Reflection on John 14:23-29

"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”  (NRSV, John 14:23)

There is that word: “home.” 

The man’s childhood home was the place where the 32 year old opioid addict sought refuge.  When his entire life was falling apart because he singlehandedly destroyed all for which he had worked (wife, children, and career), he knew that he was safe when he came home.  He knew that he could start over again and build a new life when he came home. 

"Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” 

Home is familiar.  Home is where you will find unconditional love from your parents.  Home may even still hold some of your clothes from the 70s, 80s or 90s, all of which you can wear in a moment of desperation.  Of course, you could hand them down to your children and expect them to wear the clothes, all in an attempt to cause embarrassment. 

Not that that ever happened…during a homecoming dance…concerning a baby blue suit with a baby blue vest and elephant ear sized collars.  I assure you that in1992 baby blue was not cool.  Just sayin’.

Ok, so there may be some embarrassing things about home, but it is also the place where you learned to love despite anything that was embarrassing.  Home is where most children learn to love period. 

In the rocking chair or the recliner is where you were snuggled close and held tight each time you cried.  It is where your scratches were kissed better and your cookies were baked for you out of love.

It is also the place where you learned to give thanks for God:

Come Lord Jesus,

Be our guest,

And let these gifts,

To us, be blessed. 

Amen.

And, it is the place where you were afraid of the dark, yet learned the prayer that would guard you through the night:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord my soul to keep,

Guard me safely through the night,

And wake me with the morning light.

Amen

In our house, our nightly prayer goes like this:

Jesus, thank you for the day

Keep me safe now as I lay

Show me grace in all I do

And, bless those who need love to,

God Bless…

And, then we list all of the people (and animals) in our life that we love.  Dogs, cats, and even dolphins are prayed for nightly in our home.  In other words, we pray for those people and animals in our life who we would gladly welcome into our home. 

Home is the place where God comes to live with you.  It is the place where Jesus’ forgiveness is practiced (sometimes on a daily basis).  It is also the place where Jesus’ idea of serving others out of love is first learned.  Home is the place that is likely filled with the Lord’s peace.  It is the place that teaches us what living in the grace of Jesus Christ looks like. 

Even if God were to somehow become forgotten in our homes, God promises to find a way to be present, like the faded spot on the wall where the cross once hung years ago.

“Pastor Jira, in no way do I connect with your idea of home,” a teen once told me after I made similar comments elsewhere. 

“To be honest with you, my house is a place of hiding upstairs in my room, holding the blanket over my head, pressing in on my ears, and trying not to hear my parents scream at each other; trying not to hear the words that make the house a house of hatred.” 

Notice that she did not use the word “home,” but rather, “house.” 

“I have never had a ‘home’ where we learned love,” she continued.  When we were younger, my brothers and I learned how to survive as we ate crackers and used screwdrivers to open cans because our parents were too drunk to feed us.  I’ve never known ‘home’ to be a place of love.”

To those of us who have had a great home, but especially to her (and those like her) who have never had a loving home, Jesus gives us a promise.  Jesus promises that he and God the Father will continually come and enter our houses in order to make with us a home.  So, even if you have never known love, you will very soon because Jesus is going to come and make a home with you. 

With Jesus finally setting up a home with you, you will know what it is to be embraced with love. 

If you have never known what it looks like to be served and to serve others out of love, you will very soon because Jesus is moving in and washing your feet and hands before you come to the dinner table. 

If you have never known what it means to be forgiven for doing horrible things to the ones you love, you will very soon because Jesus is moving in and will forgive you, even if you nail him to a cross to die.

As a side note, my younger brother still loves me.  Even after my older brother and I used to put him against the wall and see how close we could come to shooting with our Nerf guns without hitting him, he still loves us.  You see, he learned that when his brothers took aim at him, they missed him…most of the time.  He still forgives us.  Even to this day, every time we gather together, he reminds us of how he forgives us of such trauma.

But, back to nailing Jesus to the cross and the forgiveness that follows.  When God chooses to make a home with you, when God the Father and God the Son choose to step through your door and make their home with you, you learn what eternal love and eternal forgiveness is all about.  You learn what it means to forgive, 77 times over.

Here is the thing, as anyone who has brought someone from outside of the family into their own home knows; your life is changed forever the minute they step through the door.  How you love, how you relate, how you help, how your serve, how you forgive; it all changes.  And, when Jesus steps through your door it is no different. 

“Those who love me will keep me word,” Jesus says.  In other words, those who are found at home with Jesus, know what it is to love the world.  They know what it is to serve the undeserving.  They know what it is to let Jesus’ love and Jesus’ peace guide them in all they do.  They will soon see just how limiting and shallow the imperfect love and peace of the world actually is.  You cannot go back to living that way.  As soon as Jesus steps through the door of your home, you cannot help but try to become a part of God’s family.

I can relate, when I entered into my wife’s family (which is a very a musical family in which every male in the family plays the guitar while the women sing) I had no choice but to learn to play the guitar. 

In the same way, when Jesus enters your home, you cannot help but learn how to love and serve others.  You cannot help but learn how to forgive each other.  You cannot help but learn how to feed and sustain each other.  You cannot help but learn how to love your enemy.  All of these things that are so important to Jesus just sort of rub off on you when Jesus’ abiding Spirit is with you in your home.  That is just what happens when Jesus makes his home with you; your life changes.

By the way, the lives of the people into whose homes you are invited will similarly be changed.  When you dwell in someone else’s home with God’s love, the Holy Spirit will enter there also.  They too will be changed and they too will find their eternal home with Jesus.

Reflection on John 13:31-35

Love is not easy. 

Sure, it seems pretty easy when you rip Jesus’ instruction to love right out of the story told by John.  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (NRSV, John 13:34). 

That’s right, no problem; just go out and love people and all will be good and well and perfect.  Sounds easy enough right?  Except that it is not easy.  It is not easy for us, nor was it necessarily a piece of cake for Jesus either.

You see, if you put this demand to love back into its story you will see that it fits right between the start of Judas’ betrayal and the prediction of Peter’s denial.  This demand to love falls right in the middle of hurt and abandonment caused by some of his closest friends. 

So, no, it is not easy for Jesus to feed Judas and Peter and to bend and serve them by washing their feet.  Jesus knows exactly what they are about to do.  Judas and Peter are not deserving.  Judas and Peter are not good.  Judas and Peter are the ones who will cause pain and heart ache. 

Yet, Jesus bends down and serves them anyway.  Jesus loves them anyway.

You see what I mean.  Love is not easy.

For years an acquaintance of mine has vocally spoken against those who are in the LGBTQIA community.  He has detailed vocally how he understands that none of the lifestyle that he sees within that community is supported by the Bible.  He has left organizations that have accepted any of these people.  He has uprooted and pulled his family from churches that have not taken a strong stance of condemnation. 

Then the day came when, in her late teens, his daughter (his beloved little girl with the cute smile and spunky attitude) let him and his wife know that she no longer thinks that she is actually a girl.  She told them that she was now going to identify as a boy. 

She had already dressed as a boy for years, but that tomboyness (if that is even a word) was always a part of her cuteness.  All the rest was utterly out of the blue.  It was a shock to say the least.  What was he going to do now…now that it was someone who he loved and raised from their very first moments on earth? 

You see what I mean?  It is not easy to love.  Love is not some fairytale lifted out from the reality of life.  Love is always in the trenches.  Love is always dirty.  It is not easy to love.  Yet, Jesus still loved and served the one who betrayed him and the one who denied following him, and he demands that his followers to do the same.

Another acquaintance loved dearly her teenage girl’s boyfriend.  The mother loved seeing the two together.  She loved how happy they were when they went to the amusement park, holding hands while they wandered between the rides.  She loved how in love they were as they snuggled on the porch swing at night.  She loved how the boy made her daughter feel happy about herself.

The mother got to know the boyfriend very well, and would pack him some food before he went back home because home life was rough and there were no guarantees that he would be fed.  She invested in the boy, hoping that he could rise above the cracked nature of his family.  She dearly loved the boy.

Then, the night came that the daughter broke up with the boy.  That was the same night that the newly ex-boyfriend took out his pocketknife and murdered the teenage daughter.

Love is not easy.  Two years after the trial and conviction, she received a letter from the prison.  It was the boyfriend.  He wanted to talk to her.

The mother stressed about the possibility of visiting the prison.  She stressed about going to see the one who took her little girl away from her.  She could not imagine looking into his eyes once again and listening to anything that this betrayer had to say.

It is not easy to love.  Love is not some fairytale lifted out from the reality of life.  Love is always in the trenches.  Love is always dirty.  It is not easy to love.  Yet, Jesus still loved and served the one who betrayed him and the one who denied following him, and he demands that his followers to do the same.

Those stories are a little heavy, are they not?  The stories are absolutely true, both of them, but they are heavy.  Therefore, we will take just a momentary break to be Bible nerds together.  Please join me in a little Bible Geekdom, because I want to show you something. 

First you need to understand that in the Greek language, the language in which the New Testament was written, the order of the words and sentences can convey meaning to the reader…not just what the words mean.  In this passage about love, you get the chance to see how that works right in the English. 

In Jesus’ teaching we read:

“I give you a new commandment,

             that you love one another.

Just as I have loved you,

            you also should love one another.” 

Notice how that part about loving one another is actually written twice.  It brackets and highlights the phrase, “Just as I have loved you.”  It is as if Jesus’ love for us is the sun just coming up from behind the horizon, and once it is up, it spills light on everything in all directions.  That is what this passage about love looks like.  Jesus’ love rises, spills in all directions, and because we have all been touched by that love, we too love in the exact same way.

That is right; we love in the exact same way.  If Jesus serves those who would betray and deny, then we also serve those who would betray and deny.  If Jesus would go to the cross for a sinner, then we too go to the cross for a sinner. 

Love is not easy.  It is not just the heartwarming moments spent snuggled by summer fire pits under a canvas of stars.  It is not just the first glances at the precious face of the newborn child.  It is not just the first kiss of two young lovers on a summer night.  It is all of that, but so much more.

Love is not easy.  Jesus’ love looks a lot like going to the prison, facing your child’s murderer, listening to his tear-filled plea of forgiveness repeatedly, and then deciding to be there for him in the following years because, remember, he still has no one who gives a damn about him at home.  Love is not easy, but it is life-changing.

Love is not easy.  Jesus’ love looks a lot like facing your beloved daughter who went against her family’s values, and still loving her, spending time with her, and supporting her anyway.  Sorry, supporting “him” anyway.  After-all, Jesus still loved and served the one who betrayed him and the one who denied following him, and he demands that his followers to do the same.  Jesus went to the cross out of love for the world, and he demands that we do the same.

Love is not easy, but Jesus never promises that it will be easy.  But, there is little that is life-changing about an easy sort of love.  There are, however, lives to be changed with that messy sort of love that Jesus talks about.  There are lives to be changed when we share Jesus’ love with those who God has placed in our lives.  There are lives to be changed when we show that love in even the messiest and toughest of situations.

“I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.  By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" (NRSV, John 14:34-35).

Reflection on John 10:22-30

I know nothing about shepherding.  Do not get me wrong, I have preached on Good Shepherd Sunday every year for 15 years, and throughout those 15 sermons I am sure that I have sounded like I know what I am talking about.  But, I assure you, I do not. 

Case in point: when I went searching for examples of modern shepherds through a Google search, expecting to see images of pastoral hills dotted with sheep overlooked by protective shepherds in shepherd’s clothing, what I found were multiple of images of shepherds talking on cell phones.  I guess they are truly “modern” shepherds. 

One photographer remarked on how they had to wait an hour before the shepherd put the cell phone down long enough to get an authentic picture.  Now, I could be wrong, but if you had to wait an hour to get an “authentic picture” then I am pretty certain the picture you got was not authentic. 

All of this is to say that I truly know nothing about shepherding.  All I know is what I have seen on the internet.  And, everyone knows, the one thing you do not want to hear when heading in for surgery and asking if your surgeon has done this procedure before is, “No, but I once saw it done on YouTube.”  So, as you explore with me the intricacies of good shepherding, just know that the knowledge that I share with you today was once seen on the internet. 

That said, there is this cool video that I once saw of two modern shepherds doing their shepherding thing.  While talking and laughing about stuff they were looking at on their smart phones, at one point one of the shepherds checks the time on his phone and sees that it is time to take his sheep back home.  Now, just to set the stage, in front of the two shepherds are a huge mass of sheep eating and walking.  The two groups of sheep, mingled together, create a huge cloud of wool in front of your eyes. 

With a loud, unique yell to his sheep, you quickly see about half of the sheep start to move out of the wooly mass and follow their modern shepherd.  It is a truly unbelievable sight.  I always thought that sheep were dumb, but these sheep obviously know their shepherd.  They sheep actually know his voice and the sheep actually follow.  With another sharp yell one of the last sheep moves along who had previously just been hanging out, oblivious. 

How did that shepherd know to give that last hurry up to that last sheep; except for the fact that he knows each of his sheep.  They all look like four legged rains clouds to me, but to the shepherd, they are his sheep.

It makes me think of sitting at a high school football game with a friend.  We were looking at the mass of padding young men walking about on the field.  To me, the uninformed, the outsider from out of town, they all just looked like a bunch of guys with helmets and shoulder pads.  But, to my friend, they were John, Skyler, Mike, Grant, and Rob.  My friend could point each one out in an instant.  They were friends.  They were known.  He was like Jesus.

To Jesus we are instantly known at a glance. 

To the powerful ones who do not care we are not known.  We are just masses of people.  We are just masses who either need to work harder or who need to pay more taxes.  We are just masses of people who gather needlessly at borders or need to simply form lines at the gas chamber.  We are just masses who need to get our shifts done efficiently or need to sit when and where we are told.  To the powerful ones who do not care, we are just one of many expendable people who could easily be replaced by another expendable individual.  We may hear and know the voices of the powerful, but they most certainly do not know us.

But, Jesus knows us by name, just as we know his voice.  He is the one who calls out to the lost one and brings the lost one home.  He is the one who does not forget a single one of those given to him.  He is the one who will search through the thorns and shrubs for the one while leaving the other 99 behind.  He is the one who holds us tight when the storms threaten.

Once while hiking with a young Ember on my back, in her secure backpack, down the lower Ricketts Glenn trail, it suddenly started to storm.  Now, on my back, the young Ember started to fear the rain drops and wind.  To her, the storm had started to surround her and overtake her.  Though the fear of the storm caused her to feel alone, there was one thing that was true the entire time: she was right there attached to me, her father, the whole time.  Nothing would snatch her away from me. 

And, through our storms Jesus too holds us tight.  It does not matter if we are lost in our fears, he is still there.  We are his, and he is ours.  Nothing will snatch us out of his hands.

The early Christian community in Joppa had thought that death had snatched away one of their own: their beloved Tabitha (or Dorcas in Greek).  Tabitha was a disciple’s disciple.  She devoted herself to loving others.  In particular, she devoted herself to making clothes for the people.

In today’s age, when we get a hole in our T-shirt, we just go to Wal-Mart and buy a new one for $7.99.  We simply cannot truly appreciate the love that is shown by Tabitha.  In the ancient world (where most people only owned one or two sets of clothing) all of the clothes were made by hand with no sewing machines.  Therefore, the heavenly gift of someone like Tabitha who would make clothes as a gift of sweat and love cannot be expressed enough.  Those who were touched by her divine discipleship cannot conceive of her enormous loss to their community.  Tabitha was suddenly lost to them.

But, no one is ever lost.  Even when they are away, no one is ever truly gone.  With the utterance of a prayer from Peter’s lips, God brings Tabitha back to life and gives her again to her people.  In Jesus Christ, we may be away, but we are never truly gone.  Nothing can snatch us out of Christ’s hands, not even death.

You are one of Jesus’ very own.  You know Jesus’ voice, and he knows you.  Others may not see your value.  Others may view you as unremarkable, indistinguishable, and even unwanted, but Jesus is unable to see you in such a shallow way.  You are one of his, and he is yours.  He is your God, and you are his people.  He made your every hair.  He gave you your every gift.  

By God you have been given the gift of life eternal, true life both right here now and in the ages to come.  No one will snatch us out of Jesus’ hands.  No one.  Live your life as one of God’s beloved, because you are.

Reflection on John 21:1-19

“Aren’t you one of his disciples?” 

The question echoed around the charcoal fire.  All gathered at the fire warming their hands turned their attention to Peter.  They stared at the man who arrived at the same time Jesus arrived to be questioned.  They stared at the man who cut off the ear of one of those individual’s relatives.  They stared at Peter, questioning if he was one of Jesus’ disciples, and Peter looked them square in the eye and stated:  “I AM not.” 

He did this three times.  Three times he denied being a disciple.

You might be forgiven for assuming that Peter denied knowing Jesus three times.  That is the way that things went down in the other gospels, but, in the gospel of John Peter does not so much deny knowing Jesus, rather he denies being a disciple. 

Peter does not require forgiveness from Jesus for not believing in him, rather he requires forgiveness from himself for not seeking to be who God created him to be. 

In the charcoal fire scene, Peter refuses to be a disciple.  And, I think that a lot of us can relate.

Just the other day someone told me that they do not do the things that disciples usually do.  They do not go to worship; they do not pray as others pray; and they do not try to share with anyone the good news.  What they do go out and do is take a hike into the woods in order to enjoy God’s creation.  “That is how I worship the Lord,” they said. 

Do not get me wrong, I too love heading into the wooded coverings of God’s creation and find great joy in marveling at all that God has made.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Just do not confuse that meditative practice with all that it means to follow Jesus. 

No one is going to crucify you for meditating in the woods.  How would they even know that is why you were out there? 

Now they may crucify you for defending God’s creation if you were to tie yourself to a tree in the rainforest as you faced down multiple bulldozers.  That would look a little more like discipleship than strolling in the woods.  Risking your life for the sake of God’s creation looks a little more like Jesus’ action on the cross than a simple walk I the woods.

I guess what I am trying to say is not so much to go tie yourself to a tree, though that is fine if you feel compelled to do so, but more to the point is that it is easy and even common for us to deny our discipleship. 

Golf rather than worship; sentiments of spirituality rather than taking action and fighting for the lowly; not disrupting the family gathering by refusing to say anything about your faith; and walking by the poor, labeling them as lazy, rather than offering some bread to eat; all of these are examples in one way or another of staring people in the eye as you stand around the charcoal fire and stating “I am not one of his disciples.”

But, today’s scripture reading is not about those three denials of Peter, nor is it about our failure to follow Jesus just at the point when Jesus needs us to follow the most.  Today is about something much better. 

Today is about the abundance that Jesus provides even in the face of our denials.  Today is about Jesus filling our nets with fish anyway.  Today is about the abundance of God’s grace for those disciples who may not have figured out how to follow Jesus the first or second or ninth times around.  I am probably on something like 1048^th go around at following Jesus, not that I have been keeping track.  But, none of that matters because today is not about keeping track of our failures, but rather is about the new opportunity that God is providing.

After the three refusals to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, Peter is given three opportunities to recommit to following Jesus. 

Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my lambs."  A second time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" He said to him, "Yes, Lord; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Tend my sheep."  He said to him the third time, "Simon son of John, do you love me?" Peter felt hurt because he said to him the third time, "Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you." Jesus said to him, "Feed my sheep.

Three times Peter is given the chance to declare his love of Jesus, and three times Peter is encouraged to be who God created him to be.  “Feed my lambs.”  “Tend my sheep.”  “Feed my sheep.”

“Why do not people follow Jesus these days?” I have often heard asked. 

I do not think that they answer is all that complicated actually.  It seems that many people simply do not know how, or were never told. 

The church has been very good about telling people that they need to believe.  “Believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”  But, the church has not necessarily been as good about telling people what trusting in the Lord looks like. 

It looks like feeding tender lambs.  It looks like caring for the lowly and giving holy attention to little ones. 

It also looks a lot like tending the sheep.  It looks a lot like guiding others in the ways of Jesus Christ. 

It also looks a lot like feeding sheep.  It looks a lot like offering an abundant meal of fish and an abundant meal of trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. 

In other words, trusting in the Lord looks a lot like having a relationship with Jesus and having an actual relationship with those whom Jesus loves.

The girl seemingly had no one.  When I saw her, she was in the children’s behavioral science unit in the hospital.  She was officially there for suicidal behavior and for cutting, but as she shared her story in the spirituality group that I was leading it became obvious that the real reason she was there was in the hospital was because her parents had forgotten her. 

The girl actually came from a very wealthy family, and that was part of the problem.  The parents had all the money in the world to travel to exotic destinations together, and they did…a lot.  The young teen was left home alone…a lot.  She literally had no one most of the time.  Even that day in the hospital, as she spoke to the others in the group, the parents took the opportunity that her hospitalization provided for a trip to Spain.  They called the hospital periodically to get an update on her progress.  She needed someone, anyone, to be there for her.  That group setting was the first time that I saw her, but it was not the last.

The next time that I saw her, she was at the mall.  Remember malls, those fun places that people used to go to together to shop and have fun together?  I saw her in a mall that, at the time, was thriving.  I saw her through the crowd in the food court.  She was having fun talking with someone.  Shopping bags were at her feet and a laugh was on her face.  The bandages were no longer on her wrists. 

I walked up and said “Hi.”  She smiled at me and introduced me to her “big sister.”  No, the girl was an only child, this was not her biological sister; this was her sister through the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program. 

I also recognized the Big Sister; she was follower of Jesus Christ who had an incredible love of children.  She loved helping with the Sunday School in her church as well as the church youth group, and here she was, out feeding one of her lambs.  She had taken the girl to church earlier in the day (allowing her to help teach Sunday School), and now they were eating at the mall.  It was not a net full of fish, but it was a grace-filled feeding none-the-less for a girl who was once lost and alone but now had been found.  And, it was all because her Big Sister decided she wanted to be not just a believer but a disciple.

The Big Sister refused to give up on this girl, and similarly, that is what I love about Peter’s story: Jesus refused to give up on the man.  Jesus continued to abundantly provide for the guy, even though he denied being a disciple.  Jesus continued to work on the guy, showing him the empty tomb and his wounds.  Then Jesus encouraged one last time to love and serve.  And, Peter did. 

It gives me hope that the 1049^th time around, I might get this following thing figured out.  What a beautiful thing it is to be a follower of Christ.  What a beautiful thing it is to live in love.