I’m sure that most of us here today have done what I did when I first listened to the text from Romans. I scratched my head, thought that Paul really wasn’t kidding when he said he was bad with words, and got to thinking that the point of this passage was that because of God sending the Holy Spirit, Christ now lives in us who are his followers. This isn’t exactly new knowledge to those of us who have been going to church most of their lives.
There is that song most of us learned at camp or in VBS called I’ve got the joy joy joy joy, down in my heart. Well, I’m not going to serenade you with the rest of the song, but the third verse talks about us having the love of Jesus in our hearts. Because we are able to quickly understand this so quickly and from such a young age, it seems to me that the older we get, the farther away we go from actually living it out.
I’m going to read to you again the last 3 verses of today’s lesson, but this time from The Message.
But if God himself has taken up residence in your life, you can hardly be thinking more of yourself than of him. Anyone, of course, who has not welcomed this invisible but clearly present God, the Spirit of Christ, won't know what we're talking about.
But for you who welcome him, in whom he dwells - even though you still experience all the limitations of sin - you yourself experience life on God's terms.
It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!
I especially like the last sentence. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ’s! That’s a big statement to live with. When Christ’s spirit lives in us, we will be alive in the same way. We must no longer think of ourselves as individuals, but realize that we are only important because of our relations with others. Because if Christ had not had others around him at all times, if it were not for the sins of others, Christ would not have needed to be. If this is the case, I think we must begin to act as Jesus acted.
A few weeks ago, we heard Jeff preach about the difference between living as Christ has already been resurrected or simply waiting for Jesus to return. We must do more than mentally reflect on that idea everyday… Instead, we must act out that idea every day we are alive in Christ.
With that in mind, we must all do our part to think of the things which we truly admire most about Christ and act upon them. When Jesus said that we will do greater things than he did himself, we must really believe in that and make every attempt to act upon that belief.
As you ponder the thing that you might do in your life because Christ lives in you, I’m going to share with you what it is I hope to do. Some of you I’ve told about this already, but now I think I’m finally able to go about doing it.
The thing I admire most about Jesus was the fact that he was able to meet people and invite himself into their home for a meal. The fellowship that happened around the table, the sharing of stories, the whole idea that Jesus forced hospitality has always amazed me. It was reinforced to me a couple of times this week, which is why I’m bringing it forward to you today. The first way was in my studying for this message, when one of the authors I read said that “renewal in Christ is not simply an individual affair. In fact, it is not primarily an individual affair at all. It is a matter of renewal through membership in a new community.”[1]
The second way this was reinforced to me this week was by one of my favourite authors and preachers. Many of you may remember the video we watched during our stewardship campaign by Rob Bell. I was finishing his latest book when he ended with a story about how he always noticed that Jesus was always at someone else’s house, sharing a meal, drinking their wine, laughing and telling stories. Because of this, Rob Bell attempts to invite people over to his home to do this same thing.
Unfortunately for me, I am unable to have people over to the place where I am currently residing, and have yet to really figure out a way to still have a meal and good conversation with most of you. Well, I realized that my hope in doing this would not be fulfilled unless I let the Christ who lives within me do the talking. With that being said, over the next 16 weeks, I really want to come over to your house and have a meal with you. I’ll give you more information in the bulletin about this once Easter is over, but I want you to keep it in the back of your mind. I think it will be an exciting way for us all to practice the things we are going to be focusing on this year, Evangelism, Hospitality, and Healing.
There is another main point in this story that must be brought to our attention. It is the concept of forgiveness and freedom in Christ. It comes from the first two verses of Romans 8, which talks about there being no condemnation for those who are in Christ.
There is a story of a man who has lived in a small town his whole life. He had grown up in a church that preached hell, fire and brimstone. He stopped attending church once his parents no longer forced him to go. He lived out most of his adult life trying to do the best he could, although there were apparently some things that he was not particularly fond of. One day he drove by a local church which hung a banner which simply said, “No Condemnation.” The man continued to drive by that sign everyday going to and from work, he passed by it every time he went to the grocery store, every time he went to pick up his kids from school. He didn’t believe it. The church always condemns someone. They always have someone to blame. He continued to drive by that sign every day, and every time he passed it, he felt angry, because it was not what he experienced as a young man.
One week, this man had a particularly rough time. His boss had chewed him out over some small misunderstandings, his ex-wife called him complaining about late child support, and his current significant other called to say that his current relationship wasn’t going anywhere, so she was going somewhere else. As he drove past the church at the end of that week, he saw the sign that said “No Condemnation” in a new light, with new hope.
When Sunday morning came around, he snuck into the back of the church a few minutes after the service began. Unfortunately for him, the last pew on both sides was filled, so he had to sit on the end of the fourth row from the back. As he watched, he saw this man all dressed in black lead the service while some people sang, some people read, some people did very little of either, but that everyone spoke the bold text in the liturgy.
Finally in the liturgy, it came to the point where everyone was confessing. “We confess that we have done wrong.” And the man said to himself, A HA! I knew it…here it comes…the condemnation I knew the church has always had. The liturgy continued… “We have done wrong, lived for ourselves, turned from our neighbors, refused to help others, ignored the pain of the world.” The anticipation in the man was killing him. He waited for the words of his old preacher about those people who have done wrong going to hell. He waited for the preacher to say that only the good people who fully follow will go to heaven. He waited for those words, because once he heard them, he was going to get up and leave…
But he never heard those words, because the next words out were the words of Romans chapter 8. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” The divine intention for Christ's church is NO condemnation. NO condemnation of either the self, or the other. For St. Paul, the church is the place where the world, as God intends it to be, is accessible to humankind. The church reveals the world as it has been transformed by the Cross of Christ. The world where there is no condemnation. Here the prodigal child of God is always welcomed home--no questions asked. Here we celebrate the grace and mercy of God made known to us in Christ Jesus. A grace that knows no boundaries. A mercy that has no restrictions. A love that always includes, never excludes.[2]
I wish I knew the ending to the story of the man I just told you about, but I don’t know it. What I do know is that we must write the ending because Christ lives in us. Christ moves in us. Christ has our being in us. And because of that, we must not have any condemnation in our hearts. We must live as if forgiveness is real and it must be taken seriously. Amen.
[1] Paul Achtemeier. “Interpretation: A Bible-Commentary for Teaching and Preaching: Romans. John Knox Press, Louisville. 1985. Pg 135.
[2] The Rev. Sid Burgess. Sermon entitled “Bama Bubba” preached on October 8, 2000. Available online at: http://www.day1.net/index.php5?view=transcripts&tid=209
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Sunday, March 09, 2008
Thursday, February 14, 2008
"You anoint my head with oil..."
I just arrived back at my office after a short plane ride back from Chicago. They conference saved the most interesting things for last, which is nice, as usually you hear everything they have to say in the first day, and the rest of the time, you go over what you can already figure out for youself.
First, during one of the breakout sessions, I decided to go to the more advanced church planters group, as I felt I had a decent handle on the sessions they were teaching for my own group. Instead, I went to a session on discipleship as a way of life. It was good because it taught us how to train disciples using Matthew 28:16-18.
The leader of the group said that there are 7 principals in discipleship as a way of life.
● Unity is in community
● Obedient life (teach to obey, not teach for knowledge)
● Vision of Jesus, assurance of faith
● Worship – Spirituality
● Doubt is human nature. (When Jesus was on the cross, he had two people next to him, one who doubted and one who believed. Those people are both within us.)
● Mutual Relationship
● The Word of God
I realize that this isn't as fleshed out as I would like it to be, but I plan on creating a program of sorts (while not having it be a formal program) which I will work on with a few people in my next church assignment. I look forward to seeing where this is going.
Then, right before our closing meal, we had a worship service. I had previously disliked the other worships because all of the songs we were singing were quite shallow theologically. Every single song we sang was about my relationship with Jesus, not once did we sing using the words "we" or "us". So I didn't have high expectations for this service.
Well, we had a wonderful message by one of the church planting directors, who preached about the 70 who were sent out by Jesus. That this moment was our fanfare, as we would recieve little out in the real world. Then, each of us who were new to the church planting mission were asked to stand, and while some leaders came around and anointed us with oil, others who have been out in the church planting field laid hands on us and prayed for the start of our ministry. It was extremely moving. So often in the church do I feel I am required to be the person who prays for others while no one prays for me.
Overall, I have found a renewed hope in inter-church dialogue and have felt called more and more to the church planting mission field. I don't know where I will end up, but I do know now, more than ever, that God has something big in store for me.
First, during one of the breakout sessions, I decided to go to the more advanced church planters group, as I felt I had a decent handle on the sessions they were teaching for my own group. Instead, I went to a session on discipleship as a way of life. It was good because it taught us how to train disciples using Matthew 28:16-18.
The leader of the group said that there are 7 principals in discipleship as a way of life.
● Unity is in community
● Obedient life (teach to obey, not teach for knowledge)
● Vision of Jesus, assurance of faith
● Worship – Spirituality
● Doubt is human nature. (When Jesus was on the cross, he had two people next to him, one who doubted and one who believed. Those people are both within us.)
● Mutual Relationship
● The Word of God
I realize that this isn't as fleshed out as I would like it to be, but I plan on creating a program of sorts (while not having it be a formal program) which I will work on with a few people in my next church assignment. I look forward to seeing where this is going.
Then, right before our closing meal, we had a worship service. I had previously disliked the other worships because all of the songs we were singing were quite shallow theologically. Every single song we sang was about my relationship with Jesus, not once did we sing using the words "we" or "us". So I didn't have high expectations for this service.
Well, we had a wonderful message by one of the church planting directors, who preached about the 70 who were sent out by Jesus. That this moment was our fanfare, as we would recieve little out in the real world. Then, each of us who were new to the church planting mission were asked to stand, and while some leaders came around and anointed us with oil, others who have been out in the church planting field laid hands on us and prayed for the start of our ministry. It was extremely moving. So often in the church do I feel I am required to be the person who prays for others while no one prays for me.
Overall, I have found a renewed hope in inter-church dialogue and have felt called more and more to the church planting mission field. I don't know where I will end up, but I do know now, more than ever, that God has something big in store for me.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Ready...Fire...Aim...
The Moravian director of church planting says that a good church planter lives by the motto, Ready, Fire, Aim. I like this motto, as it does not spend as much time aiming, but shoots, then aims before they fire again. They try, and if it works, they keep their aim where it is, if not, they are free to take a look at how close they came to what they were shooting at.
That being said, the past few weeks I have noticed in my own conversations with others, that I have been talking more and more about the Christ who is a revolutionary. I seek to be a disciple of the Jesus who calls us to leave everything we know and follow wherever he goes. The other side of the coin in the church is that it seems to be a pastor, one must be comfortable with evolutionary change.
I wish I knew how to juggle both Revolution and Evolution in a way which would best service others who seek to be Christ followers. They keep telling me that prayer is the most important aspect of church planting...perhaps it is time I started taking that to heart and made it more of a focus in my ministry.
That being said, the past few weeks I have noticed in my own conversations with others, that I have been talking more and more about the Christ who is a revolutionary. I seek to be a disciple of the Jesus who calls us to leave everything we know and follow wherever he goes. The other side of the coin in the church is that it seems to be a pastor, one must be comfortable with evolutionary change.
I wish I knew how to juggle both Revolution and Evolution in a way which would best service others who seek to be Christ followers. They keep telling me that prayer is the most important aspect of church planting...perhaps it is time I started taking that to heart and made it more of a focus in my ministry.
Sunday, February 03, 2008
Super Sunday
As far as weeks go, this is certainly a Super one. Tonight is the Super bowl, and Tuesday was upgraded this year from Super Tuesday to Super Duper Tuesday. With all of the excitement, it’s hard to focus on the ordinary, mundane aspects of life. This isn’t always a bad thing, but when we equate elections and football with things that are super, we lose sight of those things which are really extra ordinary.
If you paid attention to the bulletin today, you will notice two things are different. The first is that each bulletin has a name tag in it. If you haven’t done so already, I would like to invite you to put it on. The second thing that is different is that we did not have a time to greet one another. I specifically removed it from its normal place in order that now when you stand up to greet one another, you might do so with new eyes; that when you look at the person whom you are greeting this morning, you see Jesus.
So now, I invite you all to stand up and greet each other.
Let me read to you the story of Jesus Transfiguration.
“Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Up until this point, Peter, James and John, and I’m sure the rest of the disciples thought of Jesus as just an ordinary guy who had some great thoughts on how to live life. Yes, there were some impressive miracles in there, but this was the point in which Jesus which changed these three men’s lives. They finally realized that Jesus was the Son of God. It is something which we tend to take for granted. We all just assume that Jesus is the Son of God. It isn’t exactly a startling statement to make to a bunch of believers. The opposite is true today though. So often we seem to forget that Jesus was a regular person.
I gave you all nametags today because we need to begin to see Jesus in the ordinary, non Super days of our life.
On Friday, there was a man waiting in the hallway of Hahle hall when I arrived. He needed money for the train. He had been here a few months before when his wife kicked him out of the house. This time, he had come to collect his things, which wasn’t much. Everything he had was in a bag not much bigger than this. I gave him the money he needed for his train ticket, and as I was walking him out the door, he asked if we had an extra umbrella, as you will remember that it was raining quite heavily on Friday. Well, I took him into the sanctuary and went to the umbrella rack and let him have his pick. So if someone notices that their umbrella is no longer there, please speak to me, I owe you a new one.
Well, I got back to my office and a friend from college happened to call me. I told him the story I just told you, but when I got to the part about this man asking for money, he couldn’t help but ask, “Well, what did you do?”
The answer is, of course I gave him the money. Now, I have to admit that I do such things for a purely selfish reason. I can’t even tell you this mans name because I forgot it just a few seconds after he told it to me, but I gave it to him because I saw Jesus and someday, when I am dead, I will stand in front of the Transfigured Christ and be called to account for my actions. I want Jesus to say to me, thank you giving me money for the train. Thank you for sharing a meal with me at McDonalds when I came to you homeless and out of jail. Thank you for caring about the people I care about, the people who are not considered Super, but plain, ordinary people who need a little help.
When you look around this room, and when you leave this worship today, I hope that you see everyone wearing a name tag that says “Hello, my name is Jesus.” Care for each other in that manner. Go home from here and read a gospel before getting ready for the football game. Realize that when people saw Jesus, they invited him into their homes for a meal. Realize that when people saw Jesus, they wanted to hear his story. Realize that when people touched Jesus, they expected to be healed
Then, realize that when you see other people, you need to see Jesus in them and invite them into your home for a meal. Realize that when you see other people, you want to know their life story and be a part of it. Realize that when you touch other people as Jesus, you can expect some aspect of life to be healed.
This is what we need to intentionally start doing my brothers and sisters. Too often we fail to see Jesus in the people around us. The people who are lonely and seeking companionship. We need to look at each other and say I want to share my story with you, because that’s what happened when Jesus was around other people. If we do not make an active effort to see those around us as Jesus, there is very little point in understanding Jesus to be the Christ, for you cannot have one without the other.
If you paid attention to the bulletin today, you will notice two things are different. The first is that each bulletin has a name tag in it. If you haven’t done so already, I would like to invite you to put it on. The second thing that is different is that we did not have a time to greet one another. I specifically removed it from its normal place in order that now when you stand up to greet one another, you might do so with new eyes; that when you look at the person whom you are greeting this morning, you see Jesus.
So now, I invite you all to stand up and greet each other.
Let me read to you the story of Jesus Transfiguration.
“Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone. As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”
Up until this point, Peter, James and John, and I’m sure the rest of the disciples thought of Jesus as just an ordinary guy who had some great thoughts on how to live life. Yes, there were some impressive miracles in there, but this was the point in which Jesus which changed these three men’s lives. They finally realized that Jesus was the Son of God. It is something which we tend to take for granted. We all just assume that Jesus is the Son of God. It isn’t exactly a startling statement to make to a bunch of believers. The opposite is true today though. So often we seem to forget that Jesus was a regular person.
I gave you all nametags today because we need to begin to see Jesus in the ordinary, non Super days of our life.
On Friday, there was a man waiting in the hallway of Hahle hall when I arrived. He needed money for the train. He had been here a few months before when his wife kicked him out of the house. This time, he had come to collect his things, which wasn’t much. Everything he had was in a bag not much bigger than this. I gave him the money he needed for his train ticket, and as I was walking him out the door, he asked if we had an extra umbrella, as you will remember that it was raining quite heavily on Friday. Well, I took him into the sanctuary and went to the umbrella rack and let him have his pick. So if someone notices that their umbrella is no longer there, please speak to me, I owe you a new one.
Well, I got back to my office and a friend from college happened to call me. I told him the story I just told you, but when I got to the part about this man asking for money, he couldn’t help but ask, “Well, what did you do?”
The answer is, of course I gave him the money. Now, I have to admit that I do such things for a purely selfish reason. I can’t even tell you this mans name because I forgot it just a few seconds after he told it to me, but I gave it to him because I saw Jesus and someday, when I am dead, I will stand in front of the Transfigured Christ and be called to account for my actions. I want Jesus to say to me, thank you giving me money for the train. Thank you for sharing a meal with me at McDonalds when I came to you homeless and out of jail. Thank you for caring about the people I care about, the people who are not considered Super, but plain, ordinary people who need a little help.
When you look around this room, and when you leave this worship today, I hope that you see everyone wearing a name tag that says “Hello, my name is Jesus.” Care for each other in that manner. Go home from here and read a gospel before getting ready for the football game. Realize that when people saw Jesus, they invited him into their homes for a meal. Realize that when people saw Jesus, they wanted to hear his story. Realize that when people touched Jesus, they expected to be healed
Then, realize that when you see other people, you need to see Jesus in them and invite them into your home for a meal. Realize that when you see other people, you want to know their life story and be a part of it. Realize that when you touch other people as Jesus, you can expect some aspect of life to be healed.
This is what we need to intentionally start doing my brothers and sisters. Too often we fail to see Jesus in the people around us. The people who are lonely and seeking companionship. We need to look at each other and say I want to share my story with you, because that’s what happened when Jesus was around other people. If we do not make an active effort to see those around us as Jesus, there is very little point in understanding Jesus to be the Christ, for you cannot have one without the other.
Monday, January 21, 2008
What do you want?!?!
The Bible that I read for my own personal devotion is a New International Version. I tell you this because it is the version from which I start reading the scripture, and when I first read it, a question Jesus asks has stuck in my head all week. I tried to block it out and think of something else to preach on, but I haven’t been very successful. I’ve been sick all week with what others have named the “Katrina Cough” and because of that, I’ve tried to weasel out of writing what God wanted me to say. I have twice tried to rewrite a sermon I had given 2 years ago, but just yesterday morning, I went to a small discussion group in a Baptist church and suddenly realized what the Spirit wanted me to say.
The version that we read from the pulpit, the New Revised Standard Version has in verse 38 Jesus asking “What are you looking for?” It is so philosophical. That question makes me sense that Jesus already knew the answer of these two men. It feels as if Jesus can just turn around and look into someone’s soul. That isn’t such a bad view of Jesus, but my translation has Jesus asking a different question with a different edge to it.
Let me set up the story again for you. The day before, Jesus had just been baptized by John. John knew then and there that this was the Lamb of God. He had seen this dove descend upon Jesus after the baptism and heard God’s voice reaffirm this thought. This was certainly an exciting day. The very next day, Jesus was passing by John, apparently all alone, when John the Baptist saw him and told two of his own disciples, “Look, the Lamb of God!” With those five words, the two disciples of John left him and began to follow Jesus. In my version, it doesn’t say how long it was, but eventually Jesus turned around, saw them following and asked “What do you want?!?!?”
When I read this question, it does not penetrate the soul like in the NRSV. It’s rough, it’s got an edge. It’s blunt. Jesus even seems a little annoyed that these two people are following him around. What do you want? He asks… let me answer your questions and leave me alone. It seems pretty clear that John the Baptist knew what Jesus was all about, but Jesus didn’t quite know himself just yet.
They didn’t ask Jesus a religious question. They didn’t ask about salvation, justice, politics, love or hate, right or wrong. They simply wanted to know where he was staying. Jesus still doesn’t give an exact answer… his reply is “come and you will see” There is no, meet me at the corner of Washington and Bridgeboro later in the evening. Just come, and they spent the day with Jesus.
The best part of this story is its blandness. The gospel writer does not record anything really special happening on this day. None of the conversation that happened the rest of the day made it into the gospel. Just the few sentences I just told you about. To me, the remarkable thing happens is the day after the two disciples spent the day with Jesus. Andrew is so excited about this man they call Jesus that the first thing he does is find his brother Peter and tells him that they have found the Messiah, they have found the Christ.
My original intent was to preach the rest of this sermon on evangelism. I hoped that I would get others excited about the workshop that was supposed to start yesterday but nobody signed up for. I wanted to be energetic about what we had just learned; how we were practicing to be like Andrew and tell our friends and family that we too have found the Messiah. Unfortunately I cannot go in that direction this morning, but it does allow me to think a bit more freely about something else. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He is the perfect character to discuss in relation to today’s Gospel story. Many people tend to equate Dr. King to Jesus. He was such a revolutionary leader, he inspired, he lead, he dreamed. But I don’t see this preacher playing the role of Jesus. I see him in the role of Andrew. I imagine that one day, God asked Martin, “What do you want?!?!” and he replied, “where are you staying?” Jesus then answered back, “Come and you will see.”
And so Dr. King followed where Jesus was going. He followed the God of Israel who called to let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream (Amos 5:24). He followed the man from Nazareth to bring healing to the disenfranchised. He followed the Holy Spirit who gave power to the multitude to do mighty works in Jesus name.
When Jesus asks the question, “What do you want?!?!” What will we answer? Will we be put off by his tone? Will we decide to meet up with him sometime in the future, but not follow right away? Or will we seek where Jesus is staying and follow him no matter where he goes? Within each of us lies the potential to be like Andrew, to be like Dr. King. Unfortunately, we tend to say we love God but pick a funny way to show it. Rarely do we share with enthusiasm that we have found the Christ and we have chosen to follow his teachings. Rarely do we stop following the path we wanted to take on our own and take up the new path which God leads us down together. If we do not do the rare thing, if we do not come and see where Jesus is going, we will continue to find it difficult to tell others that we have found the Christ. We will see sharing where Christ is going as a chore instead of a gift.
Dr. King saw Jesus’ question of” What Do You Want?!?!” as a gift. I want to go where you want to go. I want to see what you see. I want what you want. I want to follow, and I want everyone else to know that I’m doing it.
The version that we read from the pulpit, the New Revised Standard Version has in verse 38 Jesus asking “What are you looking for?” It is so philosophical. That question makes me sense that Jesus already knew the answer of these two men. It feels as if Jesus can just turn around and look into someone’s soul. That isn’t such a bad view of Jesus, but my translation has Jesus asking a different question with a different edge to it.
Let me set up the story again for you. The day before, Jesus had just been baptized by John. John knew then and there that this was the Lamb of God. He had seen this dove descend upon Jesus after the baptism and heard God’s voice reaffirm this thought. This was certainly an exciting day. The very next day, Jesus was passing by John, apparently all alone, when John the Baptist saw him and told two of his own disciples, “Look, the Lamb of God!” With those five words, the two disciples of John left him and began to follow Jesus. In my version, it doesn’t say how long it was, but eventually Jesus turned around, saw them following and asked “What do you want?!?!?”
When I read this question, it does not penetrate the soul like in the NRSV. It’s rough, it’s got an edge. It’s blunt. Jesus even seems a little annoyed that these two people are following him around. What do you want? He asks… let me answer your questions and leave me alone. It seems pretty clear that John the Baptist knew what Jesus was all about, but Jesus didn’t quite know himself just yet.
They didn’t ask Jesus a religious question. They didn’t ask about salvation, justice, politics, love or hate, right or wrong. They simply wanted to know where he was staying. Jesus still doesn’t give an exact answer… his reply is “come and you will see” There is no, meet me at the corner of Washington and Bridgeboro later in the evening. Just come, and they spent the day with Jesus.
The best part of this story is its blandness. The gospel writer does not record anything really special happening on this day. None of the conversation that happened the rest of the day made it into the gospel. Just the few sentences I just told you about. To me, the remarkable thing happens is the day after the two disciples spent the day with Jesus. Andrew is so excited about this man they call Jesus that the first thing he does is find his brother Peter and tells him that they have found the Messiah, they have found the Christ.
My original intent was to preach the rest of this sermon on evangelism. I hoped that I would get others excited about the workshop that was supposed to start yesterday but nobody signed up for. I wanted to be energetic about what we had just learned; how we were practicing to be like Andrew and tell our friends and family that we too have found the Messiah. Unfortunately I cannot go in that direction this morning, but it does allow me to think a bit more freely about something else. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
He is the perfect character to discuss in relation to today’s Gospel story. Many people tend to equate Dr. King to Jesus. He was such a revolutionary leader, he inspired, he lead, he dreamed. But I don’t see this preacher playing the role of Jesus. I see him in the role of Andrew. I imagine that one day, God asked Martin, “What do you want?!?!” and he replied, “where are you staying?” Jesus then answered back, “Come and you will see.”
And so Dr. King followed where Jesus was going. He followed the God of Israel who called to let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream (Amos 5:24). He followed the man from Nazareth to bring healing to the disenfranchised. He followed the Holy Spirit who gave power to the multitude to do mighty works in Jesus name.
When Jesus asks the question, “What do you want?!?!” What will we answer? Will we be put off by his tone? Will we decide to meet up with him sometime in the future, but not follow right away? Or will we seek where Jesus is staying and follow him no matter where he goes? Within each of us lies the potential to be like Andrew, to be like Dr. King. Unfortunately, we tend to say we love God but pick a funny way to show it. Rarely do we share with enthusiasm that we have found the Christ and we have chosen to follow his teachings. Rarely do we stop following the path we wanted to take on our own and take up the new path which God leads us down together. If we do not do the rare thing, if we do not come and see where Jesus is going, we will continue to find it difficult to tell others that we have found the Christ. We will see sharing where Christ is going as a chore instead of a gift.
Dr. King saw Jesus’ question of” What Do You Want?!?!” as a gift. I want to go where you want to go. I want to see what you see. I want what you want. I want to follow, and I want everyone else to know that I’m doing it.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Christ the King Sermon
Anyone care to guess at the most well known Shakespeare quote of all time? “To be or not to be” is one of the questions which seem to speak to the very nature of who we are. It speaks about life itself.
This week is Christ the King Sunday. During worship, we are to celebrate the reign of Christ. It can be celebrated in a number of fashions. One might understand this celebration in the future tense, that Christ WILL BE king after Armageddon or whichever end times scenario one might chose to believe and then a new world is created. Or you can celebrate this day as Christ was the King of the Jews… giving place and power to what he accomplished during his lifetime on earth. Or perhaps you can celebrate the day as it is written, without a tense…Christ THE King. Just leave it at that and not give it much thought.
But to simply do any one of these is an offense to the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of life.
My roommate during my second year of Seminary is one of my best friends. One afternoon while we were writing papers, he frantically called me into his room. As I rushed down the hall, I saw him jumping up and down at his window, looking at the sorority house across the street. Two Jehovah’s witnesses, dressed in their traditional white shirt and black pants, were on our neighbor’s porch talking to four or five girls. You could tell by their body language that they were not looking to convert that day, and we presumed that these two men would be stopping at our house next.
We rushed downstairs to the living room to our big bay window and peered excitedly out the window. If you haven’t caught on already, this is a seminary student’s dream… Two unsuspecting people trying to convert you walking into the home of two theologically trained students. It’s the thing dreams are made of. Never in my life have I been so excited about a theological conversation. When we saw the two men leave the sorority house without getting past the porch, my roommate and I fixed the curtains and pretended to watch a TV that wasn’t on, waiting patiently for the knock on our door. Tony was frantically tapping his foot and I had already chewed off three fingernails in the excitement. A minute passed and still there was no knock at our door. We both looked out the window only to find that they had crossed the street and were getting into their car and driving away. Tony and I were heart broken. We had, in two short minutes, prepared for the biggest event of our seminary careers. Neither of us got any work done the rest of that day and we never brought up the moment again.
Then, in early September of this year, I called my former roommate, who had moved back to North Carolina, to see how he was doing. He told me that a few days ago; two other Jehovah’s witnesses had come to his door. It didn’t turn out to be as exciting as what we had originally hoped for that afternoon, but it did make him stop and do a bit more research about the trinity. (In case you didn’t know, Jehovah’s witness’ believe that Jesus was not God, but just a holy man.) Well, Tony looked up in his Greek bible one particular verse from Matthew 28. Verse 19 says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And Tony told me that when we look at the Greek text, we see that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are things belonging to God. It is similar to saying my arm is its own separate thing, but it is still a part of my overall body. A different part of the same essence. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are different parts of the same thing.
Now, the question you must all ask yourself is why did I just spend the last five minutes explaining the concept of the trinity on a day which should focus mainly on Christ the King? Every English teacher knows the answer to this question. It is because Christ the King is not a complete sentence. It needs a verb…it needs action.
I told you that story because calling Christ, and by proxy, God, a king severely limits the true essence of the divine. Calling Christ merely a king usurps the power of the Holy. One whose power is displayed in weakness; glory in humility and exaltation in transforming suffering[1]. Instead, there is only one time in the whole Bible where we learn the true essence of the trinity and the answer, surprisingly, does NOT come from Jesus, but instead it is God speaking to Moses. When Moses speaks to the burning bush and asks the name of God, the reply is simply “I AM.” The answer that humanity first receives from God is not Father, King, servant, lamb, or shepherd. Those are all useful names, but they are not the true being of God. Instead of using names, nouns, if you will… we must realize that we belong to a God of action. We belong to a verb. God says “I AM” because it opens up an infinite amount of possibilities to which we have very few words for. When we speak of God or Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, we are speaking to all that is within the realm of possibility. When we say God is love, God responds with “I AM love.” When we say God is hope, God replies with “I AM Hope.” When we say God is justice, God replies with “I AM Justice.” When we say God is peace, God exclaims “I AM Shalom”.
What action do you associate with when you are in the presence of the Holy? When you take off your shows and stand in front of the burning bush, what words does your heart place in your mouth?
Right now, I would like you to stand if you are able and as I speak the words which God spoke to Moses, I invite you to then fill in the rest with the responses that your heart gives. Feel free to repeat a response if that is what you feel called to respond with as the same word for a different person has many different meanings. If your heart doesn’t lead you to any words, it is always acceptable to stand quietly in humble adoration.
I AM...
I AM...
I AM...
I AM...
I AM WHO I AM says God.
So be it.
[1] Otto Dreydopple Jr. Back of Moravian Bulletins for Sunday, November 25, 2007.
This week is Christ the King Sunday. During worship, we are to celebrate the reign of Christ. It can be celebrated in a number of fashions. One might understand this celebration in the future tense, that Christ WILL BE king after Armageddon or whichever end times scenario one might chose to believe and then a new world is created. Or you can celebrate this day as Christ was the King of the Jews… giving place and power to what he accomplished during his lifetime on earth. Or perhaps you can celebrate the day as it is written, without a tense…Christ THE King. Just leave it at that and not give it much thought.
But to simply do any one of these is an offense to the Creator, Sustainer, and Redeemer of life.
My roommate during my second year of Seminary is one of my best friends. One afternoon while we were writing papers, he frantically called me into his room. As I rushed down the hall, I saw him jumping up and down at his window, looking at the sorority house across the street. Two Jehovah’s witnesses, dressed in their traditional white shirt and black pants, were on our neighbor’s porch talking to four or five girls. You could tell by their body language that they were not looking to convert that day, and we presumed that these two men would be stopping at our house next.
We rushed downstairs to the living room to our big bay window and peered excitedly out the window. If you haven’t caught on already, this is a seminary student’s dream… Two unsuspecting people trying to convert you walking into the home of two theologically trained students. It’s the thing dreams are made of. Never in my life have I been so excited about a theological conversation. When we saw the two men leave the sorority house without getting past the porch, my roommate and I fixed the curtains and pretended to watch a TV that wasn’t on, waiting patiently for the knock on our door. Tony was frantically tapping his foot and I had already chewed off three fingernails in the excitement. A minute passed and still there was no knock at our door. We both looked out the window only to find that they had crossed the street and were getting into their car and driving away. Tony and I were heart broken. We had, in two short minutes, prepared for the biggest event of our seminary careers. Neither of us got any work done the rest of that day and we never brought up the moment again.
Then, in early September of this year, I called my former roommate, who had moved back to North Carolina, to see how he was doing. He told me that a few days ago; two other Jehovah’s witnesses had come to his door. It didn’t turn out to be as exciting as what we had originally hoped for that afternoon, but it did make him stop and do a bit more research about the trinity. (In case you didn’t know, Jehovah’s witness’ believe that Jesus was not God, but just a holy man.) Well, Tony looked up in his Greek bible one particular verse from Matthew 28. Verse 19 says “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” And Tony told me that when we look at the Greek text, we see that the Holy Spirit and Jesus are things belonging to God. It is similar to saying my arm is its own separate thing, but it is still a part of my overall body. A different part of the same essence. God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are different parts of the same thing.
Now, the question you must all ask yourself is why did I just spend the last five minutes explaining the concept of the trinity on a day which should focus mainly on Christ the King? Every English teacher knows the answer to this question. It is because Christ the King is not a complete sentence. It needs a verb…it needs action.
I told you that story because calling Christ, and by proxy, God, a king severely limits the true essence of the divine. Calling Christ merely a king usurps the power of the Holy. One whose power is displayed in weakness; glory in humility and exaltation in transforming suffering[1]. Instead, there is only one time in the whole Bible where we learn the true essence of the trinity and the answer, surprisingly, does NOT come from Jesus, but instead it is God speaking to Moses. When Moses speaks to the burning bush and asks the name of God, the reply is simply “I AM.” The answer that humanity first receives from God is not Father, King, servant, lamb, or shepherd. Those are all useful names, but they are not the true being of God. Instead of using names, nouns, if you will… we must realize that we belong to a God of action. We belong to a verb. God says “I AM” because it opens up an infinite amount of possibilities to which we have very few words for. When we speak of God or Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit, we are speaking to all that is within the realm of possibility. When we say God is love, God responds with “I AM love.” When we say God is hope, God replies with “I AM Hope.” When we say God is justice, God replies with “I AM Justice.” When we say God is peace, God exclaims “I AM Shalom”.
What action do you associate with when you are in the presence of the Holy? When you take off your shows and stand in front of the burning bush, what words does your heart place in your mouth?
Right now, I would like you to stand if you are able and as I speak the words which God spoke to Moses, I invite you to then fill in the rest with the responses that your heart gives. Feel free to repeat a response if that is what you feel called to respond with as the same word for a different person has many different meanings. If your heart doesn’t lead you to any words, it is always acceptable to stand quietly in humble adoration.
I AM...
I AM...
I AM...
I AM...
I AM WHO I AM says God.
So be it.
[1] Otto Dreydopple Jr. Back of Moravian Bulletins for Sunday, November 25, 2007.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Radical Interpretation
My first sermon at First Moravian Church of Riverside NJ. August 19, 2007.
As I sat at my desk on Tuesday afternoon, trying to relax a bit after an exhausting morning of Vacation Bible School, I was checking to see if anyone had commented on my latest blog entry. Once I realized that no one had left me any comments, I began to poke around the blogs of strangers whom I had never heard of. The name of a person’s blog will come up on the screen for maybe two seconds, and if the title sounds interesting, I try and click it before it disappears. The first blog that I clicked that day was called “A Roman Thought.”[1] And I checked it out, hoping it might be thought provoking. Luckily for me, it had a video posted from an apparently well respected atheist. I watched a ten minute clip of this man attempt to deconstruct the concept of religion. To be honest, he did a pretty decent job of getting his point across, but as I listened to what he had to say, I couldn’t help but think how wonderful it was to hear his argument on a week when the Gospel lesson is about Jesus’ message spreading division among the people.
If you think about it, very few of us want to believe that the work of God is one that divides people. Instead, we tend to recall some of the nicer scripture verses. Blessed are the peace makers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5).Or perhaps we like to think of Jesus saying “my peace I leave unto you, my peace I leave with you” (John 14:27) Both of these verses, plus many others, talk about the peace that Jesus brings. So when we read verses about how Jesus’ message is going to bring division, it seems quite easy to dismiss them and not bring them into our lives. But it’s my own belief that it is these hard to swallow verses which challenge us to be the disciples God wants us to be.
The real question then is, how do we view such harsh words in a way that conveys the love and grace which comes from Jesus Christ. It is not an easy task. Perhaps we need to first ask if we can find love and grace in passages in which Jesus is, to be quite frank, pissed off. Jesus is warning us about a crisis, but this crisis is not an emergency, but instead is an occasion of truth and a precise time to make a decision about life.[2] How amazing would our lives be if we viewed all of our moments of crisis as moments of the truth of God? The truth of this passage is that Jesus is not simply calling us to be agents of division for the purpose of causing trouble, but instead we will inevitably cause division because we are speaking truth in love which most people do not want to hear.
If you remember the last song we sang, Obey-O, we sing about obeying God, even when it’s hard. I think this is one of the most important lines sung during VBS this week. When Jesus calls us to love God and love our neighbor, he isn’t trying to simplify the 10 commandments into the 2 easiest, instead, these laws of love are the hardest to live by. They will bring disunity, division, judgment, even destruction, as well as the Fruits & Gifts of the Spirit.[3] I wonder if such gifts will be evident in the kids that went through vacation bible school this week. I wonder if they’ll remember to obey the law of love, even if it causes disunity in the family. Will the students remember to love illegal aliens when their parents blame them for all of our countries problems? Will they love someone different from them when the world tells them to hate? Will they share everything they have when common sense tells them to covet as much as possible?
This is a radical interpretation of the law of love. Too often we choose to love only when it is of benefit to us. I love the word radical because it often conjures a negative image of what religion can do to the world. We use the word radial Muslim to describe terrorists, and when we hear about radical Christians, our thoughts go to fundamentalist Southern Baptists, very rarely do we say that radically living a life of love is a positive thing.
Instead, the great temptation of Christianity is always to have sugar coated Christianity with a sugar coated gospel, with a sugar coated cross, and to eliminate this great call to discipleship for the world. Our greatest temptation is that the cares, riches and pleasures of this life become more important than the call of Jesus Christ. And so the security of family and friends, jobs and homes and vacations become more important to us than Christ and his mission. The result is watered down wine; it is watered down whiskey; it is middle class Christianity; it is complacent Christianity; it is comfortable Christianity. Come and sit in our soft padded pews and worship Jesus Christ with your personal style of music and comfort.[4]
When we become comfortable with discipleship, when we strive only for unity in our beliefs, we do not grow as Christians. As Moravians, we pride ourselves upon the fact that when it comes to the non-essentials, we have the liberty to think and act as we believe best, but too often we neglect to concern ourselves with the Essentials, the things which should be of utmost concern in our daily lives. What are those things which we believe to be essential? The grace of God the Creator, the saving work of God in Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as the faith, love and hope on part of humankind, are all central in our beliefs. If we are not living out these things which we say are central to being a disciple, we are not living the radical life to which we are called.
Now, I need to say, that I gave a lot of thought and prayer to the scripture verses that were read today. It is certainly not the verses I would have picked to share my first sermon, but I did feel the need to preach about the radical message of love with Jesus brings us. Radical isn’t something we need to stay away from, its something we need to embrace. I challenge you to go home from this time of worship today and read the whole 12th chapter of Luke. Read it to figure out why Jesus was so upset. Read it to find out how pointless storing up our treasures are, how silly it is to be greedy. Read it with an open heart as to what it means to live a life of radical love. It’s a really simple concept really. But simple doesn’t mean easy. It doesn’t mean that loving the way Christ calls us to love will be an easy road, it will be filled with people who stand in our way, it will bring division in our family when they don’t understand that we are choosing to love others instead of doing something which pleases only ourselves.
Please don’t think that I’m saying that I’m better than anyone else. In fact, nine times out of ten, I’m one of the biggest offenders in not loving as Jesus calls me to love. But I figured that I’d use this first sermon to have all of you help me to do a better job at it. And it is my hope that we will all keep it in the front of our minds to share that grace which God has so freely given us with others. If that isn’t radical, I don’t know what is.
[1] http://www.aromanthought.com/
[2] Fred B. Craddock. “Interpretation: Luke.” John Knox Press, Louisville. 1990. Pg 166
[3] Laterally Luke, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia
[4] "Christ Brings Division," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
As I sat at my desk on Tuesday afternoon, trying to relax a bit after an exhausting morning of Vacation Bible School, I was checking to see if anyone had commented on my latest blog entry. Once I realized that no one had left me any comments, I began to poke around the blogs of strangers whom I had never heard of. The name of a person’s blog will come up on the screen for maybe two seconds, and if the title sounds interesting, I try and click it before it disappears. The first blog that I clicked that day was called “A Roman Thought.”[1] And I checked it out, hoping it might be thought provoking. Luckily for me, it had a video posted from an apparently well respected atheist. I watched a ten minute clip of this man attempt to deconstruct the concept of religion. To be honest, he did a pretty decent job of getting his point across, but as I listened to what he had to say, I couldn’t help but think how wonderful it was to hear his argument on a week when the Gospel lesson is about Jesus’ message spreading division among the people.
If you think about it, very few of us want to believe that the work of God is one that divides people. Instead, we tend to recall some of the nicer scripture verses. Blessed are the peace makers, for they will be called children of God (Matthew 5).Or perhaps we like to think of Jesus saying “my peace I leave unto you, my peace I leave with you” (John 14:27) Both of these verses, plus many others, talk about the peace that Jesus brings. So when we read verses about how Jesus’ message is going to bring division, it seems quite easy to dismiss them and not bring them into our lives. But it’s my own belief that it is these hard to swallow verses which challenge us to be the disciples God wants us to be.
The real question then is, how do we view such harsh words in a way that conveys the love and grace which comes from Jesus Christ. It is not an easy task. Perhaps we need to first ask if we can find love and grace in passages in which Jesus is, to be quite frank, pissed off. Jesus is warning us about a crisis, but this crisis is not an emergency, but instead is an occasion of truth and a precise time to make a decision about life.[2] How amazing would our lives be if we viewed all of our moments of crisis as moments of the truth of God? The truth of this passage is that Jesus is not simply calling us to be agents of division for the purpose of causing trouble, but instead we will inevitably cause division because we are speaking truth in love which most people do not want to hear.
If you remember the last song we sang, Obey-O, we sing about obeying God, even when it’s hard. I think this is one of the most important lines sung during VBS this week. When Jesus calls us to love God and love our neighbor, he isn’t trying to simplify the 10 commandments into the 2 easiest, instead, these laws of love are the hardest to live by. They will bring disunity, division, judgment, even destruction, as well as the Fruits & Gifts of the Spirit.[3] I wonder if such gifts will be evident in the kids that went through vacation bible school this week. I wonder if they’ll remember to obey the law of love, even if it causes disunity in the family. Will the students remember to love illegal aliens when their parents blame them for all of our countries problems? Will they love someone different from them when the world tells them to hate? Will they share everything they have when common sense tells them to covet as much as possible?
This is a radical interpretation of the law of love. Too often we choose to love only when it is of benefit to us. I love the word radical because it often conjures a negative image of what religion can do to the world. We use the word radial Muslim to describe terrorists, and when we hear about radical Christians, our thoughts go to fundamentalist Southern Baptists, very rarely do we say that radically living a life of love is a positive thing.
Instead, the great temptation of Christianity is always to have sugar coated Christianity with a sugar coated gospel, with a sugar coated cross, and to eliminate this great call to discipleship for the world. Our greatest temptation is that the cares, riches and pleasures of this life become more important than the call of Jesus Christ. And so the security of family and friends, jobs and homes and vacations become more important to us than Christ and his mission. The result is watered down wine; it is watered down whiskey; it is middle class Christianity; it is complacent Christianity; it is comfortable Christianity. Come and sit in our soft padded pews and worship Jesus Christ with your personal style of music and comfort.[4]
When we become comfortable with discipleship, when we strive only for unity in our beliefs, we do not grow as Christians. As Moravians, we pride ourselves upon the fact that when it comes to the non-essentials, we have the liberty to think and act as we believe best, but too often we neglect to concern ourselves with the Essentials, the things which should be of utmost concern in our daily lives. What are those things which we believe to be essential? The grace of God the Creator, the saving work of God in Jesus Christ, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, as well as the faith, love and hope on part of humankind, are all central in our beliefs. If we are not living out these things which we say are central to being a disciple, we are not living the radical life to which we are called.
Now, I need to say, that I gave a lot of thought and prayer to the scripture verses that were read today. It is certainly not the verses I would have picked to share my first sermon, but I did feel the need to preach about the radical message of love with Jesus brings us. Radical isn’t something we need to stay away from, its something we need to embrace. I challenge you to go home from this time of worship today and read the whole 12th chapter of Luke. Read it to figure out why Jesus was so upset. Read it to find out how pointless storing up our treasures are, how silly it is to be greedy. Read it with an open heart as to what it means to live a life of radical love. It’s a really simple concept really. But simple doesn’t mean easy. It doesn’t mean that loving the way Christ calls us to love will be an easy road, it will be filled with people who stand in our way, it will bring division in our family when they don’t understand that we are choosing to love others instead of doing something which pleases only ourselves.
Please don’t think that I’m saying that I’m better than anyone else. In fact, nine times out of ten, I’m one of the biggest offenders in not loving as Jesus calls me to love. But I figured that I’d use this first sermon to have all of you help me to do a better job at it. And it is my hope that we will all keep it in the front of our minds to share that grace which God has so freely given us with others. If that isn’t radical, I don’t know what is.
[1] http://www.aromanthought.com/
[2] Fred B. Craddock. “Interpretation: Luke.” John Knox Press, Louisville. 1990. Pg 166
[3] Laterally Luke, by Brian McGowan, Anglican priest in Western Australia
[4] "Christ Brings Division," Pastor Edward F. Markquart, Grace Lutheran Church, Seattle, Washington.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
No Excuses ~ Sermon for Palmyera Moravian Church tomorrow.
Country Roads, take me home, to the place, I belong, West Virginia, Mountain Momma, take me home, Country roads…
When I was in the 8th grade, my mother’s favourite singer switched from Harry Chapin to John Denver. Every long trip my family took to New York, every day after soccer practice, anytime I was in the car, there was a pretty good chance that my mom had a John Denver CD playing. I remember the day my mom bought her first John Denver CD, the first few songs I thought were slow and boring. It took me a while before I began to like his music, but now, after listening to his music over and over and over again, I have a real appreciation for his lyrics. In fact, I spent many trips in the back seat of the family van daydreaming about hitch hiking across the country and just seeing where the road would take me. But, no matter how many times I listened to one of his songs, no matter how many times I wanted to just pick up and go, I never did. I have tons of excuses, it would be very dangerous, I didn’t have any money, it would make my family scared not knowing if I was safe, for all those reasons, plus a few others, I never had the nerve to just up and go.
It’s because of John Denver that I understand the responses that the two people gave in the Gospel lesson today. They want to go, they want to follow Jesus, but they’re not quite ready, there is something holding them back. Two of them have pretty good reasons for not leaving just yet. Heck, they probably thought that the reason was commanded by God, honoring their father and mother was an extremely important value in their society and because of that, surely Jesus would understand their thinking. Even more, in the lesson from the Hebrew scripture, we hear about the prophet Elijah calling Elisha. When Elisha is called, he first asks if he can go in from the field and say goodbye to his parents, and he is granted permission. After saying his goodbyes, he sets out following Elijah. It’s pretty safe to say that these two “want to be followers” would have known the commandments and the story of Elisha. I’d even go so far to say that these two felt confident that Jesus would see how much they desired to honor the scripture and be truly impressed.
Today, we have the benefit of knowing the answer that Jesus gives. Jesus tells these two that they can’t make excuses if they really want to follow him. Jesus even tells them that if they decide to go and then look back, they are not fit for the service of God. Perhaps this is Jesus reminding the two men of Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt, proving that just having knowledge of the scripture does not translate into doing the right thing in the eyes of God.
A few nights ago, in my own personal time of study, I was reading up on some of the differences between our Moravian church and that of other Protestant churches. There is a term, coined by Martin Luther, which is considered by most people, whether they know it or not, to be one of the basic principals for being a Christian. The term is “SOLA FIDE” and it means, “By faith alone.” Most churches, even most of our own, preach and teach that all we need is faith and we will be saved. While it is a lovely concept, the truth is that the early Moravian church did not believe this to be true. What our ancestors believed is that faith without love is not faith at all.[1] Listen to that again… “Faith without love is not faith at all.” If we look closely at the gospel lesson for today that is the heart of what Jesus is saying to these would be followers. He is calling them to the carpet for their beliefs. Jesus realizes that they have faith. They have probably been waiting their entire lives for Jesus to come to them. They have been expecting it, but when they are called to action, called to love, they fail. Jesus doesn’t say that their faith has saved them. He says that when they are called to action, to love Jesus by literally following him, he will not listen to their excuses.
This is not the Jesus most of us think of when we tell others about our Savior. We like to think of Jesus as a kindly fellow who forgives us our trespasses, who has infinite patience for our impatience, who is not annoyed when our actions fail to live up to our faith. The Jesus that we read about is a bit darker. We don’t hear Jesus with a “my way or the highway” attitude. “Such a pushy, authoritative Jesus is not popular today.”[2] You either put your faith into action or you don’t. It is that simple.
Now, I could very easily tell a story of a person whose love and devotion to Christ made them to follow Jesus when the times were tough, when push came to shove, they left everything they ever knew and followed Jesus, even to martyrdom. I wish it were the truth that I could tell you I was able to live out my John Denver inspired dream of just hitch hiking across America, following God where ever the Spirit took me. But that story ends with me spending a year in Sweden where I did more running away from God than following Jesus. What I do know is that when Jesus calls us to ministry, when we feel something put on our hearts, to do the work of building up the body of Christ, we need to follow that call.
One of the biggest frustrations for me are people who say the phrase, “Yes, But.” Yes, that’s a good idea, but we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work out as we had hoped. Yes, I want to follow Jesus, but I have some other things that I need to take care of before I can go. There was a woman in the last congregation I served who’s heart was just like that of the would be disciples. She wanted to do so much, but she never thought she was ready. The intriguing part of this gospel story is that Jesus doesn’t care if you are 100% ready to follow. He just wants you along for the journey. When I read about the calling of Jesus’ disciples, I believe that most of those followers had very little idea about what it is that they were going to do. They became faithful disciples by going around town and telling people about the awesome work of God. Then, I imagine, at night, they came back together, ate dinner with each other, and talked about what happened that day as they did God’s work. That’s when the true discipleship happened. When they were together and learned from each other about what God had done in their own lives that day. Theoretically, that is why we are here today. We have come together to worship God and share our stories of how God is working through us. If you don’t feel like God is doing such a thing in your own life, Jesus is telling us today that there is no excuse. We must follow, we don’t have to do it well, but we must follow, because that is all that Jesus asks of us.
Now, I want to end with some selected words from another song by John Denver. The lyrics are from Rocky Mountain High. Listen to the words, and see if you can make a connection between the young man in the song and what God really wants us to be like when we accept the call to follow Jesus.
He was born in the summer of his 27th year,
coming home to a place he’d never been before,
left yesterday behind him, might say he was born again,
might say he found a key for every door.
Now he walks in quiet solitude the forest and the streamsSeeking grace in every step he takesHis sight has turned inside himself to try and understandThe serenity of a clear blue mountain lakeAnd the Colorado rocky mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyYou can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.
Rocky Mountain High.
Amen.
[1] Craig Atwood. International Theological Dialogue. Issue No 4, May 2005. Pg 47.
[2] Spencer, F. Scott, "'Follow Me,' The Imperious Call of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels," Interpretation, 2005.
When I was in the 8th grade, my mother’s favourite singer switched from Harry Chapin to John Denver. Every long trip my family took to New York, every day after soccer practice, anytime I was in the car, there was a pretty good chance that my mom had a John Denver CD playing. I remember the day my mom bought her first John Denver CD, the first few songs I thought were slow and boring. It took me a while before I began to like his music, but now, after listening to his music over and over and over again, I have a real appreciation for his lyrics. In fact, I spent many trips in the back seat of the family van daydreaming about hitch hiking across the country and just seeing where the road would take me. But, no matter how many times I listened to one of his songs, no matter how many times I wanted to just pick up and go, I never did. I have tons of excuses, it would be very dangerous, I didn’t have any money, it would make my family scared not knowing if I was safe, for all those reasons, plus a few others, I never had the nerve to just up and go.
It’s because of John Denver that I understand the responses that the two people gave in the Gospel lesson today. They want to go, they want to follow Jesus, but they’re not quite ready, there is something holding them back. Two of them have pretty good reasons for not leaving just yet. Heck, they probably thought that the reason was commanded by God, honoring their father and mother was an extremely important value in their society and because of that, surely Jesus would understand their thinking. Even more, in the lesson from the Hebrew scripture, we hear about the prophet Elijah calling Elisha. When Elisha is called, he first asks if he can go in from the field and say goodbye to his parents, and he is granted permission. After saying his goodbyes, he sets out following Elijah. It’s pretty safe to say that these two “want to be followers” would have known the commandments and the story of Elisha. I’d even go so far to say that these two felt confident that Jesus would see how much they desired to honor the scripture and be truly impressed.
Today, we have the benefit of knowing the answer that Jesus gives. Jesus tells these two that they can’t make excuses if they really want to follow him. Jesus even tells them that if they decide to go and then look back, they are not fit for the service of God. Perhaps this is Jesus reminding the two men of Lot’s wife turning into a pillar of salt, proving that just having knowledge of the scripture does not translate into doing the right thing in the eyes of God.
A few nights ago, in my own personal time of study, I was reading up on some of the differences between our Moravian church and that of other Protestant churches. There is a term, coined by Martin Luther, which is considered by most people, whether they know it or not, to be one of the basic principals for being a Christian. The term is “SOLA FIDE” and it means, “By faith alone.” Most churches, even most of our own, preach and teach that all we need is faith and we will be saved. While it is a lovely concept, the truth is that the early Moravian church did not believe this to be true. What our ancestors believed is that faith without love is not faith at all.[1] Listen to that again… “Faith without love is not faith at all.” If we look closely at the gospel lesson for today that is the heart of what Jesus is saying to these would be followers. He is calling them to the carpet for their beliefs. Jesus realizes that they have faith. They have probably been waiting their entire lives for Jesus to come to them. They have been expecting it, but when they are called to action, called to love, they fail. Jesus doesn’t say that their faith has saved them. He says that when they are called to action, to love Jesus by literally following him, he will not listen to their excuses.
This is not the Jesus most of us think of when we tell others about our Savior. We like to think of Jesus as a kindly fellow who forgives us our trespasses, who has infinite patience for our impatience, who is not annoyed when our actions fail to live up to our faith. The Jesus that we read about is a bit darker. We don’t hear Jesus with a “my way or the highway” attitude. “Such a pushy, authoritative Jesus is not popular today.”[2] You either put your faith into action or you don’t. It is that simple.
Now, I could very easily tell a story of a person whose love and devotion to Christ made them to follow Jesus when the times were tough, when push came to shove, they left everything they ever knew and followed Jesus, even to martyrdom. I wish it were the truth that I could tell you I was able to live out my John Denver inspired dream of just hitch hiking across America, following God where ever the Spirit took me. But that story ends with me spending a year in Sweden where I did more running away from God than following Jesus. What I do know is that when Jesus calls us to ministry, when we feel something put on our hearts, to do the work of building up the body of Christ, we need to follow that call.
One of the biggest frustrations for me are people who say the phrase, “Yes, But.” Yes, that’s a good idea, but we’ve tried it before and it didn’t work out as we had hoped. Yes, I want to follow Jesus, but I have some other things that I need to take care of before I can go. There was a woman in the last congregation I served who’s heart was just like that of the would be disciples. She wanted to do so much, but she never thought she was ready. The intriguing part of this gospel story is that Jesus doesn’t care if you are 100% ready to follow. He just wants you along for the journey. When I read about the calling of Jesus’ disciples, I believe that most of those followers had very little idea about what it is that they were going to do. They became faithful disciples by going around town and telling people about the awesome work of God. Then, I imagine, at night, they came back together, ate dinner with each other, and talked about what happened that day as they did God’s work. That’s when the true discipleship happened. When they were together and learned from each other about what God had done in their own lives that day. Theoretically, that is why we are here today. We have come together to worship God and share our stories of how God is working through us. If you don’t feel like God is doing such a thing in your own life, Jesus is telling us today that there is no excuse. We must follow, we don’t have to do it well, but we must follow, because that is all that Jesus asks of us.
Now, I want to end with some selected words from another song by John Denver. The lyrics are from Rocky Mountain High. Listen to the words, and see if you can make a connection between the young man in the song and what God really wants us to be like when we accept the call to follow Jesus.
He was born in the summer of his 27th year,
coming home to a place he’d never been before,
left yesterday behind him, might say he was born again,
might say he found a key for every door.
Now he walks in quiet solitude the forest and the streamsSeeking grace in every step he takesHis sight has turned inside himself to try and understandThe serenity of a clear blue mountain lakeAnd the Colorado rocky mountain highI've seen it rainin' fire in the skyYou can talk to God and listen to the casual reply.
Rocky Mountain High.
Amen.
[1] Craig Atwood. International Theological Dialogue. Issue No 4, May 2005. Pg 47.
[2] Spencer, F. Scott, "'Follow Me,' The Imperious Call of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels," Interpretation, 2005.
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