John 7:1-39 – Looking & Living Beyond the Superficial

Lectionary Readings for Aug. 22, 2021                    13th Sunday After Pentecost, Year B
1 Kings 8:(1, 6, 10-11) 22-30, 41-43  The Ark of the Covenant Brought to the Temple
Psalm 84 v10 A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.
Ephesians 6:10-20      v18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.
John 6:56-69   v63 The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.

But this week we continue our series exploring the book of John, now with Chapter 7.

Peace through Leadership Quotes

“Listen to the inner light; it will guide you. Listen to inner peace; it will feed you. Listen to inner love; it will transform you.”  ~ Sri Chinmoy 

“We accept the world in order to change it. If you do not accept, then what are you going to change?”  ~ Sri Chinmoy

The journey of creating peace within ourselves as well as in our relationships with others includes a lot of listening – to others AND ourselves. By following God’s leadings and listening to the Holy Spirit moving within us and around us, we can learn to accept and even embrace a greater expanse of humanity and thus share God’s peace with more and more people.

Any time I preach or lead a group, regardless of age, I start the same way. I’m going to say three short sentences. Please repeat each sentence, with enthusiasm.
God made me.           God loves me.            God has plans for me.

Preface to Today’s Scripture Reading

Today’s reading begins with the words, “After that...” which is a reference to chapter 6, verse 66, (yes, 666, I’m not making this up) where many of Jesus’ disciples abandon Him because this whole “following Jesus thing” is just too confusing, too difficult, too much of a hassle to do.

Today we move into Chapter 7 which marks a pivotal moment in John’s gospel – it is the beginning of the end. Prior to this, John describes Jesus traveling back and forth between Galilee and Jerusalem – a one-way trip of about 100 miles. But with chapter 7, Jesus remains in Jerusalem until His execution – which happens about six months after today’s story.

Today’s first verse reminds us that the Jewish religious leaders were already plotting Jesus’ death – we saw that back in verse 5:18. Jesus knows He’s a wanted man and any public appearance could be trouble.

In John’s gospel, the events from chapter 6 onward occur during the last year of Jesus’ life. Today’s story occurs during the week-long Sukkot (pronounced “sue-coat”) or Feast of Tabernacles, also described as the Festival of Booths or Shelters. This feast is the second most important of the three Jewish pilgrimages to Jerusalem – with Passover being the most important and Shavuot or Pentecost completing the triad.

The Feast of Tabernacles celebrates both the end of the harvest season as well as the Israelites’ miraculous Exodus from Egypt and time in the desert. This week-long feast floats between late September and early October – much like Easter floats between March and April. All of this means that Jerusalem would have been packed with faithful Jews – arguably a perfect time for Jesus to build on His growing fame and draw people by the thousands into His new movement within the Jewish faith. Shockingly, 1) Jesus did not seem to be interested in leveraging the PR value of the moment and 2) the Jewish religious leaders were definitely not excited about His growing influence.

Let’s open our ears, minds, and hearts as we hear today’s readings.

Read John 7:1-24, 30-31, 37-39 and the rest of chapter 7 this week.

Our Tuesday evening Bible Study group shared a great conversation around today’s reading. I encourage all of you to join us each Tuesday at 7.00 pm on Zoom. No Biblical expertise is required; we find expertise in each person’s experiences and insights.

In today’s story, Jesus opens by saying “My time has not yet come” and the author later reiterates “His time had not yet come.” Margie pointed out Jesus said these same words, “My time has not yet come” (John 2:4) to His mother two years prior at the Wedding at Cana when she told him to solve the problem at hand. And yet... despite His protest, He eventually did as His mother asked. And today... despite His protest, He eventually joined His brothers and disciples in Jerusalem.

Was Jesus a pushover? There’s no reason to believe that; just two chapters ago we heard Jesus explain that He only does what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19-20). Of all the reasons Jesus may have traveled alone to Jerusalem, Pam pointed out that He may well have traveled on His own terms with His own timing – NOT because an adoring crowd pressured Him into traveling to support their agenda.

Jesus’ faithful followers and His murderous critics both want Him in Jerusalem. It seems almost comical that He surprises both groups by suddenly appearing in the Temple, surrounded by the devoted, the curious, and the cunning. I can imagine everyone looking at each other saying, “How in the WORLD did He slip past all of us and manage to get on center stage?” Clearly, Jesus would not be controlled or intimidated by anyone.

As much as I love the humor in this chapter that offers more questions than answers, I keep coming back to verse 24 where Jesus says, “Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” Our Bible Study group wrestled with that one for a bit. Janiska recalled hearing a sermon titled “The thing behind the thing” in which the pastor spoke about the importance of – as the saying goes – not judging a book by its cover.

I recall my college anthropology professor spending an entire class talking about the historical evolution of stereotypes, prejudices, and how those play an important role in human survival. Saving you the lecture, we humans are seemingly hard-wired to judge quickly and often make important decisions based on broad generalities.

Jesus challenges such thinking directly and bluntly. His words prod us to consider what stereotypes or prejudices we have within us and how those thoughts and feelings prevent us from seeing God’s Spirit within people we meet and – even worse – prevent us from sharing God’s love with others. We all do this, every day. The only question is whether or not we’re aware of it and, if we are, how we manage our prejudices.

Like everyone else, I have a wide variety of stereotypes and prejudices – many of which were formed during my childhood, and many of which would surprise you.

For example, one of my elementary classmates was a red head with a distinctive personality. My opinions of red heads formed based on a sampling size of... ONE person. I clearly remember telling a college friend that if I ever marry a red head, you know I’ve lost my mind. A few years later, I met Anne who was an unmistakable natural red head. One quick look and a long conversation later, I was head-over-heels in love, wrestling with my stereotypes and prejudices that didn’t fit the angel in front of me.

I’ve had nothing but good experiences with atheists, so by default, I like atheists and tend to give them more grace and consideration than average – undoubtedly more than I give people from certain Christian denominations.

One of our quotes this morning was, “We accept the world in order to change it. If you do not accept, then what are you going to change?” ~ Sri Chinmoy. Over the years, I’ve found the best way to overcome stereotypes and prejudices is by getting to know people. And the more people I get to know, the less tolerant I am of people oversimplifying humanity by saying “All [fill in the blank] people believe or do [fill in the blank].”

This is the point where I tell you to push your prejudices aside and have a conversation, a cup of coffee, or even a meal with someone you might instinctively judge or reject. Those are all good, but the reality is that it’s often difficult to get past our own internal conversation before we can strike up the nerve to have an external conversation. It is amazing how often we cave into our own negative assumptions about others and just... avoid them. But Jesus tells us that we are called to do this hard work. Called to have nervous conversations. Called to ask honest but awkward questions. Called to answer honest but awkward questions. Called to reach out even when others reject us. Called to do the work of knowing and loving others.

Just yesterday, I was walking around the block in Reno and saw a plum tree in a neighbor’s yard. Ripe plumbs were dropping on the ground creating a rotting mess and a waste of beautiful fruit. All sorts of judgments flooded my head. “They must be lazy to not clean up their yard. They must not care how their house and yard looks. They must not eat good fruit. They must be... all sorts of bad things.”

But I love fresh plumbs, and I’m shameless about asking for what I want. So I rang the doorbell. An eyeball peered at me through mini-blinds. The door barely cracked open, “Can I help you?” I explained that I saw the plumbs on the ground and asked if I could pick some for myself. “Sure! Take all you want. Sorry about the mess; our family has Covid so we’re not coming outside. I don’t want to breath on you so I’m going to shut the door.” 

Well, I’m a putz. As I gratefully picked God’s free blessings off that tree, today’s verse played in my head like a broken record.

It is SO easy to judge. And we all have 100 reasons to judge everyone we meet – for better or for worse. But can we dig deep to find one or two reasons to put aside our assumptions for the chance to see God in others and share God’s love with others?

Later this afternoon, I’ll be going back to my neighbor’s house to clean up their sidewalk for them as I work out my salvation. While I’m working, I’ll be asking God and myself, “What else can I do to build a bridge here, to share some love here?”

This is the hard work of building the Kingdom of God in our hearts, in our minds, in our neighborhoods, and in our communities. But it’s good work, and we can be proud of the emotional and spiritual muscles and callouses that form. As we do this work, I believe God will open doors for us so that we can build more bridges and serve more people.

Amen? Amen!