Festivals of Dedication
Dear Friends,
In today’s gospel reading from John, the setting is an annual Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem with Jesus present. This was a time when the Jewish people would rededicate their lives to God, with gratitude for God’s provision of light in a time of darkness and persecution. As I pondered the scene, I thought of what we do every Sunday that we come together at St. John’s…what is our corporate worship, but a Festival of Dedication? Each person coming together with hopes of celebrating and renewing commitment, uniting in prayer and hope.
As Jesus gathers with his disciples at the festival, he describes himself as a shepherd and the sheep as those who hear his voice, are known by him, and follow him. My sheep, he says. No one, he claims further, will snatch them out of his hand. Ever. For the beloved sheep are also promised eternal life, eternal blessing, flowing from a forever love.
It occurs to me that the blessing of divine commitment that Jesus offers comes as a gift to community. I am reminded that Jesus spoke of the plural: them, they, my sheep. Even Jesus wasn’t really a singular because all this came from God. We are one, Jesus said, and Abba is the source of everything. No one, he emphasized, can snatch this gift out of Abba’s hand, the Giver of ever-flowing resources.
Repeatedly, I re-learn the centrality of community in God’s heart. Repeatedly, I need reminding that the biblical story, and our ongoing story, is of preparing and equipping a people, not a person. God sees differently, all-in-all. “When Israel (the people) was a child, I loved him,” God said to his prophet Hosea. Perhaps I will never fully recover from the plague of individualism yet I long to see differently, too.
Verna Dozier, in her book Dream of God that we are discussing on Wednesday evenings, understands this challenge:
“Is it a part of God’s continuing work to create a people who will be God’s instrument to restore a fallen world to the dream of a good creation of love and peace and justice? Or is the church a mentor for chosen individuals, guiding them through this world with the best it has to offer and preparing them for the best of the world to come?”*
This shift in perspective has had me wondering. Might every gathering of our community of faith be a Festival of Dedication? Not only our worship services, but every book study, every meeting, every Food Pantry collection, every coffee hour? Can we remember and remind one another that it is our communal listening and mutual belonging that will fortify our commitment to faith, hope and love? And, more, that God’s commitment to us, as a body, never wavers?
Perhaps this is the heart of what theologians write about as deep incarnation. It is a radical embodiment of oneness that acknowledges the power of ongoing mutual interconnection. I am increasingly convinced that this is, in the words of one spiritual guide, “the key to joining and extending the divine healing energies of love in the whole community of life.” What about you?
In Christ,
Amelie+
*Dozier, Verna J. The Dream of God (p. 50). Church Publishing Incorporated. Kindle Edition.
