TELL US PLAINLY

April 25, 2010
Easter 4
Acts 9:36-43
John 10:22-30


(prayer)
[slide]
“A married couple was in a car when the wife turned to her husband and asked, "Would you like to stop for a coffee?" [slide]
"No, thanks," he answered truthfully. [slide] So they didn't stop.
The result? [slide] The wife, who had indeed wanted to stop, became annoyed because she felt her preference had not been considered. The husband, seeing his wife was angry, became frustrated. Why didn't she just say what she wanted?
Unfortunately, he failed to see that his wife was asking the question not to get an instant decision, but to begin a negotiation. And the woman didn't realize that when her husband said no, he was just expressing his preference, not making a ruling. [slide] When a man and woman interpret the same interchange in such conflicting ways, it's no wonder they can find themselves leveling angry charges of selfishness and obstinacy at each other.”
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That is a quote from Deborah Tannen’s book “You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation”. [slide] Patti suggested I read it about 16 years ago.
We’ve been married fifteen-and-a-half years now. I found it very enlightening. My only regret has been that Patti has never read it herself!
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Some of us like direct, fact-based conversations. Some of us like to couch ideas it metaphor and image. [slide] Some of us are reluctant to share what we might really think and feel – for a number of different reasons for different people. Some of us converse to relay information; some of us converse for the experience of connecting through conversation.
Deborah Tannen calls this the difference between report [slide] and rapport [slide]. She would designate one preference as more typically male and the other more typically female. You can probably figure out who is who. ... Okay, I’ll just tell you.
I’m a guy – we report [slide].
Gals, you’re all about the rapport [slide].
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Now, anytime we try to pigeon-hole a characteristic with one type of person, we run into to the inevitable variances and the reality that each of us has aspects of many styles. I know that for me, I often exhibit styles of communication that are not typical for what might be expected for a person of my age or gendre or vocation. It’s not always crystal clear. [slide]
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24So the people gathered around Jesus and said to him, ‘How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.’
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“My broker is EF Hutton and EF Hutton says...” remember that commercial?
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A hush must have fallen over the crowd when Jesus was challenged with that question. It would have been nice if he had just given a straight answer.
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25Jesus answered, ‘I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.
In other words, “I’ve been answering that question all along, but you haven’t been paying attention”. Jesus went on to say: 26’but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep’. It seems to be a circular argument. If they belonged to “his sheep”, they would believe, but how would they go about belonging to this flock? Probably ... by believing.
Maybe the message is even more basic than that.
Maybe being the Messiah has more to do with actions and relationships than with words and pronouncements.
Think about that!
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When I was nine years old, my parents sent me to camp for the first time. I had gone out to Camp Maskepetoon on Pigeon Lake for a weekend in the spring of that year with my Sunday School class and I must have seemed to have enjoyed the setting so I guess my parents figured it would be worth trying a week in the summer.
And that began a relationship with a place and a style of spirituality and a group of people which has spanned 38 years and counting [yes, I had a birthday recently and I am 47].
My “Christian Development” through camping was not one of instant conversion, but of steady growth through experience and relationships with others in that particular setting.
I followed the examples and mentorship of others. And over time I know I became an example and mentor to still others.
The “camp” style of worship and spirituality was very music and story based; drama and creative interpretations of biblical lessons and themes was common place.
As a camper, as a teenage volunteer counsellor, as a young adult staff person and now as a parent of campers – I have been given opportunities to experience the Spirit of God in various ways and through many spiritual disciplines in the church camp setting.
Camp was my key learning ground on the guitar. I’d have someone show me a new chord; then I would situate myself at the evening campfire where I could see the other guitarists’ fingers and I would do my best to keep up.
Looking back, I see that experience of learning on the fly as a microcosm for Christian Development in general. We are teachers and we are learners – we move and grow at different rates and with different results based on the gifts and skills we possess or develop. At camp, as a rookie guitarist, I was not told to leave my guitar up in the lounge until I was good enough; I was slower on the changes, I probably couldn’t have done much song leading that first guitar summer. I was given the space and opportunity to learn from others who had been my way before. I was supported, helped to catch up as I could. I was given room to grow. I was not judged as better or worse, nor was I restricted from being involved until I’d met some standard of quality. I was accepted for who I was – my involvement was based on my yearnings and desires, not some expectation set for me from outside myself.
This is also my vision for the “church”.
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Finding a connection to God is not about words, but about the experience of relationship. Jesus couldn’t claim messiahship with words – it had to be lived out. For people to believe that God and Jesus were one, they had to see God active in Jesus. It wasn’t enough just to talk about it. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me.”
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Yesterday and Friday I was at a meeting of the Yellowhead Presbytery. Within the United Church structure, a presbytery is the regional gathering of United Church ministers and congregational reps. Leduc is part of Yellowhead Presbytery.
As part of the opening worship yesterday, we sat in a circle (or as close to a circle as you can get 50-60 people when you push all the pews aside in the Devon United Church (where we were meeting). After a hymn, a bible reading and a bit of a mini-sermon by the chair of the presbytery, we went around the circle and each took a turn saying something. It was valuable to hear the variety of voices and the insights of so many people with varying degrees of experience in their local churches and in the presbytery.
But … it took well over an hour for us just to go around the circle. Then there was another mini-reflection and a couple of more hymns. Sure there were 50-60 different perspectives, but it for the most part it was just words to be listened to.
Now, I’m trying not to come across overly judgemental, it was what it was because that is what it was. But I am sure that, as valuable as each voice was, I’m not the only one who found that the nice comfortable padded chair was not as comfortable as it was an hour earlier. I was in need of action to match the words. Thank God, we sand "Dance With the Spirit"!
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Words are good. Conversation is even better. But actions and experience must be part the mix as well. And I'm not really talking about formal worship times. I'm talking about LIFE.
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When Peter and the other disciples of Jesus began to share the good news of Christ in the weeks and months and years after the resurrection, they share more than words. They shared experiences – they fostered relationships.
Consider the story read from Acts, chapter 9 today. A few verses earlier (verse 32) it simply says that: 32… Peter went here and there among all the believers. Notice: it’s about the connections, the relationships. Peter was in Lydda (a town on the road between Jerusalem and the Mediterranean Sea).
In today’s reading, Peter was called away from Lydda to go to Joppa, which was the fishing village on the coast (modern Tel Aviv). In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (Aramaic), also known as Dorcas (Greek) – both words mean gazelle. We can infer from the story that she worked tirelessly among the widows in Joppa. The Hebrew Torah is filled with instructions for how the society is to care for the vulnerable ones among the people: primarily the widows, orphans and refugees. In the Sunday School background materials for today, it suggests that the “frequency of these urgings suggests that such mandates were not always headed.” Tabitha was a gifted weaver and seamstress; she provided clothing to people in need. While doing so, she wove not only cloth, but she wove a community of compassionate action.
Tabitha had become ill and died. Peter was summoned. Were they looking for advice on how to carry on without Tabitha, this remarkably compassionate disciple? Did they expect the resurrection that followed Peter’s arrival – maybe? Jesus had done it (a couple of times at least) and Peter and the others were said to have done other things that Jesus had done that were considered miraculous. {In fact, a few verses earlier, while Peter was in Lydda, there is an account of him helping a paralyzed man walk again.}
In language that probably makes an intentional reference to a raising of a little girl by Jesus, when he said “talitha cum” (little girl, get up), Peter might have used the Aramaic words “Tabitha cum” (Tabitha, get up).
The symbolic message in this and other similar passages is that the disciples continue to follow Jesus’ example and to live out his mission even after Jesus was no longer among them in the flesh.
The early church grew on the strength of actions of compassion and support and healing of bodies and souls.
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As I said a couple of weeks ago, I don’t want us to get too hung up on the miracle, but focus on the meaning. If these miraculous acts are seen only as proof of the Spirit of Christ being with the disciples, we are forced to ask: Is the spirit absent in our lives, because these kinds of experiences are very rare indeed?
But if we see beyond a literal reading of these stories, we find a meaning which envelops mystery, compassion, love and relationship. These fishing widows were loved by Tabitha. Their husbands, their supports, were likely lost at seas. Tabitha offered loving support to these women. She did not only hear the words of the Torah, she lived them. Tabitha lived an active love; she didn’t just talk about it.
Now, in the mystery of God, Peter was somehow able to physicalize a returning of that loving relationship. Tabitha was resuscitated to weave another day.
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I’m going to try and report this as plainly as I am able …
Jesus is the anointed one of God (The Messiah, The Christ) because of what he did and what his followers do. Learners of Jesus’ Way (i.e. disciples - those who follow the lessons, the disciplines, of Jesus) of every time and place are called to witness to Christ’s comforting and protective love through their compassionate words and deeds.

We don’t just report the good news, we establish rapport in the good news. It’s about faith in action: Changing lives. That doesn’t necessarily mean, healings and resuscitations. But it does mean changing lives by insisting that love and compassion be part of everyone‘s experience.
We are to make a difference.
That’s what I think the voice of the good shepherd is saying to the church: Go make a difference.

In fact, I’m going to suggest we change the next hymn. Instead of “Deep in Our Hearts”, let’s sing #209: still in More Voices “Go Make a Difference” [slide]

May God always call us with those words!

#209MV “Go Make a Difference”