Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 22, 2023 “Which Jesus?” Matthew 4:13-22 - Common English Bible Jesus left Nazareth and settled in Capernaum, which lies alongside the sea in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. 14 This fulfilled what Isaiah the prophet said: 15 Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, alongside the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, 16 the people who lived in the dark have seen a great light, and a light has come upon those who lived in the region and in shadow of death.[a] 17 From that time Jesus began to announce, “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!” 18 As Jesus walked alongside the Galilee Sea, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew, throwing fishing nets into the sea, because they were fishermen. 19 “Come, follow me,” he said, “and I’ll show you how to fish for people.” 20 Right away, they left their nets and followed him. 21 Continuing on, he saw another set of brothers, James the son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with Zebedee their father repairing their nets. Jesus called them and 22 immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him. The Ramones sang about the “Job that Ate My Brain.” Johnny Paycheck proclaimed, “Take this Job and Shove It.” Dolly Parton sang about “tumbling out of bed and stumbling to the kitchen, pouring a cup of ambition, and folks like me on the job from 9-5.” If only fishing was just a job. It was the back-breaking, all-consuming, slimy, stinking smelly, life you were born into. It’s what your father did and it’s what your sons will do – not a choice. Not something from which you could shove it and just walk away. They could have been randomly pulled away, by Roman soldiers who would force them to serve some task they demanded. Or they could have been drawn away to fight against Rome. Someone was always trying to foment rebellion. Roving prophets and itinerant preachers regularly crossed the land gathering followers or disciples. So, when Jesus walked by the two sets of brothers, he might not have been the first to say to them “follow me,” though he was probably the first to say, “and I will make you fish for people!” Did the brothers know anything about him? Or what are we getting ourselves into? Different gospels have different ideas about the calling of these first disciples. Matthew’s story is based on Mark’s so they are the same. John’s is wildly different. Luke’s version is similar but provides a completely different motivation for following Jesus. He ties it to a miracle. Jesus was walking along the shore where a group of irritated and exhausted men were cleaning their nets. They had fished all night and caught nothing. Jesus called out to them to go back and try again. How would a group of irritated and exhausted men cleaning their nets after a night with no fish respond? But there was a crowd pressing in on him, so he must be somebody. They agreed and when they let their nets down this time, they were so full of fish it almost sank the boat and they cried out for help. In Luke’s gospel, this is what prompts them to respond to Jesus when he said, “I’ll make you fish for people.” They immediately left their nets and followed Jesus. That makes sense. In Luke, the two sets of brothers followed Jesus after they saw a miracle. Not just saw it, they literally “hauled in” a miracle. In stark contrast, in Matthew they followed Jesus because… well, why did they follow? Because fishing was a back-breaking, all-consuming, slimy, smelly, life? What was the a-ha! The epiphany. It’s harder to be called away from a life that is comfortable. But sometimes you just know. Right? In an instant your life changes direction. We don’t know if these men had ever heard of Jesus, but if they had, it might have been this one thing: When he arrived in Capernaum from Nazareth, he went around announcing: “Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven.” Even so, that’s not a lot to go on. Wouldn’t you want to know more than that? As I was thinking about it this week, I realized that if you asked me to follow Jesus today, I’d first want to know which Jesus you are talking about. Brian McLaren wrote a fascinating piece called “The Seven Jesuses I Have Known.”[1] The church he grew up in focused on Jesus who was a ransom payment to God, the judge who has declared humanity guilty. Jesus absorbed the penalty of all that human wrongdoing by dying on a cross to satisfy our sins. He saves us from hell so we can go to heaven – if we believe. Brian said, I heard lots of examples of hell and how I have personally sinned, how I had failed Jesus through cussing and dancing and lust for my girlfriend but almost nothing about how I was supposed to actually live my life, other than to be pure and holy. I also grew up hearing a lot about Jesus who is my Savior who died for my sins but I don’t recall hearing any sermons that included condemnation and going to hell. I know that is definitely not the experience others had. But what I remember was how everything was couched in his great love. What a Friend We Have in Jesus. And I believed it; I felt it in my heart. But it was all me and Jesus. I had a personal relationship with Jesus but there was no talk of that leading to more, such as changing the world so people don’t suffer. Just that if they do, good news, heaven is waiting. Brian then described Pentecostal friends in college who introduced him to a Jesus who was alive and vibrantly present in life right now, not to be met in heaven but here. They were on fire for Jesus and he wanted some of that. But soon he was turned off by their insistence that he must receive what they called the greatest gift of all – speaking in tongues. He felt it was divisive – who is in and who is out. And he knew he was out. I also encountered Charismatic Christians in college and I was taken by their passion and I wanted it too. They experienced Jesus in a way I never had, but as much as I wished for the same experience, Jesus was more of a quiet presence with whom I would fold my hands in prayer than get up and dance with my hands in the air. I loved the idea of spiritual gifts but it was also this group in college who spent a shocking amount of time talking about hell and consigning people to it – especially, for some reason, Catholics. That didn’t feel right or loving to me. The third Jesus Brian encountered was through Roman Catholics in graduate school – a completely different kind of Christianity than he had known before. He saw the beauty of ancient liturgies that connected him to a long tradition. Where I grew up, there were so few Catholics around they had to go to church in another town. They were completely foreign to me. I didn’t get why their Jesus was still hanging on the cross. But early in my ministry I felt called to spend two months of my sabbatical at a Benedictine monastery in New Mexico. I went without a clue why and it was here that I first met Mary, the mother of Jesus. And in the end, I found myself hiking alone along the Pecos River praying “Hail Mary full of grace” over and over. Their particular emphasis on the suffering of Jesus and his dying for the salvation of the world was a message both remarkably similar to and incredibly different from my upbringing. In contrast to the salvation of the world through the death of Jesus, the fourth Jesus Brian encountered, the Eastern Orthodox Church believes the salvation of the world was accomplished by the birth of Jesus. His entry into the world saved it. My administrative assistant in Cleveland was an Eastern Orthodox priest, kicked out of the priesthood when he got divorced. In between bulletins and newsletters, we had lots of great conversations. He didn’t get the appeal of Jesus as a personal savior by his death. For him, by his birth, Jesus saved the whole cosmos! What a delightful idea. Brian had been taught to be careful of liberal Protestants so it wasn’t until his 30s that he first talked to one. Somehow, they would contaminate his faith because, for example, they questioned whether the miracles happened literally, and was Mary actually a virgin, and they spent too much time talking about a Jesus who calls us to fix the world instead of fixing your relationship with Jesus. That was his fifth Jesus. As a child I would have never known those were questions we could ask. But ever since seminary, this has been the focus of my life – to look at the life of Jesus in the scripture for its meaning and questions. How Jesus inspires us to make a difference in the lives of people, which is how we are saved – to live for others, not ourselves. Jesus inspires us to actually feed people who are hungry, and if not, that’s a sin. We are called to be shaped and grounded in the love of Jesus who loves all people unconditionally. To follow the teachings of Jesus to be Christ-like. Christ-with, not Christ over. Brian also talked of the simple Jesus he met among the Anabaptists – they are the Amish and Mennonites and others – and the radical Jesus of liberation theologians – the sixth and seventh Jesus he has known. For me, the greatest influence beyond what I’ve spoken is the Jesus of the Black Church, shaped by the preaching of pastors like Jeremiah Wright at Trinity UCC in Chicago and A. Knighton Stanley at Peoples Congregational UCC in Washington, DC. And of course, from a distance, Dr. King and the ministers of the civil rights movement. It is this Jesus that compels me to follow him. It is this Jesus who says love isn’t enough without justice – the Jesus who is alive and powerful and alongside us in every struggle. So, on Thursday I asked our group at Lunch and Lectionary who is Jesus to you. Not surprisingly in this liberal Protestant church, almost everyone spoke of Jesus in relation to his teachings and how they inspire us to live our lives.
It did not surprise me that only one person used the traditional language of “Son of God” and that no one used the language that “he is my Lord or Savior” or “he is my friend.” Although,
Many of us grew up with a Jesus we don’t recognize anymore and that can be disconcerting. We may know more about who Jesus isn’t than have resolved the question – who is Jesus, especially with all the competing messages about him. But Jesus did not make his life about him. So we may not know which Jesus we follow, but whoever he is, the more important question is: what does he call you to do? [1] Chapter in his book Generous Orthodoxy
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