A Peace for Every World
- Pastor Serena Rice
- 11 minutes ago
- 6 min read
A sermon on John 14:23-29.
[for an audio recording of this sermon, click here. Photo by Natalia Y. on Unsplash.]
One of my go-to sermon-prep resources, translator D. Mark Davis, opened his blog on today’s gospel this way:
“I get the feeling that we are watching the development of theology in this chapter, from the post-Easter community.”[1]
What I think that means is that, while the gospel story we heard today is a story about Jesus and his inner group of disciples before his crucifixion… our view of that scene is filtered through the lens of how the second generation of the church retold the story.
What is more, we can learn just as much about that second generation group as we do about the people in the story because, to use a more modern idiom, we can see the author’s hand moving.
The way this story is being told to a different group of people than those in the story is more obvious than is typical.
For example, Davis points to verse 25, explaining,
“This is one of those places in the gospels where the narrator’s voice seems to speak through Jesus’ voice oddly. Within the narrative itself, Jesus is with the disciples and… a reference to a time when Jesus was remaining with the disciples makes no sense…. However, as a gospel written after the fact, it makes perfect sense for the narrator to speak of a time when Jesus had said things to them while remaining with them.”[2]
And I think this is all worth pointing out because, in some ways, recognizing that there are two different contexts, two different “worlds” visible to us in this reading can help us to understand how the-same-story-operating-in-two-different-worlds can also be relevant in our world.
In biblical studies they call this interpretive approach “the three worlds of the text”:
· “the world within the text” is most apparent – the world of the people whose story is being told.
· “the world behind the text” is the one Davis is talking about – the world of the story-teller and the people they have in mind as they craft their telling of the earlier event.
· “the world in front of the text” is the one we stand in to read the story – the world populated by our experiences and needs to which the story needs to speak if it’s really going to matter for us.
The cool thing is that being clear about these three different worlds is sometimes the best way to find those points of connection and relevance.
So, if you will indulge me, let’s briefly examine each of these worlds.
The world within the text dumps us in the middle of a conversation between Jesus and his inner circle… a conversation in which Jesus has been saying some confusing and distressing things about him being about to leave them, in what sounds like a pretty permanent way.
The SALT commentary describes this as a “context of crisis,” describing how, “(the disciples) are understandably distraught. In their eyes, here is the Messiah, the one who would deliver them and the whole world, the one on whom they had pinned all their hopes, all their lives — and now he was leaving?”[3]
The presenting need in this world is for comfort and reassurance.
Jesus’s closest friends need to know that, despite all appearances, things are going to be OK.
They need a message that will call them into a trust strong enough to survive the imminent catastrophe of Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
They need to look into the eyes of their friend and teacher and see the possibility of somehow leaning into his incomprehensible instruction to not let their hearts be troubled or to be afraid.
And, while we know this does not work out perfectly (they each either betray him, or deny him, or run away entirely at some point in the coming crisis)… the people in the story have the encouragement of the final words in this passage:
“I have told you this before it occurs, so that when it does occur, you may believe.”
It is a reassurance that they don’t have to understand now.
They don’t have to be able to imagine how his departure will somehow be ameliorated by the coming of a Holy Spirit that they cannot understand absent any direct experience.
The people of the world within the text are being called to trust that Jesus knows what is happening and is looking out for them, and that is what will hold them close to him for what comes next.
The presenting need for those in the world behind the text is rather different.
They have survived the catastrophe… or rather they have received the faith from those who survived it…
those who did trust and believe Jesus’s words after the catastrophe occurred…
those who did, in fact, receive the Spirit – sometimes in rather fantastic ways – in confirmation of Jesus’s promise.
But this second generation of believers now face a different challenge, because they are figuring out how to build a vital, world-changing faith without those face-to-face experiences with Jesus to serve as the foundation.
And that challenge IS different, even so soon after the time of Jesus, even with their own experiences of Christ’s presence with them through the Holy Spirit, because faith in what is unseen needs understanding to support it; it needs a coherent framework.
And thus, and Davis points out, we get “the development of theology.”
It is the world behind the text that needs a four-chapter-long “Farewell Discourse” pulling together a massive amount of Jesus’s teachings (probably drawn from various real-life accounts) into one to-go-pack of instructions for being the church.
And in even just the portion of that discourse that we get today, we see the intentional shaping of the story into just such instructions.
As a dialogue between Jesus and his friends it’s a bit clunky and disjointed…
But as an outline of what Jesus being with you in the post-Easter world looks like it makes so much more sense.
Davis itemizes that outline for us by verse. According to his summary, it looks like:
“an experience of love (v.23), obedience (to [Christ’s] word v.23), learning (v.26), remembering (v.26), being at peace (v.27), rejoicing (v.28), and believing [which can also mean trusting] (v.29).”[4]
That’s a lot of doing verbs, and I don’t have enough time left to go into all the details, so I just want to offer one reflection on the significance of this list:
This description looks like a living relationship.
Even in a theologically crafted presentation, Jesus’s promise that he and the Father would “make their home” with those who love him is vital; it is real.
It has substance that we can hold onto through obedience to and remembrance of what Jesus taught, even as we continue to learn how to apply it with the Spirit’s guidance…
And it also has heart. It is made of love, and peace, and joy, and trust.
Which brings us to the world in front of the text, where our feet are planted.
Because I think our presenting needs, in this time and place, include each of the presenting needs that come front and center in the other two worlds of the text.
Like those within the text, whom Jesus was preparing for his crucifixion, we too are living in an unsettled moment where so much that we have assumed to be true about our world and our sources of security seems to be disintegrating.
So, like the first disciples, we need comfort and reassurance. We need the reminder that whatever else happens we will never lose Jesus, never lose his very real presence with us through God’s Spirit.
And that promise offers us a peace that is not vulnerable to the same threats before which worldly kinds of peace will crumble.
Because Jesus has made his home with us. We are not alone.
And then again, like those behind the text, who were navigating what it meant to be people of Jesus when that had meant something different to those who came before, we now are living in moment where institutional Christendom, steeped as it is in nationalism, divisiveness, and the lust for power, seems to bear no resemblance to the witness of the gospel.
So, like the second-generation Christians, we need a coherent framework of truth that empowers not just an alternative theology, but a living, grounded relationship with Christ.
And for that we have Jesus’ promises that “those who love me will keep my word”… and that “the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything…” and that our commitment to learning, and remembering, and obedience will bear fruit in the love, and peace, and joy, and trust that is Jesus with us in authentic relationship.
So, hard as it may be to really lean into it, I want to encourage us all to hear… deeply… truly… the exhortation that I believe Jesus speaks to his true followers in every world – within, behind, and in front of the text:
“Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” Jesus is with us.
Thanks be to God
[1] D. Mark Davis. https://leftbehindandlovingit.blogspot.com/2013/04/stealth-insight-and-special-peace.html
[2] Ibid.
