Plymouth Congregational Church of Fort Wayne, UCC
November 22, 2009
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost
Reign of Christ

Scripture Lesson: John 18:33-37

CROSS EXAMINATION

"... What have you done?..."
 (John 18:35)

Prelude

Our lesson this morning,

taken from the Gospel of John,

takes us into that period

in the life of Jesus

when the ministry, apparently, is unraveling;

when the kingdom movement is spinning out of control.

Events are unfolding, turns are being taken,

that no one really anticipated.

There has been a betrayal;

there has been an arrest;

Jesus has been bound, jailed,

roughed up. 

The ranks of those who follow do not hold;

Peter has disavowed his discipleship.

We see Jesus standing alone, a solitary Savior,

thrust into a courtroom

by accusers wanting his death.

And there he squares off with Pilate,

the face, the personification of empire,

global power, and domination.

Have you ever had a moment in life when you

faced circumstances thinking,

"I don't  know how I got here. 

In my wildest imagination, I didn't think it possible

for my life to being turning out this way."

Have you ever shared a moment,

with spouse, or partner, or amongst a circle of friends,

when you asked: "What are we doing here?"

The accent in this interrogative

is properly placed upon "here."

How has life, our life, come to this,

this time and place, this "here,"

which we didn't intend to plan

and never really thought possible?

*****                   *****                   *****

The "here" for us is the last Sunday of ordinary time;

it is an edgy time, a blurry time when it is difficult to focus.

In church circles this is designated as the observance of Reign of Christ,

(once termed Christ the King Sunday).

And the "here" for Jesus is the courtroom,

where the stakes are high;

where an imperial judge presides, Pilate,

Roman procurator of Judea, appointee of Tiberias Caesar,

whose job is to examine and rule

in favor of either life or death.

Within the text, Jesus is peppered with questions by Pilate:

"Are you King of the Jews?"

"What have you done?"

"So you are a king?"

"What is truth?"

With each of these, we might ask:

What is going on "here?"

Susan Thistlethwaite recently advised,

"Love the questions."  This was the lesson

imparted to her by Letty Russell of Yale University,

so many years ago. 

"You've got to love the questions." 

(Washington Post, Oct. 8, 2009).

Such love is most evident in John's gospel,

for questions abound.  It is through such inquiry that

we come to understand, as best we are able,

the Gospel that is ours to receive,

ours to keep,

ours to give away.

The interrogation offers more than meets the eye. 

This courtroom scene is a collision of

secular and spiritual power;

it is a clash of competing sovereignties;

it is earthly power standing

in judgment of heavenly power.

Pilate would appear to hold all the trump cards,

yet Jesus does not fold.  He is clear in asserting

his representation, his advancement, of a different world.

"My kingdom is not from here,"

he declares to Pilate (John 18:36).

In our UCC, we are fond of saying: 

another world is possible.

There are those who market

AWIP stickers to proclaim

such sentiment. 

As a faith affirmation, it is tied to the passage

we find in John this morning;

it gets voiced in other ways. 

"We live in the world," Paul wrote

to the Corinthians, but "we are not carrying on a

worldly war." (II Corinthians 10:3). 

Or, you may recall

the verse from I John:  "... greater is he that is in you,

than he that is in the world" (I John 4:4).

This is teaching that enabled Paul to urge the Romans,

and us:  "Do not be conformed to the world, but

be transformed" (Romans 12:2).  It is the same teaching

that compelled Paul to ask the church in Colossae:

"Why do you live as if you still belonged to the world?"

(Colossians 2:20).

As Christians, we live in this tension.  We know

about this world and all its travails, yet we refuse

to concede that it is the only world possible. 

Twenty years ago a book was co-authored by

Stanley Hauerwas and Will Willimon entitled,

Resident Aliens - Life in the Christian Colony.

That's how they best describe the Christian -

a resident alien. What a strange term.

Aliens building communities, what Ian Bradley,

the Celtic scholar, has referred to as

colonies of heaven on earth.

This is a healthy understanding of our Christian calling.

We have too many folks watching TV,

entertained by invading species from outer space,

landing in pods that come to take over the world.

Why do so few look upon churches as alien pods,

birthing people for redemptive good in the world?

Why are we so docile, so plaintive in our stewing

over the world the way it is?

Pilate, we see, doesn't quite get what Jesus is talking about.

His real concern is if there are "soldiers of Christ" he may

have to combat.  For Pilate, what you see it what you get. 

Jesus shows us his resistance, his refusal for a such a reduction,

such a contraction of sovereignty.

This week I've been in mind of those who stood fast

when facing their own courtroom dramas. 

The great dramas of history have always turned upon those who

pushed the faith community to stay true to its calling,

among those who knew that we were engaged in a contest

to determine allegiance and obedience, and who stood fast

in the face of powers who threatened life.

Thomas a Becket vs. Henry II

Thomas More vs. Henry VIII

Martin Luther King (jailed 16 different occasions)

Ghandi, D. Bonhoeffer

          *****                   *****                   *****

Another issue of no less importance is at play in this passage.

I sense John, our author, is giving us in the passion of Christ,

a disclosure of truth by ordeal.  How is truth-telling to be

fully known and affirmed?  Jesus defined his mission as

coming into the world to testify to the truth, and we belong

to the truth if we listen to the One who testifies.

Jesus was facing Pilate because there were those who said

he was a liar, a deceiver, a threat to the good.  The dilemma, if not

for Pilate, then for us: how can we tell if Jesus speaks the truth. 

In the course of our human history, some rather strange methods

have been employed to see if people are telling the truth under

the banner of truth by ordeal.  In an ordeal, one is asked to submit

to a physical test: you could be thrown in the water - if you get carried

away, you surely are guilty.  But if you can safely flow, uninjured, then

your innocence is presumed.  Or there is the hot iron, the hot coals, or boiling

water.  If you can touch, or walk, or dip your hand without being

burned or scolded, you are innocent!  If you blister and peel -

surely you are guilty. 

The ordeal is based upon this belief: God surely would not let

a truth teller suffer.  Surely, God would resort to a miracle

to save and spare the innocent. 

Surely, we might say, Jesus can stare down Pilate. 

He can be cool, stay calm and collected,

knowing that God has scripted this text and he need not worry. 

Yet I find exactly the opposite being true. 

Our ordeals in life - my goodness, aren't they legion -

who here this morning doesn't have a chilling life ordeal

to which they might testify -

when God was (seemingly) much distracted? 

When divine rescue did not come in time,

if it came at all?

Look closely at this scene.

The whole of the Christian movement is based upon

this experience - Jesus in this courtroom;

Jesus before Pilate. 

Pilate conducting interrogation, examination,

and Jesus without any defense, no power,

except the love of his life.  

It is not meant to convey weakness of faith.

It is a model of courageous Christianity!

It is linked with the likes of Shadrack, Meshach,

and Abednego, who likewise stood fast when faced

with the prospect of fiery furnace.  If God delivers, fine;

if God does not deliver, so be it; still we serve the One

we know, the One we trust, the One to whom we are

committed, and to no other will we bow down (Daniel 3:16-18).

So, the truth we teach:

we trust God is with us in the thick and thin times of life.  

We know we do not get a cross-exempt life.

Resident aliens we are, relying on grace,  

trusting God will see us through all,

to the end of all,

which is glory for all

on the far side of our mortality.

This is truth disclosed through ordeal.

One additional comment.

I'm mentioned before that in my study Bible,

I have stashed quotes I want to make sure

to remember.  One of the more recent additions

was from Emily Dickinson.

"Tell all the truth but tell it slant -

Success in circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightening to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Of every man be blind ..."

Jesus comes to us as the way, as truth, as life.

As heaven-sent truth teller, we listen.

And we are wise to trust truth that

dazzles gradually in time of cross-examinations.

*****                   *****                   *****

A final word.

I kept returning this week to the question posed by Pilate:

What have you done? 

Pilate never really gets his answer, but I would challenge

us today to fill in the blank.

What was it with Jesus that he ended up in court?

If we but scan this gospel of John,

we can come up with a few things:

He shared in wedding feast, topped it off by turning water into wine.

He brought hope to Nicodemus, who thought he was too old to have

a second birth.

He gave drink to a Samaritan woman, thirsty for life.

He gave legs to the cripple laid out near the pool called Bethzatha.

He preached a program of full employment:

we say:  God is still speaking;

Jesus said, "God is still working, and so am I" (John 5:17);

He fed the hungry, and stilled the storm,

talked tough about the world being evil.

He entered the shadow lands of Palestine, and said I am the light of the world;

He gave sight to a blind man, and life to a long dead Lazarus.

He washed feet and saw a day coming when his followers would

Do greater works than these (John 14:12).

He instructed to those who loved him:  in me you will have peace;

He issued warning:  In the world you will face persecution;

He gave encouragement: but take courage,

"I have conquered the world." (John 16:33)

Pilate asked: what have you done?

Jesus could have said any one of these;

or he might well have said:

Where I come from,

we operate by a different set of rules,

with a love that is out of this world.

          *****                   *****                   *****                   *****

What have you done?

This is a day to pose the question,

And to ponder a court superior to that of any Pilate

who might presume to examine our lives. 

What have you done?

Yet a better question comes: 

What do you intend to do?

I advise:

Listen to the voice of Jesus;

He tells the truth, the whole truth,

with illuminating slant;

He is the word that dazzles gradually,

the One who makes possible

the reign of God and the rule of love,

so necessary life in these days. 

Amen.