A
Reflection for V Easter All
Saints’ Episcopal Church, Southern Shores, N.C.
May 18, 2014 Thomas
E. Wilson, Rector
John’s
Divine Humor
Some years ago and for several years, this church
would have an annual talent show, and a couple of us would do the “Baseball”
sketch by Abbott and Costello - you know, the one that has strange names for the players at each position on
the team:
- First Base: Who
- Second Base: What
- Third Base: I Don't Know
- Left field: Why
- Center field: Because
- Pitcher: Tomorrow
- Catcher: Today
- Shortstop: I Don't Care
It is a comedy sketch of misunderstanding as the
straight man, Abbott, tries to explain who the players are to Costello. This is
part of the middle of it:
Costello: What's the guy's name on first base?
Abbott: No. What is on second.
Costello: I'm not asking you who's on second.
Abbott: Who's on first.
Costello: I don't know.
Abbott: He's on third, we're not talking about him.
Costello: Now how did I get on third base?
Abbott: Why you mentioned his name.
Costello: If I mentioned the third baseman's name,
who did I say is playing third?
Abbott: No. Who's playing first.
Costello: What's on first?
Abbott: What's on second.
Costello: I don't know.
Abbott: He's on third.
Costello: There I go, back on third again!
I liken this comedy routine to what I believe is
going on in today’s Gospel reading. It
helps to divorce the reading from John from the usual place we hear it read, in
funerals as a warning to people that if they don’t get right with Jesus they
are not going to get the keys to the penthouse being prepared for them beyond
the pearly gates of heaven after Jesus introduces them to the Big Guy on the
throne above the sky. What I would ask you to do is to go with me to see it as
John’s comedy sketch during Jesus’ farewell, when Jesus tells the disciples
things which they want to take literally and thereby miss the point.
Jesus, in the lesson from John, is saying “Good-bye”
to his disciples, and he speaks in metaphors and symbols, as he says he is
going to “prepare a place for them”. Thomas, who has this unfortunate habit of
being literal, wants to know the “way” to the place. Jesus answers that Jesus
is the “Way to the Father”. Philip says “Show us the Father.” Jesus says, “If
you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” Let’s look at the four words that
are part of the comedy sketch that I envision: “Place”, “Way”, “Father”, and
“See”.
·
Place:
We want to make “place” a physical
site of geography, but the way I read it, “place” means the spiritual awareness
of the dimension of being in the presence of the Holy wherever we are in the
this world.
·
Way: We want to take “way” as being a
path to a place, but the way I read it, “way” means the way of living one’s
life, ordering one’s emotions, calming one’s mind (as Jesus says at the
beginning of the lesson, “Let not your hearts be troubled”), claiming one’s
shadows, forgiving one’s enemies, having compassion for the poor and passion
for justice, being open to a power greater than ourselves, having a sense of
wonder and awe in all creation, living one day at a time, opening one’s soul to
the presence of the Risen Lord in the everyday.
·
Father: We
want to place “Father” as the Divine being on a throne above the sky. I see God
as the ground of our being, the one in whose image we are made, who has placed
the divine Self/ Soul/Spirit within us as our true Self/ Soul/Spirit. God is
here every time I breathe. The Holy is here in the space between us. Our bodies
are made to wear out and die, but our true self remains connected to everything
that ever was and will be.
·
See: To
see (or to be shown) is not an action of eyes, but a commitment to living into
the Divine Vision of what life is all about. Life is not about counting the
numbers of days of sheer existence, but about living as if life had a greater
purpose than getting as much of whatever you can. I don’t want to confuse you,
this is not about earning a bunch of merit badges so that we can earn God’s
love in order to “get into heaven” when we die. Heaven is here and now when we die
to chasing after things that fade away and “rust and moth consume”, and we are
able to “see” the presence of God loving us and our enemies at the same time
and with the same intensity, a love so great and so unearned that there is
nothing that we can do which can ever keep that love away from us. Death itself
is powerless to kill that love.
Jesus is preparing his
disciples for his deep love of them, his courage to stand up to hatred, sure of
God’s love, his willingness to find the
strengthening presence of God even when everything is going wrong, his
forgiveness of his enemies, his accepting of death as not the end but as a gate
to a different dimension of love. We see this in the lesson from the Acts of
the Apostles for today as Stephen is able to have the vision to “see” God’s
presence and to forgive his enemies as they are stoning him, as he lets go of
his own fear and places his true self/soul/spirit into the heart of the Divine,
the ground of all of our being. For Stephen, Jesus is the Way into his own soul
and into the soul of God.
This is the “Place”,
wherever and whenever we are, the “Way” is here, the “Father” is here and the
“vision to see” is here. Alleluia, Christ is risen! The Lord is risen indeed,
Alleluia!
This is the You Tube version
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