John 10:22-30

Easter 4 - Year C

John 10:22-30

Those who keep asking Jesus for a reason for his activities will have to keep asking because the only response they get does not have a connecting spot in their habits. A web of habit keeps us from receiving new data. It takes a good deal of intentionality to leave an opening for new information that will begin to systematically dismantle and expand one’s current web.

This is a belief issue. Belief and habit are kissing cousins - they both reject that which is not already present. There is no room for revelation here.

While there are many core issues, the one at stake here is a relationship one has with a past that is in continual contact with long-ago and far-away creation as well as a cusp of present with future. This flux between a creation-long ebb and flow and a sharp in-breaking of tomorrow is quite troublesome to many. They might could handle one or the other, but certainly not both without loosing their grounding, their perceived sanity.

This talk of the Father and Jesus being one is the same as G*D and I being the same. The dynamic of John’s "in the beginning..." and "...light coming into the world" are behind these simple equations. Want to scare your parishioners? Simply use Jesus' formula "G*D and (your name here) are one" without any clarification. Stick to it. No explanation, just the statement. Unease will surface. The works you do will reveal the reality or falsity of the statement.