After church yesterday I sat with a friend and her daughter. Her husband was working in the emergency room, and she was on call for one of the local hospitals. I asked about her children. During this, son one asked her youngest daughter about women’s studies. He was rapidly corrected by ber. It is now gender studies, and part of sociology. Which she does not take. She is doing Chemistry, thank you very much.
Later that day we went for a walk at Gabriel’s Gully. We climbed up to a ridge, then had to scramble down into a valley that was cut by the miners, because they took out a 200 m high ridge of gold-bearing rock in the Victorian era using a combination of explosives and water. Son one had just done a project on Gold refining, and spent the time telling me why we use cyanide to extract rather than mercury, complete with reaction equations.
If you understand the principles of what is going on, you can then engineer the applications. During the last supper, Jesus is trying to get principles into the heads of his disciples. Trinitarian principles. And that there is more to come, which has been used to comfort the mourning ever since.
1“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. 2In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. 4And you know the way to the place where I am going.” 5Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
8Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” 9Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. 12Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. 13I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
I’ve said before that you cannot get away with seeing Jesus as some form of liberal teacher. It has been said many times. Jesus offends the current world view in this passage.
Firstly, he claims exclusivity. The principle of the gospel and of the cross — that the only way to reconcile yourself with God is through the work of Jesus — through Jesus is there. He is not tolerant of other faiths. Nor is he syncretistic. Instead, he sets before us a bare, binary choice: choose live in Christ or damnation.
Secondly, we who follow him are expected not only to do his works but to do greater things than him. And some of those who have gone before us have done this. They have converted Peoples. They have done great miracles — Paul found people were wanting his cloths (I’m thinking of something lie a scarf or bandana) because that would lead to healing. [As a gloss, Paul never bragged about this. Instead he talked about his failings. We should follow that example]. You cannot explain this in political terms. You cannot explain this purely in historical terms. There is no clear reason why Christianity spread but the spirit [Unlike Islam, where there is a very simple explanation: they conquered the Eastern Roman Empire and the Persian Empire after they had been decimated by plague]. We therefore should not grieve the spirit either by saying that works of power and healing have ceased (which is an error that the Puritans made in the Westminster Confession) or by assuming that healing and miracles are to be boasted about and seen as merit badges.
Thirdly, we will have our rest, but not here. We are pilgrims. We are not supposed to be set in this world but instead to be moving on. We should be loyal to the places that we sojourn, but our homeland is to come. We can therefore be calmer in times of distress, when the nations groan and the politicians panic, because our core loyalty is not to the nation, but to Christ.
Finally, we can be honest. We do not have to use doublethink, or account our feelings as a reason to destroy and litigate. If we understand the principles, we can act.
Which brings me back to the walk and the talk. I was asked what is wisdom. I replied that it is the ability to not only discern what is the correct thing to do, but also to do it. The first part is difficult. The second part is much harder. And we are commanded to pray… yes for gifts, and power, and love… but more so for wisdom. For we should not pretend these times are not evil, and wisdom is needed in dark times.