Wake Up!
This week it is back to “In the beginning….” Which is how
the Fourth Gospel begins, echoing Genesis 1. John 3:1-17 takes us back to the
beginning: whether in Genesis 1 and 2, or The Wilderness Sojourn with Moses and
the Grumblers.
Nicodemus is a Pharisee who comes to Jesus in the dark of
night to get come clarity on just “Who is this guy anyway?” Echoing Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid! Nic is looking for answers. Jesus responds by
going back to the beginning. We are made of water and breath…and a handful of
dust. Nic is perplexed by this. Jesus says you need to be born from above…or
again, depending on how one translates this. Which is the basic message of all
spiritual directors, gurus and retreat leaders, and basically means, “Wake Up!”
That is, we are all sleepwalking through life. Who has time to Wake Up and
remember we are water, breath and dust? We are stardust, we are golden, we are
billion-year-old carbon, and we’ve got to get ourselves back to the garden! Nic
remains perplexed. The Spirit/Wind/Breath of God comes from we know not where,
and blows where it wills. Let it enliven you and wake you up so you can see.
Jesus then reassures him, I am not here to Judge the world
but to save it and love it, rescue and repair it. Judging results in separation;
separation implies judgement. My efforts are focused on love for the world –
literally in the text, love for the kosmos, all of creation and everything
therein. And helping you to see that the kosmos is a unified whole. You are one
with the kosmos and the kosmos is one with you. Join me in my efforts to save,
to repair and to rescue the kosmos and everyone and every thing therein. The
storyteller John cannot imagine everyone, all of us, wanting to join with him
in his work to reconcile all things and everyone. We do all the separating
ourselves. Wake up!
Just as your GPS suddenly says, “Recalculating,” Jesus
suddenly shifts from creation to the wilderness sojourn and talks about Moses
lifting up a snake on a pole. Surely Nic and his Pharisee companions remember
this episode. The people wandering in the wilderness with Moses are hungry.
They grumble. The Lord of Mercy apparently does not like grumbling and sends
firey snakes who bite them on the heel and they die. Moses fashions a bronze
snake and puts it up on a pole and instructs the people to look up at the
bronze snake whenever they get bit on the heel. They do and are saved. To look
up at the snake is life, is rescue, is healing. It helps to know that seraphim
are firey angels who exist as flames of fire. As such they are messengers of
God. Yet, here they are biting the people on the heel. This is all very odd to
be sure
It’s an analogy about the Cross. Storyteller John wants us
to see that looking up at Jesus on the Cross will save us, rescue us, and
restore us to follow Jesus in rescue and repair of the kosmos! As with the
bronze snake, looking up at Jesus on the Cross means life. It’s a wake up call.
But the analogy makes Jesus the Bronze Snake, which somehow rehabilitates the
original snake in the garden. Yet, what does this make Jesus? Does he bite and
kill? Does he lie like the snake in the garden to get the Mother of Life to eat
what is not hers to eat? Or, is he testing the people of God as Jesus was
tested in the wilderness? Wake up!
Then comes a statement. Is it from John or from Jesus? The
text itself is not clear. But it has been emblazoned on placards at football
and baseball games and begins, “God so loved the kosmos that he gave….” Which
is an indication of God’s character: God loves and God gives. We are made in
God’s image, God’s character. We are to
love and to give. And what we are to love is the kosmos- the world, all of
creation. Not the Church. Not a party. Not a system. We are to love the world
and everything therein. And what God gave for the world was significantly more
than 10%! God gave it all, God’s whole self for the world that God loves. How
much are we willing to give to show our love for the world, the kosmos, the
totality of Creation, all that is – seen and unseen? Maybe if we get our act
together people like Nicodemus, Butch and the Kid, will look back at us and
ask, “Who are those guys?” It’s the dark of night. We’re looking for answers.
Wake up!
“Wake
up, and strengthen what remains and is on the point of death…”
Revelation
3:2
God don't make promises that He
don't keep
You got some big dreams baby, but
in order to dream you gotta still be asleep.
When you gonna wake up, when you
gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up
strengthen the things that remain ?
Counterfeited philosophies have
polluted all of your thoughts
Karl Marx has got ya by the throat,
Henry Kissinger's got you tied up in knots.
You got innocent men in jail, your
insane asylums are filled
You got unrighteous doctors dealing
drugs that'll never cure your ills.
Adulterers in churches and
pornography in the schools
You got gangsters in power and
lawbreakers making rules
Do you ever wonder just what God
requires ?
You think He's just an errand boy
to satisfy your wandering desires.
You can't take it with you and you
know that it's too worthless to be sold
They tell you, 'Time is money' as
if your life was worth its weight in gold.
There's a man up on a cross and
He's been crucified
Do you have any idea why or for who
He died?
When you gonna wake up, when you
gonna wake up
When you gonna wake up and
strengthen the things that remain ?
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