3.2.25 "It's Your Call" - Westminster Presbyterian Church, Pasadena, CA

 Luke 9.18-27; Luke 9.28-36

For our LORD, some quiet time … he prays …

Arms behind his back, pacing a bit? …  

does he kneel, his face to the ground? … 

does he sit on a large stone somewhere, his legs stretched out before him, his arms behind him, propping him up? … relaxed … looking out and about … 

are his eyes closed? … 

is he tense? … distressed? … calm?

Jesus prays … 

in the morning as the sun rises? … 

in the evening, as the day draws to a close? … 

or just a quick moment in an otherwise busy day? … 

like we all have now and then, when a meeting is cancelled, and we actually have a genuinely free moment?

Jesus prays … and, then … something occurs to him … he asks the disciples, What’s the scuttlebutt? … what are folks saying about me?

An intimate moment in Luke’s Gospel … this man of ability and love … this sweet man who gives of himself tirelessly … he’s curious … what’s being said about me?

Some folks say you’re John the Baptist come back from the dead, say the disciples … others say you’re Elijah … or one of the ancient prophets … 

Jesus nods … with a wry smile on his face? … maybe a wink? … Ahhh, so that’s what folks think of me? Someone from the past. A hero returned from the dead.

Jesus pauses, I think … takes a deep breath … and asks, Who do you say that I am?

Who is Jesus? 

Google that question, and you’ll be busy for a long, long, time … entire libraries exist on this question … books, books, and more books; authors, agents, publishers … podcasts, Substack, and blogs. 

In our Presbyterian tradition, we have John Calvin and the Calvinists … 

The Lutherans have Luther …

Roman Catholics have the Pope …

The Orthodox have their Archbishops …

Fundamentalists, pentecostals, and liberals … 

megachurch pastors, and storefront preachers … 

Mormon boys on their bicycles, 

and street preachers with a placard,

and folks like me.

All of it helpful … some of it confusing, some of it good, and some of it not.

Somewhere along the road comes the question, What about you? Who do you say I am?

Peter replies, You’re the Messiah, the Anointed One of God … Peter’s not far off the path, but Jesus shuts down the conversation … 

Jesus sternly orders and commands them not to tell anyone!

Why?

The word “messiah” is a dangerous word … many thought of the Messiah as a king, like David of old, a powerful leader, soldiers and chariots, shields and swords … restore the monarchy, rebuild the city, set the people free from Roman domination, make Judah great again.

The quest for power, dreams of glory …

Christianity has more often than not failed the test.

The Inquisition, colonialism, eradication of indigenous peoples, the Salem Witch Hunts, the oppression of women, countless wars … and slavery … all in the name of Christ.

The light of history reveals faith gone wrong all too often … when linked with empire and weapons … it’s not a pretty picture … it’s no wonder some Christians would rather bury the truth rather than tell the truth.

But there’s a flip side to the story - faith rises up and does what’s right … 

faith takes up the cross of Christ, not the sword of Satan … 

faith emancipates the slave, gives women the vote … ends the cruelty of child labor; proclaims the gospel in joy and hope … works for peace, the environment, civil rights … saving souls, and healing bodies … with liberty and justice for all.

When all is said and done, when the books are closed, and the preacher says Amen! … still the question comes to each of us: Who do you say that I am?

Recently, I read a fine biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Again and again, Lincoln turns to the words of Jesus, when tells the story of a house divided against itself.

On the question of slavery … 

Lincoln holds his Bible in one hand, and the Constitution in the other … Lincoln and his wife, Mary, attend New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

On the other side of the question:

The president of the Confederate States, Jefferson Davis and his wife, Varina, attend St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, VA, a church ofter referred to as the “Cathedral of the Confederacy.”

Lincoln declares slavery to be an abomination … Davis believes slavery to be a good arrangement.

A house divided.

In a personal note, Lincoln writes:

God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.

In Lincoln's Second Inaugural address, he says:

Both [sides] read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes [God’s] aid against the other. …. The prayers of both could not be answered.

A house divided.

The divide remains, I fear … do women have the right to chose for themselves, or does a woman’s body belong to the government when she’s pregnant? … 

Can gay and lesbian persons marry? - or does their right to marry destroy our nation’s morality? 

Those who stormed the Capital on January 6 - are they criminals or patriots?

Are trans-people evil? Are they and their families a threat to America?

I am deeply concerned - about the present moment … a spiritual misalignment of certain forms of Christianity that I believe to be contrary to the cross of Christ, linked with political views I find antithetical to the spirit of our Constitution … all of it underwritten with enormous amounts of money! dark money, well-hidden from view … when this kind of money sets the pace, something is wrong … life cannot be bought and sold, faith cannot be purchased and traded upon … truth is not found on the New York Stock Exchange, or in the commodities market.

Who is Jesus?

You’re the Messiah! … says Peter.

Yes! Jesus IS the Messiah, but of a different order than what Peter expected …  

Peace, not power … salvation, not a sword … truth, not a throne … welcome, not exclusion … forgiveness, not condemnation … generosity, not greed … trust, not fear … the Messiah of God crosses borders and does not create them … the Messiah of God: God’s mercy, God’s goodness, God’s peace … for God so loves the world.

Jesus speaks of suffering …  the powerful reject him …  they crown him with a crown of thorns … they kill him … 

Jesus speaks of self-denial - the bombshell of all ethics … no wonder the powerful despise him …  

Jesus speaks of the cross … the cross for anyone who wants to be a part of a better world … a heavy cross, it is … the weight of the world upon his shoulders, and our shoulders, too.

Jesus speaks of spiritual things - lest we get lost in material things … Jesus draws a firm line in the sand on wealth and spiritual disciplines … where your treasure is, that’s where we find your heart! 

Jesus says pointedly: If you’re ashamed of my kind of love, if you have little interest in my words, my actions, my values … if you reject the cross, and shape the gospel to suit your own interests, you cut yourself off from God.

When all is said and done … when the books are closed, and the preacher says, Amen! … still the question comes to each of us: morning, noon, and night: Who do you say that I am?

Eight days later, the mount of Transfiguration, Elijah and Moses are there … a cloud of glory, bright and beautiful … a voice proclaims, This is my son, my chosen; listen to him.

Amen and Amen!

June 5, 2011, "Jesus Prays"

John 17.1-11

Jesus prays for us.

Jesus knows that his disciples will face tough times … the powers that rejected Jesus will reject the disciples, too.

The powers of empire … prancing war horses, in oiled leather and polished silver – rank upon rank of battle-tested legions, armed to the teeth and ready for the fight …

Then, or now, nations love the dogs of war.

In the movie, “Apocalypse Now,” Colonel Bill Kilgore (Robert Duvall), demolishes a Vietnamese village with mortar fire and napalm, turns to one of his soldiers and says: "I love the smell of napalm in the morning... The smell, you know, that gasoline smell... Smells like ... victory"

But more than Empire, it was Temple, too.

Priest and rabbi, Sadducee and Zealot … all told Jesus to go away …

Jerusalem’s Temple was a financial powerhouse … every Passover, tens of thousands of pilgrims streamed into Jerusalem, to exchange their national currency for the Shekel, to pay the temple tax – hence the money-changers in the temple courtyard.

Thousands of animals butchered, their blood sprinkled on the altar, parts burned in the fires of sacrifice, the rest sold in the market to feed the city and its pilgrims.

In John chapter 2, the first thing Jesus does when he goes to Jerusalem is to disrupt the temple business … he makes a whip of cords and drives out the sellers of cattle, sheep and doves, and all the money-changers, and shouts at them, Stop making my Father’s House a market place.”

For the rest of the story, the powers-that-be whisper to one another, Empire and Temple: Pilate the Procurator, Caiaphas the Priest – they make their deadly plans, hatch a plot - to do away with Jesus.

Jesus must not succeed.

Jesus says to his disciples:

If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you.

If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.

Because you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world – therefore the world hates you![1]

The Greek word for “hate” means rejection.

A refusal to recognize.

John 1:

Jesus was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him.[2]

A mighty chorus:

Crucify him …

Take him away …

Nail him to a cross …

We want nothing to do with him.

Give us Barabbas, instead.

A terrorist … a soldier … a man of violence and war.

That’s who we want.

We want Barabbas.

Rome lets Barabbas go.

Of course!

Because Rome knows how to handle Barabbas.

But no one knows how to handle Jesus.

So they bind Jesus and put him on trial.

Find him guilty of crimes against heaven and earth.

Condemn him to death.

Priests nod their heads in approval.

Soldiers take him to Calvary.

The powers of Church and State.

Faith and Flag.

And there they crucify him.

Yet Jesus says to the world:

I have not come here to judge you.

To condemn you, but to save you.[3]

Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing.[4]

The Great Son of God.

Israel’s Messiah.

God’s Lamb.

Our LORD and Savior.

Takes away the sin of the world.[5]

I can hear the world say,

Sin, what do you mean sin?

Look at our power and look at our glory.

Look at our temples and look at our treasure.

Look at the world we’ve built for ourselves.

What do you mean sin?

But sin it is.

And God does something about it.

Heaven’s strategy.

Strange and glorious.

Not a crown, but a cross.

Not a throne, but a tomb.

No pomp and glory, but only the cry of agony.

Here’s how God rules.

Here’s how God loves.

Here’s the truth that sets the world free.

When Jesus stands before Pilate, he says to him:

My kingdom is not from this world.

If my kingdom were from this world,

My followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over … but as it is, my kingdom is not from here.[6]

Jesus follows a playbook written by God.

The world is not won by the sword.

Jesus says to Peter in the Garden:

Put your sword back into its place; for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.[7]

And that’s why Pilate hasn’t a clue.

Why the religious leaders miss the point.

All they know is power.

Jesus heads toward the defining moment of his ministry.

The servant surrenders.

Empties himself.

Humbles himself.

Obedient, to the point of death.

Even death on a cross.[8]

The glory of God’s love.

The glory of our redemption.

A new world taking shape.

Creation groaning in labor pains.[9]

Swords beaten into plowshares, spears into pruning hooks, war no more, and every tear wiped away.[10]

Isaiah’s exulted vision:

The wolf shall live with the lamb,

      The leopard shall lie down with the kid,

      The calf and the lion and the fatling together,

      And a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze,

      Their young shall lie down together;

      And the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

    The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

     And the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s   den.

They will not hurt or destroy

      On all my holy mountain;

      For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD

      As the waters cover the sea.[11]

Jesus prays for us:

That the Father would protect us.

From the lies and deceptions of the age.

That the truth might live in us.

That we might be one.

Even as the Father and the Son are one …

Paul the Apostle writes to the Church of Ephesus:

I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.[12]

Jesus prays.

And so do we.

Calvary Presbyterian Church … a church of prayer.

We pray as Jesus prays:

That God would glorify us.

With faith, hope and love.

Grace, mercy and peace.

Endurance and endeavor.

Purpose and passion.

That we might love as Jesus loves:

And who does Jesus love?

But the blind man beside the road.

The little child struggling to get into his lap.

The woman at the well.

Sinners rejected by the Temple.

The poor oppressed by the Empire.

The lonely and the lost.

The forlorn and the abandoned.

The rejected and the despised.

The widow, the orphan and the alien.

And his love encompasses even the enemy:

The rich who have no need of God.

The proud who have no need of love.

The powerful who have no need of repentance.

Jesus loves them all.

We pray that we would glorify God.

With devotion and faithfulness.

Praise and prayer.

Commitment and courage.

Love and loyalty.

That the world might see our good works and give glory to our Father in heaven.[13]

We pray as Jesus prays:

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.

On earth as it is in heaven.

That all the divisions of the world would be healed.

Divisions of race and color and status and gender would find no home here at Calvary.

And what a name to have for a church.

Calvary.

The very place where the Son of God was glorified by the Father.

And the Father was glorified by the Son.

We are one in Christ.

And in Christ, we are one.

We are Calvary on the Boulevard.

To God be the glory.

Amen and Amen!

---

[1] John 15.18-19.

[2] John 1.10-11.

[3] John 3.17.

[4] Luke 23.34.

[5] John 1.29.

[6] John 18.36.

[7] Matthew 26.52.

[8] Philippians 2.6-8.

[9] Romans 8.22.

[10] Isaiah 2.4, Revelation 21.4.

[11] Isaiah 11.6-9.

[12] Ephesians 4.1-6.

[13] Matthew 5.16.