The 5th Sunday of Lent - "Sir, we wish to see Jesus."

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus,” some Greeks asked Philip. This request wasn’t surprising.  John reported that Jesus recently had raised Lazarus from the dead and had just entered Jerusalem to the acclaim of many people there.  John related how the people had greeted Jesus with palm branches, shouting “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord—the King of Israel!”

Yet John’s gospel doesn't say that Jesus ever met with the Greeks.  Rather he begins a discourse with Philip and Andrew—and most likely  with  others—verse 34 said “the crowd” answered him.  Jesus spoke about what was about to happen to him and what it meant.  Let’s look closely at some parts of his discourse and consider what we might think about it.

First, a grain of wheat dying to bear fruit:  an agricultural metaphor of common sense knowledge, but in this context it conflicts with the hope of a triumphant Messiah.  The grain is buried in the soil, nearly invisible, insignificant by itself.  Jesus appears this to confront the crowd’s and his disciples’ expectations with this image.

Then, God’s voice like thunder proclaiming that God’s name had been glorified and will be so again:  Now God’s voice or that of an angel speaks the truth about what will happen. God has been and will be glorified.  For the crowd, impressed by this auditory display of power—divine power, appears to cling to a messianic hope.

Finally, Jesus being lifted up and drawing all people to himself:  now the image shifts from a seed in the ground to the messiah being lifted up and drawing all people to him.  John has to explain to the people who will hear this gospel read that “being lifted up” means crucifixion, for what the crowd still expects and what will happen could not be more different.  What will happen through Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection and return to the God will be to fulfill what the Greeks (we would say Gentiles) desired, that is, to see Jesus.

Surely, by the time Jesus had finished this discourse his listeners must have been confused and, perhaps, distressed. We, on the other hand, with the advantage of knowing how it all came out can understand that Jesus will be the one to die so God’s name will be glorified, but is also the one who can heal the whole world by drawing everyone into God’s reign of justice and peace.

Seeing Jesus means seeing him both crucified and triumphant, to hold in your mind both the image of a crucifix and the image of an empty cross.  For me the Christus Rex cross helps me to truly see Jesus.  The Christus Rex (Christ the King) shows Jesus on a cross, but not slumped in death, but upright, with his arms extended to embrace the whole world. He also wears a crown.

Seeing Jesus here today will also mean seeing him in the laying on of hands for healing and in our feeding of our spirits in the bread and wine at Eucharist.  Not only does Jesus draw all people to himself, but he also draws each one of us through these acts, which exemplify his love.  My worthiness or the worthiness of people who assist me with the laying on of hands or distributing the wine cannot be our focus. We are here today exercising our various ministries not for our own glory.  We are here so you may look through us to see the One who calls you into relationship, so you may know the healing and life-giving power of his love.

The 4th Sunday of Lent - What Nicodemus Wanted/What Nicodemus Got

The Gospel of John, Chapter 3

      Under the cover of darkness at night a Pharisee named Nicodemus came to ask Jesus who he was.  His question was a statement: “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs apart from the presence of God.”

      According to John, Jesus doesn't ask Nicodemus to clarify his question.  He knows that Nicodemus wants Jesus to confirm the statement he just made.  And he may hope Jesus will reveal even more about himself.  What Jesus says, however, engages Nicodemus in a theological reflection about the longed for “kingdom of God.”  

      Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom extends from verse 3 of chapter 3 all the way to verse 21, the end of the chapter.  From these words modern Christians have taken the phrase “born again,” defined it to serve their purposes, and used it to whack other Christians up the side of the head to prove their worthiness and discount all other Christians.  Occasionally, maybe even often, Episcopalians have been on the receiving end of the whacking.

      The other words we Christians have extracted from Jesus’ teaching are the very familiar statement: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”  John 3:16.  Although this statement beautifully sums up why we follow Jesus, it too has been used by some Christians to decide who will be saved and who will be condemned for eternity.

      A United Church of Christ pastor, J. Bennett Guess, preaching on our Gospel lesson this morning, said, “Ironically, these very words that Jesus was speaking to a rigid and legalistic Pharisee, trying to help him see salvation more expansively, have become the very symbol of conditional, exclusive Christianity: ‘Accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, or go to hell for all eternity.’ That's basically what it boils down to.” 

     Some pastors stop reading this passage at the end of verse 17, because they worry that verse 18b (“. . . but those who do not believe [in the Son of Man] are condemned already.”) will lead to intolerant thoughts and behavior.

      I never like to stop struggling in interpreting a passage that presents difficulties.  In particular, are Jesus’ words in this conversation with Nicodemus supposed to exclude folks like Nicodemus? Or perhaps are they supposed to open Nicodemus’s heart to a new thing God might be doing, which will include him?  And, in addition, what can they teach us today about Jesus and about our faith?  Perhaps we should try to understand why Jesus approached Nicodemus the way he did by imagining that we are Nicodemus.  In that way we can enter this event in a deeper way.

         “I am Nicodemus. I’m well-educated and a member of the party of the Pharisees. We’re progressive—much more than the Sadducees—but we do believe the Law of Moses is important to protect.

          Yes, I know the buzz that this Nazarene teacher Jesus is creating.  And he does amazing deeds of power as well.  My colleagues and I are concerned about how influential he has become with the common folk. After all we are leaders by our inheritance from our forefathers who preserved our worship traditions.  He could upset things, maybe even start a riot, and then the Romans will come down on us hard.

And yet—and yet—what if he is a prophet from God?  What if he is the one who will restore us and, through the power of God, kick out our oppressors, the Romans.  I have wondered about this and am burning to confront him myself.  If he could convince me—maybe he could change his tactics a bit—no more overturning tables of the merchants at the Temple, for example—then he could convince my colleagues, too.

            What should I do?  Certainly not let anyone know what I’m doing!  So I’ll wait until it’s dark, and when I approach him—I’ll flatter him a bit before I throw a direct question at him. Well, Jesus didn’t let me get that far—he confronted me with his idea that a person must be born again or perhaps born anew or even born from above—in order to be prepared for God’s coming kingdom.

            What could he possibly mean with that crazy idea.  People are only born once! So I challenged him about how one can be born after having grown old.  Well, he just kept going on—he said being born from above means being born of the Spirit. 

            When I could no longer contain my consternation, in exasperation I asked, “How can these things be?”  Then Jesus really went after me.  He asked, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?”  Although he said it quietly, his point could not have been clearer.  He had called into question my understanding of God and God’s work in the world—even though I was more educated than he—AND I had the respect of my colleagues!

            But I could not turn away—his quiet authority, authority without pretension, compelled me to hear him out.  He spoke about the Son of Man healing the whole world.  God’s love was so great that no one need perish, but anyone who understood what God was doing—and responded in faith—could partake in God’s kingdom eternally.  Jesus compared God’s love to light, which will reveal those whose deeds are done in God.

            I felt my heart melt within me as recognized how much I was loved.  Yes, I will continue to keep the Law, but with a new spirit of openness to how God may be acting in this moment to draw ALL people to God’s kingdom.”

         So what Jesus sought in his challenging Nicodemus and in his teaching about God’s love was to broaden Nicodemus’ outlook about God.  God was known through scripture and the traditions of the Jewish people.  That would not change—but now God was continuing to reveal God’s self, so all people might be drawn into the life of Love Incarnate, Jesus.

         If anytime, we are tempted to use Jesus’s words into John 3 to exclude or separate someone from the circle of God’s love—to decide that they could never come accept the faith that we have accepted—then we should stop ourselves and remember what Nicodemus learned from his interaction with Jesus.

         How do we know Nicodemus was changed after his night visit to Jesus?  At the end of the 7^th chapter of John, Nicodemus told his fellow Pharisees that they should give Jesus a fair hearing, before deciding he was wrong about God. Then in the 19^th chapter, John reported that Nicodemus accompanied Joseph of Arimethea in preparing Jesus’ body for burial with myrrh and aloes.

         May God’s love call to us, as it called to Nicodemus that night.  When we find ourselves challenged by people who may come to God in other ways than we have, remember Nicodemus.  God’s love is so deep and so broad that all people can be embraced in God’s love now and eternally!

                                        Dr. Guess’ quote came from his Day 1 sermon for March 15, 2015.

The 3rd Sunday in Lent - Overturned tables or stable tables??

John 2: 13-22

Rarely do I tell a joke at the beginning of my sermon—actually I use very few jokes in any event.  It’s too easy to keep chuckling about the joke mentally and letting your mind wander.  But I’m taking the risk today, because this the perfect joke for Lent.  It’s perfect in that it frames the tension of between our fears of judgment and our faith.

Here it is:  The worship service has ended. The priest stands in the front doorway, shaking hands with parishioners as they leave. A mother, father and son have come down the steps and are walking away, perhaps to their car or to coffee hour in another building.  The child tugs on his dad’s sleeve to get his attention.  Then he asks, “Just WHEN were you going to tell me about hell?”

In medieval times we know that the church offered the faithful indulgences to free them from a certain amount of time in purgatory and prevent them from going to hell for their sins. Of course, these indulgences were sold to raise money to support the church. In Judaism from ancient times and in other religions, too, animals were sacrificed as a way to express one’s faith, garner favor with the divine and feed the leaders of ritual practices. By the time of Jesus, people were asked to contribute money as well.  The problem with the Roman coinage could be described as violating the second commandment about making idols.  The coins had Caesar’s image, a sacrilege if brought into the inner courts of the Temple to pay the temple tax.

The Protestant Reformation changed the way we understood the salvation of humanity.  Martin Luther, a leading reformer, taught that humanity was not earned, but given by God without merit by good deeds on our part.  He said it was God’s free gift of grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our redeemer from sin. Heaven is gained, and hell can be dodged through our faith.

Given Jesus’ prophetic anger at those merchants who assisted pilgrims and worshippers to meet the requirements of their religious expression—which by the way is in all four gospels—perhaps we should pause to think about our religious expression.  How do we understand appropriate religious expression? Why do we do we express ourselves in these ways?

Today I’d like to use the image of a table to answer these questions.  Since sometimes we call the altar a table—and since the altar in our worship space looks like a table with supporting legs—I think we can make this image work for us.

Religious expression that would be pleasing to Jesus might be seen as a “stable table” supported at each corner by a leg.  If one of those legs is missing, it becomes an “unstable table,” perhaps not collapsing immediately, but in significant trouble. I am calling these four legs:  covenant law, the life-affirming ethical and moral practices in our society, worship in community, faith in God’s lovingkindness.

The first leg is covenant law, seen in the Hebrew Scriptures, called the Mosaic covenant.  Our first reading began today: “God spoke all these words [of law] . . .” God’s law was a gift to the Israelites to show his care for them.  Entering into covenant with God by trying to obey these words would lead both the Israelites--and us--into a close relationship with God and into healthy relationships with other people, which then will lead to abundant life.

The second leg is life-affirming ethical and moral practices in our society today.  Some practices, which appear in the Bible, such as slavery, were acceptable for thousands of years, but have now been condemned. We have come to understand that we should consider every other person as worthy of our respect, although we don’t always manage to do this. We remember our baptismal covenant includes these questions: “Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?  Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of EVERY human being?”  We know we should treat each person as worthy of God’s love and our care.  We should work to structure our society so that all people can access the abundance with which many of us are blessed. These “corporal works of mercy” do not earn us salvation, but through them we gratefully respond to the blessings we have received.

The third leg is worshipping God in community. You have come together here at St. Nicholas this morning to pray to God, to sing praise to God, to experience the presence of God in the blessed bread and wine, and to support our brothers and sisters in their journey of faith. I believe God finds joy in experiencing the love we show when we worship together—love for God, and, yes, for each other as well.

The fourth leg is faith in God’s lovingkindness—chesed is the word in the Hebrew Scriptures. Acting out of this love for us, God became incarnate in Jesus—became truly human.  For our sake Jesus endured crucifixion out of love. He overcame death through the power of God’s love. We cannot see God as long as we live here on earth, but our faith in God’s loving presence allows us to face whatever life throws at us. In the end God’s loving grace will keep our sins from having the last word.

So how stable does our table seem to be today?  Are we trying to obey God’s covenant law in a way that reflects the loving way God intended it?  Are we also trying to follow the life-affirming ethical and moral practices in our society? Are we eager to worship with others? Are we able to cling to our faith in God’s lovingkindness despite life’s difficulties? 

When we are able—with God’s help—to discover how to keep those four legs attached to our table of religious expression, then that “stable table” will become God’s altar in our hearts. And, yes, Jesus will be pleased!