You are walking into a 700-year-old library in Europe. It towers over you as the heavy wooden door groans open. You’ve been here before, so you move quickly to the winding staircase that takes you down, down, down. This floor is dark. It receives almost no visitors. These shelves hold books that haven’t been touched in hundreds of years. You move slowly, your steps echoing down the narrow corridor.
The light is flickering. It barely reaches the low ceiling. Squinting. Here it is. The Book you’ve been looking for. The letters are chipped and peeling off the leather binding. You pull the ancient book from the shelf amidst swirls of dust. You know of a tiny desk tucked back amongst this maze of shelves and corridors, and you are glad of its privacy. The book drops open and you lean forward, peering at the yellowing pages.
A-Ha! At last you’ve found it! The Lost Prayer. The last thing Jesus taught His disciples before ascending into heaven. This prayer allows your requests to come before God’s throne, and God’s voice to be heard in your head. You start to read,” Pater hamon ho en tois ouranois, hagiasthetw tw onoma sou…”
It was torn from the earliest versions of the Bible, considered too powerful, too important for just anyone to discover. And with the help of this powerful prayer, you will grow in wisdom. The troubles of this world will no longer torment you. You will become a most peaceful and spiritual person. A holy person.
Of course, this prayer doesn’t exist. The prayer I uttered was just the Lord’s Prayer in ancient Greek. Jesus has promised us that this prayer will be heard by our father in heaven. But, it’s just not the same as finding some mystical, forgotten spell. Ultimately, there is no last secret pearl of wisdom with the power to transform you overnight. There is no Holy Grail that offers immortality to the valiant few who can drink from it.
Over the years we have tried to ferret out one mysterious solution or another. The little field trip we just took through the Library was an example of Gnosticism. Gnosticism is the idea that some piece of special knowledge or insight can lift us from our fleshly prisons to a higher spiritual freedom.
Another example is the constant debate about Holy Communion. Perhaps you’ve heard some of the big, fancy words: transubstantiation, consubstantiation, symbolic presence. One group has argued that the bread and wine completely and truly transform into the body and blood of Jesus Christ. Another group passionately believes that the Body and Blood are present alongside the wheat, flour, and grape. The last group understands Communion as a symbolic moment for us to remember Christ, His last meal, and His great sacrifice.
So important; so important to get it right. “It won’t work if you don’t get it right,” they all say.
Concepts are the danger here. We’re in trouble every time we put a concept in front of Christ. If you want to get really tricky, we’re even in trouble when we put a concept of Christ in front of Christ. In fact, that’s when we’re in the mosttrouble!
Even an image of Christ can be an idol. The Bible can lead us astray. Our good theology can distract us from Jesus.
You see, Christ was not a theologian; he was a pastor. Theology is what we say about God, God’s Word, and God’s Work. Theology takes specific things from the Bible and makes them into general rules and guidelines. Theology takes particular things and makes them abstractions. Theology is an attempt to come up with an organized, big picture framework to think about our faith. Theology deals in concepts.
Christ, on the other hand, was at work among us. He was a relationship builder. He was a counselor and comforter in particular, specific contexts. What He said to the rich man was not necessarily the same as what he said to the poor man.
Jesus Christ never let a concept get in the way of the context.
Take the Sabbath, for example: For Jesus, the Sabbath was a holy day. It deserved our great respect. When people asked him, “What do I need to do?” He would tell them to live their lives according to the commandments, and sometimes he specially mentioned the commandment that they should Honor the Sabbath.
And, by that, Jesus meant that people should treat that one day each week as a holy time. It meant people should stop all their work and have a day devoted to prayer, worship, and God’s word. Very serious things.
But! But, it seems like every Sabbath day, Jesus came across someone who was sick or hurting. And as much as he respected the concept of a Holy Day with no work, Jesus honored the context of a suffering person much more. And he healed them. He worked on a Sabbath to bring comfort to person after person.
So, when it came down to it, Jesus let the Rule go and loved the Neighbor before Him.
Our John passage today is all about Jesus who is in God, and us who are in Jesus. The closeness of Jesus Christ to God the Father is matched by our closeness to each other, and our closeness to Christ. These relationships are powerful! More powerful than some magical, mythical lost prayer. A Father, after all, will do much more for His Son than a magical genie would for someone who rubs the lamp.
We are all neighbors, brothers, sisters in Christ. Members of God’s tight-knit family.
In our Acts passage for today, after Jesus ascends into heaven, the angels ask the disciples, “Why are you looking up into the sky?” They are really saying, “Why are you standing around staring into space? You won’t find any magic answers there. There’s simple, honest work to be done here with your neighbors. So, jump in.” Amen.
Intern Mark Dixon