Today’s Gospel takes place during the festival of Dedication in Jerusalem Today, we call this festival Hanukkah. Hanukkah takes place in December, near our Christmas. This story comes from the Gospel of John, and John tells us that it was winter. Jesus was teaching in the temple portico where he could get in out of the rain.
Jerusalem is on a mountain, so its summers are pleasantly warm and dry. Winters are cool, though and wet like the Pacific Northwest. If you have ever spent a December in Seattle, you have some idea what it was like for Jesus in Jerusalem cold and damp.
When John tells us that it was winter in Jerusalem, he was talking about something more than the weather. He was also talking about the reception that Jesus got from the Jewish leaders. They hated Jesus. To them, he was a young rabble-rouser. He was way too friendly with sinners and tax collectors. He was way too critical of the authorities.
They were plotting to kill him. So the religious leaders gathered around Jesus. I am thinking of vultures circling. They are waiting until the time is right to swoop in and kill him.
They said: “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
“Tell us plainly,” they said, hoping that Jesus would say, “Yes, I am the Messiah.” If he did that, they would have grounds to charge him for blasphemy. If Jesus said, “I am the Messiah,” they would have grounds to have him killed.
Jesus was smarter than they gave him credit for, and he replied: “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.” “The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me.”
There was plenty of evidence that Jesus was the Messiah:
• He had changed water into wine at a wedding reception.
- He had healed a boy who had been at death’s door.
- He had told a man who could not walk, “Stand up, take your mat and walk” and the man did just that.
The Gospels are full of the miracles Jesus performed.
He had done these things publicly. His enemies had seen them, but they still didn’t believe. Jesus told them, “You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”
Belief is a tricky business. Two people can look at the same thing and draw very different conclusions.
I watched a video at the at the house of Bill Furry one time that was all about the wonders of creation and the Universe. It really pointed out to me the enormity of the planets and how very small we are. This video was intended to inspired belief and give us an appreciation of God’s love for us.
Some scientists as they learn and study, their faith becomes stronger because they see God’s hand in it all. Other scientists debunk religious practice based on the same evidence. Some of the people who see the miracles of Jesus believed and some did not.
There was a motorcycle tech editor for a magazine I used to read. His name was Joe Minton, and he was really good. I loved his articles. He had an article once about motorcycle charging systems, and he observed that “Electron are not ham sandwiches.” You can’t hold them in your hand or touch them. You can’t taste an electron or tell if they are good or bad by looking at them. There is much about electrons and electricity that we learn in books, and we believe it because smart people tell us to.
We believe that when we flip a switch, the lights will come on. We don’t have to understand everything about the process to understand that it works and believe that it will work again.
Some things you just have to take on faith. It is not that we have to accept things on faith only and can’t look for evidence or try to understand something. The disciples saw the resurrected Jesus and they believed their eyes. St. Thomas in the reading two weeks ago needed to touch. Some people look at the evidence and decide to believe. Others can look at the same evidence and decide not to believe. The religious leaders in Jerusalem had seen plenty of evidence that Jesus was the Messiah, but they decided not to believe.
When they tried to back Jesus into a corner, he said: “The works that I do in my father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.”
The religious leaders had decided not to believe. They had decided not to be for Jesus, but to be against him. Once people make that kind of decision, they usually ignore any evidence that would point them in a different direction. The fact that people don’t believe in Jesus doesn’t mean they are not believers. A Gallup poll showed that lots of Americans believe in haunted houses and ghosts and astrology.
Now this sermon is not about astrology. It is about the fact that people who don’t believe in Jesus still have belief. Those people who don’t believe in Jesus still believe in electrons. Faith is faith.
There is a famous quotation that is often attributed to G.K. Chesterton. As close as I can tell he did not actually write this, but it is consistent with the type of thing he might say.
“When people stop believing in God they do not believe in nothing. They believe in anything.” This is very true. That atheist who does not believe is God believes in plenty of things.
I think God has put something in our hearts that wants to believe. It longs to know God. There is a yearning for meaning and understanding. I will give you an interesting example from something I read. It involves China. As you know, the Chinese government has been quite hostile to religion and has made it difficult to practice any faith in China.
When Michael Card, a Christian musician, visited China he said that “Again and again in China I talked to people who had never heard of Christianity, never heard of Jesus, never heard a single word from the Bible. Yet through nature and their God-given conscience, many believed in God. Not only did they believe God existed, they had derived some understanding about His loving character because he provided food, water, and a beautiful world. One old woman told me, ‘I’ve known him for years. I just didn’t know his name’.” I think that Jesus would say of that old woman, “She is one of my sheep. She belongs to my flock.”
Of the unbelieving men who were plotting to kill him, Jesus said: “You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep.” Jesus went on to talk about those of us who are his sheep. He said: “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”
Jesus gives us these promises. He gives us eternal life. No one will ever snatch us out of his hand. He is our shepherd and we know his voice and follow Him.
Those are not just promises. They are blessings as well. We who have chosen to believe belong to Jesus forevermore and will always be in his loving care.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen
Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas, Plymouth
May 12, 2019
Fourth Sunday of Easter
Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30