No Going Back to Normal

1 Corinthians 15:1-11; John 20:1-18

April 5, 2015 Easter Sunday

© 2015

  

Though “apostle” does have a broader meaning in the New Testament, it often indicates someone who announced that they were eyewitnesses of the risen Jesus. Paul had this in mind when he wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:8-9 that he was the last eyewitness of the risen Jesus and the least of the apostles.

In that sense, John 20:1-18 reports that Mary Magdalene was the first eyewitness of the risen Jesus, the first one to announce his resurrection. Thus she is sometimes called the first apostle and the apostle to the apostles.

Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. ²So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” ³Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. ⁴The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. ⁵He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. ⁶Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. 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. ¹⁰Then the disciples returned to their homes.

¹¹But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; ¹²and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. ¹³They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” ¹⁴When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 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.’” 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.

In the middle of Mary’s story, we read that neither Peter nor “the other disciple” yet understood the scripture that Jesus must rise from the dead. Yet “the other disciple” believed when he saw Jesus’ grave clothes in the tomb. I wonder what he believed and what he understood, and I wonder about Peter’s response.

In his Gospel, John is not trying to prove the reality of Jesus’ resurrection but to show it effect on those who have been encountered by the risen Jesus. Once seeing Jesus, neither they, nor we, can go back to normal.

Mary Magdalene is the only person named in the resurrection accounts of all four Gospels. While there is a lot of nonsense circulating about her to discount – that she was a prostitute or Jesus’ wife – one legend grew out of seeing her as the first apostle. She had an audience with Caesar Tiberius and brought an egg as a symbol of the sealed tomb from which Jesus rose. Tiberius said no one could return to life after Roman crucifixion any more than that egg could turn red, which it did as she held it, which is one reason we color eggs for Easter.

You may remember the song Mary sang in Jesus Christ Superstar, “I Don’t Know How to Love Him.” But love him she did. She was first at the tomb, probably with other women (“we do not know where they have laid him” v. 2). Her weeping was unfazed by the appearance of the angels (v. 13). With no consideration of practicality, she offered to take Jesus’ body away (v. 15).

For all that, she did recognize Jesus when he spoke her name (v. 16). She had heard him call her name before.

As a child growing up hearing this from KJV, when Jesus says, “Touch me not” (v. 17), I thought he was still wet like a new butterfly. But “do not hold on to me” is better. With her grief, Mary doesn’t want to let go of Jesus again.

Jesus could have appeared to Peter or the other disciple, but he chose this personal encounter with Mary, and she could never go back to normal; she must tell that she had seen the Lord.

Jesus made his choice personal by calling Mary by name. His personal relationship with her was central.

When he said not to hold onto him, he assured her he’d be there, and when he ascended to the Father, she’d be ready

The message Jesus gave Mary was also highly personal. Not tell “my disciples” but “my brothers.” Not just “my Father and my God” but also “your Father and your God.”

Barbara Brown Taylor, professor at Piedmont College and Columbia Theological Seminary, both in Georgia, tells of her childhood fascination with cicada shells as evidence a miracle had occurred. They looked dead but through the slit a living creature had escaped. She compared it to Jesus’ tomb which he outgrew. It was too small for his resurrection. The miracle was not in the tomb but his living encounters with people. (Christian Century, April 1, 1998, page 339)

Craig Barnes, President of Princeton Theological Seminary says the question we must answer about Jesus’ resurrection is not “Do you believe?” but “Have you been encountered by the risen Christ?” (Christian Century, March 13-20, 2002 p. 16)

Sometimes we talk about hearing God’s call to a ministry or to a vocation or location.  But Jesus calls everyone’s name to recognize him as the brother with whom they share their Father and their God. Jesus is calling your name. Have you heard him? Once you do, you can never go back to normal. Since you can’t go back to normal, where are you going forward with the risen Jesus?

Jesus is calling your name to share resurrection life with him, not waiting for the sweet by and by, but now, starting today. Our world is infected with hostility and violence. Jesus is calling your name to be his presence of love and peace to people around you. Our world is infected by fear and anxiety. Jesus is calling your name to be his presence of faith and hope to people around you. Our world is infected with pain and grief. Jesus is calling your name to be his presence of healing and comfort to people around you. When you hear Jesus call your name you cannot go back to normal brokenness but move forward in his resurrection to exuberant wholeness.

When Will We Understand?

Zechariah 9:9-11; John 12:12-16

March 29, 2015 Palm Sunday

© 2015

After World War I and the Great Depression, people world over were looking for leaders who could rescue them from global chaos. Some were evil and others noble: Hitler, Hirohito, Mussolini, Franco, Haile Selassie, Stalin, de Gaulle, Churchill, and in this country Franklin Roosevelt.

Today, the whole world is looking for someone to rescue us from the chaos of Iraq, Iran, Syria, ISIL, et al. You will hear presidential candidates promising solutions, but I am fully certain none of them will be the American messiah.

At the time of Jesus, Rome’s oppression was brutal. Messianic fever was high, hoping for a rescuing hero.

That is essential to John 12:12-16’s Palm Sunday story. Summoned by his friends, Jesus came to Bethany, near Jerusalem, and raised Lazarus from the grave as a sign of resurrection. This threatened Temple leaders who plotted to kill Jesus and Lazarus. Jesus withdrew to the safety of a remote area but returned for a dinner when Mary anointed him, which he said prepared him for his burial.

The next day the great crowd that had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. ¹³So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him, shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord— the King of Israel!” ¹⁴Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it; as it is written: ¹⁵“Do not be afraid, daughter of Zion. Look, your king is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt!” ¹⁶His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.

The differences in John’s Palm Sunday from the synoptic Gospels emphasize Jesus’ leadership of humility and peace.

The synoptic Gospels tell of those who came with Jesus, some from Galilee, but John tells it from the perspective of those who were in Jerusalem and went out to meet him.

Only John specified palm branches, symbolizing victorious Hebrew royalty. Two centuries earlier, Simon Maccabeus was welcomed with palms after liberating Jerusalem (1 Maccabees 13:51; 2 Maccabees 10:7).

Hosanna was not an acclamation of praise but an appeal to be rescued by a conquering hero, which came from “save us” in Psalm 118:25 from our call to worship.

John quoted the people as adding “the King of Israel” to “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Sometimes John is accused of anti-Semitism because he used “Jew” in ambiguous ways. “Jew” was actually shortened from Judah and was used in a derogatory way by their oppressors: Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome. John consistently used “Israel” with positive connotations. By adding “King of Israel” the people were hoping Jesus would be the conquering hero to rescue them from Rome. But by Friday, Jesus was condemned by Pilate as “King of the Jews” not “King of Israel.”

John didn’t tell how Jesus got the donkey’s colt, only that he sat on it, which he interpreted with Zechariah 9:9 as a sign of Jesus’ leadership of humility and peace.

At the same time, Pilate may have ridden into Jerusalem on a war horse with a military entourage. Some wanted Jesus to keep going to run Pilate out of town. By coming on a donkey’s colt, Jesus rejected all such thoughts.

As King of Israel, Jesus cut off the chariot, the war horse and the battle bow to command peace to all the nations.

[Highlands Christian Church is to vote on calling a new pastor before the start of the Palm Sunday service. Though I anticipate enthusiastic affirmation, in an abundance of caution and respecting congregational process, I have redacted the end of this sermon, as though a government report going to the press or a Congressional committee. This is also respecting the career and calling of the candidate.]  

Looking at Jesus’ leadership of humility and peace on the Sunday you voted to call a new pastor begs the question, what kind of leadership will you expect from XXXXXXXXXX?

Your vote today affirms the conviction of your S&C Committee that God has specifically called XXXXXXXXXX and Highlands Christian Church together. I encourage you from day one to treat XXX as God’s gift sent to you.

I believe XXX education in music and business will bring ideas and resources especially valuable to this church at this time. I know XXX will bring changes in worship and changes in administration. XXX experience in ministry with families of children and youth match your aspirations.

Though XXX is much younger with fewer years of church experience than most of you, your vote confirms that God has called XXX to lead you as your pastor. One of your important challenges will be to let XXX lead, believing XXX wants the best for this church and has much to contribute to this church. But XXX won’t always get it right. So you are also going to be teaching XXX a lot as a new senior pastor. You do not want to do this in an adversarial relationship but in a spirit of collaborative partnership.

Wrestling in Prayer with Jesus

Hebrews 5:5-10; John 12:20-33

March 22, 2015

© 2015

Bill is a World War II vet from a church I previously served. He had been severely abused in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and suffered schizophrenia. He came to church wearing mismatched clothes covered by buttons for conflicting causes and distributed hand drawn leaflets that resembled the charts of John Forbes Nash Jr. in the movie A Beautiful Mind. Especially during Lent he would draw magic marker stigmata: wounds of crucifixion – nail prints on his hands and crown of thorns on his forehead. Understandably, people avoided Bill. Once when he was not there I told the congregation they could see him as God’s sign of being called to become so identified with Jesus that people might think we were crazy.

Hebrews 5:7 says that Jesus offered up prayers with loud cries and tears. We naturally connect that with Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane which the Gospel of John does not report. It does record Jesus’ lengthy high priestly prayer in chapter 17 just before his arrest. But John 12:20-33 does tell us that the way Jesus prayed as he approached the cross illuminates the counterintuitive path of our redemption and discipleship.

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. ²¹They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” ²²Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. ²³Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. ²⁴Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. ²⁵Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. ²⁶Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.

²⁷“Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.²⁸Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” ²⁹The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.”³⁰Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. ³¹Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. ³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” ³³He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.

In Isaiah 42:14 God says, “Now I will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.” Lauren Winner, who teaches at Duke Divinity School, sees this image of God as a mother giving birth to redemption in Jesus’ anguished praying as he approached the cross. His prayers that his Father might save him from this hour are like the mother in labor who protests, “I can’t do this anymore,” but does bring a child into the world. So humanly, Jesus recoiled from what he faced, and yet brought the new life of God’s redemption into the world. Christian Century, March 18, 2015, pp. 32 ff

Paradoxically, by being killed on the cross by the powers of evil, Jesus drove out the ruler of this world. The way Jesus prayed as he approached the cross illuminates the counterintuitive path of our redemption and discipleship.

After repeatedly saying his time had not come, when the Greeks want to see Jesus and the voice comes from heaven, he recognized that the time had come. As dreadful as it was, now he fulfilled the reason he came.

Jesus told the analogy of a grain of wheat falling into the earth and dying so it can bear much fruit to illustrate not only his crucifixion and resurrection but the whole counterintuitive way God’s spiritual power works. Just as being born as God incarnate and refusing to use force in the temptations at the start of his ministry, being killed on the cross defeated the evil ruler of this world by reversal.

Being lifted up from the earth on the cross would be the way Jesus would die, but it was also the means by which he would draw all people to himself.

Jesus was clear that this counterintuitive reversal was not only the means of our redemption but the essential to what being his disciple and following him was all about. The language Jesus used was hyperbole – an extreme exaggeration to make a dramatic point. Jesus’ culture used such figures of speech, and ours is more literalistic. Still we should squirm to hear Jesus say that by loving our lives we lose them and by hating our lives in this world we keep them for eternal life.

This was not a one-off in this tense situation. Jesus said almost exactly the same thing in every Gospel, each time in a different situation. Mark 8:35-37 which was in my March 1 sermon, as well as Matthew 10:39 and Luke 14:26. It is an inescapable theme of Jesus entire ministry.

Jesus did not limit it to his redemptive death, but said “Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.” (v. 26) If we follow Jesus, we will give ourselves away trusting God to bring fruit.

The way Jesus prayed as he approached the cross illuminates the counterintuitive path of our redemption and discipleship.

When William Willamon, who now teaches at Duke Divinity School, was a Methodist pastor, he asked a woodcarver in the congregation to carve a processional cross to use for Lent. Instead of something simple, modern and clean, what they got was a dramatic heavy cross with a bleeding Jesus on it. Some loved it because they loved the carver, but most objected that it was gory and depressing and didn’t match the décor.

Just as Jesus prayed with loud cries and tears as he approached the cross, I believe we can cry out to God from the depths of our anguish for the misery people suffer in our world. Jesus’ prayers were heard, but not for escape but in reverent submission. Thus to pray “Your will be done,” is not a cop out but courageous faith.

Holy Week starts with Palm Sunday. If all you experience is Triumphal Entry and Resurrection, you miss the stark horror of our redemption from which even Jesus recoiled. In God’s economy, triumph is won only through painful, apparent defeat. We have opportunity to embrace the counterintuitive path of our redemption on Maundy Thursday evening, Good Friday afternoon and evening.

Authentic evangelism works the same way. As we give ourselves away in the name of Jesus, he is lifted up and people are drawn to him.

Jesus the Spiritual Magnet

Ephesians 2:1-10; John 3:14-21

March 15, 2015

© 2015

From shootings by police and of police to fraternity chants, race tensions have been at the center of recent national attention. Because of the places I have lived and served, and because of the people I have known and worked with, these issues have personal impact on me. When an African-American pastor who is a friend of mine was a boy growing up in northern New Jersey in the 1950s, he witnessed his 18 year old uncle being lynched by a mob who didn’t like the way he looked at a white woman. No one was ever arrested, charged, tried, convicted or punished. This is just one among many things that scream, “What is wrong with us?”

In his Gulag Archipelago, Alexander Solzhenitsyn answered the question, “What is wrong with us?”

When I lay there on rotting prison straw, it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains, an un-uprooted small corner of evil.

Though humorous, a conversation between Lucy and Charlie Brown in a Peanuts cartoon sheds light on this. (quoted from Exegetical Notes at Crossmarks by Brian Soffregen)

Lucy:          Discouraged again, eh, Charlie Brown? You know what your whole trouble is? The whole trouble with you is that you're you!

Charlie:     Well, what in the world can I do about that?

Lucy:          I don't pretend to be able to give advice...I merely point out the trouble! You know what the whole trouble with you is, Charlie Brown?

Charlie:     No, and I don't want to know! Leave me alone! (He walks away.)

Ephesians 2:1-3 describes our problem as being spiritually dead. John 3:19 describes our problem as loving darkness rather than light.

Like Ephesians 2, John 3:14-21 tells us that when we are ready to give up on broken humanity, with rich mercy and great love, God lifts up Jesus to draw us out of darkness and death into light and eternal life.

And 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. 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.¹⁷“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. ¹⁹And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. ²⁰For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. ²¹But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Just in case we didn’t get how much God loves us from John 3:16, verse 17 says that God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world but in order that the world might be saved through him.

After briefly acknowledging that we are spiritually dead, Ephesians 2:4 introduces the Gospel as rooted in the rich mercy and great love at the core of God’s character.

This understanding of God’s character is deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Psalm 103:2-3,8,10, 12-14 says,

Bless the Lord, O my soul, who forgives all your iniquity. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. As far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him. For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.

And Psalm 130:3-4,7  says,

If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. Hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem.

So that 2 Peter 3:9 can confidently declare,

The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.

John 3:14 is the first of several times John wrote of Jesus being lifted up. When we are ready to give up on broken humanity, with rich mercy and great love, God lifts up Jesus to draw us out of darkness and death into light and eternal life.

The comparison of Jesus’ crucifixion to Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness goes back to Numbers 21:4-9. During the Israelites’ 40 years wandering in the wilderness between Egypt and the Promised Land, they grumbled, and God sent poisonous snakes as punishment. When they repented, God told Moses to make a bronze snake and put it on a high pole so that when people were bitten, they could look at it and live. A snake on a pole has been a symbol of healing medicine from this incident and the Rod of Asclepius from Greek mythology.

The word for “lifted up” can mean either hoisted on a gibbet for execution or exalted for reverent respect, both of which apply to Jesus’ crucifixion. We will see it again next Sunday in John 12:32 where Jesus said, “When I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

In the 80s and 90s, spiritual writer Suzanne Guthrie worked at Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, NY. Above the door of the guest house was inscribed in Latin, “The Cross is the Medicine of the World.”

Some variation of the word “believe” occurs in John’s Gospel 86 times, and is central to 3:14-21. We must ask what it means to believe to be lifted out of darkness and death into the light and eternal life and of God’s rich mercy and great love.

John 3:16 says God gave his only Son. Ephesians 2:8 says that the grace by which we are saved in the gift of God. So believing is not something we do, rather it is something we receive. Like the bronze serpent Moses lifted up in the wilderness, we don’t affect our spiritual healing, even with correct theology – believing correct things about God, but we simply receive God’s gift.

Ephesians 2:1 says that we were dead. John 3:16 says that without God’s gift we perish. This doesn’t mean we cease to exist but fail to fulfill the purpose of human life. Like Sisyphus in Greek mythology, condemned to live forever rolling a stone to the top of a hill, only to have it roll back down and start over again, endlessly. In his great prayer in John 17:3 Jesus defined eternal life as to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Eternal life is life in the presence of the Eternal God, and only secondarily about duration.

Thus, eternal life is about our relationship with God through Jesus, and by extension all others who share this eternal life. Traditionally, we think that people come to believe in Jesus first and then become part of the community of faith – the church. Diana Butler Bass (Christianity After Religion), and a number of others, have observed in a society were fewer and fewer people know about Jesus, they may often come into the community of faith first, and that is where they meet Jesus and then come to believe in him. Thus, today, evangelism starts with building relationships with people.

Passion for God’s Wisdom

1 Corinthians 1:18-25; John 2:13-22

March 8, 2015

© 2015

We don’t use the word “zeal” much these days. We might cheer our favorite team, or fight to protect our pocketbooks or personal freedoms. We can even get enthusiastic about specific products or causes, but tend to be suspicious of people who seem overzealous about something we don’t espouse. Even we who are committed people of faith cringe at excess religious fanaticism. I think we are intended to cringe at Jesus’ zeal in John 2:13-22. He challenges our zeal for the foolish wisdom and power of God through the cross of Jesus.

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.¹⁴In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. ¹⁵Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. ¹⁶He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” ¹⁷His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” ¹⁸The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” ¹⁹Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” ²⁰The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” ²¹But he was speaking of the temple of his body. ²²After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

Some scholars think John tells of a different event at the beginning of his ministry than the one the synoptic Gospels tell right after Palm Sunday. Others think it is the same event but John mistakenly put it at the beginning instead of the end, or it got moved accidently in scribal copying. I may not be right, but I think it is the same event that John purposely tells at the beginning to connect his whole Gospel with Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

John’s account is quite detailed and points to Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. He made the only reference to the whip (which he only says was used on animals, not people), and to cattle and sheep. Instead of Jesus’ quote from Jeremiah 1:11 about the Temple becoming “a den of robbers,” John used Jesus’ reference to Zechariah 14:21 to “stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” Only John made reference to Jesus’ resurrection with which he organized the whole Gospel, rather than chronologically.

I think John intended us to cringe at Jesus’ scandalous behavior and words. Jesus didn’t seem, to care if all of the animals and coins got back to their rightful owners. Jesus wasn’t just attacking Temple corruption. If this upsets you, you are ready to hear his claim to the authority to replace the whole Temple system with himself.

All of the Gospels describe Jesus’ miracles, and John calls them signs. Some of the signs are not miracles, but all of the signs say something important about Jesus. Turning water into wine is the first sign in John’s Gospel. It was a private, quiet way to say Jesus is about life and joy. John put driving the merchants out of the Temple next as a public, raucous sign that he was the very presence of God dwelling among people.

The Temple leaders knew Jesus was claiming authority over the Temple, so they asked him for a sign validating this. If they thought he was just a trouble maker, they would have just had him arrested. In 1 Corinthians 1:22, Paul wrote that Jews demand a sign. They thought divine authority could be established by performing a miracle.

Jesus’ answer about destroying this Temple and raising it up in three days seems smart alecky, but it pointed to his crucifixion and resurrection as the sign not only of his authority in the Temple, but that he himself was God there among people with whom God was present.

The sign of Jesus driving the merchants out of the Temple tells us that Jesus made the Temple obsolete. His body is the Temple in which God lives with people. Ephesians 2:21 says that as the body of Christ, the Church (meaning people not buildings) is the Temple in which God dwells.

Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection challenges us to be zealous for the foolish wisdom and power of God. The cross of Jesus not only defies all human logic, it is even more scandalous than Jesus driving the merchants out of the Temple.

Paul explored this paradox in 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. Our world lives by power: the power of money, the power of argument, the power of influence, the power of force. Jesus’ crucifixion flies in the face of our human reliance on all kinds of power. The scandal of the cross is the refusal of Jesus and his followers to use these powers.

Jesus’ resurrection is God’s vindication of this foolish wisdom and power. When Jesus was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered what he had said about raising up the Temple of his body and they believed with a zeal that propelled them into a dangerous, hostile world with the Gospel of the cross.

As Jesus was driving the merchants out of the Temple, his disciples also remembered Psalm 69:9, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” While not so frequently connected to Jesus’ crucifixion as Psalm 22, Psalms 31 and 69 are included in the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ crucifixion.

Jesus’ zeal in the Temple rightly translates to passionate enthusiasm for his Church today. Not as a building or an institution. Rather Jesus challenges us to be zealous for the people of the community of faith to experience Christ dwelling among us. In our society belonging to a congregation can be reduced to one among many social groups: professional organizations, community service clubs, neighborhood associations. Nothing wrong with any of them, but zeal for our Father’s house lifts the Church above them into the foolish wisdom and power of God.

If the word “zeal” isn’t uncomfortable enough, what about “consumed?” I don’t think Jesus was in an out of control rage in the Temple. Rather, he was passionately focused on establishing his authority as the living replacement for the Temple. Our zeal for the Gospel of the cross, is not about recklessly bashing people with religion, but about looking at and organizing all of our life around the foolish wisdom and power of God, the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

Letting Go of Temporary to Gain Permanent

Romans 4:13-25; Mark 8:31-38

March 1, 2015

© 2015

In Henry James’ 1903 novella The Beast in the Jungle, John Marcher had a premonition of a “beast in the jungle” that will ruin his life. So he adopted a wary, vigilant life avoiding anything that might turn out to be the “beast in the jungle.” At the end of his life, John Marcher realized that his caution was the beast that had deprived him of living to the fullest.

English poet A. E. Housman (1859-1936) said that Jesus confirmed this when he said, “Those who want to save their life will lose it.” But he never came to the place of accepting Jesus’ next line, “those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”

Alyce McKenzie, who teaches at Perkins School of Theology, tells of a recruiter for Teach for America makes Jesus’ point when she asks bright, young people to teach in America's most deprived schools saying, “Here I stand, trying to recruit you for a salary of $15,000 a year in some of the worst schools in America, begging you to waste your life for a bunch of ungrateful kids. I will to talk to anybody who is interested.” Many students respond, dying to give themselves to something bigger and more important than their own selves.

Jesus taught his first followers, and us, that the way to save our lives is to give ourselves away for others.

Mark 8:31-38 is the fulcrum of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus turned directly toward the cross right after Peter’s great confession.

Then 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. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 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.”

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. ³⁵For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. ³⁶For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? ³⁷Indeed, what can they give in return for their life? ³⁸Those who are ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Peter prompted Jesus’ rebuke, but turning and looking at them warned all of Jesus’ disciples not to set their minds on human things but on divine things. Jesus called the whole crowd in to teach them, and us, that human things have to do with protecting ourselves, but divine things have to do with giving ourselves away for others. Jesus, not only taught this and practiced it, he embodied it.

Some have questioned whether Jesus would have referred to the cross before his crucifixion. I do believe it made sense to his listeners, but not as a symbol of Christian faith. A cross was the instrument of a torturous execution Rome used for political intimidation and humiliating the lowest of criminals. Though Jesus hearers missed that Jesus spoke of resurrection, that is what makes sense of losing his life for the sake of others as the path to saving not only his life, but ours as well.

Romans 4 tells how Abraham’s faith in the face of the impossible was reckoned to him as righteousness. So too, for us as Jesus’ followers, it is by faith that we journey through suffering, rejection and death to resurrection.

Many Christians from different backgrounds have recognized that Jesus taught his first followers, and us, that the way to save our lives is to give ourselves away for others. So they have called Jesus “the man for others.”

From his Nazi prison cell in 1944, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote to his friend Eberhard Bethge that Jesus is the man for others. It is being there for others that marks the Christian. We encounter God in the middle of life when we are there for our neighbors. The church is the church only when it exists for others.

Our son Erik went to Jesuit high school hearing their purpose to build “men for others.” In 1973 Father Pedro Arrupe told the International Congress of Jesuit Alumni in Europe that developing men-and-women-for-others was the paramount objective of Jesuit education. Only by being for others does one become fully human, not only in the natural sense but is being a spiritual person.

That Francis, the first Jesuit Pope would suggest giving up indifference to suffering people as a Lenten discipline is not accidental. He quoted John Chrysostom (349-407). “No act of virtue can be great if it is not followed by advantage for others. So, no matter how much time you spend fasting, no matter how much you sleep on a hard floor and eat ashes and sigh continually, if you do not do good to others, you do nothing great.”

Congregations seeking a new pastor are naturally drawn to those who suit the preferences with which they have become comfortable. As Jesus taught in Mark 8, the way for Highlands Christian Church to follow Jesus into the future is to be a church who gives itself away for others.

Quite a bit of that is already going on. Worship at Brookdale. Cooperating with other congregations to serve your neighbors. Support for Week of Compassion. Even renting space to other groups, not just as a way to supplement the church’s income but as authentic service in the name of Jesus. A question to ask of ourselves is, “How can we grow in defining and identifying Highlands Christian Church as a church that exists for others?”

An important question for the Search and Call Committee and the whole congregation to ask of pastoral candidates is, “Can and will this pastor lead us to keep stretching to be more and more for others?”

Abraham’s faith in the face of the impossible was reckoned to him as righteousness. Jesus calls us to faith that by letting go of self-preservation, we will receive resurrection. Such faith, personally and congregationally means risking everything to be for others, trusting God to bring about resurrection life.

Starting Out Clean, Loved and Tested

1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 1:9-15

February 22, 2015

© 2015

The 40 days of Lent reflect several 40 day and year intervals in the Bible, especially Jesus’ temptation that we consider today. As Sundays are “Little Easters,” they are not counted in the 40 days, so today is the first Sunday in Lent, not of Lent.

Very early, during Lent new believers prepared for baptism on Easter. This soon developed into a season of spiritual renewal for all believers, preparing for mission.

For Jesus, 40 days of testing followed his baptism, having passed the test, he launched his public ministry.

My hope is that contemplating baptism today will feed our confidence in Christ’s redemption and fuel introducing spiritually hungry people to Jesus.

In the compact space of 7 verses, Mark 1:9-15 presents Jesus’ baptism, temptation and start of ministry with fierceness not evident in Matthew and Luke (not in John at all). Usually I tell the Gospel before explaining it, but today I want to point out Mark’s distinctive features so you can listen for them.

When Jesus came up from the water of his baptism, Matthew and Luke said heaven was opened, but Mark wrote “he saw the heavens torn apart.” (v. 10)

Matthew and Luke said the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, but Mark wrote, “The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.” (v. 12)

Matthew and Luke called the tempter “the devil,” but Mark called him “Satan.” Satan is not the devil’s name but identifies him as “the accuser” as we see ha satan in Job 1-2 and the accuser of our brothers in Rev.12:10.

Only Mark wrote that while tested in the wilderness Jesus “was with the wild beasts.” (v. 13)

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. ¹⁰And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.¹¹And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” 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. ¹⁴Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, ¹⁵and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

We need some context and perspective to contemplate baptism in a way that feeds confidence in Christ’s redemption and fuels introducing spiritually hungry people to Jesus.

In the interest of full disclosure, I tell you I did not come to the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) until 2000. Candy and I were both baptized by immersion on profession of faith in the Baptist churches with whom we grew up. Our children were baptized by effusion (sprinkling) on profession of faith in the Presbyterian church we served in NJ. During my 17 years there, I assisted with the baptism of infants by effusion. Sharing our baptismal journeys could be interesting and fruitful.

Baptismal thinking in the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has not been static but developed over the last two centuries. Part of Alexander Campbell’s break with the Presbyterians came when he refused to present his daughter for baptism arguing she should be baptized by immersion on her profession of faith, which he regarded as essential to her salvation. Barton Stone also advocated immersion on profession of faith, but in the interest of Christian unity was unwilling to reject what someone else considered their legitimate baptism, thus not necessarily essential for salvation. For many years, Campbell’s view prevailed, but since WW II, we have moved toward a view more like Stone’s, practicing believer’s immersion but accepting all Christian baptisms, and not re-baptizing. Interestingly, the NT used the words “pour” in Titus 3:6 and “sprinkle” in Hebrews 10:22 in association with baptism, and by the 2^nd and 3^rd centuries art in the catacombs showed John pouring water over Jesus. I’m not suggesting that resolves the conflicts, only interesting.

Contemplating what baptism accomplishes feeds confidence in Christ’s redemption and fuels introducing spiritually hungry people to Jesus. Though Disciples have avoided the word “sacrament” until lately, it just means that baptism and communion were given by Jesus for believers in which something physical (ordinary) conveys something spiritual (holy, sacred, thus sacrament). Though scholars seem only to agree that 1 Peter 3:18-22 may the most difficult NT passage to interpret, it does shed light on the meaning of baptism.

The washing away of sin is the clearest spiritual reality conveyed in baptism, not water washing dirt from the body but by the resurrection of Christ. This is seen in Acts 22:16 and 2:38, which our Disciples forbearer Walter Scott gave as the five finger exercise: faith, repentance, baptism, forgiveness, receiving the Holy Spirit.

Just as sinless Jesus identified with us sinners when he was baptized, Romans 6:3-4; Galatians 3:27 and Colossians 2:11-12 tell us that we are identified with Jesus in his death, burial and resurrection when we are baptized, and are clothed with his righteousness.

Titus 3:5 tells us that we are not saved by any works we have done, not even the ritual of baptism, but God saves us by his mercy in Christ. Baptism is not something we do for God, but God gives us baptism to assure us of our redemption, which is an objective reality that does not depend on the faith or righteousness of the one who baptized us, or even on whether we stray for Jesus’ path. When we come back we don’t need to be re-baptized.

1 Corinthians 12:13 and Ephesians 4:4-6 tell us that baptism incorporates, initiates us into the one Body of Christ, the community of faith that is the Church.

Danielle Shroyer, one of the pastors of Journey Church here in Dallas, has correctly, and cleverly, said, “What happens in baptism … doesn’t stay in baptism. Baptism gives us travelin’ shoes.… It gives us the indelible mark of belovedness.” Just as Jesus’ baptism was his anointing for his redemptive mission, Jesus put baptism at the core of the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19: make disciples and baptize them!

Key Baptism Passages

Matthew 28:18-20

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Mark 16:15-16

And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation. ¹⁶The one who believes and is baptized will be saved; but the one who does not believe will be condemned. 

Acts 2:38-42

Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. ³⁹For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.” ⁴⁰And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” ⁴¹So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added. ⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

Acts 10:48

So he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Acts 16:30-33

Then he brought them outside and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” ³¹They answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” ³²They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. ³³At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. 

Acts 19:3-5

Then he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They answered, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.” ⁵On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 

Acts 22:16

And now why do you delay? Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his name.

Romans 6:3-4

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

1 Corinthians 10:1-4

I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:13

For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Galatians 3:27

As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

Ephesians 4:4-6

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, ⁵one Lord, one faith, one baptism, ⁶one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Colossians 2:11-12

In him also you were circumcised with a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the circumcision of Christ; ¹²when you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God, who raised him from the dead. 

Titus 3:5-7

He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy, through the water of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit. ⁶This Spirit he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

1 Peter 3:20b-21

God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. ²¹And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 10:22

Let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.