Jwquaker's Blog
Sermon
What is Your Name?
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 19, 2022
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Luke 8:26–39 (ESV)
26 Then they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed man had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
When you think of all the miracles Jesus performed, what makes your top ten list? For most of us we will quickly recall the feedings of the multitudes, then possibly the raising of Lazarus, then maybe the water into wine. But what after that? What can we recall? The man being lowered through the roof, Peter’s mother-in-law. After this even though we have heard these stories many times over we begin to forget. I find this interesting. The things we remember and the things we forget. Some of the most amazing feats of Jesus’s divine power are often some of the miraculous events we overlook, why? I really wish I had an answer, but the only thing that comes to mind is we remember what we want or desire to remember. There is a reason I remember the feedings first off. Because I would love to never have to worry about access to food. Yes, I make decent money and I live near a grocery store, but there are moments when I have questioned if I would have enough cash to provide a meal for my family.
There are also people within our community where just getting to a store to purchase food might be an ordeal. The concept of a food desert is real. There are reasons for these deserts but in many impoverished areas in metropolitan areas it is not always possible to walk to a store to get groceries. So, the idea of feeding a multitude is striking to many.
We also all have an innate fear of death, so the raising of Lazarus comes to mind. We do not want to die, we do all that we can to avoid death or at least prolong live, so when we hear the story of Lazarus we elated. You might say that you do not fear death but I do want us to consider why we are believers? What caused us to explore faith? Was it the promise of the abundant life, or is it possible that we considered our faith only because it alleviated aspects of that fear we have of death? I am not judging because I can honestly say I first really focused on my personal belief just for that reason. We as humans often make decisions based on fear.
When we think of a list of the signs of Jesus, how many of us place the healing of the Demoniac Gerasene on that list? I ask this because often I do not think of this story. Often it is blocked out of my mind, until I drive through an area that has a high density of pork production. I block it out but as I studied this week I wonder why? I wonder why because this is potentially one of the greatest signs recorded in the gospels.
We are told that Jesus and his disciples sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,’ which is opposite Galilee. I want us to look at our bibles, many of them might have a footnote attached to this verse that states that some manuscripts have a different spelling of the place. This has caused some confusion for people that like to know exactly where events happened. Because each of the spellings are different places. One of those places is nearly twenty miles from the shores of the sea, which makes it unlikely. But Luke confirms that it is opposite Galilee, which is the most important thing because the area opposite Galilee is the area known as Decapolis, which is an area within Roman Palestine that had a greater population density of Gentiles.
The moment the boat reaches the shore and Jesus steps out on the land, he meets a man from the city who had demons. For a long time, Luke tells us, this man had not worn clothing, he was homeless, and lived among the tombs. Among the resources that I have available for study I have access to a book that has excerpts from the writings that church historians would call church fathers, or the ancient theologians that reference certain passages. I do not always read these excerpts because sometimes those ancient theologians are hard to read, but this week they had some interesting things to say. Like this from Cyril of Alexandria: “In great misery and nakedness, he wandered among the graves of the dead. He was in utter wretchedness, leading a disgraceful life. He was a proof of the cruelty of the demons and a plain demonstration of their impurity.… Whoever they possess and subject to their power, at once they make him an example of great misery, deprived of every blessing, destitute of all sobriety, and entirely deprived even of reason.”[1] Cyril goes on to say that God does not permit this that they may suffer but that we may learn by their example how the demons treat us so that as we watch the suffering of one we might turn away from sin and seek God. Cyril has an interesting take on this, but it seems cruel in some degree. The concept of the supernatural has changed in time. We often look at these passages in a clinical manner and reason away the things that make us uncomfortable. And the idea that God permits someone to be possessed almost sounds naive.
The afflicted man in today’s passage approaches Jesus, and as he nears, he begins to cry out, falls down at Jesus’s feet, and screams, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?”
Hilary of Poitiers says this, “Did not the devils know the real nature of this name? … ‘What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?’ The truth drew out this reluctant confession, and being forced to obey, their grief testifies to the strength of this nature.” The demons know who Jesus truly is.
I mention these writings only because these are things that were written early in the history of the church, during a time when the polytheistic religions of the Greeks and Romans were still highly active in the western world. And these men were speaking to a people that had a worldview resembling the people of Jesus’s time more than ours today. In the ancient world the demonic was usually not regarded as an intermediate stage between human and divine, but rather a power and authority equal to the divine.[2] To the ancient people the Spiritual world was real, and just as mankind battled, so did the divine realm. Each nation had a god or goddess set over them to protect and guide their destiny and as the people of that nation conquered territory it proved the strength of their deity.
Before you start to question my understanding of God, I will explain myself. Jesus entered Decapolis, an area that was not populated by those of Jewish faith but of the faith of the Gentiles. They had a different understanding of the spiritual realm than the Hebrew people. The Jewish people were followers of Yahweh, and according to their beliefs, after the tower of Babel God had divided the nations of the world to lesser spiritual beings and Yahweh, the Most High God had chosen them to be his inheritance. The Gentiles thought that the various deities battled and could emerge victorious. The Jewish people at that time, believed that the deities of the nations were spiritual beings that rebelled against the Most High God, but Yahweh would eventually restore all those nations to him through the Messiah.
This is what is going through the mind of those ancient fathers of the church. They are seeing the Spiritual battle being waged and the minions of the rebellious deities of the Gentiles are being called out. These minions are offspring of deception and debauchery giving humanity short term pleasure and power but the cost would eventually overcome the benefits, and they would eventually be led to the image of the man we see in today’s passage. Naked, homeless, living among the dead. It was the minions of the advisory that the second temple period of Jewish writings recorded in the book of Enoch that taught humankind the arts of war and lust. And if we consider the images coming from the war-torn areas throughout the world; people are naked, homeless, and living among the dead.
In these pagan religions exorcisms were practiced. They have found writings that depict rituals and incantations that would provide power over these malicious beings, but Jesus does not need the magic of these lesser deities. The demoniac comes and falls before Jesus shrieking the truth. “What do you have to do with me Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” The spiritual beings know who Jesus is, they know where true power resides. They know that they serve rebels and they know their destiny. “And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss.” (Luke 8:31 ESV)
The abyss is interesting. It is a depiction of chaos, the depth of the sea, or the underworld. This is where things get a bit interesting because the teachings of the Jewish people and that of Greeks and Romans have similar understandings. In the mythology of the Greeks Tartarus is the deep abyss that was the prison for the titans the primordial gods that were conquered by the gods of Olympus. Peter, in 2 Peter 2:4 (ESV) says, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgement,” The word for hell Peter uses is the abyss, Tartarus. And Peter does not get this from Greek mythology, but again from the Jewish writings of Enoch. And we see this again in the concept of the lake of fire preserved for the devil in Revelation.
This legion of demons that possesses this man, is professing more than we might know. The man is a Gentile, and in his demonic utterances, he is connecting the teachings of the Jewish people with the teachings of the pagan Gentiles. As the demon speaks, he is assisting the Most High God to teach us that the scattered people at Babel are being called back to the true God. The powers of the adversary have been broken and are driven away by the Word of God. They are released into the herd of pigs, and the pigs respond as frightened animals often do, they run in terror and lead the demons into the sea, into chaos, into the abyss.
The stampede of pork visually declares the healing of the man. And as the people of the surrounding country come to see what happened, they see the man that was once possessed sitting at Jesus’s feet, clothed and in his right mind. And they are afraid.
Luke is careful as he chose these words. To say that the man was sitting at the feet of Jesus means that this man is included as a disciple. This phrase throughout the gospels have included many people that traditionally would be excluded this religious honor, it was used for the Samaritan Leper that was healed and returned to Jesus, it is used of Mary Magdalene, and it is use for this man, a gentile of Decapolis. He is sitting at Jesus’s feet; he is clothed and in his right mind. He has been completely transformed and restored, no longer is he a slave to the torments of the demons. As the countrymen approach and see this they cannot fully grasp what is going on. To them Olympus is falling. This Jesus without performing rituals and magic has merely used his voice to drive out the malicious demon and their entire world view has been shaken, not to mention they just lost their bacon.
And they ask Jesus to leave. Jesus does not even bat and eye or condemn the people for this request. He simply gets into the boat. They had crossed the sea and Jesus does this one thing for this one man and that is it. One could conclude that the healing of this one man was the only reason Jesus made the journey. And you would be right.
The man begs Jesus that he might go with Him, but Jesus does something interesting, he sends him away. You might think this is cruel. The man had just had a miraculous event happen and his only desire is to learn more and to follow the one that had freed him from his prison. But the word sent is from the same root as Apostle. Jesus not only accepted the man as his disciple, but he sent him back to his own people. “Return to your home and declare how much God has done for you.” (Luke 8:39 ESV) We say that it was Peter’s vision in Joppa that opened the door to the Gentiles to come to Christ, but Jesus opened the gate. Jesus made this Gerasene man the first apostle to Gentiles even before Saul who became Paul was struck by the light from heaven.
And what does the man do? He does not question Jesus. He does not continue to plea his case. He went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
We all have had struggles. Each of us have faced trials that God has helped us through. Our story may not be as dramatic as this man’s but we have all be released from something by the power of God, something that was once keeping us from living our life in freedom. For those of us that have been freed, Jesus is telling us as he told that man, “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.”
Maybe we might still be in bondage in some way. “In order to make the possessed man realize that he has a personality apart from the evil spirits that have entered into him Jesus asks his name.”[3] The man could not yet break loose from the state, his identity, his life was defined by his possession. He responds, Legion, because many demons entered him. Where are you gaining your identity? How would you define who you are? Is it work? Is it a vice or weakness? Could we be seeking our identity in places that are connected to idolatry? Who are you? What is your name?
God knows your name. He is calling you by that name and is asking you to come and follow him. Are we willing to trust? Are we willing to entrust our lives to the one that can overcome our deepest and darkest fear, which is death? Are we willing to entrust our lives to the one who knitted us together in our mother’s womb and knows our very frame? What is your name?
Jesus wants us to come, he wants to drive the things that hold us in bondage into the abyss so that we too can live free in him. Will we listen to his call? Do we hear his whisper? Do we recognize our own name?
[1] Arthur A. Just, ed., Luke, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2005), 139.
[2] James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Luke, ed. D. A. Carson, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Cambridge, U.K.; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2015), 248.
[3] Norval Geldenhuys, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke: The English Text with Introduction, Exposition and Notes, The New International Commentary on the Old and New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1952), 255.
If you would like to help support the continued Ministry of Willow Creek Friends Church please consider donating online:
https://ccskc.com/church/donation.htm
To help support the personal ministry of JWQuaker (Jared Warner) online and in the community click to donate.
The Knowledge We Cannot Bear…Love
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 12. 2022
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John 16:12–15 (ESV)
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
There are times where we come to a passage of scripture that seems odd. When we come to those passages, we can do a few things. Usually, and I include myself in this category, we simply overlook it, we skip it and act as if it did not even exist. Other times we take that passage and we look at it as if it is the conduit of some secret knowledge, and we develop a sort of spiritual practice or theology around those weird passages. We have seen this throughout church history. There is this obscure passage about Paul being bitten by a viper and not being harmed, which is attributed to the statement made by Jesus in Mark 16:18 where he says, “And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” It is a strange passage in both the gospel and in the book of Acts. And we are left wondering what it means. Some have taken the words quite literally and will have snake dancing celebrations as part of their worship. I do not attend one of those churches, and I am not saying anything against them, it is just I have never liked snakes. Another example is the passage in 1 Corinthians 15:29 where Paul seemingly states that we should baptize the dead. This is something that some religious sects have participated in and still do currently, but it is also something that I have read stories about as happening in the Church of Ireland. I wish I could give a good answer for these weird verses, but we do not have the time right now. And I frankly do not have the energy. But today we do have one of those strange verses as well.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” This statement comes near the end of Jesus’s farewell discourse, which is right before he leaves to pray in the garden. We have been in this discourse for the past few weeks and all the statements are connected but this one has a bit of a mystery to it. It leaves us thinking that maybe there might be more revelation to come, or maybe a deeper understanding of what has already been said. It really depends on our perspective and theological approach.
The word “bear” is what begins the mystery surrounding this passage. The word occurs twenty-seven times in the New Testament and eight of times are in Luke’s gospel, and rarely is it used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament. We have relatively little context to know fully what “to bear” means in this spiritual context. Most often it has been used in the context of to lift or to carry away, or in a few cases especially in the Old Testament to pilfer or to steal. This gives us the idea of physical exertion, but then there are times where it refers to bearing a sign or name of God. This takes us away from physical exertion into something else. To bear an image, name, or sign from God means that this sort of bearing speaks to our nature. The core of who we are and how we are supposed to live.
I hope that this speaks to the confusion a bit. I hope that this allows us to realize that there is more to this statement than meets the eye. In one aspect Jesus might be saying that he wants to say more but we are not strong enough to handle the weight of the words, in another might mean that our understanding of who God is has not matured enough to allow us to live into our true nature. This second aspect is important. Often times people say that they are not good enough yet in themselves to be able to come to Christ. We have heard this in many forms. People will say things like, “If I were to enter a church, lightning would strike because I am so sinful.” Lucky for us this does not happen because if it did our Meetinghouse would have burned down long ago. But this statement speaks to the concept of bearing. We may not yet understand what life with God means. We grow into it. And at this moment we live into what we know but as we mature, we will be changed.
This is true even outside the church. A student goes to school, in kindergarten they begin with the alphabet and progress into reading simple words and sentences. We do not expect them to be able to contemplate the deeper meaning found within Shakespeare or Tolstoy, many adults are incapable of bearing that. We encourage them from where they are and walk with them as they progress deeper in knowledge and understanding. We do not expect more than they are able to undertake, and yet we still challenge them to go just one step deeper. It does not matter if it is literature or math, we take things a step at a time. Yet so often people feel as if there is this expectation of perfection when it comes to our spiritual life. This is partly our fault; we as more mature followers of Christ have forgotten where we once were and we fail to recognize that those around us might be struggling. We make assumptions that just because we live in a nation that has had a majority population of Christians that everyone knows what we know. This causes us to be short with those around us, and it also causes us to feel as if we have the right to force those around us to comply with our understanding of life.
We must be careful. We can often regard a lack of understanding as a lack of faith. We can regard a question being raised as an attempt to challenge the authority of scripture or traditional interpretation of scripture. Even the wisest among us can have their understanding of faith challenged. Even the most devout and zealous disciples of Christ can at times be found struggling to live out faith. How do we respond? How do we encourage those we live among to continue walking in faith?
Jesus looked at his disciples, people he had invested three solid years of personal interaction and spiritual investment. He looked at these individuals, and he knew that he had shown them a great deal, he taught them a great deal, he had empowered them to do the very things he was doing and yet they still had room to grow. They even after three years of constant teaching and observation did not grasp the fullness of what was going on around them. Judas was on his way at that very moment to sell out his faith for thirty pieces of silver. Peter before the rising of the sun in just hours, would deny Jesus three times. And all of them would that very evening run for their lives. We regard these men as saints, but in truth they are just like us, amazing characters of devout faith one moment and the next a scourge of humanity.
We give them space. We give them the opportunity to grow in their faith, because we know the end of the story within their lives. We know that they eventually become the foundation of the Church. But we do not give the same grace to each other nor to ourselves. Jesus has much more to teach us, much more to tell us, but even we cannot bear them now. At this moment we may only be capable of understanding that reality that God loves us so much that he sent his unique son to live among us, to teach, and to suffer and die for our salvation. But even that might be too much for us to bear at this point. For some of us we still struggle with the concept that God loves us. For some of us the idea of God loving us is still too much to bear at this moment. We are still struggling to become loveable. We are trying to get our act together to deserve God’s love, but God is already there. God already loves us; we just do not understand why.
I want us to just stop at this place for a moment. I want us to simply rest in the idea, the concept, and the reality that God loves us. Why is this such a difficult thing for us to grasp? We love our children even though they have done nothing to earn that love. We love them just because. I have said on several occasions that James my oldest son is responsible for my salvation on January 15, 1999. It was on the day that he was born that I, even though I had called myself a Christian for many years, began to understand the love of God. The first time I looked at my child, I realized that no matter what or who he became I would love this person. I would give anything, go anywhere, do anything to protect and make sure they had the best opportunity to succeed.
We do this for our own children. We do this for those within our family. Those children may not understand what we are doing exactly. They may not know how much we are sacrificing, how much we are investing and enduring so that they can grow, but later they will see. Later, if we do well, they will understand and love us just as we loved them. Later, they will do the same, but in this moment at this time they cannot bear the knowledge. They must simply abide in the fact that you are there and they are as safe as you can make them.
“I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.”
Again, we are faced with enigmatic words. We cannot bear the words, and then the Spirit of truth will tell us the things to come. Does this mean that God will bring new revelations? Will God change what has always been said and done? Does this mean…
I want us to consider again that these words are being spoken just before the arrest, trial, and execution of Jesus. This is before the burial and resurrection. This is before the fullness of God’s glory was revealed. Everything that will be happening in their near future is going to be confusing.
Imagine, for your entire life you have been taught that when the Messiah comes the Kingdom of Israel would be restored to its greatest era of history. They would be united under one king, one faith, and in one land. That they would be the light to all the nations and in your mind the entire world, even those currently under the dominion of the Gentiles, would be untied under God the Most High. This has been and is the hope that we still have to this day. But you believe that Messiah is here, but instead of conquering the world, he says that he must suffer. Instead of uniting all the tribes once again, he turns the tables over in the temple dedicated to God. Instead of battling those that oppose your faith, he tells you to love your enemy. They thought they understood what God wanted from them. They thought they understood what Jesus was saying, but at times they just did not understand. At times the words that Jesus spoke and their understanding of scripture seemed at odds. Not necessarily wrong, but odd. They agreed with what Jesus taught, but sometimes it just seemed difficult to live. How exactly can we love our enemies when they are threatening our very existence? How can we love God with everything we have and yet love our neighbor as ourselves, what would be left? How can we bring honor, and live in unity if we cannot agree?
The disciples wrestled with the things of faith just as much as we do. Jesus is telling them to live within their understanding, but to be open to guidance. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. Jesus had told them that He is the way the truth and the life. Jesus had told them that everything that he says is from the Father, and that all that he does he does within the Father’s authority. If Jesus was given the authority to bear that image, the image of the Father with humankind, then the Spirit of Truth can only lead them to Jesus, who is truth.
Does this passage tell us that we should expect a new revelation from the Spirit? Does it tell us to expect some sort of inspiration that we have not noticed before? This is where things get a bit tricky. The answer is yes, and the answer is also no. Truth is always truth. It does not matter where it comes from nor from whom it comes from. All truth comes from God. If a thing is not true its source is outside of God. Those things might work well for a moment but they are not universal. This statement might shock you a bit. It might sound as if I am a unitarian or worse, but that is far from what I am saying. To deny that all people have access to aspect of truth would mean that we do not believe that all humans come from the same creator. If we all have descended from Adam and Eve as scripture says, if those two individuals are a common ancestor to all humanity, then at some point in time our ancestors knew the truth of God. It also means that we have all distorted the truth. Each of us in our own self interest and the interests of our community have within us the capacity to distort truth and merge something that is good with something that is of a lie.
We can see this even within scripture. Even God’s chosen people were and are capable of this deception. Jesus said in one of his sermons, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in Heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:43-45). The reason Jesus speaks in this manner is because something somewhere along the way had been lost. Somewhere along the pathways of life and faith people began justifying activity that contradicted God’s original message.
We can justify the ill treatment of many people and people groups. Russia justified their invasion of Ukraine by claiming that they were Nazis. The United States justified their invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq because we were going in to find terrorist. We might feel justified in our actions and may even have evidence in support of our arguments. This does not mean we are right. When Jesus says that God makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust, he is saying that all people are loved by God. Even though they may not be his chosen people, they are still members of his human family. People that He loves to such a degree that while they were still enemies of God, Jesus came to die for them, to offer them the opportunity to have life in his name. I want us to recognize the gravity of that statement. God does not withhold sun and rain, the life sustaining elements of existence from even the vilest people on this earth. Why then would he withhold an opportunity to know the life sustaining truth?
This leaves us in an awkward position. We know things, and yet Christ tells us we have more to learn because we are not able to incorporate all truth. We are still growing, still maturing. And we live among people that are not that unsimilar to us. They too do not have full knowledge of the truth. They may not even know of where the truth comes. What should we do? How should we live? Do we have some secret knowledge that others do not have access too? No. I wish it would be the case. I wish I could say that the Friends have a monopoly on life saving grace. But God is available to all. We do not have access to God only in this Meetinghouse. We can have communion with God wherever we are and with whomever we are with to some degree. But are we seeking God where we are?
This is the truth within this passage. It is not that we can gain something secret. It is that when we seek to deepen that relationship with God, the Spirit of Truth will continually guide us into a greater understanding of life, the universe, and everything. And the deeper we go the more like Christ we become and we are better able to bear the image or name we claim in faith. Seek first the kingdom, Jesus tells us, and all these things will be added unto you. Take on the life and lifestyle of Jesus and we will find that there is a satisfaction in the simplicity of loving God, embracing the Holy Spirit and living the love of Christ with others.
The spirit does not give us new information or prophecy, but a deeper relationship. A relationship that is open to all who believe. Will we accept that relationship, and will we encourage others to embrace it? Will we encourage the person siting next to us to love God with all that they have and to love their neighbor as they love themselves? Will we life for Christ? The longer I have served in ministry the more I understand that faith is complex and simple. It is complex only because I am so ignorant but once I begin to see, once I can get beyond my own lack of understanding and my own stubborn resistance, I realize that the reality of all that I seek is, “Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong.” We can sit here looking for the knowledge Jesus wants to reveal to us, we can seek it every minute of every day. Or we can simply embrace the reality of Jesus’s love and let that love flow from us to others. Let us allow the love to flow and let the Spirit guide us where we need to be.
If you would like to help support the continued Ministry of Willow Creek Friends Church please consider donating online:
https://ccskc.com/church/donation.htm
To help support the personal ministry of JWQuaker (Jared Warner) online and in the community click to donate.
Show Us the Father
By Jared Warner
Willow Creek Friends Church
June 5, 2022
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John 14:8–17 (ESV)
8 Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves. 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it. 15 “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.
John 14:25–27 (ESV)
25 “These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. 26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
When you think of Jesus, how often do you think of him laughing? I ask this in all seriousness because our perceptions often dictate how we interact within our relationships. We have all had teachers in school that seem one way in the classroom and then you meet them in a different context. Suddenly everything you thought you knew changes. I will give one example. My first-grade teacher was the oldest person I knew. Not really but to me she seemed like she was because she had white hair. She wore dresses, acted like a grandmother, and just fit the stereotypical grandma image. But one day we met my teacher at Dairy Queen, and it scared me. My first-grade teacher’s husband owned the Harley Davison store in our town. He was the stereotypical biker. He looked like the guys I saw on tv, but then this woman was with him. Dressed in leather pants and vest, with a bandana around her head, and she knew my name. I was a bit freaked out. My teacher was not the little safe grandma, she was part of a motorcycle gang. How could I possibly sit through class all day when I knew the truth now?
No, she was not part of a motorcycle gang. She just had a life beyond school. A life that most people do not see. She was human just like me and you. And she was probably just as surprised seeing me in that context as I was her, because the Dairy Queen we were at was not in the town we lived in. It was thirty miles away. They were there because they had just taken a weekend cruise around a lake on their motorcycles and we were there because we spent every weekend on the farm. I did not know about her motorcycles and she did not know about our farm.
This tells us a great deal about people. We only truly know what they tell us, and if we make assumptions based on our perceptions we might be surprised. This also takes me back to my first question. When you think of Jesus, how often do you think of him laughing?
We often have a perception Jesus. We make him appear as we want him to appear. If you were to do a google image search on Jesus you would find a wide array of images. There are images of Jesus wearing clothing from the traditions of the Indian subcontinent, Jesus appearing as if he lived in Jamacia his entire life, Jesus as if he lived in the cold regions of Scandinavia, and Jesus as if he lived among the tribes that migrated around the North American prairies. We imagine Jesus as if he were one of us. This is human nature in many ways. If we are not given a description of an appearance it is difficult it imagine any character in literature, but the reality is that every one of those images of Jesus is wrong. Even the painting we have here in our Meetinghouse, is ethnically incorrect. The interesting thing about all those thousands of images of Jesus being depicted in nearly every ethnic identity known to mankind, the moment I look at the picture, I know that the image is depicting Jesus. But can we imagine emotions?
I must admit that in my mind, when I imagine Jesus, often he is appears stern. I know that he is caring but for some reason that is what I see. I work hard to attribute different emotional pictures but still the default is stern. If you have been around for a while, you might understand why this is. I come from a family that is blunt. When I told my grandmother that I fathered a child out of wedlock, her response to me was, “Well that was pretty stupid wasn’t it.” To many this could have broken their spirit, but to me it was just grandma telling me the truth. The actions that happened with the words told the greater story. The words seemed as if she was swinging a 2×4, the hug that came with it informed me that her love was unconditional.
That is the trouble with written words. We do not always get the nuance of the emotions when we just look at the words right in front of us. The emotions behind the words are developed as the story unfolds. When taken out of context we might miss the joke, the concern, the irony, or the sarcasm. We can come to scripture like ease droppers, just catching part of the conversation. We must take time to develop the relationship, to be able to notice the little clues. It requires years of constant interaction for us to understand the meaning behind the words when we interact with people. At first, they may seem a bit harsh or maybe even funny. But as we get to know them, we might find that the people we first gravitated toward are the ones that hurt us, but the ones we thought to be a bit cold might be the most caring people we will ever meet. The same can be said with scripture and with God, we need to take the time to develop the relationship.
How do we perceive Jesus in our minds? Is he stern, angry, laughing, or smiling? Is he hesitant or is he running to you to give you a hug? Is he scary or welcoming? The reality is that he is all those things and none of them. He is who he is. Those things we think he is can be our own projections onto him. We might see him as hesitant because we are hesitant, and slow to open to those around us. We might see him as running up to us to give us a hug because that is what we want to do. We might regard him as smiling because we are smiling. But do we see him laughing, do we imagine Jesus sitting around the fire with his disciples cracking jokes?
Today we see Jesus in a conversation with his disciples. This is part of his farewell discourse. Right after he has washed his disciples’ feet, after the passing of the bread and the cup, after Judas has left to betray him, and before Jesus goes into the garden to pray. He teaches and talks about what will happen, and what they should expect. And the disciples just do not seem to understand.
Jesus says, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip?” Is Jesus annoyed? Is he upset? Is he perplexed that his words are too much for them to grasp? I do not think so. I think Jesus is laughing. Philip asks Jesus to show them the father and that is enough. What exactly has Jesus been doing for the past three years? His laughter might be from a state of distress, but I still see him laughing.
I am sure Philip is being honest. I am sure he does not fully understand the question that he has asked, because there is a great deal of history surrounding God. They had been taught that if they were to see the face of God they would die. That is why God put Moses, their law giver, in the cleft of a rock so that when Moses looked up, he could only see the back of God and not the face. And after that encounter it was said that Moses’ face shown with the Glory of God, and the glowing diminished as time went on. This became such a problem with the people that Moses had to wear a veil because people would look at his face and judge if they would listen based on how brightly his face was glowing. I am oversimplifying this of course, but there are traditions surrounding seeing God.
When Philip makes this statement, all those traditions are right there with it. Can we be like Moses? Will it be evident that we are the chosen people of God? Show us the Father and we too will glow like Moses and the people will believe. He says all of this while Jesus is trying to explain what the true glory of God will be, and Philip is missing the words because he has his own assumptions fogging his mind.
Jesus is telling them that he will suffer, that he will be turned over to the religious and secular leaders and they will crucify him. He is telling them that this will be a good thing, because by doing so he will reveal the glory of God. Even after they had listened to his voice telling them that the bread is his body broken for them and the wine is the blood of the new covenant that he will shed for them, they are missing the meaning of the words. He has told them descriptively and directly what will happen, and in their mind, they are hearing kingdom, conqueror, and conquest. Jesus turned over the tables in the temple, now it is time to take it to the tax collectors.
“Show us the Father,” Philip says, “and it is enough for us.”
I laugh, because I am reading this two thousand years after the fact. I know things that Philip could only dream of knowing. And I have read what comes next. Philip does not have that luxury. He is experiencing this in real time, he cannot push a button to skip the introduction or the recap, but he must sit through everything. And the narrator is not doing a voice over to remind us of what happened last week. It would be nice if there was a voice over that would remind us of things before we move forward and make a fool of ourselves.
Show us the Father. Make us shine like God’s angel army. Let us know God! “How can you say, ‘Show us the Father?’” Jesus asks. I have been showing you the Father since you first saw me. And Philip was present very early. If we were to look at the calling of the disciples, we would find that Peter and Andrew were among the first, along with James and John. But right after them was Philip, and it was Philip that brough Nathanael. When Philip went to get Nathanael he said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Philip said this right after he met Jesus.
Nathanael scoffs, and yet comes to see who this Jesus is, and Jesus says to Nathanael, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” Nathanael is skeptical and asks, “How do you know me?” and Jesus replies I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”
We might think this is just storybook filler, but it is profound. Nathanael knew how far they walked, and he knew who was around. There was no way that Jesus was in the area to have known what he was doing under a fig tree. So immediately Nathanael says, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel.”
Philip’s statement about showing us the Father is not what it may seem on the surface. They know and fully believe that Jesus is the one they have been longing for. They know that he is the Messiah. They know that he was sent by the Father to them and that Jesus speaks the words of life. Philip wants something tangible to prove to the entire world around him that he is right.
If only life was that easy. I truly believe that Jesus is laughing at this point. “Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” At that time, Jesus is becoming the voice over narrator. He is reminding them of everything they had experienced, everything they saw. He is reminding them of that time they were sent out and drove out demons in His name, and how excited they were to see that happen. He is telling them, that was not you but the Father in you just as He is in me. You have already seen the Father. He then says, if you do not believe the words, believe the works themselves.
“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”
Jesus laughs, but he laughs out of the great stress he is facing. They do not understand, and yet they do. They know and yet they do not know. They have this sense that something amazing and terrible will happen. They know. They know that their expectations are not exactly right, they know what they want, and yet they realize that those expectations do not quite fit in the reality they are living in. Jesus is telling them to believe. He is telling them to trust, he is telling them to entrust their lives to the life they have followed for these years while walking by his side and have faith that God is working through the clouds of unknowing.
Jesus laughs, with tears in his eyes and a smile on his face. He knows their only desire is to follow God. That is why Jesus said to Philip’s friend here is a true Israelite. Their only desire is to love God with all they have. Jesus is looking them in the eyes and telling them, you have seen the Father. You have seen Him in every action I have made, you have heard his voice in every statement I have made. You yourselves have experienced him as you have severed alongside me, and you will know him in even greater ways if you listen. You will see even greater things. “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.”
I imagine Jesus grabbing Philip and the others, pulling them into a hug and embracing them as he says these words. He tells them that there are the ways of the world, and the ways of God. And he is challenging them to examine their hearts and to act accordingly. He is encouraging them in his final hours to Love God, embrace the Holy Spirit, and to live the love of Christ with others. He is reminding them to take on his life and lifestyle, to worship together with the community. Encouraging them to love and honor God. To withdraw often to the isolated places to pray and meditate on the scriptures, like Nathanael was doing under the fig tree. And to then live the words out among the community, helping those that need help and encouraging those that need encouragement.
Philip was ready like all the others to take up the sword in the name of God, but Jesus laughs and says you know better. You know that force, control, the manipulation of power is not the way of the Father. You have seen me, you have seen what I do, go and do likewise.
They watched as Jesus went out into the garden to pray. They watched as the soldiers came and arrested him. They watched as they mocked and beat him. They watched as nails were pounded and they heard him cry out “Forgive them”. Philip probably reflected on this conversation shortly after and wondered. What would the world have done? Would the world have acted as Jesus acted in that situation? This conflict raged in his heart and in his mind. Yet in the end if tradition is correct Philip went to the Greek lands and preached. He was also persecuted and faced physical harm for his faith. One tradition says that Philip was crucified alongside his friend Nathanael upside-down outside a town in modern Turkey, and he continued preaching to the crowds as he hung there in his torment.
What do we see when we see Jesus? What do we see when we see Philip? What do we see when we see or remember our parents, or our teachers? What do we see when we look back through our lives and remember all those who encouraged us? What do we see when we gaze upon their faces and why did we respond and respect their words? We respond because they lived with us, they walked with us, they encouraged us and showed us their lives. We remember because they invested their lives into our own. That is what Jesus is telling Philip in that moment. If you want to see the Father, you see him as you share and encourage those in your community to live in faith. It is not the harsh words and actions, but the tender hugs that make the difference. I will always remember the words of my grandmother, not because they were hard (and they were hard) but because those hard words were followed with acts of love. That is the peace the world does not give but desperately needs. Will we show them the Father?
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