From the Daily Lectionary for Tuesday in the Eleventh Week after Pentecost
John 5:30-47
“I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge; and my judgement is just, because I seek to do not my own will but the will of him who sent me.
“If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies on my behalf, and I know that his testimony to me is true. You sent messengers to John, and he testified to the truth. Not that I accept such human testimony, but I say these things so that you may be saved. He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. But I have a testimony greater than John’s. The works that the Father has given me to complete, the very works that I am doing, testify on my behalf that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified on my behalf. You have never heard his voice or seen his form, and you do not have his word abiding in you, because you do not believe him whom he has sent.
“You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that testify on my behalf. Yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept glory from human beings. But I know that you do not have the love of God in you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; if another comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe when you accept glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the one who alone is God? Do not think that I will accuse you before the Father; your accuser is Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
John is still harping on the more profound revelation that Jesus and his movement is the true faith compared to the witness of John the Baptist. For this writer, John the Baptist “testified to the light,” whereas Jesus is the light. John’s ministry was local, situated around the Jordan River in Palestine. Jesus’ ministry has now blossomed into a full-fledged, cosmopolitan philosophical system, employing the categorical language of the academy, thereby making it accessible to the educated class of the empire.
The Synoptic Gospels were written in Greek, but still held to their Semitic theological roots. John’s Gospel, also written in Greek, reiterates classical theology owing to the writings of Plato and Aristotle. Plato argued that the material world was reflective of the divine; that the “forms” of earth are emblematic of the forms of heaven. Jesus is one such “form.” He is the embodiment of God’s life in earth; and the way we “see and know” that is through his practice: welcoming the stranger, feeding the poor, “preparing dwelling places” in which one may live in dignity. Jesus’ life and ministry is all about the sacred art of befriending, that is to say, the practice of “laying down one’s life for one’s friends.”
God’s presence in the world is made visible by acts of compassion, the practice of empathy, and the inclusion of those left out of God’s promise of abundance. Dare I say that God is intensely “political” in that God acts for the just sustainability of our common life.
We have a profoundly important election coming up. As followers of Jesus, friends of God, here are some of our “Gospel” criteria to consider: Which candidate prioritizes the needs of the poor and the disenfranchised? Which candidate respects the dignity of all people without regard to race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability, or sexual orientation? Which candidate supports reparative justice for those who have been systematically treated unjustly? Which candidate embraces the responsibility to care for the earth and its climate? Which candidate supports the just application of the laws of our land? Which candidate welcomes the immigrant as if he or she were a member of his own family? These are bedrock Christian principles, rudiments of our practice, the means of love in our world. You decide. You choose.
A Prayer for an Election (BCP p. 822)
O God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privilege: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.
