“I AM.”
Fifth Sunday of Easter
By: Rev. Dr. Beverly Bingle
May 2, 2021
I AM—as the name of God—appears over 300 times in the Bible,
from Chapter 15 of Genesis to Chapter 22 of Revelation.
Piles of books have been written
to explore the meanings of Exodus 3 in the Hebrew scriptures,
when Moses asks God what he should say
when the people ask who sent him,
and God says “Say this to the people of Israel,
“’I AM’ has sent me to you.”
Given the structure of Hebrew grammar,
that I AM can take on a lot o nuances:
I AM, I WAS, I WILL BE,
I WILL BE WITH YOU,
I AM WITHOUT EQUAL.
The same thing happens in the Christian scriptures,
with passage after passage using I AM
to try to explain Jesus’ teachings.
Jesus’ first followers,
and the early Christians for 40 or 50 years after him,
nearly all of them Jewish,
would have understood I AM
in the language of the biblical writings
as a direct and clear reference to God.
When John writes his gospel 60 to 80 years after Jesus,
he gives us a whole list of I AMs.
Last week we heard Jesus say, I AM the good shepherd—
follow me.
And we heard him say I AM the cornerstone—
lean on me; I’ll lift you up and give you support.
We’re familiar with even more of those I AMs.
I AM the bread of life.
I AM the light of the world.
I AM the resurrection and the life.
I AM the way, the truth, and the life.
Today’s gospel—I AM the vine—comes in the middle
of what’s called the “Last Supper Discourses,”
and it’s followed by Jesus’ command to his disciples:
love one another.
Then John writes two more chapters of the Discourses
before they all leave the supper and go out to the garden,
where Judas and the soldiers come to arrest Jesus.
At that point John adds a final I AM statement.
Jesus asks who they’re looking for.
When they answer, “Jesus the Nazorean,”
he says to them, “I AM.”
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Today’s “I AM the vine, and YOU are the branches”
gives us an important way to look at our whole universe
in these times of quantum physics and quantum theology.
We are attached,
each of us to Jesus,
and all of us through him to one another.
We are not troublesome vines, like kudzu or poison ivy.
We’re fruitful branches on the true vine,
like sweet potatoes and grapes.
We are in right relationship with God,
in relationship with Jesus,
and in relationship with each other.
We are all connected, all members of one family.
Our brother Jesus is the vine…
and the good shepherd, and the cornerstone,
and the light, and the way, the truth, and the life…
and so are we.
We’re one family.
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It’s important to recognize that,
in the years between Jesus’ life and John’s writing,
both the culture and the community changed.
Those changes led John to frame the story
to speak to his community and the needs of his time.
In the same way, the culture and the community we live in
have changed since John wrote his gospel.
Even so, one thing remains constant:
we remain in the one family of God,
subject to the same command:
to love one another.
And so we do!
Amen!