John 8:56-58 --- The
Message
Jesus said, “If I turned the spotlight on myself, it
wouldn’t amount to anything. But my Father, the same One you say is your
Father, put me here at this time and place of splendor. You haven’t recognized
him in this. But I have. If I, in false modesty, said I didn’t know what was
going on, I would be as much of a liar as you are. But I do know, and I am
doing what he says. Abraham—your ‘father’—with jubilant faith looked down the
corridors of history and saw my day coming. He saw it and cheered.”
The Jews said, “You’re not even fifty years old—and Abraham
saw you?”
“Believe me,” said Jesus, “I am who I am long before Abraham
was anything.”
Moses was tending the sheep of his father in law Jethro in
the Sinai desert at least 1,200 years before Jesus.
Do you
remember the story?
While he was doing this he came upon a bush (Exodus 3:2-5
The Message)
The angel of God appeared to him in
flames of fire blazing out of the middle of a bush. He looked. The bush was
blazing away but it didn’t burn up.
Moses said, “What’s going on here?
I can’t believe this! Amazing! Why doesn’t the bush burn up?”
God saw that he had stopped to
look. God called to him from out of the bush, “Moses! Moses!”
He said, “Yes? I’m right here!”
God said, “Don’t come any closer.
Remove your sandals from your feet. You’re standing on holy ground.”
God said to Moses that he was to return to Egypt (which he
had fled from for he had murdered an Egyptian) and lead the Israelite people to
the Promised Land.
Moses, like most of us, when we are called to stand up for
God --- was --- well to put it mildly he was a little hesitant.
He tries to beg off.
But God is having no part of it.
In one last attempt to get out of it Moses says:
Exodus 3:13-15 --- The Message
“Suppose I go to the People of Israel and I
tell them, ‘The God of your fathers sent me to you’; and they ask me, ‘What is
his name?’ What do I tell them?”
God said to Moses, “I-AM-WHO-I-AM.
Tell the People of Israel, ‘I-AM sent me to you.’”
God continued with Moses: “This is
what you’re to say to the Israelites: ‘God, the God of your fathers, the God of
Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob sent me to you.’ This has
always been my name, and this is how I always will be known.
God identifies God's self with one of the most fascinating
and perplexing answers ever given.
Tell them, God says --- Tell them --- "I Am" sent
you
What kind of a name is that?
This Hebrew word is four consonants long (ancient Hebrew did
not have vowels)
Y H W H
And using the consonants Y H W H
and the vowels in Elohim (another name for God) we get the word Yahweh and JEHOVAH
(J is a Y in German)
Whenever you see LORD in small caps
in your bible it is because the writers were using the word YHWH
But what does it mean?
The name is from the Hebrew verb Hawah — to be. In a world
where there were thought to be dozens of deities — gods of the moon, storms,
death, the sea, the sun —
God says to Moses, “I am being or
existence itself. Everything that exists derives its existence from me, is
contingent upon me, exists because of me. I am the Source and Essence of life,
being, existence itself!” (Hamilton)
My systematic theology professor was a student of Paul
Tillich, and his understanding of theology has greatly shaped my own.
Paul Tillich described God as "the ground of all
being."
In other words, God IS.
Everything exists because of God and is infused with God
Everything!
The conference that I am attending this week is called The Universal Christ: Another Name for Every
Thing
Our passage this morning, Jesus is in a conflict with the
religious leaders (as he often is in the fourth Gospel) and they are arguing
over what it means to be a descendant of Abraham.
And Jesus says to them (John
8:58-59)
“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham
was, I am.” So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid
himself and went out of the temple.
In John's Gospel there are seven "I Am" statements
in which Jesus uses a predicate to complete the sentence.
In studying these it is obvious that John's goal is to help
us understand how faith in Jesus affects our lives.
My hunch is most of us are pretty familiar with these.
1. I
Am the bread of life. (John 6:35)
2. I
Am the light of the world. (John 8:12)
3. I
Am the gate of the sheep. (John 10:7)
4. I
Am the good shepherd. (John 10:11)
5. I
Am the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25)
6. I
Am the way, the truth and the life. (John 14:6)
7. I
Am the true vine. (John 15:1)
The seven I Am statements form the distinctive core of
Jesus’ language of self-revelation in the fourth Gospel.
Jesus used common symbols of his age to help let the people
know that not only their religious needs, but also their human longings are met
in him.
The I Am statements tell us a number of things about Jesus
·
Jesus is more than meets the eye
No one title or
tradition can contain the totality of Jesus’ identity
Thus the use of metaphor to fill us
with lots of images of Jesus
·
Jesus is available and welcoming to all
o
Bread
o
Light
o
Gate
·
The religious authorities (nor do we) like the
welcome that Jesus wants to give away.
The authorities want strict rules and guidelines and Jesus constantly
knocks them down
So
they (and we) plot ways to get rid of Jesus and his followers who continued to
proclaim this agape love
GOD IS --- I AM --- there is no asterisk by it
God is all
--- and is responsible for all of creation
God created Charlotte who receives baptism this morning
God created you and me as we struggle to be open and
accepting of God’s grace
Jesus is light and life that is bestowed on everyone
And everyone --- whether we agree with Jesus or each other
--- is invited to his table
It is big
enough for all
What the "I Am" statements teach us more than anything is that
all people need for life is available in Jesus
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