Jan 23, 2022 - "Who Is Christ?"

Who is Christ?
Luke 4.14-21 - St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, Rolling Hills Estates, CA

Good morning and God’s Peace to you.

In the name of our LORD Jesus Christ.

Emmanuel!

God with us.

The Alpha and the Omega!

The beginning and the End.

The very presence of Christ.

Christ abides in us.

And we in Christ.

And this morning, the question:

Who is Christ?

This morning, all across America, and all around the world, preachers and teachers, of every kind and cut, from the tallest steeples to the smallest gathering, from the sublime to the crazy, words will go out, for good or for ill.

“This is Christ,” they will say.

“Here he is.”

“Believe and be saved.”

“Do what he says!”

Books continue to be written by the dozen, by the hundreds … libraries grow all the more … shelves bend under the weight of books …

And if not hardcopy, then the cloud … digital books, audio books … podcasts, blogs, and YouTube … 

Each in their own way, answering the question: Who is Christ?

On this Third Sunday in Epiphany, a Sunday of “further revelation,” which is what Epiphany means - a revealing of something new, something good … something unexpected …

No better place to begin, or to end, then our reading this morning from St. Luke … (fitting, indeed, that we pay special attention to your namesake) …

Jesus returns to Galilee, says St. Luke.

Familiar territory.

Here’s where Jesus grew up.

He knows the hills, the people, their ways of life … the smells, the sounds, and the shape of every home … and all the stories they tell.

His reputation as a teacher is growing.

Upon his return to Nazareth, he goes to synagogue.

As was his custom.

Jesus is a man of the synagogue.

He stands up - the Isaiah scroll is handed to him.

And so he reads …

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus rolls up the scroll, gives it back to the attendant, and sits down to teach.

The eyes of all in the synagogue are fixed on him. 

Jesus says, Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.

And the people rejoice.

 

Comfort and consolation.

God on our side.

God’s favor upon us.

The people speak well of him, amazed at his gracious words.

Hometown rabbi come home to his own, and what a speaker he is.

The Word of the LORD is upon his lips.

Jesus might have done well to end the sermon, then and there … enjoy the accolades, and head downstairs for the potluck.

The people would have been pleased.

Yet Jesus continues to speak.

Of the widow of Zarephath who welcomed Elijah into her home in a time of famine, and offered Elijah the last of her bread, and it was then that Elijah promised her that the LORD would keep her jar of meal filled, and her little jug of oil with plenty. The widow of Zarephath is a gentile.

And then Jesus speaks of Naaman the Syrian, healed by Elisha’s command to bath in the Jordan. Naaman the Syrian is an enemy.

Jesus opens the text to include “other people” … people beyond the borders of Galilee … beyond the usual markers of theology and faith and culture.

It dawns upon the congregation - their take on the ancient story is challenged … what had started out so pleasantly now takes a hard turn …

“This far” they said, “but no further.” 

Us … not them.

Here’s the boundary; here’s the border.

This far … and no further.

I’m reminded of two chapters in the American Story:

The first is the Pilgrim event, the Mayflower, the establishment of Plymouth … people searching for a place to call home.

Before the English arrived. Dutch and French traders brought with them foreign germs … wave after wave of disease swept through the Indigenous communities … once prosperous towns now lay desolate, fields fallow, bones of the unburied littered the ground. 

And what said the English preachers?

Disease and death killing thousands of Indigenous People was a sign of God’s favor, “the year of the LORD’s favor.”

Because the Indigenous People are heathens, full of idolatry, full of evil; they’re savages … they don’t belong to God’s purpose … small pox and other disorders are all a part of God’s holy will to give us undisputed claim to the land,” in spite of the fact that many Indigenous Peoples had adopted Christianity from the Dutch and the French and then the English, learned to speak and write French or Dutch and then English, with treaties negotiated; treaties broken when more land was wanted, and the numbers of English insured superiority in battle.

The Puritans had a firm boundary for God’s love: “This far,” they said, “and no further.”

I think of the American South before the Civil War … for years, preachers and philosophers had told the story: “Black People are inferior to White People; Black People need to rescued out of ‘darkest Africa,’ brought to America in chains and enslaved - to save them from their evil ways. It is there lot in life to be enslaved.

Then something happened: thousands of enslaved peoples adopted Christianity.

White Christians in the South now had a problem on their hands: “Can we enslave fellow Christians?”

To answer the question, theologians and preachers went to work - Presbyterians among them … they decided that salvation went only so far.

The souls of enslaved Christians were saved, bound for glory, but salvation did not include their earthly bodies … so it was perfectly acceptable to continue their enslavement -  “this far,” they said, and no further.”

And then, one other story … in the early 70s, Altoona, PA … an older man (likely younger than I am right now), a gifted musician, thespian, story-teller, and jokester, and in his retirement, church custodian - I saw him every day; we often went out for breakfast - eggs and toast, and, of course, scrapple … one morning, he asked me, seriously and thoughtfully, “Did God love the Russians as much as God loved Americans?”

“This far, and no further.”

Jesus continues to speak - the grumbling deepens:

The shaking of heads; it turns to rage …

They drag Jesus out of the synagogue …

Take him to the brow of a hill …

The hill on which the city is built …

They’re going to throw him over the edge …

They’re going to send him to his death …

“This far,” they said, “and no further.”

The story ends abruptly … Jesus passes through their midst and goes on his way … traveling to other towns, to speak of the Kingdom of God … 

Who is Christ?

I end with a word from Isaiah 43.19:

I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.

“For us, for us,” cry the people.

Jesus says, “Yes, yes, yes, of course, for you … and many others, as well.”

For the love of God is broader

than the measures of the mind,

and the heart of the Eternal

is most wonderfully kind.

“This far,” says Jesus, “and farther still, to the very ends of the earth, world without end.

Amen and Amen!

February 3, 2013, "The Creation Story: What Does It Mean?"

Genesis 1 and John 1 (selections from both)

In the beginning … when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth had no form, and there was only darkness …

And God went to work … creating … with the Spirit hovering over the waters … and by the power of God’s spoken word … things happened … light emerged … water and land … plants and trees, critters and creatures of all sorts and shapes … and, at the last, human beings … in God’s own image … male and female … bidden by God to care for God’s creation … and it’s all good, supremely good, and it ends at the beginning of the Genesis 2, with a Sabbath Day … a day of rest for God and for humanity … because creating is hard work; caring is hard work … rest is essential.

As the proverb puts it, All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.

Genesis 1 is powerful and beautiful … glorious and profound … gracious and kind.

Genesis 1 is poetry … it’s music and song, theology and reflection … and we’re pretty sure we know when it was written … sometime during the Exile in Babylon … 

A time when all was lost, and nothing made sense … 

It was all gone.

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept.

The glorious history of Israel was all gone.

The Northern Kingdom of Israel failed 150 years earlier under the domination of Assyria.

The Southern Kingdom, Judah, held on for dear life to make the best of it … but now Judah was defeated and taken captive by powerful Babylonian armies.

Prayers for deliverance failed … the walls of Jerusalem breached; the city of David destroyed … the best and brightest hauled off in chains to Babylon.

It was all gone now … the whole story was gone.

1500 years of kings and queens and marching armies and tales of conquest and victory, the ark of the LORD and the crossing of the Jordan … tumbling walls and enemies defeated … Saul, David and Solomon … palaces built, a glorious temple raised on Mt. Zion … all to the glory of God, or so it seemed, and now it’s dust … everything gone … the palace in ruins; the temple thrown town …. Jerusalem a pile of rubble … now what?

That’s the big question for the people in Babylon: “Now what?” … where do we go from here? … what do we tell our children? … what do we tell ourselves? … is there any hope for us? … do we yet have a future? … and what have we learned from all of this? … oh, if only we could start anew, things might be different? Could they be different?

A writer … a poet … a preacher … a theologian … began to muse … and began to write … 

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth ...

Here is something we can tell our children, the bigger story, the back story … there’s more to life than our own personal story … there’s a whole lot more to life than Israel and Judah, and our kings and queens and all of our marching armies and pomp and circumstance - those who live by the sword die by the sword … we’ve been there and done that … we have lived by the sword, and we have died by the sword but there’s more to the story …

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth ...

Genesis 1 is full of hope … God is creator still … 

Is life without form? … without purpose? … God gives form to the formless … and purpose to that which has no purpose. 

Is there only darkness? So dark we cannot see our hand in front of our face? … we cannot see tomorrow? … so dark, that all we can do is hide away and cry?

God creates light where there was once only darkness … the Spirit hovers over chaos and darkness … God speaks and life emerges … there is light.

There is yet hope for us!

Always hope … hope springs eternal, because God is full of hope, and we’re created in the image of God, and hope is powerful in all of us, God be praised!

What’s missing from Genesis 1?

There is no mention here of Israel or Judah … there are no national borders in Genesis 1, or lands to be conquered … neither enemy nor foe … neither kings nor queens, nor marching armies and gleaming steel … 

It is one world, a world without boundaries … God’s world … all of it created by the mighty Word of God … Let it be, says God, and it is … everything suffused with the light of God, full of creative energy … and supremely good!

The writer of Genesis 1 … the poet, the muse, the preacher, the teacher, a teller of tall tale tales in Babylon … we have to start all over again … from the beginning … we got it all wrong … we fell in love with ourselves … we thought we were better than others; others could never be equal to us, because we were God’s people, we were special … we believed in the power of the sword, and we gave ourselves over to violence …

We can start all over again … In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth … 

All of its creatures, great and small … and the strangest creature of all, you and me … created in God’s image … to care for God’s creation … to put our creative energies to work, shape the world, put our very own stamp upon it … help the world be fruitful and grow all the more glorious.

The poet, the writer, the muse, the preacher and the teacher … there is yet hope for us … our prophets were right: they told us to beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks …

They told us to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God.

They reminded us that no matter what, no matter where, God is our hope and our consolation … 

⁷      Though the fig tree does not blossom,

      and no fruit is on the vines;

      though the produce of the olive fails,

      and the fields yield no food;

      though the flock is cut off from the fold,

      and there is no herd in the stalls,

¹⁸      yet I will rejoice in the LORD;

      I will exult in the God of my salvation.

¹⁹      GOD, the Lord, is my strength;

      he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,

      and makes me tread upon the heights. [Habakkuk 3]

500 years later, John puts pen to parchment and writes his gospel … In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God … and the Word of God was incarnate … came to live with us, and we have seen his glory, full of grace and truth.

All things were created by him, through him … and though there be darkness in many places, the light shines bright and clear in that darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome the light.

And his name is Jesus … 

To believe in Jesus is to believe in life … to follow him is to spread life abroad where there is no life … to bring light where there is darkness … to bring peace where there is war … and welcome where there is rejection … 

To believe in Jesus is to refuse the boundaries and borders that require death and blood to defend … 

An aside here … something I read in the LA Times (January 13, 2013) this week ...regarding the immigration issues facing our nation, and most of the nations of the world … human beings are always on the move … check any of our genealogies, and we’ll find how much our families moved, all over the place, across borders, legally and illegally … to flee war, or poverty or starvation. Anyway, a 70-year old gentleman is interviewed, and he “wants gun towers along the border and guards with orders to shoot.” He says: "The point is some would have to lose their lives, but when they realized that they can't cross without being shot, they would stop."

I’m not surprised that someone should feel like this, but it’s the next piece that truly disturbs me - it says of him, “he sings in his church choir.”

And I have to ask, What the hell kind of church choir does he sing in, and what kind of church does he worship in, and what has he heard from the pulpit? … while he sings about Jesus, he talks about shooting people along our borders.

Could he stand before Jesus on the cross and say that?

To Jesus, dying at the hands of a powerful empire that killed all the time to defend its borders … could he say that Jesus?

I’m not surprised that some should think this way … but Christians can’t think this way … not with Genesis 1 and not with John 1.

The poet, the muse, the teacher, the preacher, calls us to transcend the boundaries that divide, the borders that kill … a world defined by God’s creation and God’s love. 

To believe in Jesus is to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth … to love what he loves and do what he loves.

To believe in Jesus is to see all humanity as the family of God, sisters and our brothers are we all … red and yellow, black and white … they are precious in his sight … Jesus loves the little children of the world.

Turn to the beginning, when all things seems lost and hopeless.

Turn to the beginning, when hatred and fear take root in our hearts.

Turn to the beginning, when death seems so strong.

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth … in the beginning was the Word.

There is yet hope for us and for our world; turn to the beginning.

Amen and Amen!

July 18 2010 - "An Uppity Woman"

Luke 10:38-41

Did ya’ hear about the economy?

The economy is so bad, I got a pre-declined credit card in the mail.

The economy is so bad, Motel Six won’t leave the light on anymore.

The economy is so bad, Exxon-Mobile laid off 25 Senators and House members.

The economy is so bad, CEOs are playing miniature golf.

Nothing like a good chuckle now and then to lift the spirit and put a smile on our face.

When folks heard about Mary and Martha, there were a lot of chuckles, and some frowns as well …

Some folks would’ve said, “Well done Mary.”

Others would have observed, “An uppity woman.”

Whatever it was that day, Mary stepped out of her box … or out of the kitchen, so to speak.

Mary violated a boundary … a boundary of place and  behavior.

Cooking belonged to women …

Women belonged in the kitchen …

Archeology tells us a lot … ancient homes had food prep areas removed from living areas – food was a woman’s thing, done outta sight.

Sound familiar?

American homes after WW2 - kitchens walled off from the eating areas … think of Thanksgiving … turkey and mashed potatoes prepared by (?) … women … served by (?) women, and after dinner, the woman cleaned up … and the men? … the men kicked back in their recliners and feel asleep … oh well.

But have ya’ noticed how homes are designed these days?

Kitchen and eating melded together … people gather in the kitchen, pitch in with dicing and chopping as they socialize … no walls between kitchen and dining, and what with the Food Channel, men are cooking as much as women are!

Not so in Mary’s time.

Boundaries were set … when Mary stepped out of the kitchen to “sit at the feet of Jesus,” she violated the boundaries …

The picture on the front of our bulletin says it well.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus is code language for being a disciple.

It’s not a physical location … it’s a commitment to learn from someone.

If we’re in school, we might say, “I’m sitting under Professor’s so-and-so’s teaching.”

Mary sat at the feet of Jesus.

Why?

To become a rabbi herself!

This is what disciples did?

They sat at the feet of a rabbi, to become rabbis.

And if they did well, one day, the rabbi would say to them, Go now. Go into all the world and make disciples. Spread the word. Teach what I’ve taught. And I’m with you always.

Mary said: I want to be a rabbi, too.

Is there room for me?

Can I do it?

Mary, get back into the kitchen where you belong!

That’s what Martha said!

Get back where you belong!

Let’s be honest.

This is not a pretty picture.

Mary sits at the feet of Jesus to learn.

Martha fumes.

Don’t you care LORD?

Care about what?

Boundaries?

Social world?

Matha’s agenda?

No Martha, I don’t care about those things.

And you shouldn’t either.

Martha, Martha (the double use of her name – pay attention Martha; listen up), you are worried and distracted about many things, but Mary has chosen the better part!

End of discussion!

So, where do we go from here?

Several things.

Boundaries are helpful.

Physical boundaries, that is.

When the light turns red, stop!

When it’s green, go!

Stay in your lane; don’t cross the yellow line.

Stay behind the fence.

Don’t walk on the grass.

Wash your vegetables.

Cook chicken thoroughly.

Bag your doggy’s stuff.

Boundaries all over the place, and mostly helpful.

But not all boundaries are helpful.

Like social boundaries.

Social boundaries can be downright nasty!

I remember family travels to Florida in the 50s …

Signage on buildings, “Colored entrance only” …

Remember when country clubs wouldn’t allow Jews?

Civic clubs wouldn’t allow women?

Social boundaries.

You can’t live here … you can’t come in … you don’t belong here … go to the back of the bus!

One day in December,1955, a tired lady by the name of Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat for a white passenger … she was too tired to get up and move to the back of the bus – tired of being a second class citizen in the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Her courage created the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

And the walls came tumbling down.

Joshua fit the battle of Jericho.

And the walls came tumbling down.

Joshua is the Hebrew name for Jesus.

Jesus is named after the man who brought the walls down.

Jesus fit the battle his Jericho …

Jesus crossed boundaries, to come our way, and be our savior.

Tore down walls …

The dividing walls of hostility, Paul the Apostle would write years later …

Our nation right now is debating all kind of walls and boundaries:

Marital boundaries.

Who’s married and who isn’t?

Is marriage ONLY between a man and a woman, or can marriage include any two adults who love one another, and want to care for one another, and create a home together?

Who’s an American?

Does that mean one has to speak English ONLY?

And how well should one speak?

What about our governor’s accent?

Children born of undocumented families – are those children automatically citizens?

Who’s in and who’s out?

Christians have spend enormous amount of time on who’s a Christian and who isn’t.

In the 5th Century – the Donatist controversy.

Bishop Donatus said: If ya’ caved in under Roman persecution, you’re not fit for the kingdom of God. Go away. We don’t want you.

The good bishop believed the church should be full of saints, and not sinners …

The good bishop spent a lot of time figuring out who was in and who was out.

The good bishop would be right at home in many a fundamentalist church today, right here in America …

The good bishop would have his own TV program, spreading his message of judgment and exclusion.

He’d be the head of a publishing empire and live in Colorado Springs, or Orange County.

His wife would wear fluffy little dresses with her hair perfectly teased.

All around the world, Christians still fuss and frett like Martha about things that don’t count right now … fuss and frett about boundaries, and who’s in and who’s out … who’s a member and who isn’t …

Our Roman Catholic sisters and brothers really struggle with boundaries, don’t they?

Who can receive communion?

Is the priesthood only for men?

And what about a priest who abuses children? Is that man still a priest?

Protestants, too, have their boundaries.

Go to a conservative church, and you’re likely to be questioned on all sorts of things.

Go to a liberal church, and you’ll be questioned about the same things …

Some of that is important, but not now.

Not in the world in which we live.

Not with so much sorrow and so much grief.

We don’t need to be spending time in the kitchen … but a lot more time at the feet of Jesus.

In our story today, a principle:

Boundaries that keep people out are never helpful.

Jesus breaks those kinds of boundaries boundaries.

He touches the dead.

He welcomes women.

He hangs around with sinners.

He doesn’t bow and scrap before the powerful.

He disregards dietary rules and violates Sabbath regulations.

He goes where he shouldn’t.

He does what is forbidden.

Now, something interesting happens.

Folks either get really angry at Jesus …

Or … folks get brave around him.

Fishermen leave their nets and families.

Matthew steps outta the tax booth.

Peter gets outta the boat.

Mary steps outta the kitchen.

In the presence of Jesus, they got brave!

On a more personal basis, what about our own boundaries.

Have we ever said to ourselves, “I can’t do it?”

That’s a boundary, isn’t it?

Self-imposed.

No one said it to us.

No one told us we couldn’t do it.

Or maybe they did.

Sometimes we inherit hideous boundaries from our families:

You’ll never amount to anything.

Why can’t you do what your older brother does?

Keep quiet.

Put away those brushes and get back to your homework.

Real men don’t cry, they play football.

Real women are always pretty, and never good at math.

A young mother bought a ham for dinner, and cut off the ends before baking.

Her daughter asked her, Why do you cut the ends off?”

The mother replied, I don’t know. That’s the way my mother did it?

I think I’ll ask her.

So she asked her mom, Why do you cut off the ends of the ham?

Her mother replied, Well, that’s the way MY mother did it, and she was a good cook.

Now great grandmother was still living, so they decided to ask her.

And great gramma said, I never had a pan big enough for a whole ham, so I cut off the ends so it would fit.

Today is a good day to look at our boundaries … social boundaries, emotional boundaries - boundaries that keep us down and keep us out.

It’s never too late to get outta the kitchen.

Never too late to cross a boundary.

Never too late to sit at the feet of the rabbi.

Mary chose the better part.

Mary, an uppity woman!

And to God be the glory!

Amen and Amen!