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Copyright © 2005 Reformed Ecumenical Council. Used by permission.
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BIBLE STUDIES FOR REC 2005
to correlate with morning worship
prepared by Dr. Eep Talstra
and Dr. L. Theo Witkamp
1 • Living with an identity in a real world
Reading: Genesis 26
I am with you. These are words God speaks to Isaac, to Jacob and to many more after them. What do these words imply, a promise? That may be so, but they sound more like an agenda. You, children of Abraham, strangers as you may be now, you should keep this in mind: the story God began with Abraham will continue. Therefore, to Israel these words, I am with you, are not just a promise. In fact they are an inheritance to be remembered. Since Abraham left for a promised, yet unknown country, and since he received God's promise of being blessed and thus becoming a blessing himself, his children always have felt both comfortable and uncomfortable with the special identity they inherited from their father.
To address Abraham's children God uses this phrase, which He did not yet use to address Abraham: I am with you. Genesis 12 starts with just some imperatives to Abraham: Go, be blessed and become a blessing! To his son Isaac God repeats the words of blessing and future. This place will be your country, you will be a great nation. For I remember Abraham, and I will realise the history of blessing that I started with him. Within these words the Lord inserts His words of loyalty: I will be with you (verse 3). They do not suggest that Abraham's children now have become invulnerable. Neither do these words represent an ideology to be forced upon the world: join us, we are the most successful religion. Actually, as Genesis 23 shows, Abraham's children will live as an endangered community in the promised country. But the words make clear one thing: With you I am continuing my history of blessing-not in an ideal world, but in a real one.
Isaac had to try to survive in his encounter with other people who were his neighbours. His story demonstrates the dilemma of being a child of Abraham between the peoples of a real world. He should not take refuge in Egypt, God said. Stay here, in spite of the famine in the land Canaan, for I will be with you (verse 3). But, how can one live among the others? What do you do? Accommodate? Demonstrate that you are of a different kind? Keep the history of blessing hidden somewhere in your own heart? Isaac tried to be clever by claiming publicly that Rebecca was not his wife (verse 7). He also retreated cautiously because of a fight over water wells (verse 20), searching and finally finding a place to stay. It was God himself who then repeated the words about his history of blessing: I will be with you (verse 24). It is helpful to see that real life scenes clarify what this means. The Philistine king accidentally observed Isaac and Rebecca as a loving couple and he drew his own conclusions: She was not Isaac's sister, she was his wife, no one should touch her. And even when Isaac retreated, digging one well after the other, he eventually found room, a place to live. Nothing spectacular was going one here. But to king Abimelech it was clear: We have seen that God is with you (verse 28), let us be friends.
I am with you, therefore, is not an ideology; it is not a declaration of who are the better people in the world. I am with you just happens in the real world. Yet Isaac had to discover it. He heard those words, three times, two times from God, one time from the mouth of a complete outsider, the Philistine king.
Thus the phrase I am with you is not expressed to make Abraham's children feel strong. It was their identity: this is your existence among the peoples. That God is with the children of Abraham can be observed in daily life scenes, as the Philistine king experienced. Jacob had to remember it when God said the same words to him in his dream at Bethel (Genesis 28:15). God used them again to convince Moses that God's history with his people really goes on (Exodus 3:12). And finally it is something outsiders observe, as is clear from the words of the prophet Balaam: You may try to curse this people, but you will not be successful. Their God is with them; His history of blessing is a matter of fact (Numbers 23:20ff. 24:9). That is written between the many stories of Israel 's mistrust in the desert period (Numbers 20-21 and 25).
Maybe it is better that it is outsiders who really see it. This is where it all started: I am with you.
2. Continuity, Torah and Leadership
Reading: Joshua 1 and 1 Samuel 3
I am with you: it is something you receive, though not just for your personal agenda. It is meant for the continuation of God's history with his people. In this way Moses spoke to Joshua (Deut 31:8): Yhwh will go before us, He will be with you, do not fear. In the same chapter, Yhwh repeated those words to Joshua: I am with you. Since this is also the chapter about the transition of Moses' office to Joshua and to the Levites, it is clear that I am with you is about more than taking the Promised Land. It is about how to live there as the people of God. A promise would be fulfilled, but commitments were also required: read the Torah in public and sing the Song of Moses. That is the Song about Israel living in its country, but it is also a song about God being disappointed in his people and struggling with Himself: shall I continue or shall I give up? (Deut 32:26-27).
Only when we are aware of this two-fold song can we finish the reading of the Torah and read on in the books of the Early Prophets. In this way the Lord addressed Joshua with a twofold task. Be strong, take the promised land (Joshua 1:6) And be strong, study the Torah, day and night (verse 7). I will be with you, as I have been with Moses (verse 5).
This different sense of God's presence made Joshua a leader comparable to but also very different from Moses. He would have to be a commander and a rabbi at the same time. This leader no longer would explain or expand the Torah, he would have to study it, obey it and use it. Only as a student of Moses would he become a leader like Moses. These were the words of the Lord (Joshua 1:5 3:7), but these were also the words of the elders of Israel (Joshua 1:17). And even in the words of the narrator of the book of Joshua (4:14) the same comparison with Moses was made: I will be with you in your task of continuing the work of Moses. Lead this people by the Torah.
From this moment on the stories about Israel emphasised the delicate balance of leadership and listening to the Word of God. I am with you implied a heritage (the Torah) and a future: God would not give up on his people. Therefore, Joshua and the others coming after him, charismatic leaders as they might be, would not begin something fully new. They would be successors of Moses. They had a Torah to study, so they could remember where they came from, to have confidence and dedication. At the same time, even when the study was flawed and listening to the Word failed, God would be there, guiding the people, making Israel feel the effects of sin, opening a new future.
So it was also with Samuel. Having been dedicated to the service of the Lord, he represented a continuation of the work of the Lord who fulfilled His words. Like Joshua, Samuel was not a new hero. His dedication to Yhwh marked God's faithfulness and continuation, as was the case with the transition of Moses' office to Joshua. The Word of the Lord may have become rare, as the narrator began his chapter (1 Sam.3:1). But with Samuel, who is capable of careful listening (verse 10), things changed again. God was with him, the narrator tells us, and He let none of his words fall to the ground (verse 19). Whose words, God's or Samuel's?, a reader of the text may ask. But what is the difference, another reader may ask. The Lord made Himself known through his word to Samuel, verse 21 tells us. This is how He was with Israel.
This interaction of listening, studying and speaking the Word of God may be the best Old Testament introduction to Jesus' words to his disciples in Matthew 28:19. Teach, baptize and remember that I am with you. Being a true disciple you may become a true teacher as well, because I am with you.
3 • History, Memory and Prayer
Reading: Judges 6:1-18 and 1 Kings 8:54-61
I am with you. With these words God was present with Moses, with Joshua, with Samuel. But then what makes people easily forget about God's presence? Is it because the practice of reciting and remembering, as it was commanded to Joshua, always slows down? Is it because the gods of short-term success seem to be more rewarding? Anyway, Gideon failed to recognize God's presence, at the very moment it happened to him. In the period of Midianite oppression and violation the messenger of Yhwh showed himself to Gideon with the words: Yhwh is with you, strong warrior!
Gideon's answer is a cynical one: If God really were with us, then why do all these disasters hit us? Where are all the miraculous deeds He did for us from Egypt on? Gideon clearly was very capable of remembering and reciting, but he did so in the mode of skepticism, not in the mode of hymn, narration or study. The story of liberation has to be studied, as had been emphasized by a prophetic voice, just before the story of Gideon began (Judges 6:8-10): I saved you from Egypt, do not serve the gods of the other peoples. But to Gideon all this seems to refer only to something that happened a long time ago. Thus he failed to recognize that the very words I am with you were now being performed in his own life, when the messenger of Yhwh greeted him. One may blame him for it, but one may also continue to read the text with surprise and gratitude. I am with you clearly is not a claim that God is on our side. Indeed God was on the side of his people, but He himself seemed to be the only one who really remembered. Go and save Israel, the messenger commanded Gideon. By what means, Gideon wanted to know. Now the greeting appeared to be meant seriously. It is because I am with you (verse 16) that you will slay the oppressor, was the answer. This is not about winning wars and establishing empires. It is about going back to basics: Israel should be free again, and find room again to listen to the Torah.
From this moment on we, as readers of the Early Prophets, will be confronted with a long series of stories about the history of Israel that all demonstrated the same pattern. I am with you was not the ideology of a people that feels strong and proud with its God. The idea was not: I am with you, making sure that you become better and stronger than the peoples. The words were about the continuation of God's history with his people. I am with you was connected closely to the Torah and to the history of God with the children of Israel. It was God Himself who repeated these words time and again to save his people, challenging them to live by the words of the Torah (1 Kings 6:12-13).
Finally, in King Solomon's prayer at the occasion of the dedication of the temple, these words were transformed into supplication. 'May Yhwh, our God, be with us, as He has been with our fathers' (1Kings 8:57). In this prayer Solomon referred to the sins of Israel serving other gods, to the loss of the city and the temple and to the exile that seemed to be Israel's final episode. In such situations the last thing you can do is to remember in your prayer the words that God spoke so many times. Solomon reversed the cynical words of Gideon in his praying: May God be with us as He has been with our fathers. In this way these words have become fundamental to the identity of God's people: may He be with us, so that we may be able to observe his commandments. Only in this way may the peoples see that only Yhwh is God and no one else is. God with us, how else could one revive and be saved? (Matthew 1:18)
4 • Identity and Future, the end of fear
Readings : Isaiah 41:1-20, 43:1-7 and Zechariah 8:1-8, 20-23
In the words of the exilic Isaiah the words from the prayer of Solomon are transformed into prophecy: Do not fear, for I am with you (41:10 43:5). That was really something to say, it took courage even to try to believe these words. Israel was in exile, Jerusalem was captured, the temple destroyed. The city, the temple, the house of David-all visible signs that used to be regarded as a demonstration of the words God with us-have been demolished. For, if the Torah was being neglected by those in power, if gods and idols were adopted by those eager for direct success, then uttering the words God with us became like cursing oneself, so Jeremiah taught us (Jeremiah 7). What was left? Only to pray the words: May God be with us, as in Solomon's prayer. Would God leave the world in the hands of the mighty? The answer to this is prophecy. Among the frightening clashes and the struggles between the great empires in human history, God's way with Abraham and his children was not coming to a halt. I am with you means the power of sin is not your destiny; the power of the emperors is not your fate. Really changing the course of history is God's creative power, his justice, that is, his forgiveness for his people, breaking the power of the mighty, and starting something new.
What could help us not to fear and to believe that God is with us in the chaos of destructive political and commercial interests in the world? It is the faith in Yhwh the God of Israel who challenges the powers of nationalism, money and race the nations believe in: Do something, prove that you are gods. But you are unable to do so. It is a good biblical question: Could empires ever be creative? But God is: I myself will bring my people back to Zion (Isaiah 41:23-24). Why would history take this new course? Was it the result of a contest between gods about who is the mighty one? It was not. Power is not ruling the world, the creator of Israel is, He who sets his people free, only because you are precious to me, I love you (43:1-3).
Do not fear, for I am with you (43:5). The love of the creator makes him change the world, but it does not make him narrow-minded. If because of love Israel was welcomed back into Zion (41:27), others will be too. Such are the words of the prophecy in Zechariah 8. Verse 23 repeats words we already heard from the mouth of the Philistine king Abimelech to Isaac (Gen. 26): We have seen that God is with you. That is important: I am with you appears to be something others may observe, not from our claims of happiness or success. Rather, it is to be seen from God's work as creator: restoring his people, restoring the blessing it all started with. It is visible from his new acceptance of his people: Welcome back to Zion. Even more important is the proposal Abimelech did not yet dare to add: If forgiveness and renewal are part of the creative work of the God of Israel, Please let us come with you.
Was this a demonstration of Israel's spiritual power? May the best religion win? Was it a demonstration of spiritual growth of the peoples? Was this the utopia we were always looking for? No, it was the convincing performance of grace in the world of God and men. The people in Zechariah 8 spoke for all of us, late children of Abraham:
We have seen your history. We understand from it that coming with you means accepting the story of Abraham's children as also our own. We accept that from now on we all have an identity of being strangers, sinners, exiles and home comers.
I am with you has become the story of salvation.
5 • Confession, Hymn and Prayer
Readings: Psalm 46 and 91
Yhwh Sabaoth is with us. A shelter to us is the God of Jacob. These words are sung as a refrain in Psalm 46:8 and 12. In the midst of the powers of the earth, there is a place of joy, the place where the God of Israel is present among his people. In this holy place we will sing about his great deeds of liberation.
God with us. Would Jeremiah be able to appreciate this Psalm? How much courage does it take to make such a statement? It depends on how much you remember from the Torah and the Prophets. We have found out how much of a refuge God is, Psalm 46:2 says. The Lord is with us (verse 8). It was good to sing that with the Korahites when Jerusalem still stood as a beautiful city and the people found confidence to praise God for his power as the creator of heaven and earth. But, what would Gideon say? And how did Solomon pray? How does it feel to go on with singing after you have studied Isaiah or Zechariah?
It is meaningful that in the Hebrew Bible the Psalms belong to the third part of the Canon. If you have not really studied with Moses and the Prophets first, you certainly will encounter the moment that you will loose courage and stop singing. That is when the shelter has been demolished because of the other gods humans seem to go after all the time (Lamentations 2:8-10). In this way singing about God with us for Israel has become singing after Moses has spoken about the Torah and after the Prophets have spoken about exile and return. Without history no identity. Without identity no liturgy. The city of God is a stronghold, a safe place? (Psalm 46:8) It certainly is, precisely since we have been allowed to return to it. He is God, making wars cease to the end of the earth? (Psalm 46:10). Sure, but it is not our utopia. It is our hymn. He ends wars. That is why we still are alive. Returning from Babylon, we have seen it happen.
Since in the history of Israel the singing of the Psalms continues, there is room for all of us to participate in their hymns and prayers. God with us, we sing this together with a community that remembers the moments of silence, the moments of God hiding his face. It is singing together with a people that remembers the moments of return and renewal. Since that has happened, singing is always singing again. We have returned form exile to life. What else could this be than love? So as Christians we also sing of the one who lives in the shelter of the Most High, who abides in the shadow of the Almighty (Psalm 91:1). We sing about God who will command his angels concerning you, to guard you in all your ways (verse 11). We sing about God who promises: If he cries to Me, I will answer him, I will be with him in trouble (verse 15). But we sing together with Israel sharing with them the knowledge that one easily disturbs the delicate balance of prayer and pride. Can I sing about God as my refuge, any time it suits me? Did not Satan find the words of Psalm 91:11 about the protecting angels interesting enough to tempt Jesus with them? (Matthew 4:6) But it is a hymn and not a game, Jesus made clear. In the night he was betrayed Jesus even refused to apply the words of Psalm 91:15. If I would cry to my Father, He would send me legions of angels. Jesus refuses, thus fulfilling the words of the Prophets (Matthew 26:53,56), the words of exile and return, the words of death and resurrection, thus preparing for us the way that we can now really sing the Psalm of salvation together with Israel.
Singing this Psalm does not mean that your life is protected now from all that may happen to human beings. It means that you are taking part in the long history of God with us, who did not give up on his people and therefore will not give up on you when you cry to Him. The Psalm ends with: I will make him see my salvation (verse 16). And so He did. The final chapter of the Gospel of Matthew tells us about this seeing, in words that remind us of Isaiah 41 and 43:
Do not be afraid, He has been raised. See the place where He lay. Do not be afraid, go and tell the others, they will see me. (Matthew 28:5-10).
After seeing him, you may be prepared to understand the words: I will be with you to the end of the age (28:20).
6 • God is with us-I am with you
Readings: Matthew 1:18-25 and 28:20
Jesus' last words in Matthew's Gospel, "I am with you always, to the end of the age," doubtlessly refer to the beginning of the Gospel. There the angel's words to Joseph are accompanied by a fulfillment quotation, taken from Isaiah 7: "Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel," which means, "God is with us." God with us is the good news in a nutshell. These words frame this book. This is the gospel Matthew is going to tell and which must be retold time and again in order that we might live without fear and feel free to really live, with an attitude of commitment towards the intentions of this God.
I am with you means that we are not alone, abandoned or orphaned in a silent cosmic night, just struggling for survival in a harsh and cold world. No! We are dearly beloved people of an immense cosmic Power that is far greater than we are and that IS in an insurmountable light. He is the fountain from which we draw life. He is the ultimate reality that energizes our reality and brings it into existence and unto its destination. We can participate in His life and partake in the life of His son.
God is with us means that within the confines of our own lives we are near to the hub of the universe, to the center of being itself. Wherever we are, we are never far away from our human destination. It is a word of hope, a word of final relief. This is a message that has wide-ranging implications on the intra- and the interhuman level. We are never far away from our final essence, not within ourselves and not in the relationships with our relatives, our friends or our enemies.
But at the same time we must stress that this hub, this final essence, is the ineffable God, the unpronounceable Name and the mystery of all there is. We cannot lay our hands on Him. He is not within our possession. Our life belongs not to us. Our being lies outside ourselves in the Name of Him who is with us.
God with us does not mean a legitimization of our programs. On the contrary, these words shed light on our plans and ideas and show where there is light and where there is darkness in them. We do not make a claim on God; He makes a claim on us. The words God with us raise the question, With whom are we? Are we prepared to be with those who need us? If God does not leave us alone, what do we do to others?
When we do not just listen to these words from the gospel, but also hear them-which means partake in them-then the very essence of this with you will become part and parcel of our own identity. We will learn that we can never become human without the others, including the others who are not our friends. The with you is intended to be inclusive, just as our love is intended to include our enemies and just as this God "sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous." (Matt. 5:45) The words I am with you endow us with a liberating core identity and at the same time invite us to move away from our anxious selves toward the other, strange and dangerous as she or he might be.
7 • And where I am, there will my servant be also
Reading: John 12:12-26
We find these words in a very full and heavily laden pericope. Its center is Jesus' pronouncement that his hour has come and that he must leave the world in order to return to his sender, in other words, that he must be glorified and receive his heavenly glory. The way this will happen is a paradoxical glorification itself, because it is the way of the cross, an instrument of pain and shame, not of glory at all. But on closer inspection, John claims, this way itself means glory, because in it the Son shows the love he has towards his people. The simile of the grain of wheat that only bears much fruit by dying in the earth helps us to ascend to a possible acceptance of the paradox that only by dying will Jesus be able to accomplish his work of giving life to all.
The move his words make in verses 25-26 is that the lives of his followers become integrated with Jesus' own life. When we participate in the Son we also participate in the way he must go. This way of his may look disastrous since it leads to death, but Jesus tries to comfort his own and to encourage them by stating that where he will be, there they will be also.
We will naturally ask then, "Where is he?" At first sight he looks to be in pain, on the way to his death, scorned and suffering severely. But in hindsight his place is with his Father, who receives him in heaven and bestows on him his glory, which was his from the beginning. The same, our text says, will hold true for Jesus' followers.
This is language of martyrs. Jesus' early followers had to learn that in the wake of their master they would have to reckon with pain and death also. They had to learn that on the one hand they should avoid the danger of masochism and not seek martyrdom, but, on the other hand, when martyrdom would come to them in the course of following Jesus, they should not run away, avoiding it at all costs. We, too, have to learn to overcome our fears and stay true to the voice we have heard in our lives.
Whoever is close to Jesus is close to the fire. Where he is, there is hope and life. This is a comforting, though by no means easy boat of words in which we can sail the world.
8 • In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
Reading: John 14:1-14
John tried to explain to his readers (using Jesus' voice) that Jesus' departure in his death was not a disaster but a joyful necessity. Jesus did not just die as a victim of an oppressive system, but he left the world for the benefit of his followers and for the accomplishment of his work. It is not easy to see this, since his death on the torture instrument of the cross did not really look like a decent 'departure'. But John invites us to probe deeper and to look behind the curtains of 'plain facts'.
In chapter 14:1 Jesus wanted his disciples to trust him. He would not try to deceive them. Yes, he would leave them, but it would not be to their detriment but to their benefit. He would be going to prepare them lodgings in his Father's house. He would leave them, but he not leave them alone like orphans (14:18). He would come again and renew his communication with them. When we read on in this chapter, we come to see that the dwelling places that Jesus is talking about do not mean primarily a location but a relation. It is the relationship with him and with his Father that will be safe and that cannot be endangered by departure, death or anything else.
The comfort that Jesus wants to give his disciples is not a cheap hammock to lie in, but it is a strength to live by. There is nothing in life or death that can separate us from him or his Father. He means to empower us to be able to stand right up on our feet and live a full life in communion with him.
I am inclined to write: "to live a full life, so that we can be free to take up our responsibilities for the world." But John is not renowned for his social ethics. We wonder where 'the other' is here. But perhaps, we should not push John too much. His ethics reflected the position of a minority group in distress under the pressure of outsiders ('the Jews'). In this situation he did not stress responsibility for the world (which in fact they did not have or could not realize), but he stressed loyalty, hardships, martyrdom, intimacy and comfort. His ethics were ones of personal loyalty and the reward of eternal life.
John did not give us a compendium of life-rules nor a timeless truth. He wrote for his readers and expressed for them a fundamental truth within the constraints of his time. This truth, however, is able to cross the time gulf. It is able to invite us out of our fears that close our hearts and restrain our minds in order to set us free. And when that happens we feel free and joyfully take up our personal and social responsibilities. When our fears are constrained and our love is set free we do not want to be saved alone.
9 • You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you
Reading: John 14:15-24
The NRSV gives as an alternative translation: "and he will be among you". This is possible on linguistic grounds, but not very likely on exegetical grounds. In fact, it is the intimacy of the spirit-paraclete that is so important in this passage. Jesus had been among them, in their midst. They had seen him and his works. So they had "seen" the Father (14:9). But Jesus had not been "in" them during his lifetime. That would have been impossible, of course, because he was among them in the flesh. But, now he was leaving and departing for his Father's house, and he would come again and start a new relationship with his followers. From that point on he would not be confined by time and place anymore, and his departure gave him the opportunity to draw "all people" to himself (12:32), from wherever they come, not just the ones who had literally seen him. The Son of Man was lifted up, but this departure was not a simple absence. It introduced and unlocked a new way of presence (cf. 12:34). This presence is the presence of the spirit, his own spirit, and this spirit will stay forever. He is "another Jesus" (R. Brown), another paraclete or helper, "to be with you forever" (14:16).
This Spirit will be able to do something that Jesus himself, while in the flesh, could not do yet, that is, he will come "in" them. He will realize the mutual indwelling that Jesus had mentioned before proleptically, in anticipation (6:56). During Jesus' life this counted for him and his Father (10:38), but only when the spirit-paraclete is sent will it also hold true for his followers. There will be an astonishing intimacy between God's (or Jesus') spirit and the believers. It is not just God with us, but God inside us.
We must realize that John's way of speaking is on the one hand very comforting and challenging, but on the other hand also close to sectarianism. When Jesus' followers misuse their privileged position as receivers of the spirit, they can easily claim that the spirit is theirs and not the world's. Is that not exactly what Jesus told them (14:17)? We must not lose sight of what the intention of Jesus' words is. They should not make us proud of our special places to use them as a kind of weapon against our adversaries or to close our eyes towards the distress of the world. Instead Jesus wants to sustain and encourage us in our distress to give us new hope and comfort. Our goal is not to defeat our enemies but to win them over in order to become friends and partakers in the same spirit. Our goal is not to become proud people with closed hearts, but to become 'softened' and renewed by this Spirit. It might be wise to keep remembering why Jesus' death on the cross can be called 'glory'. It is not primarily because it was a victory, but because Jesus showed in this way who God is for us. He gave his life for his friends (15:13) and in this way it was 'great' and a victory over the power of evil. When this Spirit is "in" all of us, we will have life and peace and resistance to evil. When this Spirit lives inside us, it shapes our personalities and makes us profoundly human.
10 • But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.
Reading: John 14:25-31
In this case, we prefer the NRSV's alternative translation, helper instead of advocate. In juridical situations the helper becomes an advocate, but an advocate outside court is not necessarily a helper. According to John, however, he will be there always and he will be a helper in didactic situations, too. Exactly this is his function here: he is a teacher. And a good one at that. He will teach them "everything" and remind them of "all" that Jesus had said. Of course, the words "everything" and "all" must not be taken in a quantitative but in a qualitative sense: everything that is necessary and all that is essential.
John's gospel itself shows us how the evangelist understood these words. He retold the story of Jesus at the end of the first century in such a way that his readers could understand what the 'old' words and tales about Jesus could mean to themselves in their situation and to their questions. John did not just collect facts and store them away, but out of the many facts, he singled some of them out and told them in such a way that their hidden meanings shone through. John was not a collector-he was an interpreter. F.Mussner called this procedure of John's a "sinnerschliessende Erinnerung", a recollection that opens the sense of the past. John was not afraid to reshuffle and to restyle the Jesus tradition or to relocate stories to other places (e.g. the cleansing of the temple from the end to the beginning), as long as he could bring out the intrinsic meaning of these stories better in such a way. John was not a fundamentalist, but he had a restless mind that kept on pushing for the essential. He was not satisfied unless he had found the spiritual taste of a fact or a word of old. This restless drive he experienced as the work of the Spirit at work inside him. What he found was not his own, it was given to him by the Paraclete who helped him. He was a theodidact, taught by God (6:45). And his community acknowledged this (21:24)
But this Spirit was not John's property. It is given to the whole community, even though some people might exhibit its work more clearly than others. This means that John painted the Christian community not only as a Spirit-filled, but also as an interpreting community. In other words, the hermeneutical role of the church belongs to its essence. In practice, this role will be taken by special people who have the training and the gift for hermeneutics and interpretation. They do not do this in their own voice or on their own authority but on behalf of and in relationship with the whole community of believers. At the same time, the community must be aware that the remembrance of all that Jesus' did and said does not entail an unaltered repetition of the tradition, but that it demands a creative exercise of reinterpretation. What is the use of repetition of old words when we do not understand their deep sense or when our language has changed to such a degree that we are not able to understand them unless they are reinterpreted into our own language?
John 14:26 is an enormous encouragement for creative theologizing in the awareness of the powerful tension of being both true to the tradition and to the needs of our own communities. The Spirit sets us free to joyfully engage ourselves in such an enterprise on behalf of the ongoing work and presence of Jesus' God in our world.