Reflections on "Final Words" John 13: 12-20; John 15:1-11

I thought the introduction to the sermon would work better than it did.  It's a great story when told by the person to whom it happened, but it came across a bit too serious in my presentation of it.  I wanted to hook people into the scene where they gather for final words to get them reflecting on what type of stuff they might say as final words.  The surprise ending did not seem to work that well because people had gone to that place of final words, and were not ready for the surprise!

One of the challenges of preaching on the small group topic for the Lent is the amount of material available for each sermon.  The passage on the washing of the feet and the passage on the vine branches could each be their own sermon (or multiple sermons, for that matter).  I had not preached on the "lay down his robe" before, and found that to a powerful interpretive tool.  I have preached on the branch image several times (not too long ago, in fact), but there is a richness to that story that allows it to be mined for theological reflection again and again.  It might be fun to expand the point on "God is the vine grower, and Jesus is the vine" for a full sermon at some point.

“Final Words” March 6, 2016; FPC, Troy; John 13: 12-20; John 15: 1-11; Lenten series on John

Introduction: The son receives the call that the family is being called in for the final days of his mother. He quickly rearranges his schedule and drives the 8 hours to his hometown where his mother is in a nursing home. When he arrives, she is still hanging on.

Over the course of several days the parade of children and grandchildren move through the mother's room. She is unresponsive throughout, and death seems near. Everyone says their good-byes. She does not respond, but they speak their final words.

After several days, it seems as if she will may linger longer than they thought, so the son prepares to return home. The son decides that he will drive back to his home and then return when she dies.

He asks his other sibling who is there with him if he can have a few minutes alone with his mother before he begins his drive home.

Alone in the room, he holds his mother's hand and talks to her. He says the kind of things you might say when you think its your final words.

Then he notices movement from his comatose mother. She literally opens her eyes and looks up at him. He is stunned by this change, and even more stunned when seems to motion for him to lean down so she can talk to him.

What might her final words be to him in this final moment?

He leans in. She speaks. “Could you turn up the TV? I can't hear it.”

Not quite the final words he was expecting.

Full disclosure. She actually lived for several more months. Those did not turn out to be her final words to her son.

I thought about the son's surprise at hearing his mother's words as I reflected on this week's reading.

We are hearing in the Gospel of John what biblical scholars refer to as Jesus' final discourse.

The Gospel of John has what biblical scholars refer to as the "Final Discourse" (Chapters 13-17), which comprises almost 25% of the gospel (John:The Gospel of Light and Life, Hamilton, 91).

Jesus, in almost a running monologue, sharing important thoughts with the disciples as he prepares for his death.

You will remember some of these words:

“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.”

“In my father's house are many rooms...I go to prepare them for you.”

Jesus promises the Comforter, or the Advocate, or the one which we often refer to as the Holy Spirit.

Christ's commandment to love one another as he has loved us.

This morning, I want to reflect a bit on how Jesus sets the stage for his final words and then look at one saying in particular.

Move 1: The Final discourse begins with Jesus and the disciples gathering for dinner at someone's home about the time of the Passover.

a. In the Gospel of John, there is not a Last Supper.

1. No Jesus breaking the bread and saying, “this is my body broken for you.”

2. No Jesus taking the wine and saying, “this is my blood shed for you.”

3. No telling the disciples to do this and remember me.

b. Instead, Jesus washes the disciples feet.

1. It would not be unexpected to have your feet washed when you went to visit someone in their home.

2. The washing of the feet was part of the hospitality offered by the host.

3. the hospitality of the host that is done by the host's servant; the servant who will wash the feet of the guests (New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IX, 722).

4. In this instance, Jesus wants to wash Peter and the other disciples' feet.

5. as if to say, “Hey Peter, if you want to know how to be the host like me, then you have to make act as a servant.

6. an offer that Peter initially resists.

7. Maybe he's still looking for the servant to wash his feet.

8. Maybe he thinks if the servant is not going to wash feet, then he ought to wash Jesus' feet. After all, Jesus is the teacher, the leader, the master.

9. Into this conversation, Peter has an awkward exchange about how if Jesus is going to wash his feet, then he might as well wash his whole body.

c. Who can blame Peter for his confusion. It is hard to imagine this type of hospitality.

1. In fact, the way in which the Gospel of John tells the story reveals how radical an act of hospitality it really is.

1. John tells us that Jesus takes off his robe, literally lays down his robe as he prepares to wash their feet. on which to kneel.

2. The verb in Greek for lay down is the same verb that John will use later to describe how the good shepherd (remember that Jesus says “I am the good shepherd”) lays down his life his life for the others (New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. IX, 722).

d. Jesus follows up this gift of foot washing with his first words of the final disclosure.

1. Words that call the disciples to live out that radical hospitality out in their own lives.

2. Hamilton shares an interesting story about Pope Francis. When Francis was a bishop in Buenos Aires, he went to a local Catholic church to do foot washing. One of the people whose feet he would wash was twenty-seven-year-old Cristian Marcelo Reynosos. here is how Reynosos, a garbage collector, tells the story: "I was at my worst and I needed help. When the Mass started, [the cardinal] knelt down and wash my feet. It hit me hard. It was such a beautiful experience." The cardinal washes the feet of AIDS patients, drug addicts, and the poor as he sought to demonstrate the love of God (Hamilton, 96).

3. Our church’s vision statement, as you may recall, not only has words, but some words are in bold and some words are bigger than others to show emphasis. Four words, really two phrases, share the most prominent font --”Jesus Christ” and “Serve others.”

Jesus sets the stage for his final words with an act of radical hospitality.

Move 2: In part of his final discourse, Jesus offers the image of vine and branches to illustrate how we are to abide in him.

a. Jesus is the true vine and God is the vine grower.

1. As I have said before, this make it pretty clear – we are not God.

2. You can take that off your “to-do” list.

3. You do not have to be in charge of the world.

4. You do not have to control everything.

5. God is the vine grower.

6. Jesus is the vine.

b. we are the branches.

1. Often we focus on the pruning part of this passage. The need to we have to be pruned, and what that means for our own growth. Powerful stuff, but I want to focus for a moment on the branches that extend out from Christ.

2. A reminder that we are connected to Christ and connected to one another as we abide in Christ.

3. Imagine the branches that grow out of the vine.

4. One grape after another. Connected together. Roughly the same grape after grape. Dependent on each other; connected to one another.

5. Non-hierarchical. There is not the lead grape.

6. It is even different from the way in which the Apostle Paul will talk about the church.

7. his image is also in contrast to the body of Christ image that Paul uses to describe the church.  The body of Christ highlights that each person has a particular and identifiable gift.

8. The vine and branches suggests everyone blends together and no one stands out in any particular way (New Interpreter's Bible, 761).

9. In our world of private lives and personal achievement and "I can believe and do what I want," and "you can believe and do what you want," the vine image suggests we are bound together a bit differently. (New Interpreter's Bible, 760).

9. In our world where there is much conversation about how to divide ourselves and separate ourselves from others, this image of the vine and branches defies that desire to highlight our differences and that which separates and calls us back together as we abide in Christ..

10. Apart from Christ, we can do nothing.

11. Oh, and do not forget that one in whom we abide is the one we see kneeling at the feet of others as he washes their feet..

Conclusion: We come to our Lord's Table, a table set by the actions of Jesus Christ to lay down his life for us.

We come to our Lord's Table to meet again our Risen Lord, the one who calls us to abide in him and join in radical hospitality. Amen.