“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.” John 5:39-40, NRSV

“you have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you’ll find eternal life there. But you miss the forest for the trees. These scriptures are all about me! And here I am, standing right before you, and you aren’t willing to receive from me the life you say you want.” John 5:39-40, The Message

These words from Jesus call me and haunt me as my journey goes on life in life and ministry. They’ve woken me up in the night and wake me up in the morning. They are so alive with meaning, fresh into my current tug-of war with life, the new life that Jesus brings and my love for the familiar, staid and safe solid ground that my convictions give me. After thirty years of ministry, this I believe to be Jesus’ seminal sermon to the Church.

Our particular theological framework as Protestant Christians is rooted in a high view of scriptural authority, very much like those scribes and pharisees who are really angry at Jesus for healing on the sabbath and so breaking the law and disobeying the sacred text. Stunningly, at the same time, they miss the very embodiment of God speaking to them, breathing air with them, the very Messiah for who they long and wait with desperate prayer. The very text meant to help them see and know and experience the Living God has in fact become the very thing keeping them from finding life in Jesus, who says as much in the text above: “For this reason they started persecuting him, because he was doing such things on the sabbath…and they were seeking all the more to kill him, because he was not only breaking the sabbath, but was also calling God his own Father, thereby making himself equal to God.” v. 16 ff.

How does that happen? And can I/we be so blind as to fall into the same sad and angry place when Jesus appears and heals up a person, or when the Holy Spirit gets up to something new among us?

Jesus tells us it is when we begin to idolize and deify the scriptures instead of letting the text lead us to the One who John says IS the Word (capital W) made flesh, full of grace and truth, in whom there is life: “The law indeed was given through Moses. grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” (ch 1). We must wrestle with scripture’s authority…when is it healthy and life-giving and how can it quickly lead us to miss what God is up to right in front of us, in our midst.

We need to understand and remember and remind ourselves over and over that scripture’s authority comes from God’s inspiration of the text, and not from the text itself. When we come to the text for life, seeking to be formed/changed and ultimately to encounter Christ, the Living Word, then we will find life indeed. But when we locate divinity into the text itself, and scripture becomes an idol we worship, Jesus is set aside, actually replaced by the scripture itself, and our authority rests on “what the bible says” rather than “what Jesus says and does.” “What the bible says” more often than not finds us acting in ways that build walls and limit participation, that in one way or another restrict the life, the life — salvation, healing, grace and mercy — the life that is everywhere where Jesus is. As our spiritual ancestor David Nyvall says, “Without the Spirit…the Bible becomes a casket for dead dogmas instead of a garden of life and fragrance.”

That’s what happened that day when Jesus in Jerusalem one sabbath day among the many invalids “saw a man there who had been ill for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, ‘Do you want to be made well?'” Why wait another day when he has suffered so much? And so the spirit of the old law comes to life, but the letter of the law remains.

This is how our Lord Jesus himself deals with the authority of scripture. Whatever leads to healing, whatever leads to life — that’s the way forward, that’s the interpretive lens, that’s the authoritative word.

What do you think about it?

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

Today’s blog post is written by Pastor Jen.

This summer, I’m excited to share with you a new program offered by Adult Christian Formation:

Movies that Matter.

For years, we have tried different ventures in this summer space, from book reads before and during COVID, to an AntiRacism challenge. I find it’s a great season to do something different, but one that comes with its own difficulties too: people travel a lot, and their own routines are upended. (Parents of school-age children, I see you.) Some folks have a lot more time on their hands, and many have even less than during the more predictable, if still busy, school year.

It seems like our best efforts at gathering – whether that is for fellowship, service or formation – happen when people can join on a whim, if they happen to be at home, happen to be free, happen to be so inclined.

And yet, this is still a good time to explore new material, to start or continue conversations about important topics. Hence, our summer program for 2024: Movies that Matter.

Each month from June through August, we will offer a movie screening at church, complete with all the necessary trappings of a night at the movies: popcorn, candy, something to drink. The only difference is that these movies will focus in on a particular social issue, and be followed by a brief discussion.

Our series kicks off tonight at 7 PM, and I’m particularly excited about our first film, “Your Fat Friend.”

Aubrey Gordon, whose website describes her as a “Fat Lady About Town,” first gained popularity writing under the pseudonym YrFatFriend on (the platform formerly-known-as) Twitter. She writes poignantly and powerfully about what it’s like to live in a fat body in a world designed for thin people. She describes her own journey through different diets and medications and programs like Weight Watchers to achieve that ideal body size, and how her failure to do so has impacted relationships, the quality of medical care she receives, her experiences in travel, and so much more.

Aubrey is a bestselling author of two books and the co-host of the excellent podcast “Maintenance Phase,” which takes as its mission to “debunk and decode” the wellness and weight loss industries.

This movie is an incredible glimpse into Aubrey’s life and work, and I encourage you to join us. It’s a movie that is really for everyone (although, because of some language, I would say it’s not for children). You don’t need to inhabit a bigger body or love someone who does just to be impacted by this. You don’t even need to be sick of the way that we exalt thinness and conflate it with health. You just need to be someone who wants a better way of being in the world for everyone, regardless of size, age, gender, ability, orientation, religion, political persuasion…etc.

I loved this movie and I really hope you’ll come tonight.

Please also mark your calendar for our next dates: July 10 and August 14. Films for those nights will be announced closer to the date – but if you come tonight, you can help vote on what we watch next!

I’ll bring the popcorn. You bring a friend.

Yours,

Pastor Jen

(Note: our announcements have indicated that the movies will be screened in the upper room, but for the sake of comfort we will move to the Youth Room (yay couches!) and expand to a bigger space if our numbers require it.)

…An angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” Then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt…” (Mt. 2)

A couple of months ago in a pizza pub I made friends with a stranger, who was wearing a baseball hat with a cross on it. We got so friendly in line ordering our pizzas that we ended up sharing a booth in the crowded place. As we ate, news images from the southern border blared out at us, and most poignant was a mother swimming across the swollen Rio Grande river after a rainstorm, holding a baby high in the air as she fought the current. Joe, my new friend, said, “Now would you look at that. Who is their right mind would put their baby at risk like that?” “A desperate one” was the best answer I could muster, wondering what it must be like to be that mom. “No, a selfish one” Joe spit back, and continued: “She’s willing to sacrifice her child to get what we have, and illegally too!”

What struck me then and has stuck with me was Joe’s lack of concern and compassion for the whole situation. Did he have any awareness of the dangers she has faced on the road there? Does he care about what folks are suffering through in Venezuela’s political turmoil? What about the Gang violence, extortion, persecution, poverty and food insecurity in El Salvador and Guatemala? “Maybe, just maybe I’d be doing the same thing to try and give my child some hope for life” I offered. “Meh”, he said, and up and left. Clearly my point of view was wrong, as far as he was concerned.

I thought about the Holy Family running for their lives from Herod. Surely the baby Jesus might have been carried across the Nile River like that because of their fear and desperation. Shades of baby Moses.

As Christians, our hearts are filled with love and compassion for refugees, because our Lord Jesus himself was one, and because his great love extends most fervently to those on the margins, those most vulnerable. I know that important questions of legality and process and health and welfare and safety are complex and need to be worked through: but none of the work of governments needs to stop the Church from loving, caring, and helping, whether it be in Del Rio or Jaurez or in Rogers Park or Skokie, or even at the hotel chocked full of refugees behind my back yard fence.

The Hymn Society has recently released “Singing Welcome: Hymns and Songs of Hospitality to Refugees and Immigrants“. I’ve been reading through them, and offer from them a hymn. As you watch the news, and before you root yourself in political things, consider the scripture above and the hymn and prayer below.

Away And In Danger (to the tune of Away in a Manger) Shirley Murray

Away and in danger, no hope of a bed, the refugee children, no tears left to shed, look up at the night sky for someone to know that refugee children have no place to go.

The babies are crying, their hunger awakes, the boat is too loaded, it shudders and breaks; humanity’s wreckage is thrown out to die, the refugee children will never know why.

Come close, little children, we hold out our hand in resource and welcome to shores of our land — in touching, in healing, your fear and your pain with dreams of your future when peace comes again.

A Prayer for Refugees by Melissa Haupt

Hear us, Lord, as we raise our voices; In you we take refuge. Preserve those whose life is threatened by enemies and who are the target of bitter words or evil schemes. Remember those who are vulnerable and exposed, those who are victims of natural disaster, war, and persecution, those suffering anguish and sorrow.

Bring them to safety; In you we take refuge. Give shelter to those seeking a hiding place, to those torn from their homes, those who are separated from loved ones, those who are lost or have run away.

Bring them to safety; In you we take refuge. You look with mercy and love on all refugees. Help us to welcome the stranger, befriend the lonely, and show compassion. Allow your Spirit to move in us and teach us to seek justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with you, telling of all your works.

Let us rejoice and give praise; In you we take refuge.

Peter Hawkinson