“Abide”

John 8:31-36

Oct. 27, 2019 

Sermon by Rev. Caela Simmons Wood

First Congregational UCC of Manhattan, KS

Year ago, while I was still in seminary, I had one of those deeply-formative experiences that was shared with a small group of classmates. During our time together, we all found that we learned a lot about ourselves by watching the others around the table learn about themselves. At the beginning of the semester, our teacher posed two big questions to the group (thankfully, not on the same day!). The first question was, “What’s your truest thing about God?” The second question was, “What is your primary learning goal for this class?”

One of my classmates gave answers to both questions that made very little sense to me. She said her truest thing about God was that God is faithful. I thought that sounded just fine, but couldn’t really understand exactly what she meant by it at first. And her answer to the second question - what she wanted to learn during our semester -  was that she wanted to be faithful. Again, I thought, “Okay. What exactly does she mean by that?” Her answers were so different than my own…..I just didn’t quite “get it.” I was full of THINGS I WANTED TO GET DONE. Concrete, step-by-step action plans for my learning. Probably complete with bullet points. I had to whittle them down to one of those BIG LEARNING GOALS which was actually more like 10 goals crafted carefully into one sentence. 

Being faithful. Huh. I wasn’t sure what exactly she meant by that. 

Today’s passage from the Gospel of John is about being faithful. We’ve got some serious metaphysical oomph packed into these six short verses. What exactly is the freedom Jesus promises? What does it mean to abide in Jesus’s word? And when I hear Jesus say “the truth will set you free” I always find my thoughts echoing Pilate’s bold question at the end of John’s Gospel: “what is truth?”

There’s a lot going on here. Let’s start for a moment with some context. The backdrop for Jesus’s conversation with some of the religious leaders of his time was the Festival of Booths. This harvest celebration was a time for giving thanks for the fruits of the earth and a time for remembering God’s faithful presence with the people of Israel during their time in the wilderness. This festival is still an important part of the Jewish faith. In fact, our friends and neighbors who are Jewish just observed it earlier this month. Modern Sukkot celebrations involve building temporary structures outdoors (those are the booths) and sharing meals there together over the course of the week. It’s a time of gratitude and sharing fellowship with family and friends. It’s also a time to remember God’s faithfulness even in our times of vulnerability. By gathering in temporary structures, our Jewish kindred remember all that is temporary and fleeting about life while faithfully orienting themselves towards the things that really last….like God’s protection and care, and our belonging in communities that nourish and support us. 

Preaching professor David Lose says that the backdrop of the Festival of Booths is important here, because throughout John 7 and 8 what we see is Jesus portraying himself as a living representation of that festival. When Jesus invites his followers to continue to abide within his word, he is inviting them into his tent. When he speaks of finding freedom, he is placing himself firmly in the lineage of leaders who worked for the freedom of God’s people. And he is echoing the long journey towards freedom that the Israelites took...the safety and security they felt, abiding in God’s presence all those fearful years in the wilderness. [1]

When Jesus says, “if you abide in me, you will truly be my disciples” it makes scholars perk up their ears, because he’s using a word there that occurs again and again in the Gospel of John. The Greek “meno” is often translated abide, continue, remain, tarry, dwell...and it shows up throughout this gospel like a refrain. At the very beginning of Jesus’s ministry, we hear it when the Holy Spirit descends upon Jesus at his baptism and abides with him. When Jesus calls his disciples at the end of Chapter 1, we hear it again as the disciples make their choice to abide with Jesus. In John 6, when Jesus talks about the mystical aspects of the Eucharist, he tells his followers, “when you eat my flesh and drink my blood” we abide together. In the 14th chapter of John, when Jesus begs his disciples “do not let your hearts be troubled...in my Father’s house there are many rooms” he tells them that he abides in God and God abides in him. And Jesus prays for his disciples, that after his departure, God will send them another comforter, the Holy Spirit, to abide with them always. In chapter fifteen, he says it succinctly: “Abide in me as I abide in you.”

Abide, continue, remain, tarry, dwell. Against the backdrop of the Festival of Booths...a time for building temporary dwellings where they gather together to remember their shared identity, Jesus comes to his followers and says, “if you abide in me, you will truly be my disciples.” And it is in this identity as Christ’s followers that we can find our way to true freedom. 

This freedom is ours when we wake up to the reality that we are all so much more than the small, limited, individual selves that we believe ourselves to be. 

Sure, yes, we are all individuals. And we each live in our own, separate bodies. And we are consumed with thoughts about our own needs and desires and fears. But our faith teaches us that we are also something beyond that….a bit of stardust come to earth, carefully and lovingly crafted in the image of the Divine, a spark that will not be extinguished even by death. 

When we abide in God and God abides in us, we are like Christ, forever united in holy mystery with the Force of Love that created the Universe. We exist beyond our own selves, beyond the limits of the finite lives and bodies we see on the surface. When we abide in God, the illusion of separateness disappears and we find our way to the freedom that comes with the realization that we are invited into aonios zoe - abundant life, life without end. 

On the cusp of All Hallows’ Eve and All Saints Day, I find particular resonance in this knowledge...that we somehow continue to abide with one another even after our earthly bodies are gone. Time and time again, I’ve heard people speak of this glorious mystery: that those we love are somehow still present with us even when they’ve passed on. That a spark of eternity exists in all of us because we abide in God and God abides in us. 

To be faithful - like my seminary friend was seeking - is to allow ourselves to rest in the knowledge that freedom is not granted to us through laws or by human governments. True freedom and liberation is a God-given reality for all people. Period. Although we humans often try to limit the freedom of others, we can never truly prevail because each and every one of us is meant to abide within Christ...that life-giving, love-wielding spirit that arrives again and again. Christ, that liberating force that seeks abundant life for all of creation. No matter what. 

The world often feels heavy, doesn’t it? Everywhere I go, we see people who are weary. Tired of fighting, tired of worrying, tired of pushing back against the forces that threaten to consume them. There is a deep exhaustion present in many places these days. The worries we have about all the little things going on our lives are compounded by the roar of national and global chaos under the surface. And the big worries that come to visit our lives? Well, they start to feel like they might just knock us down completely. 

Against this backdrop of weariness and fear and instability, Jesus is still calling out to us, friends. Abide with me, he says. Rest in me because I remain within you. I have not left. I am never leaving. I am with you still, even unto the end of the age. 

I may be ten years late, but I’m finally starting to understand what my friend from seminary understood. The power of faithfulness. 

Thanks be to God. 

NOTES:

[1] David Lose. http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=827