Connected: Connected to the World

Rev. Leta Arndt Behrens

Sermon Scripture: Acts 2:1-21

 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. ² And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. ³ Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. ⁴ All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.

⁵ Now there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. ⁶ And at this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in the native language of each. ⁷ Amazed and astonished, they asked, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? ⁸ And how is it that we hear, each of us, in our own native language? ⁹ Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, ¹⁰ Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, ¹¹ Cretans and Arabs—in our own languages we hear them speaking about God’s deeds of power.” ¹² All were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” ¹³ But others sneered and said, “They are filled with new wine.”

¹⁴ But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them, “Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. ¹⁵ Indeed, these are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only nine o’clock in the morning. ¹⁶ No, this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

Sermon Text: 

There are so many ways to talk about and tell stories of the Holy Spirit. Our readings and scriptures focus in on some of the images we use traditionally to help us picture and engage the Holy Spirit–the wind and breath of God filling up dry bones, the tongues of fire and inspiration of language that connects us to one another, and the way in which the Holy Spirit sends us out to continue to connect with the world.

These are ways that are gifted to us through scripture and the stories of ancestors leading us more deeply into our present reality and into the future. The truth is that the Holy Spirit is revealed in these stories and the Holy Spirit is not bound to them. The spirit is free–like a dove– to bring inspiration, to bring depth of the knowledge of God, and move in people’s minds and hearts in multitude of untold ways. The key to knowing more about the movement of the Holy Spirit is to ask and tell the stories of our lives that connect us and bring the spirit of God out in the open and present reality of our lives. This means sometimes telling non-traditional stories of the Spirit and keeping our hearts and minds open to God’s movement among us.

We are celebrating the opening of the North Side renovation and addition today. To many this may not seem like a celebration of the Holy Spirit to add on to a building, upgrade a kitchen and bathrooms, and move offices to create more space in the worship area. Picking paint color and countertops and carpet and adjusting to fire codes and city regulations can seem pretty opposite of ‘spirit filled’ at times. But this story begins and flows and will end with movement of the Holy Spirit in spite of dust and sewer back ups and power outages. I was reminded last week by one of the building team members that this story began with one of our long time members saying–”We just really need some new cabinets in the kitchen and I am just going to go get them.” She was determined to make the space work better for all the needs–the funeral receptions and large church dinners, the meals for homeless families and the making of coffee and treats on each Sunday morning. This spirit of hers, this desire and hope to be able to serve our community and others better than we had been sparked something and quickly it moved beyond new cabinets to a conversation about mission, vision, and our place in the community.

To many, upgrading and adding on to a building can seem self serving or just wanting to keep up with the times — but that is not the spirit of this story. This story keeps at its core the heart and mission of this congregation to welcome, serve, teach and connect one another and our community.  And at this place and time this means to seek to be a physical space open for gathering and being centered on the gospel message–centered on connecting in the many told and untold stories of the Spirit. This story continues to flow through this community and today we celebrate being in the middle of the story of the spirit.

Part of the middle of this story is another one of connection. On Friday we had a memorial service for a man not known to our congregation, but known to those connected to our congregation through the building process. Rod Hartley worked for many years in the flooring business in this area. He was actually the original person assigned to our flooring design and needs, but because of declined health due to ALS, he was not able to carry that work through. Rod was a good friend, important colleague, and co worker of many who are working with Hillside on the construction project and when he passed away, we became a point and a place of connection, grace, and refuge for his family and friends. The spirit moved them to gather here to remember and celebrate, to gather around cookies and coffee given by this community, to gather to tell stories in our sanctuary and fellowship hall, to gather to share in a moment of God’s breath pouring mercy into tired and aching hearts.

I share this story because it shows we just don’t know how and when and where the Holy Spirit will show up. We don’t always see how we are connected until we are standing there, connected. We can’t always anticipate what the spirit will do or how God will use us, but we remain in the story and when the spirit moves, we show up and move with her.  

In Pastor Fred Castor’s new book, Spiritual Musings, he writes about how the spirit’s flow can be a conscious part of each of our days. He writes that instead of waking up and going through that list of things to do today–get the groceries, service the car, call that person back, respond to the emails–you know that litany that begins running in your mind and dominates your flow of movement as soon as you open your eyes–or maybe as soon as you try to fall asleep!  Instead of that, interrupt the list and ask, “God what will you have me be about today?” He gives this idea of a prayer: “Thank you God for inviting me into your day, giving me the joy of having you dwell with me, leading me in everything I do. Grant me the willingness and courage to embark upon this journey, where it might take me. Amen” While this prayer may not take the to do list way and while you probably still have to go to grocery store in order to have food on the table, this framing of the mind–God what will you have me about today–creates space for the spirit to dwell, to whisper, to connect, to be free in the motions of our daily living and to be free in the moments we share together

The Spirit is active and alive in this congregation. This is true. We have a particular call and a particular gift to come together to listen, receive and respond to God’s calling. Together we ask –God what will you have us be about today–tomorrow–and for future generations? In this way, the Spirit has moved this congregation moment by moment, spirit story by spirit story from its beginnings in a school to a worship space to education wing to a new sanctuary and now to continue to serve by finding new ways and new spaces and new connections that deepen our grace with one another and expand our ability to adapt and adjust to the needs of our community. In the middle and throughout all these phases, the spirit moved in hearts and minds and continues to flow through and into each of us.  This is how we remain in the spirit’s story–connected to one another and engaged in our congregation. This happens in so many ways– through time together in fellowship and volunteering to move boxes and clean or serve in worship or bring cookies or teach children or visit those who are lonely or ill or share our music or open our space to people who need connection in a variety ways–we remain open to the freedom of the spirit and our part in God’s love, justice, and grace stirring right here and moving out into our worlds.

It is not always easy and it is never what all may consider perfect, but it is always in spite of ourselves, held in God’s grace and love.

I know that we have many told and untold stories of the spirit sitting in the hearts and minds of this room just waiting to be free. There are stories of hopes and dreams fulfilled and stories of heartache and struggle. There are stories of families and individuals being built up in love amongst these walls and there are stories of people being sent out to build up in love in other places. Today, as we connect in celebration and as we connect in continuing to be in the middle of our story together, tell those stories. Share how this congregation has connected to you another person, to the word of God, to music, to God, to your own spirit. Ask one another in the car ride home or while you eat a donut/talk after worship. Tell your story in a journal writing or in a prayer. As you do, remember the wind and breath of God flow through you. The fire of God burns in your soul and the language of God’s love fills your heart and lips and moves you as a gift of the freedom of the spirit out for the sake of the world.

 

Connected: Connected in Promise

Naomi Johnson

Sermon Scripture: JOHN 17:6-19

[Jesus prayed:] ⁶“I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; ⁸for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. ¹⁰All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. ¹¹And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁵I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.”

Connected: Connected in Vision

Rev. Leta Arndt Behrens

Sermon Scripture: JOHN 15:9-17

[Jesus said:] ⁹“As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you; abide in my love. ¹⁰If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.
¹²“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. ¹³No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. ¹⁴You are my friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father. ¹⁶You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name. ¹⁷I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”

 

Sermon Text: 

My niece Elsa is a first grader and she has a little brother who is seven months old as well as a little sister who is four. Elsa is a first born in many of the classic ways. She is reliable, when given two choices she picks one and she takes the responsibility of being the oldest pretty seriously–as gift and as burden together. There are many times that Elsa comes home from school wanting to be alone, but instead plays with her little sister who is craving attention and even brings her the lollipops she wins for doing all her work at school. My mother, their grandmother who they call Abby (another story) was visiting recently and helping to take care of the three kids. She was talking to Elsa as Elsa was playing with her brother Jakob. Jakob was wearing a onesie that said “All I need is Love”  My mom said, “Well that is not true, he needs a lot more than love.” Elsa asked what do you mean? My mom said, ‘Well, he needs a lot of things. He needs to be changed, he cries when he wants his mom to feed him, you have to play with him and give him what he needs and hold him to go to sleep. He is a lot of work.’ Elsa responded. ‘But Abby, all those things ARE love.”

Elsa’s vision and connection to love is one that she embodies and understands as connected to her mind, her heart, and her actions. Love is not always what she feels like doing and love is not always easy. But love is connection, it is grace, it is that which anchors her intimately to her brother and intimately with the Holy Spirit. Love is not simply what one receives, it is what one gives back and lives into with each diaper changing and every lollipop it gives away.

This simple embodiment and definition of love for Elsa, is one that comes from the not so simple words of Jesus and experience of the disciples, the community of John’s gospel, and how we hear the words today. Jesus is in the middle of saying goodbye to the disciples, whom he has now called his friends and who are being told they will need to follow further than they imagined. And for those who were hearing these words from the gospel writer of John, it is a time of complications for those early Christians facing persecution from Rome and disconnection from the Jewish leadership of the time. And the words come to us today in a world that has a lot of hard things to love–And yet, the vision that Jesus is casting is much the same–Live in the love and joy of being connected to one another through and in me because you are my friends and together we are connected to God for the sake of the world.

Jesus brings this vision and connection together in a couple of different ways. First, the ideal of friendship in this world was important and stood in contrast to the master-slave relationship. There was political friendship–the kind that was transaction based, built on the basis of patron and client. The other friendship was kinship–this is the one where the relationship is reciprocal, where you may depend on others and they depend on you. This concept extended beyond family and close connections and went as far as defending your neighbor and having a willingness to lay down your life for another person. Jesus calls them friends to bring them out of a master/servant relationship and to infuse them with the same gifts of the spirit of God. In this way of friendship, Jesus is telling them he will lay down his life for them in this way of friendship. This is not in a sacrificial atoning way but instead connects us back to when he washing their feet at their final meal. John’s gospel does not have the last supper as the final community creating experience but instead this creation of friendship and community that turns servants in to friends, where the symbols of community are wash basin and towel and in this way Jesus laying down is life as proof of God’s love for them and all humanity.

The second things that is happening in this scripture is that while Jesus is bringing about a quality of equalness, he is also maintaining his own separateness as the source of this friendship and love. He is still the vine, as we heard last week,  from which we grow and bear fruit. This love is gift and this love is command.

So we hold those two in tension, the gift of love that is given and the call to love one another as friends in kinship. In this tension, Jesus promises us another gift. The one of joy. Coming up with a definition and explanation of joy is also not simple. Joy is an embodiment of happiness. Joy is a choice on how to live and see the world. Joy goes beyond feelings and anchors itself to promise. In the Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama (the Tibetian Buddhist spiritual leader) and Desmond Tutu (Archbishop of South Africa); living in joy is explored through their friendship, their different religions, their spiritual practices, and their encounters with issues of justice and peace on a global scale. One of the things that Desmund Tutu says in exploring joy is,

Discovering more joy does not, save us from the inevitability of hardship and heartbreak. In fact, we may cry more easily, but we will laugh more easily too. Perhaps we are just more alive. Yet as we discover more joy, we can face suffering in a way that ennobles rather than embitters. We have hardship without becoming hard. We have heartbreaks without being broken.”

The command of living in joy and connection with one another is that we will face hardship and heartbreak and we are to keep walking in the vision of love anyway. Try out Elsa’s method this week and label all those things you do as love. Walk in love with that little brother and sister. Walk in love with the difficult co worker or the mean girl at school. Walk in love with the issues of our world–from violence and terror to poverty and illness, we are called to encounter them all from a place of love that is embodied in what we say, what we do, and how we express our hearts. This is true for how we live in our households and in our communities where we are most deeply connected in relationship and  it is true for how we live as Christians in the world.

The promise of joy and love connected to Christ, is that we will not be abandoned nor will we be broken regardless of what comes our way–in fact we are chosen. Jesus says, I choose you. I bring the father’s love to you. This divine love is now a part of who you are and how you are to live in this promise. We are chosen to be in this broken world. We are chosen to abide in Jesus, to be those voices and hands and feet and heart of love to the world. We are chosen in the fullness and completeness of God’s love and joy in the very vision world God made, loves, and blesses.

May we sing our next hymn together as a prayer, as hope, as promise. Jesus fill us with your love.

 

Connected: Connected Organically

Rev. Michael Stadtmueller

Sermon Scripture: JOHN 15:1-8

¹“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower. ²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. ³You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ⁵I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶Whoever does not abide in me is thrown away like a branch and withers; such branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Connected: Connected to Jesus 4/22/2018

Rev. Leta Arndt Behrens

Sermon Scripture: JOHN 10:11-18

[Jesus said:] ¹¹“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹²The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away—and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. ¹³The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. ¹⁴I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, ¹⁵just as the Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. ¹⁶I have other sheep that do not belong to this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd. ¹⁷For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life in order to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father.”

Sermon Text: 

Today is Good shepherd sunday— a traditional Sunday each year after Easter where we always focus in on the images of sheep, shepherds, and pastures. It’s also the sunday that all the sheep stories tend to come out .. the good and the baaaaahd… 🙂

 

Michael:  That is Baad. Sorry, didn’t mean to pull the wool over your eyes.

Leta: That’s ok, don’t feel too sheepish.

 

As I thought over my past sermons, I realized that I am pretty sure I have shared with you before everything I know about sheep

• That being called sheep may not be the most complimentary thing to be compared to—pretty smelly, not the brightest and with a sole purpose of eating and growing their hair

• That sheep do learn the voice of those that care for them — a shepherd, a farmer, a sheepdog, whoever is tending them and will follow that voice.

• That when we are compared to sheep  it’s to relay the promise that a shepherd— a good shepherd — Jesus, is the one who will protect and guide and certainly one that will not abandoned us, the sheep.

 

Yep, that is what I know about sheep and it is a part of the message of this scripture. And, scripture does not just give us one image or one straightforward view. It’s more like a kaleidoscope really — that we can turn it just a little bit and see a new color or a new shape, view a different angle and at times be given a whole new view. So when we turn this text just a bit we see that there is a tandem focus on the word shepherd. And not just any shepherd, but a good shepherd. Now when we think of Jesus, sure we think good. But why this description of good instead of something more profound like amazing or superstar or best ever shepherd? Or as the teens would say, ‘one “sic” shepherd “

 

I learned a little bit more about this word from my friend who is a latin teacher. one of the joys of being with someone who knows an ancient language is the learning that happens at all times. We can be anywhere— a store, on the road, having dinner and if she sees an intriguing word or one comes up in conversation she will pause and say something like you know the root of that word comes from the Latin meaning… and proceed to explain it to you. I love it. So at dinner a couple of weeks ago she said you know ‘pastor leta’ the word pastor comes from Latin word pastorem meaning shepherd… or in the past tense ‘pastus’ which means to lead to pasture or to send out to eat.’ So I said, perfect, let’s just eat then!

 

I have not always been comfortable with the comparison of pastor to shepherd. For one, I feel a little unequipped in this area of analogy to caring for farm animals. I am the mom who did not let her kids into petting zoos in my presence. They always had to go with their dad and then still wash their hands 1000 times before I was satisfied. Secondly, there sometimes is this idea that pastors are set a part to do all the tending. While we are called to the spiritual care of a community and it is a part of what we do, we know that  God calls us all into this leading and tending of others through our gifts, our knowledge, our compassion and that we are all promised to be lead by those still waters and never abandoned in the valley of the shadow of death.

 

So while  I have shared all I know about sheep I have not shared all that I know about you  and your connection to Jesus through this scripture. And there is much more there than the most obvious image of sheep. The gospel of John connects us with many images that  are woven through the book as a whole and the shepherd image continues to show up. When Jesus says I am the good shepherd, that scripture kaleidoscope makes a little turn back towards what was happening when John was written somewhere around 90CE. This was about 20 years after the siege of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple. The Pharisees at the time are the leadership of the faith community and most of them fled and abandoned the people during this violence and set off to reconstruct Judaism in another place safely far away. It is the pharisees here, the leaders, that are here being alluded to as the bad shepherds, the ones who left, while Jesus is the good shepherd who laid down his life fully for his people.

 

Yes, a good shepherd is a statement about Christ, and it is also a statement on what kind of spiritual leadership was expected in the early church and today. Another click of the scope turns us forward in the scripture and in our lives as Christians now. In John 18, when Jesus is in the garden, the story of his arrest is a bit different from the other gospels. There is no betrayal, no kiss from Judas. Instead Jesus  walks out of the garden on his own. He hands himself over to the soldiers. In John no one takes Jesus life, he gives it over willingly, by his own choice. Jesus does this as he promised in John 15–“No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”  and Jesus goes to the cross. And when he says this, that there is no greater love than giving of one’s life, he is speaking to his disciples, telling them what they will be called to do after he is gone. They too as his followers will be called to lay down their lives. They will be sent into leadership for one another and for the people of God. They… and now we.. are also called to be good shepherds.

 

This we may not hear as completely good news. Being the good shepherd, that is a big ask even while it is a bigger promise from God. As theologian and teacher Karoline Lewis says in her writings on the good shepherd: Maybe that’s why Jesus is the good shepherd and not the “awesome” shepherd, the “out-of-this-world” shepherd. Because at some point we have to accept the fact that we are asked to be the shepherd as well. If we had to follow in “extraordinary” footsteps, we would find every excuse possible, every explanation imaginable, to decline Jesus’ command. We’d repeatedly deny our identity, deny our discipleship, just like Peter. “Surely, you are one of his disciples, aren’t you? I AM not,” said Peter. But Jesus will not let him say no. “Simon Peter, do you love me? Tend my sheep. Feed my lambs. Shepherd my sheep.”

 

But–this is good news. Good news for the world and for us as we live as Easter people in the promise of the empty tomb. We are turned by Jesus’ words once again and connected to him not in a way that let’s us off the hook or gives an an escape to be just be the sheep, but instead frees us in grace and calls us into mercy to live into so much more than we can imagine. In verse 16, Jesus says, I have other sheep who are not of the fold and I need to bring them also. This is about us protected, loved, and cared for by the shepherd–promised to part of the flock.  This is where the darkest valley and the promise of light meet. Where the shepherd walks alongside us and we walk alongside one another–as friends, as strangers, as a community of faith connected to one another, connected to the world and connected to Jesus.

 

AND it is about our own discipleship as shepherds. Jesus beckons us to follow and lead and he sees those that are cast out and separated as ones that must be brought into the same promise of love and grace. Will we find the ones that need to be brought in? Will we go to the streets, to those hurting, those in darkness and bring them light? Will we not just follow and pass off our calling to Jesus as if we have no responsibility to bring and fulfill the promise with others. Or instead will we follow and turn the scope enough so that we can see those that we are called  to feed, to tend, and to shepherd?

 

Connected: Connected in Community

Brad Abbott

Sermon Scripture:  LUKE 24:36b-48

^36bJesus himself stood among [the disciples] and said to them, “Peace be with you.” ³⁷They were startled and terrified, and thought that they were seeing a ghost. ³⁸He said to them, “Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? ³⁹Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I myself. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.” ⁴⁰And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. ⁴¹While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?” ⁴²They gave him a piece of broiled fish, ⁴³and he took it and ate in their presence.
⁴⁴Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.” ⁴⁵Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, ⁴⁶and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, ⁴⁷and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. ⁴⁸You are witnesses of these things.”

 

Connected in Questions: Thomas Story

Rev. Michael Stadtmueller

Sermon Scripture: JOHN 20:19-31

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” ²⁸Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.