I Am

In the beginning, God was just called “God”. Everyone knew who He was, because there were no other Gods. We all knew who “God” was—the all powerful, all present Being who made heaven and earth. But in the period of time between creation and Moses, things changed. People invented imaginary gods made in their own image. They worshipped gods that resembled things in the heaven above and the earth below. For example: The ancient Canaanites and Assyrians had a god who looked like a bull. The ancient Babylonians worshipped a lion god. The Greeks had gods who looked like people. The Egyptians had many gods in many forms—frogs, snakes, cats, and jackals. Some worshipped the sun, others worshipped the moon. The number of gods went into the thousands. This presented a problem for the ancient Israelites. What should they call the one true God to distinguish Him from the false? That was why Moses asked God, while standing beside the burning bush, “When they ask me ’who sent you’ what shall I say.” He couldn’t go back to Egypt and simply say “God sent me.” There were too many gods. So God took a name, so that everyone would recognize him as the only true God. The name he took in Hebrew was “Ye wah, he ye wah,”--“I am that I am.” He said “Tell them ‘I am’ has sent you.” Over the years, this word became simply spelled by consonants YHWH. Today, we pronounce it Yahweh, or Jehovah. It’s a name appropriate to no one else. Everything else exists because God wanted it to exist. Everything else has a purpose. God has no purpose. He has no reason. He is God, simply because He is. He is His own reason for existence. That is the simplest, most basic claim about God we can possibly make—He is. Flash forward fourteen hundred years. Jesus is arguing with the Pharisees. He is standing in the temple of the Jews, the sanctuary of YHWH God. These experts knew the Old Testament backwards and forwards. Many of them had memorized every word of it. They argued with Jesus over who He was. In the course of that argument Jesus said. “Abraham waited to see my day, and was glad.” They said. "You are not yet fifty years old, yet you claim to have seen Abraham!" "I tell you the truth," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I AM!" Can their be any doubt that Jesus was claiming to be God? It is no wonder that they picked up rocks to stone him for blasphemy! At this attack, Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds. Now isn’t this a curious thing? He reveals Himself in the temple and they want to stone him. Jesus is forced to slip quietly away. Meanwhile, the priests go on sacrificing and the Rabbis go on praying, oblivious to the fact that God just slipped out the door. The Pharisees to teach the people of the same God they just rejected. What irony! Here is a temple full of religious professionals, yet God showed up in their midst and they ran Him away. We have to wonder if this happened today, would we run Jesus away, too? We are two thousand years from Biblical times. God speaks to us now through His word, we say. We have taken His words and bundled them into thick black books, summarized them into catechisms and confessions, squeezed them like lemons and into creeds. We have mixed them with our words and made sermons. But the more we explain and summarize and systematize, the more we get away from their perfect simplicity. All that Jesus spoke and did was to show us that He was God, and what God is like. He is who He is. His presence is the essence of our faith. As long as things are going our way, we acknowledge His existence. But when things stop going our way, we stop believing. We act as if God exists, but only when we see Him. When good fortune happens, we thank God. When misfortune occurs we doubt His existence. God always exists. So why should we be so surprised when He shows up? Why should we not look for His hand in everything and everywhere? God exists all the time, but He does not choose to always reveal Himself. Most of the time, God conceals Himself in natural processes, so as not to overwhelm us through His presence. Just as God took human form in Jesus, concealing His divinity so He could reveal His love, God takes natural form in the course of the seasons, in the healing processes of the body, or in the laws of physical nature. God reveals Himself in nature through its balance and timing. Nature works too well to be pure coincidence. If the world were only a few thousand miles closer to the sun, or farther away, we would freeze or burn up. If the world were tilted a few degrees more, most of the world would be uninhabitable. If the atmosphere were thicker or thinner, if gravity were stronger or weaker, we would not exist. God has created just the right balance of forces to make life happen. This natural miracle is not an obvious one, but it is real. But ever so often, God reveals His hand through miracles. Those who think the age of miracles is over are foolish. The Pharisees made a similar assumption in their time and God proved them wrong. Those who think that God has to do miracles are equally foolish. We can’t make God appear like a genie in a lamp, by saying a few magic words. But God did one miracle that surpassed all the others. He appeared in human form. On that day in the temple I Am, announced His existence in human form. The greatest issue the church has faced over the ages was who Jesus was. This verse makes it clear that He was God. Not just the son of God, or an angel of God, but I Am. Jesus was God. God Himself died on the cross for us. He Himself paid the price for ou sins. God condescended to be a person. He went even lower, making Hmself of no reputation, and enduring crucifixion for us. He did this so that we would be free from sin. He gave His life in exchange for our sin. Can there be any greater act of love than this? Jesus is the greatest appearance of God of all. He made Himself known on earth in human form, to give us love and instruction. If we believe in Him, we have everlasting life. If we do not believe in Him, we have everlasting death. It does not matter if we are religious or irreligious. All that matters is that we recognize Him when we see Him. Now what does that have to do with us? First, it shows us just how much God loves us. God did not send an emissary to save us. He came Himself. He took upon Himself the burden of releasing us from our sins. Second, It shows us what God is like. We know what God would do by watching what Jesus would do. He was fair, honest, truthful, compassionate, and open. He gave us the sermon on the mount, the Lord’s prayer, and the parables as revelations of God’s eternal truth. Third, it show us that the world has a purpose and meaning. God came in the fullness of time. He planned that coming. He even planned His dying. If God planned his life on earth, surely he also planned our lives. Think about the situation you are in right now, whether you are suffering or satisfied. If God has blessed you, do you see the hand of God behind it? Do you get down on your knees ever day and thank Him for the blessings that have come your way. Or think of how you are suffering, those unique trials in your life. God has not ceased to be, nor has his ultimate goal changed. Ultimately, He reveals His hand in our suffering. It is up for us to see His presence, while it is concealed in negative circumstances.Jesus is God. He was not just th son of God, but God the son. God intends us to live in that knowledge all of our lives.

The True Vine

In John 15:1-4, there is a sentence that is doesn’t seem to belong. "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. Why in the middle of a paragraph explaining the vine and the branches, do we have verse 3--You are already clean by the word I have spoken to you? It doesn’t’ fit the context. Try reading the paragraph without this verse and you’ll see. Why is it there? One possibility is that it was a slip of the pen. Some copyist’s eyes wandered over to another page, causing him to inadvertently copies something that belonged somewhere else. This explanation does not satisfy. How could he make such a mistake? There’s no other place in John that is even remotely like this. Only one other passage uses the word “clean”--in John 13. Peter says “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus insists. Then Peter says “Then not only my feet, but my hands and my head as well. Jesus replies “He who is washed does not need to wash again. And you are clean.” It is similar. But it is not close enough to be the same statement. Another explanation is that the words are authentic, but that they have nothing to do wih the passage. Maybe Jesus was in the middle of one thought, and another thought occurred to him. Suddenly, halfway through the discussion of vines and branches, Jesus decided to tell them they were clean. I can’t believe Jesus would just through in a random phrase in the middle of a paragraph, nor would John throw something in that didn’t belong. It sticks out like a sore thumb. No, the only reason this is here is because Jesus wanted it to be here. It was no accident. It has something important to say about this concept of the vine and the branches. “You are clean because of the words I have spoken to you.“ He was not talking about physical cleanliness but ritual or moral cleanliness. It was a constant theme to the Jews of Jesus’ day. They not only believed that cleanliness was next to godliness as Wesley said, but that cleanliness was godliness. It was the root of all their ritual. Spiritual cleanliness was at the root of temple sacrifices. The lambs sacrificed in the temple had to be clean. Their sacrifice cleansed the people. It was at the root of their diet restrictions. There were “clean” and “unclean” animals. This goes all the way back to Noah and the ark. It was at the root of the Law. The reason they did not wear mixed fabrics or trim the corner of their beard was because this was “unclean.” It was not kosher. It was at the root of their elaborate bathing rituals. At Qumron in Israel was a monastery from Jesus’ time run by a group of Jews called the Essenes. In the ruins of Qumron are no less than seven ritual baths, with seven steps each. They bathed three or four time a day, not for the prevention of disease but for the washing away of sin. Faced with this obsession, it is amazing that Jesus did not have more to say about it. He ignored the extreme Sabbath rules. His disciples ate without washing their hands. He hung around with people who were considered unclean. Even in this one book the only two references to cleanliness are Jesus saying “You are clean. You are clean.” I have known people who are obsessed with cleanliness as a ritual. Some of them were obsessive-compulsive--obsessed in a way having nothing to do with morality or cleanliness. Others want to be just clean enough to pass. How dirty can they be, and still go to heaven? Can they drink? Can they smoke? What curse words can they use and still be acceptable to God? Can they run around on their spouses, and still be clean enough for God to accept them into their kingdom? If they ask forgiveness, will they be acceptable? Our language reflects this. If we pass a drug test, we are “clean.” If we pass a background check, then we are “clean.” Many Christians labor under the mistaken assumption that religion is about being clean. If we do not commit sins, then are clean, no matter what we think about doing. If we commit sins, and we atone for it or seek forgiveness, then we are clean again, and we pass the test. It’s all about the cleanliness test, you see. Jesus has good news for us. You are clean! If you hear the Word of God and believe His promises, you are clean. You don’t have to be obsessing about being right and wrong. But to Jesus, this is only the beginning. The real question is now if we are clean, but if we abide? Living things clean themselves. Dead bodies have to be cleaned. Maybe the reason we have such an obsession with cleanliness is because we are not living. Being a follower of Jesus is not just about being accepted. It is about in Christ. It isn’t just about the future. Believers’ lives begin and end in Him. He is the vine That doesn’t mean we can go out and do unclean things. On the contrary, when we do unclean things, a part of us is spiritually dead already. We are not producing the fruits of life, but of death. Living plants produce grapes, oranges, apples, and pears. Dead plants produce flies and maggots. If we are consistently breaking God’s laws, and we naturally produce the fruit of disobedience, then it is more likely that we are dead than alive. I am the vine Jesus says, and my Father is the Gardener. If we are dead, then the Father will cut us down. If we have dead spots in us, He will, like a tree surgeon, cut those places out. This hurts, but if we are alive in him, we will welcome it, just as we welcome the surgeon’s knife if it keeps us alive. We are already clean, but are we alive. Does our nurture and sustenance from Him? Those who deeply know the Lord do not talk about cleanliness, spiritual or otherwise. They are not obsessed with the lawful but the vital. The don’t just want to please God, but to know him. “There have been believers all through the ages who have understood this. Take the Protestant minister Andrew Murray, for example. “What sayest thou, o my soul? Shall I longer hesitate, or withhold consent? Or shall I not, instead of only thinking how hard and how difficult it is to live like a branch of the True Vine, because I thought of it as something I had to accomplish,— shall I not now begin to look upon it as the most blessed and joyful thing under heaven ? Shall I not believe that, now I once am in Him, He Himself will keep me and enable me to abide? On my part, abiding is nothing but the acceptance of my position, the consent to be kept there, the surrender of faith to the strong Vine still to hold the feeble branch. Yes, I will, I do abide in Thee, blessed Lord Jesus.” Or listen to the Twentieth Century mystic and monk, Thomas Merton. “For it is the love of God that warms me in the sun and the love of God that sends the cold rain. It is God’s love that feeds me in the bread I eat and also feed s me in hunger and fasting. It is the love of God that sends me the winter days when I am cold and sick, and the summer days when I labor and my clothes are full of sweat, but it is God who breathes on me n the light winds off the river and the breezes out of the wood. . . . It is God’s love who speaks to me in the birds and the streams, but also in the clamor of he city. . . If these seeds would take root in my liberty, and His will would grow in my freedom, I would become the love that He is, and my harvest would be glory and my own joy. And I would grow together into thousands and millions of other freedoms into the gold of one huge field, praising God loaded with increase, loaded with wheat. . . .I would not be fed. I would not be full, but my food is to do the will of Him who made me, and who made all things in order to give Himself to me through them.” Or listen to the Apostle Paul in Galatians 2:19-21 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Do the words make sense to you? Or are you still wondering what they mean? Do you know what it means to have a hunger and thirst for God burning in you? Do you know what it mans to draw all life and strength from Him? As I write these words the sound of the drier is going in another room. I dislike that sound. I hope it ends soon, and I can get on with concentrating on my message. As necessary as it is, it is not something I want forever. That’s the way many people think about church. They come to get clean, but get out as fast as they can because all they want is to get clean. If they really knew the Lord, they would be thinking of excuse to stay in church, not leave it. When they left, they would want to be back. As an old song goes. “How tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see. “Sweet prospects sweet birds and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me “The midsummer sun shines but dim, the flowers strive in vain to be gay. “But when I am happy in Him, December’s as pleasant as May.” There is more to life than the end of it, just as there is more to marriage than a wedding. All of life is to be lived in Him, through him, for Him, by Him, and with Him. Like a branch to a vine, so are we to Him. This is more than just clean. That is real.

Lord, will you wash my feet?

We’ve been looking at the “I Am’s” in the Bible—the places where Jesus talked about himself. This week is one that goes so quickly by that most people miss it. See if you can spot it as we read John 13:1-18. Did you catch that--“Teacher” and “Lord?” What do they mean? In school, it means your teacher, or possibly principal. In the army, it meant your commanding officer. In civilian life, it meant your king. In slavery, it meant the man who owned you. At the workplace it was your boss. Principal, commander, king, master, boss—all are terms which say that Jesus is in control. There are those who yearn to be the boss. When they get to be the boss, they never let you forget it. Jesus is not that kind of boss. Here’s the kind of boss Jesus is. 13:1 It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them the full extent of his love. Sometime in the last week of Jesus’ life, when the authorities were out to arrest him, and the crowds were out to make him king, and ever tongue in Israel was wagging about who he was, Jesus led his disciples secretly into the city. Jesus met with his disciples in secret. Jesus knew when He entered that night that it would be his last on earth. He knew that He would die a horrible death in a very short time. This was his last chance to speak with his disciples before he died. Think of the things he could say to them. But before they could begin that last supper, Jesus did something that did something that was more eloquent than any words. It was an act of humility that still echoes through the years. Verses 2-5 The evening meal was being served, and the devil had already prompted Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples' feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him. We do not know what Jesus was wearing. It is probable that over his robe, he wore a stole which was the symbol of a teacher. If he did, he had to remove it. Then Jesus removed his robe. Now he was down to the dress of a common laborer—a fisherman perhaps, or a carpenter. This is what men wore when they were getting down to work. Now Jesus stood before them, bereft of all symbols of authority. But he didn’t stop there. He took off his tunic, too. There he was, naked before them. Then he wrapped a towel around his waist. It was the garb—not merely of a slave, but of the lowliest of slaves. Those who carried water for the other slaves would have worn such an towel. These slaves were unworthy for the master to spend any more money on their clothing, except for a discarded bit of cloth. One of the things that is not mentioned in the Bible are the waiters and servers of the last supper. No one ever mentions them. That’s because, in the eyes of the Gospel writers, they were invisible. These servers were not all the same. Some brought the wine, others brought the food, others cleared the table. But there was one person whose place was known. That was the foot washer. People reclined at the table, which brought their faces close to someone else’s feet. After walking through those dirty dusty streets, foot washing was very important. It was also considered disgusting work. It always went to the worst servant among them, or the youngest. So if a person were the foot washer, they knew that no one thought much of them. We don’t know who the foot washer was that day, but we know this, Jesus put him out of a job. Jesus took the bowl from that man or woman’s hands, and started to do that job for him. One by one he washed his disciples’ feet. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, "Lord, are you going to wash my feet?" Jesus replied, "You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand." "No," said Peter, "you shall never wash my feet." We can appreciate Peter’s reaction. He was not objecting to someone washing his feet. This was not the first time someone had done it for Peter. He just objected to who was washing his feet. In Peter’s eyes, it was not appropriate for a teacher and lord to wash feet. Of course Peter had a selfish motive for objecting. Jesus had already promised him that he would be leader when Jesus left. He would have to wash feet, too! In our culture, we are no different. We think that authority depends on the external trappings of office. That’s why men wear neckties and women wear dresses, even though they are uncomfortable. That’s why you don’t yell “You lie!” to the president even if he is lying. It’s the honor of the office. Society runs on that kind of honor. But Jesus messed all that up. He dressed and acted like the lowest person in the room. We give authority respect. This isn’t what Jesus had in mind. Authority is not who we should respect. Respect should be given to those whom authority Jesus tells us we should serve. Every human being in the church and in the world deserves our respect. If we really walk with Jesus, we do not have to buttress his authority by artificial pomp. People will know our authority and power without us having to brag about it. They will know by the words we say and the deeds we do. Jesus did not have to act like a master or lord—he was one. His disciples knew it. Then Jesus told his disciples to do the same. Jesus answered, "Unless I wash you, you have no part with me." "Then, Lord," Simon Peter replied, "not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!" Jesus answered, "A person who has had a bath needs only to wash his feet; his whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you." For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not everyone was clean. When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. "Do you understand what I have done for you?" he asked them. "You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. How do we put this into practice? · By not insisting on being treated according to our rank.. Go to the back of the line. · But not expecting people will treat us more any better than we earn. If we say something foolish, we ought to be rebuked. A wise man knows how to state his own case. · By not insisting on the best seats or portions. Let the poor have the most. · By not attempting to impress others with what we have. Let them be impressed by what we are. · By not expecting more than we deserve in wages or favor. · By devoting our time to serving the poor and the lowly, without bragging about it later. · By following the example of Jesus. But what if the poor and the lowly are not worthy of our respect? Poverty breeds other social vices as well—drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, dishonesty, laziness from hopelessness, just to name a few. Surely we aren’t to show honor to people who do these things? The honor Jesus showed to others was not for their sake. He was following God, his father in this, who lets the rain fall on the just and the unjust. Consider just two of the men whose feet He washed. There was Judas, who that very night would betray him. There was also Peter, who that very night would deny him. He washed their feet. When people misuse the honor we show them, it does not speak badly of us. It speaks badly of them. The fact that God blessed them through us is even more reason for them to be condemned. Our kindness heaps coals of injustice upon his head. In Dostoyefski’s Crime and Punishment, a young student commits robbery and murder. He is poor through his own laziness, and he is bitter. He thinks the world owes him something, so he decides to take it. Before he can commit the crime, he gets a letter from his mother. His sister has married a rich banker. The banker has moved to his town, and has reserved a lucrative job for him. His troubles should be over. But they are not. The student takes offense at the letter. He decides the man is not good enough for his sister, without even meeting him. In his mind, he thinks that he is above all other people. He carries on with his scheme. We are often the same. We don’t want God to be our servant. We do not want to acknowledge that we even need a servant. Why should we need a teacher and lord, even one so good as this? We rebel. We put up our defenses. We become bankers or bikers or Goths, each one living out his prideful fantasies of importance, when God has offered us riches if we will just follow him. Don’t let the evil of this world blind you to the love of God. Here he is before, you, offering you the world, and we say to him “Don’t wash my feet.” If Jesus is really our teacher and Lord, then we should let him serve us. Then we should follow his example. Don’t do what He wouldn’t do. Do what He did. Serve. Give, love, and be humble about it. Let God reward us openly for what we have done in secret This is what is means to be in Jesus’ company.

Why a peace prize?

So Barak Obama won a Nobel Peace prize for making speeches and making promises. It is an insult to all those people who for decades won the prize for risking their lives, their reputions, and their careers for decades for the cause of peace. I've ben thinking of all the people more deserving of a peace prize than Barak Obama. They include. Andy Griffith Big Bird Any scoutmaster Spartacus John McCain John Wayne A patch of mold growing in my shower. In short, virtually anyone. This is no slight to the president. He may do something someday. But so far he has done nothing. It is the equivalent of giving a third grader the Nobel Prize in science because he owns a chemistry set.