"Who Do You Say That I Am?"

A Sermon from Sunday, September 13th 2015
by Rev. Kadin J.G. Williams

Passage:
Mark 28:27-38

Storytelling:
 
          This morning I want to recount a timeless story. In the Ancient World there was a part of the world that nearly every super-power was intent on controlling. Every couple hundred years a new superpower would arise and seize control of the region, overthrowing the previous power. You see, this region wasn’t particularly valuable because of its resources so much as it was valuable for its location. As the intersection for global trade routes, it was considered valuable more as a means of transportation and strategy, than a resource of industry or commodity – much like Syria is today.

          The superpowers of the era didn’t care about the people or their culture to any greater of degree than necessary to guarantee political stability. Empires don’t have a strong tolerance for revolt, so they often employ a range of tools to pacify conquered peoples.

          So it is in this world that I want you to imagine a small region – about the size of a county or two. You’re a person who lives there. For as long as you or your parents can remember you’ve been a conquered land, a conquered people. The weight of heavy taxation weighs heavy on your shoulders. Every year you work hard just to scrape by. Your clergy and elites cooperate with the foreigners and profit off the suffering of you and your family.

          As you grew up you became used to the sight of your friends and neighbors being raped, killed, or executed in the most horrific of fashions. Your people groan under the weight of this oppression and yearn for a time when you can all be free. There was a time when you were free. Your land had its own kings. Your God protected you, but now it seems as though you are forsaken. Many of your neighbors believe that God will send someone to save you all. The street preachers say that God’s wrath is coming for the foreigners – that God has chosen a warrior to free everyone from the tyrants from afar. They proclaim a gospel of liberation!

          The idea is exciting. You see the look in your neighbor’s eyes – a look of desperation, a look of fear and dread. You were once hired for a job in the nearby city. It was a day’s walk and the job took about a week, but you were eager for opportunity to earn a little extra. As you labored in the house of a local official you noticed a mirror. As you took a moment to stare into this, you noticed the person staring back at you. When you were a child you can remember playing in the stream; happy, free, and oblivious. Now you see a person with bags under their eyes, the look of experience carved into the brow, and a leathered look endurance. This, you wonder, is who I’ve become?

          When you return home from your tasks in the city you reflect on this change. You think, where is the hope for my children? Where is the hope for my people? Then a day comes when you’re sitting around with your children as the heat of the day drops off and a traveling preacher comes to town with a group of his followers. He begins preaching about a new age, a time of peace and prosperity, and the Kingdom of God coming to earth.

          This man seems so dynamic – so hopeful. He looks normal enough, but his spirit seems to offer hope and comfort. His stories are relatable, yet powerful. He seems to relate to you and your family in a way that’s so familiar. When he talks about God, it seems to bring everything alive. You can feel the shift of mood in the crowd as your friends and neighbors listen to this man. You feel the dread and despair fall away. In its place you find yourself yearning for freedom and liberation. If you had one wish it would be for the foreigners and Uncle Tom’s to be driven out of your land.

          You and many of your neighbors, feeling as though there’s little to lose, pack up a few belongings and begin to follow this leader. You can feel the energy – the energy of a people who have had enough, the energy of a people ready to revolt!

          One day, when you draw near to your newfound leader you hear him speaking to his lieutenants. He asks them, “Who do people say that I am?” You hear your friend reply “John the Prophet” and another reply “The wonderworker – the one who ascended in a whirlwind.” But the teacher remains quiet and composed until everyone around draws silent. Then he asks, “But who do you say that I am?” And almost instantly, one of your acquaintances – the guy who can never seem to shut up – almost yells, “The Anointed One.” You can feel yourself nodding in agreement. Everyone around can feel the electricity racing through their bodies. This person who sits before you is the liberator, the priest-king chosen by God to free you from your oppressors. God has not forgotten you. The time has come for a new start, a new age, a newfound freedom!

          The small crowd nearly breaks into an ecstatic joy from this revelation. Yet, this “anointed one,” this “Messiah,” just sits there as everyone takes in this release from dread. Soon people begin to notice. One by one, the crowd begins to pay attention to its leader. Everyone falls silent in eager expectation. Then, finally, he speaks.

          “This one” he says, “must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” You feel your heart break as he says this. What could he possibly mean? Why would he raise our hopes to only dash them against the rocks a moment later, you wonder? Then, your rather obnoxious friend pipes up and nearly yells, as he usually does, “WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?” But the teacher turns to him, and nearly everyone, and says “Get behind me, Deceiver! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”

          The crowd falls silent. You can feel the confusion and frustration of those around you. More than anything else you long for release, but the one you placed your hope in seems to be saying something entirely different. As he continues to speak everyone listens intently longing for some sort of clarification or release. The teacher continues by saying,

          “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their death and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the Good News, will save it. For what will it profit you to gain the whole world and lose your life in the process? Seriously, what can you give in return for your life?”

As you listen you can feel the tension turn into confusion. You know that everyone around you is wondering the same thing – “What does he mean?” You realize that’s there’s wisdom in there somewhere, but you’re not sure what it is. What does this man mean when he says that he must suffer and die in order to win? What does he mean when he says that he will rise again after being killed? What did he mean when he told us that we have to lose our lives in order to save them?

Sermonizing:
 
          Today’s scripture addresses the most basic of questions facing Christians –“What is Christianity?” What is the “Good News” that we lay claim to? Jesus tackles this question head on in this passage. You see, each of us is predisposed to think in a very human way. We all want to shape God’s message to humanity in our own image. But if we’re really going to find a truly liberating message we have to look at God’s word to us, rather than the words we tell ourselves.

          I tend to think that another passage of scripture of really sheds some helpful light upon the story we just heard. This passage is from Isaiah 55,

         “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

We have a tendency to long for certain things. We want to be prosperous, strong, successful and influential. We have very particular ideas about what it means to win or lose; and we have very particular ideas about what glory and failure look like, but God rises above all these ideas we create.

          Rather than giving us a Good News centered on glory or prosperity, Jesus gives us the Good News of the Cross. This is not a glorification of pain or suffering for suffering’s own sake. It’s no doormat theology. We should have no tolerance for abusive relationships or injustice.

          This Good News of the Cross is something else. It’s a message of love. It’s a definition of love. Christ’s life, death, and resurrection defines our idea of love! People in the ancient world tried to think about love as much as they do now. This isn’t a new question, but Christianity’s approach is! Our message of love never grows dull – it’s invigorating.

          Our culture is full messages about the things that will make us feel happy or loved. The marketing agencies on Madison Avenue work tirelessly to convince us that a product will make us happy, secure, or fulfilled. We are entrenched in a world that continues to tell us that the immediate gratification of our desires will make us feel whole – make us feel like we’ve become complete. But here’s the thing. We’re being lied to. There is no product that can make you feel complete, or more human, or more adequate, or more accepted or loved.

          This is our First World problem. We long for liberation as much as Palestinians did in the 1st Century. We may suffer from a different kind of ailment, but we too face the sense of loss. If you’ve been paying attention to the news I’m sure you saw the picture of Aylan Kurdi – a three year old Syrian boy who drowned after his boat capsized in an attempt to ferry refugees out of today’s version of Judea. As two of the world’s superpowers puff their chests and funnel money, arms, and aid into the same region the world faces the greatest refugee crisis it’s seen since World War II.

          The way I retold the story we read from Mark, intentionally generalizes the original context. That story could just as easily be a story of Modern-day Syria as it is a story from 1st Century Palestine. But this is exactly where its power comes from! This isn’t the kind of story of political or material liberation that we would hope for. No! It’s far more than that.

          This story presents a Good News that goes beyond particular contexts, countries, and conflicts. Our sense of meaning is to be found in the type of love that Jesus demonstrated. More than anything else, this passage tells us what is going to happen to Jesus and that our calling is to follow that example. If we do that, then we can “save” our lives and follow in Christ’s resurrection. In the death of our first attempts to fulfill ourselves, we can find the true path to a fulfilled life.

          Jesus’ example calls us to focus on our connection to others. When we sacrifice to make a new type of community we can find something that frees us from our anxieties, our fears, and our feelings of despair. When we stop trying to worry about gratifying our wants and instead look to the needs around us, we can find more than we ever could have imagined – more life, more joy, more happiness, and more acceptance. We are social animals and just as God exists in relationship – between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – so do we. When we build communities that focus on our relationships with each other, we can find a liberation better than any we ever could have found on our own.

          God’s idea of strength and power is different than our idea of those things. Today’s passage tells us about the secret to ‘us’! We find ourselves in vulnerability and love, not in oppression or conquest. So when Jesus asks his followers, “Who do they or you say that I am?” he’s asking us the same thing. If we say: political revolution, prosperity, or happiness then we have missed the point. Jesus is love! Not a love that tolerates injustice or oppression, but a love that calls us to grow beyond ourselves. A love that embraces the death of our worst traits in order to build a world that better resembles the relationship God has with everything.

          This is a hope beyond all other hopes. Many of us approach this scripture with as much confusion as Jesus’ original audience, but it’s so incredibly powerful.  Jesus is redefining the type of hope and success we would normally think of. Jesus’ hope is a hope for the future, but it’s also a hope grounded in the present. When we take up Christ’s cross for ourselves, we find a life that is “more abundant” than we could have imagined (John 10:10).

          We should be following Christ not because we are hoping to escape hell and get into heaven, but because following Jesus is worth it all on its own! The ‘Good News’ of Christianity is restoration and deliverance from the things we confine ourselves with. Like Jesus’ followers, we try to name God with the things of this world, but Jesus gives us a way out from that. Jesus gives us himself – the path of redemption and hope. This is our hope, our path, and our prayer.

“My Generation and the Next!”

Psalm 71:1-9 and 14-18

¹ In you, O Lord, I take refuge;
    let me never be put to shame.
² In your righteousness deliver me and rescue me;
    incline your ear to me and save me.
³ Be to me a rock of refuge,
    a strong fortress, to save me,
    for you are my rock and my fortress.

⁴ Rescue me, O my God, from the hand of the wicked,
    from the grasp of the unjust and cruel.
⁵ For you, O Lord, are my hope,
    my trust, O Lord, from my youth.
⁶ Upon you I have leaned from my birth;
    it was you who took me from my mother’s womb.
My praise is continually of you.

⁷ I have been like a portent to many,
    but you are my strong refuge.
⁸ My mouth is filled with your praise,
    and with your glory all day long.
⁹ Do not cast me off in the time of old age;
    do not forsake me when my strength is spent.

¹⁴ But I will hope continually,
    and will praise you yet more and more.
¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteous acts,
    of your deeds of salvation all day long,
    though their number is past my knowledge.
¹⁶ I will come praising the mighty deeds of the Lord God,
    I will praise your righteousness, yours alone.

¹⁷ O God, from my youth you have taught me,
    and I still proclaim your wondrous deeds.
¹⁸ So even to old age and gray hairs,
    O God, do not forsake me,
until I proclaim your might
    to all the generations to come.

What is the Gospel?

          As many of you probably noticed, today’s sermon is entitled “My Generation and the Next!” In addressing this, I’m going to focus on what should be prioritized between different generations, and even eras, of Christians. And, relatedly, what should be left behind to its own context.

          This morning I would like to propose that the only thing truly, and unconditionally, warrants a transference to every generation. And, that is something called gospel. As many of you know, this a Christian slang word we throw around all the time. But do we really take the time to examine it, to think about it, to question it? Or, do we just take its meaning for granted?

 

The word “gospel” came about as an English attempt to translate the Greek words, euangellion: which means ‘evangel,’ ‘good news,’ or even ‘good message.’ Intrinsic to this idea, this word “gospel”, is the idea of release from the law. This can be really any kind of law or bond – pretty much any convention and or man-made structure by which human beings have been or can be bound.

So this “Good News” – this Gospel we talk about – has to relate to some sort of liberation. Whatever the Bible is trying to teach us, it has to do with a release from our bonds – whatever those bonds might be. Or, in other words, to be good news, the gospel must confront and do battle with bad news. The essence of Christianity, if it is truly a Biblical faith, is confrontation with the bad news of this world!

          As the great American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr stated, “The Gospel is in the business of comforting the afflicted, and afflicting the comfortable.” The good news of the crucified Christ is that liberation is available, that salvation is available, for those who are being crucified by events, attitudes, and evils that are almost always concealed beneath things that some consider to be good!

The gospel is not a once-for-all belief system, a full-blown an unchanging ideology, or permanent intellectual property of the church. To the contrary, the church is the product of the gospel. That is to say, it becomes the church as, and only as, it discovers gospel for itself again and again. We can only be the true church when we seek God in our context, because God is always speaking. And, responsively the church should always be reforming.

In the 1930s Heinrich Grueber, the dean of the Berlin Cathedral, found the voice of the gospel for his era and his context when he declared that, quote, “The gospel for today is that Jesus Christ was a Jew.” In doing so, he confronted the spirit of his age and the oppressive force of the Nazi regime.

The gospel does not give itself to us as something permanent, something we can possess and haul out of our religious pockets like a VISA card whenever we need it. We come to know it only when and as we hear it for ourselves, day after day, age after age, changing context after changing context.

We certainly have clues as to what the gospel will sound like: truth, compassion, justice, judgment, forgiveness, liberation, peace, hope, etc. The gospel will always be about “making and keeping human life [authentically] human,” as Paul Lehman put it – it’s about redeeming the essential goodness of creation, about saving the human species from its worst excesses! And this is where we find the essence of it. The cross will always be at the center of the Gospel!

It’s easier for Christians to preach the musts, shoulds, and ought to’s that everyone expects. But the real job of this faith, is to discern the needs of the time and to articulate the gospel in a way that’s relevant. And I should point out that relevance is not a gospel rock band, a coffee bar, or a food pantry. Those are all tools and methods that can be very helpful, but they are not relevance. A relevant gospel is something that will be a response to the bad news of the age.

When we read Ephesians 6, we hear the author speak of the “mystery” of the gospel. As it states in verse 19, “Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.” Each era endures its own set of chains, and the Christians of that time must discern and pray, like the author, for the message that best applies to their own time.

Each of us has a job! Our job, as ambassadors of the Gospel, is to pray that God will guide us to our voices. Not our own voices, but our voices as they are best utilized by the God who saves us. We don’t need to be silent, but we need to find better words – more appropriate words. We need to find alternative ways of being the church and other ways of comprehending the central tenants of our faith.

The mystery of the gospel must be as an aspect of its essence. Like the mana of the wilderness, it defies containment, and rots when it is bottled up. Gospel is new every morning, and must be gathered each day anew. It is fresh and God-breathed for the needs of different generations.

As a result, I can confidently state that a Biblical faith is a thinking faith. So why would I say this? It’s simple really. If we’re going to pretend to have any sort of answer for our world, and for our world’s problems, then we collectively need to think about how we can find a gospel that applies to the needs of our world.

          When we claim that gospel is the lifeblood of the church, then, it is claimed simultaneously that theology belongs to the essence of the Christian community. By theology I do not mean dogma, doctrine, or Bible reading, but rather an engaged reflection and discourse on the meaning of the gospel. Seriously, when you sit down with your fellow Christians and talk about the meaning of the gospel you’re doing theology!

          Each and every one of us is situated in context. Our faith stories are just that – stories that relay the movement and work of God in our lives. But that’s exactly it! Christianity can easily devolve into a plethora of personal beliefs, preferences, and feel-good clichés. But that’s not real Christianity. Faith delves into what is beyond ourselves. It searches for God’s voice and not our own. It finds God’s message for us.

As Anselm of Canterbury famously argued, “faith is not content to be; it contains within itself an innate drive to comprehend what it believes.” This is what Protestantism has tried to foster. Not a simplistic, and often times superstitious, set of doctrines laid down by a church hierarchy but a genuine drive and movement encompassing the whole church, not just a conversation among the theological elite in some isolated ivory tower, but a quest for understanding rooted in something incredibly populist – the body of Christ as a whole – involving people from multiple generations and backgrounds. People coming together to pray for the coming of God’s message to God’s people.

 

Our New Struggle:

What Came Before:

There was a time when the religious mood to capitalize on the “anxieties of fate and death” was more effective. The fear of hell and the promise of heaven were conceptions that shaped generations. As many of you have heard, my great-great-grandfather used to run up and down the isles while he preached; and, attached to his stockings were little bags of sulfur. The intent was to make his hearers smell hell!

We now live in an era where the secular majority conceive of heaven and hell as material of humor more than of earnest meditation. And yet, this very same secular majority face problems that are perhaps even more devastating and unnerving than the ancient person’s prospect of a short life with no chance of upward mobility!

We may live longer; we may be kept healthier and better fed; we may be able, even with relatively little money, to enjoy experiences that are entertaining in a manner inconceivable to our great-grandparents; but when it comes to the purpose of it all we are in most instances far less content than were our more physically circumscribed forebears.

Many of the people seated in this room can attest to the changes our society has experienced. On our visit to The First Baptist Church in America we learned that that particular congregation had gone without music for over one-hundred years after its founding! And, when music was first introduced, nearly half of the congregation left in protest to the change. It’s easy for us to look back and laugh, but how often do we find ourselves tied to commitments that take us beyond what the gospel is really about? Probably far too often.

There are three main recurrent human anxieties that religions try to address: (1) fate and death, (2) guilt and condemnation, (3) emptiness and meaninglessness – with varying degrees and emphases on each. In each era, all of these are felt and experienced, but history has shown us that in each era one tends to dominate.

          An Age of Despair:

I believe that, we now live in a society gripped by an anxiety that suspects that there is no purpose in life; and so, either moves from one diversion – one opiate – to another, or finds itself in despair. Or in other words, theme number (3) emptiness and meaninglessness.

It is easy to see the quest for entertainment and Cortisol-laced highs throughout our society’s obsessions with food, sex, tourism, technology, and an almost endless list of other mind-numbing escapes. It’s as though we need a break from ourselves. It almost seems as though we are desperately trying to ignore is our own sense of dread. If this is true, we are living in a society that is extraordinarily repressive.

What part of ourselves, of our natures, are we hiding from our own consciousness? Pascal once quipped that the trouble of the world can be found in the inability of individuals to sit quietly in a room for fifteen minutes! So let me ask you, to what extent do you find yourself going to great lengths to avoid introspection, or in other words, when’s the last time you sat alone quietly?

Perhaps your faith gives you a sense of meaning, purpose, and significance. If so, then that is cause to rejoice. But I would also have to ask you, whether you have taken the time to sit with other people’s pain. Have you empathized with this new spirit of the age? Have you thought about what your faith has to offer your friends who may be repressing their greatest struggles away – burying them under mountains of work, entertainment, pornography, substance abuse, or adrenalin inducing adventures? Perhaps it’s time to sit down you’re your Christian friends and have a conversation about these things. To learn how to share your hope.

Unfortunately, the arts have been much better at recognizing and address the despair of our age than our churches have been. Many of us here today will likely remember the films of neo-Noir period like Taxi Driver, Basic Instinct, or the works of Woody Allen or the Coen brothers. Those among us who are younger will recall the films of Quentin Terentino, Guy Ritchey, or even the show Madmen – please don’t spoil the ending for me. I’m only in season 4!

Needless to say, film has not been the only medium of introspection and reflection that finds itself wrestling this issue. In music, Richard Wagner famously composed operas that are mystifying to most ears and have, yet, influenced untold scores of musicians even among rock groups like Ramstein. Before Freud, Wagner delved deeply into the tensions of sexuality and anxiety, in essence embracing the end of what had been and in some ways foretelling what was to come in the 20^th century.

 

We as Christians, need to focus less on the question “why do we die?” and more on the question “why do we live?” It is in fact a repression and betrayal of Christian truth when the church continuously speaks to the well-rehearsed anxiety of guilt and condemnation. And, not only is it a sign of repression, but also laziness. It’s easy to point to Protestantism’s rejection of Catholicism or liberation from the law, but in focusing on those things too much we end up burying our heads in the sand up past our ears. For many Christians, our celebration of victories won in the past has in turn become our stumbling block. They have become our go-to distraction from the real tensions that cloud our new era – an era full of its own very different needs.

Echoing former victories over the fear of death or the crisis of guilt ignores the plight that millions are experiencing. The church in North America has, to a large extent, turned its back on those who have fallen into the nets of despondency. It is not accidental that Dante pictured the gates of hell standing under a sign stating, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.” If the church has anything at all, it’s a message of Good News to counter this Bad News!

A Way Forward:

 

The mission of the church in this next generation will be rooted in a desire to proclaim the gospel rooted in Christ’s call on Golgotha, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Christians who seek to be relevant to this new era have to enter far enough into the gloom to feel compassion and understanding for those who dwell in intoxication and distraction – who sooth uneasy hearts with opiates and highs.

The Christianity that relies either on entertainment or old victories will soon pass away. If Christianity is going to survive in North America within the 21^st century, it must pull its head up from the sand and charge headlong into the struggles of this new era. But if it’s going to do this, Christians must come to know themselves as participants in this new era. My great-great-grandfather repeatedly told my great-grandfather who in turn old my father that, “A good preacher will have a Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other!”

The point I am making, lies in the fact that the gospel is always relevant. It is not something confined to the past struggles of history. The gospel, the good news, will free us and bring us the victory we need over this new trial – just as it did over the anxieties of (1) fate and death, and (2) guilt and condemnation. This is the mission of the North American church in the 21^st century!

We have all too often ignored the messages that so many others have seen. We have been oblivious to the zeitgeist, the spirit of the age, and instead relied on the remnants of a cultural heritage that is fading because no one remembers its justification or meaning anymore! Many practice their faith, simply because they think they should. My cry, my call, my commission to all of you gathered here today is to seek and explore. Help our youngest members find their way as they face this new challenge.

You, our older saints, you helped close the battles that started in earlier generations. You won the final victories in struggles that you picked up from previous generations. Many of you have likely struggled with what I have spoken of today. I do not believe that it is inaccurate to assume that the generation of the 1960s has not forgotten this monumental challenge. 

This struggle is not foreign to many of you I am sure. I imagine that many of our older members here today have seen the 1975 film, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest starring Jack Nicholson. The film is ranked as the 33^rd most important film of all time.

In the film Jack Nicholson plays the patient Mac McMurphy. Locked away in a mental hospital located in Oregon, he soon finds himself in a battle of wills with the head nurse Mildred Ratched, played by Louise Fletcher. After a growing series of battles and frustrations, culminating in the suicide of his friend Billy, Mac assaults the head nurse – leading to a nearly fatal neck injury. In retaliation the psych ward gives Nicholson a lobotomy. Yet, this act inspires his friends to carry out his escape plan and escape the tyrannical reign of terror Nurse Ratched brings.

Many of you can serve this purpose for our younger generations. Help us find our way in this new era. Help us escape the memory of battles past and move on towards the ‘Good News’ for this new era – for this new epoch. Help us find our way, encourage us to explore, encourage us to think, relay to us your struggles and clues. Help us find empathy and understanding for those who are struggling with doubt and despair. Inspire us to reflect collectively to study collectively, to move together in order to find the message of the gospel for this new era.

Concluding Thoughts:

Perhaps, this sounds old fashioned, but I would like to encourage all of you to return to the scriptures with a newfound earnestness. It is all too easy to fall into a pseudo–Christian kind of humanism. Sociologists refer to this as “moralistic therapeutic deism.” A type of Christianity that centers more on the message of helping other people, or finding soothing help from a nebulous divine parent-figure who is present to make you feel good, but largely removed from the rest of your life. Unfortunately, this type of faith is all too indistinct, all too non–unique.

It allows us to stay static in a mindset that faith only calls us to help people with their material needs or strive towards a more just society. But, where, my friends, does this leave our faith? What makes it necessary? Our gospel is not obscured and buried in the language of the past; it is good and incredibly relevant to the problems of our day, but we need to come together and pray and search for the voice of God in this new era. I believe that it is time for us to return to the scriptures with new and open minds.

I believe that the Bible can apprehend our world with an almost Kafkaesque kind of judgment of human and religious assumptions. If we approach the Bible authentically, it will bring us to a point of incredibly healthy crisis.

We should not go to scripture in order to find our all too familiar wax-nose, something that can be twisted and turned in any way we wish, but we should actually let ourselves be taken in and shaken up by these writings. There is a river in the Bible; and, this river can carry us away from ourselves. If only we entrust ourselves to it, it can carry us away to the sea.

 

When we entrust ourselves to the study of scripture in community we are calling on the Holy Spirit to come to us, to bring us Good News, and for God to come and address us in the midst of our current context.

Augustine asked how mere humans can understand the things of the Spirit of God. To paraphrase he concluded that, “They must all understand what they can, [and say what they can]. For who can say it as it is?” Or in other words, when we search for the Spirit’s message to our world we will find a God who reaches out to us and delivers us. We do not do it on own accord but God himself has saved us and will continue to speak to us as the church. When we pray and listen, and study, and seek God’s voice in scripture earnestly we can find ourselves voicing the message of the gospel for this new era. We do not do it on our own; and, we will not achieve this if we bury our heads in the sand or fool ourselves with the latest marketing novelty, but you will find the message of the gospel for this new era if YOU earnestly seek it. God will not forsake those who proclaim his name!

 

This is exactly why we as Protestants cite the Bible as the highest human authority. What the Bible wants to say and tries to say cannot be said. Yet, it speaks to the unsayable in the highest possible way. This is a necessary and important thing for every generation to remember. The Bible’s testimony denies us the very status we long to claim, namely, the status of those who possess the Truth. We want control, and we want to set all other systems of thought aside as inferior, but the Bible denies us this right. It denies us the quintessential religious quest, the quest at the heart of the biblical story of corporate fall, the story of Babel! The Bible denies us the ability to master or control the universe through proximity to, or even control over, the master of the universe. We cannot control God. Our brains are not even capable of fully comprehending God.

In this ever present temptation, the temptation to think we have it all figured out, we forget that the Bible’s core message is that we can’t possess it! God cannot be possessed. Like the figure of John the Baptist in Gruenwald’s Isenheim Alterpiece, who is pointing to the crucified Christ, the Bible in all of its testimony is saying, “He must increase, I must decrease.” Truth cannot be said “as it is” because it is a living Truth, it is a person. Truth can only be stood under. Like John the Baptist, we only honor the Bible when we look in the direction to which it points. The Bible is a sign whose function is to point to Jesus, whose life, death, and resurrection point us to the God who sent him.

If we wish to find the Good News for the 21^st century we must follow that finger. We must follow the testimony of John the Baptist, of the scriptures, and of our forefathers. We must discern the spirit of our age and discover what the Spirit of God has in store for us here, and in the future. When we pray for the Spirit of God to refresh and invigorate us, let us take up the momentum of our past victories and honor them; but, not let them hold us back from discovering what new, fresh word the Spirit of God has for us, our children, and our grandchildren.

 

Times change, ideas change, the world’s needs change, but one thing stays the same. The image in that painting! Let us come together as a group of different generations and together forge a path and a message of hope that our youngest members will be able to carry into this next century, by earnestly seeking the God who saves us. By coming together to study and pray together. By prioritizing our faith more and centering our lives on the only thing that can bring real meaning to a sea of opiates and distractions.

          Christ has been with you in all your struggles, lost dreams, and even your lost innocence. He understands and cares. He bore the price of reconciliation and liberation. If you come together with me, and together as a community of prayer, the Spirit of God will bring us the message of liberation, of freedom, of salvation that we need to touch the broken hearts of a lost and chained generation.

“The Fullness of Time”

Ephesians 1:3-14

Spiritual Blessings in Christ:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. ⁵ He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace ⁸ that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and insight ⁹ he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, ¹² so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit; ¹⁴ this is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s own people, to the praise of his glory.

 

Introduction:

Most of us have had to deal with time on a daily basis, but there are some days on which it becomes more important than others. As for myself, there was a point a couple of years ago when I had an academic exam scheduled in downtown Philadelphia. Now keep in mind that prior to this exam, I had only been in Philly once before.

So in the course of this exam I had planned on scheduling in two hours for my trip, even though it normally only takes one. Because I knew that if I was even one minute late for this exam, I would forfeit the whole thing along with the money I had put down. And even beyond that, it would take another couple of months before I could take it again. So I knew that I couldn’t be late.

Well the day of the exam came and I got a little held up, but I still left with about an hour and forty-five minutes of travel time left in my schedule. All seemed like it was still going to be okay. But as you might expect there was an accident that held up traffic and gradually a series of little delays began to chip away at my time to spare. By the time I had parked I had five minutes left to run to the tower where my exam was being held and get up to the fifteenth floor. So I ran, and ran, and stumbled up to the check-in desk exactly on the minute that I was supposed to be there. The minute hand clicked over as soon as I had blurted out my name. Of course, the secretary on hand stated, “Well Mr. Williams, you’ve made it, but just barely.” If I had arrived fifteen seconds later I would have forfeited.

 

I’m sure most of us have experiences like this. And yet, isn’t it a funny thing? Time that is. It’s a rather strange thing really. We all take it very seriously, but what’s really in it? It can almost seem to rule us at many points in our lives, but why? Just because we as collective groups value it? Perhaps we’re all just eager to subject ourselves to this collective organizing tool.

It’s definitely social in its function, but at another level it’s also a way to describe our experiences. It’s how we catalog our lives. So when we face a question like, “what’s the meaning of time?” We’re really facing a question of self-identity. We’re really asking what our own meaning is in the universe.

 

Pericope:

 

This morning’s text confronts us on a number of levels. For one thing, its statements about Christ inform us that Jesus’ death is redemptive – in this case explicitly meaning that it brings about the forgiveness of our sins. In addition to this, this passage tells us that Christ’s coming is revelatory. Or, in other words, Jesus’ coming helps us understand ‘the mystery’ of God’s will. In Christ, we can see God, we can perceive God, and find a God to whom we can relate and have a relationship.

These are, perhaps, the two most commonly addressed issues from this passage of scripture. (1) The forgiveness of our sins through Christ; and, (2) Christ as God’s self-revelation to humanity – Christ as the unveiling of the universe’s mysteries.

It’s not hard to love the book of Ephesians. It’s so incredibly rich and full of great imagery. But it’s also incredibly deep. Admittedly, it may not seem so at first glance. It’s certainly well removed from our own time and context so it can easily be dismissed superficially, but if you take a closer look this book is incredible!

If you’ve looked in your bulletins you will have probably noticed that my sermon is entitled, “Fullness of Time.” Now, if you’re like me, you probably don’t go around most of the time trying to construct a theology of time. In fact, time is one of those things that we tend to take for granted. As we age it certainly becomes a more foreboding and ever-present reality, but even then do we really spend most of our time contemplating what sort of purpose time bears on our existence? Or on the existence of everything? If you think too hard you might find yourself pulling at your hair, staring up at the sky, an screaming – “What does it all mean?!?!”

 

My purpose this morning is not to pretend to be an expert on a biblical theology of time, but I do hope to at least provide some helpful thoughts that you may be able to use in considering a Christian way to think about time and all that entails – like fate, death, meaning, and mortality.

By now, many of you have probably realized that I watch far too many movies and television shows! So you might be expecting me to pull out another movie reference. And, I will admit that I thought about it. The obvious choice would be 2014 Matthew McConaughey film Interstellar, but luckily for you I’m not big on spoilers. So I’m not going to ruin it for you. By the way – you should see it!

Illustration: The Midsummer Chronophage

So instead of pulling something from film or music, I’ve decided to call upon something that relates both to the sciences and the arts. In your bulletins you will find an image of a unique clock entitled, “Midsummer Chronophage.”

This rather large clock is designed to make viewers experience the dread of the time-eater, fate, through the experience of relativity. The creator of this unique clock, Dr. John Taylor, wanted to find a way to represent the way we experience time. Clocks usually represent every minute as though it is exactly the same as the next, yet our collective human experience of time is in contrast to this. As we all know, some minutes, hours and days seem longer and shorter than others.

 

If you stand in front of this clock you’ll notice that some minutes race by, others drag on, some disappear and others appear to stand still. Every five minutes the clock “corrects” itself and the accurate time is shown through light slits.

Walking atop the face of this clock is a large kinetic sculpture of a mythical beast. The creature, an integral part of the mechanics of the clock, appears to devour time. In a performance of drama, the Chronophage tolls the hour by the sound of a chain clanking into a small wooden coffin concealed in the back of the clock to remind us that our time on earth is limited. In this way, the viewer faces something rather unique and dramatic.

 

Lesson:

 

Time is a foreboding force that we cannot control. It is both the beginning and summation of our existence. So what can we take away from this? Where do we start to construct a theology of time?

I believe that we should start with God Himself! Some of you work in the sciences, and are likely familiar with the idea that gravity exists beyond the experience of time. In fact, it can actually manipulate time! If for example, you were on a planet near a black hole your experience of time would be different than that experienced on Earth. God is like that! As the creator of all things, God exists beyond the four dimensions that we experience.

This might at first glance sound abstract, but it’s actually quite amazing. This is a message of restoration and redemption! God frees us from this harrowing image of time. Frees us to live through time. Frees us from fear of time. Frees us to live beyond time. Because we have been assured that all things will be gathered in God in the fullness of time.

This morning’s passage points to a God who entered a broken universe to restore everything to a state to which it can be once again referred to as ‘very good.’ God’s plan is make sure that everything that exists in Heaven or earth shall find its perfection and fulfillment in him. I believe that God’s plan is to restore what is broken in all of us!

So now we know that there is a deliverance from the ‘time-eater.’ God intends to gather up all of creation into God’s own loving embrace. As a result, there’s no need to fear this ‘time-eater’, this Chronophage. But we still should look at this term, “the fullness of time.” Many of you may be wondering what that may mean. What could the author of this gospel have in mind when thinking about this?

For one thing, it’s referring to a completion. Since God exists beyond time, God will at the end of the era gather up all of time and bring it to himself. What a thought. It’s as though all our lives, all the lives of our ancestors, and all the lives of our descendants are like a woven carpet to be rolled up and held by the God who loves us.

But there’s more to it than this. There’s meaning in this history – in this thing we call time. In its fullness and in its particulars it is important. We matter, even in our mortality. When we live in a moment, we touch phantoms of all of history through our connection to Christ, and subsequently the Creator. Through the movement of God in our hearts, minds, and communities we are interwoven into the unfolding of God’s miraculous work within the cosmos.

 

The inauguration of God’s Kingdom in our world, which is identified by the ‘pledge’ or ‘down payment’ of the Holy Spirit that we hear about in this passage, establishes a dynamic of grace – a way of living.  This is a living, bodily, history-shaping movement of God toward the world through and in the church. In this community, one can find a new life where you can experience the fullness and meaningfulness that you are intended to have. This is what I mean by restoration.

In your participation in the Kingdom of God, as a Christian, you can touch and become more like the person you are meant to be. God’s grace works in and through us to affect all of history. We are heirs of God’s redemption. We are heirs of freedom – freedom from the ghost of our own fates and freedom from our fears of meaninglessness.

 

The ‘fullness of time’ that God gathers up, captures the church. As a result, the church – as a community of believers – acts as a locus of reconciliation. As a gathered people it is our task, in the sands of time, to share the Good News of Jesus Christ and to let that Good News permeate our lives so that we can more fully live into our purposes and meanings.

Easter isn’t just about redemption or the forgiveness of sins, although it is certainly about that too, Easter is also about revelation. The revelation of God’s self to us in Christ; and, in Christ we can see God’s purposes for us.

Our community acts as a promise of what God has in store, because the Kingdom of God still exists in an already/not-yet dynamic. It has been heralded and we can experience and touch it, but it is not yet fully revealed. We live and breathe in particular moments, so we don’t see the end of all things, but God exists outside of this and, like gravity, can pass through time and space. The things that we experience are connected to everything else and all of these things come together for our salvation.

 

The ‘fullness of time’ is the finalization of the new era. It is the point at which we find our deepest purpose and significance – reconciliation with our creator and the completion of our tasks in this age.

Conclusion:

As one commentator once said, “Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace.” Christ is in the business of reconciliation. He does this by reconciling us with God, but also with ourselves. In our relationship with Christ and the Church we can find purpose by participating in the Kingdom Christ’s resurrection heralded. In doing so, we touch the phantoms of our more perfect human selves – as they are in the ‘fullness of time.’ We draw closer to the people that God had intended us to be before we became so difficult. In doing so, we proclaim messages of the Gospel – of forgiveness, of fulfillment, and of justice and compassion for all people everywhere. For in the ‘fulfillment of time’ everything that is in heaven and on earth will find its perfection and fulfillment in Christ.

We have something to rejoice about! We don’t have to fear the Chronophage – because we’re in Christ – a mysterious, life-giving, breathing way of being. There’s beautiful strangeness in this freedom. There’s hope. In the future and in today. Before all things, in all things, after all things, there is Christ and we are in Christ. We can find our purpose in Christ. And, it is in this, that greatness of God’s grace appears. God rescues us from the pit of despair and takes us to heights we can just barely perceive.

 

Life Gained and Life Lost

When Jesus gave us the eschatological saying, "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it" he bestowed his followers with a very important lesson about faith and self-identity.

The development of one's own faith and religious identity has as much to do with one's loss as one's gain. Nearly every life journey is a venture that changes us. Each historical action is a venture into risk - into non-identity. When we grow we abandon our former selves, the selves we knew, and find something else. Some things may stay the same, but much changes.

As Friedrich Schiller wrote in the Reiterlied:

"Unless you place your life at stake,
your life will never win."

Only through the risks we take in the course of the journey can we grow and self-actualize. When we risk ourselves we are more likely to embrace Emmanuel Levinas' call to prioritize the 'other.' In the spirit of existential persistence, we can find ourselves in the 'other' that goes beyond all others.

When we jump into the abyss of the unknown we are, in fact, trusting in the hidden and guaranteed identity we have with Christ. As Barth states in his Epistle to the Romans, "He is the hidden abyss; but He is also the hidden home at the beginning and end of all our journeyings."

In the risk of faith, we trust in the hidden and guaranteed identity we have with Christ crucified. As Christ died, so too do we, but so also shall we be raised (Col. 3:3-4). Our identity cannot be established in isolation, but only through our relationships. If phenomenology is to be believed, the subject can only self-perceive if it is in a relationship with an object. Consequently, it is through our imitation of the cross - of Christ's self-emptying - that we find our own identities. In Christ, all things are made new (2 Cor. 5:17).

And, it is this Christ - this liberator, this redeemer - who can save us from our own inhumanity. It is in this Christ that we can find a new self and a new life.

“What is Truth?”

John 8:31-36

 

Scripture:

31 Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." 33 They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham and have never been slaves to anyone. What do you mean by saying, "You will be made free'?" 34 Jesus answered them, "Very truly, I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. 35 The slave does not have a permanent place in the household; the son has a place there forever. 36 So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.

Introduction:

          For those of you who listen to Pop radio or pay attention to the R&B charts, you may have heard of the 21 year old artist Tinashe. Her debut album Aquarius has proven to be a bit of an oddity within this year’s R&B releases. In an interlude entitled, “What is there to lose” she asks the question, “What is reality? What is truth, if truth is subjective?” As the Brooklyn critic Meaghan Garvey suggested, this question can sound like a “dorm-room stoner koan.”[1]

          Pundits of all genres have notched countless publications, if not whole careers, to their resumes in the critique of such seemingly foolish questions. Many might believe that such thoughts are best left to the late-night haze of the dorm rooms of yesteryear. Yet, this question has plagued many. Philosophers like Edmund Husserl and Mathematicians like Kürt Gödel have changed the way academics think about the question. Likewise, in the 1950’s and 60’s we saw an outpouring of these sorts of ideas and questions beyond the doors of the ivory tower. First came the beatniks and then the hippies. For many, society seemed to be unraveling.

          At the heart of all of this was a fundamental question. “What is truth?” Many may believe that the answer is obvious. Many others have dedicated their lives to the study of this one question. When Pastor Mayra assigned me today’s text and topic, she gave something akin to both a blessing and a curse. I could not ask for a topic that intrigues me more. Yet, I also have to be honest with you. Humanity has been wrestling with the details of this issue for thousands of years. My efforts, here this morning, will be but a modest attempt to bring the significance and application of John’s thoughts on these issues into your hearts and minds.

          This sort of question is not something to be easily answered. Rather, like Jacob’s wrestling with God, this is a question to be tried and journeyed.[2] So it is with a mixture of enthusiasm and trepidation that I approach you with today’s sermon. The topic before us is both lofty and academic, but also immensely practical. It is perhaps the question at the heart of all questions. So let us journey together with John this morning and see where the Spirit might be leading us.

What is Truth?:

 

          In the text we encounter this morning Jesus is speaking to “the Jews who had believed in him” (8:31). What follows is a progressive unraveling of what these followers believed. Rather than providing some smooth messages of assurance, Jesus rattles the perceptions and sensibilities of his listeners. He suggests that they are enslaved (8:32) – something they wholeheartedly want to reject (8:33). Christ’s point was that the whole world is enslaved to sin (8:34). Luckily, Jesus also adds a message of hope. Through the Son, who is Christ, we can find freedom from our entrapment, from our slavery (8:35-36).

          We also find that Jesus is making a big claim. "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free" (8:32). This phrase, “continue in my word” is more than the belief his audience had based upon his words. Jesus is now asking those who believe to ‘follow’ him (8:12) or ‘walk with him’ (6:60) in the sense of giving him their allegiance.

          So when we look at this passage, we find that Jesus is telling us some very important things. For one thing, humanity is being held captive. But that captivity is not the end of the story. Instead, God has sent a person who can break us out of that captivity. God has sent us the Truth.

          The fundamental issue at hand, when we look at this passage of scripture, is that God has sent Godself – in the form of the Son Jesus Christ – to liberate us from our captivity. And it is this captivity that limits us, chains us, and isolates us. When we ask, “What is truth?” in relation to this passage of scripture, we are also asking what is not truth?

          We find that sin and darkness are the opponents of Truth in this passage, but their meaning extends well beyond the lists of “You shall not’s” we find elsewhere. Instead, sin is “a state of alienation from God […] that precedes all human acts.”[3] Sin is the category in which the world exists apart from God – it is separation. People are naturally centered upon themselves and what they can perceive about their own worlds.

          It is this separation from God that enslaves us. It confines us to what we can see and makes us blind to the “signs” of God’s work that the Gospel of John makes such a big deal out of. But just as importantly, our separation of God is a separation from the Truth.

          If you remember, I quoted Tinashe’s question earlier. She asked, “What is truth, if truth is subjective?” In response I ask, “but what if Truth is not subjective?” By that I don’t mean to be snarky or critical of her question. I embrace it! Instead, I concede that OUR truths are subjective. Each of us is limited by our context, our limited range of experiences and knowledge. But God is not.

          God is all-knowing, and only God exists apart from the created order. So ‘absolute truth,’ beyond the boundaries of subjectivity, (beyond our human capacities) can only exist with God. Since God is the only one who exists outside of context, only He can be called Truth. This is what John means when we read words describing Christ as the “Word.” Christ is God’s plan of deliverance. Jesus came to bring us back into a relationship with God the Father.

 

Truth as Relational – God:

          So when we ask, “what is truth?” and reply that it is God, we are acknowledging that it is only through our relationship to God that we encounter ‘Truth’ beyond context, beyond subjectivity, beyond us. God’s truth can break through the confines of our limited perspective and bring us into the Kingdom of God, where new things are possible.

          In other words, when we lose track of our relationship to God, we limit ourselves and the work God can do through us. We frequently here lists about the problems of society from our musicians, artists, and poets. At points we all experience humanity as cold, hurtful, and selfish. Yet, amidst all the problems that face our human race, perhaps what we really need is a change of focus!

          We need focus less upon who we are, and more upon WHO GOD IS! We all know that we are limited and finite. We are each subject to the contexts of culture, ethnicity, health, family, language, and psychology. But God takes us beyond all of that. And that is Good News! I believe that the Truth, is to be found in one’s relationship to God. Only God can claim to be absolute truth, and as a consequence our relationship to truth comes through our relationship to God.

Truth as Relational – Humanity:

          When we lose track of our relationship to God, we begin to focus more upon what we can perceive – what we think. We start places people into the boxes we make with our heads. When we categorize people we often fail to grasp the significance of their experiences and context. In other words, we fail to be empathetic because we fail to get beyond ourselves.

          All the categorizes that make us different from one-another begin to pile up until we have completely dehumanized another person. This is often done unintentionally, but is often done all the same. When we let our differences pile up so much that we stop trying to even attempt to put ourselves in each other’s shoes, we have forgotten what is most important.

          We don’t have a grip on the Truth. It is not something we can control or mold to our will. Instead, when we place ourselves into discipleship, the Truth can take hold of us. God is the Truth, and through his help we can begin to see a bigger universe. The categorizes that confine us to our little dominions begin to disappear and we begin to see a whole human race crying out for help – longing for a savior, longing for something that can release us from our slavery.

           Some of you may remember the Five Man Electrical Band song, “Signs.” In it, the lyricist famously sings, “Long Haired Freaky People Need Not Apply.” The artists are referencing a hippies attempt to get a job. But as you can guess the long-hair and look the hippy carries make this difficult because they brought about an immediate judgment. Even little things like hair or clothing inhibit us from being able to walk a mile in another person’s shoes. These categories let us place people here or there, all the while diminishing from who those people might really be.

          We do this because we are small and we do not understand. But we have Good News. God is big! And God knows each and every one of us intimately. God has been there with you through every pain and trial. While other people may not always get it, God does. And it is perhaps from this empathy that God shows us, that we can begin to show empathy towards one another. We may not always understand what another person may be going through, but we can have faith in our God – who is the way, the truth, and the life. Through Him we can find our liberation.

Conclusion:

 

          Before I wrap up, I just want to summarize a few things. We are limited, but God is not. Instead, God is the absolute Truth. In God’s son Jesus, humanity is brought back into relationship with God and reborn. In earnest supplication we need to go to God each day with a prayer for empathy. We need to be reminded that although we often fail to relate to other people’s situations, God knows everything. Through His strength and guidance we can begin to go beyond the things that separate us from one another, and show the love that God has shown us to others.

 

Let us pray before we sing:

          “Lord, send out your light and truth among us. Let it lead us and bring us into a deeper commitment to you and to others. Let it soothe our souls and give us peace. In the name of you son, our Lord, Amen.”

---

[1] See: Meaghan Garvey, “Tinashe, Aquarius” on Pitchfork Reviews, www.pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/19910-tinashe-aquarius/

[2] Jean-François Lyotard’s incredulity toward metanarratives is something to be embraced, rather than feared. It pushes us to recover the narrative character of the Christian faith, rather than understanding it a collection of propositions or ideas. Lyotard reminds us the confessional nature of our faith narrative. See: Jean-François Lyotard, trans. Geoff Bennington and Brian Massumi, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984).

[3] Wolfhart Pannenberg, Systematic Theology, vol. ii (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1991-1998), 262-263.