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     I find it helpful in many discussions to ask the person I'm talking to: "What is your starting point for what you are trying to say?"  Many of the most important ideas or principles we believe in don't begin with us.  They go back centuries upon centuries of time.  It is startling to some folks to learn that much of the way we Americans or Westerners in general think about life comes to us from the ancient Greeks and Romans.  

     This question, "What is your starting point?" comes to the fore in today's gospel scripture and is a climactic moment in the Gospel According to John.  By the time this gospel was composed, the faith of those who accepted Jesus as the Messiah had developed considerably in its reflection.  For the Jews, Abraham represented the starting point of faith.  Moses represented the renewal and codification of that faith in the TORAH (the first five books of the Old Testament).  When Jesus claims to have been in existence before either Abraham or Moses, the response was immediate.  "They picked up stones to throw at him!"

     We should remember that the preaching recounted in the gospels had to deal with the reality that Jesus was crucified by the Romans and with the faith that he had risen from the dead.  Both of these elements of Christian faith that we take for granted sounded very strange both to Jewish and pagan ears. [Cf. Acts:17:32]  To Jewish ears it sounded blasphemous.  In a few days, we will celebrate in a special way Jesus' death and resurrection.  Because of the current crisis of COVID-19 (Corona) virus pandemic, our celebration will demand great intentionality in our homes.  Our starting point includes this but, as the Prologue to the Gospel According to John tells us, Jesus has been with this world from its very beginning.  He is with us in this current crisis and he is with us in eternity.  AMEN