The Rev. David R. Wilt s2

4 Easter C—April 17, 2016

Acts 9:36=43

Psalm 23

Revelation 7:9-17

John 10:22-30

The Rev. David R. Wilt

They gathered around him and said, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

You gotta love these guys for never giving up. For generation after generation they have been wandering through the dessert. They have been through eras of Kings and eras of Judges. They have listened, or not listened to prophets. Now they stand in front of this one man and say, “Tell us plainly, are you the Messiah.”

This is all from a group of people who’s God says, “Tell them I am who I am.” I get the picture, if your God’s name is “I am who I am,” how plain of an answer are you going to get when you ask “are you the Messiah?”

Yet, today the struggle still continues. We argue about who God is. We argue more about who believes the right things about God. We argue far too much, and much to our detriment, over what God believes is good or what God believes is evil or sin.

God remains as vexing to us today as God was with those Jews standing on the portico of Solomon. Good old Solomon, the pinnacle of wisdom, and all these vexed people hanging around.

Vex—a great word isn’t it? I looked it up and was a bit surprised with what I found and yet it seems so fitting. VEX—To 2 make someone feel annoyed, frustrated or worried, especially with trivial matters. “Especially” with trivial matters.

Jesus answers, “The works I do in my Father’s name testify to me.”

This harkens back to that old adage, “My actions speak louder than words” or maybe something more defining, “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck there is a very good chance it is a duck”

Unfortunately, if the duck is walking in ways we don’t want to walk and talking in ways we don’t want to talk, then often times we will ask for more proof of what may even be the obvious. I mean lets be sure we have the real thing here before we go into a lot of trouble with loving our neighbors.

We also often struggle with the phenomenon that our intellectual being drives us to specific answers. We all know that black and white answers are a lot easier to deal with than all those shades of grey. The stronger our intellectual proclivity the more difficult it is sometimes to experience this Jesus as the Christ.

In today’s jargon we would describe this as people who think with their heads and people who think with their hearts.. We can miss so much when we search for too many facts.

I recently read a parable from a Jesuit priest, Anthony DeMello, called the “Explorer.”

In this story a person leaves his home village to explore the faraway and exotic Amazon. When he returns the villagers are captivated as he tries to describe his many experiences, along with the incredible beauty of the place, its waterfalls, foliage, and amazing wildlife. He tried to put into words the incredible 3 feelings that flooded his heart when he heard the night sounds of the forest or sensed the dangers of the rapids.

So, he tells them that they must go to the Amazon themselves. To help them with their journey the explorer draws a map. Immediately, the villagers pounce on the map. They copy the map so that everyone can have his or her own copy. They frame the map, for their town hall and their homes

Regularly they study the map. They discuss it often, until the villagers consider themselves experts on the Amazon, for do they not know the location of every waterfall and rapids, every turn and bend.

Often times people are eager to ask the priest or fellow Christians they know to “tell them plainly.”

We have been given this wonderful map created over time and by generations of people that describes in detail the beauty of their beliefs and the immense magnitude of their struggles to know this God that goes by the name of “I am who I am.” We call this map the “Bible.”

Many of you have heard me talk of my Aunt Edna who could quote you scripture all day long and her quotations were verbatim. They could not have been more accurate. Intellectually she was a Biblical wizard. Experientially, and so tragically sad for me, the moment of her death was wracked with uncertainty of who this Christ was and how he would embrace her.

If we have had a remarkable journey then certainly we want to bring people in and share that journey with them. It is natural to speak eloquently about one’s faith and journey.

Absolutely the Holy Scriptures are a wonderful map of creation, obedience and disobedience. It reveals to us, not only 4 great experiences of freedom and release, but these come at the great cost of slavery and oppression, of repression and bondage. The scriptures are a great map of salvation history, of sacrifice and resurrection.

The most important thing we can do however, is to encourage those we bring in not to be armchair explorers. The absolute most important thing we can encourage others to do is to make their own personal journey and find for themselves the living Lord. Their journey may not look like ours. Their experiences will certainly not be exactly like ours. Let them get out of the stuff that others may put in their heads and gpen their hearts to the works that define the living God.

When you are dealing with a God who goes by, “I am who I am” or in the King James version, “I am that I am” it stands to reason that “tell us plainly” may not get the results we want without a little effort on our part. But if we are willing to put out that effort then ever so slowly the experience of Christ may open our hearts to see plainly for ourselves

Paul says, “ For we know in part and we prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. …”

In the meanwhile explore with your heart and with your soul and “I am who I am,” will become known to you, not by specific words but through God’s love of God’s whole creation.