The Cure Has Begun, and We Have Relapses

Brad Sullivan

4th Lent, Year B
Sunday, March 18^th, 2012
Emmanuel, Houston
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21     

Back in college, I had some friends, who wore these t-shirts which read,“John 3:16...He did it!” I didn’t know what John 3:16 was. I knew it was something Bibley and Jesusy, but I didn’t know what it said. So, my friends quoted the passage to me, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

After finding out what John 3:16 was, I thought, “really,‘he did it!’ That’s your commentary on John 3:16,” but I found out that John 3:16 is something of a quentesential Christian passage. If you know John 3:6, then you’re Jesusy enough for anyone. It’s everywhere, on billboards, sports stadiums, Tim Teebo’s cheecks. John 3:16 is a favorite passage to sum up Christianity to let everyone know about the love of God.

Why in the world, then, are we hearing about this in the middle of Lent? Perhaps because just after John 3:16 we have John 3:17-20, which deals with God’s judgment of those who love darkness more than light. That sounds more like the Lent we’re all used to. Enough of this love stuff, let’s hear about God’s judgment, but God’s love involves judgment. God’s love is expressed in judgment and mercy.

In our reading from Numbers today, we have a story in which Israel sinned against God. So, God punished them, sending serpents to attack them. Then, God gave them a way out, a simple way out. Moses made a bronze serpent, and if ever a serpent bit someone, all that person had to do was look at the bronze serpent, and that person would live. There is no physical reason why that would work. It was a matter of faith, of remembering God and trusting in God, which was what the people were having a hard time with in the first place. God showed judged and mercy.

In Ephesians, we read that they / we were dead through our trespasses. Paul did not say, “you were doing just fine with some slight chastisement through your trespasses.” No. “You were dead through [your] trespasses and sins...”,and yet “by grace you have been saved.” Judgment and mercy are mingled together.

In the Gospel reading then too, we hear also of God’s judgment and mercy.“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” John 3:16. Mercy. Then, just a couple verses later, we have, “and this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.” Judgment.

My wife has been leading a study of C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia”for the last several weeks, and she reminded me of one particular scene from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in which a young boy, Eustace, is turned into a dragon. Now, Eustace had been behaving rather terribly to everyone in the book up to this point. Then, Aslan, the Lion, the Jesus figure in these books, de-Dragons Eustace, turning him back into a boy. To do this, Aslan claws away at the dragon skin, a painful process, piercing down even to Eustace’s heart. Afterwards, C.S. Lewis writes,

It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy”. To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy. He had relapses. There were still many days when he could be very tiresome. But most of those I shall not notice. The cure had begun.

This would be a fairly accurate statement for all followers of Jesus. God has forgiven our sins. We’ve been washed clean, brought from darkness to light. We have relapses. The cure has begun. We all have light and darkness in us. We’re never without the darkness, and we often, if not always sink back into the darkness, and love overcomes the darkness.

Our reading from John today puts darkness and light into fairly stark, black and white terms. There are those who love the darkness, and there are those who love the light. His stark contrast made me think of political campaigns. Candidates paint their opponents as wholly evil, all that is wrong with America. Then, they describe themselves as the perfect cure for all that ails America. In reality, of course, none of the candidates are perfect or wholly evil. All of the candidates have some good points and some bad points.

When describing opposites, we tend to think in stark, black and white terms. We have to call evil out for what it is, we should also be aware that there is some good even in evil people and that all of us have some evil within us.

Even as followers of Christ, none of us loves light completely. None of us love darkness completely. We all love varying degrees of both darkness and light. As followers of Jesus, few of us are silly enough to think there is no darkness within us, and when we’re totally honest with ourselves, we know that we even relish some of the darkness within us.

Does this mean, then, that if we have some darkness within us and that if we love some of the darkness within us, that we “love darkness rather than light because [our] deeds are evil”? No. The fact that we have some darkness within us and that we love some of the darkness within us means, “the cure has begun, and we have relapses.”

Our challenge, even with darkness within us, is to love the light, and to come to the light so that our deeds may be exposed. Our evil deeds would be exposed right along with our good deeds. Now that sounds more like Lent.

That sounds like a rather frightening proposition, having our evil deeds exposed. Like Eustace being de-dragoned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, having our evil deeds exposed by the light of Christ is painful. It is, however, a good kind of pain, a cleansing pain, and one which should not be avoided.

Fear of God due to our evil deeds need not keep us from the light because we know that we are not wholly evil. While there is darkness in us, there is also a lot of light in us. We also need not fear coming into the light because of God’s love for us. As we have seen in today’s readings, God’s love involved judgment, but it is judgment mixed with mercy.

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:17, 16) Amen.

So, What We Do Doesn't Matter?

Brad Sullivan

2nd Lent, Year B
Sunday, March 4^th, 2012
Emmanuel, Houston
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16
Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38     

            Our Gospel for today certainly has taken on a bit of a Lenten tone.  Deny yourself.  Take up your cross.  This adulterous and sinful generation.  Adultery was common way of describing Israel’s unfaithfulness to their covenant with God.  So Jesus was calling out his generation of Israel as being unfaithful in their covenant with God.  This should be no big surprise to us.  Just last week, we heard the story of Jesus going to the Jordan river to be baptized by John.  John was calling all of Israel to repentance, to cleanse themselves, and renew their covenant faithfulness to God. 

            Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, however, that “it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all [Abraham’s] descendants, not only to the adherents of the law, but also to those who share the faith of Abraham...” (Romans 4:16)  Previously in Romans, Paul writes “that a person is justified by faith apart from works prescribed by the law...” (Romans 3:28)

            Is Paul saying that Jesus was wrong, that Israel didn’t need to have covenant faithfulness to the law to be right with God?  Is Paul saying that what we do doesn’t matter, that so long as we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that he died for our sins, then no matter what else we do, we’re right with God? 

            There are many who would misread Paul in this way.  There are those who would say Lent is a silly time when we deny ourselves good things and follow meaningless religious rules in order to justify ourselves before God.  Some would say we’re relying on our own actions, our own works rather than relying on faith in God.  They misunderstand what we’re doing and what Paul wrote.

            Jesus calls us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him, not only to believe in him.  Jesus told his Jewish disciples that he expected them to keep covenant faithfulness to God by upholding the law of Moses.  People’s actions, what they did, was tied to their faith and tied to their being put right with God.

            Paul was not saying that what we do doesn’t matter.  Paul was telling gentile Christians that they didn’t have to keep the laws of Moses because they were gentiles.  Their faith in God was what mattered for them, not the laws of Moses.  Paul was also telling the Jewish Christians that keeping the law of Moses was given live through their faith in God. 

            In our context, without faith in God, giving up desert for Lent simply means you go without yummy desert for a month.  With faith in God, giving up desert for Lent is a way to refocus, to help us realize our desire for God and to help us take a good hard look at ourselves.  

            Are we an adulterous and sinful generation, like Jesus described his generation?  We’ve likely head arguments on both sides.  Some think we are, some think we aren’t.  Maybe we are, maybe not.  In either case, we have to deal honestly with our sin and take our sin seriously.

            God takes are sin seriously.  God is wrathful against our sin.  That’s why God chose to die, as a consequence for our sin.  God took his wrath against sin on himself, rather than on us.  So God’s wrath against sin is greatly to be feared.  God’s love for us, shown in his kindness by taking his own wrath upon himself, God’s love for us, is then to be remembered. 

            Does not God’s very love for us, the kindness that he showed, prove that what we do doesn’t matter?  By no means!  “God’s kindness,” Paul writes in Romans 2:4, “is meant to lead [us] to repentance”, not allow and excuse our behavior.  Paul even says that those who live as though what they do doesn’t matter are storing up wrath for themselves, that God repays everyone according to their deeds.

            Now I can hear questions already forming.  Did God die on the cross for our sins, or does God repay people according to their deeds?  Did God take his own wrath against sin, or is there still wrath building against sin since Jesus died on the cross?   Those are good questions, except they’re asked largely out of fear of punishment.

            Fear of punishment worries about the correct formula for sin and redemption in order to avoid punishment.  Fear is a motivator.  Fear of God’s wrath can bring us to repentance, but love is a better motivator.  Love brings us to repentance not out of fear of punishment, but out of love for God.

            Love doesn’t worry so much with the formula for sin and redemption.  Rather, love looks with gratitude at God’s kindness, taking his own wrath against our sin upon himself, and love looks seriously at one’s own sin and shortcomings, acknowledges them, and repents of them, not out of fear of punishment, but out of a desire to do less harm, more good, and to love more completely. 

            That’s why we have Lent, to take a good honest look at ourselves, to look with eyes of love, and to see how we might love God, love others, and love ourselves more completely.  It takes effort and soul searching.  It can be painful as we take seriously our own sin.  It can be a difficult process, and it is well worth the effort as we seek to do less harm, do more good, and love more completely.  We are all well worth the effort too. 

            Behind, in, and through Lent and any honest appraisal we make of our lives, is God’s great love for us.  In Jesus, God lived out the covenant faithfulness that Israel had not been able to do, that none of us could do, and so Jesus showed God’s love for us.  In Jesus, God took his own wrath against our sin upon himself, and showed God’s love for us.  In Jesus, God created the world anew, giving us a taste of the life to come in the resurrection, and by doing so, Jesus showed God’s love for us.

            And so with this backdrop of God’s great love for us, we hear Jesus’ words.  “Deny yourself.”  “Take up your cross.”  We even hear Jesus say, “this adulterous and sinful generation.”  In these words, we hear God, who loves us enough to die for us, calling us to repentance.  We hear Jesus calling us to leave behind those parts of our lives which lead us to harming others and ourselves.  We hear Jesus calling us to put to death those parts of our lives which lead us to harm others and ourselves.  We hear Jesus calling us to love more completely, with the full assurance of God’s complete love for us, that God can cover our shortcomings and our failings. 

            “Deny yourself.”  “I love you.”  “Take up your cross.”  “I love you.”  “This adulterous and sinful generation.”  “I love you.”  Amen.

Brad Sullivan
4th Lent, Year B
Sunday, March 18^th, 2012
Emmanuel, Houston
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21     

            Back in college, I had some friends, who wore these t-shirts which read, “John 3:16...He did it!”  I didn’t know what John 3:16 was.  I knew it was something Bibley and Jesusy, but I didn’t know what it said.  So, my friends quoted the passage to me, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

            After finding out what John 3:16 was, I thought, “really, ‘he did it!’  That’s your commentary on John 3:16,” but I found out that John 3:16 is something of a quentesential Christian passage.  If you know John 3:6, then you’re Jesusy enough for anyone.  It’s everywhere, on billboards, sports stadiums, Tim Teebo’s cheecks.  John 3:16 is a favorite passage to sum up Christianity to let everyone know about the love of God.
            Why in the world, then, are we hearing about this in the middle of Lent?  Perhaps because just after John 3:16 we have John 3:17-20, which deals with God’s judgment of those who love darkness more than light.  That sounds more like the Lent we’re all used to.  Enough of this love stuff, let’s hear about God’s judgment, but God’s love involves judgment.  God’s love is expressed in judgment and mercy. 
            In our reading from Numbers today, we have a story in which Israel sinned against God.  So, God punished them, sending serpents to attack them.  Then, God gave them a way out, a simple way out.  Moses made a bronze serpent, and if ever a serpent bit someone, all that person had to do was look at the bronze serpent, and that person would live.  There is no physical reason why that would work.  It was a matter of faith, of remembering God and trusting in God, which was what the people were having a hard time with in the first place.  God showed judged and mercy. 
            In Ephesians, we read that they / we were dead through our trespasses.  Paul did not say, “you were doing just fine with some slight chastisement through your trespasses.”  No.  “You were dead through [your] trespasses and sins...”, and yet “by grace you have been saved.”  Judgment and mercy are mingled together.   
            In the Gospel reading then too, we hear also of God’s judgment and mercy.  “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  John 3:16.  Mercy.  Then, just a couple verses later, we have, “and this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.”  Judgment.
            My wife has been leading a study of C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia” for the last several weeks, and she reminded me of one particular scene from The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in which a young boy, Eustace, is turned into a dragon.  Now, Eustace had been behaving rather terribly to everyone in the book up to this point.  Then, Aslan, the Lion, the Jesus figure in these books, de-Dragons Eustace, turning him back into a boy.  To do this, Aslan claws away at the dragon skin, a painful process, piercing down even to Eustace’s heart.  Afterwards, C.S. Lewis writes,

It would be nice, and fairly true, to say that “from that time forth Eustace was a different boy”.  To be strictly accurate, he began to be a different boy.  He had relapses.  There were still many days when he could be very tiresome.  But most of those I shall not notice.  The cure had begun.

            This would be a fairly accurate statement for all followers of Jesus.  God has forgiven our sins.  We’ve been washed clean, brought from darkness to light.  We have relapses.  The cure has begun.  We all have light and darkness in us.  We’re never without the darkness, and we often, if not always sink back into the darkness, and love overcomes the darkness.
            Our reading from John today puts darkness and light into fairly stark, black and white terms.  There are those who love the darkness, and there are those who love the light.  His stark contrast made me think of political campaigns.  Candidates paint their opponents as wholly evil, all that is wrong with America.  Then, they describe themselves as the perfect cure for all that ails America.  In reality, of course, none of the candidates are perfect or wholly evil.  All of the candidates have some good points and some bad points. 
            When describing opposites, we tend to think in stark, black and white terms.  We have to call evil out for what it is, we should also be aware that there is some good even in evil people and that all of us have some evil within us. 
            Even as followers of Christ, none of us loves light completely.  None of us love darkness completely.  We all love varying degrees of both darkness and light.  As followers of Jesus, few of us are silly enough to think there is no darkness within us, and when we’re totally honest with ourselves, we know that we even relish some of the darkness within us. 
            Does this mean, then, that if we have some darkness within us and that if we love some of the darkness within us, that we “love darkness rather than light because [our] deeds are evil”?  No.  The fact that we have some darkness within us and that we love some of the darkness within us means, “the cure has begun, and we have relapses.”
            Our challenge, even with darkness within us, is to love the light, and to come to the light so that our deeds may be exposed.  Our evil deeds would be exposed right along with our good deeds.  Now that sounds more like Lent.
            That sounds like a rather frightening proposition, having our evil deeds exposed.  Like Eustace being de-dragoned in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, having our evil deeds exposed by the light of Christ is painful.  It is, however, a good kind of pain, a cleansing pain, and one which should not be avoided. 
             Fear of God due to our evil deeds need not keep us from the light because we know that we are not wholly evil.  While there is darkness in us, there is also a lot of light in us.  We also need not fear coming into the light because of God’s love for us.  As we have seen in today’s readings, God’s love involved judgment, but it is judgment mixed with mercy. 

God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.  For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:17, 16)

Amen.

All to All - Loving God

Kelsey Harmon

5th After the Epiphany, Year B

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Emmanuel, Houston

Isaiah 40:21-31

Psalm 147:1-12, 21c

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

Mark 1:29-39

1 Corinthians 9:16-23

If I proclaim the gospel, this gives me no ground for boasting, for an obligation is laid on me, and woe to me if I do not proclaim the gospel! For if I do this of my own will, I have a reward; but if not of my own will, I am entrusted with a commission. What then is my reward? Just this: that in my proclamation I may make the gospel free of charge, so as not to make full use of my rights in the gospel.

For though I am free with respect to all, I have made myself a slave to all, so that I might win more of them. To the Jews I became as a Jew, in order to win Jews. To those under the law I became as one under the law (though I myself am not under the law) so that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law I became as one outside the law (though I am not free from God's law but am under Christ's law) so that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I became weak, so that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that I might by all means save some. I do it all for the sake of the gospel, so that I may share in its blessings.

    I have never given a sermon before, so bear with me, and I hope you all enjoy it. I am basing my sermon after a reading from first Corinthians, in which Paul is writing a letter to the church he created in Corinth.

Paul was told by God to go out and spread the gospel, and Paul had no problem in doing so. I believe he felt honored to do as God told him. Paul is now an apostle, who is writing a letter to his church to instruct them on how he was successful in creating the church there, partly because they’re having concerns of whether he is an apostle or not.      Paul doesn’t ask for a reward after preaching the gospel. Which, to me at first didn’t sound so surprising, I mean why would he? but that’s what  made people question Paul’s actually being an apostle. Preaching and not to getting a reward, people thought that was suspicious. But he was an apostle, because God came to him and sent him to share and spread the gospel. I think rather than a physical, monetary reward, Paul felt incredible inside with self-assurance.  He had a good feeling inside for doing as God told him.

God will not love us any more than anyone else if we proclaim the gospel, but he will not neglect us either.  Being a Christian, a follower of God, It’s not a pyramid where we’re trying to get to the top and then become God’s favorite.  There’s no game of favorites with God. Following God consists of what we think of ourselves and how we feel inside. Sucking up to a teacher may get a student a good grade, but God is not that teacher.  He is a teacher, but not that teacher. The reward Paul receives is knowing he did the right thing by obeying God. 

We do things our family or friends ask of us because we love our family.  I care what they think of me, I don’t want to disappoint them, for their sake.  God cares for us. So I think of how Paul responds to God’s request as how we relate to our families, it’s similar, we and Paul do as God would do asks us to do because it is the right thing. 

The other thing Paul said in his letter is that he became all things to all people.  I like to think of it as not just being a part of one clique at school, but all cliques, thus, making the barriers not in existence. Numerous people are friendly towards everyone. Therefore, they are liked by most, similar to Paul. Paul didn’t become like a Jew to make fun of the Jewish culture, not to be hypocritical, but rather to embrace other people and show his respect to them. He wasn’t disguising himself by surrounding himself with so many different kinds of people.

If my friends like country music, I’ll listen to it and like it if I wish to do so. I won’t pretend to like it.  A high school student who is all to all (traverses cliques) might do so to have more friends, to be on friendly terms with more people, to have more unity among the people of the school.

Paul too, changed how he was with different people. Paul was gifted with the fact that he was open-minded enough to approach so many different kinds of people.  Paul shared the Gospel’s blessings.  He thought he’d be closer to the people of God by sharing the Gospel.  He’d be a happier person and so share more in the blessings of the Gospel.  He’s not doing it for the money or for the attention. He’s doing it for God and the Gospel. 

Paul asked for no reward because he didn’t feel like it’d be the right thing to do. Paul lived be two rules…LOVE God and LOVE your neighbor. and that’s why he went out to share the gospel with all his neighbors. I am not saying we must all go out and force God’s word onto everyone we encounter with bullhorns in our hands, but just to love God and our neighbors. 

Knowing God, the Gospel, God’s love and redemption of the world, and coming into relationship with God through the gospel was salvation for Paul.  That was Paul’s reward.  That’s all he wanted. That’s why he was all to all, to help bring the gospel to people in order to bring them to God.  Amen.

Sabbath - Drawing Near to God

Brad Sullivan
5th After the Epiphany, Year B
Sunday, February 5^th, 2012
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 40:21-31
Psalm 147:1-12, 21c
1 Corinthians 9:16-23
Mark 1:29-39     

    Did you notice how little healing Jesus did on the sabbath?  I realize there was a bit of controversy through Jesus’ ministry about his healing on the sabbath, but at least on this particular sabbath, he only healed two people.  There was the man in the synagogue we heard about last week who had the unclean spirit, and Jesus healed him.  Then, today, there was Simon’s mother-in-law.  Jesus didn’t heal anyone else until after sundown, until after the sabbath was over. 

            What was he doing the rest of the sabbath?  We know from last week that he taught in the synagogue, and from today, we know he went home with Simon and Andrew.  Presumably, he spent the rest of the time resting, keeping God’s law and observing the Sabbath. 
            The point I’m making is, Jesus would break the Sabbath if there was a need right there in front of him.  He’d heal on the Sabbath, but he didn’t go out looking to do so.  His Sabbath goal was Sabbath rest to honor God.  Drawing near to God was primary for Jesus, in his own life and in his teaching.
            Teaching this message of drawing near to God was Jesus’ primary ministry.  The morning after Jesus healed many in Capernaum, hid disciples wanted him to heal others, but Jesus said, “"Let us go on to the neighboring towns, so that I may proclaim the message there also; for that is what I came out to do."  Jesus came out to proclaim the message, "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news," which we heard earlier in Mark’s gospel. (Mark 1:15)
            In last week’s lesson, the people were astounded at Jesus’ teaching...even casting out the demon they called a new teaching, with authority.  Jesus’ message, “the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news,” was Jesus’ main focus.  He healed as well, out of love, but he didn’t let that get him side tracked, away from proclaiming the message.  He didn’t let the fame and adoration of the people stop him from proclaiming his message.  “Draw near to God,” Jesus said.  Not, “love me,” in an egocentric, cult of personality kind of way. 
            Draw near to God was also how Jesus lived.  First thing in the morning, after teaching and doing all these healings in Capernaum, Jesus went off by himself to have some time alone with God.  More important than being healed, more important than fame or glory, at least in Jesus’ mind, is drawing near to God. 
            As we heard in Isaiah, fame and power and glory are nothing.  “[God] brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing.  Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.”  In other words, the great and powerful are still just people, and they will grow old weary and die, just like everyone else.  “The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever. (Isaiah 40:8)
            “Even youths will faint and be weary...” Sorry to bring that up on youth service Sunday, but, as Isaiah points out, “Even youths will faint and be weary and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength.” 
            I was at a church conference some years back and heard tell of a pastor who never took a day off.  He worked 7 days a week, every week.  When asked about this, he said, “Satan doesn’t take a day off, so neither will I.”  Really, so you want Satan to be the model for you life?  Jesus took a day off.  Heck, even God took a day off. 
            So, following God’s command, God’s way of life, Jesus knew he needed time to reconnect to God.  Jesus knew he needed Sabbath rest.  Jesus knew that being with God was the deepest desire of his heart.  Jesus longed for God.  He hungered and thirsted for God.  This was not just because Jesus was God.  Jesus longed for God because he was human.
            “Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long.” (Psalm 25:4)  “For God alone my soul in silence waits; truly my hope is in him.” (Psalm 62:6)  Jesus knew and lived and taught the truth of these words.  The truth of these words took primacy even to his healings and miracles.  The healings and miracles showed his power and love, and they may wow us, but his message was primary. 
            Repent and draw near to God, for the kingdom of God has come near.  How near?  The kingdom of God is among us and within us.  All we must do is turn around, over and over again, and draw near to God.  Slow down.  Stop.  Take Sabbath time and draw near to God.  First thing in the morning.  Last thing in the evening.  Throughout the day.  Pray.  Rest.  Renew your strength.  That’s Jesus’ primary message.  Find your true self as you reconnect to God, and then live out the life you have found.  Amen.

We don't konw. We believe.

Brad Sullivan

4th After the Epiphany, Year B
Sunday, January 29^th, 2012
Emmanuel, Houston
Deuteronomy 18-15-20
Psalm 111
1 Corinthians 8:1-13
Mark 1:21-28     

            “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding...” (Psalm 111:10)  I always thought this meant that if you were afraid of God, then you’d do what he tells you, and that would be the beginning of wisdom.  By obeying God, you’d eventually learn that God is good and you’d learn over time, not to fear so much as to love God.  The problem with that is that God’s first commandment is not “fear me,” followed closely by “love me somewhat.”  God’s first commandment is “love me.”  Fear me ain’t even a part of the commandments.

            The psalmist is not saying, “think of God as you would the boogeyman, for that is the beginning of wisdom.”  In Hebrew, the word fear is more like awe and respect, so thinking of God with love, awe, and respect is the beginning of wisdom, and those who act accordingly have a good understanding. 

            The first nine verses of the Psalm give examples of the fear of the Lord.  If we take fear mean abject terror, then the last verse of the psalm makes no sense at all.  “Hallelujah!  I will give thanks to the LORD with my whole heart, in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.  Great are the deeds of the LORD!  They are studied by all who delight in them.” (Psalm 111:1-2)  Those are the first two verses of Psalm 111, and they show love, awe, and respect for God in the praise they offer to God.  Reading or praying these verses, you catch a glimpse of the heart of the psalmist, a heart so full of love for God that it must be expressed in song. 

            I would think that such a heart would be wise, for such a heart would know full well the joy and richness of God’s love and the joyful life that comes from following God’s way of life.  We did not hear terror or fear in the psalmist’s words; we heard love, respect, and awe.

            Interestingly, acting out of fear can sometimes lead to the same conclusion as acting out of love, but in very different ways.  Look at Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, first, viewing the text with the understanding of God as boogeyman.  “I’m terrified of God, therefore I won’t eat food sacrificed to idols because if I do, God’s gonna sneak out of my closet at night and kill me.”  Ok, so we don’t eat food sacrificed to idols, but we live in abject terror of God which will eventually lead to anger, hate, rejection and resentment of God…not something I’d recommend. 

            So, let’s view Paul’s letter by treating God with love, awe, and respect as the beginning of wisdom.  “I know idols are fake and so this food sacrifed to them is just fine for me to eat.  It is, after all, just food.  So, I can eat this food, but God taught me to love my neighbor.  My neighbor doesn’t know that idols are fake so for his sake, I won’t eat the food sacrificed to idols.”  We end up with the same action, not eating food sacrificed to idols, but one is brought forth from fear, eventually leading to anger, hate, and resentment of God.  The other action is brought forth from wisdom, acting according to God’s command, acting out of love of another which leads to greater love, peace, and joy. 

            “The love, awe, and respect of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; those who act accordingly have a good understanding...” (Psalm 111:10)  The disciples found this to be true when they met Jesus, and when they saw the miracles he performed.  “They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, "What is this? A new teaching-- with authority!” (Mark 1:26ish)  Believing in Jesus perhaps because of witnessing his miracles and power, was for the disciples, the beginning of wisdom, followed by believing in his teachings, his way of life, and following him, acting accordingly and having a good understanding.

            Now, not everyone who saw, believed.  Some didn’t see Jesus to be godlike in his power, authority, and teaching, and so they didn’t believe in Jesus.  Some, on the other hand needed far less convincing than others.  Nathaniel, as we heard last week, didn’t need demons cast out, he just needed Jesus to tell him he saw him under a fig tree, and that was enough for him…although it did take more than simply believing his friend’s word.

            In our lives, we don’t get to see Jesus casting out demons.  We don’t get to hear him teach in person, or watch him heal folks, multiply food, or calm a storm with a word.  We don’t have that first hand experience, rather, we have the stories of those who did.  We hear about and read about Jesus’ acts, and what we find in those stories is also the effect Jesus’ actions had on those around him. 

            Like looking into the Psalmists’ heart when we read the words of Psalm 111, when we read Mark’s gospel, we see the hearts of those who had love, awe, and respect for Jesus.  We see the hearts of those for whom Jesus’ divine nature was revealed in the power and love of his miracles and teaching.  In hearing and reading the gospel stories, we see the hearts of folks who found the love, awe, and respect of Jesus to be the beginning of wisdom. 

            If only we could have been there.  If only we knew, right?  If only we had the first hand experience of the disciples in the ways Jesus was revealed to them.  If only I could see Jesus cast out a demon, then I’d have no doubt, right?  Then, I’d know.  Except, as Paul pointed out in his letter to the Corinthians, “knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” (1 Corinthians 8: 2ish)  We can’t know the truth about God in any scientifically provable way.  We can’t know if Jesus really is God.  Even if we saw Jesus casting out demons, we wouldn’t know.  We would choose to believe or not, based on how we chose to interpret reality.  Again, remember that some who saw Jesus casting out demons believed him to be doing so with evil. 

            And so, we can’t know in a scientifically provable way, the truth of Jesus.  Those who saw Jesus cast out demons didn’t know, either.  They saw, and they believed. 

            So, what does it take for us to believe?  Some of us have had our own experiences of God, ways in which God has revealed himself to us, or experiences which we have interpreted as such, and so we believe.  For some, belief simply makes sense. 

            On the other hand, some don’t have their own experiences of God, or haven’t recognized them as such.  Some of us have only the stories and witnesses of those who have gone before us.  Sometimes these stories are from scripture.  Sometimes these stories come from our family and friends.  We have the belief of those before us to guide us into believing.  We have the belief of those who have found the love, awe, and respect of the Lord to be the beginning of wisdom, and then we can let their belief guide us, until we have found truth there.  For some, belief has come to make sense over time.  For some belief came automatically.

            For some of us, we may still be struggling, hoping for an epiphany to give us enough certainty to feel ok about believing.  To those, I would say “keep wrestling.  Keep struggling.”  If you wait until you know, in order to believe, then you likely never will.  So keep acting as though you believe.  Worship, pray, study scripture, listen to the stories of your family and friends.  See if, over time, the love, awe, and respect of God proves to be the beginning of wisdom for you as well.

            In this season of Epiphany, of the continual revealing of Jesus as God, remember that none of us know.  Even those with our own epiphanies don’t know.  We believe.  Whether we believe because of our own epiphanies or because of those who have gone before us, the key is that we believe.  We believe in God, and we allow that belief to be real enough to change our lives. 

            We believe because we have heard the story of God’s love for us in becoming human, God’s forgiveness and redemption of all the world in dying, and God’s life and love which his invites us to share in his resurrection.  We hear that story and find it beautiful, and so we believe.  We hear that story and we find it to be more compelling than any other story we have heard, and so we believe.  We believe because we, like the psalmist, have found the love, awe, and respect of God to be the beginning of wisdom.  Amen.

           

Seeing Jesus, Being Jesus

Brad Sullivan

3rd Sunday of Easter
Sunday, May 8th, 2011
Emmanuel, Houston
Acts 2:14a, 36-41
Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17
1 Peter 1:17-23
Luke 24:13-35

I love the story of the journey of Cleopas, his companion, and risen / disguised Jesus to Emmaus. One thing I just noticed in the story is that Jesus was going on.  They were turning in for the night, and Jesus was heading on.  Perhaps he had somewhere he needed to be?  I wonder, however, if he might have been testing Cleopas and his companion.  I don't mean that in a harsh or cruel way, but they had been his disciples.  They had heard him preach and teach about loving their neighbors and offering hospitality to others.  I wonder if he was seeing what they would do, if they would remember, and they did.  They got it.  They were living out the way of life he had given them, embodying his teachings.  We'll get back to that in a little bit.

As I said when I began, I love this story.  It’s exciting. It’s comforting. It’s confusing. It’s beautiful. These folks had the scriptures opened up to them by some guy they met on the road, offered hospitality to him, they shared a meal, and then, suddenly, there was God, there was Jesus sitting right before them.

How did they not know that it was Jesus beforehand? We don’t exactly know. Scripture says their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  Perhaps Jesus’ face changed in a similar way as it did during the transfiguration. Perhaps God put some mental block on them so that the whole time they were thinking, “who is this guy? It’s right on the tip of my tongue. He looks so familiar.”  These were Jesus’ disciples, but maybe they were kinda of like proto-Episcopalians and always sat in the back whenever he preached so they just never got that good of a look at him. We don’t know exactly how this story happened, we believe that it did.

On the day Jesus was raised from the dead, he appeared to his disciples, and there was something different about him and he could appear and disappear at will (which is really pretty cool, could get you out of some awkward situations, but it was still Jesus. It was the man whom they had known and loved and followed.

Not too long after Jesus appeared to his disciples, he seemingly left. Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to be with us. We believe Jesus will come again to complete the restoration of the world and make creation new. It might seem a logical conclusion then that Jesus is gone in the mean time. We’re waiting for Jesus to return, therefore he must be gone right now. Right?

One of the great things about God is that the flipside of the coin need not always hold. God knows everything. We have free will. The flip side of each of those coins contradicts the other, and that’s where the dog is buried. Jesus left. He ascended into heaven. Jesus is still here with us. That’s where the dog is buried.

So, if Jesus is still with us, and people sometimes encounter him as they are walking along, when have you encountered Jesus? By that, I don’t mean when have you seen the risen Jesus come down from heaven and show you the marks of the nails in some pre-second coming experience? Maybe such experiences can happen; they just aren’t what I’m talking about today.

I’m talking about something a little more spiritual and mystical. When have you seen God’s will or God’s word embodied in another person?

Bishop Doyle was here for Confirmation last Wednesday, and he talked about God’s will and knowing God’s will. That seems a pretty bold statement, “I know God’s will.” Then he reminded us that we’ve heard God’s will expressed time and again in Scripture. Love God. Love people. We heard God’s will expressed in the words of Micah, telling us to be just and merciful, and to walk humbly with God.

We hear of God’s will embodied in Jesus who was just and merciful, who walked humbly with God, loving God and people. During Jesus’ life on earth, God’s will and word were embodied in the particular person of Jesus of Nazareth, and God’s will and word were still present and active in the rest of creation, including other people. John the Baptist comes to mind as one example of someone in whom God’s will and word were present and active. So God was localized in Jesus and present everywhere.

After Jesus’ death and resurrection, Jesus was still the one particular person whom he had been his whole life, the same person whom Cleopas and his companion encountered on the road to Emmaus. At the same time, after his death and resurrection, Jesus kinda went everywhere. Paul tells the Romans and the Corinthians that Jesus is in them. Jesus is in us. While still the particular person, Jesus of Nazareth, resurrected, Jesus is also within each of us. So, Jesus can be everyman or everywoman.

Jesus can be mom. That seems rather appropriate on Mother’s Day. The images of God as mother are well documented in Scripture. They are sparcely documented, but well documented.  There’s one, Isaiah 49:15, which I love: “Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.”

The image of God as a nursing mother, and God giving birth to people and creation out of her womb is a beautiful image and one that’s sustained me greatly in some difficult times. So, Jesus can be mommy. Jesus can be daddy. Jesus can be everyone in the world while still being the particular person, God whom Jesus is.

So, with all of that being said, when have you encountered the risen Jesus? When have you encountered someone being just, merciful, loving, walking humbly with God? When has someone been forgiving towards you? When has someone been a light to guide you out of darkness?  When have your seen someone embody the teachings of Jesus, his word and way of life?  Considering that Cleopas and his companion embodied Jesus' teachings and way of life, I wonder if Jesus might have encountered himself in them.  

Jesus shows up quite a lot, doesn’t he? So, for a final thought for the day, think again about your life, but turn the question back on yourself. When have you been the risen Jesus for others? Amen.