Sermon for Passion Sunday, March 29, 2009
“ Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. ”
AND Moses said unto God, Who am I, that I should go unto Pharaoh, and that I should bring forth the children of Israel out of Egypt? And He said, Certainly I will be with thee; and this shall be a token unto thee, that I have sent thee: When thou hast brought forth the people out of Egypt, ye shall serve God upon this mountain. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and He said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you. And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations. Ex 3:11-15
A frightened renegade, a terrifying command and a bush that burned with divine fire and yet remained green and living: into this strange scene is added the most holy treasure given to any man—God's own Name. Moses would need a battery of tools in order to fulfill his impossible quest of deliverance: a staff that turned into a snake, water that became blood, a hand that turned eerily leprous. But above all his other arsenal of gifts and signs that he would bring back to the land of his birth, Moses bore the Name of the Almighty, the God of Abraham returning to free His chosen people.
It's a remarkable Name. It should only be said reverently, quietly, if at all. The Jews would never thereafter pronounce it, and we have only four Hebrew letters that represent a sound we cannot make, but only guess at. This tetragrammaton would subsequently be substituted by a word that meant LORD so that no one would even breathe the name: I AM.
I AM THAT I AM said God to Moses. God is saying much. Among the gods and goddesses of antiquity, the only One really in existence was the invisible God of Abraham. He is the self-existent One, the only Eternal One, the One uncreated but ever-being One. As the source of Himself, He is also the source of all else. When we've chased every other dream, all our heat and desire exhausted, the flames of life died down and only the wall of dying before us, there will still be I AM. Not I WAS nor I WILL BE. It is always the present in the presence of God. Existence itself is our God. Alleluia .
A Samaritan woman comes to the city well for water in the heat of day, to avoid the whispering and taunts of those who know her shame. And here a man sits, asking that she draw Him up some water, so she does. A discussion ensues where her pride for her people resists His Jewishness, until she confesses, “I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.” And Jesus said to her, “I that speak unto thee am He.” John 4:25-26 Jesus said, I AM. To a crowd eager for miraculous bread, Jesus opened the veil of His mysterious quest, telling them, “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.” John 6:35 Jesus said, I AM. To another crowd, Jesus said, “ I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” John 8:12 Jesus said, I AM. To a people who understood the value God placed on shepherds, He told them, “ I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came before me are thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture… I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep , and am known of mine.” John 10:7-9, 14 Jesus said, I AM.
To Martha mourning her brother Lazarus' death, Jesus said, “ I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.” John 11:25-26 Jesus said, I AM. To His astonished apostles in the upper room, He said, “ I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:5-6 And “ I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” John 15:5 Jesus said, I AM.
Before Pilate, the foxy Roman procurator, standing beaten and accused of insurrection, when asked, “Art thou a king then?” Jesus answered, “Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth.” John 18:37 Jesus said, I AM.
Jesus never denied Himself. As He knew who His Father was, and He knew the Holy Spirit dwelt within Him, He also knew that He was the Son of God from everlasting without beginning. How strange it was to be God on earth, looking for all the world like one of us, being in every way just a creature, and not just a creature but the Creator as well. Other creatures couldn't understand nor believe easily. The Bible says that during His forty days fasting in the wilderness He was among the beasts. I have to guess that wild animals were all His friends. They knew there was something about this gentle man. He may have been hungry, but with the new Adam, this was like Eden. People would not prove so easy to tame.
A fickle mob gathered wherever He went, and at the Temple of the God of Abraham, rebuilt by Herod the Great, who had tried to kill the baby Jesus as his own last desperate act. In its courts Jesus stands now and the people come to Him. St. John has the entire discourse recorded for us. They want Him to be just a man, like themselves, but He will not deny Himself. And as their true attitude toward Him is revealed, Jesus shows them that they are acting as Satan's children, opposing God as the devil has always done. They accuse Him of being demonized, and claim Abraham, their ancestor, like a calling card. Jesus responds, “ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad.” They scoff at this, “Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?” So Jesus draws Himself up and stands before them all, like a burning light, the light that lighteth every man that comes into the world, the light from which light itself first sprang, burning within the life of a man, yet not consuming Him. And the very same voice that spoke from Moses' burning bush told them, “Amen, Amen—it is God's truth I say to you: Before Abraham ever was, I AM.” Jesus said, I AM. John 8: 46ff .
If there is any reason to stop in our headlong tumbling lives and believe, to our souls' health, to our minds' clarity, to our hearts' longings at last fulfilled, that reason is that Jesus Christ is indeed God the Son. Some other god, were he distant and unfeeling, angry at His creation, unreachable, judgmental, could not obtain our love, but only our fear, and perhaps our hatred. Such a god is theorized atop many of the world's theologies, but not our God. Another god who is not above or beyond His creation, but rather is made of the stuff of this world—the wind, the fire, the sun or moon—is paganism's attempt to warm this image of deity, to make him or her knowable, approachable, obtainable, able to be moved by our desires toward him or her. But our God is not created.
Yet somehow between these impossible concepts of divinity—remote and foreign and exalted or present and familiar and serving us—comes a Savior who is God with us, Immanuel, the Son of God from eternity without beginning, born of a woman, the perfect man, our lives' example, the fulfillment of mankind's ideal, the restoration of a loving relationship with God on high, the very high priest who can stand between God and man and make the one worthy offering and obtain for us the mending of the rift between us and His Father. Jesus says I AM.
Life is very uncertain. We once thought that in growing up our troubles of youth would disappear— didn't you believe it? Our troubles just get more complex, grew in size, took in more people, and caused us to work harder, use more tools, strain to make ends meet, face defeat and defy it to reduce us to tears. It would appear that each life stage is a preparation for the challenges of the next, and when we pass that test, there is yet another one more arduous, requiring more of us, sifting us and calling us, perhaps, children of the devil when we fail. The god of money eventually shows us how shallow and meaningless it is. The god of fame is fleeting and betrays us almost as soon as we have it. Gods of pleasure and love and competition and leisure, of fancy food or drink or drugs or massive entertainment walls leave us more empty than when we couldn't afford them. The bills pile up.
Who will come and solve these complications for us? Who can make sense of the messes we've made of our lives, the wreckage of relationships, the guilty shameful secrets, the addictions, the shadows in which we've wandered? Jesus says I AM. Not just a dead man, not simply a long lost hero, not a gifted writer or philosopher or world leader or religious mystery man. Jesus says I AM. He was dead for about 36 hours, and during that time He harrowed hell, releasing many whose souls languished in wait for the Savior. He rose to life unending and He is still today seated at the right hand of His Father. Jesus says I AM. He answers all your questions, He conquers all your guilt, He makes sense of all the quandary of the messes you've made. The One who has always been and shall always be, the head of the Body His Church speaks His peace to you this day and tells you, I AM.
PFH+