Sermons

As One With Authority

Mark 1:21-28 [show]Mark 1:21-28 Jesus Heals a Man with an Unclean Spirit [21]And they went into Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and was teaching. [22]And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. [23]And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, [24]"What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are--the Holy One of God." [25]But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!" [26]And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying out with a loud voice, came out of him. [27]And they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, "What is this? A new teaching with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him." [28]And at once his fame spread everywhere throughout all the surrounding region of Galilee. (ESV)

Jesus as a preacher and teacher was very impressive. Mark’s Gospel says he began in Capernaum. On the Sabbath he went to the synagogue and taught. The people’s reaction says it all. They didn’t say: “Wasn’t that interesting?” or “What a nice sermon.” Mark says they were “astonished.”

Have you ever heard a sermon that left you astonished? Astonished means one’s whole being is surrendered in amazement. They were astonished because “he taught them as one with authority, and not as the scribes.” Scribes, as in “the scribes and the Pharisees,” were the biblical scholars of the day. Pharisees and Sadducees were the two religious parties in Judaism. Pharisees were very conservative, tended to be legalistic, and were associated with the synagogues. Sadducees were in charge of the temple and its functions. They had none of the zeal of the Pharisees, were more political and less religious. But the scribes were the biblical scholars. They were learned, but what they taught was what they had been taught, and it was apparently pretty boring. Jesus did not teach as one of the scribes, but was astonishing. He taught as one with authority.

Mark does not say Jesus taught in an authoritative manner, like an evangelist who thinks he knows everything. What is authority? It usually means either the right or the power to do something, or both. Jesus’ teaching is undoubtedly powerful. And his right to speak is underscored by the contrast between his teaching and the scribes’ teaching. They teach from moth-eaten tomes, he teaches with authority. He interprets the Scripture as one who has the right to say what it means. His teaching has no need of external support, whether from the Scripture or the scrolls. His teaching is self-authenticating. You know it is true when you hear it.

On this occasion, at least, we don’t know what Jesus said. It must not have been what he said, but the way he said it. Remember, they were astonished. One way to understand this is to remember that the Christian faith begins, not in the active voice, but in the passive voice. Faith does not begin with a shout of praise – - “Hallelujah!” It begins in sheer wonder, saying, “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us!” (1 Jn 3:1 [show]1 John 3:1 [3:1]See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (ESV)
)  Faith’s source of joy and power is the astonishment we experience at the miracle of God entering our world of need and struggle and sin. No doubt Jesus’ preaching was immediate and personal. No doubt he personified or incarnated his teaching. He spoke as one with authority.

At some point in my life I was infected by what someone has called the “romance” of preaching. It’s hard to explain. It wasn’t from the pastors of my youth. But once I had heard great preaching, I was convinced that nothing could be more important or more fulfilling. Preaching is one of those things that could always be better, and done in a more worthy way. It can become an ego trip, unless you remain fearful in the consciousness of what you are actually doing.

It is said that everyone has at least one sermon in them. May I give you a little lesson in preaching? Even if you don’t get to preach, you may find it useful.

Fred Craddock wrote a book on preaching a few years ago titled, As One Without Authority. Some people think the book undermines proper preaching. Others of us think it makes it possible for the preacher to be appropriately humble. Most of the preaching you and I have heard has been based on deductive reasoning, which goes in steps. If this is true, and this is true, then THIS is true. Deductive sermons usually have three points. For example, the first point might be “All have sinned,” stating that we are all sinners. The preacher will support this with a number of Bible verses. In the pews we think, “That’s true.” The second point could be, “Christ died for our sins.” Again there are supporting scriptures. If point one is true, and point two is true, then point three is true. Point three is, “Accepting Christ saves us from our sin.” Proposition, proposition, logical conclusion. If this, and if this, then this. This has the advantage of not requiring the listener to do much, which makes it easier to nap.

Dr. Craddock promotes preaching based more on inductive reasoning. If deductive reasoning goes from hypothesis to hypothesis to conclusion, inductive reasoning goes from general observation to critical evaluation to conclusion. Deductive is from the specific to the general, and inductive is from the general to the specific. Let’s suppose you’re going to preach a sermon on the importance of the church. That is not where you would begin. “This morning let’s consider the church.” You would begin with the people, with their felt needs for meaningful relationships, with their desire to experience God, with their need for a supportive community. You end at the church.

This has the advantage of not beginning with the preacher or a biblical text and hoping to eventually get to you. It begins with you and invites you to be a part of the journey. This also has the advantage of making the preacher a member of the congregation rather than a would-be authority figure to whom you can’t relate.

We need an image or two. First, take the image of a lion tamer. Second, imagine music inside yourself. This is from Boris Pasternak’s Doctor Zhivago, Nikolai Nikolaievich is speaking:  “I think that if the beast who sleeps in [us] could be held down by threats – - any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death – - then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. But don’t you see, this is just the point – - what has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the powerful attraction of its example.”

Jesus was a powerful teacher and preacher. I would love to have heard him, not so much to hear what he said, but to experience the way he said it. I believe he still has the power to astonish us.

Lord Christ, who came long ago to Capernaum and left people astonished, come to us, we pray, with the inward music of your truth. Amen.

The Sign of Jonah

Jonah 3:1-10 [show]Jonah 3 Jonah Goes to Nineveh [3:1]Then the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, [2]"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you." [3]So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city,(1) three days' journey in breadth.(2) [4]Jonah began to go into the city, going a day's journey. And he called out, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" [5]And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. The People of Nineveh Repent [6]The word reached(3) the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. [7]And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, "By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, [8]but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. [9]Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish." [10]When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it. (ESV) Footnotes 1. [3:3] Hebrew 'a great city to God' 2. [3:3] Or 'a visit was a three days' journey' 3. [3:6] Or 'had reached'

The story of Jonah has been considered a children’s story for so long that adults pay it little attention. If all you remember about Jonah is that he was swallowed by a whale, you have so much to learn! So, let’s begin with the basics. Jonah is in the Old Testament and is a Hebrew or Jew, which are the same thing.

Jesus referred to Jonah once. The scribes and Pharisees wanted a “sign” from Jesus that he was indeed speaking for God. He said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.” What is the sign of Jonah? Jesus said, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Mt 12:38-41; cf. 16:1-4)

The story of Jonah is readable and brief, only four chapters. It is about the prophet himself, and it involves one of the most important issues, not just in the Bible, but in the world of religion. Jonah was called by God to go to Ninevah and preach because of the wickedness there.        Ninevah was a great Assyrian city on the banks of the Tigris River in present-day Iraq. At the time of Jonah, about seven hundred years before Christ, Ninevah had become a truly magnificent city. But the people there were not Hebrews (Jews). They were Assyrians. Having no love for these foreigners, Jonah ran from the assignment. He went to Joppa and boarded a ship going to Tarshish.

This is where the story becomes familiar, with a storm at sea that threatens to destroy the ship. Jonah confesses that he is the cause of the storm and finally convinces the others to throw him overboard so that the storm might cease. Jonah ends up in the belly of a whale, where he repents and is expelled onto dry land. Then God once more tells Jonah to go to Ninevah. This brings us to the reading we heard earlier. Jonah’s work was phenomenally successful and Ninevah repented and avoided destruction. But the story hardly ends here!

The story of Jonah may be allegorical. An allegory is a story in which characters and events represent things from real life. Jonah, for example, would represent Israel. Jonah’s running away would represent Israel’s failure to be a light to the nations. The great fish would be Babylon, swallowing up Israel in captivity. The whale’s regurgitating of Jonah is the restoration of Israel to their homeland. Still, the story of Jonah ends with our hero angry because Ninevah repented and God did not destroy them. Jonah says, “This is why I didn’t go to Ninevah in the first place, because I know you and knew you would be merciful and would not destroy them.”

What is Jonah’s problem? After all, he is a proud and faithful Jew, an effective oracle of God. His problem is with Gentiles. The word “Gentile” comes from the Latin word for “nation,” and means “non-Jew.” There were seven nations of people that were allowed to remain in the Promised Land when it was conquered by the Israelites. (Josh. 24:11 [show]Joshua 24:11 [11]And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. (ESV)
) The word for “nations” is “goyim.” In several places in the Old Testament (Ex 23:28-33 [show]Exodus 23:28-33 [28]And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. [29]I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. [30]Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. [31]And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. [32]You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. [33]They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you." (ESV)
; Deut 7:1-5 [show]Deuteronomy 7:1-5 A Chosen People [7:1]"When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, [2]and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction.(1) You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. [3]You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, [4]for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. [5]But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. (ESV) Footnotes 1. [7:2] That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
; Josh 23:4-13 [show]Joshua 23:4-13 [4]Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. [5]The LORD your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you. [6]Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, [7]that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, [8]but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day. [9]For the LORD has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. [10]One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. [11]Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. [12]For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, [13]know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you. (ESV)
) the Israelites are told to maintain strict separation from these peoples in religion, marriage, and politics. Despite these injunctions, interactions between Israel and “the peoples of the land” were considerable.

Jonah’s problem goes deeper than Gentiles. His problem is with God. Jonah’s problem is that his God is too small, too domesticated, too provincial. He has equated his God with his religion, his religion with his race, and his race with himself. This is not to suggest we should erase personal distinctions. A Jew need not cease being a Jew, or an Assyrian an Assyrian. Jesus respected such distinctions. He told his disciples, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 10:5-6; cf. 15:24) This instruction remained in force until the risen Christ told them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all ‘goyim’. .” (Mt 28:19)

The point is, we all have a larger identity than race, ethnicity, or even religion. Who are you? What is your most comprehensive identity? Man? Woman? Texan? Baptist? No, not even Christian. Your most comprehensive identity, your most accurate, most truthful, most important identity is – - child of God. Jonah knew, without a doubt, that he was a child of God. He knew he was a child of God because he was a Hebrew, a Jew. It follows then that the Assyrians of Ninevah were not children of God because they were not Jews.

There is another “sign of Jonah,” one more pertinent to us. When the Israelites finally began to return from exile in Babylon they were a sad lot. Nehemiah and Ezra taught them that their only hope    of survival lay in avoiding all contact with Gentiles. No commerce. No intermarriage. This led to the rigid, narrow view that the covenant with God was for Jews only. This exclusivity meant that heathen nations and peoples were simply unacceptable to God. The book of Jonah, and the book of Ruth, were apparently written to challenge such an exclusivist view.

Whoever wrote the story of Jonah saw Israel’s survival, not in separation from the rest of the world, but in reaching out. They needed to recover Isaiah’s great vision of Israel as a light to the nations: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. . . And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (60:1,3)

This other “sign of Jonah” has a zealous Jew preaching to Gentiles, albeit reluctantly, and hoping they will not listen, hoping God will remember who the “chosen people” are. Ninevah repents, God forgives, and Jonah is furious because God did not destroy them. The story ends with Jonah angry. The last words are God’s, attempting to reach Jonah: “Should I not pity Ninevah, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

We don’t know if Jonah saw the light. We all have blind spots and spells of short-sightedness. But this is the second “sign” of Jonah, a sign of second chances and a more universal understanding of God’s love and care. Carl Sandburg wrote a little poem called “Losers.” “If I should pass the tomb of Jonah / I would stop there and sit awhile; / Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark / And came out alive after all.”

O God, forgive us for being so small that we are in danger of being swallowed. Amen.

The story of Jonah has been considered a children’s story for so long that adults pay it little attention. If all you remember about Jonah is that he was swallowed by a whale, you have so much to learn! So, let’s begin with the basics. Jonah is in the Old Testament and is a Hebrew or Jew, which are the same thing.

Jesus referred to Jonah once. The scribes and Pharisees wanted a “sign” from Jesus that he was indeed speaking for God. He said, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign; but no sign will be given except the sign of Jonah.” What is the sign of Jonah? Jesus said, “As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Mt 12:38-41; cf. 16:1-4) 

The story of Jonah is readable and brief, only four chapters. It is about the prophet himself, and it involves one of the most important issues, not just in the Bible, but in the world of religion. Jonah was called by God to go to Ninevah and preach because of the wickedness there.        Ninevah was a great Assyrian city on the banks of the Tigris River in present-day Iraq. At the time of Jonah, about seven hundred years before Christ, Ninevah had become a truly magnificent city. But the people there were not Hebrews (Jews). They were Assyrians. Having no love for these foreigners, Jonah ran from the assignment. He went to Joppa and boarded a ship going to Tarshish.

This is where the story becomes familiar, with a storm at sea that threatens to destroy the ship.

Jonah confesses that he is the cause of the storm and finally convinces the others to throw him overboard so that the storm might cease. Jonah ends up in the belly of a whale, where he repents and is expelled onto dry land. Then God once more tells Jonah to go to Ninevah. This brings us to the reading we heard earlier. Jonah’s work was phenomenally successful and Ninevah repented and avoided destruction. But the story hardly ends here!

The story of Jonah may be allegorical. An allegory is a story in which characters and events represent things from real life. Jonah, for example, would represent Israel. Jonah’s running away would represent Israel’s failure to be a light to the nations. The great fish would be Babylon, swallowing up Israel in captivity. The whale’s regurgitating of Jonah is the restoration of Israel to their homeland. Still, the story of Jonah ends with our hero angry because Ninevah repented and God did not destroy them. Jonah says, “This is why I didn’t go to Ninevah in the first place, because I know you and knew you would be merciful and would not destroy them.”

What is Jonah’s problem? After all, he is a proud and faithful Jew, an effective oracle of God.

His problem is with Gentiles. The word “Gentile” comes from the Latin word for “nation,” and means “non-Jew.” There were seven nations of people that were allowed to remain in the Promised Land when it was conquered by the Israelites. (Josh. 24:11 [show]Joshua 24:11 [11]And you went over the Jordan and came to Jericho, and the leaders of Jericho fought against you, and also the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. And I gave them into your hand. (ESV)
) The word for “nations” is “goyim.” In several places in the Old Testament (Ex 23:28-33 [show]Exodus 23:28-33 [28]And I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites, the Canaanites, and the Hittites from before you. [29]I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you. [30]Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased and possess the land. [31]And I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand, and you shall drive them out before you. [32]You shall make no covenant with them and their gods. [33]They shall not dwell in your land, lest they make you sin against me; for if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you." (ESV)
; Deut 7:1-5 [show]Deuteronomy 7:1-5 A Chosen People [7:1]"When the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than yourselves, [2]and when the LORD your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction.(1) You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. [3]You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, [4]for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the LORD would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. [5]But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire. (ESV) Footnotes 1. [7:2] That is, set apart (devote) as an offering to the Lord (for destruction)
; Josh 23:4-13 [show]Joshua 23:4-13 [4]Behold, I have allotted to you as an inheritance for your tribes those nations that remain, along with all the nations that I have already cut off, from the Jordan to the Great Sea in the west. [5]The LORD your God will push them back before you and drive them out of your sight. And you shall possess their land, just as the LORD your God promised you. [6]Therefore, be very strong to keep and to do all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, turning aside from it neither to the right hand nor to the left, [7]that you may not mix with these nations remaining among you or make mention of the names of their gods or swear by them or serve them or bow down to them, [8]but you shall cling to the LORD your God just as you have done to this day. [9]For the LORD has driven out before you great and strong nations. And as for you, no man has been able to stand before you to this day. [10]One man of you puts to flight a thousand, since it is the LORD your God who fights for you, just as he promised you. [11]Be very careful, therefore, to love the LORD your God. [12]For if you turn back and cling to the remnant of these nations remaining among you and make marriages with them, so that you associate with them and they with you, [13]know for certain that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you, but they shall be a snare and a trap for you, a whip on your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from off this good ground that the LORD your God has given you. (ESV)
) the Israelites are told to maintain strict separation from these peoples in religion, marriage, and politics. Despite these injunctions, interactions between Israel and “the peoples of the land” were considerable.

Jonah’s problem goes deeper than Gentiles. His problem is with God. Jonah’s problem is that his God is too small, too domesticated, too provincial. He has equated his God with his religion, his religion with his race, and his race with himself. This is not to suggest we should erase personal distinctions. A Jew need not cease being a Jew, or an Assyrian an Assyrian. Jesus respected such distinctions. He told his disciples, “Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Mt 10:5-6; cf. 15:24) This instruction remained in force until the risen Christ told them: “Go therefore and make disciples of all ‘goyim’. .” (Mt 28:19)

The point is, we all have a larger identity than race, ethnicity, or even religion. Who are you?

What is your most comprehensive identity? Man? Woman? Texan? Baptist? No, not even Christian. Your most comprehensive identity, your most accurate, most truthful, most important identity is – - child of God. Jonah knew, without a doubt, that he was a child of God. He knew he was a child of God because he was a Hebrew, a Jew. It follows then that the Assyrians of Ninevah were not children of God because they were not Jews.

There is another “sign of Jonah,” one more pertinent to us. When the Israelites finally began to return from exile in Babylon they were a sad lot. Nehemiah and Ezra taught them that their only hope    of survival lay in avoiding all contact with Gentiles. No commerce. No intermarriage.

This led to the rigid, narrow view that the covenant with God was for Jews only. This exclusivity meant that heathen nations and peoples were simply unacceptable to God. The book of Jonah, and the book of Ruth, were apparently written to challenge such an exclusivist view.

Whoever wrote the story of Jonah saw Israel’s survival, not in separation from the rest of the world, but in reaching out. They needed to recover Isaiah’s great vision of Israel as a light to the nations: “Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. . . And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.” (60:1,3)

This other “sign of Jonah” has a zealous Jew preaching to Gentiles, albeit reluctantly, and hoping they will not listen, hoping God will remember who the “chosen people” are. Ninevah repents, God forgives, and Jonah is furious because God did not destroy them. The story ends with Jonah angry. The last words are God’s, attempting to reach Jonah: “Should I not pity Ninevah, that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”

We don’t know if Jonah saw the light. We all have blind spots and spells of short-sightedness.

But this is the second “sign” of Jonah, a sign of second chances and a more universal understanding of God’s love and care. Carl Sandburg wrote a little poem called “Losers.”

“If I should pass the tomb of Jonah / I would stop there and sit awhile; / Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark / And came out alive after all.”

O God, forgive us for being so small that we are in danger of being swallowed. Amen.

Disciple Material

John 1:43-51 [show]John 1:43-51 Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael [43]The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, "Follow me." [44]Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. [45]Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." [46]Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." [47]Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no deceit!" [48]Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." [49]Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!" [50]Jesus answered him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under the fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." [51]And he said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you,(1) you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man." (ESV) Footnotes 1. [1:51] The Greek for 'you' is plural; twice in this verse

Are you disciple material? Have you ever asked yourself that question? What is disciple material? Most of us don’t come to Jesus because we want to be disciples. We come to Jesus for what’s in it for us, not to sign on for another responsibility. We might be called theoretical disciples, not literal disciples. We do the best we can, but we already have a job and we have family obligations. Are we theoretical disciples? Theoretical disciples with a theoretical Lord?

Who did Jesus consider to be disciple material? Fishermen? Some of you would be all over that! But all of Jesus’ disciples were not fishermen. Matthew was a tax collector, and if a tax collector can be a disciple, anybody can! Jesus didn’t advertise for disciples.  He didn’t interview. The way he called his first disciples seems strange, almost arbitrary. Walking the shoreline, he sees men fishing, two sets of brothers – - Peter and Andrew, James and John. “Follow me!” he says, and they do. As a boy, I imagined that Jesus’ appearance was so mesmerizing, standing there on the shore, that the fishermen were spellbound. They dropped their nets, and went to him. But, this was not the resurrected, transformed Jesus. This was the physical Jesus, who was apparently ordinary in appearance. Commentators suggest that these fishermen had some previous encounter with Jesus. Perhaps they had heard him teach. Perhaps they had talked with him. All we know is that on that day they left their fishing and followed Jesus.

The disciples of Jesus were so varied that we can find no single trait or characteristic that they all possessed, some singular thing Jesus was seeking. Perhaps he was looking for potential, someone who showed promise. Disciples were not uncommon back then. Similar to apprenticeship, discipleship was a way of learning from a master. In the absence of colleges, universities, and trade schools, teachers were found in the daily life of the world. John the Baptist had disciples, as did many learned and skilled teachers. Discipleship was often costly. To learn a trade or a discipline required taking time away from one’s regular work or leaving it altogether, which Jesus’ disciples apparently did. Whatever they hoped to gain, they would certainly change, far more than they could have imagined. In Jesus they would not only encounter God, but over time they would discover who they were themselves.

In a book called The Odyssey of the Self-Centered Self, Robert Elliot Fitch insisted that the self is not known subjectively, but objectively. The self is not found through introspection, but in our extroverted interests, loyalties, and passions. These are located in other people, in history, in nature, and in God. Fitch said:  “Where there are no such interests and loyalties and commitments, there simply is no self.” Fitch wrote this in 1961, and today it is clearer than ever that he was going against the grain. In these fifty years since there has been an ever-growing infatuation with feelings – - depression, phobias, insecurity, anxiety. How I feel is the measure of all things. We have become decidedly more impressed with psychiatric medicine. But we are also witnessing the alarming increase of recreational drug use. Fitch was a Congregationalist minister and a professor of Christian ethics. He was concerned with what he called “false loves,”  the worst of which is love of the self (egotism, selfishness, pride). He saw Carl Rogers and Erich Fromm as fostering a scientific “cult” of self-love. Fitch held that one’s interests and passions should not be directed to one’s self, but to objective concerns, activities, and interests. Today Fitch’s work is a bit dated and thought by some to be over-reactive, but his warning about our preoccupation with subjectivity and inwardness is worth considering. If nothing else, it stresses the importance of keeping a balance between subjectivity and objectivity.

Jesus did not give his followers exercises in introspection and self-awareness. He taught them to live in openness to God, but he did not encourage endless self-examination and self-concern. He taught them to pray and encouraged their conscious reliance on God. But he focused their attention on the world of suffering people, and he made human need a priority for his followers. And remember, when he first recruited his disciples he said simply, “Follow me.”

In ourselves and in our world we look for permanence, for a fixed state of being, for an unchangeable reality. Change, however, seems to rule everything. In 1543 Copernicus expressed his frustration about this to Pope Paul III. He said: “Among the authorities it is generally agreed that the Earth is at rest in the middle of the universe, and they regard it as inconceivable and even ridiculous to hold the opposite opinion.” Copernicus was right. Now scientists say that “nothing is constant but change! All existence is a perpetual flux of ‘being’ and ‘becoming.’” (Haeckel) A child is a complex combination of being and becoming. The child has a fixed identity, and will never be another or different person. But the child is always changing. Some of these changes are painful for everyone! But the goal is for our children to become all they are meant to be, to become who they really are, fulfilling the Creator’s intention for them. Human life is “a perpetual flux of ‘being’ and ‘becoming.’”

Discipleship is not a static state, but a process. Discipleship is not a state of being, but a process of becoming. It is not a destination, but a journey. Some miracles take time, and the miracle of becoming is one of them. Following Jesus is a journey that lasts all our days. The first reason for this is that it is a journey into God. Alfred North Whitehead said “the worship of God is an adventure of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable.” The true saints have all concurred on one thing:  The more we know of God, the more we know that we do not know God. Faith in God is not a task for a Saturday that you dive into and finish so you can take it easy. John Killinger said “it is so easy to settle down where we are, and to allow the stream of our ideas to become frozen and fixed, so that even the God we pursued goes off from us and we are left to worship only our memories of the last time we saw [God], stirring the trees on distant hills.”

There is a second reason why discipleship is ongoing and unending. The second reason is that it is a journey into Christ-likeness. The Incarnation is not only the revelation of God in human terms. It is the revelation of what God had in mind when creating you and me. This does not mean we can become like Jesus Christ in anything more than the vaguest approximations, but we can see in him the vision of God for the human creature made in God’s image. In seeing Christ, and in following him, by the grace of God, someday someone may see in one of us a resemblance to the One we have tried to follow.

Lord Christ, come to our shores and give us faith to drop our nets and follow you. Amen.

The Beloved Child

Finders and Seekers

Matthew 2:1-12 [show]Matthew 2:1-12 The Visit of the Wise Men [2:1]Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men(1) from the east came to Jerusalem, [2]saying, "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose(2) and have come to worship him." [3]When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; [4]and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. [5]They told him, "In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet: [6]"'And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.'" [7]Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. [8]And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, "Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him." [9]After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. [10]When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. [11]And going into the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. [12]And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. (ESV) Footnotes 1. [2:1] Greek 'magi'; also verses 7, 16 2. [2:2] Or 'in the east'; also verse 9

The month of January is named after the ancient Roman god Janus. Janus was the god of gates and doors. He had two faces, one looking back and the other looking ahead. On this first day of 2012, we stand at the gate of a new year. Two years ago I shared with you the words of Minnie Louise Haskins from 1908, and you probably already knew them. “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: ‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’ And he replied: ‘Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.’ So I went forth, and finding the hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And God led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”

This is Epiphany Sunday, which keeps us connected to the nativity. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem, wise men came from the East. The East has always been mysterious to those in the West. The Orient has been a world of faraway places with strange-sounding names. Even the most primitive people knew that the sun rises in the East, and if it should not, everything would be buried in darkness. The magi were not Jews, but Gentiles – - foreigners and strangers. We don’t know where they came from, except that they came out of the darkness in the East, and they came seeking the One we all seek.

Would you prefer that I said they came seeking the One we have found? Are you more comfortable being a finder than a seeker? In 1976 a marketing campaign was instigated using the slogan “I Found It.” The slogan was printed on flyers, bumper stickers, t-shirts, everywhere. People wondered what the slogan meant and what the campaign was trying to sell. After weeks of keeping it a secret, Campus Crusade for Christ finally acknowledged that they were behind the campaign and announced what had been found. It was, of course, Jesus Christ.

Is “finding” Jesus what it’s all about? Is the world divided into those who have found Jesus and those who have not? And is finding Jesus the end of our seeking? Does finding Jesus seal your eternal destiny? In the Gospels, finding Jesus was more often the beginning of something. To find Jesus is not to finish but to begin. It is the beginning of a pilgrimage, an adventure with no end in sight. What we find is an upward way, a way of seeking and growing and becoming.        Encountering Jesus is not finding something that you keep in a vault. It is a way, a way of moving on. It is the way of seeking to follow Jesus.

At the gate of the year, the past, for all of us, recedes into the darkness. We have memory, so we can treasure lost loved ones and learn from our mistakes. But memories become flawed and are fleeting. A shared memory is more dependable than an individual memory. Our faith is based largely on the memory of a people. In the Bible God and the prophets are constantly calling the people to remember. Remember! Forget not! “You shall remember the Lord your God.”  “Remember the covenant I made with you.” “Remember who brought you up out of Egypt.” “Remember your Creator while you are young,” says Ecclesiastes, “before old age takes away your memory.”

Our memory as the people of God is what we must keep. The church of Jesus Christ is a storehouse of memories. Our faith depends on our memory. Why, even our worship is an exercise in remembering, as is everything we do as the church. People say they don’t need to attend church. But you stop coming to church and you’re liable to lose your faith, because you forget what must be remembered. The past recedes. Many things we are blessed to forget. But as a people of faith, we are stewards of memories that must not be forgotten.

At the gate of the year, however, we look primarily to the future. Our heritage of faith does not live in our memory alone. It has always had a future orientation. Over and over, the prophets pointed the people to the future. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out that the word “meaning” is not a biblical word, but a synonym of “meaning” is the biblical word, “promise.” We do not trust in life’s “meaning,” but in God’s “promise.”

Epiphany is the day we celebrate Christ as Savior of the entire world – - Jews and Gentiles, Israelites and foreigners, Muslims and Buddhists, and even Baptists. The magi from the East represent the world’s pilgrimage to God’s light revealed in Christ. The star over Bethlehem is the beckoning sign, saying, “Come and behold him.” Epiphany makes provincial or sectarian faith unacceptable.

Christ comes as the world’s Savior. Theologians speak of the Christ event as being the “end” of history. They are not referring to the chronological end, or the end of linear time. They are speaking of the “telos” or the goal of all things. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus the “end” of history is revealed in the present. In the Incarnation we see what is ultimately true, that God’s self-giving love has the last word, that the cross is God’s sign of victory. Ultimately, the powers of this world will be drawn to the brightness of Lord’s rising, and Christ will be all in all.

This is what the wise men from the East are about. Ultimately, everybody gets in on what God has done in Jesus Christ. There are no insiders and outsiders, said Paul, no Jews and Gentiles, no rich and poor, no male and female. We are all one in Jesus Christ.

At the gate of the year, what do you see? Let’s be honest, there are no guarantees that our personal goals will be achieved or that our dreams will come true. Life will remain a checkerboard of successes and failures, of good and bad, of joy and sorrow. The biblical promise is that the life of faith will always be a pilgrimage into the light, and the promise of Christ is that is that we will never be alone.

O God, we face an unknown future, except for the assurance that nothing will separate us from your everlasting love, and this is enough. Amen.