Text: John 1: 19-51
Introduction
I sometimes think of the time between Christmas Eve and the New Year as one of shutting myself off from the problems of the world – of cocooning with family and friends. Radio or television newscasts are left silent, as attention is given to connecting with others in traditional, and sometimes new, but deeply meaningful ways.
Yet, problems of the world continue to persist. And, it didn’t take long for a particularly nasty one to intrude on many of our lives this year. Airport security became the top story on Christmas Day when a young man on a plane to Detroit tried to ignite an explosive smuggled aboard in his underpants. What an idea!
Even though the attempt failed, there were predictable sequelae – stringent new rules in airports, long lineups and missed planes during the busiest travel time of year, millions of dollars committed to buying new technology – ‘full-body scanners’ – all of which grabbed our attention, followed by debates about whether scanners are preferable to ‘body searches’ and ‘pat downs’, and whether any of these are likely to make a difference. In our household Erna becomes particularly exercised about what she sees as the silliness of these measures, and how they’re not likely to be effective in forestalling another security threat in any event.
One might jest by saying that at least our attention got diverted from the fears of a flu pandemic that were front of mind before Christmas; but, that would be trading one set of fears for another. Both fears – of flu pandemic and suicide bombs – are based on some substance.
The substance behind the suicide-bombing attempt is that there are people who feel so strongly called to a mission, that they’re prepared to kill themselves and others in order to provoke terror. This kind of mission, and others like it, are terribly misguided – It was good to see Muslim leaders from Canada and the USA, late this week, speak to the inconsistency between such kamikazi missions and what is commonly understood to be the message of the Koran. But, misguided as it is, one can’t but be impressed by the depth of conviction someone like this has in his call. Too bad such conviction isn’t devoted to pursuit of more life-giving ends.
What this and other acts like it show yet again is something of the lostness and despair in the world. Unfortunately, airport security responses, no matter how stringent, won’t address either the roots of the bomber’s beliefs, or our collective fears that are stimulated by such attempts. Something more fundamental is needed
God’s Call to Change the World
In some ways it is symbolic that this most recent bombing attempt occurred during the Christmas season. It is a time we’re reminded that God sent quite a different message to the world, a message to which we are witness. The situation today is not so different really than that of two millennia ago. Marilyn spoke a little of this last week in her sermon on the mystery and awe of the birth as reflected in the arrival of the magi who followed the star to Bethlehem – and, of the threat felt by Herod and other leaders of the day on hearing of this. There were no full-body scanners those days, and Roman soldiers or temple guards weren’t too worried about doing full body searches. More brutal means were available if needed – as demonstrated by Herod when he ordered the slaying of all children under age 2 in Bethlehem (Matt. 2:13-18).
Into this world God sent the Christ in the form of a child. He, too, had a calling – one He was prepared to give his life for. But, His calling was the exact opposite of the would-be suicide bomber’s. It was to change the world; nay, to redeem the world from its obsessions with power and violence.
The Jesus Way
The Jesus articulation of God’s call is set out in the 4 Gospels. Of these, the first three describe many of his activities and summarize his teachings. But, it is the fourth – the Gospel of John – where I find most help in thinking about who Jesus is, and how he went about fulfilling the call. The Gospel of John is filled with language, metaphor, and imagery that grips the reader.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
So begins the Gospel.
This opening has been seared into my brain since high school. Miss Wiens, one of our teachers at Rosthern Junior College, was something of an oddity to us teenagers. She was from Kansas. Few of us had ever been out of Saskatchwan. She wasn’t married – an ‘old maid’ we thought her – though, in retrospect, she wasn’t that old (only in her ‘’40s) and, later, she did marry. She was gangly and awkward. But, she was also an enthusiast. She taught English and Bible with flair, moving us beyond the immediate content to think of meaning. In later years it was commonly agreed by those of us who went to university that, of all our teachers, Miss Wiens had best prepared us. But, that was later.
So it was one day that she stood there at the head of our Bible Study class, and with great intensity and considerable drama began:
In THE beginning…..was the Word ( a breathy ‘whu’ sound to ‘Word’) …..THE WORD, she repeated……AND…..the Word was WITH God….. AND…..the Word WAS (with heavy emphasis, and voice lowered just a bit) … WAS God.
“Isn’t that beautiful?” she said. “God, out there – in eternal silence – He sent Jesus to be THE Word! … The Word that offers hope to all of us.”
In my sixteenth or seventeenth year I wasn’t quite ready to accept her judgment of beauty; BUT, that lesson has stayed with me ever since.
Today’s lesson text begins after that Prologue, and transports one to the world of the Evangelist as he introduces the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. From verses 19 through 34 we have an account of John the Baptist as Witness to Jesus as the Christ, the ‘anointed one’ – first in response to the inq
uisitors sent to him by the Pharisees (v. 19 – 28), and then in conversation with his disciples when Jesus is walking by (v. 29 – 34). The message from the Baptiser is that this Jesus is the Lamb of God – someone who has been sent by God, he is God in the flesh – someone who baptizes not with water, but with the Holy Spirit.
Then, from verses 35 through 51, we have an account of how Jesus begins to actively respond to the call God has given him. One man by himself can’t accomplish the mission by himself. Jesus, while fasting in the wilderness, has already dismissed that option – rejecting Satan’s offer to give him all the nations of the world. God’s call is only meaningful if people willingly choose to follow.
So, he assembles about him a change team, a group of men and women who He will teach, and who will become the nucleus group to begin the work of transforming the world. This approach resonates with us Mennonites. We sometimes make light of our habit of having committees and task forces studying new and better ways of being church – but, at the heart of it all, we know that unless the people are involved, making change will be half-hearted at best.
Only 4 members of the Jesus Team are mentioned in the Gospel of John – Andrew and Simon Peter, Philip and Nathanael. They’re not exactly an inspiring lot when we first meet them. Andrew and Peter are both fishermen – pretty ordinary workmen. Andrew seems the level-headed one; but, his brother Peter, the one who later becomes the leader of the church, seems quite impulsive – he jumps out of the boat to walk on the Sea of Galilee, only to sink when he realizes he’s out in a storm, and Jesus has to save him; he can’t stay awake when Jesus prays at the Garden of Gethsemane, only to take out his sword and cut off the ear of a slave when Jesus is arrested; he promises to be loyal to Jesus through thick times and thin, only to betray him shortly thereafter. Philip, likewise, is rather ordinary. One sometime wonders what Jesus saw in him. His contribution to feeding the multitude is to tell Jesus that even with 6 months wages they couldn’t be fed (6:7); and, when the Greeks ask him to see Jesus, he doesn’t know what to do – rather he has to consult Andrew (12:21-22). Yet, this is said to be the same man who later brings the Good News to the Ethiopian in the desert, and is credited with starting that branch of the church. Then there’s Nathaneal1. He seems to be a dreamer – Jesus first saw him under the shade of a fig tree – one might well surmise that Nathanael was there to pray, meditate and study.
This isn’t a top-down strategic plan of change – developed by leaders of the most powerful government of the day, nor by leaders of the most influential religious organizations in the world. Far from it. The Jesus approach is to empower very ordinary people to achieve extra-ordinary things. As we know, from both the Bible story and later history, this initial motley group of people not only rose to the occasion, but launched changes that would have been unimaginable at the time.
That these were ordinary people is a comfort to us all. It demonstrates that one should never under-estimate either the gifts that ordinary people bring, or their persistence in pursuing a cause they believe in. I’ve had that experience in the disability field. People who have first hand knowledge of why change is important – parents, disabled people themselves – are much more committed to pursuing a vision of a better life, through good times or bad, than are leaders from government or professional groups and others, all of whose interest tends to be fickle and short-term at best.
That is how Jesus begins his response to God’s call. From here on, throughout the rest of the Gospel, John engages the reader with the challenge posed by His message, one which replaces the world’s addiction to power and deceit with such revolutionary ideas as that if one is to be a leader, one first has to be a servant; that one should love one’s enemies, not curse them; and other teachings we have come to know well. People divide in the presence of this message. Either they commit themselves to Christ and thus choose life (like the Samaritan woman and the royal official from Capernaum in chapter 4 and the man born blind in chapter 9), or they refuse to commit themselves and thereby remain in darkness and a condition of lostness (like the obtuse paralytic in chapter 5 or the Pharisees at the end of chapter 9). So, the reader of the Gospel is also drawn to make this choice.
Responding to the Call to Change the World Today
This call to change the world continues to today. It’s the core reason for the church. And, so, you and I are part of that call.
My sense is that we don’t often think about ourselves as being called to change the world. I don’t. Yet, as Christians we share in that affirming and life-giving call to change the world as modeled by Jesus – we may not always acknowledge it, and occasionally lapse in our commitment; but, there is no doubt that, as a follower, one makes a commitment to pursue the call. The only question is ‘how’.
As I was thinking about this, it occurred to me I might learn something by talking to others about how they would go about changing the world – given their gifts, their work or professional backgrounds, and so on. So I approached a number of people of different ages and backgrounds in our congregation to ask their help. All graciously agreed to play along with me on this. You know who you are. A sincere thanks, and apologies in advance if I misrepresent what you said.
When I posed the question, the first response almost invariably was, “what do you mean, change the world?” I’d explain about my sermon preparation, and that it was about how Jesus began his ministry.
And, then I’d say something like: “we’re all called to change the world … you’re called to change the world”.
“Well, yeh” would be the response, usually somewhat hesitantly, followed by some words to the effect that they didn’t often think about what they were doing as being important, nor even potentially important, to changing the world.
The first thing striking me about these conversations is that framing our task as one of changing the world helps sharpen how we think about what we might do – whether it is in our neighborhood or at work or school. From our conversations I would judge that such an idea is not exactly foreign, but it isn’t a common way for us think about our Christian walk either.
Second, these conversations, brief as they were, also revealed yet again the rich range of ideas on how
to go about changing the world than can come up when one invites people to think about the particular gifts they bring. Each one demurred at first: “I’m an accountant. I crunch numbers. I can’t see how that can change the world,” said one. Another: “I’m in the health care business – I manage a team of people”. “I’m in the media – we report on changes”. “I’m in electronic digital billboard advertising”. And so on.
Yet, on pursuing the question a bit more, we got into interesting and insightful conversations.
The accountant: “If I look beyond the actual number crunching, I can see how one could show business leaders the benefits of contributing more of their resources to charitable causes – like Bill Gates or Warren Buffett.
The health service provider: “For me change would be finding ways in which my team can better do their jobs without getting burned out” – it is important that team members don’t feel burned out!
The media person: “Instead of just reporting on change, some individual reporters will take an interest in a change – and, follow it along – giving a report periodically – until there comes a time when the public becomes really interested. Think about Nelson Mandela.
The advertiser: “In large format outdoor digital marketing we both ‘push out’ a marketing message, and ‘pull in’ responses from people who walk by – inviting them to respond to special deals by texting with their smart phone. …. Imagine what one could do with a ‘love your neighbour’ or a ‘random acts of kindness’ kind of campaign.
These are but 4 people from our tremendously rich and diverse community of believers. Imagine the diversity of gifts we have amongst us – each of us with our unique contributions. I can imagine God getting quite excited about that – after all, look what Peter and Philip and the others were able to accomplish with God’s help.
Of course, it wasn’t what each of these people did individually that was effective. The God call, as reflected in how Jesus began his ministry, was to seek a group of people – who he would teach – AND – who would then work together on a common vision to change the world. With vision in place, it was then that individual initiative became important.
The importance of a common vision – a plan, with priorities, also came up in our conversations. As we talked, ideas bubbled to the surface of what such a plan might be and how the gifts might have a role in the God call to change the world.
It was clear that the Jesus approach, as laid out in the Gospel of John, still has relevance. The question isn’t whether we’ve been called – we have been. The question is how we go about responding – what is the plan, the divinely inspired plan, within which our individual, unique, wonderfully diverse gifts can be expressed in such a way that the world we live in can be changed?
We don’t have to start from the beginning when we think about this. What immediately comes to mind is the work that TUMC did a year ago in examining our values and identity. The Listening Group came up with 4 initiatives, all of which fit right into the Jesus call. You remember them. These were to: Build on our experience of community to increase our welcome of all; prepare people for being engaged in God’s mission through spiritual formation; initiate some local mission activity; think creatively on how to use our property spaces. Each of these complements the other, and is a facet of some larger God plan.
There also are other possibilities. One that excites me is the Peace in the Public Square campaign Mennonite Church Canada has proposed. There is some interest in having a discussion group here in TUMC examine that idea as something we might get involved with. Calgary area churches have launched the first such campaign, as you may have seen in a recent Canadian Mennonite article. They purchase ads on Calgary’s buses that say, for example, “Give Peace a Chance – sponsored by the Mennonite Churches of Alberta”.
Using public media can have a powerful effect. You might remember the billboard campaign in the mid-1980s led by Sean O’Sullivan – a gifted politician who quit Parliament to become priest. On billboards around Toronto there was a suffering Christ on the cross, along with the words “dare to be a priest like me’. This provocative campaign generated a lot of attention. It still is active, as can be seen by a search of the Internet
These are examples of a God Plan that invites ordinary people – you and me – to contribute our gifts whatever they may be – to venture out in faith to change the world. With God’s help, the results may be extra-ordinary.
You are called! I’m called! We’re all called!
Amen