Act 13:14,
43-52
Revelation
7:9, 14b-7
John 10:27-30
Terrorism has once again touched our American shores.
One of
the dead: 8-year-old Martin Richard
whose picture on social media with a now famous hand-drawn sign reading, “No
more hurting people. Peace” became a
symbol of grief for a nation.
For meditation, I want us to reflect on several passages
from today’s Word of God.
From
Revelation, “These are the ones who have survived the time of great distress; they
have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”
From Acts of the Apostles, “I have made you a light to the
Gentiles that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.”
From John’s
Gospel, “My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
What is God trying to tell us this weekend in
Sacred Scripture especially in light of the troubling events of the past week?
Let’s
start with the Gospel message. For context,
we need to remember who Jesus is speaking to in this passage. His words are spoken to “the Jews” in the
Temple of Jerusalem who do not believe Jesus is the Messiah. The words are spoken on the Feast of
Dedication. You may know it as Hanukkah.
Jesus
knows this feast celebrates the Dedication of the altar and reconsecration of
the Temple by the Maccabees after several years of desecration under Syrian
rule in second century B.C.
What
Jesus is telling “the Jews” in the Temple is He is the Messiah, He is the Good
Shepherd, and the sheep of the Good Shepherd hear His voice and respond to
it.
Jesus is
telling his Jewish brothers, “there is no longer need to look to the physical
building of the Temple Mount to know of God’s presence to God’s people. Jesus, who stands before (them) points to himself
and claims he is the visible presence of God among them.”
Scholars
have written, “No Messiah in the Jewish expectation would claim to replace the
Temple, but that is exactly what Jesus does.”
For 1st
Century Jews, you can see how this could be construed as blasphemy. It’s easy to understand why non-believers in Jesus
the Messiah would want Him killed for saying such things.
Now on
to Acts of the Apostles, Paul and Barnabas are stirring up the same tensions in
Antioch. It’s the Sabbath as they enter
the synagogue and proceed to tell all assembled, the Jewish torch to be a “light
to the Gentiles” (or “light of the Nations”) has now passed to the followers of
Jesus Christ.
Paul and
Barnabas are shown the door and quickly shake the dust off their feet as they
depart.
Sadly,
some misinterpret this passage as meaning God has abandoned His chosen people
because of their unbelief.
I
caution us not to jump to this conclusion as it can be the first step down the
dangerous path of anti-Semitism.
The Apostle
Luke’s point here is to reflect Paul’s own words in his letters: “the Gospel is meant for the Jews first,
then Gentiles.”
Now
let’s tackle the passage from the almost always misinterpreted Book of
Revelation. Here, we see something
unique. We see a countless multitude
from every race, every nation, every people, and every language as the new
Israel.
The
promise made to Abraham and Moses now encompasses a “multinational,
multicultural and multilinguistic multitude.”
All of
this because of Jesus’ presence here on earth and on His reign on His heavenly throne.
There
was a logic in Israel’s tradition of holy war in which persons who killed
during war were required to wash their robes to remove the blood of their
enemies before they were purified.
Some
scholars say today’s passage from Revelation reverses that tradition by showing,
“it’s not the enemy’s blood that must be removed in order to achieve purity,
but a sharing in the Lamb’s blood itself that generates purity.” Vengeance and violence are replaced by love,
self-sacrifice and forgiveness.
Today’s
reading from Revelation also provides us with the reassuring words for the
troubles of our times – our times of distress:
“They will not hunger or thirst anymore,
nor will the sun or any heat strike them. For
the Lamb who is in the center of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to
springs of life-giving water, and God will wipe away every tear from their
eyes”
A dear
friend from my WSU days and a valued colleague during a decade together at KOMO
eloquently put the events of the past week into context for us.
Eric
Johnson wrote, “Maybe the idea was to destroy Patriot’s Day – the symbolism of
it. Maybe the idea was to make us
afraid. Ultimately, it was a failure, a
loud ugly failure. It was a failure
because it reminded us of who we are and what we stand for… It was a failure because like 9-11, like
Oklahoma City, it only held up a mirror for us to look and wonder at
ourselves. The way so many of us run
towards hellfire instead of away. The
way so many of us act with grace in the face of the unthinkable.”
I’m
reminded of a story of a first responder on 9-11. David Karnes was a senior accountant working
at Deloitte Touche in Connecticut in September 2001.
When the
second plane hit the World Trade Center, Karnes looked at his boss and said, “We’re
at war.”
David
had spent over 20 years in the Marine Corps and felt it was his duty to help
out that day. As about to leave the
office, David told his boss he may not be back anytime soon.
David
next went to a barbershop to get a Marine Corps regulation haircut. He then grabbed one of his old uniforms he
kept hanging neatly pressed in a home closet, gathered all his infantry gear
(including ropes and repelling implements) from a storage unit and before
heading to New York City, stopped by his church and met with his pastor.
David is
a devout Christian. He told his pastor
he felt called by God to go to Ground Zero.
They prayed together that he would be led to survivors.
Karnes
kept screaming, “United States Marines.
If you can hear us yell or tap.” This went on for hours.
Eventually,
they heard something. As they stood
quietly, a weak voice emerged from the wreckage, “We’re over here.”
After seeing the men were trapped under tons of concrete and steel, 20 feet below from where their rescuers stood, Karnes pulled out his cell phone to call his wife in Connecticut and sister in Pennsylvania to ask them to contact authorities. Have them send rescue workers immediately to the center of the South Tower wreckage.
Help
would finally arrive and hours would pass before both men were pulled from the
ruble.
Out of
only twelve people rescued from the debris of the World Trade Center, New York
Port Authority policemen Will Jimeno and Sgt. John McLoughlin, were two of the
last three people to be extracted from the carnage.
“My
sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
David
Karnes followed God’s voice and a miracle emerged from the terror, the jagged steel,
the flames, the disaster of 9-11.
I’m sure
we will read stories in the coming days about many in Boston who followed God’s
voice last Monday and jumped into harm’s way.
Jesus
Christ reminds us today that God does not exist in a building or a nation or a
race of people, but in the hearts of those who hear His voice and follow Him.
There
were so many victims that horrible day of 9-11 nearly 12 years ago – victims
from every nation, every race, every tongue.
To see the names of the 2-thousand-six-hundred-and-six who died in the
rubble that day (over 400 of whom where first responders) is to see a
multinational who’s who list.
I find
it so poetically perfect that the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are now
replaced with a shining beacon of light.
As I see
the light I think of all those first responders who rush in when others run
away. As I see the light I think of all
of the self-sacrificing helpers in times of chaos and catastrophe. As I see the light I think of God’s promise
to all of us His followers, “I have made you a light to the Gentiles,
that you may be an instrument of salvation to the ends of the earth.”
This
should give us all consolation and hope in times of our great distress.
And push
us all harder to be like Jesus – beacons of peace, beacons of love, beacons of
forgiveness, beacons of service to others, and beacons of justice. That’s what the voice of the Good Shepherd is
calling all His lambs to become in a violent, troubled world. I pray we always hear and follow His voice.
Sources: Sacra Pagina - The Gospel of John - Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B.
Unveiling Empire: Reading Revelation Then and Now - Howard-Brook/Gwyther
New Collegeville Bible Commentary - Acts of the Apostles - Dennis Hamm
The Gospel and Epistles of John - A Concise Commentary - Raymond E. Brown
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