Meeting Jesus (Again) For the First Time

Matthew 4:18-22 

As he (Jesus) walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Last week Matt shared a bit about his experiences in Guatemala in 2013 and 2015. 

I know that he was disappointed that he was not able to go with our mission team on this last trip --- but I was thankful that I could go.

I want to thank Nancy --- and you --- Meridian Street Church --- for allowing me to have this amazing opportunity.

I have participated in dozens of mission trips through-out the years.

But some trips have really stuck out more than others

·         Appalachian Service Projects as a youth was one of the pivotal moments in my life --- and quite possibly one of the reasons that I am standing in front of you this morning

·         Jamaica, as I shared a few weeks ago, as a newly ordained pastor clarified my calling unlike anything I have ever done --- and gave me the strength to keep going

·         Taking a group of youth to Nashville Tennessee and sleeping in an old warehouse in the skid row district wondering how many rats I would encounter each evening.

·         Taking a group of youth to Oklahoma to work on an Indian Reservation, and visiting the Oklahoma City memorial shortly after that tragedy

·         Haiti prior to the devastating earthquakes --- shook me out of my comfort zone in ways that I still have not completely overcome

·         And of course Guatemala

Each of us has encountered Jesus in our lives.

For many of us, that first encounter with Jesus came when we were children.

          Certainly that is true for those of us who grew up in the church

But I don’t think that you can grow up in our society without having some encounter with Jesus.

          Even if it is not very clear or precise

For many of us, that image of Jesus that we claimed as children --- remains intact in many ways as we grow older

·         Sometimes it is held with deep conviction

o   Sometimes with just warm personal devotion  

o   And other times it is tied to rigid doctrinal positions

·         For some --- this image of Jesus that we developed during childhood can become a problem

o   Producing doubt

o   And sometimes leading to indifference --- or even a rejection of the religion (the Jesus) of their childhood

I have seen this in many of my childhood friends

It is as if there came a time in their lives when the childhood image of Jesus no longer made sense.

          Any unfortunately --- nothing was there to replace it

The result is too often a walking away from Jesus and the church

But I have come to believe (and even witness in my own life) that we need an opportunity to meet Jesus again --- almost like meeting Jesus again for the very first time.

The Jesus I follow today is very different from the image of Jesus that I had as a child.

It appears to me that there are two primary (or widespread) images of Jesus in our culture today --- maybe one of these is your image of Jesus

The first image --- what Marcus Borg calls “the popular image” sees Jesus as the divine savior.

This image seeks to answer three questions about Jesus

          Who was Jesus?

          What was his mission or purpose?

          What was his message?

The answer to those questions calls one into a state of believing.

          Who was Jesus?

          Divine son of God

          What was his mission or purpose?

                   To die for the sins of the world

          What was his message?

His message was about himself: his identity as the Son of God, the saving purpose of his death, and the absolute importance of believing in him.

Borg calls this a fideistic image of the Christian life --- one whose primary dynamic is faith --- understood as believing certain things about Jesus as true.

Belief should lead to a great deal more, but believing is the primary quality of this image of God.

The second image, which is only slightly less common, is the image of Jesus as teacher

This is a de-dogmatized view of Jesus

It is held by those who are not sure what to make of the doctrinal claims made about Jesus by the Christian tradition.

Once you set aside those doctrinal claims --- what remains is Jesus as a great teacher

The image that flows out of this understanding of Jesus consists of “being good” --- of seeking to live as Jesus said that we should

Borg calls this a moralistic image of the Christian life.

The problem with both of these images is that they are not only inaccurate but they are incomplete images of the Christian life.

The Jesus of the Gospels is ultimately not about BELIEVING or BEING GOOD.

The image of Jesus of the Gospels is about a relationship with God that involves us in a journey of transformation.

The question is how do we enter into that kind of relationship with Jesus that will allow transformation to take place?

          Not simply a relationship where we know about Jesus

But a relationship in which we surrender our very selves to the grace that is Jesus

In our scripture this morning Jesus is inviting strangers to come and join him on this adventure.

In The Message, Jesus says it this way:

“Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.

I read that story with incredulity

If that was ME, what would I have done?

          Would I have followed Jesus?

          Would I have set down my life work?

                   Would I have surrendered all that I had and begun this new life?

The reality is, they had the CHOICE --- they didn’t have to follow --- but they chose to follow

          They could have simply walked away

Every day Jesus is offering you and I the opportunity to become followers --- the opportunity to meet Jesus in a brand new way

          But the truth is --- we can come to church

                   We can call ourselves Christian

                             But remain spectators

          We take in the sights and spectacles

                   We listen to beautiful music

                   Hear great sermons (especially when Matt is preaching)

          But we remain UNCHANGED

                   We don’t surrender all, drop what we are doing and follow Jesus

Every day --- Jesus is inviting us to not be simply a spectator --- but to participate

I just got back from Guatemala

          Today is the first day that I am starting to feel human again

                   They worked me hard

                             Moving and laying concrete block

                             Making cement and moving it bucket by bucket

                   We would be sleeping by 9pm because we were so exhausted

                             But it was a good exhaustion

          We knew we were doing something that was going to make other’s lives better

But in order to do that --- we (I) had to say YES

What I love about mission trips is that, at least for a time, you remember why you fell in love with Jesus in the first place.

Now I know we can’t all go to Guatemala

But we can fall in love with Jesus who (I promise) will give us other opportunities to be transformed

The only requirement is that we can no longer simply be a spectator.

          We must actively engage in ministry through:

                   Prayer

                   Service

                   Justice

I was reminded of a story that I first heard almost 35 years ago when I was a student at Duke.

Fred Craddock, the greatest preacher of his generation, and one that I have sought to model my preaching style on, came to Duke.  During a sermon he shared a powerful story about Albert Schweitzer --- the great explorer, doctor, and organist ---

He shared:

I think I was twenty years old when I first read Albert Schweitzer’s Quest for the Historical Jesus.

I found his theology woefully lacking – more water than wine.

I marked it up, wrote in the margins, and raised questions of all kinds.

I read that he was going to be in Cleveland to play a concert of Bach, dedicating a new organ in a big church up there.

According to the article he would remain after the concert for conversation and refreshment.

I bought a Greyhound bus ticket – (Craddock was living in Knoxville, TN) – and went to Cleveland.

All the way there I worked on his book, laying out all my questions on sheets of paper.

I figured, if there was conversation following the concert, there would be room for question or two.

I went there; I heard the concert; I then rushed into the church fellowship hall, got a seat in the front row, and waited with my questions.

After a while, Dr. Schweitzer came in

shaggy hair, big white mustache, stooped, and seventy-five-years old.

He had played a marvelous concert.

You know he was a master organist, medical doctor, philosopher, scholar, lecturer, writer... everything.

He came in with a cup of tea and stood in front of the group.

And there I was, right in front, with my questions.

Dr. Schweitzer thanked everybody, saying, “You’ve been very warm and hospitable to me. I thank you for it. I wish I could stay longer among you, but I must go back to Africa, because my people are poor and diseased and hungry and dying. I have to go.’

Then he added, ‘We have a medical station at Lambarene. If there is anyone here in this room who has the love of Jesus, would you be prompted by that love to go with me and help me?’

And what I remember most from that sermon that Fred Craddick preached at Duke was his response.

He said he looked down at his questions and realized how absolutely stupid they were.

And then he said:  “I learned what it meant to be a Christian, and had hopes that I could be one someday.”

I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.

Barbara Brown Taylor has written:

“Following Jesus means receiving our lives as gifts instead of guarding them as our own possessions. It means sharing the life we have been given instead of bottling it for our own consumption. It means giving up the notion that we can build dams to contain the bright streams of our lives and letting them go instead, letting them swell their banks and spill their wealth, running full and growing fuller.”

I invite you to meet Jesus again --- maybe for the first time.

You don’t have to Guatemala, but you have to follow and allow Jesus to use you and change you.

Let us pray:

Loving God, when I hear your call for my life, too often I respond that I am too busy, or I want to respond on my terms.  Help me to meet you again.  Help me to begin to build a relationship with you in which I surrender myself to your love --- one in which I allow you to change me.  I love you Jesus, teach me, I pray.  Amen.

Something to Die For

John 20:1-18

Last year, in early March I found myself in the hospital. 

Nancy and I were on our way to the grocery store and I began to have severe chest pains.  I kept telling her that everything was alright; that I had been having them off and on for a while and that they usually go away after a few minutes.  For whatever reason, she insisted that we go to the hospital rather than the grocery store.

It is amazing how fast you get looked at in an emergency room when you show up with chest pain . . .

Eventually I found myself admitted, a ton of tests given and a very uncomfortable room for the night.

They next day I was allowed to go home and assured that I was not having a heart attack.

But then the fun began . . .

A week or so later, I got this letter in the mail.

It was addressed to the Family and Friends of Steven Conger,

Dear Family and Friends of Steven Conger,

On behalf of the (name of hospital) team, I want to express our sympathy for your loss of Steven Conger.

We consider you to be an important part of the care team, and wanted to reach out to you to express our condolences during this difficult time. . . .

With deepest sympathy

Your Care Team at . . . Hospital

What made it fun, is my bills were then sent to a collection agency. 

I called the hospital to express my concern about my passing, and they asked me who was calling --- I told them --- the late Steven Conger

         

          They didn't seem amused

          Have you ever tried to convince somebody that you were still alive?

It took months to get it straightened out. 

It was almost enough to give me a heart attack!

So I want you to know --- that I feel exceptionally qualified to speak about resurrection since I have already experienced it!

I wish I could say that this story is just an April Fool's joke, but I can't

As I prepared this sermon, with this being not only Easter, but also April Fool's Day, I kept being drawn to a poem written by Emily Dickenson.

This poem seems exceptionally appropriate for a day like today. 

How does one tell the reality of the resurrection in a fashion that we can understand?

The poem is: Tell all the truth but tell it slant 

Tell all the truth but tell it slant —

Success in Circuit lies

Too bright for our infirm Delight

The Truth's superb surprise

As Lightning to the Children eased

With explanation kind

The Truth must dazzle gradually

Or every man be blind —

Dickinson says that we should tell the truth – the whole truth – but tell it indirectly, in a circuitous fashion.

The truth, she suggests, is too bright and dazzling for us to be able to cope with it in one go.

          We can be overwhelmed by it.

The second stanza introduces the one simile of the poem: the way that lightning and thunderstorms are explained to children in kinder terms "eased", so as not to frighten them.

Dickinson concludes by saying that the truth, if shown too directly, has the power to blind us.

In other words, Dickenson is arguing that we humans cannot handle too much truth.

          Borrowing the words of T. S. Eliot: we cannot bear too much reality.

Right after Jesus was crucified; the religious leaders swooped down on Pontius Pilate, the local governor, and said,

“Sir, we remember what that impostor said while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ Therefore, command the tomb to be made secure until the third day; otherwise his disciples may go and steal him away, and tell the people, ‘He has been raised from the dead’” (Matthew 27:63-64).

But Pilate, who was just about fed up with this whole mess, told those troublemakers to use their own guards to secure the tomb.

So they did, hoping that sealing Jesus in a hand-hewn tomb would bring to a close a tumultuous period in Jewish history.

But that didn’t happen.

From that very first Easter morning, people expected Jesus to remain in the tomb.

When Mary Magdalene discovered that the stone door had been removed from the grave, she never dreamed that Jesus had walked away.

She came to the only logical conclusion:

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him” (John 20:2).

We too often want to keep Jesus in the tomb.

Jesus in the tomb is much easier to handle than a risen Lord who makes demands upon our lives.  

We are attracted to:

·         A Jesus who taught about love, but not a Lord who commands us to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44).

·         A Jesus who helped the unfortunate, but not a Lord who challenges us to sell what we own and give the money to the poor (Mark 10:21).

·         A Jesus who paid visits to the temple, but not a Lord who cleanses and reforms

·         A Jesus who was a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but not a Lord who encourages us to embrace the very people we feel are beneath us (Matthew 11:19).

·         A Jesus who supported family values, but not a Lord who predicts that he will cause divisions in families, father against son and daughter against mother (Luke 12:52-53).

·         A Jesus who accepted people as his disciples, but not a Lord who challenges us to walk the way of the cross, to lose our lives for his sake, and to find new life through sacrifice (Mark 8:35).

We feel much better about ourselves when Jesus stays put in the tomb, only coming out to give support to the ideas and practices and lifestyle patterns that fit us most comfortably.

And while we may be content with a Jesus in the tomb, it really doesn't matter what we want.

          The good news is Jesus is RISEN!

Isn't it time we let Jesus fully live in our lives?

Why is it that while we affirm that Jesus is risen, too often we behave as though he were still in the grave?

The glory of Easter is that Jesus is alive, bursting the bounds of death and running wild and free through human life.

When we try to preserve Jesus as a nice reminder of what a good person looks like, he rips through those limitations as though they were flimsy linen grave clothes.

On the day of resurrection, Jesus laughs at our attempts to limit him in any way, and he leads us into a future that only he can control.

When Peter and the other disciple run to the tomb to see what Mary is talking about, Jesus confounds their expectations by being conspicuously absent (John 20:3-10).

When Jesus stands before Mary, he appears in a form that she does not recognize — she believes him to be the gardener (vv. 14-15).

When Jesus speaks to her by name, and she realizes he is the risen Lord, he forbids her to hold on to him.

He knows that he must move on, always onward, and eventually on to God in heaven.

But before Jesus leaves Mary, he gives her a mission:

“Go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’” (vv. 16-17).

What an amazing and unexpected assignment this is.

The command of Jesus to “go” is significant here, since it is related to the word apostle, which means “one sent forth.”

On a very literal level, Mary Magdalene could be considered the very first apostle, the first one “sent forth” by Jesus to spread the good news of the resurrection!

It is in just such surprising ways that our risen and living Lord moves among us on Easter morning. This Lord:

·         is not one who proclaims a gospel of success and offers himself as a better business partner.

·         is not one who fosters intolerance and small-mindedness.

·         is not one who encourages a focus on the self and a neglect of the world’s needy.

He is, instead, a Jesus who truly challenges our age . . . and every age.

The good news of Easter is that Jesus is not in the tomb.

          Never has been.

          Never will be.

We do not serve a dead Jesus ---- We serve a living Christ!.

Jesus is alive and well and moving among us,

calling us to follow him on new adventures in faith

and to replicate his presence in the world.

He is risen!

Christ is risen!

Christ is risen indeed!

Thanks be to God!

Maundy Thursday

One of my Holy Week traditions is to watch the 1973 movie Jesus Christ Superstar

          I remember as a teenager going to see the movie while we were on vacation

I hate to admit this --- but Jesus Christ Superstar has influenced my theology in many ways.  But that is a discussion for another day!

One of the reasons I love that movie is it gives me a chance to see some of the wonderful places of Israel --- since that is where the movie was filmed

One of my favorite locations is used early in the movie are in a bell shaped cave

          It was filmed at Beit Gurvin --- a truly remarkable place

As the disciples join Jesus for The Last Supper, --- as they make their way to the meal they are singing the most ridiculous song.

          Always hoped that I'd be an apostle

          Knew that I would make it if I tried

          Then when we retire we can write the gospels

          So they'll all talk about us when we die 

I always chuckle when I hear this song, because they had absolutely no idea what was about to take place

I want to invite you to join me as the disciples gathered with Jesus for this last meal.

Let your imagination put you in that "upper Room"

Maybe like Palm Sunday, the disciples were in a buoyant, expectant mood,  singing crazy songs ---- while Jesus was mired in a more somber apprehension of what was to come.

No doubt they sang from the Psalms, most likely the collection of Psalms known as the Hillel which consists of Psalms 113-118.

These Psalms are sung for joyous occasions, but especially during the pilgrimage festivals which includes Passover.

Can you picture them singing?

          What did their voices sound like?

          Did Jesus or one of the others lead?

          Did they harmonize?

How do you think "Precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his saints” or

“This is the day the Lord has made” resonated with Jesus and the disciples?

Can you marvel over what was going on?

When I picture this scene --- I have no doubt but that Jesus must have had a catch in his throat as he stared at the bread and wine ---- knowing what was going to happen to him the next day --- that his body was going to be broken --- knowing his blood was about to be shed

Can you imagine that?

          It is haunting to me

                   But it is also lovely, gripping, and poignant.

When the disciples ate that last supper, what do you think they were thinking?

You understand --- they had no idea about what was going on

          We have the advantage of history --- they were in the moment and filled with     other expectations

Austin Farrer, in The Crown of the Year put it beautifully:

“Jesus gave his body and blood to his disciples in bread and wine. Amazed at such a token, and little understanding what they did, Peter, John and the rest reached out their hands and took their master and their God. Whatever else they knew or did not know, they knew they were committed to him… and that they, somehow, should live it out.” 

I like that.

We are mystified, but we know we receive Jesus himself and are thereby committed to him, come what may.

As N.T. Wright rightly suggested, when we eat and drink at the Lord’s table, “we become walking shrines, living temples in whom the living triune God truly dwells.”

While we as the church often include or exclude certain people and feel noble about it, Jesus was utterly inclusive; he makes a shrine – a temple -- happen for everybody, even those who don’t believe or have a clue.

As Jürgen Moltmann writes in The Church in the Power of the Spirit: 

“The Lord’s supper takes place on the basis of an invitation which is as open as the outstretched arms of Christ on the cross. Because he died for the reconciliation of ‘the world,’ the world is invited to reconciliation in the supper.”

In a wonderful ON BEING interview last year: Father Greg Boyle, whose ministry with gang members in California is impressive and moving said:

“We’ve wrestled the cup out of Jesus’ hand and we’ve replaced it with a chalice because who doesn’t know that a chalice is more sacred than a cup, never mind that Jesus didn’t use a chalice?” 

He went on to tell how he asked an abused orphan and former gang member in his program, “What did you do for Christmas?”

The young man said he cooked a turkey “ghetto-style,” and invited six other guys to join him.

When he named them, Boyle recognized them as members of warring gangs.

As he pondered them cooking together on Christmas day, he wondered,

“So what could be more sacred than seven orphans, enemies, rivals, sitting in a kitchen waiting for a turkey to be done? Jesus doesn't lose any sleep that we will forget that the Eucharist is sacred. He is anxious that we might forget that it’s ordinary, that it’s a meal shared among friends.”

Come, let us share in this meal --- as friends