Highbury
Congregational Church
Congregational Church
A place to
share Christian friendship,
explore Christian faith and
enter into Christian mission
share Christian friendship,
explore Christian faith and
enter into Christian mission
John
A series of sermons preached between Christmas and Easter 2006 at Highbury by Richard Cleaves.
It was linked to the new visual Bible, The Gospel of John.
Matthew, Mark and Luke see Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.
As John opens with a celebration of the creative word of God and the larger than life Son of Man we are in the world of the third section of the Hebrew Scriptures ... That is the world of the wisdom literature.
The wisdom that is explored in the books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and elsewhere in the so-called ‘wisdom literature’ of the Old Testament has been defined as ‘the ability to cope.
That’s the theme we have taken up in our series of sermons on John’s Gospel in the Spring of 2006.
1 Jan Wisdom and the abilitiy to cope John 1
8 Jan Coping with something new - John 2
15 Jan Coping with the Big Questions of the Meaning of life John 3
22 Jan Coping with differences in the church John 4
29 Jan Coping with the question of euthanasia John 5
5th Feb Coping with Religion
19th Feb Coping with our own frailty and weakness
John 7
26th Feb Coping with feelings of oppression John 8
5th March Coping with Growing Up - a Celebration of Baptism - John 9
12th March Parade Service
19th March Coping with Pastoral Care John 10 Psychiatrist, Kate Blazey reflects on Mental Health, Mental Illness and the church’s Pastoral Care
26th March Church weekend away - a visiting preacher
2nd April Coping with bereavement John 11
9th April Palm Sunday and a look
Forward to a major new series on the BBC for Easter about the miracles with David Waters who researched the programmes.
16th April Our Celebration of Easter
It was linked to the new visual Bible, The Gospel of John.
Matthew, Mark and Luke see Jesus as the fulfilment of the Law and the Prophets.
As John opens with a celebration of the creative word of God and the larger than life Son of Man we are in the world of the third section of the Hebrew Scriptures ... That is the world of the wisdom literature.
The wisdom that is explored in the books of Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs and elsewhere in the so-
That’s the theme we have taken up in our series of sermons on John’s Gospel in the Spring of 2006.
1 Jan Wisdom and the abilitiy to cope John 1
8 Jan Coping with something new -
15 Jan Coping with the Big Questions of the Meaning of life John 3
22 Jan Coping with differences in the church John 4
29 Jan Coping with the question of euthanasia John 5
5th Feb Coping with Religion
19th Feb Coping with our own frailty and weakness
John 7
26th Feb Coping with feelings of oppression John 8
5th March Coping with Growing Up -
12th March Parade Service
19th March Coping with Pastoral Care John 10 Psychiatrist, Kate Blazey reflects on Mental Health, Mental Illness and the church’s Pastoral Care
26th March Church weekend away -
2nd April Coping with bereavement John 11
9th April Palm Sunday and a look
Forward to a major new series on the BBC for Easter about the miracles with David Waters who researched the programmes.
16th April Our Celebration of Easter
Coping with Oppression
When’s a door not a door? When it’s ajar!
To which Basil Brush would still say on children’s tv … boo boom!
I want to ask the question this morning, when’s a religion not a religion.
No Joking Matter
The answer is not a joke and so does not invite comment from Basil Brush!
When a religion becomes repressive of those thoughts we are really thinking deep down then it’s not a religion worth having!
When a religion becomes oppressive of other people in the name of some god of power then it’s not a religion worth having.
When a religion seeks to repress, oppress, restrict, constrict, restrain, constrain, hold you down, keep you in, force you under … then it’s a religion that’s not worth having.
Jesus says no to that kind of religion. And nowhere does he say it more resoundingly than in John chapter 8.
There’s an incident in the life of Jesus that starts the chapter off … and then a lot of teaching. The significance of the teaching is very easy to miss and so that’s where I want to start.
John 8:12
What Jesus has to say about light and darkness gets to the heart of the wonderfully rich religious experience that he opens up for us to share. But I don’t want to reflect on that for a moment or two. I want to stay with those first two words.
I am.
They really are throwaway words. You don’t notice them as you move on to the real point of the verse. But those two words take on a great significance from chapter 6 to chapter 16 of John’s Gospel, and it is here in chapter 8 that they really come into their own.
They are not very ordinary. Indeed, they are quite extra-ordinary!
To appreciate their significance you have to look at the language they are written in. The Greek John is writing in is like Latin and lots of other languages. Its verbs do not need to have a pronoun in front of them. The language works in quite a different way from English. In English you have to use the little pronouns – I am, you are, he, she or it is. In Greek as in Latin you don’t need to put the pronouns in at all. The Greek word for I am is a single word – eimi. Just as the Latin word for I am is a single word sum.
There is a pronoun in Greek it is the word ego which we use in English as ego – for me. But it is only used in front of eimi on special occasions … and this is one of those special occasions. This is one of those special occasions.
There are quite a number of occasions in John starting in Chapter 6 with I am the bread of life and finishing in chapter 16 with I am the true vine that use this very special and quite extra-ordinary way of saying I am. I am the resurrection and the life, I am the way, the truth and the life, I am the door, I am the good shepherd, I am the light of the world.
To the Greek ear this would be quite strange and quite special. The strangeness and the specialness of these words is brought out later in chapter 8.
Jesus begins speaking about his special relationship with God. That’s what his teaching is all about.
As we move on to the central part of the chapter he speaks of that special relationship in a very special way …
It is worth looking at it in the Good News Bible we use in church. There’s a clue in the way the Good News Bible has translated Jesus’ words.
John 8:23-30
I AM WHO I AM
Haven’t we come across that somewhere before.
It’s back in Exodus chapter 3. Moses at the burning bush has a remarkably strong sense of the presence of God with him, and a call from God to bring freedom to his people.
But Moses fears that people may want to know the name of the God who is sending him to them.
God’s reply is full of mystery.
I am who I am. Say I has sent you.
This is the moment at which God discloses his name in all its mystery to Moses.
That becomes the basis of the four letter word for God in the Old Testament YHWH. It is such a special word that whenever it is written Jewish people reading the bible will not be prepared to utter it. Instead they utter a different word for God adonai. The very way the four letter word for God is written with the vowels of adonai and the consonants of the four letter word make you say it that way and identify just how special it is.
When the Greek translation of the Old Testament was made the word for God they used was kyrios, Lord. And in our new translations of the Old Testament whenever that is used for the special word for God it is written in capital letters LORD.
In Exodus when God answers I am has sent you. The Greek translators used this special phrase Ego eimi.
And that’s the phrase Jesus uses.
Indeed he is the one who is from above.
Indeed he is the one who not from this world.
That is why it is so important he says to believe that I AM WHO I AM.
The conversation goes on through the rest of chapter 8. It touches on the father figure of the Jewish faith, Abraham. And then at the very end of chapter 8, Jesus returns to this mysterious set of words.
John 8:56-58
I am telling you the truth, says Jesus, Before Abraham was born, I am.
There’s no getting away from the mystery in those words. They are wonderfully rich, strange to our ear .. and full of the wonder of Christ.
Before Abraham came into being I eternally was, as now I am, and ever continue to be. (C.K.Barrett)
What a wonderful thought.
Jesus embodies the very wonder and the mystery of God.
That being said, what is this God like and what does this God mean for the people who believe in Jesus.
The God who said to Moses I am who I am was the God who went on to bring freedom to the people of Israel in the Exodus.
This is precisely what Jesus is about.
This is what Jesus said to those who believed in him: “If you obey my teaching, you are truly my disciples, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
That’s the nub of it for Jesus.
The Truth will set you Free
Believing in Jesus is to touch the truth and to discover a truth that sets you free. It is liberating in the most wonderful of ways.
Jesus rejects a religion that is repressive, oppressive, restraining, constraining … in its place he opens up for us a window on to a God who sets us free to be the free people he wants us to be.
Into the darkness of a religion that is repressive Jesus brings a light that is nothing less than the light of life.
At last we can get back to where we started.
I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have the light of life and will never walk in darkness.
We must be clear, however.
Liberating though Christ is from a religion that represses … it is not any old freedom; neither is it any old light.
As I was preparing these notes a quotation entered into my inbox – I get one a day. It was quite appropriate as only a couple of weeks ago saw the death of Coretta Scott King who had taken up the work of Martin Luther King at his assassination and herself made such an impact on a world which longs for freedom.
This was the quotation.
Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.
What a quotation!
Freedom to Love
The truth that sets you free, is the truth of the God who so loves the world that he gives his only son
The light we are called to walk in is the light of the God who so loves the world that he gives his only son.
Nowhere do we see the confrontation between the repressive religion that hems you in, holds you down, and is so destructive, and the liberating truth of the God who is love whose reality is disclosed in Jesus than in the event that begins chapter 8.
Curiously it was not included in all the old versions of the Gospel. That’s why modern translations put it in square brackets.
But it is a wonderful story that captures the essence of this truly liberating, truly enlightening good news that is at the heart of Jesus’s disclosure of the true God who sets us free.
The Light of Love Put into Practice
The festival of tabernacles is coming to a close. Jesus has gone up secretly to the Temple in Jerusalem and has started to teach the people who are gathered there.
He is pitted against those who want to make religion as repressive as can be.
In what he does is a love that gives one woman in particular a fresh start. He does not compromise what is right or wrong – go and sin no more, he says to the woman.
But at the same time he refuses to condemn her.
His is not a religion that represses, it is the truth of the God of love who frees as he brings light into the darkness of our world.
