The Power of a Name, John 20:1-18

Posted on April 3, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered on Easter, March 31, 2024, Year B

Rembrandt’s Risen Christ with Mary Magdalene

John 20:1-18

20.1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10Then the disciples returned to their homes.

11But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.[1]

He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!)

Once upon a time a priest, a pastor, and a Rabbi walk into a bar.  They’re good friends and they occasionally get together to decompress from their lives in the parish. The Rabbi asked the two Christian clergy, “Say, imagine you’re at your own funeral and you can see what’s going on around you. You see the people, you hear their conversations, and you can see how they’re acting with your loss.  What would you want people to say about you as they filed past your casket?” Now that’s quite a question, isn’t it? It’s interesting to think about our own funerals and try to guess what people would say.   

Anyway, Father Scott thought for a moment and said, “I’d like to hear them say, ‘Here lies Father Scott, devoted priest and a lovely friend who was there with me in thick and thin.’”

The Presbyterian pastor, Pastor Patrick, says, “I would love to hear my people say, ‘Here lies Pastor Patrick who now rests from his labors as a tireless shepherd of his little flock.’”

Now it was the Rabbi’s turn. He stroked his beard and leaned forward towards his friends.  Raising his right eyebrow with a glint in his eyes he says, ‘I want to hear my people say, “Ah, here lies Rabbi Schwartz…and look!  He’s moving!”

Oh, my friends, the Rabbi is the one who figured out the power of the Christian message and promise:  He is Risen! (He is risen, indeed!). Father Scott and Pastor Patrick would appear to have become too familiar with the Easter promise. You see, their everyday work in the lives of their parishioners – counseling parents on the baptism of their children, running a finance meeting, saying an invocation at City Hall, visiting patients in the hospital, or even simply trying to keep gossip down among church members – all these dalliances of life obscure the real meaning of their purpose and work which is to point others to the hope and promise of what Easter Day is all about! It took the Rabbi to remind them that, “Hey! Look! He’s moving!” or as those in the Christian tradition proclaim, “It’s that He is risen!” (He is risen, indeed!)

This morning, the one issue, the one question that emerges for me from this text is in verse 15:  Woman, why are you weeping? John’s Gospel is silent on why Mary Magdalene ventured out in the dark and came to the tomb that first Easter morning. Other gospels mention her coming with an entourage of others to help give Jesus a proper burial since they were so rushed on Friday evening as Sabbath began. John’s gospel is different in that it doesn’t mention the other women directly except with an obscure “we” in verse 2. It is silent on why she came so early. All we know is that her love and devotion to Jesus caused her to climb out of bed and explore the possibilities awaiting her at the tomb.

What got you out of bed this morning to come here to worship?  Who are you looking for?  What are you looking for?

Peter and the others did not bother to get out of bed. They were not looking for anyone or anything; they were huddled behind locked doors.  When Mary runs to let them know the stone has been rolled away (we don’t know if she realizes Jesus is gone yet as the text is silent), Peter and John, who is also thought to be known as the one whom Jesus loved, ran to the tomb to see if what Mary said was true. John, the faster of the two arrives first but hesitates to go inside.  Peter finally blunders up and charges straight into the tomb.  Peter looks around and sizes things up and is silent. John looks around and sees the evidence of the two sets of wrappings where the body once was. One wrapping was for Jesus’ head and the other was for his body. Peter ponders and John believes…in exactly what, we are not sure what he believes but considering his response in going home as though nothing happened, it would appear that he merely believes Mary was correct: The tomb is empty. Both are appropriate responses. Who are they looking for that morning? A dead Jesus. What they discovered was an empty tomb. And then they do something I never understood very well: They simply went home. They didn’t linger at the empty tomb. They didn’t engage any bystanders asking what might have happened. They just went home.

What got you out of bed this morning?  Who or what did you expect to see?  Peter pondered. John believed in something. Yet, they both simply went home; sadly, many this Easter morning will simply follow their lead and just go home.

And then there’s Mary Magdalene, who in our Story this morning becomes the first apostle, the first ‘sent one’. Her love was too deep.  Her pain was so visceral. It was only after Peter and John left for home did she in her solitude and her heart’s interior castle of tears peered into the tomb and saw it was empty. For the first time, she is asked, “Woman, why are you weeping?” by two angels inside the tomb. At this point in the Story, Mary only knows that Jesus is gone. She seems to be oblivious to her angelic messengers as well because, in most other New Testament accounts, people are falling all over themselves in fear when an angel shows up. Mary, however, is nonplused. She then turns around and walks smack into Jesus himself but again, her sadness is too heavy. For the second time in a matter of minutes, Mary is asked, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?”  Once again, Mary is so focused on her own pain that she fails to see Jesus. Thinking it’s the cemetery gardener she pleads, “If you have taken him away, please tell me where!”  And it’s right here that the action grinds to a stop and time is suspended. One arresting word was spoken that penetrated the sobbing woman’s broken heart, grief, and spirit. Jesus spoke her name, “Mary.”

The empty tomb did not cause her to see Jesus.

Seeing the undisturbed grave clothes like John did not penetrate her psyche so that she saw Jesus.

Encountering two angels shining in white did not jar her out of her deep grief so she could see Jesus.

The very resurrected presence of the Lord himself did not help Mary realize what was going on that morning. It was only after God softly spoke her name that the proverbial scales fell from her eyes, and she saw Jesus for the first time.

Mary. Friends, there’s power in a name. If I were to shout out your name in a crowded room, I guarantee you would stop and look around!

Beloved, whom are you looking for this Easter morning? Some of you may be like Peter and John and wish you were still back in bed if it wasn’t for the woman in your life who drug you to church this morning! But even Peter pondered once he arrived there and John saw something that pricked a belief in something larger than himself. I believe that God will use whatever means possible to get us out of bed and face to face with the empty tomb.

Some of you may come this morning and experience something like Peter and you will leave pondering what all this Easter stuff is about. Some of you like John will have an experience where your curiosity in the Lord will be rekindled. But what I really want to urge each of you this morning is to pay attention and listen.  Listen for the Lord to gently speak your name.

Jesus will meet you where you are and speak your name. Jesus will take you in whatever condition he finds you in and will speak your name. Are you sad or depressed?  He’s calling your name.

Are you lonely and despondent?  He’s calling your name.

Are you in pain or are feeling miserable in the midst of your treatments?  He’s calling your name.

Is your life stuck in a professional Groundhog Day where you’re bored sick and hate what you do?  He’s calling your name.

Are you at a critical juncture in your life where you need direction?  He’s calling your name!

Beloved, names are powerful things!  When someone knows your name, they can grab your attention and speak directly to you in the midst of a crowd.  If a person knows your name, there is a conduit for a relationship that’s already there. When a person calls out your name, they are exerting a gentle power over you because they can command your attention and you or I cannot help but listen.

The promise of Easter is that the Great I Am, the God who is, was, and is yet to come, knows each of us by our names! Just think about that, for a moment. If we would be but still enough to listen, we will hear the resurrected Christ speaking to us in the radio transmitter of our hearts, reminding us, “I am with you even now; I got this for you.”

He is risen! (He is risen, indeed!) And let’s add one more thing: this time, say, “He is risen, indeed and calls me by name!”  Happy Easter, Beloved.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame, New York, 12801 and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, 1995 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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Why Did You Come to the Parade?, John 12:12-16

Posted on March 25, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered by the Rev. Dr. Patrick H. Wrisley. March 24, 2024, Palm Sunday, Year B

                  Today, we are attending a parade and just like NBC before the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, we are going to first take a backstage look at what is going on before we get to the parade itself. Parades don’t happen in a vacuum and we need to know why our parade this morning was going on in the first place.

                  To refresh our memories, we need to slide back to John 11 and recall what happened there. Jesus was down by the river Jordan with his disciples, and he got word from Mary and Martha that his best friend Lazarus was near death. By the time Jesus made the journey up to Bethany where Lazarus lived, Lazarus had already died and had been buried for four days. Jesus gets chided by sisters Mary and Martha for not getting there sooner to heal their brother and he insists on seeing where they buried him. Jesus comes to the tomb, tells people to remove the stone, and then calls out to Lazarus to come out. Sure enough, Lazarus comes shuffling out of the tomb all bound up with burial clothes. When the crowds saw this, they went nuts. The Mainline religious officials were none-too-pleased about it. We read in John 11:47 that the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council, and groused, “What are we to do? This man is performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and destroy both our holy place and our nation.” It was at this point, that both Jesus and Lazarus had a bounty placed on their head; Jesus because of what he did and Lazarus because he happened to be the recipient of Jesus’ grace.

                  Lest we forget, all this happened leading up to the festival of Passover which required all able-bodied men in Israel to attend in person. Jerusalem and its environs were teeming with all sorts of people and animals. Bethany was just a few miles away from the city and the night before the parade, Jesus and the disciples were having dinner at Lazarus’ home. This is the dinner where Mary washed and anointed Jesus’ feet with expensive oil and was summarily chewed out by Judas Iscariot for spending too much money on the ointment being used. Tensions were beginning to rise both on the inside of the fellowship as well as with the religious and political authorities.

                  The next day, there was no intentional effort to throw Jesus a parade; it kind of spontaneously happened. By this time, people in Jerusalem had heard about Lazarus coming out of his tomb and were thronging from Jerusalem to Bethany to see what really happened. You had the people from Bethany who actually saw Lazarus emerge from the tomb heading to Jerusalem with Jesus. Then, you had the religious pilgrims filing into Jerusalem as well. All these crowds merged into one joyous throng headed to Jerusalem. Amid the crowds were the grumpy religious leaders looking for a way to nip this in the bud.  Let’s pick up in John’s Story with verse 12:12 and following. This morning, I am reading from the J.B. Phillips translation. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

John 12:12-16

                  12-13 The next day, the great crowd who had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming into Jerusalem and went to meet him with palm branches in their hands, shouting (lines from Psalm 118), “God save him! ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’, God bless the king of Israel!”

                  14-15 For Jesus had found a young ass and was seated upon it, just as the scripture foretold (in Zechariah 9) — ‘Fear not, daughter of Zion: behold, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt’.

                  16 (The disciples did not realize the significance of what was happening at the time, but when Jesus was glorified, then they recollected that these things had been written about him and that they had carried them out for him.)1

                  This isn’t the first occasion palm branches were waived in honor of a king in Jerusalem. About 160 years earlier, Simon Maccabaeus and his brothers led a resistance fight against one of Alexander the Great’s successors, the Seleucid king, Antiochus. It was recorded that,

On the twenty-third day of the second month, in the one hundred seventy-first year, the Jews entered (Jerusalem) with praise and palm branches, and with harps and cymbals and stringed instruments, and with hymns and songs, because a great enemy had been crushed and removed from Israel.2

                  Friends, it’s important to remember that when the crowds were surrounding Jesus and the multitudes of people were sweeping him into Jerusalem, they were celebrating Jesus as the new king who was going to reclaim Jerusalem and oust the Roman occupiers. We forget that Palm Sunday was an in-your-face sociopolitical statement in the eyes of those gathered. From the Roman point of view, this parade was an insurrection against their power. The established religious officials were upset that Jesus, along with this raucous throng, would throw the city into violent turmoil as people commemorated the Jewish release from Egyptian bondage. The irony is just too rich!

                  Palm Sunday is more than a parade we have made it out to be; on the contrary, for those ushering Jesus into Jerusalem, Palm Sunday was a dissenting protest march on the capital city. Rome and the established religious establishment were worried about armed rebellion. Perhaps even some of the people in the crowd were thinking that, too. But Jesus wasn’t. He was coming as the new King but as a king who conquers hate and fear with love and hope. The only person that week who would feel the violence of the Empire was Jesus himself. His was a kingship of humility, of sacrifice, and one of big surprises.

                  There was quite a panoply of people that day in Jerusalem. There was Jesus who was taking it all in but realized how blissfully clueless everyone was about the reign he was inaugurating.

                  There were people who had witnessed Lazarus emerge from the tomb as well as those who wanted to see if what they heard about Lazarus was true; what did he look like? Smell like? Act like?

                  There were some who were all caught up in the excitement and hope that maybe, just maybe, this Jesus was the promised Messiah who would displace the Romans and retake Israel; they had absolutely no idea what that really meant or looked like, but they wanted to be on the side of a winner.  

                  Who else was there? Roman officials trying to calculate the risk of violence with this incredibly large mob. There were the religious officials who were standing back in gross disgust and disdain that this country-bumpkin Rabbi from Nazareth was about to topple the status quo and with it their social influence and power.

                  And then there were those like the disciples themselves. John indicates they were clueless about what was going on and that only in retrospect did they fully “get it.” What were they thinking as they watched Jesus fetch the colt and sit upon it? They were wondering how all the weird things Jesus was saying about death and eternal life aligned with what they were watching. This movement had become so much larger than they ever thought it would. I can see them furtively looking back over their shoulders to make sure things were still ok. All of these disparate groups watching this parade/protest and were forming all sorts of opinions in their minds about what was going on.

                  So, the question for you and me is this: Where do we see ourselves that day of the Palm Sunday parade? Where are we today? What do you and I think is going on? As we once again commemorate Jesus humbly riding in to establish his reign among us, what are we thinking about the rabbi from Nazareth? Are watching him ride into Jerusalem from a distance? Are we worried he is going to upset the status quo of our routines and lives? Are we threatened by him? Confused by him? Anxious about him?

                  These are the things we are asked to ponder as we enter into Holy Week. What is our relationship with the one who has come to liberate us to set us free and make us whole? Gratefully, we are given food for the journey to help us on our way.  We are invited to come to the Lord’s Table and be served by his hand and be fed his body and have our slaked souls refreshed with his blood. As you come forward for communion, let’s reflect upon why we came to the parade. In the Name of the One who is, who was, and who is yet to come. Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

1 JB Phillips New Testament (Phillips) The New Testament in Modern English by J.B. Phillips copyright @1960, 1972 J.B. Phillips. Administered by the Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by permission.

2 1 Maccabees 13:51-52.

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The Way Down is the Way Up

Posted on March 18, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

A sermon delivered on March 17, 2024, the Fifth Sunday of Lent, Year B

We have transported ahead in John’s Story to chapter 12. Jesus has come to the Passover festival and the Pharisees, the local religious leaders, see Jesus as a threat and are grousing, “Look, the world has gone after him.”  This is right where we pick up in the Story.  Listen to the Word of the Lord.

John 12:20-33

 20Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

27“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.[1]

So, where do we place ourselves in today’s Story? We are the Greeks.  The Greeks represent everyone who is not a Jew but are still looking for the Messiah as well. Their request was a simple one; they told Philip, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.”  Why they wanted to see Jesus is never really discovered nor is it revealed if they even got to see him. You see, John uses the characters of the Greeks in his Story to push us deeper into the narrative; John uses them as literary foils.

Jesus, it seems, as with most people of notoriety, was surrounded by an entourage of sorts.  This group develops layers around the special person and in their minds, they are protecting the VIP from unnecessary badgering from people they do not know. You know, the hoi polloi like you and me This is the vibe I am feeling from reading the Story.  Philip is out on the outer edges and gets stopped by the Greeks.  He then goes a little bit deeper into the circle of influence gets Andrew and discusses the Greeks’ request.  Then, both of them go and find Jesus and share the Greeks’ request.  The text never says whether the Greeks saw Jesus or not, but it does go on to outline Jesus’ response to them.

I’ve always been puzzled by this text.  As a preacher who has been in a lot of pulpits over the years, it is not uncommon to be sitting in the preacher’s chair behind the pulpit and see a little plaque stuck on the back of the pulpit that says, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” I’ve always wondered why that was there. Why is that a message directed to me, the preacher?  For so long I thought, “Well duh, I’m supposed to tell them about Jesus!” but I never made the connection between the Greeks’ question and Jesus’ reply.

“Patrick, we wish to see Jesus.”  Well of course you would, who wouldn’t! And after all those years is puzzling over this apparent non-sequitur, it finally hit me what this text is all about. These words are written on the backside of pulpits to remind us, Preachers, that it’s easy to tell people about Jesus; it’s entirely something different to help people understand and count the cost of what it takes to do so. As I have said, we never learn if Jesus saw the Greeks or not; all we know is the response Jesus gave to the disciples articulated what is required of the Greeks, or anyone else for that matter, to see him.

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.  The Lord answers, “I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.  The Lord answers, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”

Sir, we wish to see Jesus.  The Lord answers, “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”

This morning, our biblical Story is outlining the cost of what it means to follow Jesus and call ourselves “a disciple.” Jesus is giving us a lesson on the price we are to pay to call ourselves, “Christian.” Jesus is telling Andrew and Philip that the price of admission to seeing and experiencing Jesus is that we will need to die to ourselves and to the world’s expectations and values. When we come and see Jesus, we are called to empty ourselves to be filled with God. In other words, beloved, the way down is the way up. 

Priest/author/mystic Richard Rohr writes, “The soul has many secrets.  They are only revealed to those who want them and are never completely forced upon us. One of the best-kept secrets, and yet hidden in plain sight, is that the way up is the way down.  Or, if you prefer, the way down is the way up.”[2] The way down is where we join Jesus in the pains of this world. The way down is where we see how broken our value system is. The way down is when we finally realize we are making a pluperfect mess of God’s creation. The way down is when we recognize how we politically and economically justify injustice to the least of these in our world. Friends, it is only when we realize how bereft we are on the way down that we can be lifted back up to fully see and experience Jesus in his Easter radiance. But it takes sacrifice.

We must die to ourselves to sprout new life.

We must give up our life and identity to find a new identity in the family of God.

We must serve, not ourselves, but Jesus, and follow him wherever he goes.  In other words, my beloved…

We have to go through the pain of Good Friday before we can rise up in Easter life and joy!

We have to hit rock bottom with our use of drink and drugs before we can climb back out to healthy sobriety.

We have to go down on our knees to clean the latrines before we can rise up and lead a regiment. 

We have to be stripped of pride before we can put on true honor.

A cook has to make a lot of glop before they can become a Master Chef.

The caterpillar has to die in order to come back to life as a butterfly!

The bread has to be broken before it can be given and shared with others.

So, you and I want to see Jesus? Have we calculated all that it takes to do so?  Next week is Palm Sunday, beloved. Passion Week is following on its heels and it’s an invitation for us to go down and embrace the pain and sacrifice Jesus embraced. We still have a lot to pray and think about before Easter comes; namely, are we able to do it?  In the Name of the One who is, was, and is yet to come. Amen.  

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of the First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, New York 12801 and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission.  All rights reserved.

[1] The New Revised Standard Version, 1989, from the World Council of Churches.

[2] Richard Rohr, Falling Upward. A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2011), xviii.

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Patio Time, John 3:14-21

Posted on March 14, 2024 by patrick h wrisley
From The Chosen

In just two chapters, John’s densely packed gospel has already revealed four vital facts about Jesus. To begin with, we’ve learned Jesus’ true origins as the Eternal Word from the beginning of time.[1] It has shown us how Jesus calls together a community of ordinary people to follow him and makes them disciples.[2]  It highlights Jesus as an incredibly gracious Messiah as he turned water into 180 gallons of wine.[3] Fourth, we learned last week his destiny as he cleared the Temple and gave us a glimpse of what he came to do with a reference to his resurrection.[4] Now as we move into chapter three, John reveals to us the “why” of Jesus.

Turn in your Bible to John 3:14-21. Our Story today is part of an extended conversation between Jesus and a Jewish religious scholar named Nicodemus. At the beginning of chapter 3, Nicodemus has come over one evening and is engaging Jesus in some thoughtful conversation about what it means to be born spiritually, and amid their visit, Jesus outlines the “why” – the purpose of his coming.  Listen to the Word of the Lord:

John 3:14-21

 14 And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. 21 But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”[5]

Ever since I was a teenager, I have longed and loved for the ability to get away with someone and sit around a campfire. After football season was over, my buddy Dave and I would load up his used car and go camping in the north Georgia mountains. We would often sit under the cold dark night sky listening to a fire crackle; sometimes we talked but oftentimes we would sit in silence and listen to the dreams God was instilling in our adolescent hearts. Sitting alone in the dark in the mountains can be a scary thing but the fire creates a circle of light that feels secure. The glow of the light creates a place of refuge and safety where the world falls away and you are suspended in time at that moment feeling the fire’s warmth as the wood crackles breaking the night’s silence. Your world shrinks to only the size of the circle of light holding at bay the shadows of the forest.  All the pressures of high school, working, wondering if my old high school flame, Marian Chan, was going to dump me or not, or trying to figure out what I was supposed to be when I grew up; all of these issues seemed to melt away during those moments. It’s been over fifty years and I still travel back to those campfires in my mind.

Throughout my life and spiritual walk, I have sought to recreate those moments with those I love. A portion of my days has always included time just sitting with those I care about and being with one another. I don’t sit around campfires anymore, but I’ve discovered a lit candle flickering on the table while on the patio works just fine.

Patio time. Through the years my days have developed a rhythm of devotion and prayer in the morning and patio time in the evening. Patio times are those moments when Kelly and I would sit outside and simply be together. We shared what was most upon our hearts. Sitting in the patio’s candlelight over the years, we have strategized on how to raise our daughters and have worked out things in our marriage. We have shared our fears of illness and death and what we want this life to be. My daughters, Lauren and Kate, shared patio time with me as they grew up. The older they became, we would sit on the patio by candlelight and talk about their day, their dreams, and their boyfriends. Oftentimes, we would just sit together – a daddy and his girl – enjoying the presence of the other before they each would leave home and go to college.

Over the years, I have also had special patio time with members of my churches. We sit and chat, sometimes enjoy a good cigar, and around the lit candle on the table, you share with me your hopes, your dreams, your joys, and your fears. The light’s glow creates a space of safety and comfort, and you can just simply be your true self.  Patio time.

We have in our text today a snapshot of Jesus’ version of patio time. Nicodemus, a ruler and noted rabbi of the Jews comes to Jesus and wants to visit around the fire. Some take the fact that Nicodemus coming to Jesus at night points to his fear of being found out by the other Pharisees. Maybe. I like to think that perhaps Nicodemus knows, that like you and me, that at the end of a busy day, one just needs someplace, someone safe with whom you can your let hair down. Nicodemus was wise enough to know that to truly understand his spiritual life and faith in God, he would need time to pull away from the day’s bustle and have a private conversation with Jesus.

Nicodemus shows up three more times in John’s gospel.  He shows up in chapter seven where he sticks up for Jesus as others are trying to arrest him. He later shows up when Jesus gets arrested and then he appears in chapter 19 when he and a fellow Pharisee, Joseph of Arimathea ask Pilate for Jesus’ dead body to properly bury him.  Nicodemus is introduced in our patio time story this morning and we see the depth of his discipleship grow deeper in each of his other gospel appearances. He moves from asking about faith and belief to dynamically living out that faith and belief by publicly defending Jesus and honoring him with a decent burial.

Nicodemus, like many of us, comes to Jesus as a person who already has faith in God. He already has an active spiritual life! But something was lacking. The Spirit in Nicodemus was needling him to delve deeper and move beyond the letter of the Torah and seek its larger Truth.  Something in him wants to move beyond his first-level thinking and go deeper. First-level thinking is when you and I take for fact what we see directly in front of us at face value. What’s needed is second-level thinking where we push beyond what we think we see and know and actively question to experience Truth at a more profound level.[6]  Nicodemus, his first-level thinking was taking Jesus literally when he said he must be born again. Jesus was pushing him towards second-level, more critical, and broad thinking when he reinterprets what he said to mean spiritual rebirth. Second-level thinking opens up the aperture of our willingness and desire to learn and experience more.

Jesus says, “A person must be born again” and Nicodemus asks, “What do you mean? How is that possible?” Jesus replies “Just like Moses lifted the serpent up in the wilderness to heal the people, so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that those who see and believe will have eternal life” (3:15).  And it’s at this point Jesus reveals his purpose and the “why” of his life and coming:

16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. 17 “Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 

During his patio time that evening, Jesus reinterprets God’s intentions for his Jewish rabbi friend. He’s reminding Nicodemus that God so loves the entire cosmos that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life, not just the children of Abraham, but any and all people, even those nasty Gentiles; indeed, the Son of God does not condemn the world but is willing to die to save it.

Jesus is pushing Nicodemus to grow beyond first-level thinking whereupon Jewish spirituality is simply following the jot and tittle of the Law; Jesus is pushing Nicodemus to a deeper, more thoughtful, critical, and active life of discipleship in living out the Law with others. He’s reminding him that the essence of the Law is to learn how to love God and neighbor – whoever that neighbor happens to be. Lest we forget, believing is a verb and not a noun. Believing is about living out one’s faith in ever-deepening, penetrating ways. Believing is not signing onto a bunch of propositions like following the Ten Commandments; no, believing is living the active loving life Jesus emulated. Jesus took Nicodemus where he was on the patio and gave him both the room and the tools to grow deeper, grow more mature, in his spiritual life.

Beloved, as we journey to the Cross together, I encourage you to engage in some patio time with someone you know and trust and invite the Spirit of Jesus to join you. In the intimacy of your fire or candle’s glow, plumb with one another how you both can deepen your understanding of the Lord. Are you still a first-level thinking disciple or are you letting Spirit guide you to places you never dreamed you would go? In this patio time, just like Nicodemus, assess what you think you believe and know as true and let Jesus expand and challenge your thinking of what you think “you know” about God. Go find your patios my beloved and Jesus will meet you there! Amen.

© 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls, 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801.  Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permission. All rights reserved.

[1] John 1.1-28.

[2] John 1:29-51.

[3] John 2:1-11.

[4] John 2:12-23.

[5] New Revised Standard Version (NRSV). New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

[6] See Farnam Street and read at https://fs.blog/2016/04/second-order-thinking/.

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Flipping Tables, John 2:13-22

Posted on March 4, 2024 by patrick h wrisley

This morning, we are looking at flipping tables. Today, flipping tables can mean a few things. On one hand, you’re at a busy restaurant like the Silo on a Saturday morning and are waiting for the busboy to clean up the table of the folks who just left so you can have a seat. The busboy is trying to flip the table for a new guest. On the other hand, flipping tables can also mean getting a room ready. In a few weeks when we have our St. Patrick’s Day goodies after church on the 17th, we will need to help the deacons flip the room and get it ready for the preschool gym class the next morning.

John chapter two serves as the book’s overture for what he is going to unpack throughout the rest of the Story. The scripture immediately preceding ours in this chapter is Jesus turning ordinary water into wine at a wedding in the village of Cana. John does not call this a miracle but rather a sign pointing to who Jesus is and the power he has. Our Story today points to what Jesus is ultimately going to do;[i] without actually using the word, Jesus speaks of his upcoming passion and Easter. Listen to the Word of the Lord!

John 2:13-22

13-14 When the Passover Feast, celebrated each spring by the Jews, was about to take place, Jesus traveled up to Jerusalem. He found the Temple teeming with people selling cattle and sheep and doves. The loan sharks were also there in full strength.

15-17 Jesus put together a whip out of strips of leather and chased them out of the Temple, stampeding the sheep and cattle, upending the tables of the loan sharks, spilling coins left and right. He told the dove merchants, “Get your things out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a shopping mall!” That’s when his disciples remembered the Scripture, “Zeal for your house consumes me.”

18-19 But the Jews were upset. They asked, “What credentials can you present to justify this?” Jesus answered, “Tear down this Temple and in three days I’ll put it back together.”

20-22 They were indignant: “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and you’re going to rebuild it in three days?” But Jesus was talking about his body as the Temple. Later, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered he had said this. They then put two and two together and believed both what was written in Scripture and what Jesus had said.[i]

The Jewish Passover was approaching on the calendar. The Passover is the yearly festival that faithful Jews celebrate to mark their release from slavery from the Egyptians; it’s a time they remember how God led them through the wilderness to the Promised Land. Passover is all about liberation, freedom, and bright hopes for the future. Passover was the time faithful Jews looked out for the new messiah to come and deliver them from their current pain and turmoil under the rule of an oppressive Empire.[iii] The Passover was a festival all Jews had to observe, and they came from all over the ancient world to celebrate it in Jerusalem. The city was packed with people, animals, soldiers, vendors, religious officials, and sightseers, and there was a carnival atmosphere.

The center of the celebration was the Temple itself where the people would come and make their sacrifices and offerings to God. In what is known as the Court of Gentiles, animal vendors would set up shop selling lambs, doves, and other animals for sacrifice by the Levitical priests for the multitude of people’s sins, their thanksgivings, and other spiritual obligations.  Since it drew people from all over the ancient world, you would also see these tables like you see at international airports where you exchange your American dollar for British pounds. The money taken at the Temple for Jewish sacrifices could not be impure, dirty money from Rome or Persia; rather, it had to be exchanged for local untainted, purified Jewish funds.  The sale of animals and the exchange of money was not the problem for Jesus; it was where all the buying, selling, and exchanging was taking place: It occurred in a set-aside place of worship for those seeking God.

The Court of the Gentiles was included in the Temple architecture to welcome uncircumcised God-fearers into a place of worship. It was designed for those Gentiles who believed in the one God but who were not ethnically Jewish.  So here was a place that was set aside for a group of people seeking to worship and find a God they did not yet fully know but whose worship location had been taken over for a marketplace. It was a literal regentrification of a divine worship space! 

Jesus was torqued. God’s house was turned into a marketplace, an emporium, a spiritual Walmart at Christmastime of sorts. A place set aside for spiritual seekers to come in contact with God was displaced for carnival’s expediency. The “in group” could care less about those trying to learn about the holy worship of the Divine. The proverbial rams with all the power were butting out the sheep, the lost ones, with an inferior worship experience. No longer was the Temple about encountering God; the Temple had become a place where transactional business took place.  It was symbolic of how the Holy was usurped by the secular. And Jesus was fuming. 

His response? He started flipping tables and swooshing the animals out with a makeshift whip. Jesus was upset! As scholar Dale Bruner reminds us, Jesus’ anger is provoked by the people’s and religious leaders’ spiritual obtuseness through their mixing of the sacred with the profane. His flipping of tables was his dramatic act of trying to restore the honor of God within the confines of God’s house! And the people did not understand or get it.[iv]

Confronted by put-out vendors and religious officials who demanded to know what he is doing, Jesus simply replied, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2.29). What the crowd and disciples did not know then but we as his disciples should know now is that Jesus is telling them that the Temple no longer will be the center of their spiritual orbit in encountering God; he is telling them that he will be the One people will come to encounter God. This was Jesus’ battle cry for a new order in the world, in worship, and in the soul.

So, Jesus implies that he is now the new epicenter of a person’s worship! Later in John’s Story we hear Jesus say, “Abide in me as I abide in you” (15.4), and we learn that we are called to worship and serve the Lord who now resides, not in a Temple of Stone, but within our hearts of flesh. The Lord in my heart, your heart, all of our hearts joined together called Church become the location for the Beloved of God and is called to be made holy and set apart. God moves His Presence from a singular place in Palestine to a corporate place in his disciple’s hearts and souls. God in Jesus is dwelling in you and me and through this and other churches! Wow!  Think about that fact for a moment!

So, Church, what does Jesus find when he enters the Temple of the Holy Father now residing in each of our hearts and in the heart of the American church?  What does Jesus discover as he enters our heart’s door leading to the Holy? What tables will he discover that are set up and getting in the way?

Perhaps you’ve thrown up within your heart a table of bitterness you have towards those who disagree with you. Maybe it’s the table of veiled prejudice and bigotry expressed through casual words or remarks. Maybe it’s the table of spiritual hubris because you feel you know better than that person, that elder or deacon, that pastor, that ministry team on how things should be done, and you let everyone know how right you really are and how wrong they are.  Then again, I’ve seen people put up barricading tables in their hearts and are oblivious to the spiritual drift in their walk with Jesus and they are not really honoring God anymore. These are the tables of indifference to prayer, indifference to personal spiritual nurture through learning, or neglect of personal and corporate worship. Furthermore, what tables have we set up in the church that prevent the new to the faith or those searching for faith from getting to know the Lord? All of us are invited to reflect upon whether the behaviors we display or withhold are tables thrown up as barriers to others who are earnestly seeking God.

Friends, the Good News is that Lent is a time for us to invite our Lord to come in and do a spiritual assessment of our lives. The Spirit’s assessment is not to shame us, guilt us, or damn us; the Spirit simply wants to show us where we can tighten up our faith here so there will not be expressed doubt over there. This is what our forty days in the wilderness are all about. In the Name of the One who is, was, and is yet to come. So be it. © 2024 Patrick H. Wrisley, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church of Glens Falls 8 West Notre Dame Street, Glens Falls, NY 12801. Sermon manuscripts are available for the edification of members and friends of First Presbyterian Church, Glens Falls, New York, and may not be altered, re-purposed, published, or preached without permiss

[i] The Message (MSG), Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson. The NRSV reads: 13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

[ii] Frederick Dale Bruner, The Gospel of John. A Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans’s Publishing Company, 2012), 141.

[iii] Diane Chen, Connections: Year B, Volume 2: Lent through Pentecost (Connections: A Lectionary Commentary for Preaching and Worship) by Joel B Green https://a.co/1CkURzk.

[iv] Bruner, 143-144.

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