John’s
gospel is not for the faint of heart in this regard. It’s the gospel that almost didn’t make it into
the bible back in the time of Constantine.
John was a philosopher, the Steven Hawking of bible writers. When he described what Jesus taught, there
weren’t many down to earth stories like we find in the other gospels, but
flowery metaphors and complex images.
And sometimes,
we need flowery metaphors when dealing with the subject of today’s
scripture. Jesus was predicting his death
and talking about suffering. That wasn’t
a popular topic back then, and it’s not today either. Sometimes it feels like a modern slogan for
the good life should not be “Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” but
“Life, liberty and the avoidance of all suffering”. Our world struggles to know what to do with
suffering. We interpret the good life as
being like an Oscar show, full of glittering gowns, fancy tuxedos and cleverly
written speeches where everyone looks perfectly happy. A lot of people put time and effort into
looking like they are living the perfect life.
Social media is full of pictures of people living glamorous lives. Unfortunately, this leads to increasing
feelings of isolation, loneliness and depression as people wonder why they
aren’t having more successes themselves.
Where are their statues for best actor or best costume designer, best
director of the perfect life? For those
who are struggling with chronic illnesses and chronic pain, the push to portray
only the happy moments of life can be a cruel expectation.
Jesus had an
odd opinion about suffering. Jesus didn’t say that anyone who became his
follower would be handed a “Get out of suffering free” card. Some folks may preach that, and push the idea
that Christians automatically get to avoid suffering. There are people in our community who have
turned their backs on Christianity because of that. A catastrophe happens in their lives, and
they take it as a sign that either they are terrible, or that God is angry at
them and they don’t know why. So, they
reject Christianity altogether.
Jesus didn’t
say that he would save people from suffering.
He did say that he came so that they could have life abundant. And many of his disciples led very
transformed lives that were abundant and fulfilling. Fishermen became world travelers, tent
makers became famous orators, tax collectors became community leaders, and they
all followed Jesus’ teachings so passionately that they took his message to the
ends of the earth. Even faced with derision,
imprisonment, and even crucifixion, they were so on fire that they kept sharing
the good news to all who would listen.
Even Greeks
wanted to come and speak with the Rabbi, and Jesus shared his message with them
too. His good news was for everyone
regardless of ethnicity. Often a
reference to the Greek people was a reference to the rest of the world, for
Greek was the language of intellectuals and philosophers. Wealthy Romans considered a Greek tutor as a
status symbol, like having a child in French Immersion may be considered a
status symbol. And Paul went to Greece,
home of Socrates and Plato and schools of philosophy and medicine and was able
to plant multiple small communities of faith, house churches with maybe a dozen
people across that country that spread until it became a universally embraced
way of life.
The
disciples did that by making sacrifices.
They left their comfortable homes and their familiar ways and their
homeland where everyone spoke the same language. Now, we may squirm at the thought of
sacrifices, but we do it every day. How
many of us sacrifice sleeping in on a Saturday morning because the dog needs to
go out for a walk? How many of us
sacrifice our time by volunteering for Meals on Wheels or making lunch for crib
players or selling tennis balls for the Lions or raising money for Rotary Club’s
international exchange student program?
How many of us sacrifice our money for supporting good causes at the
Farmer’s Market or buy fair trade coffee at the grocery store or buy chocolates
for a kid’s school fund raiser? How many
of us helped our neighbors during Covid, or supported family and friends when
they were going through hard times, or drove neighbors to doctors
appointments? We know how to follow in
the footsteps of Christ and we often do it without realizing that we are even
making sacrifices.
We sacrifice
for others in many ways. It’s because of
those sacrifices, large and small, that we have continued to provide support
for so many people for so many centuries.
Peter Drucker, a business guru, would ask industry leaders which
organization was the most resilient. People
probably named institutions like the UN, or the Red Cross and the like. Drucker surprisingly said it was the Church. It was durable not because it created great
leaders but because it allowed ordinary people to do outstanding things. It’s
survived plagues, wars, collapses of empires, corrupt leaders trying to produce
evil things like crusades and witch hunts, and it keeps returning to its core
values of empathy, equality and courage. Or as we say in the United Church,
deep spirituality, bold discipleship and daring justice.
Christianity
transformed communities over the centuries. It’s easy to forget how resilient
it has been and hard to see how resilient it is even now. We don’t get the big picture when we are
wrapped up in our worries and struggles.
When we hang on to our lives tightly, we can get tied up in knots of
grief, fear and anxiety. When we focus
on our community and make those little sacrifices that we know so well how to
do, we can do bold and beautiful things that make a difference in the world.
And God glorifies what we do, saying, “This is my beloved child with whom I am
well pleased.” May our sacrifices
continue to glorify God and inspire and empower the world! Amen.
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