New York Yankee catcher Yogi Berra was famous for his redundant “Yogisms” that have become a part of American pop culture. You’ve probably heard a few and may not have realized they came from Yogi. There is literally one for every occasion. Here are a couple that are pretty profound. It ain’t over till it’s over. You can observe a lot just by watching. The future ain’t what it used to be. If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be. And my favorite: It’s like déjà vu all over again. Déjà vu all over again means that you’ve seen what is occurring before your very eyes before and, for better or worse, you have a pretty good idea how it’s going to end, usually badly.
Before I left on my vacation last month, I was given a book to read entitled: The Separation of Church and Hate by John Fugelsang. It’s a real page turner and it seems that after I had read a chapter and then turned on the news whatever was happening on the world stage was tracking the book. Essentially, what John does is that he takes the Old Testament and Pauline scriptures that the Christian Right uses to justify their views and actions and debunks them with the red words of Jesus that he employed in his confrontations with the religious right Pharisees and Sadducees of the day and in his teachings that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. So yes, based upon what we are witnessing during every twenty-four-hour news cycle it is like déjà vu all over again.
Our gospel reading for today picks up at the end of the Last Supper, after Judas got up and left to do what he had to do, and Jesus says: I give you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, so you also must love each other. This is how everyone will know that you are my disciples, when you love each other. At that point, Peter asked Jesus where he was going to which Jesus told him he can’t follow him now but at a later date he will follow him. Peter asked why he couldn’t follow him now and that he’d give up his life for him to which Jesus told him that he would deny him three times before the rooster crows.
This all had to be very confusing for the disciples who had been by Jesus’ side for the entirety of his three-year ministry. They had witnessed unheard of miracles, listened to some amazing sermons, benefitted from many impactful teachings and parables, and all along were in constant fear of what the religious leaders who felt threatened would do, and there was also Rome to contend with. There was so much coming at them from every angle, and it was a lot for them to process.
Sensing this Jesus says: Don’t be troubled. Trust in God. Trust also in me. My Father’s house has room to spare. If that weren’t the case, would I have told you that I’m going to prepare a place for you. When I go to prepare a place for you, I will return and take you to be with me so that where I am you will be too. You know the way to the place I’m going. Jesus’ statement “you know the way to the place I’m going” confounds Thomas who plaintively asks: Lord, we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way? In Jesus’ absence they don’t know who will show them the way. And like a good teacher or master, Jesus prepares his disciples ahead of time for the tumultuous events that are about to happen in just a few short hours. Jesus answered: I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you have really known me, you will also know the Father. From now on you know him and have seen him.
At that point Philip says what everyone else is thinking: Lord, show us the Father; that will be enough for us. You can sense the exasperation in Jesus’ voice when he responds: Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been with you all this time? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I have spoken to you I don’t speak on my own. The Father who dwells in me does his works. Trust me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on account of the works themselves. By putting himself on the same level as God, he exhorts the disciples to trust in God and in himself. Jesus is telling them that he is the visible, tangible image of the invisible God and that he is the complete revelation of what God is like. He really can’t state it any plainer.
He then assures them that whoever believes in him will do the works that he does and that they will do even greater works than these because he is going to the Father. He’s giving them their marching orders and to put a point on it he says: I will do whatever you ask for in my name, so that the Father can be glorified in the Son. When you ask me for anything in my name, I will do it. He’s telling them, and us, that we have a big job ahead of us but that no matter what he will have our backs if what we are doing is in his name and for the restoration of God’s kingdom, a kingdom defiled by those who don’t show mercy and compassion to the marginalized, those with no empathy who willingly commit acts of injustice upon the least of Jesus’ brothers and sisters, those who put self ahead of others in need.
What they don’t realize yet is that Jesus is going to the Father by means of the cross and resurrection and that his death will open the way for others to come to the Father. As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father. As the truth, he is the reality of all God’s promises. And, as the life, he joins his divine life to ours, both now and eternally. This means that the requests we make in Jesus’ name, by his power and in accordance with his will, are predicated on abiding in Jesus, which involves obeying him and are for the glory of the Father. If we are sincerely following God and seeking to do his will, then our requests will be in line with what he wants, and he will grant them.
What Jesus wants us to remember is that, as his followers, we are the ones who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, heal the sick, visit the prisoner, and welcome the stranger. We are the ones who turn the other cheek and walk the extra mile. We are the ones who love our neighbors as ourselves and do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Jesus wants us to remember that we are the ones who love those who don’t look like us, speak like us, pray like us, think like us, or love like us.
So, when we see that déjà vu all over again, when we see our religious leaders aligning themselves with a government that forgets that our government is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people, all of the people, it is incumbent upon us to do what Jesus would do, to speak up and be a voice for the voiceless, to speak truth to power so that kind of history doesn’t repeat itself. When we see a country that puts its self-preservation ahead of the preservation of the creation we, as children of God’s kingdom, must do the right thing. When the rhetoric ramps up and the pot begins to boil over it is up to the followers of the way of Jesus Christ to be the voice of reason bringing the temperature down so that cooler heads may prevail, or as Yogi so eloquently put it: “It ain’t the heat, it’s the humility.”
Let us pray.
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the way of peace. Come into the brokenness of our lives and our land with your healing love. Help us to be willing to bow before you in true repentance, and to bow to one another in real forgiveness. By the fire of your Holy Spirit, melt our hard hearts and consume the pride and prejudice which separate us. Fill us, O Lord, with your perfect love, which casts out our fear, and bind us together in that unity which you share with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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5/03/26
Deja Vu All Over Again
If we are sincerely following God and seeking to do his will, then our requests will be in line with what he wants, and he will grant them.