Davison's Doodle

This Everyone Will Know

In my position, Associate Regional Minister, I’m gifted the opportunity preach about a dozen times a year.  It is one way of helping local congregations and local ministers when time away is needed, or if there is strife in congregational life.  These are my words for this morning based on Lectionary gospel text for today, John 13:31-35, and titled, Here’s Your Sign.

 

Let us pray.  Open our ears and our hearts, O God, that our meditations, our words, and our living are a reflection of our faith in You, who creates, redeems, and sustains creation and our lives.  Amen.

When you saw the title of the sermon you may have thought the comedian Bill Engvall was coming to church today.  Engvall is one of three comedians that have built a career around a phrase that defines a major part of their comedy routine and it identifies them.  “Get er done” is Larry the Cable Guy’s phrase.  “You might be a redneck if . . .” is Jeff Foxworthy’s set up for an observation about what he calls “the glorious absence of sophistication.” Two of his jokes.

If you’ve ever used an ironing board as a buffet table . . . you might be a redneck.

If you’ve ever stared at a can of orange juice because it said ‘concentrate’  . . .you might be a redneck.

A few years ago Chalice Press created a little book called, You Might Be A Disciple If . . .

If your four year old thinks the last supper must have been a potluck dinner . . . you might be a Disciple.

If there’s a better than 50-50 chance your congregation’s first name is First . . . you might be a Disciple.

If a friend asks about your minister, “Is he good?” and you respond, “Yes she is . . .” you might be a Disciple.

For Engvall, his is an observation about a person that asks a question that states the obvious and the answer is a sarcastic remark.

A trucker gets his truck stuck under an overpass, and the responding policeman asks “Hey, you get your truck stuck?” The trucker answers, “No sir, I was delivering that overpass and I ran out of gas.

We all have those moments when we say something tediously dull, pointless, foolish, irritating or annoying which are all part of the definition of ‘stupid.”   Engvall creates the joke that stupid people need to wear a warning sign. One of my favorites is one he tells about himself.

One day his son comes into the living room and says, “Dad, I want to play you something on the piano.”  So they go to the room where the piano is and the son says, “I’m going to play you something from Harry Potter.”  Engvall says, “Oh, cool the movie?” and the son replies, “Nope the book.”   Here’s your sign.

We all do it.  Not long ago I was working in my office and I heard the sound of breaking glass.  I rushed down the stairs.  Nothing wrong in the kitchen.  I went to our bathroom and found Lisa surrounded by broken glass.  I said, “Did you break something?” 
Here’s your sign.

When I read the text from John and heard Jesus say, “by this everyone will know you are my disciples.”  It got me to thinking about a Christian sign.

we are one in the spirit, we are one in the lord;
we will walk with each other, we will walk hand in hand;
we will work with each other, side by side
we will guard each one’s dignity, and save each one’s pride;
they’ll know we are Christians by our love.

Here’s your sign.

Signs and symbols help people identify one another.  Are you part of my tribe, my school, my club, my fraternity or sorority, my political party, my religion?   Signs and symbols project an image, project values, define behavior, ideals, and perception.  It is our hyper-partisan culture’s signs and symbols that try to tell us whom we can trust or what we can trust. 

• What does the Nike swoosh tell you? 
• Starbucks is now only known by its sign.  When you see it what do you think?
• For the uninitiated, Boomer Sooner or Pistols Firing are odd phrases shouted by people watching sports or just walking by one another.  It is some kind of sign of celebration?  Should I be afraid or should I join in? 

The meaning of signs and symbols can change over time and in our digital, always on and connected time, change quickly.  Just ask Volkswagen. The familiar VW symbol doesn’t stand for affordable German engineering.  Now some might think it stands for cheater, fraud, dirty diesel, or liar.  Maybe that’s why I don’t shine the VW logo on my car anymore.  I drive one of the supposed ‘clean diesels.’  When I take it for service I see employees doing their best to stay positive, project a positive corporate image, and apologetic about what the parent company did.  No one at my local dealership blessed the actions of a few engineers in another part of the world, but my local dealership is harmed by their actions. 

And the same is true for our Muslim neighbors here in these United States and around the world who don’t condone violence in the name of Allah, may peace be upon him.

And the same is true for our Jewish neighbors who don’t agree with how their government occupies and oppresses Palestinians.

And the same is true for Christians who don’t condone any number of actions taken by persons that we don’t know and don’t agree with, but nevertheless wear a cross around their necks and profess a faith in Christ.

When Christianity was in it’s infancy a sign used by believers was a fish.  Followers of the way of Jesus were not overt about their faith.  There were no buildings with markings that made one think, “church.”  You could tell if a person was a follower of Jesus by how he or she lived.  When followers of Jesus happened upon one another, one would draw part of the fish symbol. The other would complete it  and, therefore, was safe to talk to about your journey in faith.  When Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in the 4th century and made Christianity one of the state’s approved religions, the cross became the primary Christian symbol with religious meaning and it also took on imperial civic meaning.  Is a cross the only Christian sign?  Is a cross the best Christian sign?  What do suppose people of other faiths or no faith think when they see it?

Signs and symbols are good because they help us categorize, organize, sort and filter the world and it’s people.  Signs and symbols can be terribly negative when used to quickly assume to know more than we do about a person or group of people just by their sign.  Signs and symbols are used to segregate, conquer, and subjugate.  Time after time Jesus met people, Jewish and Gentile, and disregarded their sign.  He didn’t assume to know too much about a person based on their tribe or the signs they wore.  It would be interesting to see how Jesus would navigate the multitude of idol-like logos and signs that are part of our culture.

It’s a curious place in John’s gospel to find Jesus giving a new commandment, but if you’ve spent anytime with Jesus you know he is always full of surprises.  He always has a story that starts “very truly I tell you” or “you have heard it said, but I say to you.”   It is a curious place, but the gospel writers are doing more than telling us about the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth.  This is the most evident in the Gospel of John.  It is the last of the gospels written so the author has Mark, Luke-Acts, and Matthew and some of Paul’s letters as source material to create his theological metaphor about Jesus of Nazareth.  John’s gospel is written for people that already know something about Jesus of Nazareth.  It is written for people who are already followers, and for people that already profess a faith in Christ.  John’s Jesus had to compete in a culture where the idea of god or gods interacting with humans was a pretty common story.

It is a curious place in John’s gospel because this new commandment follows a moment when Jesus set for the disciples in his time and here in this room, an example.  It was a common act of hospitality to provide a guest a place to wash his or her feet when entering your home.  Jesus takes this simple act, creates a profound scene, and subliminally says to all that would follow him, “Here’s your sign.”  The disciples in that room, and maybe in this one, must look confused by what happens so Jesus explains. “If I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought or should wash one another’s feet.  You should or ought do as I have done for you.”

It’s a curious place because just before Jesus riffs on God’s glory in the passage we heard he has a moment with Judas.  You can imagine Jesus looking into Judas’ eyes.  “Do quickly what you are going to do.”  And after bread shared, out into the night Judas goes to do what Jesus has asked him to do.

With the remaining disciples looking and listening, Jesus talks about God’s glory in ways that are confusing.  Looking around at those faces in that room and this one, he says,  “A new command I am giving to you, in order that you may love one another; just as I loved you in order that you may love one another.”

That’s not how most bibles translate the Greek, but it is another way the Greek can be translated and I find it helpful because it is a parallel to an example that Jesus set for the disciples, and all of us, just moments earlier in the story.

The author of John, knowing the story of Jesus, chooses the past tense “loved.”  It has been years since the last reported sighting of Jesus.  It’s now up to Jesus’ followers to love as Jesus loved, and remember that messengers are not greater than the one who sent them.  Love as God loves.

I think Jesus is doing a little psychology when he calls the disciples in that room and this room, children and then tells Peter and all of us we cannot go where he is going.  I think he is doing that thing that parents and teachers and mentors do to challenge children to try harder, to not give up, or alter their behavior.  You know, sometimes people need to be told they cannot do something to motivate them to put in the effort to try and actually do it.

Last week Oklahoman’s and many in our Nation remembered April 19, 1995.  On that horrible day when the Murrah building was bombed, police, firefighters, EMT’s, nurses and doctors rushed into the carnage and chaos to rescue, to triage, and comfort.  They didn’t ask for ID, about sexuality, citizenship, race, or religion.  Here’s your sign. 

The Heartland Chapel sits across from the Oklahoma City Memorial and next to First United Methodist Church.  The chapel was built so a space for prayer, for grief, for silence could exist during the clean up and beyond.  Members of local Muslim and Jewish communities helped First United Methodist Church organize and build the structure knowing it was a place welcome to all, but bearing Christian symbols. Here’s your sign.

Most of the teachers I know spend their money and their time to provide life skills, healthy snacks, education, and hope for children who are at risk, to break the cycle of poverty or break the cycle of gluttony (consumer narcissism).  Here’s your sign.

When two Christian congregations join in spirit and with resources to provide a place in Pryor for Presbyterians, and Disciples of Christ, and people from other denominations, and people seeking God, and people of no faith at all, to gather at a table where you don’t need a reservation.  Here’s your sign.

Remember, if our buildings are not here and the crosses disappear it will be how we are one in the spirit;

how we walk with each other;

how we work with each other;

how we guard each one’s dignity, and save each one’s pride;

that many will know we are disciples of Jesus. 

Be the sign.