Isn't is amazing how a big snow can change everything? Like so many other congregations we canceled services today. The sun was shining but everyone was snowed in or plowed in or not even plowed yet. My husband said there were car-sized mounds of snow strewn along the parkway where people had abandoned their cars. The Federal government is closed tomorrow to allow time to shovel and plow out lots and buildings. All this excitement and Christmas is this week. (Plus they are calling for a freezing mix on Christmas.)
I don't imagine shepherds had to deal with mounds of snow, just white and black sheep who might have been a bit unruly after experiencing the Glory of God and a host of angels. Big things change life very quickly and nothing looks the same on the other side.
I hope our Christmas will be a big thing (not another snow event) that will cause everything to look differently on the other side. Our whole lives are on the 'other side' of the first Christmas and everything IS different. It just takes a reminder to pull us away from the priorities of shoveling and getting out to work and the store. Big events are good things when they cause us to reexamine life.
I trust that all the earth will be blessed with God's big event as we are drawn into a day of remembering and reordering priorities on December 25.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Advent IV, all together now
This Sunday is a special one because in our congregation we have several people scheduled to share music and song. I was working on worship yesterday and realized that it is only slightly different than a 'normal' Sunday. We have so many gifted people who participate in worship that we've only added a couple extras for this Sunday.
The Advent commentaries have drawn me into the whole Christmas story which will be part of the service. We won't hold anything back or worry about repetition on Christmas Eve. There are too many people waiting to hear the good news again so we will tell it with story and song.
Meanwhile, there are so many things to do in my personal life regarding homes and set up and clean up at the 'old house'. But we are getting there and today may be the 'last day' for cleaning. Here's hoping that my personal turn toward Christmas will begin today. Maybe a tree will even get put up and decorated..one day soon.
The Advent commentaries have drawn me into the whole Christmas story which will be part of the service. We won't hold anything back or worry about repetition on Christmas Eve. There are too many people waiting to hear the good news again so we will tell it with story and song.
Meanwhile, there are so many things to do in my personal life regarding homes and set up and clean up at the 'old house'. But we are getting there and today may be the 'last day' for cleaning. Here's hoping that my personal turn toward Christmas will begin today. Maybe a tree will even get put up and decorated..one day soon.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Advent Questions; Why the pink?
My thoughts for tomorrow's sermon:
Church traditions in the Advent and Christmas seasons can be a bit mysterious. Today I plan to unlock a few of the mysteries. Even calling the season Advent or Christmas makes a difference in church circles. We are in ADVENT, the ‘season’ of Christmas begins at Christmas and extends until Jan 6 which is the day of epiphany. (Epiphany is always Jan. 6 whether or not it is a Sunday. We tend to celebrate it on a Sunday near by.)
The Advent Wreath is another tradition. We are used to seeing the wreath and it’s pretty purple candles and that one odd pink candle. Why the pink candle?
You may know the answer, pink is for joy. (roses; joy of being here 1 year) Even knowing that pink is for joy, did you ever wonder how a pink candle ended up in the wreath among the purple?
• First you need to know a little more about Advent. The season of advent was modeled on the church season of Lent as a time of penitence and reflection leading up to Christmas the way Lent gives us a special time to prepare for Easter.
• In early Lenten seasons, fasting was a big part of the tradition. The church decided that since Lent holds the hint of hope since resurrection is the essence of Easter, there should be a break in the fasting and a FEAST should be celebrated.
o On that Feast day, the Pope began to give someone in the congregation a PINK ROSE.
o Later, pink vestments were worn and other things in pink became inserted into the Royal Purple of Lent.
When ADVENT began, the Pink day among the purple days was continued so we have a PINK candle in the wreath of PURPLE candles to recall the JOY of that comes at Christmas.
I can’t promise to answer all your questions today but here’s another one:
Why do we read so many passages from the Prophets, specifically why today’s text from ZEPHANIAH?
The prophetic message has always been a big part of Christmas. When people experienced Christ, they recognized him as the fulfillment of prophecy. So we return to Isaiah and Zephaniah, Micah, Jeremiah and others to hear their words predicting destruction and yet promising a reason for hope, in light of the story of Jesus’ birth.
ADVENT MAY BE THE ONLY TIME WE CAN REALLY STAND TO HEAR THE PROPHETS. “Prophets say what no one wants to hear or believe. They point in directions no one wants to look. Prophets heard God when every else concluded God was or is silent. Prophets see God when nobody else does and they feel God’s presence when everyone else is numb.
Prophets also feel God’s compassion, anger, and joy. They dream God’s dreams and utter a wak up call to us. They hope God’s hopes and announce a new future even while we are still in the bleak present. Prophets will God’s will and live it against all odds. They sing GOD’s SONG and sometimes interrupt our program with a change of tune.” Deborah Block wrote those insightful words about prophets and her message is true about Zephaniah.
Zephaniah prophesied at the time of King Josiah of Judah (2 kingdoms, north and south). King Josiah became king when he was 8 years old Some scholars believe Zephaniah prophesied in the early years of his reign when Judah’s idolatry, corruption and injustice were severe. When King Josiah was 18, the high priest found a book of LAW in the temple while it was undergoing repairs that showed them how far God’s people had strayed from God’s teaching. Josiah’s reform in 621 BCE returned Torah observance to the center of life.
Often we can’t identify with ancient Judah and Israel. It was so “long ago and far away.” Yet we can identify with corruption and injustice. I saw a movie on TV recently about modern slave trade where young women traveling alone were followed and ‘taken’ captive. They were brutalized and kept as sex slaves, a pure money-making operations for their “owners.” It is easy to see the owners and perpetrators as evil but what of the people who bought women or used women and enabled the business of slaves to be so profitable.
It doesn’t take news reading or watching for us to think that the pride, idolatry and corruption of Josiah’s time is not so different than our time. It’s just that many of us are insulated from the horror. It takes a movie or tragic news story to wake us up and realize the problem is real. When we do face the reality, we can feel helpless to do anything about it. Slave trade, starvation, medicines held from needy people because of religious differences, walls built between countries; there are so many stories of desperate people and desperate acts that we get overwhelmed by the images.
That God judges and laments the way of humanity is as real today as ever. God is not absent from the pain of rape, poverty, and killing rages. God hates it as much today as in the time of Zephaniah.
We must hear his finger-point condemnation and accept our parts in the evil of the world. We bear a sense of guilt for whatever part our silence adds to the horror or where our piece of the material chain means some child is abused in factory work. We have to accept that our preference for ignoring the stories behind our goods and products is merely a way of escaping reality, it doesn’t change that reality for people who are suffering.
There comes a time when we must realize that however innocent our behavior is, we are all accomplices in the ways of human and that we deserve the harsh judgment of the prophets. We can appreciate their longing for justice to be restores and people healed. WE TOO long for a time when wars will cease and people will stop hurting each other.
All this prophetic judgment leads us to a final question;
WHERE IS THE JOY in this 3rd Sunday of advent? Where can we look for the joy of the pink candle in the midst of the longing for wholeness, justice and peace on earth?
Joy comes for Zephaniah as he looks ahead to a remnant being preserved from the destruction that will come.
Joy comes as we realize “God comes and is WITH US, Immanuel, and God’s presence among God’s peple makes all the difference.
Joy comes from our hope, that life will not always be held captive by evil and that we will and DO glimpse moments when people act with love.
1. We know there are times when compassion rules the day
2. When giving triumphs over stealing
3. When life is more important that killing and
4. Love overcomes hate.
Our joy is rooted in the experience of the life that is born at Christmas.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is a statue about 19” high of the Virgin and Child. I read that it was purchased in 1858 in Paris and is made very simply. No one knows who made it.
When people see it they laugh. People laugh because the child is laughing. The baby Jesus is looking at you as you look at him, and HE IS LAUGHING. Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
Our joy is rooted in the Christ who is, who was, and who is to come. It’s not that we have escaped most of the horror of the world, but that the horror can be stopped each time someone experiences the God in our midst and repents, TURNS around, and lives differently. Only God can intiative that kind of redemption. Our joy is in knowing that God Rules and reaches out thru people like us to bring change.
That’s the joy we see and it’s where our hope lies. That our simple acts of kindness multiplied by God’s endless love, can make a difference. When lives are restored to right relationship with God, new life is born.
We need the PINK candle to remind us of joy even when we are experiencing the hopelessness of evil.
‘but’ if you will allow me one more question;
We might ask, is that all there is? The HOPE of joy while we wait?
Actually, there IS more.
It is the picture Zephaniah paints of God’s Joy, “God as the one who bursts into song with joy over God’s beloved: (v. 17-18) “GOD will rejoice OVER YOU with gladness, GOD will renew you in his love; GOD will exult over you with loud singing.”
This is not God at a distance but God so intentionally involved in humanity that Divine Love is birthed into a human and IT – GIVES - GOD – JOY!.
Picture the scene in pink if you will, God, laughing with us in delightful joy.
The God who knows us so well that God forgives our Unfaithfulness and our love affair with things,
God forgives our complacency and corruption,
God’ forgives all the injustice of the ages,
EVEN the execution of the gift of Jesus.
THIS God rejoices when relationship is restored between human and The Divine.
THIS God rejoices when we act with love and we allow
DIVINE COMPASSION to be BORN IN US.
THIS is our wonderful God, the source of our Joy, because we are the source of God’s joy.
Church traditions in the Advent and Christmas seasons can be a bit mysterious. Today I plan to unlock a few of the mysteries. Even calling the season Advent or Christmas makes a difference in church circles. We are in ADVENT, the ‘season’ of Christmas begins at Christmas and extends until Jan 6 which is the day of epiphany. (Epiphany is always Jan. 6 whether or not it is a Sunday. We tend to celebrate it on a Sunday near by.)
The Advent Wreath is another tradition. We are used to seeing the wreath and it’s pretty purple candles and that one odd pink candle. Why the pink candle?
You may know the answer, pink is for joy. (roses; joy of being here 1 year) Even knowing that pink is for joy, did you ever wonder how a pink candle ended up in the wreath among the purple?
• First you need to know a little more about Advent. The season of advent was modeled on the church season of Lent as a time of penitence and reflection leading up to Christmas the way Lent gives us a special time to prepare for Easter.
• In early Lenten seasons, fasting was a big part of the tradition. The church decided that since Lent holds the hint of hope since resurrection is the essence of Easter, there should be a break in the fasting and a FEAST should be celebrated.
o On that Feast day, the Pope began to give someone in the congregation a PINK ROSE.
o Later, pink vestments were worn and other things in pink became inserted into the Royal Purple of Lent.
When ADVENT began, the Pink day among the purple days was continued so we have a PINK candle in the wreath of PURPLE candles to recall the JOY of that comes at Christmas.
I can’t promise to answer all your questions today but here’s another one:
Why do we read so many passages from the Prophets, specifically why today’s text from ZEPHANIAH?
The prophetic message has always been a big part of Christmas. When people experienced Christ, they recognized him as the fulfillment of prophecy. So we return to Isaiah and Zephaniah, Micah, Jeremiah and others to hear their words predicting destruction and yet promising a reason for hope, in light of the story of Jesus’ birth.
ADVENT MAY BE THE ONLY TIME WE CAN REALLY STAND TO HEAR THE PROPHETS. “Prophets say what no one wants to hear or believe. They point in directions no one wants to look. Prophets heard God when every else concluded God was or is silent. Prophets see God when nobody else does and they feel God’s presence when everyone else is numb.
Prophets also feel God’s compassion, anger, and joy. They dream God’s dreams and utter a wak up call to us. They hope God’s hopes and announce a new future even while we are still in the bleak present. Prophets will God’s will and live it against all odds. They sing GOD’s SONG and sometimes interrupt our program with a change of tune.” Deborah Block wrote those insightful words about prophets and her message is true about Zephaniah.
Zephaniah prophesied at the time of King Josiah of Judah (2 kingdoms, north and south). King Josiah became king when he was 8 years old Some scholars believe Zephaniah prophesied in the early years of his reign when Judah’s idolatry, corruption and injustice were severe. When King Josiah was 18, the high priest found a book of LAW in the temple while it was undergoing repairs that showed them how far God’s people had strayed from God’s teaching. Josiah’s reform in 621 BCE returned Torah observance to the center of life.
Often we can’t identify with ancient Judah and Israel. It was so “long ago and far away.” Yet we can identify with corruption and injustice. I saw a movie on TV recently about modern slave trade where young women traveling alone were followed and ‘taken’ captive. They were brutalized and kept as sex slaves, a pure money-making operations for their “owners.” It is easy to see the owners and perpetrators as evil but what of the people who bought women or used women and enabled the business of slaves to be so profitable.
It doesn’t take news reading or watching for us to think that the pride, idolatry and corruption of Josiah’s time is not so different than our time. It’s just that many of us are insulated from the horror. It takes a movie or tragic news story to wake us up and realize the problem is real. When we do face the reality, we can feel helpless to do anything about it. Slave trade, starvation, medicines held from needy people because of religious differences, walls built between countries; there are so many stories of desperate people and desperate acts that we get overwhelmed by the images.
That God judges and laments the way of humanity is as real today as ever. God is not absent from the pain of rape, poverty, and killing rages. God hates it as much today as in the time of Zephaniah.
We must hear his finger-point condemnation and accept our parts in the evil of the world. We bear a sense of guilt for whatever part our silence adds to the horror or where our piece of the material chain means some child is abused in factory work. We have to accept that our preference for ignoring the stories behind our goods and products is merely a way of escaping reality, it doesn’t change that reality for people who are suffering.
There comes a time when we must realize that however innocent our behavior is, we are all accomplices in the ways of human and that we deserve the harsh judgment of the prophets. We can appreciate their longing for justice to be restores and people healed. WE TOO long for a time when wars will cease and people will stop hurting each other.
All this prophetic judgment leads us to a final question;
WHERE IS THE JOY in this 3rd Sunday of advent? Where can we look for the joy of the pink candle in the midst of the longing for wholeness, justice and peace on earth?
Joy comes for Zephaniah as he looks ahead to a remnant being preserved from the destruction that will come.
Joy comes as we realize “God comes and is WITH US, Immanuel, and God’s presence among God’s peple makes all the difference.
Joy comes from our hope, that life will not always be held captive by evil and that we will and DO glimpse moments when people act with love.
1. We know there are times when compassion rules the day
2. When giving triumphs over stealing
3. When life is more important that killing and
4. Love overcomes hate.
Our joy is rooted in the experience of the life that is born at Christmas.
In the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, is a statue about 19” high of the Virgin and Child. I read that it was purchased in 1858 in Paris and is made very simply. No one knows who made it.
When people see it they laugh. People laugh because the child is laughing. The baby Jesus is looking at you as you look at him, and HE IS LAUGHING. Joy to the world, the Lord has come.
Our joy is rooted in the Christ who is, who was, and who is to come. It’s not that we have escaped most of the horror of the world, but that the horror can be stopped each time someone experiences the God in our midst and repents, TURNS around, and lives differently. Only God can intiative that kind of redemption. Our joy is in knowing that God Rules and reaches out thru people like us to bring change.
That’s the joy we see and it’s where our hope lies. That our simple acts of kindness multiplied by God’s endless love, can make a difference. When lives are restored to right relationship with God, new life is born.
We need the PINK candle to remind us of joy even when we are experiencing the hopelessness of evil.
‘but’ if you will allow me one more question;
We might ask, is that all there is? The HOPE of joy while we wait?
Actually, there IS more.
It is the picture Zephaniah paints of God’s Joy, “God as the one who bursts into song with joy over God’s beloved: (v. 17-18) “GOD will rejoice OVER YOU with gladness, GOD will renew you in his love; GOD will exult over you with loud singing.”
This is not God at a distance but God so intentionally involved in humanity that Divine Love is birthed into a human and IT – GIVES - GOD – JOY!.
Picture the scene in pink if you will, God, laughing with us in delightful joy.
The God who knows us so well that God forgives our Unfaithfulness and our love affair with things,
God forgives our complacency and corruption,
God’ forgives all the injustice of the ages,
EVEN the execution of the gift of Jesus.
THIS God rejoices when relationship is restored between human and The Divine.
THIS God rejoices when we act with love and we allow
DIVINE COMPASSION to be BORN IN US.
THIS is our wonderful God, the source of our Joy, because we are the source of God’s joy.
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Christmas Repeats
So how is it that one keeps finding things to say about the Christmas texts? I've not done that many advent sermons but the themes repeat so I guess the 'trick' is developing them in different ways, different stories of the stories. Creative worship should help, even if I repeat a thing or two.
Meanwhile, snow has me feeling more like Christmas among the boxes that are still piled high at the house. But oh how nice it was to drive over to the church during the heavy snow this afternoon. Very, very nice to be so close.
The move is very disorienting. I guess 22 years in one place tends to make one feel strange to move. Still, I can't help but wonder if increasing age makes the feeling worse. I see it in elderly who have to move and I'm feeling a bit of it myself. There's joyful surprises too, like finding old pictures and discovering things in the back of the closet. Then sad stuff, like the dishes that broke. And needing so many, SO MANY rolls of shelf paper.
I'm ready to watch a Christmas movie, and drink tea. But there's more to finish in the kitchen. I'm determined to get a bit more done tonight even if my ankle hurts.
Snow does seem to make things magical.
Meanwhile, snow has me feeling more like Christmas among the boxes that are still piled high at the house. But oh how nice it was to drive over to the church during the heavy snow this afternoon. Very, very nice to be so close.
The move is very disorienting. I guess 22 years in one place tends to make one feel strange to move. Still, I can't help but wonder if increasing age makes the feeling worse. I see it in elderly who have to move and I'm feeling a bit of it myself. There's joyful surprises too, like finding old pictures and discovering things in the back of the closet. Then sad stuff, like the dishes that broke. And needing so many, SO MANY rolls of shelf paper.
I'm ready to watch a Christmas movie, and drink tea. But there's more to finish in the kitchen. I'm determined to get a bit more done tonight even if my ankle hurts.
Snow does seem to make things magical.
Friday, November 27, 2009
Blogging my head straight into a sermon.
I'm hoping that putting my thoughts into today's post will help me get a start on this week's sermon. So far the texts have been simmering in my mind while I've read some very good commentaries. Leonard Beechy wrote very good stuff for Christian Century's Reflections, "Living The Word". These Advent One texts are not what people expect. I decided to preach them in agreement with what Beechy wrote, 'The outlandish language of apocalypse is for people like us."
Signs of time to come are all around us, Jesus said. Fig trees or any tree tell the story of what is to come. He saw the sign of his own destruction and like prophets before him, he saw the sign of Jerusalem's destruction. To this day Jesus 'sees' the sign of our destruction. We make our own destruction imminent when we vote for policies that legislate inequality. The sign of the ever widening gap better haves and have nots is as visible as a tree in leaf. The sign of people desperate for health care and willing to do anything to get medical attention for their sick family members couldn't be more visible. In fact the only less visible sign is that of war; a war we've been in longer than WWII. Even though it hasn't been 'in our face' it kills and destroys while we continue to suffer as we pay for it. What is wrong with this picture? Everything.
Where do we find hope in our world or in these texts? The signs of Jesus' advent are mixed in with the push to purchase Christmas gifts and stimulate the economy. The sign that God has entered into humanity in the form of a child, the weakest most vulnerable creature on earth is a promise to us still. There is hope in each person who faces another day and says I will make a difference in my world, even if it doesn't seem like much to others. Each person who offers aid, disaster relief or effort on a work camp gives us a positive sign. I believe that each recycled bottle helps to save the world. I believe that we graduate to larger acts of compassion from little ones and that each loving act helps to change us as much as others.
There is hope this Christmas because I am part of a community that works hard to reach out to people in need, locally and nationally. People who respond with care and compassion are signs of the times for me. I see the trees around me budding with leaves in the midst of winter and these signs are at the center of my hope. Jesus' people ARE signs of what can be. They- you, are my hope.
Signs of time to come are all around us, Jesus said. Fig trees or any tree tell the story of what is to come. He saw the sign of his own destruction and like prophets before him, he saw the sign of Jerusalem's destruction. To this day Jesus 'sees' the sign of our destruction. We make our own destruction imminent when we vote for policies that legislate inequality. The sign of the ever widening gap better haves and have nots is as visible as a tree in leaf. The sign of people desperate for health care and willing to do anything to get medical attention for their sick family members couldn't be more visible. In fact the only less visible sign is that of war; a war we've been in longer than WWII. Even though it hasn't been 'in our face' it kills and destroys while we continue to suffer as we pay for it. What is wrong with this picture? Everything.
Where do we find hope in our world or in these texts? The signs of Jesus' advent are mixed in with the push to purchase Christmas gifts and stimulate the economy. The sign that God has entered into humanity in the form of a child, the weakest most vulnerable creature on earth is a promise to us still. There is hope in each person who faces another day and says I will make a difference in my world, even if it doesn't seem like much to others. Each person who offers aid, disaster relief or effort on a work camp gives us a positive sign. I believe that each recycled bottle helps to save the world. I believe that we graduate to larger acts of compassion from little ones and that each loving act helps to change us as much as others.
There is hope this Christmas because I am part of a community that works hard to reach out to people in need, locally and nationally. People who respond with care and compassion are signs of the times for me. I see the trees around me budding with leaves in the midst of winter and these signs are at the center of my hope. Jesus' people ARE signs of what can be. They- you, are my hope.
Monday, November 23, 2009
Looking At Advent
Today is the first day of Advent for me. I know Advent doesn't really start until Sunday, but today I begin looking at those texts in earnest. (Which means in greater detail than just choosing which texts I'll preach on and what hymns we will sing.)
I will try to embed the link to Prof. Matt Skinner of Luther Seminary talking about Advent texts for Luke (Year C) or put it to the side. Listening to him makes me glad I attended a Lutheran Seminary (Gettysburg) because it helps me understand a context that is not always found in progressive Brethren churches; Christ's 2nd coming.
Now you wouldn't think the 2nd Coming would be a topic for the celebration of Jesus' 1st coming. But it is for Lectionary year C. My sermon title is planned to be, "This Year Give Hope" and reading Luke 21:25-36 I have trouble finding the hope. I have some ideas about making Christmas celebrations real and bringing our hope from 'Disney-movie' expectation to reality. My ideas need a good bit of simmering to reach the point of sermon delivery. Meanwhile, my life mirrors the chaos of Luke 21, or so it seems as I look around this morning.
I'm surrounded by boxes and have so many more to pack. (Getting the boxes takes as long as packing them.) I'm about to contract with movers for one week from today. There's a house to get ready for renters when all this does get moved. It all seems quite impossible and yet I'm living with hope. I still hope and plan for the move to happen next Monday. And, as impossible as it seems right now, I am working toward that day.
hmmmm maybe there's a sermon in there. . .
I will try to embed the link to Prof. Matt Skinner of Luther Seminary talking about Advent texts for Luke (Year C) or put it to the side. Listening to him makes me glad I attended a Lutheran Seminary (Gettysburg) because it helps me understand a context that is not always found in progressive Brethren churches; Christ's 2nd coming.
Now you wouldn't think the 2nd Coming would be a topic for the celebration of Jesus' 1st coming. But it is for Lectionary year C. My sermon title is planned to be, "This Year Give Hope" and reading Luke 21:25-36 I have trouble finding the hope. I have some ideas about making Christmas celebrations real and bringing our hope from 'Disney-movie' expectation to reality. My ideas need a good bit of simmering to reach the point of sermon delivery. Meanwhile, my life mirrors the chaos of Luke 21, or so it seems as I look around this morning.
I'm surrounded by boxes and have so many more to pack. (Getting the boxes takes as long as packing them.) I'm about to contract with movers for one week from today. There's a house to get ready for renters when all this does get moved. It all seems quite impossible and yet I'm living with hope. I still hope and plan for the move to happen next Monday. And, as impossible as it seems right now, I am working toward that day.
hmmmm maybe there's a sermon in there. . .
Saturday, November 21, 2009
The Whole Truth
Consider Pilate. I want you to try to identify with him, not feel sorry for him, or get angry with him, but for just a few moments, try to put yourself in his shoes. If you will navigage to Ralph Milton's Rumors
you will find a great portrayal of Pilate's wife's version of Sunday's text, Jesus' trail before Pilate.
I can’t help but wonder if she was right. I wonder if Pilate and Jesus could have identified with each other if they had met under different circumstances?
On Sunday, 11/22, we end the Church year AND prepare for it’s beginning by celebrating the REIGN of CHRIST.
We do so by recognizing that Jesus’ reign wasn’t recognized during his time. His Kingdom, as he said, is not of this world. Hear the dialogue between the two: (now that you have the perspective of Pilate’s wife from which to hear the story.)
(John 18: 33-38)
Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and said to him, “You are the King of the Judeans.”
Jesus answered, “Do you say this on your own, or did others tell you about me?”
Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?”
Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be violently contending[i] to keep me from being handed over to the Judeans. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.”
Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?”
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth hears my voice.”
Pilate asked him, “What is truth?”
After he had said this, he went out to the Jews again and told them, “I find no case against him.
Pilate needs to know if Jesus is a threat to him and his little piece of the Roman kingdom. Perhaps others might see Jesus’ as a minor disturbance, not hardly a threat. But Pilate has faced trouble before from these Judeans. He is not above a little paranoia about how this particular disagreement could turn into a major revolt.
Can you put yourself in his shoes?
He sees that Jesus has incurred the wrath of the Judean Officials,
As the governing authority for ALL the people in the territory, he has a few options.
- He can determine if there is a valid case against Jesus, for which he can apply punishment.
- He can evaluate if Jesus is of any political use to him.
- He can work WITH the Judeans, possibly making them indebted to him
- He can even decide if Jesus really has a kingdom and how that fits (if it fits) into his world.
Barbara Brown Taylor calls Jesus a mirror (in this story):
She says the dialogue that day between Pilate and Jesus
“involved a collision between religion and politics. While Pilate and the chief priests conspired to solve their mutual problem
while managing to remain enemies,
Jesus stood at the center of the stage like a mirror in which all those around him saw themselves clearly for who they were.”
She challenges us to look into that same mirror, “One way we Christians have avoided seeing our own reflections. . . is to pretend that this is a story about Romans and Jews. As long as they remain the villains, then we are off the hook -- or so we think.”[ii]
We may not preside over trials, nor anything as significant as what Pilate faced, yet moments come when we are faced with the truth, and the opportunity to decide for truth.
All Thru Jesus’ trial, the world (as represented by the Judeans AND Pilate) operates on self-serving versions of the truth. The WORLD (THEIR world) “supposes it has placed Jesus on trial and condemned him by its own criteria. .” When we move from identifying with Pilate to identifying with Jesus, OUR KING, we recognize that it was “the world on trial that day and in condemning Jesus, it condemns itself.”[iii]
It all hinges on how WE view the truth.
For the Judeans, the high priests and leaders of the People who are Jesus’ opponents, the truth is expressed in chapter 11 when this same high priest, Caiaphas says,
“You do not understand that it is better for you to have one man die for the people than to have the whole nation destroyed.” (11:50)
This is THEIR truth. They need to keep power and control because in their ‘truth’, only keeping control will protect the people. AND save their own interests. Therefore, no threat to their power can be tolerated .
For Pilate, Truth is the potential that any political situation can evolve into a revolt that will get back to his superiors and ruin his reputation. Perhaps even resulting in his removal from office. (Which history tells us does happen later.)
Truth is Pilate’s power over everyone in the territory, the power of life and death and yet it is THIS power that Jesus’ rejects.
Jesus’ compares the truth of the world’s kingdom and its violence when he explains that IF his kingdom WERE of this world, violence WOULD be used to gain his release. But that is NOT the case.
Jesus’ power is not based on violence, his kingdom is not from this world, his truth is not based on relative position or political power.
For people in power, truth is what they make it. We see it in our time too.
- Truth can be any statement that is repeated enough times until people believe it.
- Truth can depend on which news channel you watch or which newspaper you read. It should not be so, and in
- a court, we trust that ‘truth’ does come out. But for people my age, we have learned to have doubts about what people call ‘truth’.
Truth is a major theme in John’s gospel.[iv] (25x’s in John)
Jesus says,
“Those who do what is TRUE come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.” (3:210
“The hour is coming , and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. .”
Jesus said, “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. . he will take what is mine and declare it to you.” (4:23-24)
Pilate’s mistake is in assuming that truth is a ‘what’ that can be clearly stated.
This is not the understanding in John’s gospel.
Jesus’ doesn’t teach the truth, he doesn’t ‘have’ the truth, Jesus’ is not just a great teacher who conveys ‘great truths’.[v]
JESUS gives himself.
He said, “If you continue IN MY WORD, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will make you free.” (v. 8:31-32)
TRUTH Is a ‘who, not a ‘what’.
“Truth is a personal encounter and a relationship with the Holy Spirit who guides’ ALL the disciples of Jesus into ‘truth’.
TRUTH is doing, it is ethics and following what we term, ‘God’s will’ or what is later called ‘Jesus’ Way’.
For Pilate, “Truth is not an axiom that can be proven. Truth is the one who stands on trial before him.[vi]
We have to answer Pilate’s question, What is truth?
We can not avoid choosing between the truth of the world and Jesus’ truth by saying this story is about Romans and Judeans.
We can walk in someone else’s shoes to see if THEY recognize truth.
We can analyze situations and make decisions based on the world’s truth.
But we can only Know What Truth Is by Knowing Jesus and Following Him.
Unless we know ‘truth’ in the person of Jesus’ - we will never understand the paradox that makes Jesus’ crucifixion ALSO his exaltation.
Jesus is ENTHRONED on the cross.
That contradiction in terms is as the heart of Jesus’ truth.
It makes this story that leads up to his crucifixion, the perfect story for “Christ The King Sunday.”
When we know Jesus.
When we are baptized into his community,
Then TRUTH is at the heart of WHO we ARE.
All The truth of Jesus life, his priority on the poor, his rejection of violence, his embracing people of all kinds and his ‘telling the truth’ to people who thought they had the power of life and death over him,
ALL this, is the truth of Jesus’ Kingdom.
This Truth makes a difference in our lives and they way we live it, and it comes at a very high cost.
Giving up the priorities of the world,
Even giving up life itself, is HOW Jesus’ Reigns.
Pilate, poor, poor Pilate, with all his wealth and power, he couldn’t pay the high cost of entering this Kingdom.
He didn’t see THE truth.
DO WE?
[ii] Barbara Brown Taylor Barbara Brown Taylor teaches at Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga. This article appeared in the Christian Century, March 18-25, 1998, page 283; copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.
[iii] Boring and Craddock, People’s New Testament Commentary (Louisville: WJK, 2004) p. 349
[iv] Boring and Craddock, see above, p. 350
[v] Boring and Craddock see above p. 350
[vi] Paul Berge, Emeritus Professor of NT at Luther Seminary on Working Preacher.org
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