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Homepage >> Ministry >> Worship And Music >> Sermons >> Re-Interpretation Re-Interpretation
In the opening verses of today’s lesson from the Gospel of
John, we are given a provocative image: “It was winter, and Jesus was walking
in the temple, in the portico of Solomon.” In my mind’s eye, I imagine a
brooding, solitary figure walking alone in the vast expanses of the temple,
robes tossed by the winter breezes blowing through the space. But as soon as
that image materializes, another equally provocative one comes to mind, an image
from the Book of Genesis: Speaking of the first man and woman, the writer of
Genesis says: “They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at
the time of the evening breeze…” (Gen. 3:8). What might images like these have to say to us halfway
through our Easter season? Our gospel lessons during Easter have stepped away
from the scenes of the resurrection encounters. Instead, we go back to the heart
of Jesus’ ministry and catch a glimpse of God’s promises being revealed in new
and unexpected ways. Familiar things are being transformed. Ancient celebrations
are being re-interpreted. All take on new meaning in the light of Jesus’
presence. The Evangelist uses the occasion of three major Jewish
festivals to make his point. At each of the festival appearances, Jesus
challenges those around him to see God at work in their midst in a new way. He
challenges people to recognize him for who he is and to believe in him rather
than clinging to the old symbols – the old hopes. Rather than continue to wait
for what or who had been promised, Jesus invites them to believe that everything
that had been promised is being fulfilled before their very eyes. At the Feast of Pentecost, a Jewish festival of the spring
harvest that took place about fifty days after Passover, Jesus encounters a lame
man lying next to a pool of water. Healing was believed to occur in the pool
when new water bubbled up from a spring. On the Sabbath day of that festival,
Jesus cures the young man – he is able to take up his mat and walk away. He did
not fully understand how that had happened – he was only sure that it was Jesus
who had cured him. God’s work of renewing life in the face of sin and sickness
is revealed through Jesus’ healing act. Jesus’ equality with God is demonstrated
in his ability to do God’s work. Jesus makes an appearance at the Feast of Tabernacles, a
fall festival that takes place in the September – October time frame. The
purpose of the feast is to pray for early rain in the winter season to aid the
harvest. During the festival, people lived in huts or “booths” to recall the
wilderness experience of their ancestors; there was a daily procession from the
city pool to bring water into the temple – symbolic of the need for rain; and
the temple courts were lighted with immense torches. Many conflicts and much confusion surrounded Jesus’
presence at the feast, but the climax comes on the last day. The people have
watched the daily procession of carrying water. In a stunning announcement,
Jesus declares himself to be the source of water for those who are thirsty. We
recall that Moses struck the rock in the wilderness to obtain water for the
thirsty Israelites. Jesus now sets himself as the rock of the new Israel. Water
from that rock will be the Spirit given in baptism for those who believe.
“Living waters” would flow from the hearts of those believers. The last festival appearance is at the Feast of Dedication
in today’s reading – the festival of Hanukkah that takes place in the heart of
winter. The feast celebrates the dedication of an altar and the re-consecration
of the Temple after it had been desecrated by foreign rulers. The rabbinical
authorities ask Jesus if he is the Messiah. It is the same question asked at
Jesus’ trial in the Synoptic gospel accounts. Jesus replies that he has told
them who he is and they still do not believe. In an immediately preceding passage, Jesus has offered a
long discourse on “the good shepherd.” In identifying himself as that “good
shepherd” – one who is willing to lay down his life down for his sheep – Jesus
reinterprets a familiar image in a way that the people would have grasped
immediately. Jesus reminds those around him that sheep follow the voice of the
one they know and recognize – they do not follow the voice of a stranger.
Loyalty and fidelity are challenged. He offers his sheep eternal life. Death and
life are re-interpreted. All power and authority has been conferred to Jesus – “the
Father and I are one.” In our Sunday Morning Adult Forum earlier this morning, we
explored the Nicene Creed – our corporate statement of faith as Christians. We
traced its development from the earliest statement of belief in the Jewish
tradition – “… the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deut. 6:4) – through the
early councils of the church to that statement in our current Prayer Book. In
part, the Creed developed as it did because the early Christians, in their
experience of the risen Christ after the resurrection and the continuing – and
enlivening – presence of the Holy Spirit in their midst, had to find a way to
reinterpret – and then restate – what they had always believed about the one
God. No longer was a pool of bubbling water the source of
healing or a ritual of carrying water to the temple the source of life-giving
rain. Jesus was the “living water” that would sustain and nourish forever. No
longer was the Temple the center of worship and adoration. Jesus was the one to
be worshiped and glorified. No longer would torches in the temple be the
instruments of illumination. Jesus was the light of the world. For the early Christians, none of this breached their
belief in a single divine Being – it just required rethinking all they had known
and finding new ways to express old beliefs. I am drawn back to my original
images – that of God strolling in the garden in the early evening – a very human
description of the Divine – and that of Jesus walking along the Temple porches –
God revealed in human form… solitary, brooding figures preoccupied with offering
abundant life for all. One image reinterprets the other. We are constantly invited to re-think and re-interpret the
symbols, words and celebrations of our faith whenever we gather together. In our
rethinking, we are asked to have faith that God, through Jesus, gives us the
sustenance of life in ways beyond our asking – beyond our imagination, in ways
we may never completely understand. We are asked to listen to the one true voice
calling our name. Through the Spirit in our midst, we are invited to follow that
voice into the world to do the things we have been given to do – to find new
ways of actually being the “living waters” that flow from our hearts as
believers. (This
sermon was preached by the Rev. Terri Stanford, Associate Rector, in St.
Chrysostom's Church, Chicago, Illinois, on Sunday, April 29, 2007, The Fourth Sunday of
Easter.)
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