Year C Easter 4: 12 May 2019
I wonder if anyone can remember this song put out by the Catholic Communications Centre. Cast your mind back to the late 1970’s … this song used to play this via the Christian Television Association on the ABC, at least it did in Sydney where I grew up. The first verse went something like this …
“How come there’s a sun?
Why’s a flower, why’s a tree?
Why are clouds so high?
How come they’re in the sky?
Why’s a tree?
Why’s a person just like me?
Who is me?
God knows!”
This is one of the questions that follows us through life … Who am I? It’s not just about who I think I am, but what others think of me – who do others say that I am? Who am I in relation to others? When I’m gone what will my legacy be? What will people remember about me?
This is also the question that we ask of others and the one that is asked of Jesus in the gospel reading we have heard today. Earlier in John 10 Jesus says that he is the good shepherd, the one who will lay down his life for his sheep. He explains that his sheep know his voice and that he has an extraordinary care and love for them. Yet he is asked again to explain who he is.
We find Jesus walking through Solomon’s Porch during the festival of lights. This was an important place; it was the porch on the east side of the Temple and was called the “Porch of Judgement”. From this location, the King would make judgements and exercise justice for those who were brought before him. Here Jesus, the embodiment of justice, is strolling, in this place of justice.
Not only is the place important but the Festival of Lights was of great importance to the Jewish people. It was the festival of the rededication of the temple. This festival was a reminder to the Jews of the time when their forefathers had cleansed the temple some 150 years before by removing the statue of the Greek god Zeus and re-lighting the temple candlesticks. Jews still celebrated this Hanukkah festival today.
While in Jesus day the temple was fully dedicated to God, the land had been lost again, this time to the Romans. It is into this setting that the question of Jesus identity is raised again: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” This is not the first time in John’s gospel that the identity of Jesus is questioned, and you can imagine that Jesus might have been getting tired of being asked again and again. Jesus responds by reminding the Jews that he has already given the people around him numerous examples of his identity. He has not only repeatedly told them who he is, but he has performed many miracles which bear testimony to this identity.
Questions and requests can often tell us a great deal about the individual doing the asking. As Jesus says, “the works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me” – I wonder if the question the Jews ask is not just about who Jesus is, but where his power comes from. Is it really from God? If it is in God’s power that Jesus does these things, will this Jesus be the one who will free them from the Romans?
Questioning and faith go hand in hand. If we didn’t have any questions we wouldn’t need faith because everything would be certain. Jesus’ tells the Jews that it is their lack of belief that is the problem, not their lack of knowledge. Jesus’ sheep hear his voice and so follow him, but it is Jesus who knows them. There is comfort in these words – even when we don’t know for sure, Jesus knows us.
Jesus knew and loved the people he ministered too. The miracles he performed righted wrongs, upset oppressive systems and brought people back into community. Jesus actions revealed who he was and his agency from God. As the good shepherd, Jesus is the one who provides for all of the needs of his sheep.
We again come face to face with the care of a loving God in the passage from Acts which tells the story of the Tabitha. On Mother’s Day it seems appropriate that we read of this woman. Her mention in scripture is brief, but the fact that her name is given, that she is named as a disciple and located in a particular town all say something important.
Whether known as Tabitha (in Aramaic) or Dorcas (in Greek), we read that she is a woman who is both a disciple and who has devoted her life to helping others, the widows who weep and show “tunics and other clothing that Dorcas had made them.”
Tabitha is a woman of two worlds. Her Aramaic name links her to her ancestors and her Greek name would have been that of the official language of the Roman Empire. Establishing a bicultural identity was a necessity for Tabitha as it is for all people who live in a culture which dominates. She was able to navigate that world and use her skills to make a living in the economy of Roman control, but also resisted the hierarchy by ministering to women who would have been routinely overlooked.
When Tabitha dies there is a sense of urgency as the disciples send for Peter and ask him to “please come to us without delay.” Peter arrives in Joppa and is met by the widows who are genuinely devastated by the passing of their friend. Peter prays, and Tabitha is resurrected. She is presented and shown to be alive and as her story became known throughout Joppa, “many believed in the Lord.”
The actions of Tabitha are seen through her care of the widows, and the action of Peter’s are displayed as he opens himself in prayer. Both of their lives witness through life-giving acts. Yet the one who actually brings life and overcomes is God.
In verse 43 we read that Peter stays “in Joppa for some time with a certain Simon, a tanner.” As a tanner, Simon would have been seen as an outsider because he worked with animal skins which would have made him unclean. Peter’s staying with Simon is again life-giving as it breaks down the barriers of a society that a discriminated against some of its inhabitants.
So what might we take from these narratives that can still be relevant for us today? I think there is both an encouragement and a challenge for each of us as individuals as well as a congregation.
The encouragement is that Jesus, the good shepherd, knows us and loves us. The good shepherd provides for us and we only need to be attentive to his voice. We are promised abundant and eternal life which cannot be taken away. It is not a requirement to know it all, we just need to remember that we are known.
The challenge is that if we see the example of Jesus’ life as the way we are called to live then we have some questions to ask ourselves. Are we serious about our words and deeds bringing life to those around us? What answer do our actions give about who we are?
Unfortunately, for many people the church has become a place associated with rigid morality rather than with generous love, a place which has been complicit when it should have spoken out. As the community of God in this place we need to be more.
My prayer for us is two-fold:
One, that we might be reminded that acts of kindness, compassion and love can be life-giving to individuals and communities around us and,
Two, that we always remember that we are known and loved.
Amen.
©Rev Heather Hon, 2019