This week's readings in John chapter 2 bring us into two uncomfortable conversations. One begins with Jesus talking back to his mother (John 2: 1-17).
But this domestic scene is just an appetizer. The real action begins when Jesus’ get to his God-Father’s house, the temple. (John 2: 18-22)
These two stories cast Jesus in a different light than we are used to seeing him.
We want Jesus to be the good and readily obedient son.
We want Jesus to be the one who never gets angry.
We want the powers that be to “get it.”
During the recent holidays, Andy William’s version of the Christmas classic lodged in my inner ear:
From the night wind to the little lamb, do you see what I see?
From the little lamb to the shepherd boy, do you hear what I hear?
From the shepherd boy to the mighty king, Do you know what I know?
Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say
Pray for peace people everywhere
Listen to what I say
A child, a child, sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light
Do you hear what I hear?
I’m propbably not the only one who finds “Little Drummer Boy” more pleasant to sing than the song another king, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, wove into his “I have a Dream Speech.”
Mine Eyes have see the glory of the coming of the Lord,
He has trampled out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored…
King declaimed peace that day on the Lincoln Memorial Steps,
My people, my people, listen! The battle is in our hands.... So as we go away this afternoon, let us go away more than ever before committed to the struggle and committed to nonviolence. I must admit to you there are still some difficulties ahead. We are still in for a season of suffering.... I must admit to you there are still jail cells waiting for us, dark and difficult moments. We will go on with the faith that nonviolence and its power transformed dark yesterdays into bright tomorrows. We will be able to change all of these conditions. Our aim must never be to defeat or humiliate the white man but to win his friendship and understanding. We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience.... I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again. How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.
How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow.
How long? Not long. because the arm of the moral universe is long and it bends toward justice. How long? Not long,'cause mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord, trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored.
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpets that shall never call retreat.
He is lifting up the hearts of man before His judgment seat.
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him. Be jubilant, my feet.
Our God is marching on.[i]
Hearing the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the context of this speech that changed the world, that changed my world, that changed your world, brings out a whole new meaning in the words. The wrath is not anger for anger’s sake or for entertainment’s sake, or to make a buck or to fill in some emotional vacuum.
He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword.
His truth is marching on.
He has sounded forth the trumpets that shall never call retreat.
He is lifting up the hearts of man before His judgment seat.
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him. Be jubilant, my feet.
Our God is marching on.[i]
Hearing the Battle Hymn of the Republic in the context of this speech that changed the world, that changed my world, that changed your world, brings out a whole new meaning in the words. The wrath is not anger for anger’s sake or for entertainment’s sake, or to make a buck or to fill in some emotional vacuum.
It's only when I hear these words in the voice of those who fight for justice, that I can hear these fighting words as holy words. It's only as we hear Jesus words in the voice of those who fight for justice, that we can hear fighting words as holy words.
When Jesus’ anger pours out in the temple the glory of God is being revealed as the glory of justice.
When John's Gospel was being put on written record, it was seventy some years after Jesus’ crucifixion and death, after the splendid failure of his project in their grandparents’ time, It's some seventy years after Jesus’ resurrection that reframed the project entirely, Judaism was being forced to recreate itself. The Romans had driven them out of the temple and taken the place down behind them.
If God was in the temple,
where is God now?
Where do we worship now?
How do we worship now?
Jewish Communities reshaped their sacred centers. Some regrouped in the synagogues planted in the last crisis, the Diaspora. They met in homes and places of business and simple meeting halls.
Some regrouped around the one who revealed the Glory of God to them.
John’s community, the one forming this gospel wrestles with a fundamental question.
Is Jesus Human, or is Jesus God?
If Jesus is human, life is so much easier. They don’t have to endure abuse and charges of blasphemy from their neighbors and family or torture from representatives of the Roman Empire. They can just say, he’s a great teacher and let it go at that. Sigh of relief.But then, what did it mean when Jesus said, “the temple will be rebuilt.” Why is that they saw their God, saw their lives so differently when Jesus showed up?
So, is Jesus human or is Jesus God.
The answer was then and is now, “Yes.”
Jesus is the glory of God.
Jesus is a human being having a fully human experience.
Yes.
So how do we live with that yes?
How do we live with a man who got up and walked out of his own tomb, who keeps asking us to see the glory of god revealed in what he says and does? How do we do that well?
What is success? That’s a sacred question.
Is success taking on responsibility for the life of the party (and overstepping your role as guest to help your host when he runs out of libations)?
Is success doing what your mother tells you?
Is success the number of projects we manage to finish, the sheer momentum of tasks accomplished?
Is success numerical? Is more merrier, bigger better?
For Jesus, it seems, success is when the people around him sees what he sees: his Creator, infusing all of creation with compassion and beauty, and a hunger for justice, a thirst for mercy.
The Prophet Isaiah says (9:1-4)
But there will be no gloom for those who were in anguish. ….The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness on them light has shined. You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as people exult when dividing plunder. For the yoke of their burden, and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor, …
Do you hear what I hear?
Do you see what I see?
Asks Jesus.
[i] Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I Have a Dream: Writings and Speeches That Changed the World (Speech given at the end of the march from Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge on March 25 1965)
Do you hear what I hear?
(Hear what I hear, hear what I hear?)
Said the night wind to the little lamb
Do you see what I see? (do you see what I see?)
Way up in the sky, little lamb
Do you see what I see? (do you see what I see?)
A star, a star, dancing in the night
With a tail as big as a kite
With a tail as big as a kite
Said the little lamb to the shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)
Ringing through the sky, shepherd boy
Do you hear what I hear? (Do you hear what I hear?)
A song, a song high above the tree
With a voice as big as the the sea
With a voice as big as the the sea
Said the shepherd boy to the mighty king
Do you know what I know? (what I know, what I know?)
In your palace warm, mighty king
Do you know what I know? (what I know, what I know?)
A Child, a Child shivers in the cold
Let us bring him silver and gold
Let us bring him silver and gold
Said the king to the people everywhere
Listen to what I say! (what I say, what I say)
Pray for peace, people, everywhere
Listen to what I say! (what I say, what I say)
The Child, the Child sleeping in the night
He will bring us goodness and light
He will bring us goodness and light .
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