2 Epiphany A January 19, 2020
Isaiah 49:1-7 Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42
Isaiah 49:1-7 Psalm 40:1-12
1 Corinthians 1:1-9 John 1:29-42
Since we read the Gospel of John in its final textual and translated form, we often read it with primary naivete; that is, we read it as if it was an eye-witness account of a single reporter who was following Jesus around charting a contemporaneous account of his life.
We love to keep things in the delicious story mode; that is for child-like immediate enjoyment. Why do you think Disney, and Novels and the Cinema is so popular. We like to live in the "as if" mode. We like to assume everything is "as if" it appears in its artistic form.
But lingering in primary naivete as the only way of reading the Bible is what created the interpretative school of what is called fundamentalism. And when naïve reading clashes with science, common sense and the uniformity of natural causes in a closed system, people respond differently. Fundamentalists think that they have to read most of the Bible as literal. And scientists think that if being literal is what defines faith and religion; they say no thanks. And as Episcopalians, we believe that we can be poets and scientist at the same time. We can appreciate poetic, artistic, faith discourse and we can have our feet firmly on the ground with the brute facts of scientific discourse.
We can understand the Gospel of John as a collection of writings which had various editions before a final edition. These writings reflect several decades of the mystical teachings of the church, their inquirers classes to teach new members being added to their community, the liturgical practices of the church including healing, Eucharist and baptism, and all of these practices were given a discourse to weave their original inspiration with the story of the life of Jesus.
One of the themes of the Epiphany Season is the calling of Christ. Christ becomes manifest to people in a personal call. Back in the days when telephones were fewer, it was always really special to get a call. Back in the days of snail mail, it used to be really special to get a personal letter. But today with the ubiquity of messages a call is not so special. We end up blocking most calls and funneling messages to spam folders.
The notion of call is still important, because what is it that makes a call special? It depends upon who is calling. The call of Christ is important because he is unique and his call is personal and special because it is tailored to each individual's life experience.
Today, we can highlight the call of Simon Peter which came in a succession of referrals, starting with John the Baptist, then his disciples, which included Andrew, who then told his brother Peter. This highlights that evangelism is most often based upon referrals. "Hey, I've someone special; would you like to meet him too." Evangelism is in many ways an attempt to do some match making between Jesus and other people. "Hey, I'd like you to meet someone special; here's how I encountered the Risen Christ and it changed my life. I'd like to present this accessible experience to you too."
One of the reasons we highlight call of Simon Peter today is because yesterday we began what is called the week of Christian Unity which stretches from January 18 until January 25th. Yesterday, was the feast of the confession of Simon Peter, when he declared Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God. On January 25th, we commemorate the Conversion of St. Paul, who was the chief apostle to the Gentiles. Peter was a Pillar in the Jewish followers of Christ and Paul was a Pillar of the mission and manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles.
We might say that the purpose of the Gospel of John is to make the call of the Risen Christ accessible to the widest possible audience.
How does the church make the call of Jesus Christ accessible to the widest possible audience? This brings us to what I find a very fascinating parenthesis in the Gospel of John. The parenthetical phrase is, "which is translated."
Translation is the key to making the call of Jesus Christ accessible to the widest possible audience. The many people who were instructed within the community which wrote the Gospel of John came from different backgrounds. Some were observant Jews, so they knew the jargon. They knew what rabbi meant, they knew what Messiah meant. They knew what Cephas meant. But there were non-observant Jews and there were many Gentiles who had to have the connection of the Hebrew Scriptures with Jesus of Nazareth, translated to them. They had to have the Judaic traditions translated to them. The Gospel of John is a collection of writings about the efforts of the early church to translate the meaning the significance of Jesus Christ to people from diverse backgrounds. The early church were trying to appeal to the followers of John the Baptist. So they presented John the Baptist with the understanding that John recommended Jesus as his logical successor. The early church which generated the Gospel of John were appealing to members of the synagogue by showing how Jews like Peter and Paul could merge their Judaism with the Spiritual innovations that became known through the teaching of Jesus Christ. But also, John's Gospel translates actual language and religious notions into language accessible to the Gentiles who had no background in Judaism or the Hebrew Scriptures. How would a Gentile know what "Lamb of God" meant unless there was a translation of Hebrew Scripture and tradition?
Translation expresses the essence of the Epiphany season. How does Jesus Christ become manifest to the World? He becomes translated into accessible teaching to as many people as possible. Translation implies a bi-lingual experience. It implies that there is a bridge of communication between diverse people.
If you and I have responded to the call of Christ, it is our further calling to become translators of the life Christ to other people. We are called to interpret the meaning of the Risen Christ to other people in ways that are accessible to their life situations. We celebrate this week of Christian Unity because translation requires lots of people to translate the meaning of the life of Jesus to all of the people of the world. We as Episcopalians in this place have our own way of translating the call of Christ to the people we are inviting to know the Risen Christ.
Today, let us embrace the role of translating and interpretation with renewed commitment. It means that we accept the very personal and unique ways in which Christ has gotten through to us and from there we honor the personal and unique ways that Christ will get through to people in their personal circumstances and situations. Translation and interpretation means that we have to get to know and honor the life situations of others so that we can find the best way to refer them to know the call of Christ.
So on this day of remembering the call of Peter in this week of Christian unity, let us answer the following question with: "I will with God's help."
Will you translate the life of Christ to other people that you meet so that they can know the love of God in a very personal way?
"I will, with God's help." Amen
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