Ep. 24
Erica opens with a story about her parents being invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. Dressed up, mayoral chain and all, the family spent the day wondering what they were seeing. When they rang to ask how it had gone, her father — a man of few words — answered: “They had lovely ice cream.” That is the sermon in miniature. We can stand in front of something extraordinary, notice only the ordinary, and then start sorting the ordinary into what we like and what we would turn our noses up at. Erica suggests we do exactly this with Jesus: familiar with the church, the worship and the language, we lose sight of the one standing in front of us.
John 8:21-30 continues the conversation Nick preached from last week, where Jesus called himself the light of the world. Now he says he is going away, that they will search for him and die in their sin, that they are from below while he is from above, and that unless they believe he is who he claims to be they will die in their sins. Their question in verse 25 — “Who are you?” — is the shock of the passage. These were not people who had never heard of him: they had listened, questioned and debated, and still could not see. Erica asks whether we recognise ourselves in that question — able to tell the stories, fluent in the language of Christianity, and still not really knowing the Jesus who is speaking.
Verse 24 gives the reason belief matters. If Jesus is the light, the saviour and the life, then his absence is what leaves a person in darkness, bound to sin and separated from God. Erica distinguishes a threat from a warning: a threat coerces, while a warning tells you there is danger ahead and comes from someone who loves you — like telling your husband to watch for the dog poo. Jesus is not inventing a consequence to frighten people; he is telling the truth about who he is. From there she turns to the smaller Jesuses we build: the teacher whose advice we may argue with, the prophet who is one voice among many, the miracle-worker who fixes problems until a miracle does not come, the friend whose comfort we welcome while resisting his correction. Each is true as far as it goes, and each is too small. Only the Jesus who reveals himself as Lord has words that carry authority, and only he is the bread of life, the light, the gate, the shepherd, the resurrection, the way and the vine. Verse 30 closes with a sober note: many believed — but not all.
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Watch the video: https://youtu.be/KnaHs3t_Xf0
