and into the presence of the Father.

The dividing walls were coming down and Jesus was welcoming everyone.

As I sit at my desk today writing and I think about our world. I am struck by the sad reality that Christians, those who intentionally and willingly bear the name of Christ, are among the most divisive. We seek to separate and divide, Us vs Them, in so many ways. Whether it be politically, racially, theologically, or even over the type of seating in a congregation’s building. It is as if we are looking for ways to separate and categorize people into nice neat little groups.

There is something satisfying about knowing our enemies.

The problem is, that as followers of Christ there are to be no enemies. When the Christian looks out into the world we are to see a world filled with bearers of the divine image who are welcomed and accepted by Jesus.

If we can approach the world this way, we become a people who are no longer dividing and separating into Us vs Them but a people who make bigger tables and throw bigger parties. We can become a people who practice a radical minimum standard of welcome and hospitality.

Perhaps we might even become a people known by our love.

John 5:1-18

Soon another Feast came around and Jesus was back in Jerusalem. Near the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there was a pool, in Hebrew called Bethesda, with five alcoves. Hundreds of sick people—blind, crippled, paralyzed—were in these alcoves. One man had been an invalid there for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him stretched out by the pool and knew how long he had been there, he said, "Do you want to get well?"

The sick man said, "Sir, when the water is stirred, I don't have anybody to put me in the pool. By the time I get there, somebody else is already in."

Jesus said, "Get up, take your bedroll, start walking." The man was healed on the spot. He picked up his bedroll and walked off.

That day happened to be the Sabbath. The Jews stopped the healed man and said, "It's the Sabbath. You can't carry your bedroll around. It's against the rules."

But he told them, "The man who made me well told me to. He said, 'Take your bedroll and start walking.'"

They asked, "Who gave you the order to take it up and start walking?" But the healed man didn't know, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd.

A little later Jesus found him in the Temple and said, "You look wonderful! You're well! Don't return to a sinning life or something worse might happen."

The man went back and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. That is why the Jews were out to get Jesus—because he did this kind of thing on the Sabbath.

But Jesus defended himself. "My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I."

That really set them off. The Jews were now not only out to expose him; they were out to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was calling God his own Father, putting himself on a level with God. // John 5:1-18, The Message

//

“My Father is working straight through, even on the Sabbath. So am I.”

Did you catch that?

It jumped off the page to me.

Maybe it’s because I just put the wraps on reading A Church Called Tov by Scot McKnight and Laura Barrington where I was challenged to think about what it means for the church to be “tov” or “good.”

I wonder if we think about this enough. For Jesus, doing good was not “work.” Jesus does “good” throughout his ministry on the Sabbath. If doing good was a breaking of the commandment then he would be sinning. This would of course sideline his whole mission, you know? But doing good on the Sabbath was not breaking the commandment it was merely breaking a social convention.

When we do good we are not working if the doing good is coming from a place of who we are.

Something that is talked often in the context of theology classes is the reality that on the seventh day God rested. That when God declared all things good, God stopped working. Yet, here Jesus is saying that God is working and still working right on through the Sabbath! How could this be? Unless of course doing good is not work.

Perhaps when we are living out of our identity it is something different. I think when we are working out of our identity we are simply being. Jesus in healing the man by the pool was not doing work, he was simply being who he is.

Jesus is good.

Therefore, doing good is not work.

Which of course drives me to a place of introspection. Am I good? Is good a part of my identity? Is goodness something that is true of me? I desperately want it to be, but I’m not entirely sure that it is. Except that by placing my trust in Christ I have been united with Christ in life. This means that who I am is hidden with Christ. Whether or I not I perceive my goodness it is there.

I think inherently we know this. I don’t know anyone that after doing good or living out their goodness thinks, “Man, that was terrible, I hate doing good.”

We might be physically tired or even emotionally tired after doing good but there is a sense of joy, accomplishment, or

satisfaction from doing good. Goodness is part of who we are. Not only from union with Christ but also because we are image bearers of the Divine. I think this is why we see goodness cut across the human experience.

Let us lean into our goodness and in so doing we will do good, even when it challenges cultural norms. Let us do good out of our goodness even when it upsets the pious. Let us do good out of our goodness because it is the very thing that we desire to do.

John 4:43–54

After the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus knew well from experience that a prophet is not respected in the place where he grew up. So when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, but only because they were impressed with what he had done in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, not that they really had a clue about who he was or what he was up to.

Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king’s court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: “Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.”

But the court official wouldn’t be put off. “Come down! It’s life or death for my son.”

Jesus simply replied, “Go home. Your son lives.”

The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, “Your son lives!”

He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, “The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o’clock.” The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, “Your son lives.”

That clinched it. Not only he but his entire household believed. This was now the second sign Jesus gave after having come from Judea into Galilee. — John 4:43–54, The Message

//

Believing is not always the easiest thing in the world. So often we make it out to be something that people can “just do.” But, when we slow down a minute we have to realize that there is a real cost and real risk involved in the believing.

When I was younger I would often think to myself, “How is it that people don’t believe?” I mean it seemed so self-evident to me. God, Jesus, all of it just seemed so logical and straightforward. It seemed to be the thing that made the world make sense. Yet, so many struggled with the idea of it.

One conversation that has stuck with me for nearly twenty years was with a college student at Illinois State University. This man needed no convincing of his sin-sickness. He knew he was hurting and in need of healing. He was fully aware of broken relationships that needed restoration. Forgiveness was something that he desperately wanted. Yet, the idea of receiving grace that he did not earn was a bridge too far. Here, he stumbled. It made no sense to him. He desperately wanted to believe it but it just didn’t make any sense to him. There was no anger or dislike of Christians. He was unchurched so there wasn’t any kind of church baggage. It was simply the idea that a God existed who would love him without condition seemed so illogical and unfathomable that he could not give intellectual ascent to the concept, let alone belief.

As I read this story of the official in the King’s court it struck me how much it would cost this man to believe Jesus. His belief told him that he needed Jesus to come and be in person with his son to heal him. But, Jesus simply said, “Go, your son lives.” How does that work? What would you do? If you, in your heart of hearts believed that Jesus needed to be in person with your dying son to heal him, would you believe?

I don’t know if I would.

I would want to.

But the cost would be so great if I was wrong.

I think about that young man from Illinois State often. What would the cost of his belief in grace be? I think perhaps the cost may have been his sense of autonomy. We want to believe that we don’t need anyone or anything to help us. But, the truth of the matter is that we desperately need one another. To believe in grace demands that we set aside our personal autonomy and acquiesce to the love of the Divine. For rugged individualists, that’s tough stuff.

It’s an interesting thought isn’t it? The thought that something freely given actually comes to us for great cost. It’s not that we earn grace but the receipt of grace demands that we trust.

I am learning that trust is often a bridge too far.

Trust is a cost that many of us are unwilling to pay.

I read this story and am left in awe by the belief of the official. His radical trust that Christ, with a “bare word”, could save his son leaves me slack jawed.

Belief, faith, trust, isn’t easy. It costs.

Sometimes when we do trust we get to experience the joy of life, the joy of healing, the joy of resurrection.

As I ponder this story, I think I’m realizing again the risk of belief, the cost of trust, is worth the joy that is set before me.

John 4:43-54

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//

After the two days he left for Galilee. Now, Jesus knew well from experience that a prophet is not respected in the place where he grew up. So when he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, but only because they were impressed with what he had done in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast, not that they really had a clue about who he was or what he was up to.

Now he was back in Cana of Galilee, the place where he made the water into wine. Meanwhile in Capernaum, there was a certain official from the king's court whose son was sick. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: "Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe."

But the court official wouldn't be put off. "Come down! It's life or death for my son."

Jesus simply replied, "Go home. Your son lives."

The man believed the bare word Jesus spoke and headed home. On his way back, his servants intercepted him and announced, "Your son lives!"

He asked them what time he began to get better. They said, "The fever broke yesterday afternoon at one o'clock." The father knew that that was the very moment Jesus had said, "Your son lives."

That clinched it. Not only he but his entire household believed. This was now the second sign Jesus gave after having come from Judea into Galilee. — John 4:43-54, The Message

//

Believing is not always the easiest thing in the world. So often we make it out to be something that people can “just do.” But, when we slow down a minute we have to realize that there is a real cost and real risk involved in the believing.

When I was younger I would often think to myself, “How is it that people don’t believe?” I mean it seemed so self-evident to me. God, Jesus, all of it just seemed so logical and straightforward. It seemed to be the thing that made the world make sense. Yet, so many struggled with the idea of it.

One conversation that has stuck with me for nearly twenty years was with a college student at Illinois State University. This man needed no convincing of his sin-sickness. He knew he was hurting and in need of healing. He was fully aware of broken relationships that needed restoration. Forgiveness was something that he desperately wanted. Yet, the idea of receiving grace that he did not earn was a bridge too far. Here, he stumbled. It made no sense to him. He desperately wanted to believe it but it just didn’t make any sense to him. There was no anger or dislike of Christians. He was unchurched so there wasn’t any kind of church baggage. It was simply the idea that a God existed who would love him without condition seemed so illogical and unfathomable that he could not give intellectual ascent to the concept, let alone belief.

As I read this story of the official in the King’s court it struck me how much it would cost this man to believe Jesus. His belief told him that he needed Jesus to come and be in person with his son to heal him. But, Jesus simply said, “Go, your son lives.” How does that work? What would you do? If you, in your heart of hearts believed that Jesus needed to be in person with your dying son to heal him, would you believe?

I don’t know if I would.

I would want to.

But the cost would be so great if I was wrong.

I think about that young man from Illinois State often. What would the cost of his belief in grace be? I think perhaps the cost may have been his sense of autonomy. We want to believe that we don’t need anyone or anything to help us. But, the truth of the matter is that we desperately need one another. To believe in grace demands that we set aside our personal autonomy and acquiesce to the love of the Divine. For rugged individualists, that’s tough stuff.

It’s an interesting thought isn’t it? The thought that something freely given actually comes to us for great cost. It’s not that we earn grace but the receipt of grace demands that we trust.

I am learning that trust is often a bridge too far.

Trust is a cost that many of us are unwilling to pay.

I read this story and am left in awe by the belief of the official. His radical trust that Christ, with a “bare word”, could save his son leaves me slack jawed.

Belief, faith, trust, isn’t easy. It costs.

Sometimes when we do trust we get to experience the joy of life, the joy of healing, the joy of resurrection.

As I ponder this story, I think I’m realizing again the risk of belief, the cost of trust, is worth the joy that is set before me.

John 4:39-42

Many of the Samaritans from that village committed themselves to him because of the woman's witness: "He knew all about the things I did. He knows me inside and out!" They asked him to stay on, so Jesus stayed two days. A lot more people entrusted their lives to him when they heard what he had to say. They said to the woman, "We're no longer taking this on your say-so. We've heard it for ourselves and know it for sure. He's the Savior of the world!" — John 4:39-42, The Message

//

I remember the first time that I heard the phrase, “Secondhand jive.” We were at church and our pastor used it. He was talking about how in the 70s when you heard something from someone else it was, “sechondhad jive.” He was arguing that we needed to have a “firsthand jive” faith. That is, a faith where we ourselves engage with the divine and not just hear about it from someone else.

As I read this passage this morning this was the phrase that popped into my head.

But I also noticed that before the people of this Samaritan village experienced “firsthand jive” they received the word of someone else. What is fascinating to me is that the person that they heard it from is not someone who would have been considered to be all that trustworthy.

What was it about her?

The only thing I can think of is that something about her changed.

It is the assumption of most that she was a person who was living in isolation from her community due to her life. We learn from her conversation with Jesus that she had multiple husbands and was living with a man not her husband at that time. She went to the well at the hottest part of the day to avoid others or because she was being shunned by them. Either way, after her interaction with Jesus she re-entered their community and pointed people to him.

Isn’t this what Jesus was always doing? Because of the grace and mercy and love that he offered, people were being reconciled to God, themselves, and also their communities. We see this in the healings that he performs as well. People with physical infirmities are able to become full participants in the community again.

When the Samaritan woman has her “firsthand jive” with Jesus she is changed. By her entering back into community others believe and go meet Jesus too. Then they have their own experience of “firsthand jive.”

Who was it that you knew that initially pointed you toward Jesus? For me, I think it was my Mimi and mom. Seeing their lived faith and how they loved people kept me in touch with my faith while it would have been easy to walk away. I am beyond grateful for them. Because of them, I now believe because of my own experience with the divine. So, who was it for you?

John 4:31-38

In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, "Rabbi, eat. Aren't you going to eat?"

He told them, "I have food to eat you know nothing about."

The disciples were puzzled. "Who could have brought him food?"

Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started. As you look around right now, wouldn't you say that in about four months it will be time to harvest? Well, I'm telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what's right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It's harvest time!

"The Harvester isn't waiting. He's taking his pay, gathering in this grain that's ripe for eternal life. Now the Sower is arm in arm with the Harvester, triumphant. That's the truth of the saying, 'This one sows, that one harvests.' I sent you to harvest a field you never worked. Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others." — John 4:31-38, The Message

//

As I sit in this passage today I am struck by this image from the last sentence, “Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”

Too often we think that we are “the first” or that we are bringing a “fresh” expression of the gospel to a particular place and people. But, the reality is that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves.

A couple years into my time here in Ypsilanti I was sitting with a group of pastors from the city. Mostly men and women who had given most of their adult lives to this place. They had been faithfully serving the people and the city for decades. These pastors are good and faithful men and women. They love our city deeply and passionately. They have been through the hard years and the painful times. There is nothing that they have not seen. They’ve been through the Civil Rights marches and the Billy Graham Crusades.

In that meeting my heart broke.

I was absolutely gutted.

It was as if the Spirit grabbed me by my ear and seemingly said, “Little boy, look, listen, and hear. You are arrogant. Your arrogance is hurting my people here. Learn to love, son.”

I was sitting next to my friends Pastor Vicki, Pastor Roger, and Pastor Tony. Pastor Vicki was walking the line of anger, frustration, and sadness over the attitude of the many “church planters” that were coming into the area. They were speaking as though God was absent and that God’s people were absent and that the work of the Spirit of God was absent from this place. I could see and hear, her frustration and heartbreak. Pastor Tony and Pastor Roger were resonating with her.

I was gutted.

After the meeting I sought forgiveness, she was gracious and kind. Then she said, with that twinkle in her eye and the rye smile that accompanied her kind heart, “I’m so glad you were hearing me.”

It was in that moment that I realized in our work here in Ypsilanti we are standing on the shoulders of giants. Men and women who most of the world will never know. But, these men and women have done the hard work. They have prayed, served, loved, and been present in a place that many have overlooked and ignored except in its proximity to Ann Arbor.

Truly the Spirit that day was showing me that, “Without lifting a finger, you have walked in on a field worked long and hard by others.”

Today as I sit here, I am overwhelmed with gratitude for their faithful love of this city and this people.

How have you walked into a field, without lifting a finger, that was ripe for harvest because it has been worked long and hard by others?

John 4:31-34

In the meantime, the disciples pressed him, "Rabbi, eat. Aren't you going to eat?"

He told them, "I have food to eat you know nothing about."

The disciples were puzzled. "Who could have brought him food?"

Jesus said, "The food that keeps me going is that I do the will of the One who sent me, finishing the work he started.” — John 4:31-34, The Message

//

Sometimes I read and stop and think and can’t stop thinking about what it was that I just read. Today is one of those days. I was reading and just stopped with that last sentence. I couldn’t keep going. It was just done-zo after that.

So often in our American Christianity we think of spiritual food simply as the Scriptures. Please hear me, I am not downplaying the importance of the Scriptures in our spiritual lives. Nor am I downplaying the role of prayer in our spiritual lives. What I want to say is that maybe we have over emphasized the Bible to the point that we have missed something crucial to our spiritual development.

For Jesus, the food that keeps him going is doing “the will of the One” who sent him. It was living, acting, doing. Spiritual food was not sitting and studying the Bible. Though, Jesus clearly knew his Bible. It was not sitting and only praying. Though, Jesus actively sought time to get away and pray.

His spiritual vitality came from living out his faith. Jesus was fully engaged in the world living out what he taught.

Jesus was doing things.

For Jesus, spiritual vitality did not come about from hiding out in a holy huddle. No, it came from living his faith by loving people and pointing them to the glorious One that sent him.

The work that “One who sent” him had started was the work of calling people into relationship with the divine, renewing the covenant promises, bringing the history of God’s people to its dramatic conclusion where exile was ending. In a word, reconciliation.

Reconciliation could only happen if Jesus acted in the world and the did the work before him.

The same is true for us. We will find a greater vitality of faith as we live it out in the world. Our faith will become more real to us as we try to love people. This demands that we leave our study rooms and prayer closets and find our way to the neighborhoods, cafes, pubs, bowling alleys, schools, restaurants, golf courses, and anywhere else there are people who need to see love, grace, and mercy in action.

Are you feeling a bit dry in your spiritual life? Go serve. Do you need help finding a place to serve? I can help with that. There are many needs all around us if we just lift our heads and start looking around.

John 4:25-30

The woman said, "I don't know about that. I do know that the Messiah is coming. When he arrives, we'll get the whole story."

"I am he," said Jesus. "You don't have to wait any longer or look any further."

Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.

The woman took the hint and left. In her confusion she left her water pot. Back in the village she told the people, "Come see a man who knew all about the things I did, who knows me inside and out. Do you think this could be the Messiah?" And they went out to see for themselves. — John 4:25-30, The Message

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Sure I could wax eloquent about Jesus’ response to the woman’s statement about the Messiah. I mean it is remarkable isn’t it? A Samaritan woman waiting expectantly for the Messiah, a whole Samaritan town, for that matter, waiting for the Messiah. All of this would be mind bending stuff in the first century. John, in telling this story this way, was blowing categories left and right for his Jewish readers.

Yet, this is not the part that really grabs my attention.

No, what really grabs my attention is this, “Just then his disciples came back. They were shocked. They couldn't believe he was talking with that kind of a woman. No one said what they were all thinking, but their faces showed it.”

This woman came to the well at midday, in the heat of the day, and this meant that she was not interested in engaging with the other women of her village. She was living a life of shame. Her own shame and likely being shamed by those in her village. This woman was not someone that would have been considered to have “high moral virtue.” No, she definitely fit into the, “One of those people,” kind of categories.

The disciples showed up and were shocked. Probably first that Jesus was talking to a Samaritan, second that he was talking to Samaritan woman, and third that he was talking to a Samaritan woman who was clearly immoral. Peterson’s translation gets it right on the money, “that kind of woman.”

Jesus was always doing that.

He was always talking to that “kind of woman.”

There always seemed to be the person that he shouldn’t talk to hanging around. But did Jesus care? Nope! He went right ahead and spent time with them.

Jesus wasn’t worried about what other people thought of him. He had an audience of one, so to speak, and this freed him to love well. When you no longer care about trying to please others you are able to love people who some have determined to be unlovable.

There was no tribal affiliation for Jesus. He pursued the way of love, that was his dogma. This way of love lead him to talk to people like the Samaritan woman and leave even his disciples in utter shock.

Who are you afraid to talk to? Who are “those people” that your tribe wouldn’t approve of? Why are you worried about what they think?

When we follow the way of Jesus we no longer have to worry about what others think. Our only concern is to love like him and live like him. When we do, we will love well and live life to the full!

John 4:15-24

The woman said, "Sir, give me this water so I won't ever get thirsty, won't ever have to come back to this well again!"

He said, "Go call your husband and then come back."

"I have no husband," she said.

"That's nicely put: 'I have no husband.' You've had five husbands, and the man you're living with now isn't even your husband. You spoke the truth there, sure enough."

"Oh, so you're a prophet! Well, tell me this: Our ancestors worshiped God at this mountain, but you Jews insist that Jerusalem is the only place for worship, right?"

"Believe me, woman, the time is coming when you Samaritans will worship the Father neither here at this mountain nor there in Jerusalem. You worship guessing in the dark; we Jews worship in the clear light of day. God's way of salvation is made available through the Jews. But the time is coming—it has, in fact, come—when what you're called will not matter and where you go to worship will not matter.

"It's who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That's the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship. God is sheer being itself—Spirit. Those who worship him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration." // John 4:15-24, The Message

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When I slowed down and read this story again, with fresh eyes, I was left a bit scandalized. Were you? What Jesus says here challenges me so deeply and leaves me experiencing a deeper sense of grace and mercy.

As a pastor I live and work within the religious industrial complex. Within that complex there are many tribes. Within those tribes there are tribes. So, for instance, I am in the Western Protestant tribe. Within that tribe I am Reformed. Within that tribe I am Presbyterian. Within that tribe I am part of the Evangelical Presbyterians. Within that tribe I am Missional. Within that tribe I am house church movements.

It’s like nesting dolls of tribal identity and those are just the broad tribal alignments that have to do with what kind of congregation I lead.

We love our tribes. We love knowing who is with us and who is against us. There is something marvelously delicious about knowing who our enemies are. Don’t you agree?

Yet, according to Jesus none of it matters.

Not one bit of it.

Not a single iota of it.

Zilch.

Nada.

Nothing.

Nope, not even that.

Wrong, that doesn’t matter either.

Sorry, it doesn’t.

We have so deeply missed the plot that we might as well not even be in the same book as Jesus. Jesus is out here challenging everything that we think we know about God and worship and all that and we just keep on fighting and arguing the same silly little battles that people have for years.

In this story it’s Jew and Samaritan. In our story it might be Pentecostal, Dispensational, and Reformed. Maybe it’s Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant. Could be “Woke” and “Non-woke.” Maybe it’s Apple and Android.

Whatever it is, it’s the same tired story and it doesn’t matter anymore.

All that matters Jesus says is that people, “are simply and honestly themselves before him in their worship.”

That’s it.

That’s all that matters.

Nothing else.

Nope, not that.

Nor that.

Not even that.

All that matters is simply and honestly being yourself before the divine in worship. That is all that matters, at least according to Jesus.

Perhaps he’s wrong.

Could be, but it seems unlikely.

A motto in our home is that God is sovereign and good. If I believe that, then I can rest in this radically subversive thing that Jesus says here.

All that matters is simply and honestly being yourself before the divine in worship.

Nothing else matters.

John 4:3-14

So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

To get there, he had to pass through Samaria. He came into Sychar, a Samaritan village that bordered the field Jacob had given his son Joseph. Jacob's well was still there. Jesus, worn out by the trip, sat down at the well. It was noon.

A woman, a Samaritan, came to draw water. Jesus said, "Would you give me a drink of water?" (His disciples had gone to the village to buy food for lunch.)

The Samaritan woman, taken aback, asked, "How come you, a Jew, are asking me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?" (Jews in those days wouldn't be caught dead talking to Samaritans.)

Jesus answered, "If you knew the generosity of God and who I am, you would be asking me for a drink, and I would give you fresh, living water."

The woman said, "Sir, you don't even have a bucket to draw with, and this well is deep. So how are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you a better man than our ancestor Jacob, who dug this well and drank from it, he and his sons and livestock, and passed it down to us?"

Jesus said, "Everyone who drinks this water will get thirsty again and again. Anyone who drinks the water I give will never thirst—not ever. The water I give will be an artesian spring within, gushing fountains of endless life." // John 4:3-14

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The interaction between Jesus and the Samaritan is one of my favorite stories in the whole of the Scripture. There are so many layers. I could probably write three or four days worth and not even scratch the surface, and that’s just the theological stuff from this story. The applications of this story in our lives is almost overwhelming.

What really struck me this morning is when Jesus says, “If you knew the generosity of God and who I am…”

If we could grab hold of the reality of the God’s generosity it would transform the way we interact with the divine.

I think so often of God as stingy or hard or strict or even absent. I know that I shouldn’t admit to those things because I’m a pastor and all. Here’s the deal, us pastors, even though we have the intellectual knowledge that such things are not true, we still wrestle with them.

For some reason it’s easier to believe that God is not generous. Why? Probably because when we put ourselves in God’s place we would really struggle with being generous. Each of us know our own sin-sickness. We know how far we fall short of loving well, loving God, loving our neighbors, and loving our enemies. If we were God, we’d probably have sent some brimstone hurdling from the heavens. Ha!

It’s so much harder to believe that God is generous in the face of our imperfections. God is always faithful. God is always forgiving. God is always gracious. God’s generosity knows no bounds.

In the face of such overwhelming generosity we feel inadequate, we feel self-conscious, we feel undeserving. Yet, God’s generosity and grace will not be swayed. This generous God lavishes grace and mercy and love on those made in God’s image.

I’m learning that central to the life of faith is embracing God in all the beauty and goodness that flows from the Divine. To live by faith is learning to rest in God’s generosity as opposed to living as though God was stingy, hard, and cruel.

As we come to terms with the reality that God is lavishly generous then we are free from the fear of entering into God’s presence. We are free to enter in and drink deeply of grace, the very living water that offers life!

John 4:1-3

Jesus realized that the Pharisees were keeping count of the baptisms that he and John performed (although his disciples, not Jesus, did the actual baptizing). They had posted the score that Jesus was ahead, turning him and John into rivals in the eyes of the people. So Jesus left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee. - John 4:1-3, The Message

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“But the bell rang!”

That is the phrase that ran through my head reading this little bit of Scripture today. In one of my favorite Christmas movies, A Christmas Story, there’s a scene where Schwartz sticks his tongue to a flagpole and it gets stuck. He’s freaking out and then the bell rings for the kids to go in from recess. Everyone turns to run inside. Schwartz is screaming to his friend Ralphie, “Don’t go! Don’t go Ralphie! Don’t leave me here!”

Ralphie puts his hands up and says, “The bell rang!”

He turns and runs inside.

How many times in life do we feel like Ralphie? The bell rang, there’s just nothing else we can do but go inside.

There are these supposed rules that we have to follow. There is a “way that it’s always been done.”

What if I told you that you don’t have to follow the rules because you don’t even have to play the game?

The religious leaders were playing a game equivalent to our modern religious industrial complex called the game of Triple B, “Butts, Bucks, and Buildings.” For them it was not so much buildings and perhaps not so much bucks but they were definitely keeping track of butts.

When Jesus notices he decides he doesn’t want to play anymore. He doesn’t argue about the rules or the scorecard. He just decides that he’s not playing the game. He takes his disciples and walks.

It turns out that the games and rules of the religious industrial complex in his day and age were ones that he didn’t want to play by. So, he stopped playing their game. If you notice, Jesus seems to drive as many people away during his ministry as he attracts. He isn’t worried about the scorecard. All he cares about is teaching people to live life and to live it to the full through loving well in grace.

The silly games and rules of the religious industrial complex were so uninteresting he chose to not even play the game.

I wonder, what games are we playing that we really could just walk away from? What could we just stop playing? How much more joy would we find in life if we did?

Too many of my colleagues are spending their days in meetings and sending emails. This was not what they signed up for as pastors. I don’t know any pastor that thought their calling was responding to email and sitting in meetings. They wanted to teach people how to follow Jesus. Too many of us think that to carry out our calling, we have to pay the price of spending hours in meetings and administration.

We really don’t.

We can stop playing the game altogether.

I don’t mean walk away from ministry. I mean for Elders to gather together and decide that our churches will cease to be run as businesses catering to the whims of the masses for the sake of scoring high on the Triple B index.

Perhaps we need to leave the Judean countryside and go back to Galilee.

John 3:22-36

After this conversation, Jesus went on with his disciples into the Judean countryside and relaxed with them there. He was also baptizing. At the same time, John was baptizing over at Aenon near Salim, where water was abundant. This was before John was thrown into jail. John's disciples got into an argument with the establishment Jews over the nature of baptism. They came to John and said, "Rabbi, you know the one who was with you on the other side of the Jordan? The one you authorized with your witness? Well, he's now competing with us. He's baptizing, too, and everyone's going to him instead of us."

John answered, "It's not possible for a person to succeed—I'm talking about eternal success—without heaven's help. You yourselves were there when I made it public that I was not the Messiah but simply the one sent ahead of him to get things ready. The one who gets the bride is, by definition, the bridegroom. And the bridegroom's friend, his 'best man'—that's me—in place at his side where he can hear every word, is genuinely happy. How could he be jealous when he knows that the wedding is finished and the marriage is off to a good start?

"That's why my cup is running over. This is the assigned moment for him to move into the center, while I slip off to the sidelines.

"The One who comes from above is head and shoulders over other messengers from God. The earthborn is earthbound and speaks earth language; the heavenborn is in a league of his own. He sets out the evidence of what he saw and heard in heaven. No one wants to deal with these facts. But anyone who examines this evidence will come to stake his life on this: that God himself is the truth.

"The One that God sent speaks God's words. And don't think he rations out the Spirit in bits and pieces. The Father loves the Son extravagantly. He turned everything over to him so he could give it away—a lavish distribution of gifts. That is why whoever accepts and trusts the Son gets in on everything, life complete and forever! And that is also why the person who avoids and distrusts the Son is in the dark and doesn't see life. All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that."

// John 3:22-36, The Message

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The richness of these passages can be overwhelming. Truly, I often struggle to find “the one thing” in these passages. I wish I could be sitting with you over a coffee or a beer and just talk through these together. There is so much!

I am continuing to find a theme running through John and it’s a theme that I have not been able to escape from for a while now. We see it again at the end of the passage, the phrase this time is “life complete and forever.” The phrase that has been in my heart for a while now is “life, and life to the full” as the reason Jesus came.

John turns the prism so to speak and shows another glimpse of what this complete and full life looks like. It is a life marked by the reality that Christ, being loved extravagantly by the Father, gives away all that the Father gave to him.

Can we just stop and let that sink in a bit?

The extravagant love of God flows through Christ to us to experience a life complete.

There is nothing small or limited about what Christ is doing. There is not a limited or short supply of God’s extravagant love flowing through Christ. There is no scarcity here, only abundance.

Now, let’s be clear this not some sort of prosperity Gospel, name it claim it, health and wealth kind of deal. This is something that goes deeper than material gain. It is experiencing life to the full rooted in the extravagant love of God.

A complete life, a full life, is one that is marked by loving deeply and being loved deeply. In other words, to love well.

Loving well is rooted not in ourselves but in the very nature of the Divine in us. As we come to a deeper understanding of being loved fully and lavishly by God then we have more love to give others. It is in the midst of this dance of giving and receiving that we find a full and complete life.

John 3:9-21

Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?"

Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God?

"No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up— and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life.

"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.

"This is the crisis we're in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won't come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is." // John 3:9-21

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There is just so much here to unpack. It is no wonder that this is a passage that has multiple books written about it.

I think what really strikes me about this passage this morning is the crisis and the solution. The way that Peterson renders this is beautifully haunting and it rings true to so much of what we are seeing in our world today.

This crisis of men and women running for the darkness seems to be ever present. Does it not? Why is it that we can’t have nice things? It’s because people tend to run toward the darkness. That description of being “addicted to denial and illusion” is on the money for our world isn’t it?

So what’s the solution? “Anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is.” This way of living reflects the life lived in light of Christ coming to make things right. Did you notice that? We see the last paragraph get a preview in the paragraph before. “God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.”

When we are addicted to the darkness we fear the light.

When we are addicted to the wrong things the right things are awful.

Let’s think about it like this. When I started trying to eat right fruits and vegetables were not very tasty to me. I longed for the sweetness of refined sugar. As I pressed on and didn’t eat refined sugar fruits and vegetables gained sweetness and flavor. Did they change? No. I changed. As I broke my addiction to sugar real food tastes better than any processed food I’ve ever eaten.

When we think about living life to the full it means living life in reality. It means breaking our addictions to denial and illusion. If we are going to be a people who are trying to help set the world right by following Jesus then we need to run from the darkness and toward the light. This is going to take work. It’s going to force us to admit that not everything we believe or hold onto is true and real. But, it’s so worth it.

To live life to the full is to live life in the light.