Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
John 12:1-8
1Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. 3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) 7Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. 8You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”[1]
“Wonderfully, Abundantly Wasteful”
When I first met my wife Alisha, I had already made the decision to go to seminary. I had made the decision to go, but I was sort of dragging my feet because I had a really great job that paid pretty well and allowed me a ton a free time. But, about the time I first met Alisha, the company I was working for decided to restructure and I was told my job would be gone in a month.
As we were first dating, my job ended. I applied to seminary and was trying to figure out exactly how I was going to survive for three or four years of school with no job and no money. I had money saved and I received a nice severance package from my job, but it was pretty clear that in a few months I would be broke. I was facing a very uncertain financial future, but I certainly wasn’t acting like it. I had met a girl that I liked quite a bit and I was responding in that totally illogical way that people do when they are in love.
I took her out to dinner, I bought her gifts, I sent her and took her flowers. And then, I did something totally outrageous. I decided that I really wanted her to be my wife. So I, a person who actually had no job, nor any real plans for having one for the next three or four years, went out a bought a ring that was worth more than the truck I was driving at the time. And then, I went to planning the perfect place to give it to her.
Our first real date had been on the shore to Town Lake in downtown Austin. One of the wonderful things about Austin is that at certain times of the year right a sunset, large clouds of bats swarm from underneath the Congress Street Bridge that crosses the lake. If you have never seen it, it may sound kind of odd, but trust me, it is an amazing site. So that was our first date and I wanted to recreate it, but I wanted to make it better. There are boats that give group rides out on the lake for people to get a better view of the bats, but that wasn’t good enough. So I rented my own boat. And that wasn’t quite enough so I got a hotel on the lake to cater dinner and have it waiting on the boat when we arrived. So we went to the boat, got on, rode out to the middle of the lake, enjoyed a lovely romantic dinner, just the two of us, with the city of Austin surrounding us. I don’t think we ever got to see the bats, I couldn’t wait. I pulled out that ring and asked her to marry me and she said yes.
Now many of you are thinking, “How romantic.” Others of you are adding it all up: the ring, the boat, the dinner. Yes, trust me; we are talking about a lot of money!
1Six days before the Passover Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead.
As we, in the church, come to the end of Lent, the events surrounding Jesus are coming to a fever pitch. If we don’t look carefully, we don’t see the tension and chaos in this very sentence. We are coming to the end of the road, to the end of the journey. The time is drawing near. In six days, Jesus will share a Passover meal with his followers, then proceed into the garden where he will be arrested, then questioned, then beaten and eventually executed. The place is growing near. Jesus is in Bethany, very close to Jerusalem where the fateful events will occur. The tension and controversy are so thick you can feel it. He is at the house of Lazarus, the one that Jesus just raised from the dead. This act has continued to enrage the religious leaders and cause them to plot against Jesus. Jesus knew the tension. In chapter 11:
54Jesus therefore no longer walked about openly among the Jews, but went from there to a town called Ephraim in the region near the wilderness; and he remained there with the disciples.
But now, here he is, days away from death, just a couple of miles away from Jerusalem and standing in the midst of the controversy.
2There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him.
It occurs to me at this point that Jesus is just trying to cause trouble. Lazarus was recently dead. Jewish law was very clear that the dead were unclean. If you even touched a corpse, you were ritually unclean and had to go through some time and ritual of purification before you could do certain things in community, especially things like eat, and especially things like celebrate the Passover which is six days away. Not that they had written a specific law about whether or not you could eat with a recently dead man, I am sure that it would have been frowned upon. But here is Jesus, sitting at the table, eating with his friend Lazarus.
3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
The Bible throws the name Mary around like we are all supposed to know who we are talking about. There are far too many Marys for us not to include some last names. There is Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and now another Mary. This Mary is the sister to Martha. They are from Bethany and their brother Lazarus has just been raised from the dead.
3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
I want to clarify exactly how costly we are talking about. Nard comes from a very particular plant, the nardostachys jatamansi plant to be specific, which is only found in the Himalayas of India.[2] Remember these are the days before air freight and Wal-Mart, so getting your hands on something like this took some money. How much? Well scripture gives us a clue when Judas says:
5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”
One denarius was about one day’s wages. So we are talking about a year’s wages worth of perfume. The old wisdom about engagement rings was you should spend two months salary. Here is a gift that cost a whole year’s salary. This all makes what I thought was an extravagant gesture to ask my wife to marry me seem quite insignificant.
3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
This is an extravagant moment. Not only did she spend the money, she is showing her love in an extravagant way. She is down on her hands and knees anointing his feet, rubbing this wonderful perfume into his feet and then wiping his feet with her hair, which is even more unusual in context. Women’s hair was to be kept up. It certainly wasn’t ok to be using it to wipe a man’s feet. And the fragrance from the perfume, the fragrance from this act of devotion is just filling the room.
This is an amazingly spontaneous moment of gratitude and worship, by a person who just can’t help but show her love for Jesus. It seems a little different from how we worship most of the time. Amen?
But there are moments as humans when we do something just crazy. We celebrate God in ways that seem crazy to many outside the faith and even more inside the faith. Since Jesus isn’t walking around any more and we can’t anoint his feet, we tend to build stuff. Massive cathedrals with stone and stained glass. Monuments to our overwhelming love and gratitude.
But then Judas speaks up:
4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?”
And Judas has a very good point doesn’t he? God doesn’t need our stuff. God doesn’t need material things. Wouldn’t our money be better spent taking care of the poor?
That’s what a friend of mine says whenever he sees a giant church or cathedral. “Why do they need that?” he asks. “Couldn’t they give that money to the poor?” And there is always part of me that agrees. But then there is another part that says, maybe they just can’t help themselves.
The money I spent on my then girlfriend, now wife was crazy and totally out of character for me. I tend to be frugal. I would rather give my money to the poor than spend it on myself. But, I couldn’t help myself and there is something wonderful about that.
But let’s look back to the scripture a moment.
4But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, 5“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” 6(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.)
Often this sort of thing is true in our reaction to people’s over exuberant response to God. Judas’ response had nothing to do with the poor. It is implied that he would have rather had the money for himself.
I often want to have the guts to challenge someone who says, “I think churches spend too much on things like buildings and stained glass and organs. They should give that money to the poor.” I want to challenge them by saying, “how much money have you given to the poor lately?” Perhaps they hadn’t given any. This wasn’t about the poor it was about taking exception to an overly exuberant response to God.
And it is not always even about money and things. We tend to get nervous anytime we experience people who are expressing their love for God and dedication to God in overly exuberant ways. Maybe they say amen too loud. Maybe they raise their hands in worship. Maybe they actually talk to their friends about their faith.
3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Jesus didn’t need the year’s salary worth of perfume, God doesn’t need us to build giant tributes to the almighty, Alisha may have still married me without all the money and effort. Perhaps we need to be careful about how we use the resources we dedicate to God and in the name of love, however that doesn’t mean we should be any less exuberant in our response to the God who gave us and gives us everything.
Perhaps we, at times, need to better channel our response, but not temper our response. You see, we are about to finish our journey with Jesus to the cross. When Jesus reaches Jerusalem, he will make the ultimate sacrifice, he will die on a cross to show the unbelievable depth of the love of God, a love that says, “I love you more than you can ever imagine and I will let my son, my very self suffer at your hands to show you how far that love goes.” And then, three days later, God will show that his love and power is greater than that, greater than death itself, God will use the moment of tragedy on Good Friday and turn it around into a moment of triumph, a moment that says there is nothing so bad that God cannot bring good from it.
And on Easter Sunday, Pastor John will preach about that, we will together, for an hour, celebrate the resurrection and the power of God, and then we will say amen, throw some money in the plate, and head to brunch, completely missing the power of what happened.
3Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
Mary understood what was going on and her response was appropriate. Yeah maybe Judas was
right, maybe it would have been better spent on the poor, but no one in this story is taking a year’s wages and giving it to the poor. You see, this isn’t about giving, it isn’t about money, it is about responding appropriately to the extent of the gift that is given. And it is not about responding out of duty, out of guilt, out of some desire to earn God’s love, it is about a totally spontaneous response to God’s amazing gift to us.
I didn’t have to do any of those things to ask Alisha to marry me. In fact, I didn’t even have to ask her to marry me, I couldn’t help myself.
Jesus isn’t here for us to anoint, but what is the equivalent of responding to Jesus’ gift to us by anointing his feet with a year’s salary worth of perfume?
Is it giving more money? Not just a little more, but enough to make our friends think we are a little nuts?
Is it spending more time in God’s presence? Not just a few extra minutes, but enough that makes people think maybe we are taking this a bit far?
Is it dedicating ourselves to God’s service in outrageously demanding ways?
Is it creating something, whether it be a building or a program that absolutely radiates praise to the creator of the universe?
Our journey is almost over. We are getting closer and closer to the cross with Jesus. We are getting closer and closer to Easter. When the day comes and God’s glory is revealed to all of us, how will we respond? With a polite amen, or something completely over the top?
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] L. Thomas Strong, III, “Nard” in Allen C Meyers, Atrid B. Beck, eds., Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible, (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000) 948
Monday, March 26, 2007
Will Rice - Sermon #36 - “Prodigal, Repentance, Fatted Calf and Other Terms that Don't Tend to Come Up in Polite Conversation”
Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
“Prodigal, Repentance, Fatted Calf and Other Terms that Don't Tend to Come Up in Polite Conversation”
From Luke 15:
15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
Wait a moment. Does anyone have a Bible and know what I have just done? I have skipped over 10 and half verses. I have warned you before about keeping your eyes on preachers with slick PowerPoint presentations. However, today, I do this with the most honorable of intentions. The assigned reading today is the parable contained in verses 11-32. Verses 1 through 3 just do a nice job of setting that up.
There is some grumbling going on. Thank God there is never any grumbling in the church these days! The Pharisees and the scribes, in other words, the religious folks of the day, were aggravated at who Jesus was hanging out with. “Tax collectors and sinners” is a sort of general term here for the riff-raff, those not adhering to the proper teachings of the “church.” Think about it this way, there are some exceptions, but most of you would rather see me sitting in the fellowship hall sharing a pot-luck dinner with nice church folk than stumble into me at the Whiskey River Dance hall on Saturday night.
So that is the setup, but what am I leaving out? Stories about lost things.
4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
8“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
The scripture also tells us that these are parables about repentance.
10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But what is repentance? Let’s come back to that one.
Anyway, this setup piece and these stories about lost stuff prepare us for today’s reading famously called, “The Story of the Prodigal Son” which might not even be the best title. What is unfortunate about the famous stories in the Bible is that those who already know them think they already know what they mean and those who don’t know them rarely get a chance to hear about them because people think everybody already knows them. So let’s slow down a bit.
As Christians, we need to spend some time in the dictionary trying to figure out what we are talking about. What does prodigal even mean?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[1]
Now with that definition in hand, let me read you the story.
3So he told them this parable:
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
Who is the prodigal one here?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[2]
The son?
13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
Or the father?
22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.
Inheritance and divvying up of property is fairly normal stuff in that culture.
The firstborn was entitled to a double share of the inheritance. So, if there were two sons, the property got divided up three ways. The first son got two shares, the second got one share. Dividing property was normal, asking for it before your father was dead, well that was kind of tacky.
My father and mother used to joke with me and my sisters that they were going to give us each our own distinct colored labels so that we could mark things in the house that we wanted when they died. They would catch us talking between ourselves saying, “I am getting that table” and “that piano is mine” and they would say, “You know we are not dead yet.”
13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
We jump to all sorts of conclusions about this dissolute living. The phrase translates more literally, “he scattered his property recklessly” which nearly everybody in my generation is guilty of. We have too much credit card debt; we spend too much on our cars and televisions, etc. We draw conclusions about what this means in our story based on something the older brother says later:
30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!
Now, you just heard the story. The older brother wasn’t with him, he hadn’t even come out of the field to see him; he is just making that up. Siblings do this all the time. They embellish the story to get their sibling into even more trouble. I have never done that.
14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
So he has a run of bad luck. He wastes his money. The famine comes. He gets a horrible job. This feeding pigs thing is certainly in here on purpose. The boy is a Jew, Jesus is telling the story to Jews. For Jews, pigs were unclean. You weren’t supposed to even touch them and this boy has to feed them. And on top of it, he is hungry. He is even willing to eat the stuff the pigs are eating. Some of you in this congregation have raised pigs. That is just gross.
17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
Here in Lent, when we are talking about repentance, this is sometimes quoted as the moment of repentance. But it is just a moment of common sense. “Wait, I could go work for him! It is no worse than this!” I remember, in high school, giving up my farm job for a job at a fast food restaurant, and not a nice one like What-a-burger. After about two weeks, of standing on a tile floor getting splashed with grease, I was back on the farm. I don’t think I was repentant, I just “came to myself.” And so the boy came to himself and he practices a little speech:
18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’
He is practicing a bit of a prayer of confession. I have sinned, I am not worthy, can I have a job? But look what happens:
20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
If you hear nothing else I say today, hear this. I want you to notice the sequence of events. The son has practiced his little confessional speech but he has not delivered it. The father, the one who has a perfect right to be angry, hurt, and dishonored by this boy, who does not know that he is coming to plead for forgiveness, this father acts first. The son has not confessed, repented, made up for it, explained himself, for all his father knows, he is just walking home.
This is the kind of God we worship.
It is easy to rewrite this story in our heads but the father, before he hears anything from the son, “was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”
“He ran” is startling alone. This is the father, the head of the household, in that time, truly the king of the household, running was far beneath him. This was shocking behavior, prodigal behavior. He sees, he runs, he embraces, he kisses. He doesn’t wait for explanations, confessions, promises of better behavior. The father is not looking to have his honor restored, he doesn’t want to know where his money is. No test, no penance, he just sees, runs, embraces, kisses. Who is the prodigal here?
The son is probably a little surprised at this reaction, but still launches into his prepared repentance speech.
21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
The father is not listening. There was more to this speech, “treat me like one of your hired hands,” but the boy never gets to it.
22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
He doesn’t wait for the son’s repentance. He is already lavishing him with love. The ring, a sign of status, of high family position, the sandals, certainly not something the hired hands got to wear. And the fatted calf, that might take a little explanation. Without getting into too much detail, slaughtering the fatted calf meant there would be a lot of meat. Now please remember this is like 2000 years ago in the Middle East. You couldn’t butcher this, have it separated, packed in plastic Styrofoam and freeze the part you didn’t need. Meat went bad pretty fast, so when you were killing the fatted calf, not only were you having a party, you were having a big party! This is lavish, prodigal behavior.
All the son has really done is walked home. The son who has said the equivalent of “I wish you were dead, give me my money” has simply walked homem, mumbled a little bit of the speech he had written to see if he could get a better job on his Dad’s farm, and the father has run to him, embraced him, kissed him, clothed him, honored him and is now throwing a party for him.
I could go into the older brother’s not so graceful reaction, but I don’t even think I need to. In lent, as we journey to the cross and beyond, part of what we talk about it repentance. Remember this series of parables is about repentance:
10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But what does that mean? Too often we hear this word in an overly limited sense as in “too feel bad about” or “to regret.” But the Greek word, metaneow, actually conveys a sense of turning -- of changing one’s mind. My favorite translation of metaneow is to turn one’s heart toward God.
Too often the emotion that is tied to repentance is sorrow. We think of ourselves or others on their knees filled with remorse and regret. But the true emotion of repentance is joy.[3] Because the true work of repentance is in the hands of God. The story doesn’t say the father scolded the son and sent him to his room to think about what he had done, he threw a party! He killed the fatted calf.
I wonder, in what ways, during Lent, as we journey with Jesus to the cross and beyond, we need to “come to ourselves.” In what way do you need to turn your heart toward God and realize that God is already watching for you, waiting to embrace you, kiss, you honor you. Practice your little speech all you want, God is probably not going to let you finish. This isn’t about regret our feeling bad, this is about simply turning around and letting ourselves be embraced by our prodigal God, our lavish, recklessly extravagant God.
Before we finish, I want to put this story back in the context we found it.
15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:
After a couple of stories of lost things Jesus tells the amazingly rich tale of the prodigal father which raises the question for us, are we willing to be a prodigal church?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[4]
If part of our role as a church is to be an outpost of God’s kingdom, if we are to be conduits of God’s love, if we are to make tangible the amazing grace of God, are we willing to be this recklessly extravagant with the love of God?
When people come near us, are we running and embracing and kissing them? (figuratively in most cases) Are we clothing and honoring, are we throwing a lavish party? Or when people come near are we pausing and evaluating, waiting for proof of their intentions?
I want you to think about this for a moment
If you are going to accept God’s grace, who is waiting for yours? Are you waiting for someone to repent so you can forgive them? Do we expect people to feel sorry for their bad behavior before they are truly welcome back into our lives? Into our church?
Are we imitating the extravagant party-throwing grace of God or sitting in judgment? Of ourselves, of others?
As we come to the table today, it is especially important for me to say that all are welcome. It doesn’t matter is you have worked everything out with God. Just “come to yourself” and make the turn toward God. God will do the rest.
[1] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
[2] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
[3] Brian P. Stoffregren, “Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32, 4th Sunday in Lent - Year C” at Exegetical Notes at Cross Marks Christian Resources, http://www.corssmarks.com/brian/luke15x1.htm
[4] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
“Prodigal, Repentance, Fatted Calf and Other Terms that Don't Tend to Come Up in Polite Conversation”
From Luke 15:
15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
Wait a moment. Does anyone have a Bible and know what I have just done? I have skipped over 10 and half verses. I have warned you before about keeping your eyes on preachers with slick PowerPoint presentations. However, today, I do this with the most honorable of intentions. The assigned reading today is the parable contained in verses 11-32. Verses 1 through 3 just do a nice job of setting that up.
There is some grumbling going on. Thank God there is never any grumbling in the church these days! The Pharisees and the scribes, in other words, the religious folks of the day, were aggravated at who Jesus was hanging out with. “Tax collectors and sinners” is a sort of general term here for the riff-raff, those not adhering to the proper teachings of the “church.” Think about it this way, there are some exceptions, but most of you would rather see me sitting in the fellowship hall sharing a pot-luck dinner with nice church folk than stumble into me at the Whiskey River Dance hall on Saturday night.
So that is the setup, but what am I leaving out? Stories about lost things.
4“Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?
8“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?
The scripture also tells us that these are parables about repentance.
10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But what is repentance? Let’s come back to that one.
Anyway, this setup piece and these stories about lost stuff prepare us for today’s reading famously called, “The Story of the Prodigal Son” which might not even be the best title. What is unfortunate about the famous stories in the Bible is that those who already know them think they already know what they mean and those who don’t know them rarely get a chance to hear about them because people think everybody already knows them. So let’s slow down a bit.
As Christians, we need to spend some time in the dictionary trying to figure out what we are talking about. What does prodigal even mean?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[1]
Now with that definition in hand, let me read you the story.
3So he told them this parable:
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them. 13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living. 14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything. 17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger! 18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’ 20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him. 21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate. 25“Now his elder son was in the field; and when he came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing. 26He called one of the slaves and asked what was going on. 27He replied, ‘Your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf, because he has got him back safe and sound.’ 28Then he became angry and refused to go in. His father came out and began to plead with him. 29But he answered his father, ‘Listen! For all these years I have been working like a slave for you, and I have never disobeyed your command; yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends. 30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!’ 31Then the father said to him, ‘Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours. 32But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.’”
Who is the prodigal one here?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[2]
The son?
13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
Or the father?
22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.
11b“There was a man who had two sons.
12The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the property that will belong to me.’ So he divided his property between them.
Inheritance and divvying up of property is fairly normal stuff in that culture.
The firstborn was entitled to a double share of the inheritance. So, if there were two sons, the property got divided up three ways. The first son got two shares, the second got one share. Dividing property was normal, asking for it before your father was dead, well that was kind of tacky.
My father and mother used to joke with me and my sisters that they were going to give us each our own distinct colored labels so that we could mark things in the house that we wanted when they died. They would catch us talking between ourselves saying, “I am getting that table” and “that piano is mine” and they would say, “You know we are not dead yet.”
13A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property in dissolute living.
We jump to all sorts of conclusions about this dissolute living. The phrase translates more literally, “he scattered his property recklessly” which nearly everybody in my generation is guilty of. We have too much credit card debt; we spend too much on our cars and televisions, etc. We draw conclusions about what this means in our story based on something the older brother says later:
30But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him!
Now, you just heard the story. The older brother wasn’t with him, he hadn’t even come out of the field to see him; he is just making that up. Siblings do this all the time. They embellish the story to get their sibling into even more trouble. I have never done that.
14When he had spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need. 15So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs. 16He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating; and no one gave him anything.
So he has a run of bad luck. He wastes his money. The famine comes. He gets a horrible job. This feeding pigs thing is certainly in here on purpose. The boy is a Jew, Jesus is telling the story to Jews. For Jews, pigs were unclean. You weren’t supposed to even touch them and this boy has to feed them. And on top of it, he is hungry. He is even willing to eat the stuff the pigs are eating. Some of you in this congregation have raised pigs. That is just gross.
17But when he came to himself he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired hands have bread enough and to spare, but here I am dying of hunger!
Here in Lent, when we are talking about repentance, this is sometimes quoted as the moment of repentance. But it is just a moment of common sense. “Wait, I could go work for him! It is no worse than this!” I remember, in high school, giving up my farm job for a job at a fast food restaurant, and not a nice one like What-a-burger. After about two weeks, of standing on a tile floor getting splashed with grease, I was back on the farm. I don’t think I was repentant, I just “came to myself.” And so the boy came to himself and he practices a little speech:
18I will get up and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; 19I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me like one of your hired hands.”’
He is practicing a bit of a prayer of confession. I have sinned, I am not worthy, can I have a job? But look what happens:
20So he set off and went to his father. But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
If you hear nothing else I say today, hear this. I want you to notice the sequence of events. The son has practiced his little confessional speech but he has not delivered it. The father, the one who has a perfect right to be angry, hurt, and dishonored by this boy, who does not know that he is coming to plead for forgiveness, this father acts first. The son has not confessed, repented, made up for it, explained himself, for all his father knows, he is just walking home.
This is the kind of God we worship.
It is easy to rewrite this story in our heads but the father, before he hears anything from the son, “was filled with compassion; he ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.”
“He ran” is startling alone. This is the father, the head of the household, in that time, truly the king of the household, running was far beneath him. This was shocking behavior, prodigal behavior. He sees, he runs, he embraces, he kisses. He doesn’t wait for explanations, confessions, promises of better behavior. The father is not looking to have his honor restored, he doesn’t want to know where his money is. No test, no penance, he just sees, runs, embraces, kisses. Who is the prodigal here?
The son is probably a little surprised at this reaction, but still launches into his prepared repentance speech.
21Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
The father is not listening. There was more to this speech, “treat me like one of your hired hands,” but the boy never gets to it.
22But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe—the best one—and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate; 24for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate.
He doesn’t wait for the son’s repentance. He is already lavishing him with love. The ring, a sign of status, of high family position, the sandals, certainly not something the hired hands got to wear. And the fatted calf, that might take a little explanation. Without getting into too much detail, slaughtering the fatted calf meant there would be a lot of meat. Now please remember this is like 2000 years ago in the Middle East. You couldn’t butcher this, have it separated, packed in plastic Styrofoam and freeze the part you didn’t need. Meat went bad pretty fast, so when you were killing the fatted calf, not only were you having a party, you were having a big party! This is lavish, prodigal behavior.
All the son has really done is walked home. The son who has said the equivalent of “I wish you were dead, give me my money” has simply walked homem, mumbled a little bit of the speech he had written to see if he could get a better job on his Dad’s farm, and the father has run to him, embraced him, kissed him, clothed him, honored him and is now throwing a party for him.
I could go into the older brother’s not so graceful reaction, but I don’t even think I need to. In lent, as we journey to the cross and beyond, part of what we talk about it repentance. Remember this series of parables is about repentance:
10Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
But what does that mean? Too often we hear this word in an overly limited sense as in “too feel bad about” or “to regret.” But the Greek word, metaneow, actually conveys a sense of turning -- of changing one’s mind. My favorite translation of metaneow is to turn one’s heart toward God.
Too often the emotion that is tied to repentance is sorrow. We think of ourselves or others on their knees filled with remorse and regret. But the true emotion of repentance is joy.[3] Because the true work of repentance is in the hands of God. The story doesn’t say the father scolded the son and sent him to his room to think about what he had done, he threw a party! He killed the fatted calf.
I wonder, in what ways, during Lent, as we journey with Jesus to the cross and beyond, we need to “come to ourselves.” In what way do you need to turn your heart toward God and realize that God is already watching for you, waiting to embrace you, kiss, you honor you. Practice your little speech all you want, God is probably not going to let you finish. This isn’t about regret our feeling bad, this is about simply turning around and letting ourselves be embraced by our prodigal God, our lavish, recklessly extravagant God.
Before we finish, I want to put this story back in the context we found it.
15Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to him. 2And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.” 3So he told them this parable:
After a couple of stories of lost things Jesus tells the amazingly rich tale of the prodigal father which raises the question for us, are we willing to be a prodigal church?
prod•i•gal
–adjective
1. Wastefully or recklessly extravagant: prodigal expenditure.
2. giving or yielding profusely; lavish (usually fol. by of or with): prodigal of smiles; prodigal with money.
3. lavishly abundant; profuse: nature's prodigal resources.[4]
If part of our role as a church is to be an outpost of God’s kingdom, if we are to be conduits of God’s love, if we are to make tangible the amazing grace of God, are we willing to be this recklessly extravagant with the love of God?
When people come near us, are we running and embracing and kissing them? (figuratively in most cases) Are we clothing and honoring, are we throwing a lavish party? Or when people come near are we pausing and evaluating, waiting for proof of their intentions?
I want you to think about this for a moment
If you are going to accept God’s grace, who is waiting for yours? Are you waiting for someone to repent so you can forgive them? Do we expect people to feel sorry for their bad behavior before they are truly welcome back into our lives? Into our church?
Are we imitating the extravagant party-throwing grace of God or sitting in judgment? Of ourselves, of others?
As we come to the table today, it is especially important for me to say that all are welcome. It doesn’t matter is you have worked everything out with God. Just “come to yourself” and make the turn toward God. God will do the rest.
[1] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
[2] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
[3] Brian P. Stoffregren, “Luke 15.1-3, 11b-32, 4th Sunday in Lent - Year C” at Exegetical Notes at Cross Marks Christian Resources, http://www.corssmarks.com/brian/luke15x1.htm
[4] prodigal. Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/prodigal (accessed: February 26, 2007).
Will Rice - "Who Was Jesus?" Series - Sermon #5 - Jesus The Revolutionary
Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Who Was Jesus?
A Look at the Person of Jesus
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
Sermon 5 – “Jesus the Revolutionary”
Rev. Will Rice
February 18, 2007
Luke 16:17-26:
17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. [1]
“Jesus the Revolutionary”
I have to admit, I wasn’t supposed to be preaching today. I had this sermon series all planned out that I got to end on the sweet note of “Jesus, Man of Prayer” and let pastor John take on this highly volatile piece of scripture and the topic of “Jesus the Revolutionary.”
What is a revolutionary? Merriam – Webster says:
rev·o·lu·tion·aryFunction: noun1 : one engaged in a revolution2 : an advocate or adherent of revolutionary doctrines[2]
Which begs the question, what is a revolution? There are two main definitions that share a similar meaning.
rev·o·lu·tion Function: noun1 a : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course; b : a progressive motion of a body around an axis so that any line of the body parallel to the axis returns to its initial position while remaining parallel to the axis in transit and usually at a constant distance from it.[3]
As in, “the earth revolves around the sun.” This first, physical sense of the word is about going around and turning around. The second definition is much more theoretical but carries the same idea.
2a : a sudden, radical, or complete change b: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation
Jesus, as a revolutionary, then is someone involved in a sudden, complete and radical change, a turning around of things. So that is what we are calling Jesus in today’s sermon title, but can I back that up in scripture? I mean, honestly, that is a little different than the typical picture of Jesus and Christianity as being simply about values and morals.
Let me back up and put today’s scripture reading in context. So far in Luke, Jesus, the troublemaker has made a big scene in his hometown synagogue. Jesus, the rule breaker has gotten into it with some religious folks about interpretation of the law. Jesus has been doing some preaching and some healing. When we left him last week in chapter six, Jesus, man of prayer has listened to God’s direction and called his disciples “whom he also named apostles.[4]”
Just to clarify, there are three groups in this passage. There is “them” the newly appointed disciples/apostles. Then we have the great crowd of disciples, all the rest of the people that, although they were not chosen as part of the 12,are still disciples from the Greek matheteis – student, learner, follower. Group three is a great multitude, all the other folks that showed up.
17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Notice their reason for coming.
18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
They came to hear him AND be healed. I am quite realistic about the fact that if all we did was preach and teach not all of you would be here. I wonder if there is a sermon right there. How many people come to us to be healed and all we do is try to teach them.
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Let’s look at this a little closer.
Makarios, which we translate blessed carries all sorts of implications. Makarios, in Greek, really came to hold a meaning of elite, rich, upper crust. Not lowly and poor or someone who had to toil to earn a living. You see, the philosophy of the age connected wealth and prosperity with blessing. If you were blessed physically and materially, that was a sign of God’s blessings and God’s blessings came through righteousness. The opposite was also true, if you were poor or sick, God was not blessing you and it was most likely your fault. Think of the exchange in the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus sees a man born blind and his disciples ask:
John 9: 1As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
The word for poor there is ptokoi. Don’t hear that as “poor in spirit.” In Matthew’s gospel it says “poor in spirit” but Matthew uses different words. Here it means poor, destitute and it even carries more meaning. It can convey a meaning of having little value, being worthless, being powerless.
So, blessed are the poor, in this context, is just crazy talk. There is nothing blessed about them. They are poor, they are worthless, they are powerless and in the common wisdom of the day, it was most likely their fault that they were like that. Really I hear the same sort of thinking these days. People often blame the poor for their poverty. We figure we somehow earn our prosperity and those who don’t have it must have done something wrong. This is America after all. Doesn’t everyone have the same chance at prosperity if they just work hard enough?
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
That would have sounded great for the poor, but anyone else there might have been thinking, “Wait, I thought the kingdom of God was for the righteous?”
And in case the crowd needed clarification. Jesus goes into the woes. He takes all the categories that would have made someone consider themselves blessed and turns them around:
24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”
Remember, being rich, being full, laughing, being spoken well of, those were considered signs of being blessed and being blessed was a sign of being righteous, so Jesus is completely turning around, revolutionizing all the common wisdom about how God works, how the world works, who is on top and who is on bottom. That sort of thing will get you crucified.
This is no less radical of a thought now, except, we as modern people have learned how to separate religion from the rest of life. We can all hear this on Sunday morning, but think about it terms of the rest of your life. We are raised to tie success to material rewards and we have a sort of ambiguous understanding about how that ties into the blessings of God. We look up to those with material success and we strive to make more money, have food and comfort and to have others speak well of us.
I mean, just think about it. Say you are standing in the church parking lot and two vehicles pull up. The first one a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban, freshly washed the second a 1994 Ford Taurus that is missing its left fender. Out of the Suburban steps the sharply dressed anchorwoman from your favorite evening television newscast. Out of the Taurus steps someone else you saw on television, but he was featured on the newscast in a story about the homeless community and how they are causing problems for downtown businesses. Who is the successful one, who do you look up to, who is blessed? Calling that homeless man successful, one to be looked up to, blessed is completely countercultural, completely revolutionary and it implies a bunch of stuff that we aren’t really very comfortable with.
This isn’t the first time we have seen this sort of strangeness in Luke’s gospel. The week before Christmas, I brought this same thing up preaching from the first chapter of Luke 46-53:
Luke 1:46-55
46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
This isn’t the first time we have seen this in Luke’s gospel. In my sermon on Jesus the Troublemaker, we read from Luke chapter 4 and heard Jesus quote Isaiah saying:
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus’ ministry, even before his birth, was framed as a turning of the world upside down. His first sermon spoke of the good news he was bringing to the poor. Jesus was a revolutionary in the true spirit of the word, one who calls for a radical change that will turn everything we know it upside down. If we don’t see this side of Jesus, we risk letting religion do the opposite, maintaining the status quo where the poor are just poor, probably because of something they did, and where we are always the blessed.
But is this good news to us? I mean what if we consider ourselves as the blessed by the world’s standards? Can we hear this as good news?
24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Yes. Yes. This is good news for us, because God wants us to be part of this. God isn’t casting us away because of what we already have. God gave us Jesus. God has given us the Gospel so that we can be part of the revolution.
I was listening to a sermon the other day from a pastor named Rob Bell. He is the pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in America, Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mars Hill is probably the only fast growing thing in Grand Rapids besides the unemployment rolls.
Before he started the announcements, Rob said this,
“Some of you thought you came to a church service, but this actually a subversive, underground insurgency that is hell bent on the healing and restoration of the whole world.”
This sounds like a pretty revolutionary statement. Notice he doesn’t say “judging the world,” not “escaping the world,” but “healing and restoring the world.” And healing the world starts with asking the question, “who, by the world’s standards, is not blessed?” Because those are the people Jesus is calling us to bless.
Who are the poor, who are the marginalized? Who is suffering, who is hungry, who is hurting physically and emotionally? Who is on the bottom by the standards of the world and what can we do to put them on top?
That same church I just mentioned, Mars Hill, has this statement on the front page of their website:
We are joining God in the restoration of all things by completely giving ourselves to a revolution of love. Our desire is to bring hope and justice to our neighbors and our world.
And they are doing this not but just giving handouts or simply telling the government to fix the problem, but by getting involved with those who hurt, whether by providing food and shelter and safe recreation to kids or by giving the poorest in their community a chance to work by providing job training. They are not just talking about what is wrong with the world, but providing support in the church for people struggling financially, people living with aids, people struggling with dependency and addiction issues, , people living without a home and on and on and on.
And you know what, we do the same sorts of things here at Grace, but often we fail to see their centrality to our calling, how they are part of the calling of Jesus the Revolutionary. A couple members of our church have taken it upon themselves to teach anyone who will listen about the trap of generational poverty and how we can actually pull the poor out of the trap the keeps them poor. Our mentoring program tells kids who live on the margins, in words and actions, “you are valuable and important.” We have people involved in Kairos Prison Ministries that go right into the prisons to say, “we don’t care what you have done, you are still a child of God.” We have people in this church who take time to visit the elderly members of our church and community, some of the most marginalized people in our society, just to take the time to say, “you are important.”
We have a lot of great ministries at Grace, but these I just mentioned are revolutionary ministries, ministries that follow Jesus’ call to take the ones who are the bottom and put them on top.
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
This is good news for us. Not only is it good news for us because any one of us is never more than two bad breaks away from being on the bottom and because we get to be part of this revolution, a revolution that begins by seeing this larger image of Jesus that we have discussed over the last five weeks, and then listening and discerning about our place in the revolution. Some will be called to play a seemingly small part, bringing God’s grace and mercy to one hurting person. Others will have a much more involved calling.
As we have looked at Jesus over the last five weeks, we have seen Jesus who got himself in trouble for being too generous with God’s grace, a Jesus who causes trouble in our hearts by making us consider the limits of our own grace and compassion. We have met Jesus the party-goer who would rather hang out with the riff raff and have an abundantly good time than sit in judgment with the religious elite; a Jesus who continues to change the stale water of religion into the flowing wine of Grace. We hung out with Jesus the rule breaker who helps remind us that the rules were never meant to limit God’s love. We met Jesus, the man of prayer who, who although he was God stayed connected to God to discern where God was calling him. Jesus, who calls us now to be prayerful and discerning, always listening for God’s call on our lives. And this week, we met Jesus, the revolutionary, the one who called for a radical change that puts everyone from the bottom on the top. Jesus, the revolutionary who calls us to join, not a religion, but a revolution.
Jesus is a little more complex than that man in the nice white robes that we learned about as children. Isn’t that wonderful? I hope that the Jesus of history in all his complexity will live in us, change us and make us part of this new thing that God is creating in our world. Amen.
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] “revolutionary” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006. http://www.merriam-webster.com (17 Feb. 2007).
[3] “revolution” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006. http://www.merriam-webster.com (17 Feb. 2007).
[4] Luke 6:13
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Who Was Jesus?
A Look at the Person of Jesus
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
Sermon 5 – “Jesus the Revolutionary”
Rev. Will Rice
February 18, 2007
Luke 16:17-26:
17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. 21“Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. “Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. 22“Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. 23Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. 24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets. [1]
“Jesus the Revolutionary”
I have to admit, I wasn’t supposed to be preaching today. I had this sermon series all planned out that I got to end on the sweet note of “Jesus, Man of Prayer” and let pastor John take on this highly volatile piece of scripture and the topic of “Jesus the Revolutionary.”
What is a revolutionary? Merriam – Webster says:
rev·o·lu·tion·aryFunction: noun1 : one engaged in a revolution2 : an advocate or adherent of revolutionary doctrines[2]
Which begs the question, what is a revolution? There are two main definitions that share a similar meaning.
rev·o·lu·tion Function: noun1 a : the action by a celestial body of going round in an orbit or elliptical course; b : a progressive motion of a body around an axis so that any line of the body parallel to the axis returns to its initial position while remaining parallel to the axis in transit and usually at a constant distance from it.[3]
As in, “the earth revolves around the sun.” This first, physical sense of the word is about going around and turning around. The second definition is much more theoretical but carries the same idea.
2a : a sudden, radical, or complete change b: activity or movement designed to effect fundamental changes in the socioeconomic situation
Jesus, as a revolutionary, then is someone involved in a sudden, complete and radical change, a turning around of things. So that is what we are calling Jesus in today’s sermon title, but can I back that up in scripture? I mean, honestly, that is a little different than the typical picture of Jesus and Christianity as being simply about values and morals.
Let me back up and put today’s scripture reading in context. So far in Luke, Jesus, the troublemaker has made a big scene in his hometown synagogue. Jesus, the rule breaker has gotten into it with some religious folks about interpretation of the law. Jesus has been doing some preaching and some healing. When we left him last week in chapter six, Jesus, man of prayer has listened to God’s direction and called his disciples “whom he also named apostles.[4]”
Just to clarify, there are three groups in this passage. There is “them” the newly appointed disciples/apostles. Then we have the great crowd of disciples, all the rest of the people that, although they were not chosen as part of the 12,are still disciples from the Greek matheteis – student, learner, follower. Group three is a great multitude, all the other folks that showed up.
17He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. 18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
Notice their reason for coming.
18They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. 19And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them.
They came to hear him AND be healed. I am quite realistic about the fact that if all we did was preach and teach not all of you would be here. I wonder if there is a sermon right there. How many people come to us to be healed and all we do is try to teach them.
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
Let’s look at this a little closer.
Makarios, which we translate blessed carries all sorts of implications. Makarios, in Greek, really came to hold a meaning of elite, rich, upper crust. Not lowly and poor or someone who had to toil to earn a living. You see, the philosophy of the age connected wealth and prosperity with blessing. If you were blessed physically and materially, that was a sign of God’s blessings and God’s blessings came through righteousness. The opposite was also true, if you were poor or sick, God was not blessing you and it was most likely your fault. Think of the exchange in the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel. Jesus sees a man born blind and his disciples ask:
John 9: 1As he walked along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"
The word for poor there is ptokoi. Don’t hear that as “poor in spirit.” In Matthew’s gospel it says “poor in spirit” but Matthew uses different words. Here it means poor, destitute and it even carries more meaning. It can convey a meaning of having little value, being worthless, being powerless.
So, blessed are the poor, in this context, is just crazy talk. There is nothing blessed about them. They are poor, they are worthless, they are powerless and in the common wisdom of the day, it was most likely their fault that they were like that. Really I hear the same sort of thinking these days. People often blame the poor for their poverty. We figure we somehow earn our prosperity and those who don’t have it must have done something wrong. This is America after all. Doesn’t everyone have the same chance at prosperity if they just work hard enough?
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
That would have sounded great for the poor, but anyone else there might have been thinking, “Wait, I thought the kingdom of God was for the righteous?”
And in case the crowd needed clarification. Jesus goes into the woes. He takes all the categories that would have made someone consider themselves blessed and turns them around:
24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.”
Remember, being rich, being full, laughing, being spoken well of, those were considered signs of being blessed and being blessed was a sign of being righteous, so Jesus is completely turning around, revolutionizing all the common wisdom about how God works, how the world works, who is on top and who is on bottom. That sort of thing will get you crucified.
This is no less radical of a thought now, except, we as modern people have learned how to separate religion from the rest of life. We can all hear this on Sunday morning, but think about it terms of the rest of your life. We are raised to tie success to material rewards and we have a sort of ambiguous understanding about how that ties into the blessings of God. We look up to those with material success and we strive to make more money, have food and comfort and to have others speak well of us.
I mean, just think about it. Say you are standing in the church parking lot and two vehicles pull up. The first one a 2007 Chevrolet Suburban, freshly washed the second a 1994 Ford Taurus that is missing its left fender. Out of the Suburban steps the sharply dressed anchorwoman from your favorite evening television newscast. Out of the Taurus steps someone else you saw on television, but he was featured on the newscast in a story about the homeless community and how they are causing problems for downtown businesses. Who is the successful one, who do you look up to, who is blessed? Calling that homeless man successful, one to be looked up to, blessed is completely countercultural, completely revolutionary and it implies a bunch of stuff that we aren’t really very comfortable with.
This isn’t the first time we have seen this sort of strangeness in Luke’s gospel. The week before Christmas, I brought this same thing up preaching from the first chapter of Luke 46-53:
Luke 1:46-55
46And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. 52He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; 53he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
This isn’t the first time we have seen this in Luke’s gospel. In my sermon on Jesus the Troublemaker, we read from Luke chapter 4 and heard Jesus quote Isaiah saying:
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Jesus’ ministry, even before his birth, was framed as a turning of the world upside down. His first sermon spoke of the good news he was bringing to the poor. Jesus was a revolutionary in the true spirit of the word, one who calls for a radical change that will turn everything we know it upside down. If we don’t see this side of Jesus, we risk letting religion do the opposite, maintaining the status quo where the poor are just poor, probably because of something they did, and where we are always the blessed.
But is this good news to us? I mean what if we consider ourselves as the blessed by the world’s standards? Can we hear this as good news?
24“But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. 25“Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry. “Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. 26“Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Yes. Yes. This is good news for us, because God wants us to be part of this. God isn’t casting us away because of what we already have. God gave us Jesus. God has given us the Gospel so that we can be part of the revolution.
I was listening to a sermon the other day from a pastor named Rob Bell. He is the pastor of one of the fastest growing churches in America, Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mars Hill is probably the only fast growing thing in Grand Rapids besides the unemployment rolls.
Before he started the announcements, Rob said this,
“Some of you thought you came to a church service, but this actually a subversive, underground insurgency that is hell bent on the healing and restoration of the whole world.”
This sounds like a pretty revolutionary statement. Notice he doesn’t say “judging the world,” not “escaping the world,” but “healing and restoring the world.” And healing the world starts with asking the question, “who, by the world’s standards, is not blessed?” Because those are the people Jesus is calling us to bless.
Who are the poor, who are the marginalized? Who is suffering, who is hungry, who is hurting physically and emotionally? Who is on the bottom by the standards of the world and what can we do to put them on top?
That same church I just mentioned, Mars Hill, has this statement on the front page of their website:
We are joining God in the restoration of all things by completely giving ourselves to a revolution of love. Our desire is to bring hope and justice to our neighbors and our world.
And they are doing this not but just giving handouts or simply telling the government to fix the problem, but by getting involved with those who hurt, whether by providing food and shelter and safe recreation to kids or by giving the poorest in their community a chance to work by providing job training. They are not just talking about what is wrong with the world, but providing support in the church for people struggling financially, people living with aids, people struggling with dependency and addiction issues, , people living without a home and on and on and on.
And you know what, we do the same sorts of things here at Grace, but often we fail to see their centrality to our calling, how they are part of the calling of Jesus the Revolutionary. A couple members of our church have taken it upon themselves to teach anyone who will listen about the trap of generational poverty and how we can actually pull the poor out of the trap the keeps them poor. Our mentoring program tells kids who live on the margins, in words and actions, “you are valuable and important.” We have people involved in Kairos Prison Ministries that go right into the prisons to say, “we don’t care what you have done, you are still a child of God.” We have people in this church who take time to visit the elderly members of our church and community, some of the most marginalized people in our society, just to take the time to say, “you are important.”
We have a lot of great ministries at Grace, but these I just mentioned are revolutionary ministries, ministries that follow Jesus’ call to take the ones who are the bottom and put them on top.
20Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.
This is good news for us. Not only is it good news for us because any one of us is never more than two bad breaks away from being on the bottom and because we get to be part of this revolution, a revolution that begins by seeing this larger image of Jesus that we have discussed over the last five weeks, and then listening and discerning about our place in the revolution. Some will be called to play a seemingly small part, bringing God’s grace and mercy to one hurting person. Others will have a much more involved calling.
As we have looked at Jesus over the last five weeks, we have seen Jesus who got himself in trouble for being too generous with God’s grace, a Jesus who causes trouble in our hearts by making us consider the limits of our own grace and compassion. We have met Jesus the party-goer who would rather hang out with the riff raff and have an abundantly good time than sit in judgment with the religious elite; a Jesus who continues to change the stale water of religion into the flowing wine of Grace. We hung out with Jesus the rule breaker who helps remind us that the rules were never meant to limit God’s love. We met Jesus, the man of prayer who, who although he was God stayed connected to God to discern where God was calling him. Jesus, who calls us now to be prayerful and discerning, always listening for God’s call on our lives. And this week, we met Jesus, the revolutionary, the one who called for a radical change that puts everyone from the bottom on the top. Jesus, the revolutionary who calls us to join, not a religion, but a revolution.
Jesus is a little more complex than that man in the nice white robes that we learned about as children. Isn’t that wonderful? I hope that the Jesus of history in all his complexity will live in us, change us and make us part of this new thing that God is creating in our world. Amen.
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] “revolutionary” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006. http://www.merriam-webster.com (17 Feb. 2007).
[3] “revolution” Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. 2006. http://www.merriam-webster.com (17 Feb. 2007).
[4] Luke 6:13
Will Rice - "Who Was Jesus?" Series - Sermon #4 - Jesus, Man of Prayer
Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Luke 6:12-13:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.[1]
“Jesus Man of Prayer”
Well this week’s sermon has the least provocative title of any in our series Who Was Jesus. We had “Jesus the Troublemaker” then “Jesus the Party Goer” then “Jesus the Rule Breaker” now, “Jesus, Man of Prayer.” Some of you may be thinking, “well, duh.” It could be part of my series on incredibly obvious traits of God with other titles like “God is Pretty Big” and “The Holy Spirit, Not a Great Football Player.”
But there is also a little oddness to the idea of “Jesus, Man of Prayer.” I mean, we believe that Jesus is God, Emmanuel, God with us. We believe in the Holy Trinity, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. So Jesus praying is in some way God talking to himself. A human being with the mind of God certainly shouldn’t need to pray as much as we do right?
Before we look at today’s scripture, let me catch you up. Last week, we read Luke 6:1-11 and heard about Jesus and the disciples breaking some religious rules and getting the religious folks of the day pretty mad. Here is what happened next.
12Now during those days
That is some stiff language. We might say something like, “about that same time” or “just about then.”
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Not to disagree with the translators of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, but it actually says he spent the whole night in prayer to God. Not a huge distinction but we are trying to see who Jesus was and Jesus was a man who would spend a whole night praying to God. That would be in comparison to many of us who are lucky to find five minutes a day.
Jesus prayed a lot. I am again astounding you with my wisdom. Jesus talked about praying a lot too but let’s start with him actually praying and let’s limit ourselves to Luke’s gospel.
It all starts in chapter 3:
21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
Jesus’ first praying experience in Luke’s gospel goes pretty well. Just so you know, that sort of thing doesn’t regularly happen to me when I am praying, although, the problem may be that I am not expecting something like that to happen.
Luke 5:
15But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Jesus is needing to get away to pray. This isn’t a one time thing, notice “he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” I know the biggest obstacle in my prayer life and the one I hear about most from others is, “I am just so busy.” This passage always reminds me, I am not quite as busy as Jesus and nothing I am doing in my busyness is nearly as important as what Jesus was doing.
16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Another obstacle I tend to bring up is that I just can’t find a quiet place. I brought this up to a spiritual director once who spent ten minutes listing off all the possibilities. “Can’t you sit in your car? Can’t you close your office door? Can’t you go to a coffee shop and pretend you are reading? Can’t you go for a walk? Can’t you go to the park?” Ok. Ok. Ok. So that is just an excuse.
Our text for today is from Luke 6:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
The whole night. Well it is clear that Jesus didn’t have kids or a job or a cell phone.
In Luke 9, he starts taking some friends along:
18Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?
Men praying near other men. I guess Jesus didn’t worry about that macho thing.
Later in Luke 9 three of his friends got to go:
28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
Again with the praying with other men. The fact that he takes these times out to pray tells us a lot about who Jesus was. Except, wouldn’t a transcript be nice? What was Jesus praying about? What was he saying or not saying in those times of prayer?
I don’t doubt that people pray. According the Pew Research Center, “eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say that prayer is an important part of their daily lives.”[2] I think the question may be the why and how we are praying.
In Luke 11, one of Jesus’ friends finally thinks to ask him about it:
1He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
Ok, here we go:
2He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
Great, part of what we call The Lord’s Prayer. Now we know how to pray. But back to today’s text:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Just a little math. If you say it slow, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." takes about 20 seconds to say. You could say it three times a minutes, 180 times an hour, figure “all night” is about 8 hours that is about 1440 times you could say that all night in prayer to God. Which raises the question, what else is going on?
I grew up in the age of the CB radio. My family would travel across the country every year from New York to Texas to spend some time with my mother’s family. My father’s car was equipped with a CB radio. On it we could hear and talk with other travelers, mostly truckers sharing weather and traffic info, finding out where the police were checking speed and just passing the time. The neat thing about a CB radio is that, unlike a telephone you can’t talk and listen at the same time. The microphone has a switch. You press it down to talk and when you do, it cuts off the speaker so that you can’t hear anyone else. Because of this, people using this form of communication developed a tool to make this work. When you are done talking on a CB, just before you let up on the switch you say, “Over.” That way the person on the other end knows that it is their turn to talk.
Think about this, on a CB radio, when the other person is talking, even if you start talking, they can’t hear you until they say over and let up on their switch. You can’t interrupt them, all you can do is listen.
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
I am assuming there was a lot of listening going on.
“Eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say that prayer is an important part of their daily lives.”[3] But sometimes I wonder, how many of us press down on the button to talk and when we are done just turn the radio off. How many of us are just spending our time in prayer talking and not listening.
Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine writes:
There are many misunderstandings about prayer. For many, prayer is talking to God, sometimes with a great list of requests and needs – sort of like children’s Christmas lists mailed to Santa Claus. But, at least for me, prayer is more often becoming a time of listening than talking. There is so much noise in our world and our lives (much of our own making); prayer becomes a quiet space enabling us to stop talking long enough to see what God might be trying to say to us.[4]
“Prayer as listening.” How often do we take time to listen to God? We go to God in prayer asking. Maybe we are asking for the most selfless things, maybe we are asking to be instruments of God’s grace, maybe we are asking for healing for others, maybe we are asking for guidance or peace, but when we are done asking and God is ready to respond, we shut off the radio.
Let’s look again at today’s scripture.
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:
Jesus was discerning. He was about to make an important decision about the future of his ministry and he wanted to make sure he listened for all the guidance God would give him.
When I say that Jesus was a man a prayer, I am not just saying that Jesus was a man who went through the actions and routines of prayer, but that Jesus lived a life of prayer. Author and professor Roberta Bondi speaks of prayer as:
“Prayer is a shared life with God”
Jesus, the man of prayer took the time to be in communication with God, to speak to God, to listen to God and to live his life a life of praise and thanksgiving and a life that was directed in ministry by the calling of God.
If we take time to listen to God and truly allow God’s response to our prayers to guide our lives, where will that lead us? That is what I am asking you to consider today. Many of you received, in the mail, a couple of weeks back one of these cards asking you to consider where you feel called to be in ministry in 2007. If you didn’t get one or you don’t have it, there are some in the pews. This is part of our stewardship of service emphasis. I will say again, the point of this emphasis is not to fill all the jobs in the church, but rather to help you discern where God is calling you to use the gifts you have been given in service to the church, to God, to the world, to the creation of God’s Kingdom on earth.
There are all sorts of ministries on these cards. Sometimes it is hard to see how they all fit together in the overall ministry of the church, but they do. You see, if we can all be discerning about how and where God is calling us in the world, the church can do amazing things. Some of these ministries are just a first step for many people who will learn and grow through them leading them to more and different ministries in the church and outside.
I want to explain how these cards work. If you are already involved in a ministry and feel called to continue, write all your information on the card and check re-commit. If you feel like God is calling you to something else on that card, even if you are just not sure what that looks like or if you are really ready for that ministry, check learn. You will be contacted and either invited to an information session or invited to have a one on one conversation with someone already engaged in that ministry. Once you know what that ministry is all about, you can decide whether or not you think you are called and equipped.
There is also a blank box on the cards. Maybe in listening to God, you have heard a calling beyond the scope of these cards. Write it in the box and commit to God that you are going to continue to learn and discern and listen about that calling.
I hope some of you have already been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks, but I want all of us this morning to listen. In our singing, in our time of confession, at the table, I want you to be listening. There is not going to be a formal end to the service today. As we receive communion you are welcome to bring a card to the rail and commit your intentions to God. If you are still listening and discerning you may do that at the rails and then back at your seat. You can leave this morning on your own whenever you are ready.
If you do not hear clearly today, I want to invite you to continue praying and listening over the coming weeks and consider turning in your card in the plate next week or returning it to the office or even calling or emailing me and telling me where you feel called. And I want to invite you to that sort of discernment every day, that we may all live our lives constantly seeking and listening for God’s call and claim on our lives.
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] The Pew Research Center, “The 2004 Political Landscape, Evenly Divided and Increasingly Polarized”, 3 November 2003, accessed 7, February 2007; internet
[3] ibid
[4] Jim Wallis, “Revolutionary Prayer”, blogpost on Beliefnet and Sojourners present: God’s Politics a blog by Jim Wallis and Friend, 5 February 2007, accessed 10 February 2007; internet
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Luke 6:12-13:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles.[1]
“Jesus Man of Prayer”
Well this week’s sermon has the least provocative title of any in our series Who Was Jesus. We had “Jesus the Troublemaker” then “Jesus the Party Goer” then “Jesus the Rule Breaker” now, “Jesus, Man of Prayer.” Some of you may be thinking, “well, duh.” It could be part of my series on incredibly obvious traits of God with other titles like “God is Pretty Big” and “The Holy Spirit, Not a Great Football Player.”
But there is also a little oddness to the idea of “Jesus, Man of Prayer.” I mean, we believe that Jesus is God, Emmanuel, God with us. We believe in the Holy Trinity, that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are one. So Jesus praying is in some way God talking to himself. A human being with the mind of God certainly shouldn’t need to pray as much as we do right?
Before we look at today’s scripture, let me catch you up. Last week, we read Luke 6:1-11 and heard about Jesus and the disciples breaking some religious rules and getting the religious folks of the day pretty mad. Here is what happened next.
12Now during those days
That is some stiff language. We might say something like, “about that same time” or “just about then.”
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Not to disagree with the translators of the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, but it actually says he spent the whole night in prayer to God. Not a huge distinction but we are trying to see who Jesus was and Jesus was a man who would spend a whole night praying to God. That would be in comparison to many of us who are lucky to find five minutes a day.
Jesus prayed a lot. I am again astounding you with my wisdom. Jesus talked about praying a lot too but let’s start with him actually praying and let’s limit ourselves to Luke’s gospel.
It all starts in chapter 3:
21Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, 22and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
Jesus’ first praying experience in Luke’s gospel goes pretty well. Just so you know, that sort of thing doesn’t regularly happen to me when I am praying, although, the problem may be that I am not expecting something like that to happen.
Luke 5:
15But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Jesus is needing to get away to pray. This isn’t a one time thing, notice “he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.” I know the biggest obstacle in my prayer life and the one I hear about most from others is, “I am just so busy.” This passage always reminds me, I am not quite as busy as Jesus and nothing I am doing in my busyness is nearly as important as what Jesus was doing.
16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.
Another obstacle I tend to bring up is that I just can’t find a quiet place. I brought this up to a spiritual director once who spent ten minutes listing off all the possibilities. “Can’t you sit in your car? Can’t you close your office door? Can’t you go to a coffee shop and pretend you are reading? Can’t you go for a walk? Can’t you go to the park?” Ok. Ok. Ok. So that is just an excuse.
Our text for today is from Luke 6:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
The whole night. Well it is clear that Jesus didn’t have kids or a job or a cell phone.
In Luke 9, he starts taking some friends along:
18Once when Jesus was praying alone, with only the disciples near him, he asked them, "Who do the crowds say that I am?
Men praying near other men. I guess Jesus didn’t worry about that macho thing.
Later in Luke 9 three of his friends got to go:
28Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter and John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray.
Again with the praying with other men. The fact that he takes these times out to pray tells us a lot about who Jesus was. Except, wouldn’t a transcript be nice? What was Jesus praying about? What was he saying or not saying in those times of prayer?
I don’t doubt that people pray. According the Pew Research Center, “eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say that prayer is an important part of their daily lives.”[2] I think the question may be the why and how we are praying.
In Luke 11, one of Jesus’ friends finally thinks to ask him about it:
1He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
Ok, here we go:
2He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial."
Great, part of what we call The Lord’s Prayer. Now we know how to pray. But back to today’s text:
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
Just a little math. If you say it slow, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3Give us each day our daily bread. 4And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." takes about 20 seconds to say. You could say it three times a minutes, 180 times an hour, figure “all night” is about 8 hours that is about 1440 times you could say that all night in prayer to God. Which raises the question, what else is going on?
I grew up in the age of the CB radio. My family would travel across the country every year from New York to Texas to spend some time with my mother’s family. My father’s car was equipped with a CB radio. On it we could hear and talk with other travelers, mostly truckers sharing weather and traffic info, finding out where the police were checking speed and just passing the time. The neat thing about a CB radio is that, unlike a telephone you can’t talk and listen at the same time. The microphone has a switch. You press it down to talk and when you do, it cuts off the speaker so that you can’t hear anyone else. Because of this, people using this form of communication developed a tool to make this work. When you are done talking on a CB, just before you let up on the switch you say, “Over.” That way the person on the other end knows that it is their turn to talk.
Think about this, on a CB radio, when the other person is talking, even if you start talking, they can’t hear you until they say over and let up on their switch. You can’t interrupt them, all you can do is listen.
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God.
I am assuming there was a lot of listening going on.
“Eight-in-ten Americans (81%) say that prayer is an important part of their daily lives.”[3] But sometimes I wonder, how many of us press down on the button to talk and when we are done just turn the radio off. How many of us are just spending our time in prayer talking and not listening.
Jim Wallis, founder and editor of Sojourners Magazine writes:
There are many misunderstandings about prayer. For many, prayer is talking to God, sometimes with a great list of requests and needs – sort of like children’s Christmas lists mailed to Santa Claus. But, at least for me, prayer is more often becoming a time of listening than talking. There is so much noise in our world and our lives (much of our own making); prayer becomes a quiet space enabling us to stop talking long enough to see what God might be trying to say to us.[4]
“Prayer as listening.” How often do we take time to listen to God? We go to God in prayer asking. Maybe we are asking for the most selfless things, maybe we are asking to be instruments of God’s grace, maybe we are asking for healing for others, maybe we are asking for guidance or peace, but when we are done asking and God is ready to respond, we shut off the radio.
Let’s look again at today’s scripture.
12Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray; and he spent the night in prayer to God. 13And when day came, he called his disciples and chose twelve of them, whom he also named apostles:
Jesus was discerning. He was about to make an important decision about the future of his ministry and he wanted to make sure he listened for all the guidance God would give him.
When I say that Jesus was a man a prayer, I am not just saying that Jesus was a man who went through the actions and routines of prayer, but that Jesus lived a life of prayer. Author and professor Roberta Bondi speaks of prayer as:
“Prayer is a shared life with God”
Jesus, the man of prayer took the time to be in communication with God, to speak to God, to listen to God and to live his life a life of praise and thanksgiving and a life that was directed in ministry by the calling of God.
If we take time to listen to God and truly allow God’s response to our prayers to guide our lives, where will that lead us? That is what I am asking you to consider today. Many of you received, in the mail, a couple of weeks back one of these cards asking you to consider where you feel called to be in ministry in 2007. If you didn’t get one or you don’t have it, there are some in the pews. This is part of our stewardship of service emphasis. I will say again, the point of this emphasis is not to fill all the jobs in the church, but rather to help you discern where God is calling you to use the gifts you have been given in service to the church, to God, to the world, to the creation of God’s Kingdom on earth.
There are all sorts of ministries on these cards. Sometimes it is hard to see how they all fit together in the overall ministry of the church, but they do. You see, if we can all be discerning about how and where God is calling us in the world, the church can do amazing things. Some of these ministries are just a first step for many people who will learn and grow through them leading them to more and different ministries in the church and outside.
I want to explain how these cards work. If you are already involved in a ministry and feel called to continue, write all your information on the card and check re-commit. If you feel like God is calling you to something else on that card, even if you are just not sure what that looks like or if you are really ready for that ministry, check learn. You will be contacted and either invited to an information session or invited to have a one on one conversation with someone already engaged in that ministry. Once you know what that ministry is all about, you can decide whether or not you think you are called and equipped.
There is also a blank box on the cards. Maybe in listening to God, you have heard a calling beyond the scope of these cards. Write it in the box and commit to God that you are going to continue to learn and discern and listen about that calling.
I hope some of you have already been thinking about this over the last couple of weeks, but I want all of us this morning to listen. In our singing, in our time of confession, at the table, I want you to be listening. There is not going to be a formal end to the service today. As we receive communion you are welcome to bring a card to the rail and commit your intentions to God. If you are still listening and discerning you may do that at the rails and then back at your seat. You can leave this morning on your own whenever you are ready.
If you do not hear clearly today, I want to invite you to continue praying and listening over the coming weeks and consider turning in your card in the plate next week or returning it to the office or even calling or emailing me and telling me where you feel called. And I want to invite you to that sort of discernment every day, that we may all live our lives constantly seeking and listening for God’s call and claim on our lives.
[1] The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] The Pew Research Center, “The 2004 Political Landscape, Evenly Divided and Increasingly Polarized”, 3 November 2003, accessed 7, February 2007; internet
[3] ibid
[4] Jim Wallis, “Revolutionary Prayer”, blogpost on Beliefnet and Sojourners present: God’s Politics a blog by Jim Wallis and Friend, 5 February 2007, accessed 10 February 2007; internet
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Who Was Jesus? And Where are the Sermons?
I am catching up on posting the sermons for the "Who Was Jesus?" series. Week three is now up in text form. The audio should follow tomorrow.
"Who Was Jesus?" week three - Jesus the Rule Breaker
peace,
will
"Who Was Jesus?" week three - Jesus the Rule Breaker
peace,
will
Will Rice - "Who Was Jesus?" Series - Sermon #3 - Jesus the Rule Breaker
Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Luke 6:1-11
“Jesus the Rule Breaker”
Before I start into this text, let me ask you a few questions. You won’t have to answer aloud, just sort of let the answers float around in your head. All the questions start with, “Can you still be a good Christian if…”
you don’t go to church every Sunday?
you don’t go to church at all?
you don’t pray?
you don’t give money to the church?
you don’t observe the sabbath?
you don’t read the Bible?
you are divorced?
you steal?
you drink beer?
you drink lots of beer?
you’re pro-choice?
you’re gay?
In case you are waiting for the answers, keep waiting. This is a fun exercise to do without anyone talking. If I let you answer out loud, this would take the rest of our time together. I think it is likely that many of you have an opinion or two on these two topics.
Let’s look at today’s text. As always, when trying to understand Jesus, it really helps us to know what is going on in the background.
1One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
There is a whole Bible study right here. Let’s look at their question, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” I grew up in a farm town. When I worked on a farm and my boss, Bill Henry caught someone is his fields, helping themselves to corn, tomatoes, green peppers or melons, Bill called that stealing. But that is not what is going on here. The law of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy, to be specific, said that it was quite ok to do this: Chapter 23:
25If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
So what Jesus’ disciples are doing is perfectly legal. As long as they weren’t using a sickle, they could pluck all the wanted to eat. The Law of Moses was very clear about the fact that everything was a gift from God. Ownership was only a limited concept. If people were hungry, they could eat some of your crops.
So their question, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” is not about stealing. It is not about what they are doing, it is about when they are doing it. Sabbath, the fourth and longest of the Ten Commandments.
8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
There is a reference within a reference here, we are looking back to Genesis 2:
2And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
This is my favorite commandment. It is my favorite because it is the one that many Christians flagrantly break while looking down their noses at others for not keeping the other nine. Whenever I point out this fact, people tend to either ignore me or get into their own sort of legalism, asking me for help defining what is or isn’t allowed on the Sabbath.
“Who decides what work is?” “Is it ok to go shopping?” “What about gardening? Is it ok if I really like gardening?” “What about fishing?” “What if my job required me to work?”
Now the original Law of Moses was quite clear on this. Numbers 15:
32When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. 33Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. 34They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp."
But we are not the first ones to come up with questions about the sabbath. There were a lot of different religious people running around in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees, for reasons that are sort of beyond the scope of this sermon, seem to get picked on an awful lot. The gospels often make them out to be almost laughable in their legalism. But I contend that they were just doing their best to be faithful to God, to follow God in the best way they knew how and to lead others in following God.
The Pharisees were trying to clearly define Judaism against other competing faiths and ideologies. They, like Jesus, believed that God’s promise was spelled out in the Torah or Law of Moses. However, the Pharisees became legalists, wanting everyone to follow the letter of the law. Therefore, they had to take the ancient laws of Moses and apply them to modern situations. They were doing the ancient equivalent of case law.
The example for today is the Sabbath. The law is clear, no work on the Sabbath. But the interpretation is not so clear. What is work? When exactly does the Sabbath start? Can you work if it is an emergency? What if it is kind of an emergency, like you are out of milk?
Modern Rabbis are still thinking about this stuff. Let me give you a modern example. Would it be ok for an orthodox Jew to go running on the Sabbath?
One Rabbi writes that one can not run to exercise, but could run if that was part of one’s normal travel. Another Rabbi says that it is actually an issue of whether or not you sweat. Another says that light exercise in general is ok unless it makes you sweat but heavy exercise of any kind if forbidden even if you don’t sweat. Another Rabbi says that it is “why” you are running or exercising in general. If you enjoy it you are ok but if you are doing it because your doctor told you to or to lose weight then it is work so it would be breaking the sabbath.[1]
Part of the reason I point this all out is to say that Jesus, as a good Jew, and perhaps a Rabbi, was arguing this out in the same terms that the question was asked. “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” Jesus is saying, “let me explain.” And he explains use their common book.
3Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?”
Jesus knew his scripture pretty well, as did the Pharisees, but not all of us do, so let’s review. He is talking about a passage from 1 Samuel 21. David, who we know as King David, the second King of Israel, is on the run from Saul, the somewhat crazy first King of Israel, who is trying to kill him. On the run, David stops in to see the priest Ahimelech and asks him for some food for the road. The priest tells him that the only bread he has is the bread of the Presence, the Holy Bread that had been offered to the Lord. This bread could be eaten by the priests, but the priest offers an exception in this case.
Jesus is saying, “I know the law and I know there are exceptions.” You see Jesus is not just purposefully breaking the rules, he is arguing about them from scripture[2] So Jesus is doing this really normal Rabbi thing, arguing the finer points of the law and then he completely shifts gears in way that still throws me.
5Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”
He is arguing about the law and then says something akin to “I am the law!” People often read this as Jesus first move in tossing out the law completely. But is that were the case he would have just said that and not bothered with that whole scripture lesson about King David.
In case you haven’t heard me make my case, I am in favor of people taking Sabbath seriously. In most courses I teach, at some point you can count on me veering off to a place where I will talk about our need for disciplined and holy rest, our need to take time, to stop and be in God’s presence and rest and be re-created. And I am not talking about for an hour on Sunday. Whenever I talk about that, I often have this line thrown back at me:
“The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”
Or even the more provocative line from Mark’s gospel that is part of this same exchange:
27Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
Somehow, this line is handed back to me as proof that Jesus abolished the sabbath, and in some people’s opinions the rest of the law with it, but that is just not what is going on here. Jesus is not throwing out the law, he is just helping them and us to refocus, to see what is actually important. He is helping them and us to remember that the laws of Moses were meant as a gift for humanity not as an onerous duty.[3]
We have to consider what he says in Matthew chapter 5:
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Before I start to sound like a Rabbi, arguing the finer points of the law, I think all of this has a lot to say to us all today. As Christians, we have this really strange relationship with religious law. We sort of pick and choose which parts of the law are important or let religious leaders or radio talk show hosts decide for us. We might decide that we think it is not ok to be gay, (forbidden in Leviticus 20:13 - If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.) but ok to eat lobster (clearly forbidden in Leviticus 10:10 ), We may think that adultery is bad (Exodus 20:14 - You shall not commit adultery), but the Sabbath is not important (Exodus 20:8-11 - Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy). Stealing is considered clearly bad (Exodus 20:15 - You shall not steal), well unless you are stealing music off the internet, while really our whole consumer economy is based on coveting (Exodus 20:17 - You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor) (i.e., I know you have a nice pickup truck in your driveway, but don’t you really need this brand new four wheel drive with the biggest engine ever?) Bearing false witness is out (Exodus 20:16 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor), except little while lies, while honoring your mother and father (Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you) is a day by day thing.
We have this weird relationship with rules and laws, because sometimes we just use them to decide how others should live while missing the gift that they are and totally missing the point that none of us are saved or made righteous and brought closer to God by keeping them.
Even though we stand in this place called Grace, even though we are good, protestant, United Methodists, when we talk about the law, we forget what puts us right with God. Romans 3:
22bFor there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The question I started the sermon with, “Can you be a Christian if?” is really an invalid question because our redemption, or salvation, our relationship with God, our very Christianity is not based in rules but in Grace. You may ask me, “Wouldn’t someone who really has faith and has accepted the Grace of Christ do things like go to church, pray, read the Bible, refrain from stealing etc?” Maybe, but that is not the point.
Galatians 2:16:
we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
Let me be as clear as Jesus was when he said:
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
I am not suggesting that the commandments, the laws of God, be thrown out, but we need to be continually reminded of our relationship to them, that we never, ever, let our selective enforcement of the rules get in the way of God’s amazing Grace.
Think about this passage as a whole. Those Pharisees, in their effort to keep the law intact, would rather those disciples go hungry than violate the law.
6On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.
They would rather that man suffer than the law be violated. The law had become the most important thing, to the point that
11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
And in case you think they were thinking they might just get him in trouble or steal his sandals, remember what happened last time the people got all mad at Jesus, from the text I preached on just a couple of weeks ago: Luke 4:
28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
Jesus was a rule breaker. And the punishment was pretty severe. But Jesus was pretty clear in his message, the rules and ordinances of God are not God, they are not what saves us and they should never, every get in the way of the amazing Grace of God. Now saying that too loud led Jesus to an ugly death. But Jesus is the rule breaker and he broke even that rule about death being permanent. He was resurrected to make perfectly clear, that nothing, nothing we do, nothing we fail to do, nothing any one else does or fails to do to or for us can ever separate us from the love of God. Amen.
[1] This summary of the argument is taken from “Working Out on Shabbos” a weblog article on Israel Forum’s Blog Central, available at http://www.israelforum.com/blog_article.php?aid=510198, accessed 3 February 2007; internet
[2] R. Alan Culpepper, “Luke” in Leander Keck, et. al, eds., The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995) 133
[3] ibid. 134
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Luke 6:1-11
“Jesus the Rule Breaker”
Before I start into this text, let me ask you a few questions. You won’t have to answer aloud, just sort of let the answers float around in your head. All the questions start with, “Can you still be a good Christian if…”
you don’t go to church every Sunday?
you don’t go to church at all?
you don’t pray?
you don’t give money to the church?
you don’t observe the sabbath?
you don’t read the Bible?
you are divorced?
you steal?
you drink beer?
you drink lots of beer?
you’re pro-choice?
you’re gay?
In case you are waiting for the answers, keep waiting. This is a fun exercise to do without anyone talking. If I let you answer out loud, this would take the rest of our time together. I think it is likely that many of you have an opinion or two on these two topics.
Let’s look at today’s text. As always, when trying to understand Jesus, it really helps us to know what is going on in the background.
1One sabbath while Jesus was going through the grainfields, his disciples plucked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands, and ate them. 2But some of the Pharisees said, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?”
There is a whole Bible study right here. Let’s look at their question, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” I grew up in a farm town. When I worked on a farm and my boss, Bill Henry caught someone is his fields, helping themselves to corn, tomatoes, green peppers or melons, Bill called that stealing. But that is not what is going on here. The law of Moses, the book of Deuteronomy, to be specific, said that it was quite ok to do this: Chapter 23:
25If you go into your neighbor’s standing grain, you may pluck the ears with your hand, but you shall not put a sickle to your neighbor’s standing grain.
So what Jesus’ disciples are doing is perfectly legal. As long as they weren’t using a sickle, they could pluck all the wanted to eat. The Law of Moses was very clear about the fact that everything was a gift from God. Ownership was only a limited concept. If people were hungry, they could eat some of your crops.
So their question, “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” is not about stealing. It is not about what they are doing, it is about when they are doing it. Sabbath, the fourth and longest of the Ten Commandments.
8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.
There is a reference within a reference here, we are looking back to Genesis 2:
2And on the seventh day God finished the work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had done. 3So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.
This is my favorite commandment. It is my favorite because it is the one that many Christians flagrantly break while looking down their noses at others for not keeping the other nine. Whenever I point out this fact, people tend to either ignore me or get into their own sort of legalism, asking me for help defining what is or isn’t allowed on the Sabbath.
“Who decides what work is?” “Is it ok to go shopping?” “What about gardening? Is it ok if I really like gardening?” “What about fishing?” “What if my job required me to work?”
Now the original Law of Moses was quite clear on this. Numbers 15:
32When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day. 33Those who found him gathering sticks brought him to Moses, Aaron, and to the whole congregation. 34They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. 35Then the LORD said to Moses, "The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp."
But we are not the first ones to come up with questions about the sabbath. There were a lot of different religious people running around in Jesus’ day. The Pharisees, for reasons that are sort of beyond the scope of this sermon, seem to get picked on an awful lot. The gospels often make them out to be almost laughable in their legalism. But I contend that they were just doing their best to be faithful to God, to follow God in the best way they knew how and to lead others in following God.
The Pharisees were trying to clearly define Judaism against other competing faiths and ideologies. They, like Jesus, believed that God’s promise was spelled out in the Torah or Law of Moses. However, the Pharisees became legalists, wanting everyone to follow the letter of the law. Therefore, they had to take the ancient laws of Moses and apply them to modern situations. They were doing the ancient equivalent of case law.
The example for today is the Sabbath. The law is clear, no work on the Sabbath. But the interpretation is not so clear. What is work? When exactly does the Sabbath start? Can you work if it is an emergency? What if it is kind of an emergency, like you are out of milk?
Modern Rabbis are still thinking about this stuff. Let me give you a modern example. Would it be ok for an orthodox Jew to go running on the Sabbath?
One Rabbi writes that one can not run to exercise, but could run if that was part of one’s normal travel. Another Rabbi says that it is actually an issue of whether or not you sweat. Another says that light exercise in general is ok unless it makes you sweat but heavy exercise of any kind if forbidden even if you don’t sweat. Another Rabbi says that it is “why” you are running or exercising in general. If you enjoy it you are ok but if you are doing it because your doctor told you to or to lose weight then it is work so it would be breaking the sabbath.[1]
Part of the reason I point this all out is to say that Jesus, as a good Jew, and perhaps a Rabbi, was arguing this out in the same terms that the question was asked. “Why are you doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” Jesus is saying, “let me explain.” And he explains use their common book.
3Jesus answered, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? 4He entered the house of God and took and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and gave some to his companions?”
Jesus knew his scripture pretty well, as did the Pharisees, but not all of us do, so let’s review. He is talking about a passage from 1 Samuel 21. David, who we know as King David, the second King of Israel, is on the run from Saul, the somewhat crazy first King of Israel, who is trying to kill him. On the run, David stops in to see the priest Ahimelech and asks him for some food for the road. The priest tells him that the only bread he has is the bread of the Presence, the Holy Bread that had been offered to the Lord. This bread could be eaten by the priests, but the priest offers an exception in this case.
Jesus is saying, “I know the law and I know there are exceptions.” You see Jesus is not just purposefully breaking the rules, he is arguing about them from scripture[2] So Jesus is doing this really normal Rabbi thing, arguing the finer points of the law and then he completely shifts gears in way that still throws me.
5Then he said to them, “The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”
He is arguing about the law and then says something akin to “I am the law!” People often read this as Jesus first move in tossing out the law completely. But is that were the case he would have just said that and not bothered with that whole scripture lesson about King David.
In case you haven’t heard me make my case, I am in favor of people taking Sabbath seriously. In most courses I teach, at some point you can count on me veering off to a place where I will talk about our need for disciplined and holy rest, our need to take time, to stop and be in God’s presence and rest and be re-created. And I am not talking about for an hour on Sunday. Whenever I talk about that, I often have this line thrown back at me:
“The Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath”
Or even the more provocative line from Mark’s gospel that is part of this same exchange:
27Then he said to them, "The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; 28so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath."
Somehow, this line is handed back to me as proof that Jesus abolished the sabbath, and in some people’s opinions the rest of the law with it, but that is just not what is going on here. Jesus is not throwing out the law, he is just helping them and us to refocus, to see what is actually important. He is helping them and us to remember that the laws of Moses were meant as a gift for humanity not as an onerous duty.[3]
We have to consider what he says in Matthew chapter 5:
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. 18For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished. 19Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Before I start to sound like a Rabbi, arguing the finer points of the law, I think all of this has a lot to say to us all today. As Christians, we have this really strange relationship with religious law. We sort of pick and choose which parts of the law are important or let religious leaders or radio talk show hosts decide for us. We might decide that we think it is not ok to be gay, (forbidden in Leviticus 20:13 - If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death; their blood is upon them.) but ok to eat lobster (clearly forbidden in Leviticus 10:10 ), We may think that adultery is bad (Exodus 20:14 - You shall not commit adultery), but the Sabbath is not important (Exodus 20:8-11 - Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy). Stealing is considered clearly bad (Exodus 20:15 - You shall not steal), well unless you are stealing music off the internet, while really our whole consumer economy is based on coveting (Exodus 20:17 - You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox, or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor) (i.e., I know you have a nice pickup truck in your driveway, but don’t you really need this brand new four wheel drive with the biggest engine ever?) Bearing false witness is out (Exodus 20:16 - You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor), except little while lies, while honoring your mother and father (Exodus 20:12 - Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you) is a day by day thing.
We have this weird relationship with rules and laws, because sometimes we just use them to decide how others should live while missing the gift that they are and totally missing the point that none of us are saved or made righteous and brought closer to God by keeping them.
Even though we stand in this place called Grace, even though we are good, protestant, United Methodists, when we talk about the law, we forget what puts us right with God. Romans 3:
22bFor there is no distinction, 23since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24they are now justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
The question I started the sermon with, “Can you be a Christian if?” is really an invalid question because our redemption, or salvation, our relationship with God, our very Christianity is not based in rules but in Grace. You may ask me, “Wouldn’t someone who really has faith and has accepted the Grace of Christ do things like go to church, pray, read the Bible, refrain from stealing etc?” Maybe, but that is not the point.
Galatians 2:16:
we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
Let me be as clear as Jesus was when he said:
17“Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets; I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.
I am not suggesting that the commandments, the laws of God, be thrown out, but we need to be continually reminded of our relationship to them, that we never, ever, let our selective enforcement of the rules get in the way of God’s amazing Grace.
Think about this passage as a whole. Those Pharisees, in their effort to keep the law intact, would rather those disciples go hungry than violate the law.
6On another sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught, and there was a man there whose right hand was withered. 7The scribes and the Pharisees watched him to see whether he would cure on the sabbath, so that they might find an accusation against him.
They would rather that man suffer than the law be violated. The law had become the most important thing, to the point that
11But they were filled with fury and discussed with one another what they might do to Jesus.
And in case you think they were thinking they might just get him in trouble or steal his sandals, remember what happened last time the people got all mad at Jesus, from the text I preached on just a couple of weeks ago: Luke 4:
28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff.
Jesus was a rule breaker. And the punishment was pretty severe. But Jesus was pretty clear in his message, the rules and ordinances of God are not God, they are not what saves us and they should never, every get in the way of the amazing Grace of God. Now saying that too loud led Jesus to an ugly death. But Jesus is the rule breaker and he broke even that rule about death being permanent. He was resurrected to make perfectly clear, that nothing, nothing we do, nothing we fail to do, nothing any one else does or fails to do to or for us can ever separate us from the love of God. Amen.
[1] This summary of the argument is taken from “Working Out on Shabbos” a weblog article on Israel Forum’s Blog Central, available at http://www.israelforum.com/blog_article.php?aid=510198, accessed 3 February 2007; internet
[2] R. Alan Culpepper, “Luke” in Leander Keck, et. al, eds., The New Interpreter’s Bible (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1995) 133
[3] ibid. 134
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
"Jesus the Troublemaker"
Week 1 of "Who Was Jesus Series" - Luke 4:14-30. Sermon for Sunday, January 21, 2007, Grace United Methodist Church, Corpus Christi, Texas
MP3 File
MP3 File
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Will Rice - "Who Was Jesus?" Series - Sermon #1 - Jesus the Troublemaker
Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Welcome to week one of a five week series on “Who Was Jesus? A Look at the Person of Jesus.” I think that one of the biggest gifts and challenges of our Christian faith and belief is the incredible depth and richness of Jesus Christ, a figure so complex that we stumble over our words when trying to explain him. We refer to Jesus Christ as being fully human and fully divine.
Fully human and fully divine is and always has been difficult for Christians. Frankly, it can be difficult to speak in human terms about God. We tend to take Jesus’ human side and pretty it up as much as possible. It can sound almost blasphemous to talk about God shoving food in his mouth or going to the bathroom, but those are things fully human creatures do.
I was even worried about the title. “Who Was Jesus?” raises the question, “Are you implying that Jesus is only historical? Are you saying that Jesus isn’t around anymore?” But, if you asked that question, you are getting my point. My point, for the purpose of this series, is to look specifically at Jesus as he was when he lived and breathed and walked around the Middle-East. Today, we will look at the fact that he caused a bit of trouble.
In the small group study that some of you are doing in conjunction with this sermon series, one of the first activities you will do is to name some images of Jesus. Some will say, “Son of God” others “Good Shepherd” others “Lord.” Few will jump in with “troublemaker.” But I have to tell you, Jesus got in trouble a lot.
Our scripture today tells us the story of the equivalent of a new pastor’s first time preaching at a new church. However, instead, we have a young Jewish Rabbi and a synagogue.
15He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.
So Jesus is gaining a reputation.
16When he came to
So far, this is all perfectly normal. The sabbath day was Saturday and all good Jews went to the synagogue. A little bit about the synagogue. Synagogue is from the Greek, συναγωγή – to gather together. Historically, the temple in
Exactly why Jesus was called to speak is not clear. It sounds like he was gaining some reputation as a Rabbi or teacher.
He stood up to read, 17and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:
Whatever the reason, it was perfectly normal for a visiting Rabbi or a lay person to be asked to stand up and read from the Law, or as in this case, the prophets. Jesus was handed the scroll that contained the prophet Isaiah:
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
He actually reads a little bit from Isaiah 61, verse one. Then he seems to jump back to Isaiah 58, verse 6 and then back to verse two of Isaiah 61. What is interesting is that the crowd knew their Torah much better than we do so they probably knew what he was doing.
20And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
Still fairly normal. Now he sits down for some interpretation. Historically, this isn’t saying, “here is what I think this means.” For most it would be sharing how other Rabbis had interpreted, saying “Rabbi Micah Bar-Dan” has said…”
Jesus does something slightly different:
21Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” 22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth.”
Let me give you a really rough picture of why they were pleased so far. The Jews,
18“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, 19to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
I can bet they are hearing this as “He has anointed me to bring good news to us” and “He has sent me to proclaim release to us” to “let us go free.” The whole year of the Lord’s favor thing you will have to sort out in small groups, but it has to do with liberty and freedom and release and they are thinking that is all for them.
But then he does something that causes some trouble:
They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?”23He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’ And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at
We have to consider these lines together to get what was going on. “Is not this Joseph’s son?” is actually a statement about community. In this context, it may be a way of saying, “Isn’t he one of us?” So when Jesus says “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself!’” the “yourself” is more communal, “Doctor cure your family, your people.” And when Jesus says “And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at Capernaum.’” he is speaking what they are thinking that Jesus ought to take care of his own family and community first.
If you try to back up in Luke’s Gospel to find out what happened in
38After leaving the synagogue he entered Simon’s house. Now Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever, and they asked him about her. 39Then he stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. Immediately she got up and began to serve them.
Back to today’s text.
And you will say, ‘Do here also in your hometown the things that we have heard you did at
Jesus knows what they are thinking, “we are your kin, your hometown, let’s get some of that healing going.” No offense, but think about it. If you all found out that I was heading up to Robstown on Sunday nights and people who were sick or injured were coming and I was laying hands on them and they were getting better, you would say, “Excuse me, why aren’t you doing that here? We have plenty of sick people and hurting people.”
Now, if I weren’t a troublemaker, I would say something in response to make you feel better, like, “Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were interested,” or “The Bishop made me go to Robstown.” But Jesus is trying to make trouble:
24And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. 25But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; 26yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon.
I know to us this sounds more confusing than enraging, but trust me, this is a Jerry Springer moment. If you have a Bible with you, open it to 1 Kings 17 as I remind us of the story of Elijah the Tishbite. What you have to remember was that we can assume that the people in the synagogue that day knew this story very well.
God calls Elijah to tell King Ahab that there will be a drought for three years. God then tells Elijah to go see the widow Zaraephath in the
In case they missed the jab, he comes in again:
27There were also many lepers in
Now he is telling them how the prophet Elisha heals another outsider, this time a Syrian named Naaman. You can read this story in 2 Kings, chapter 5.
Let me go back to my example. Say I am going and doing miraculous healings in Robstown and you call me on it and in response, I tell you a miraculous story of God healing atheists in
28When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. 30But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Jesus has just turned a quaint moment in his home town into an angry mob. Jesus is a troublemaker.
There are a ton of stories in the gospels of Jesus saying the most contentious things, knowing full well that they are going to really dig deep. He throws out these little troublemaking daggers and if we don’t read carefully we miss them. There is this great little line in Matthew’s gospel, in chapter 8:
10When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him, “Truly I tell you, in no one in
It sounds so nice, but you have to notice who he is saying it to.
5When he entered
A centurion, a guy who worked for the
5When he entered
Already, the people are annoyed. Jesus needs to be healing them.
8The centurion answered, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only speak the word, and my servant will be healed. 9For I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this,’ and the slave does it.” 10When Jesus heard him, he was amazed and said to those who followed him,
Get ready, here’s the line again:
“Truly I tell you, in no one in
This outsider, this pagan, this worshiper of other Gods has more faith than you chosen people. Ouch! And then he keeps going:
In other words, outsiders will inherit the promise of God.
12while the heirs of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
And the chosen ones are in trouble.
13And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you according to your faith.” And the servant was healed in that hour.
Now Pastor John spoke a couple of weeks ago about the outsiders and the insiders so I am not going to go too far down that road. The point today is that Jesus was a troublemaker. The same Jesus who brings us so much comfort, who tells us through his death and resurrection that we are all beloved children of God and that there is nothing that we can do that can finally separate us from the love of God, that same Jesus did not and will not let us ever get away with being agents of limiting the grace and power of God.
Jesus causes trouble on a number of subjects but the one argument he keeps engaging over and over is this issue of insider verses outsider. He is hanging out among people who think that God’s grace and power are limited to a certain group of people who are specially selected by God and/or live in such a way as to earn God’s love. Jesus keeps responding to their limitation of God by saying “No, no, no! God’s love is for everybody and if you can’t get that, maybe it is not for you.”
And if we for a moment start thinking, oh those silly Israelites, they just didn’t get it, we are missing Jesus stirring up the same trouble in our hearts, because everyone of us, me included, has a barrier set somewhere that we believe God won’t cross. We love to categorize and something about our humanity needs for someone else to be out for us to be in. Who do we think is beyond God’s love and what trouble might Jesus stir up in our hearts about that?
And if we can’t get at that, nearly all of us have been caught, at least for a moment considering how we, at least deserve some amount of special treatment from God for being faithful, even if that is just a free ticket to heaven. What kind of trouble might Jesus be stirring in our hearts to make us think of not our benefits, but of our calling?
When we find ourselves trying to limit the grace of God or allowing ourselves to feel special because we are the insiders while not taking the time to feel love and compassion for those who don’t attend our church or look like us or seem to worship in the same way, when we find ourselves there and Jesus starts stirring up trouble in our hearts, do we let him or do we try to throw him off the nearest cliff.
If reading the gospels does not stir up trouble in our hearts, if the historical Jesus talking to us in our context today doesn’t cause us to get a little nervous as we consider the limits of our own love and compassion, if it doesn’t cause us to consider where we need to grow, if it doesn’t make us uncomfortable, then we are not paying attention and if we aren’t paying attention, then we are missing the opportunity to live as true children of God.
Jesus was, is and will always be a trouble maker. But this is a good kind of trouble, a trouble that calls us to account and makes us better people.
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