Hanukkah, Mothers, and Flowers
John 10:22–30
At that time the festival of the Dedication took place in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the portico of Solomon. So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered, “I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand. What my Father has given me is greater than all else, and no one can snatch it out of the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”
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"When!?" That is the question we hear this morning from the crowd who gather around Jesus at the temple, "How long will you keep us in suspense?" We don't like waiting for an answer to something we want to know right now. While this question of "when" weighs at the forefront of our reading for today, we are also faced with the question of "what." What is it that keeps us in a state of suspense and anticipation? Maybe we are asking whether Jesus is the Messiah, one who can make a change in souls; maybe we're asking if Jesus is one who will liberate or free us from our time of trouble, or maybe there's something else we're asking, and we're wondering if Jesus will fill that role. The when and what are questions we find ourselves asking as we navigate life this Easter season. What is it that you are waiting for, or what would you ask of Jesus as you ponder and wait with anticipation?
To understand we’ll need to pull together a few ideas that at first glance don’t seem to have any connection to one another: Jesus, Hanukkah, and flowers.
Historical Context:
Okay, so first we need to go backwards in time, we need to jump back through time to about December when people around the world celebrated not Christmas but Hanukkah for some historical context. It was during Hanukkah (Festival of Dedication) when Jesus was approached by those who had questions, people who were anticipating something to happen. Our faith is full of stories of people who waited with anticipation or waited with the expectation that they knew what would happen but were surprised. Such is one story shared during Hanukkah, which tells of the Maccabees reclaiming the temple in Jerusalem only to find that they had one usable jar of oil to rededicate it. There's a chance this story of waiting and expectations was on the forefront of the minds of those who pressed Jesus to reveal who he really was. All these questions, all these voices, and set against the background of cultural and personal histories, we wonder what Jesus has to say to us today.
The Non-Masculine Voice of God:
We've established the anticipation and the expectations we feel when we come before Jesus, and now we get to arrive at the who. Is it Jesus the Messiah or someone else? There's a chance that the people who circled Jesus didn't know. There's a chance that we aren't sure when we come trying to listen to how God will respond. In many ways, I think we, myself included, fall back on these very masculine images of God. Now when I say masculine, I don't just mean the gender, but I mean the hyper idealized vision of a lumberjack or something like that. There's nothing wrong with that, we all have different ways of relating to God, yet it's essential for us to remember that this is not the only way for us to understand God.
There is also the version of God who embodies a non-masculine voice. Now, before you stop me, I know that our reading for today talks about God as a fatherly figure, but can't you hear the voice of a mother in our reading for today? If you can't hear, just listen when Jesus says, "No one will snatch them out of my hand." Now you tell me you don't hear the voice of a protective mother in those words. Like any motherly figure, human or animal (just look at how the many mothers in the animal kingdom protect their young), God will do what is necessary to secure our freedom and safety. There is nothing we need to do; God is like a mother who welcomes and cares for all regardless of whether or not they are actually God's children.
Flowers on the Edge:
The motherhood of God is welcoming of our present selves, our selves that are anxious, full of questions, full of not knowing what comes next. There is grace in coming before this motherly/feminine spirit of God because, for many, they can't relate to what it's like to have an earthly mother. It's in that moment where we are in the presence of our motherly God, where God catches us off guard by not fitting the traditional labels we try to place on God, which is great because all the questions and worries we have are not of any concern to God, a loving mother who sent Christ so that, "[All] may have life, and have it abundantly." (John 10:10) Again, can't you see the motherly/feminine spirit of God who will fight to protect us and do what is necessary to allow us to grow?
That is the kind of shepherd/mother God is for us. So when other forces or other voices try to lure us or coerce us or make us feel like we're sitting on the edge of a cliff, the voice of God, our mother, the shepherd, calls us by name. These voices or forces remind me of something I saw on a walk this past week. There was this steep bank between the Putnam Trailway and the road above, and I thought, "Wow, that's pretty steep; I would not want to fall if I was trying to ride my bike on that road." But then, something on the side of this sharp hill caught my eye. There was a flower there (actually a couple of them) peaking out and adding a splash of color. For myself, it reminded me of how God's voice breaks through the other things that tell us that only fear and uncertainty lie ahead and that a cliff can only be a dangerous cliff, but God says, "Stop, look, hear my voice and see that I am with you and so now you'll see things differently."
So that is how we move from Jesus to Hanukkah, mothers, and then to flowers on the side of a steep hill. Let us remember that the voice of God calls out to us by name to reassure us that nothing in life or death can separate us from the love of God. And let us look for how we can embody the motherly spirit of God in our daily lives to ourselves and others who are waiting with anticipation to hear what God is doing in our midst yesterday, today, and forever. Amen.