Note: Late and short post today. On Wednesdays I rise early and go to jail. The Tarrant County Jail folk let me come to teach Re-entry skills to inmates about to be released. I get about two and a half hours with these guys. Then, today, I lunched with some of the Chaplains and the Chief over ReEntry.
I am exhausted but it is a good tired, you know?
Thanks to Pat Parks for her latest donation to Chains of Grace. I pray for a hundred more just like her.
Now, to our subject.
The I Am statements of Jesus show us what He is and what we should want to be.
I Am statements start rather early in the lives of the Covenant People. Perhaps the most famous I Am statement in the Hebrew Bible is the answer of God to Moses from the burning bush in Exodus Chapter Three. There Moses the Irresponsible hears from God out of a bush burning (the bush, not Moses) but unconsumed.
Moses the Impulsive hears a clear call from God. Setting aside His usual spontaneity Moses thinks of (and blurts out) a series of reasons why he cannot answer the divine call. Yes, I know, humankind can think of a thousand ways to do silly things but still balk at the divine call. You know how we are.
When Moses runs out of excuses for the time being, he realizes his need of some muscle. He asks God for a calling card.
“Who shall I say sent me,” Moses wants to know.
“Tell then I Am sent you, Moses,” God replies.
Jesus starts His I Am statements early and keeps going.
“I Am the bread of life, John 6:35, 41, 48,51. I Am the light of the world, John 8:12. I Am the door of the sheep, john 10:7,9. I Am the good shepherd, John 10:11,14. I Am the resurrection and the life, John 11:25. I Am the way, the truth and the life, John 14:6. I Am the true vine, John 15:1,5.”
Jesus is speaking to first century Jews, who understand He is, in his I Am declarations, announcing His relationship with God, the First Person of the Trinity. Jesus is, in effect, announcing His own divinity.
Jesus uses the I Am of the Burning Bush to tell us what He knows about Himself.
What do you know about you? What can you emphatically state about your relationship with God?
What is your I Am?
What is so clear to you you could explain it graphically?
What is your I Am?
Nietzche decided Natural Philosophy Mattered when it became a World explanation rather than just a Word Arrangement. Natural Philosophy with its ocular evidence and clear explanation is fascinating, persuasive and convincing. No one need depend on faith without sight if one can see and, really, only what one sees matter at alL.
What would a burning bush due to our Natural Philosophy? I think it would do nothing to our evidence based living if only the bush had the good sense to be burned up in the fire. A burning bush with a voice and a call, a burning bush that keeps on burning and issues a call to service, well, now, that is something beyond the simple. If we are going to explain our World View as other than what we can see, hold, hear, smell and touch (though all of those things are possible and important), what does that do to our I Am?
Try some of these statements:
I am less than God.
I am temporal, not eternal, not immortal.
I am matter that matters because God says I matter.
What would you add?
Try this exercise with an open Bible and a journal before you. Decide on some of your I Am statements.
I am worn out tired.
See you tomorrow.