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A Sermon by Donel McClellan
A Sermon by Donel McClellan
Meeting
Jesus Again for the First Time . . .
Luke 4:1-13
- Lent 1 - February 29, 2004 In 1980
my Mother in Law Mary Dufur was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. She came
from the hospital directly to our home to live the remaining days of her life.
It was a wonderful and sad few months for our family. Every afternoon when the
children came home from school they would go into her room to visit with her and
tell her what had happened that day. Mom loved her grandchildren, especially
when they were old enough to talk with her, and she was a superb listener. Too soon,
her energy declined and she was more and more confined to bed. She was not
uncomfortable or in pain. She simply slept more and more until she entered a
comma and did not awaken. I had
just completed my ministry at Woodland Hills Community Church and had not yet
been called to Bellingham, so in a sense, we were temporarily without a church.
We decided that Mary’s service should be in the Episcopal Church of the Angels
in which she was married, a little replica of a English stone country church in
Pasadena. If you
have been to a memorial service here, you know that Cindy and I like to be very
personal in celebrating a life. Mary’s service was just the opposite. The priest
didn’t know her and used the ancient and inclusive words of the Book of Common
Prayer for her service. I was surprised to find how moved I was by these well
worn phrases, used for all sorts and conditions of people. They were universal
and impersonal and for that very reason strangely intimate. The priest said:
LORD, thou hast been our refuge, * from one generation to another. Before
the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made, *
thou art God from everlasting, and world without end. Thou turnest man to
destruction; * again thou sayest, Come again, ye children of men. For a thousand
years in thy sight are but as yesterday, when it is past, * and as a watch in
the night. . . . and
I was comforted by the memory of a God who holds our births and our deaths in
gracious hands. The priest said:
REMEMBER thy servant, O Lord, according to the favour which thou bearest
unto thy people, and grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, she
may go from strength to strength, in the life of perfect service, in thy
heavenly kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with
thee and the Holy Ghost ever, one God, world without end. Amen. . . . and
I knew that Mary along with her ancestors would be gathered up into the company
of God’s redeemed. The priest said:
UNTO God's gracious mercy and protection we commit you. The LORD bless you
and keep you. The LORD make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto
you. The LORD lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace, both now and
evermore. Amen. . . . and
I left the service, strengthened in the ancient faith which we shared. My
comfort and my encouragement came from the familiar words of scripture and
liturgy which had become precious to me. I could say goodbye to Mary with a
hopeful heart. Because Marilyn and I were grounded in the Christian faith and
Christian community we had an easier time making choices around Mary’s death.
And we received the comfort that Jesus promised to those who mourn. It is the
source of that received faith that is our subject this Lent. The title of our
Lenten sermon series is taken from Marcus Borg’s book, Meeting Jesus Again
for the First Time. In the first chapter, Borg notes that everyone has an
image of Jesus. He insists that those images are intimately connected to the
shape of our Christian life. He
mentions two predominate cultural images of Jesus. The first he calls the
popular image which sees Jesus as the divine savior. Borg reports that this
image is formed by the extended answers to three classic questions about Jesus.
Who was he? He was the divinely begotten son of God. What was his mission of
purpose? It was to die for the sins of the world. What was his mission or
purpose? It was about Jesus own identity as the Son of God, the saving purpose
of his death and the importance of believing in him.
[1]
This Jesus is mysterious and powerful, knowing the future he walks towards his
death with the conviction that God will raise him on the third day. The image is
of divinity clothed in the fragile costume of human flesh. Although the ancient
creeds declare that Jesus was fully divine and fully human, this view cannot
accept that Jesus was subject to the same human limitations that face each one
of us. For
people who value this image of Jesus, their primary responsibility is to nurture
the faith that their belief about Jesus is true. Belief is the predominate
quality of Christian life for those who hold the popular image of Jesus. A second,
more secularized image is also popular. It is the image of Jesus as teacher.
Millions of people who don’t know quite what to do with the concept of Jesus’
divinity find this an acceptable compromise. When the claims of divinity are set
aside, one is left with a great teacher who conveyed wisdom and direction to his
followers. The
Christian life which flows from this image is the life of moral obedience.
Followers of Jesus seek to be good, and to follow what Jesus taught. The first
or popular view of Jesus, leads to a life which emphasizes right belief. The
second image of Jesus as teacher, leads to a life that seeks right action. One
may either seek to be intellectually faithful or morally correct depending upon
one’s image of Jesus. The
problem with these widespread images of Jesus is that neither is satisfying,
neither understands the Jesus pictured in the Gospels, and neither leads to a
life of vital relationship with God. This
Lent, let us seek to set aside these partial images of Jesus and look for the
person presented to us in the Lenten texts. In his
book, Marcus Borg condenses what is known about Jesus by secular scholars into
four rough categories. They describe what Borg likes to call the pre-Easter
Jesus and others might call the historical Jesus. What was
he like? First
Jesus was a spirit person. He was one of those rare individuals who had a
natural and deep sense of his relationship to God. I believe that Jesus’
spirituality was apparent to those who met him. Second,
Jesus was a teacher of wisdom. He used familiar tools of
speech—aphorisms, parables, stories—to teach a subversive view of the world. His
depiction of the world was so subversive, in fact, that it resulted in his
execution. Third,
Jesus was a social prophet related to the great prophets of the Hebrew
Bible. He criticized the wealthy and those with great political power. He was
often in conflict with authorities. Fourth,
Jesus was a founder of a movement. He created a Jewish revival that
challenged social conventions and shattered the traditional boundaries between
people. The movement was so effective that it eventually became the Christian
church. This is
the Jesus I would like to introduce to you once again during Lent and Easter.
When
Jesus began his ministry, the gospel writers tell us that he spent 40 days in
the wilderness where he was tempted. Someone has pointed out that 40 days is
about 12 episodes of the Survivor. Jesus was tempted, as we are, to loose
focus, to take the easy way out, to give in to the needs of our egos. Jesus made
the right choices. If Jesus was a human as I am than I must assume that he faced
the same difficulty in choosing that I face. I suspect that his strength came
from his immersion in the story of his people. Jesus called upon the strength of
familiar words he had heard time and time again in synagogue worship. Jesus’
temptation—and all temptation for that matter—was attributed to the Evil One,
the devil. It may be helpful for us to think of Jesus’ temptations in two
different ways. First,
the temptations are a re-enactment of the tests Israel experienced in the
wilderness following the release from captivity in Egypt. Jesus is recreating
and renewing the history of the Jewish people. Israel in the wilderness and
Jesus in the wilderness were tempted by food, false worship and putting God to
the test.
[2] But at
the same time, the temptations may be seen not as tests of Jesus’ will, but as
alternative futures Jesus was invited to consider for his life. The wilderness
provided a vocational challenge to the young prophet and teacher. As God’s
child, Jesus was invited to live out God’s story for him. But there were other
stories possible. For
example, Jesus was called to live out a story of service for others. "I am
among you," he will say later, "as one who serves".
[3]The
Evil One suggests an alternative future, a future of a self-centered life.
"Command this stone to become bread. Live out a life in which you spend your
energies and gifts serving yourself." Jesus responds to this temptation
by quoting the tradition which he knows so well, "It is written, 'One does
not live by bread alone'".
[4]
Later,
Jesus is called to trust God to keep promises, to bring salvation, and wring
life out of death, even when all of the circumstances of life would call that
trust into question. The Evil One has a different story to offer: "Instead
of trust, why don't you get proof? Instead of walking by faith on God's terms,
why don't you make God demonstrate saving power on your terms? Throw yourself
down from the temple and force God's hand." Once more, Jesus quotes
scripture which is the story he will live: "Do not put the Lord your God
to the test".
[5] At each
step, Jesus rests upon the tradition he has learned as a means of separating
good from evil and God’s path from other paths. Jesus was
nurtured and guided by the stories and rituals of his faith. In fact, I would go
so far as to suggest that Jesus personal relationship to God was grounded in
these life-giving stories. The words and rituals of our faith have power. Just
as the Book of Common prayer provided comfort to us following Mary Dufur’s
death, Just as the testimony of Deuteronomy provided strength and direction for
Jesus as he faces the temptation to become less than God called him to be. Today the
liturgy of the Lord’s Supper recalls to us our past and God’s hope for our
future as individuals and as a congregation. Soon we will given the privilege of
remembering our relationship to a God with high hopes for us, a God who is known
most intimately in broken bread and poured cup. To use
time hallowed words, “Draw near with faith, and take this Sacrament to your
comfort.” Amen
[1].
Marcus Borg, Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time: The Historical
Jesus & the Heart of Contemporary Faith, Harper San Francisco, 1995,
p. 2
[2].
Thomas Long, Commentary in Pulpit Resource 2004-02-29
[3].
Luke 22:17
[4].
Deuteronomy 8:3
[5].
Deuteronomy 6:16
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