Will Rice - Sermon 22 - Truthiness is a Word, Really

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

John 8:30-32

“Truthiness is a Word, Really”

I am a big fan of the franchise of television shows called C.S.I. There is now C.S.I., C.S.I. Miami and even C.S.I. New York. I draw the line at C.S.I. New York but I watch the original, set in Las Vegas and the Miami spin off. I like the original the best because it is the most realistic. It is so realistic that I have become pretty convinced that if this whole pastor thing doesn’t work out, that I could be a crime scene investigator. Now any actually crime scene investigator would tell me I better stick to the pastor thing because what I see on T.V. is not real, but it sure looks real.

I wonder how many doctors and nurses find themselves getting corrected by their patients because they aren’t following the procedures that they saw on E.R. or on Grey’s Anatomy. I wonder how often jurors fight the temptation to judge the merits of a case based on something they saw on Boston Legal or Law and Order.

All of these shows have an air of “truthiness.” Yes, truthiness is a real word. It has been with us since 1824.[1] The American Dialect Society named it the 2005 word of the year.[2] Truthiness refers to the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true. It is “the notion that what ‘feels true’ must be treated as true.”[3] It refers to our temptation to say, “that sounds good, I am going to believe it, now don’t bore me with facts.

I am going to talk a little bit about Dan Brown’s book The Da Vinci Code and the movie that came from it today. But, don’t worry if you haven’t read or seen it or don’t even plan to read or see it, because today’s sermon is about something much more important than one book or movie, today’s sermon is about truth.

As Christians, we have an interesting relationship with truth.

truth - (trth) n.

1. Conformity to fact or actuality.
2. A statement proven to be or accepted as true.
3. Sincerity; integrity.
4. Fidelity to an original or standard.
5. That which is considered to be the supreme reality and to have the ultimate meaning and value of existence. [4]

We are the most interested in that last one. We are most interested in truth when it refers to ultimate reality. Our truth is more than just a collection of facts. “As United Methodists, we have an obligation to bear a faithful Christian witness to Jesus Christ, the living reality at the center of the Church’s life and witness.” [5] That is what our truth is about. As United Methodists, we see Jesus as a living truth. We don’t have a rigid, fixed set of doctrines that you must believe in - in order to belong. We are together on a journey, a search for Truth.

The spiritual father of the Methodist movement, John Wesley believed that truth was not something that the church handed down as an edict, but rather it was something that we could all understand together. He believed that the living core, the truth of our faith was “revealed in Scripture, illumined by tradition, vivified in personal experience, and confirmed by reason.”[6]

Scripture, tradition, experience, reason, they have become known as the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. We believe that Scripture is the primary source of what we believe. However our understanding of it doesn’t have to start over with each of us. We have a rich tradition that informs our study and understanding of Scripture. But we don’t just take historical tradition and understanding as its stands, we look to understand it through our own experience of God in our lives. Finally, we believe in the power of our own human reason to put this all together. We use reason to see if it all fits together, the Scripture, the tradition, and our own experience.

Any one of the dimensions of this quadrilateral can be dangerous if taken alone.

I have seen a bumper sticker that spoke of scripture reading, “God said it, I believe it, that settles it.” I don’t even really need to give an example, but I will. Leviticus 19:19 reads:

You shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed; nor shall you put on a garment made of two different materials.

If you spend any time reading the Bible you know as well as I do that some things need some input from tradition, experience and reason to even make sense.

If we weigh too heavily on the aspect of tradition we can get stuck just following what has come before, even if it turns out to be wrong or even if God is leading us somewhere else. Ask any of the church reformers like John Wesley, John Calvin, or Martin Luther.

Experience can get us in a lot of trouble if that is all we pay attention to. Experience separated from scripture and tradition can lead to us all developing our own personal religion separated from the community that God calls us into.

And reason, there is trouble there too. As I mentioned at the beginning of this sermon, we face the temptation of letting our own reason rule the day. If it sounds good to us, it must be true. A lot of people reasoned for a long time that the world was flat. It made sense at the time. But when it turned out people never fell off the edge, it became time to start weighing the facts.

It is our over reliance on reason that made the Da Vinci Code such an intriguing book for some. Now some people read the book or saw the movie and said, “nice story.” But some, looked at what Dan Brown proposed and said, “it sounds reasonable, it must be true.” That goes back to that concept of truthiness, “the notion that what ‘feels true’ must be treated as true.”

In case you didn’t read the book or see the movie, let me give you a little synopsis. (Before I do that, in case you are thinking, “I don’t really care about the Da Vinci Code, get back to talking about Jesus.” Let me say this. It is very likely that someone you know, maybe someone who does not have relationship with God is going to see this movie and is going to say to you, “what did you think?” Let me also say this, I can’t count the number of times people say to me, “Will, I really want to talk to my unchurched friends and family about God and Jesus and the Bible, but I just don’t know how to bring it up.”) “What did you think about the movie?”

Alright, here is the basic gist.

The curator of the Louvre Museum is Paris is murdered, by an albino monk of all things, and in his dying moments leaves a cryptic message. Harvard cryptologist Robert Langdon is called to the scene to solve the puzzle (by the way the police also think he is the killer). Another police officer, Sophie Neveu, who turns out to be the dead man’s granddaughter shows up, gets Langdon out of there because they think Langdon committed the murder and are ready to arrest him. Together Langdon and Neveu dodge the police and other evil types while putting together clues left behind by the dead museum curator (Sophie’s grandfather). The clues lead them to a secret society that holds knowledge that could, and I quote “devastate the very foundations of Christianity.” This knowledge is about true nature of the Holy Grail. In their quest, our two heroes find out some amazing things, including the “fact” that Jesus married Mary Magdalene, and had his child. They also find out that Jesus’ ancestors are alive to this day and that bloodline is what is actually the Holy Grail. However, all the information about all of this has been suppressed since the fourth century when emperor Constantine got rid of all the information about Jesus and Mary Magdalene, elevated Jesus’ status from mortal to God and decided what would be in the New Testament.

The book and movie make some pretty remarkable claims, which is fine, if you are writing fiction, which Brown is, except that before the book even starts, Brown makes some claims about the truth, including this:

All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents, and secret rituals in this novel are accurate.[7]

Now, I know nothing about artwork, architecture, or secret rituals, but I do know enough to know that Brown didn’t do a whole lot of research into the sacred documents he references. I will have more time to go into the details of this in the session on Tuesday night, but suffice it to say, Brown makes some factual mistakes. Let me show you one real quick. It is easier to reference the book since it goes into a little more detail. On page 245, one of the characters says,

These are photocopies of the Nag Hammadi and Dead Sea scrolls, which I mentioned earlier,” Teabing said, “The earliest Christian records. Troubling they do not match up with the gospels in the Bible.”[8]

There is really no scholarly argument about this, there is nothing at all Christian about the Dead Sea scrolls, they are completely Jewish, with no mention of anything Christian.

The same character goes on to quote the Gospel of Philip and then point out something about the Aramaic language it is written in. Unfortunately, that Gospel was written in Coptic, translated from Greek.[9]

In some ways, this all seems unimportant; we usually leave this sort of stuff for academics and theologians. However it shows that Brown is mixing fact and fiction even when he seems to be talking about fact. And the problem with that is this, when we read a book like this, we have no way to separate the historical fact from the fiction.[10] The danger is that we say, “it sounds true, it must be true.”

The Da Vinci Code is not the first time we have been called to weigh truthiness against truth. Over the past few years, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins painted a picture of what they thought the Book of Revelation was actually about with the Left Behind series and many people did and still do believe it to be true. In 2004 Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ was released. While that movie was based on Gospel accounts, in order to make it into a movie, Gibson had to use his imagination and people were left having to decide, which is the Gospel and which is Mel Gibson. In 1988 it was Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ, which outright offended many Christians, but left many others trying to wonder if it could all be true.

If a book or movie is written well enough, it will cause our reasonable self to ask, “is it true?” But what if we engaged the Wesleyan quadrilateral I mentioned earlier to judge. What if we looked at the Da Vinci Code through the lens of scripture? What does scripture say about Mary Magdalene, Jesus and the Holy Grail? I will leave the first two up for your exploration but I will tell you--you won’t find the grail in the Bible.

What about tradition? Well the tradition of the church stands contrary to the claims in Brown’s book. However, Brown makes it sound like there is some secret conspiracy, hiding all sorts of documents to hide the truth. If it is a conspiracy at all, it is a conspiracy of boredom. All this history, all these other gospels, all the research are quite available if people want to look.

The Gospel of Philip, The Gospel of Mary, the Gnostic gospels, the Dead Sea Scrolls, are not tucked away in a vault somewhere, you can pick them up at Barnes and Noble or order them at Amazon.com. You will probably find them quite boring and you may see some obvious other reasons that they didn’t make it into the New Testament.

What about reason? I said earlier we rely too heavily on reason, but our reason can help us when we don’t forget about the other parts. If we really consider scripture, in other words, read it ourselves, if we really look at tradition, not as the definitive answer, but as the faithful effort of those who have come before us to understand, we can make reasonable decisions about what it is we believe. We don’t believe something because Dan Brown makes it plausible, we believe because we have looked for ourselves.

Then what about experience? The movie version of The Da Vinci Code betrays the book in a wonderful way. At the end of the movie, just after the most climactic moment, (there weren’t really that many exciting moments) Robert Langdon, played by Tom Hanks reveals that he, as a child had an experience of Jesus. He had fallen down a well as a boy and in his fear had prayed to Jesus and had a powerful feeling that he “was not alone.”

Moments later Hanks says something that all of those who decided to boycott the movie will miss out on, he says, "What matters is what you believe."[1]

What matters is what you believe. And I when I say that, I am not asking you to say “I intellectually concur with some widely accepted views on God’s existence, character and activities.”[12] I am instead saying, what matters is that you have a relationship with God, one that is growing, one that is deepening. One that is seeking and self critical. One that seeks answers in scripture and tradition. And one that goes beyond factual answers and seeks the experience of relationship.

When books and movies like The Da Vinci Code come out, we are not all going to agree. Some of us will want to boycott them, some will want to read and see them, some will just not care. Some will build up walls to defend their faith, some will use them as opportunities to examine what they believe. For some they will cause a crises of faith, for others they will cause unimagined growth. For some, they will just be a moment to be entertained.

I believe in God and I believe that God works through all things, even over imaginative books and poorly lit, slow moving Ron Howard movies. If through all this one person comes and begins a relationship with God through Christ, if one engages their faith at a new level, I will thank Dan Brown, even if he was just trying to tell a nice story.

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[1] According to the American Dialect Society, see http://www.americandialect.org/index.php/amerdial/truthiness_voted_2005_word_of_the_year/

[2] Ibid

[3] Rodney Clapp, “The appeal of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown’s truthiness”, The Christian Century, May 16, 2006, 22

[4] Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[5] “Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task”, The Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church, 2004, (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 2004) 76

[6] Ibid, p. 77

[7] Dan Brown, The Da Vinci Code, (New York: Anchor Books, 2003) front matter

[8] Ibid, 245

[9] Bart. D. Ehrman, Lost Scriptures, Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament, (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003) 19

[10] Bart D. Ehrman, Truth and Fiction in The Da Vinci Code, (New York: Oxford, 2004) 189

[11] Thank you to the folks at Newsday for printing this quote, I wasn’t able to write it down exactly in the dark at the theatre. I got it from Carol Eisenburg’s article, “’Da Vinci Code’ Movie Not Exactly by the Book”, May 19^th 2006, online at http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/ny-lidavi0519,0,5986963.story, accessed May 27, 3006; internet\

[12] Leonard Sweet, Out of the Question, Into the Mystery, (Colorado Spring: WaterBrook Press, 2004) 65

Will Rice - Sermon 21 - The One About Grapes

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 15:1-8

Grapes to me are more than snacks or the raw materials of juice, jam and wine. Grapes to me are about the very ebb and flow of time, the eternal clock of the earth. For, at a certain time every year, as a child, I would awake, inhale and smell the fragrant aroma of acres of quickly ripening grapes in the vineyard across the street from my home in Upstate New York. It never happened gradually. The smell would seem to just suddenly pervade the air one day when many of the grapes reached the peak of their ripeness and the north wind of fall would carry their scent through the window of my bedroom. Jesus said:

¹I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinegrower.

While, I would awake suddenly one morning to this miracle, it wasn’t by some sudden accident that this decadent bouquet filled my nose. There was more to the rhythm of the vineyard.

Springtime in Western New York was always a drastic transition as the scene changed from frozen white to soggy brown. Before the green of spring, there was the mud of post winter. During that transition, I would overlook the vineyard and watch men and women in tall rubber boots march into the rows. They would be there all day for several days toiling over the now dead looking, leafless vines that had pleased my senses just months before. The vinegrower was there. It was a big vineyard. He brought lots of help. Jesus said:

²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit.

So what were these people doing in the vineyard? Well after they had gone, I would wander through the rows wondering at the work they had done. They always left behind little pieces of string and little broken pieces of withered vine. Occasionally I would find a whole spool of string left behind. All through the vineyard, vines were neatly trimmed back and tied up with pieces of string. Vines that had been lying on the ground were now tied to the wires stretched between the vineyard poles so that they wouldn’t grow toward the ground. Jesus said:

²He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

That is not a real popular line in scripture. No one likes to be pruned, even by God.

I didn’t learn until years later, when I was in college, that not all vineyards are the same. The vineyard I knew growing up was a pretty large commercial vineyard. In my freshman year of college I had a professor, who also turned out to make the best wine in town. Joe owned a very small vineyard and produced his wine from the grape to the bottle. He didn’t go into his vineyard with a crew of hired hands. He went in by himself. And because he was more meticulous with his small, fragile vineyard than the workers in the big commercial vineyard across the street from my childhood home, he helped me understand better what was going on.

As the mud slowly dried and post-winter turned into spring, I would walk or ride by bicycle up and down the dirt roads that wandered through the vineyard and watch as vines began to sprout leaves and eventually flourish into the green bushy creations that would remain with us until fall. It was sometime in the spring that in Joe’s small vineyard he would walk through and gently pinch off some of the smaller shoots so that the main fruit bearing branches would get all the nutrients. When I think of Joe, who so loved that vineyard and was so gentle with his precious plants, prune seems like a harsh word.

^2bEvery branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit.

I wonder how clear that is. The word we translate as “prune” is kaqai,rei from kaqai,rw which could well mean “prune” but it could just as easily mean “clean.” When I think of Joe out in his vineyard, I picture him “cleaning” away some of the shoots so that the main branches could flourish and bear more fruit! Jesus said:

³You have already been cleansed by the word that I have spoken to you.

That cleaning image I had of Joe might not be so far off since in the very next line the adjective form of that same word comes up: kaqaroi,. You have already been “cleansed” we read this time, not pruned.

⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

Without fail, at some point after the start of school in the fall, the aroma would fill the air. Before the giant machines that now do the grape picking in some commercial vineyards would come through, I would wander through the vines searching for the sweetest grapes. They were juice and jelly grapes. The skins were tough, so you would just squeeze out the insides, and toss the skins, but they were so sweet. I would walk through the rows of reds, and greens, and the wonderful purples and dark blues trying to find which ones were the tastiest that year.

I never heard this scripture passage until later in life and I wished I had heard it sooner. Because I hadn’t heard it, I couldn’t see the connection between those grapes, that vine, Jesus Christ and God.

^4bJust as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine.

I didn’t need years of Bible study to get that. That aroma that told me it was fall, the sweet taste of those fresh grapes, would not have been without the vine.

⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

How many of you have used the word “abide” in conversation this week? It is an old-fashioned word. Some more modern Bible translations have translated as remain, or live in me, but it really conveys an idea of “persevering, continuing, lasting, staying with it.”[1]

We don’t use abide much anymore, perhaps because we don’t abide much anymore. Jobs, friendships, relationships, even marriages are more fickle, more casual, more flexible. For good or bad, we have become less likely to abide in something, less likely to stick with something that becomes difficult.

Even in our relationship with God. Many folks come and find a relationship with Christ and are completely transformed by it. However, at some point, our relationship with God begins to require something of us, and some, when they reach that point, walk away.

⁴Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

There is something very interesting about this verse. You can’t see it in English, but if I translate it into Texan you will be able to.

Abide in me as I abide in you

mei,nate evn evmoi,( kavgw. evn u`mi/nÅ

Y’all abide in me as I abide in y’all.

This passage is most definitely plural. You all abide in me as I abide in you all.

Can you image one young, little grape deciding he would be better off to go it alone without all those other grapes dragging him down? That is ridiculous.

And that is exactly where this passage is going. To be in relationship with God means that we are in a committed relationship with God, one that is continual, one that involves perseverance, one that is constantly part of our existence, not just there when it is handy. To be in relationship with God means that we live that out together in “costly companionship.”[2] As tempting as it is to live as a Christian that just checks in with God as needed, that just isn’t what Jesus is talking about here. As tempting as it can be to be a “solo” Christian, it just isn’t part of the deal.

Following Christ means a commitment to the sometimes difficult work of abiding in Christ, together with our fellow Christians, while we allow Christ to abide in all of us, together.

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[1] F. Dean Lucking, “Abide in me…(John 15:1-8)”, The Christian Century, April 16, 1997: 387

[2] N.T. Wright, “The Vine and the Branches”, a sermon at the Eucharist on the Fifth Sunday of Easter, 18 May 2003, Westminster Abbey, available online at http://westminster-abbey.org/voice/sermons/archives/030518_easter.htm, accessed 17, May 2006; internet

Will Rice - Sermon 20 - Doubting, Faithless, Believing Thomas

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 20:19-31

In today’s Media crazed world, it is pretty hard to run away from a bad reputation. If you mess up, and the media gets a hold of it, it doesn’t matter what you did before or what you do after, you are stuck with that reputation. Let me mention a few names: Paul Reubens a.k.a. Pee-Wee Herman, O.J. Simpson, Barry Bonds, Judas Iscariot or the subject of today’s reading, poor doubting Thomas.

Thomas’ reputation is so fixed it is in the dictionary:

doubt·ing Thomas (doutng) n.- One who is habitually doubtful.^[1]

I can’t believe it is in the dictionary. This wonderful, illuminating piece of scripture that tells us volumes about Jesus, the disciples and ourselves and what we come up with is a cliché.

I think something terribly unfortunate has happened here and it goes beyond the sullying of Thomas’ reputation. I think we have taken the cliché of a doubting Thomas, our cultural understanding of Thomas and used it as a lens to interpret this passage.

We hear the words of this passage, and whether we are lifelong Christians or just part of general society, we think, “oh, this is the doubting Thomas passage.” That happened just the other day. Pastor John and I were talking about what I might preach on this week. He said, “what about John 20:19-31?” I said, “Oh, the doubting Thomas passage.”

I guess I don’t really need to preach on this. Doubting Thomas has an implied negativity about it. I mean, who wants to be a doubting Thomas? You might want to be a skeptic, but a doubting Thomas? Who wants to be labeled as habitually doubtful? With our dictionary definition in hand, this passage clearly tells us to not be Thomas. Do not be habitually doubtful. Believe without seeing. Amen?

You know, wait a minute. It is not hanging on my wall, but somewhere in my office, under some book or something is a piece of paper that says I completed a Master of Divinity at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Based on that, I am thinking that maybe I shouldn’t base my entire sermon on something from the American Heritage Dictionary. I want to, for a moment, put aside that lens of “doubting Thomas” that we tend to read this passage through and let the text speak for itself.

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews,

In contrast to our “doubting Thomas” the brave, believing disciples are locked up in a house shaking in their boots.

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

We kind of skip over the part about them being locked in a house because they were afraid, because we are caught up in the fact that Jesus somehow walked right through the locked doors. Jesus has performed countless miracles and been resurrected from the dead and we are wowed because he just walked through some doors. Anyway, until Jesus shows up our disciples are locked up, in a house, because they are afraid.

Now with our handy dictionary definition in hand, we assume, that unlike Thomas, they must have a reason to still be afraid! They must have a reason not to believe yet. They are not doubting Thomases, they are faithful disciples. Perhaps no one has told them that Jesus is alive! Looking back in chapter 20, Mary Magdalene had gone to the tomb, only to find the stone rolled away, she ran off and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved… When they got there:

He saw the linen wrappings lying there, ⁷and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. ⁸Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; ⁹for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead.

Interesting, “he saw and believed!” “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Alright, well Simon Peter and the other disciple know and one believed, but perhaps they forgot. Or maybe, they forgot to tell anyone! What about Mary Magdalene, she went back to the tomb and ran into someone she thought was the gardener:

¹⁵Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." ¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher). ¹⁷Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"

So Mary Magdalene knew, and Jesus told her to tell everyone, but maybe she forgot to tell. Let’s look at the verse right before where we started today.

¹⁸Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

Which leads us right back to where we started, the very next verse:

¹⁹On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

They believed, not because one of the other disciples believed, not because Mary Magdalene told them. They believed because they saw.

Now let’s look at our doubting Thomas for a moment.

²⁴Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”

Thomas does make a pretty shocking demand. He actually wants to touch Jesus wounds from the cross, but in context, he is not asking for much more than the other disciples got. He wants to see for himself.

Thomas gets what he asks for.

²⁶A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”

The contrast between Thomas and the Disciples is getting fuzzy. Notice that the doors are still locked. They are still holed up in the house, protecting themselves from something.

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

I started this sermon with the idea that our cultural concept of a doubting Thomas that was originally gleaned from this passage has been turned around and now interprets this passage. I think that it is important to bring that up again here. Most Sundays in Church, we read from the New Revised Standard translation of the Bible. It is the one we keep up front here. This verse reads like this:

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’

Do not doubt but believe. The New Revised Standard Version was published in 1989. Before that we simply had the Revised Standard translation, which read:

²⁷Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing."

What is says there, in Greek is simply “do not be lacking in faith, but full of faith.” I like that better, because it takes our preconceived understanding of this doubting Thomas out of the picture. Thomas is not habitually doubtful. He is, just like the other disciples, just like us, moving from a place where he lacks faith to a place where he has faith. Thomas is no different from anyone else in this narrative, or anyone else in this room. Thomas is in the midst of transformation.

Tranformation – that is what it is all about. If we don’t see our selves, our church, our world in the midst of transformation, we are totally missing the point. We are all being transformed. None of us are done. If you think you are done with your journey of belief, you are missing out. If you think that God is through with you, you are missing out. If you think you are good enough, you are missing out. God loves you just the way you are, but wants even more for you.

One disciple believed when he saw the empty tomb. Mary Magdalene believed when Jesus spoke her name. Most of the disciples believed when they saw Jesus, but still had the doors locked the next time he showed up. Thomas believed when Jesus and said, “do not be lacking in faith, but full of faith.” And I guarantee you, in the trying times that these disciples had ahead, there were moments full of faith and moments full of doubt.

Some of us believe because our parents believed. Perhaps they passed that belief unto us and nurtured us in it until we were able to own if for ourselves. Some of us have an “experience” of Christ in our lives that moves us to belief. Some of us seek proof, we look to logic and evidence to help us believe, until that faith becomes part of who we are and we no longer need any proof. Some of us move from belief to doubt and back again, perhaps finding our faith a difference way each time.

I can think of many examples of people who inherited belief from their parents, at some point felt that belief was gone, looked for proof to find it again, found it, fell away again, and then came back to it through an experience.

It doesn’t matter really, because just like in John’s gospel, the risen Christ met each and every one of them in their doubt, where they were. How we come to believe is not nearly as important as what we believe and what is even more important is what happens to us when we believe. Poor Thomas who has become synonymous with habitually doubtful is the one who got it exactly right. 3 years of seminary and I can’t say the truth about Jesus much better than old Tom:

²⁸Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Thomas knew he was standing in the presence of the risen Lord, he was in the presence of God! Our doubting Thomas has just made one of the most profound statements in the New Testament.

²⁸Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

You see it’s not how you come to believe, it is what you believe.

Some scholars believe that the Gospel of John actually ended at the end of Chapter 20. Chapter 21 could have still been written by the same author, but it is more of an epilogue. This would mean that the true ending of the Gospel is this:

³⁰Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹But these are written that you may^[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

The whole point of the Gospel, the good news, all of this, is that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, that Jesus is the anointed one, the Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Now, in one way or another, we are all working on what that means and more importantly what that means for our lives and how we will choose to live them. But, the whole point is that we might believe, however it may be that we come to believe, and through believing, we may be transformed, that we may be made and remade as new persons, that we may have abundant life in the name of Christ.

That is what it is all about. That is why we come here. That is why we sing, read scripture, do Bible study, so that we might come to know Jesus Christ, might come to believe and might come to be transformed in his name.

Amen.

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[1]The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

Will Rice- Sermon #19 - Lifted Up

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Numbers 21:4-9

John 3:14-21

“Lifted Up!”

I have to admit, just like God’s people following Moses in the desert, I was grumbling a bit this week. While Moses’ followers were complaining about the eating and the living conditions, I was complaining about something else entirely. You may be surprised at what I was complaining about. I was grumbling because, out of a fluke of scheduling, I was given the gift of preaching today on John 3:16. Most preachers would be excited and happy about such a thing. I was not so excited. Many would consider it almost like getting a Sunday off. I mean John 3:16 nearly speaks for itself, you barely need to write a sermon. I did not share such a feeling.

I was grumbling this week about preaching on John 3:16.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want you to go running to your friends and saying “Oh my gosh, Will hates John 3:16, he must hate Jesus!” let me explain. First of all, as a person who spent most of his life as a non-Christian, I had this scripture hurled at me a lot. Some of us Christians believe it to be some sort of conversion bomb. We figure if we just hurl it at someone, they will instantly understand the Christian faith, stop doing bad things and want to come to church with us.

I am not quite sure how it supposed to work, but this is how it was tried on me.

“Will do you know Jesus?”

“Yes, I am aware of who Jesus is.”

“But do you know him as your savior?”

“Not that I am aware of.”

“John 3:16”

Some pause while they waiting for it to sink in.

Seeing I wasn’t getting it, “For God so loved the world he gave his only begotten (people always included begotten) son so that all he believe in him will never die but have eternal life.”

“And?”

“Never mind.”

But still, I don’t dislike John 3:16. Despite the fact that some have hurled it around like a salvation bomb, it is actually a beautiful, deep, quite complex piece of scripture. Once you read it in its context, including the words that surround it, it becomes even more rich.

But, let’s go back to the snakes. I am glad we get to read from the book of Numbers today, for here is a scripture, unlike John 3:16 that many people have never heard.

God’s people Israel have been in the desert for a while, and God has been taking pretty good care of them, but they are not happy. They are constantly asking two questions that Moses was dreading as much as parents taking their children on a cross country car trip. “Are we there yet?” and “Manna again?”

⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”

Now where as a typical parent might respond with, “if you don’t stop asking that, I am going to pull this car over,” God responded with snakes.

Now I realize that I now live in South Texas. In Western New York we don’t like snakes so much, but here in South Texas, y’all think they are fun, you even race them.

But imagine for a moment that you don’t like snakes.

⁶Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites died.

Yikes.

The people going running to Moses. Remember that they had just complained against him and God.

⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”

But now they are quite repentant.

⁷The people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you; pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.”

I am sure Moses’ originally reaction was, “Oh, now you need my help.” But then he tries to help them:

So Moses prayed for the people.

Now in a perfect Bible story, God would say, “Presto” and the snakes would be gone. But, that is not quite what happens.

⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.” ⁹So Moses made a serpent of bronze, and put it upon a pole; and whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

A clearer picture of this story, adds a ton of depth to today’s passage from John’s gospel. Notice two things about what is going on in Numbers. First, when a serpent bites someone and they look at the bronze serpent Moses has made, they don’t die anyway and go to heaven. They actually live. Second, the serpents don’t go away. They are still around, possibly biting people. People probably got bit less because they starting carrying sticks and watching where they were going, but the serpents were still there.

Now, on to John’s Gospel.

¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

Most people don’t start reading here, they start at verse 16. When they do start here, they are faced with the question, “what serpent?” A question to which you now have the answer.

Just as Moses lifted up the bronze serpent to save his people from the death brought about by the poisonous snakes, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ must be lifted up to save us from… well perhaps from ourselves.

Before we even get to John 3:16, let’s linger on this a moment. When we read that the “Son of Man” Jesus Christ must be lifted up, do we mean crucified? Do we mean resurrected? Do we mean glorified? Are we talking about his ascension into heaven, or all four? When we say that whoever believes will have eternal life, what do we mean eternal life?

Now whenever, before becoming a Christian, I would hear the rest of this passage lobbed at me like a “salvation bomb” I would assume, and I think most of the people reading it to me assumed, that when we said “eternal life” we were talking about heaven.

¹⁴And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, ¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“Whoever believes in him will go to heaven when they die.” Now I am not saying that those who believe in Jesus won’t go to heaven. I want to be clear, please don’t go back to your friends and say, “Oh my gosh, Will hates John 3:16, he must hate Jesus! And now he says we are not going to heaven, somebody call the Bishop!”

I am saying there is even better stuff going on here. When I thought this Jesus thing was just about going to heaven, I said, “I’ll take my chances.” When I realized that there was way more here, I said, “sign me up.”

Right there in verse 15, it is hard to see it in English, when it says,

¹⁵that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The word “have” is actually, in Greek, in the present tense. You see, Greek has verb tenses just like English, past, present and future. Sometimes we are sloppy in English.

Past	Yesterday I had some ice cream.
Present	I am having some ice cream right now. Or You may have some ice cream right now.
Future	Tomorrow, I will have some ice cream.

The Greek word for have is in the present, as in, “You may have some ice cream right now.” Or even better, you may have eternal life, right now.

Notice that in the wilderness, when those bitten by snakes looked at the bronze serpent, they didn’t die anyway and then go to heaven.

⁸And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”

They lived. They were saved right away. They were having life right now. Jesus explains what eternal life is all about in a prayer to God in heaven.

John 17:¹After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, ²since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. ³And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Whatever eternal life may look like after this life is over, in this life it is about relationship, it is about knowing God and Jesus Christ and the abundance of life that comes from that.

You see just as the lifting up of the serpent in the wilderness saved the Israelites from death from the poison of the snakes, (The snakes that they brought upon themselves through constant grumbling) the life, death, resurrection, ascension, glorification of Jesus saves us from the poison and death of our own world. It gives us a chance to be lifted up ourselves from the sin of our world and live instead in relationship with God.

Just like the bronze serpent did not make the other serpents go away, it just saved those who were harmed by them, the sin of our world does not go away, but we can be saved from it simply by believing in, having faith in Christ, who offers to put us back into relationship with God.

I got a chance a few nights back to watch the movie, “Walk the Line” the musical biopic of Johnny Cash. I saw the movie as a tale of redemption of salvation, which seems to really match the life and story of Johnny Cash. Cash went from a rough and humble beginning to the peak of glory and then back down into the depths of depression and drugs and alcohol. The snakes in the wilderness were biting him pretty good.

Now anyone who knows much about Johnny Cash knows that I wasn’t reading too far into this whole thing as a spiritual matter. Cash was quoted in Rolling Stone Magazine in the year 2000 comparing drugs' spiritual consequences with their physical and emotional devastation

"To put myself in such a low state that I couldn't communicate with God, there's no lonelier place to be. I was separated from God, and I wasn't even trying to call on him. I knew that there was no line of communication."

Of his conversion experience that brought him back to God that brought him back from the very brink of a destruction of his own making, “The greatest joy of my life was that I no longer felt separated from Him. Now he is my Counselor, my Rock of Ages to stand upon."

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

It took a savior to bring him back to life, not just eternal bliss after his death, but a new take on using his gift, becoming what he could truly become. This new life was something he couldn’t find himself. Just like the Israelites could not save themselves from the snakes, Cash could not save himself from the depths he had sunk into. While the movie is brief on the coverage of the experience of conversion for Cash, it is clear what it led to, renewed purpose, renewed mission a new chance to live abundantly, not in a world free of the biting snakes of drug and alcohol abuse, but to live abundantly with a relationship with God that was bigger than drug and alcohol abuse.

¹⁶“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

Just like the snake was lifted up to save those bitten from death, Jesus was lifted up to save us from the death of all those things of the world that separate us from the abundant life that is lived in relationship with God.

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Will Rice- Sermon #18 - Choosing Something More

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

Mark 8:31-38

“Choosing Something More”

I spent most of this week in Kerrville at Mount Wesley, our United Methodist retreat and conference center. For the first two days of the week, I was attending something called the Bishop’s Convocation. That is basically an opportunity for clergy, pastors like John and I, from the entire southwest Texas conference, pastors from the valley, from Austin, San Antonio, San Angelo, all over the place, to get together and worship together, and meet in groups, and just be together.

I have to be honest, for a young, up and coming pastor in the Southwest Texas Conference, this is an extremely dangerous place to be. If I let them, other clergy members will lay in front of me the glory to come. Not necessarily, the glory of the Kingdom of God, or the glory of a world of mercy and justice, but rather, the glory of a fruitful, successful future in ministry. “Look Will, let me take you to the top of the mountain and show you the power and glory you may some day have.” I can listen to them tell me about the large congregations I may someday serve, congregations that offer equally large salaries. I can even hear about my future as a district superintendent, serving over the pastors of my assigned district. If I really let it get thick, I can hear about the thought of me as Bishop, with an entire annual conference as my kingdom!

Last week, in his sermon, Pastor John took us into the wilderness with Jesus. We heard the wilderness story from Mark’s Gospel, and heard that Jesus was tempted by Satan. Mark 1:12-13:

¹²And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. ¹³He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Mark has the most barebones description of Jesus time in the wilderness. In Matthew and Luke’s gospel, Mark’s words are expanded. We get some details of the temptation. Matthew 4:1-11.

In Matthew’s account, the tempter offers Jesus three temptations. For simplicity, I will call them the temptation to comfort, security and glory.

³The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

Comfort, something to eat after 40 days without. Security:

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.’”

Security, testing God to be sure God will protect him physically; and glory, having power and recognition.

⁸Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor; ⁹and he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”

I read that this weekend as I was considering my future glory a pastor in the Southwest Texas Conference.

¹⁰Jesus said to him, “Away with you, Satan! for it is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.’”

Before we spend too much time on last week’s text, let’s take a look at this week’s Gospel reading.

³¹Then he began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³²He said all this quite openly.

Remember, the disciples didn’t know the end of the story like we do. In fact, in Mark’s gospel, this is the first time Jesus is bringing up all this stuff about rejection and death and resurrection. No doubt they might be a little surprised.

OK guys, I realize that you have all left your homes and jobs and have been following me around for some time now. I realize you have witnessed some strange and amazing things and have been put in some particularly difficult and frightening situations. I know that over the last couple of years I have taught you some really tough stuff, some stuff that you have had a hard time grasping. It seems like you are finally starting to catch on, and now I have some good news. I, the guy you have been following, the guy you thought was going to change the world am going to undergo a bunch of suffering, get rejected by all the important religious people and then, well, die. In case that doesn’t freak you out, three days after that I will rise again. Who wants to go get some lunch?

Peter really has a reaction.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

It seems pretty shocking to hear that Peter began to rebuke him. Rebuke is such a strong word. It translates literally as “to assess a penalty” or “charge someone as blamable.” It is a strong word of warning, almost a threat.

Remember, Jesus does a lot of rebuking. Back in the first chapter of Mark, Jesus rebukes a spirit:

^1:25But Jesus rebuked him, saying, "Be silent, and come out of him!"

Jesus threatened the wind in chapter 4:

^4:39He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm.

And just a verse before where we began today, after Peter announces the Jesus is the Messiah,

^8:30And he sternly ordered (rebuked) them not to tell anyone about him.

So far in Mark’s gospel, Jesus has been doing all of the rebuking. But now:

³²He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.

You know, you can’t really blame Peter for wanting to rebuke Jesus. We all have to occasionally get our friends back on track. I remember going through the painfully enlightening process of writing and submitting my examination for commissioning as a probationary elder in the United Methodist Church. I sat down the first day with my exam and my laptop. Across from me at my dining room table was my friend Tina who was working on her written examination for ordination. We were sharing books and coffee while we worked. I flipped open the exam, looked at the first five question, closed the exam, shut off my laptop and laid down on the dining room floor and began moaning. Tina asked, “What’s wrong?” I said, “I don’t know any of the answers, I must have slept through seminary. I’m quitting.”

Tina rebuked me, in other words, sternly ordered or warned me to get my butt off the floor, back onto the chair and start working on my exam. She was just pulling me out of my own pathetic self loathing and putting me back on track. I imagine that is what Peter thought he was doing.

There is a big difference here between the rebuking Jesus does and the rebuking Peter doesn’t do. It is very clearly written in English and in Greek that Peter only began rebuking him. He starts, but Jesus finishes.

³³But turning and looking at his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

It is easy just to read that “Get behind me, Satan!” as just unnecessarily harsh. I mean the guy just misunderstood, Jesus doesn’t have to go calling him Satan! But remember last week’s text of Jesus in the wilderness. Remember the passage from Matthew we read. Jesus is offered some temptations, the temptations of comfort, security and glory. But, Jesus chooses none of them, Jesus chooses the path that leads to the cross, the path that leads to discomfort, to insecurity, perhaps to glory, but not glory the way the world understands glory!

“Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

Peter couldn’t yet see that Jesus was choosing something more than what this world would measure as good: comfort, security, glory. Peter was tempting Jesus with the same worldly comfort, security and glory that Satan was. Jesus was facing again the same temptation and Jesus was choosing the path to the cross, a glory that mystifies this world.

And you see that is what I was considering while listening to my colleagues earlier this week. I find I really need to keep reconsidering what path I am taking. It can be really hard to tell. There could be a path that leads the way God is leading me, that takes me to larger churches, better appointments, maybe even to the role of Bishop someday, but why am I following the path I choose, am I seeking comfort, security and glory or am I truly seeking God?

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

Alright, there is a lot in that statement, but focus on one thing for a moment:

Get behind me (opisow mou), Satan

"If any want to become my followers (opisow mou)

The words for behind me in verse 33 and the words for my followers in verse 34 are, in Greek, exactly the same words. That “behind me” is, in essence, “follow me.” You see, here in lies the choice, do we follow the temptation to grasp for the values of the world, comfort, security and glory, do we get behind that or do we get behind Jesus, do we follow the way to the cross?

And that is one of the things that we get to think about in Lent. As we prepare to celebrate Easter, we decide if that is what we really want to do. You see Easter is all about glory, but what kind of glory. Do we want to follow the world and seek comfort, security and glory, or are we willing to begin letting go of the search for those things of the world and instead embrace the possibilities that God has for us in following Jesus.

This is not the question of whether or not we want to be Christians, but rather, what kind of Christians do we want to be.

I can still be a Christian and listen to my press and follow the path to larger churches with bigger salaries and more prestige. And I can still do God’s work in that. No matter what path I follow there, I will be a pastor, and I will be preaching the word and bringing people to the faith and encouraging spiritual growth and engaging people in mission. All that is good.

But what if… what if I truly follow, truly get behind Jesus and put aside thoughts of comfort, security and glory, truly give in to the possibilities of following Jesus, choose something more, even if that means less comfort, security, and glory. What if that means smaller churches and less prestige because that is what would better serve God.

This becomes a complicated struggle in our lives because it calls us to consider our own motives. We have to ask ourselves why we are following the path we are following. Are we hoping to find the best the world has to offer, or the best that God has to offer?

Some people mistakenly think that my main role as a pastor is to bring comfort, to bring people the good news of God to free them from the burdens of their lives. Sometimes I do that, but it is not really my task. My real role is to make you uncomfortable. The world teaches us that our true goal is comfort, security and glory. I am here to remind you that our true goal is to reach for God.

This discomfort can and should be part of our lives as individuals as we consider the path of our lives and the choices we make. Often we face tough choices in reconciling the decisions we make about how we make our livings and how we spend our time and money with what we believe as Christians because the things of the world come into conflict with the things of the Gospel.

Sometimes that really works itself out day to day. I just had to replace my vehicle and the world tells me I need the comfort of leather seats and power locks and windows, the security of 16 airbags, the glory of something that will turn heads. The gospel made me ask if I really thought my car payment should be bigger than my offering to do God’s work in the church.

This discomfort can and should be part of our life as a church as we consider and struggle with our future. As a church, we constantly struggle with our worldly desire to be comfortable and safe and even proud with the gospel’s call to be open to all. Here at Grace we are already struggle with the need to make more space for more people whose lives could be changed by the gospel fighting against the fact that we like things the way they are. The world tells me it is ok to embrace the comfort, security and glory of sitting in the same pew I have sat in for years, of being surrounded by people I know, of not facing the financial burden of building or expanding, of feeling like we are certainly doing God’s work because we are already full. The gospel tells me that, as a church, comfort isn’t important, discomfort is the better path when it leads to more people being invited to experience the grace of God, more people being nurture in that faith and more people feeling the call to reach out in mission to our community and world.

³⁴He called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.

In Lent, I invite us all to choose that path that leads to the cross, I invite us all to choose something more. I invite us all to embrace the discomfort, to truly follow Jesus in the path that leads to life. Amen

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