Year B Lent 5 WED 2018 Know Jesus When You See Him

Year B Lent 5 WEDNESDAY 21 April 2018 St. James the Less Episcopal, Ashland, VA “Know Jesus When You See Him”  Collect: Almighty God our heavenly Father, renew in us the gifts of your mercy; increase our faith, strengthen our hope, enlighten our understanding, widen our charity, and make us ready to serve you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.  

Daniel 3:14–20,24–28 Nebuchadnezzar said to them, “Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods and you do not worship the golden statue that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, drum, and entire musical ensemble to fall down and worship the statue that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be thrown into a furnace of blazing fire, and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?” Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to present a defense to you in this matter. If our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire and out of your hand, O king, let him deliver us. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods and we will not worship the golden statue that you have set up.” Then Nebuchadnezzar was so filled with rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that his face was distorted. He ordered the furnace heated up seven times more than was customary, and ordered some of the strongest guards in his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and to throw them into the furnace of blazing fire. Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.” Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire. And the satraps, the prefects, the governors, and the king’s counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not had any power over the bodies of those men; the hair of their heads was not singed, their tunics were not harmed, and not even the smell of fire came from them. Nebuchadnezzar said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants who trusted in him. They disobeyed the king’s command and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God.  

Canticle 13     A Song of Praise Benedictus es, Domine Song of the Three Young Men, 29-34 
Glory to you, Lord God of our fathers; * you are worthy of praise; glory to you. 
Glory to you for the radiance of your holy Name; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. 
Glory to you in the splendor of your temple; * on the throne of your majesty, glory to you. 
Glory to you, seated between the Cherubim; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever. 
Glory to you, beholding the depths; * in the high vault of heaven, glory to you. 
Glory to you, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; * we will praise you and highly exalt you for ever.  

John 8:31–42 Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, “If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered him, “We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, ‘You will be made free’?” Jesus answered them, “Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you look for an opportunity to kill me, because there is no place in you for my word. I declare what I have seen in the Father’s presence; as for you, you should do what you have heard from the Father.” They answered him, “Abraham is our father.” Jesus said to them, “If you were Abraham’s children, you would be doing what Abraham did, but now you are trying to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. This is not what Abraham did. You are indeed doing what your father does.” They said to him, “We are not illegitimate children; we have one father, God himself.” Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now I am here. I did not come on my own, but he sent me.” 

  

From Wikipedia: The phrase "I know it when I see it" is a colloquial expression by which a speaker attempts to categorize an observable fact or event, although the category is subjective or lacks clearly defined parameters. The phrase was used in 1964 by United States Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart to describe his threshold test for obscenity in Jacobellis v. Ohio. In explaining why the material at issue in the case was not obscene under the Roth test, and therefore was protected speech that could not be censored, Stewart wrote: 

I shall not today attempt further to define the kinds of material I understand to be embraced within that shorthand description ["hard-core pornography"], and perhaps I could never succeed in intelligibly doing so. But I know it when I see it, and the motion picture involved in this case is not that. 

And so often we think we are like Justice Stewart, but too often we are more like the religious leaders who would have not have known the Messiah if he came up and blessed them, blessed them upside the head. 

How often are we equally obtuse? 

We think we know when God speaks, or if Jesus showed up that we would know. In the reading from the Book of Daniel this morning, I hope you caught the bit about Jesus. I could be wrong, and just projecting, but one of my underlying beliefs is that God precedes us, and God is not far wherever we are. 

Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up quickly. He said to his counselors, “Was it not three men that we threw bound into the fire?” They answered the king, “True, O king.” He replied, “But I see four men unbound, walking in the middle of the fire, and they are not hurt; and the fourth has the appearance of a god.” Nebuchadnezzar then approached the door of the furnace of blazing fire and said, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, servants of the Most High God, come out! Come here!” So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego came out from the fire.I 

“Uh, are you seeing what I am seeing?” We need validation and confirmation. We are so far stripped of hearing and recognizing the voice of God we do not know it when we hear it, and we definitely do not know it when we see it, sorry Justice Stewart.  

I think about the times in my life, when I was so present in the moment, when I was so in touch with the here and now that I could actually see the truth. It took a lot of effort and energy, and openness. So often, too often, we stay guarded, because we do not trust, because not everybody plays by the same rules I do. Whatever the reason, I long for a more honest and open existence. I think as Jesus interacted with the leaders that day, who were saying to his face that he was a liar and a fraud, I think a part of him may have been angry and frustrated, but as much if not more than that, I believe his heart was breaking. If the leadership is this obtuse, what hope does that laity have? 

In light of that, as we move into Holy Week starting Sunday, please pray for me. Pray for me to be open and honest with myself and with God. Pray for me to draw my strength from him, and not rely too much on my own power and ability. Pray that each time I or Harrison stands up to preach in the coming week and a half that everything we say and do points everyone to Jesus. In Shiloh Baptist’s pulpit, there is a small rug with these words on it: “Help Us See Jesus.” What a great admonition. 

And I believe, if that is our focus, we will be like Nebuchadnezzar, and the folks at Shiloh, and I pray here as well, that we will see Jesus, and that we will know HIM when we see HIM. Nothing could be better nor more important. Amen.