1 John 5:9-13
Easter 7 - Year B
In a divided congregation it is real helpful to have untestable testimony to bolster one's own side.
Starkly put, this is the way it sounds.
"I know in my heart that I'm right. I know in my heart that you're wrong. Since my hearts is known to be true, do things my way or go away."
"If you don't believe me, you're calling God a liar."
"I've got the key to eternal life. Understand Jesus the way I do and you'll get a little."
This is pretty heady stuff that takes a prior agreement with it to make it hold together. I hope we can do better in our situations of division, but this is a typical genetic response for us and we get caught very easily.
The New York Times reports today, "From 1975 to 2002, the percentage of Americans who expressed a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the people who ran organized religion fell, to 45 percent from 68." At what percentage do we again acknowledge that we are back in Jesus' time and find those creative, non-violent, prophetic places in which to stand, no matter what accusations of blasphemy come our way?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/june2003.html
Here is the testimony: God gave us eternal life.
Do you remember the flaming angel guarding the tree of life? All our attempts to return and grab that gift went to naught. We were first intended to live with the gifts of life and knowledge. Then we grabbed for all the gusto we could get and ended up with a portion of the fruit of knowledge.
Not able to live "with," the little we had was taken from us and well defended.
There is a weak spot in every defense. In this case it was an internal flaw. G*D really did want us to live with eternity and wisdom. Since we weren't able to find a way back in (knowledge is never enough in such situations) G*D, from the inside and behind the angel's back, stole, prometheus-like, the gift and did an end run to continue to offer the gift of eternity.
It might almost seem that were enough of a twist on a tale until we figure out this gift of eternity is manifest in human lives already, we just didn't get it (it takes more than knowledge to catch eternity in the present).
Enjoy the gift of life. Pass it on. From this experience - believe.
Oops, the official line is believe first.
Might this be a diagnostic tool for identifying which religious/political pole one is on?
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2003/june2003.html
1 John 5:9-13
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
John 17:6-19
What is your name, your character, your nature?
Might it be Protecter?
Might it be Eternal?
Might it be Ent? [giant tree-like creatures who have become like the trees they shepherd and protect]
Might it be Prophet?
To which of these passages are you drawn? What would be your Myers-Briggs assessment of the personality of each name or passage? If you use a different personality descriptor, what attributes would you give to each character or nature in these passages?
As you look at the communities which which you spend the most time, what is their name, character, nature and your place within such? What needs to change within yourself and your community that your name might be more clearly lived and not simply be an appellation.
http://www.kairoscomotion.org/lectionary/2006/may2006.html
1 John 5:9-13
Acts 1:15-17, 21-26
Psalm 1
John 17:6-19
We get so caught in tradition, particularly new tradition. For whatever reason, Jesus had twelve male disciples/apostles (let's not argue about that).
Imagine them all in bed and someone calls out, "Roll over." And they all roll over and Judas fell out. What to do! What to do!
Obviously roll back the other way and add one more in. The form of twelve is at this point more important than anything.
By the time we get to chapter 12 and James is killed by Herod, there is no repeat of the selection of another twelfth. Are we learning that it is not so much the form that is crucial in G*D stuff as it is function? [although another way of coming at this is that we didn't want Judas to be a martyr and so we simply replaced him, James' death we could use in another way to our benefit and so we remembered him. - play with replaced and remembered for a bit]
- - -
sanctified in truth
protected from whatever
evil "one" approacheshappy in G*D's presence
planted by whatever
stream flows bychosen or not
life is present
minister through it
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html
Let's see, I am supposed to believe the human testimony of the writer of 1 John, but even more I am to believe the testimony of my experience of Jesus. This puts me in a particular bind - if 1 John corresponds to my experience, does that give it or me greater credence all along the way? This evidence is circular.
Might we say with 1 John that eternal life is in Jesus or say with our experience of Jesus that such life is in G*D. Is G*D stepping back, forcing Jesus to be the bearer and gatekeeper of eternal life? How do we reconcile the witness of scripture as commonly received with the gift of our own spirit base?
In some sense 1 John is propaganda (yes, these writing are as well) to which I sometimes respond, "Speak for yourself. As for me and my house, we arrive at a sense of life larger than life with the gift of creation and re-creation, not propositions about a "Son of God". Statements about a source of eternal life is one thing and showing one lives from that perspective is quite another.
= = = = = = = =
Reader Comment:
When the talk comes to “eternal life” I can’t get passed the thought that Jesus himself, according to John, defined it in John 17:3:
Jesus was talking to his closest followers and praying at the time.
“And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”
Inasmuch as along with that, in the same conversation, goes a new commandment to love each other as God and Jesus love us, it seems to me knowing and loving God and being open channels for God’s love to flow through us to the world IS what “eternal life” means.
I don’t read church or rules or councils or catechisms in any of that! Who is to say how we come to know God or even who God is, and what does that “knowing” tell us? Who dares to say that any sincere “knowing” is wrong?
http://kcmlection.blogspot.com/2009_05_01_archive.html