Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 29, 2023 “Happy People” Micah 6: 1-8 – Common English Bible Hear what the Lord is saying: Arise, lay out the lawsuit before the mountains; let the hills hear your voice! 2 Hear, mountains, the lawsuit of the Lord! Hear, eternal foundations of the earth! The Lord has a lawsuit against his people; with Israel he will argue. 3 “My people, what did I ever do to you? How have I wearied you? Answer me! 4 I brought you up out of the land of Egypt; I redeemed you from the house of slavery. I sent Moses, Aaron, and Miriam before you. 5 My people, remember what Moab’s King Balak had planned, and how Balaam, Beor’s son, answered him! Remember everything[a] from Shittim to Gilgal, that you might learn to recognize the righteous acts of the Lord!” What does the Lord require? 6 With what should I approach the Lord and bow down before God on high? Should I come before him with entirely burned offerings, with year-old calves? 7 Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with many torrents of oil? Should I give my oldest child for my crime; the fruit of my body for the sin of my spirit? 8 He has told you, human one, what is good and what the Lord requires from you: to do justice, embrace faithful love, and walk humbly with your God. Matthew 5: 1-12 - Common English Bible Now when Jesus saw the crowds, he went up a mountain. He sat down and his disciples came to him. 2 He taught them, saying: 3 “Happy are people who are hopeless, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 4 “Happy are people who grieve, because they will be made glad. 5 “Happy are people who are humble, because they will inherit the earth. 6 “Happy are people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness, because they will be fed until they are full. 7 “Happy are people who show mercy, because they will receive mercy. 8 “Happy are people who have pure hearts, because they will see God. 9 “Happy are people who make peace, because they will be called God’s children. 10 “Happy are people whose lives are harassed because they are righteous, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs. 11 “Happy are you when people insult you and harass you and speak all kinds of bad and false things about you, all because of me. 12 Be full of joy and be glad, because you have a great reward in heaven. In the same way, people harassed the prophets who came before you. In the reading from the Prophet Micah, the lectionary today provides one of the most familiar verses in the entire Old Testament – the Hebrew Scripture. But what is the rest of the story? It all starts with God encouraging the people, if you have a problem with me, please tell me. God invites a jury. If I’m at fault, tell it to the mountains and hills, make your charge to the eternal foundations of the earth. And then, let them, the jury, decide. So, God lays out a defense. God doesn’t complain about ungrateful people or say they are wrong. It’s not the voice of an angry God demanding an answer. It is the voice of a God who agonizes and is filled with sorrow. God doesn’t deflect and instead accuse them of unfaithfulness. This is a God who simply wants to know. What have I done to you? How have I wearied you? This is relevant to so many of us who struggle with who is God. Last week I asked who is Jesus. It might not be the Jesus we grew up with. And this week, who is God? Some of us grew up hearing about a God who is violent and hate-filled and angry, not just from the pulpit but I remember our high school literature class reading Jonathon Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” I hope it’s not read in high school or college literature classes anymore! To do it justice, I need Bruce’s voice to read just one sentence: “The bow of God's wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready on the string, and justice bends the arrow at your heart, and strains the bow, and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of God, and that of an angry God, without any promise or obligation at all, that keeps the arrow one moment from being made drunk with your blood.” Yikes! Sadly, this is the one sermon Edwards’ best known for but he was really a transcendentalist in the same category as Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Edwards, a Congregational minister preaching in the seventeen-hundreds, marveled at the divinity of nature. The same preacher of the “angry God” said, ”Surely there is something in the unruffled calm of nature that overawes our little anxieties and doubts: the sight of the deep-blue sky, and the clustering stars above, seem to impart a quiet to the mind.” This is the kind of God Micah speaks of in our text. What have I done to you? How have I wearied you? God pleads for them to remember their history together:
God lays out this defense, without defensiveness. Without animosity or blame. As Edwards delightfully described: unruffled calm that overawes our little anxieties and doubts. But then the lawyer for the people gets up and rants and raves and blows everything out of proportion, providing a litany of the most preposterous illustrations. For example, imagine that you lend a friend $10. They promise to pay you back by the end of the week. Months later you finally approach your friend, apologetically… I’m sorry to ask, but could you… But instead of being embarrassed for having forgotten to pay you back, “I’m so sorry…” Rather, they respond “I suppose you want interest from me too. What would be enough? Ten million dollars? Will that be enough to satisfy your greed?” Do you know anyone like that? I’ve actually had it happen. Well, that’s what the lawyer for the people demands. “What do you want? Would a thousand rams be enough for you? How about not just one jug of oil but rivers of oil? How about my first-born child? Will that be enough to satisfy you?!” You know what I’m talking about – rant, rave, deflect – and now somehow, you’re the bad guy! So, the jury of mountains and hills and the eternal foundation of the earth has listened to God, then with their litany of increasingly absurd defenses the lawyer has spoken for the people, and now it’s Micah’s turn. Micah calmly asks, “What does God want? What would satisfy God’s supposed blood lust?” God’s already told you. What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with God? “Get over yourselves and just do it!” Well, he probably didn’t say that, but I’ll add this: And if you do, it will make you happy. We often say this about others – I just want them to be happy. We say it about our children. Regardless of their choices in life, I just want them to be happy. We say it about ourselves. All I want is to be happy. Is that too much to ask? Well then, what does it mean to be happy? If you are at all familiar with the Beatitudes, Jesus’ famous Sermon on the Mount, you’re used to hearing the word “blessed” or “bless-ed” over and over. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” and so forth. Well, the translators of the Common English Bible decided that the word happy is more accurate than blessed. “Happy are people who are hopeless.” I’m sure they got a lot of pushback on that, kind of like changing the words of Christmas carols. Part of our discomfort may be that Christians don’t talk much about happiness. We kind of poo-poo it and say we should be joyful. But to talk of happiness in this setting is certainly intriguing. What is the explanation of the translators? By the way, these are serious scholars, some of the best in the world. They’re not people who change words just to be intriguing. So, they said, the Greek term makarios is often translated as “blessed.” It refers to a person who is fortunate on account of their circumstances. In the Beatitudes, no one in the circumstances Jesus describes would ever be called “fortunate.” That’s the point. So, the translators explain, by using the word “happy” instead of “blessed,” the Common English Bible emphasizes the flourishing, contentment, and well-being of the people, more than simply circumstances.* It’s exactly the topsy-turvy, upside-down nature of the life that Jesus describes that is well-being and contentment – that will make us flourish. Happy. Most of it is not in our control. For example, people who are hopeless, people in mourning or grieving, people who are humble, people who are hungry and thirsty for righteousness. You don’t control being hungry or thirsty. It’s something you are. And it often means you are unhappy. Cursed, even, sometimes. Jesus does not agree. In the midst of all those descriptions of what we would think of as unfortunate circumstances, there are things we do control, or at least we can decide. So, happy are people in unfortunate circumstances and happy are people who show mercy, who make peace, and who speak on behalf of Jesus regardless of the cost, such as harassment and insults. These are remarkably similar to the prophet Micah’s do justice and love kindness. Do you want to be happy? Show mercy and make peace. And that third one that’s a little harder to understand. To accept the cost of harassment and insults in order to speak on behalf of Jesus… will make us happy. What? Here’s an example in the news right now. Jesus is unconditional love – love of God, love of neighbor, love of self, and love of enemy. With all that love, how can anyone call out the name of Jesus to justify their prejudice? For example, Jesus hates the sin but loves the sinner. It’s such bull-doo-doo. It’s just hate. It’s the kind of hate that leads to hate crimes. That’s why transgender women of color have the highest rate of murder in the country and that’s the kind of thing Christians use to justify attacks against transgender people – right here in San Diego County. It’s wrong. It’s offensive. It is not Christ-like. And speaking out about it is the kind of thing that could sully your reputation – to speak love, only love, in the name of Jesus – and maybe subject you to becoming a target yourself. But this is what happy people do. They show mercy and make peace and ask what else does the Lord require? Happy people. It still doesn’t sit exactly right, but it’s growing on me and it kind of makes sense. Most of us don’t walk around wondering “what will make me blessed.” But I’ve certainly wondered, “what will make me happy?” And it’s surely the kind of question our neighbors who don’t go to church ask. It’s the kind of thing our youth want to know. And it’s why I’m so glad 25 youth and adults are going to Mexico next weekend to build a house. To work really hard. To experience that happiness is not more money, it’s not more influence, it’s not being more beautiful, it’s not more likes and followers, it’s not more of anything except doing justice, showing kindness, giving mercy, and making peace. That’s happiness 101. Sore muscles, tired backs, and sheer happiness. The CEB Study Bible with Apocrypha page 12 NT
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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 Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 15, 2023 “Salty Christians” Matthew 5:13-16 - Common English Bible Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth. But if salt loses its saltiness, how will it become salty again? It’s good for nothing except to be thrown away and trampled under people’s feet. 14 You are the light of the world. A city on top of a hill can’t be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they put it on top of a lampstand, and it shines on all who are in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before people, so they can see the good things you do and praise our God who is in heaven. It was 1930 in India, a country occupied by the British Empire. The British liked to project illusions of gentlemen and civility, but like any imperial power, they ruled with an iron fist. Indians wanted to be free of their colonizers. Mohandas Gandhi was tasked with identifying a plan of action for the Indian National Congress, the main proponents of independence. Gandhi’s idea? Making salt. Seasoning for food. Why in the world? The British forbade the production of salt or sale of it by anyone except the British, who sold it for an exorbitant price with a hefty tax on top. It was illegal for Indians to collect salt along the sea or anywhere else in the country. Collect it or sell it. In the hot and humid country of India, salt not just flavoring; it was a nutritional necessity. Gandhi proposed collecting salt along the sea as a non-violent demonstration. Delegates to the Indian National Congress laughed at the idea. And when Gandhi sent a letter to the British Viceroy informing him of his intention for a Salt March, he too laughed and said, “The prospect of a salt campaign does not keep me awake at night.” Gandhi went ahead with it anyway. He gathered 80 participants and began a march toward the sea, 240 miles away. Along the way he stopped in towns and villages to explain his program of non-violent demonstration and to gather more supporters. He provided education and training in his ideas. By the time he reached the sea 24 days later, there were more than 12,000 people marching with him. The press started following along, which drew more attention – which is, of course, the whole idea. Non-violence lets people see the absurdity of the law. Indians are not allowed to collect and produce their own salt?! It prompts change when met by an appeal to morality; or embarrassment. On the appointed day, April 5, Gandhi spoke and led prayers and then walked down to collect the sea salt crystalized at the beach after every high tide. The British were still unimpressed by the demonstration but just in case, soldiers had crushed into the mud all the salt that had gathered. There would be no salt to harvest. Undaunted, Gandhi reached down and picked up a small lump of natural salt out of the mud. And with that, he defied British law. Inspired by this simple act, civil disobedience broke out all across India. Not violence. Just millions of Indian citizens collecting, boiling, whatever it took to make salt for seasoning food. British authorities arrested 60,000 people, including Gandhi himself. He was jailed on May 5th until the next January. Later that month a poet led another march of 2,500 people. Several hundred British-led police viciously beat the peaceful demonstrators, prompting international condemnation. Change did not come quickly, but 16 years later, India won its independence. And it started with salt. American Civil Rights leaders went to India in the 1940s to learn from Gandhi himself, including Bayard Rustin, a Quaker already steeped in pacifism and non-violence. He spent 7 weeks with Gandhi learning how to apply his methods. Martin Luther King, Jr, was introduced to the ideas of Gandhi and non-violent demonstrations while he was in college. You may or may not know that Bayard Rustin was the architect of many of the demonstrations through which we came to know Dr. King, including the famous “I Have a Dream” March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963. It was Rustin’s leadership that contributed to the success of numerous non-violent demonstrations, but recognition of his role was minimized because he was an openly gay man. He was open only because he had been set up in a sting operation by police in Los Angeles, but he embraced his identity. Dr. King was strongly advised to shun Rustin, but he refused to do so, though he kept their cooperation quiet. Rustin was too much of a genius to ignore. Much of what we remember as the civil rights movement came from Gandhi and Rustin as well as Dr. King. Anyway, as I was thinking of my sermon for this Sunday honoring the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I googled MLK and salt to see if he had said anything about this passage in a sermon. None that I could find. But I kept digging and came upon Gandhi’s salt march. I don’t remember hearing about it before, or if I had, it was long ago and I forgot and couldn’t tell you anything about it. But I liked the idea of connecting the significant impact of Gandhi upon Dr. King and the larger civil rights movement, and how they connected to the words of Jesus – You are the salt of the earth. These words follow immediately after the Sermon on the Mount – the Beatitudes – where Jesus speaks of “them” and “they.” Those who mourn. Those who are meek and peacemakers and so forth. Then he looked directly at the crowd and said, “You.” You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Not, one day you will be. Not that you should be. Not, if you do such and such, then you will be salt and light. No, right here and right now, you are the salt of the earth, you are the light of the world. However, Jesus asks a very challenging question. What good are you if you have lost your saltiness? What good are you if you hide your light under a basket? Let your light shine so people can see the good things you do and praise God. Not praise for you and the good things you do but which cause people to praise God. The story is told that one Sunday morning Gandhi decided to visit one of the Christian churches in Calcutta – not to project, just to visit. But as he entered, he was stopped at the door by the ushers and told he was not welcome. This particular church, he was told, was only for high-caste Indians and white, neither of which he was. Because of that rejection, Gandhi later declared, “I’d be a Christian if it were not for the Christians.” Another story is told that he said “I like the teachings of Christianity. Christians should try them.” I can’t verify whether he actually said this or it’s a popular legend but it raises the question I think Jesus posed: Are you salty enough? What does that mean? I’m glad Juanita and Larry asked to read from Letter from Birmingham Jail. I’ve always been challenged by the line: the greatest stumbling block is not the KKK but white moderates. Christians without flavor. Are you salty enough? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus turned ordinary values upside down. He turned conventional wisdom on its head. He redefined the idea of blessing. In his first sermon, instead of those who were used to being privileged by virtue of their wealth or power or status, Jesus elevated the poor, and the meek, and the oppressed and persecuted – they are blessed by God, said Jesus. Are you salty enough? Jesus declared “blessed” are people in mourning and those who are merciful. He praises those who get in good trouble for being prophets – who hunger and thirst for justice – and says, “You are the salt of the earth.” You who live by the values of the kingdom of heaven have a unique flavor. Is it salty enough? I have a couple of questions about our saltiness. At Riverside Church in New York City, a UCC congregation, Dr. King said, “A true revolution of values will cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life’s roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be transformed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life’s highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar [or promising they’ll get their reward in heaven]. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” So, first question: Is your faith salty enough to encourage a prophetic response to injustice or a tasteless complacency with suffering? Second question: Does your faith promote non-violence? Accepting his Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King said, “Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes in the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation.” Does your salt have taste? Third question: Is your faith salty enough to be first and foremost grounded in love? Dr. King said, “there’s a reason Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: love has within it a redemptive power; a power that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption.” Does your salt have taste? Or will it be thrown out and trampled underfoot? Final question, though there are many more: Does your faith work toward the fundamental dignity and equality of all human beings, repairing the breaches of the past, or look the other way when some act like they are superior, even if you don’t believe that? Dr. King observed, “On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South’s beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. Over and over I have found myself asking: ‘What kind of people worship here? Who is their God?’ It was to those Christians that Dr. King wrote Letter from Birmingham Jail. “In the midst of a mighty struggle to rid our nation of racial and economic injustice, I have heard many ministers say: Those are social issues, with which the gospel has no real concern. And I have watched many churches commit themselves to a completely other worldly religion which makes a strange, un-Biblical distinction between body and soul, between the sacred and the secular.” But Jesus himself asked: Do you actually love your neighbor? Every neighbor? Do you feed the hungry and clothe the naked or visit the sick and those in prison? Do you welcome the stranger? Do you seek justice for the widow and orphan and immigrant? If not, of what use are Christians who have lost their saltiness? What good is a church that has no taste? You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Let others see your deeds of love and justice in order that they may come to know and to praise God. Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] January 8, 2023 “God Changes Us” Matthew 3:13-17 - Common English Bible At that time Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan River so that John would baptize him. 14 John tried to stop him and said, “I need to be baptized by you, yet you come to me?” 15 Jesus answered, “Allow me to be baptized now. This is necessary to fulfill all righteousness.” So John agreed to baptize Jesus. 16 When Jesus was baptized, he immediately came up out of the water. Heaven was opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and resting on him. 17 A voice from heaven said, “This is my Son whom I dearly love; I find happiness in him.” Jesus was born two weeks ago and all of a sudden today he’s already 30 years old! What happened in between? Well, according to Matthew, he was visited by some wise men or magi or kings or Zoroastrian astrologers who followed a star. Then Joseph had a dream that warned them to flee to another country to escape a violent murderous king. The family lived his early years as refugees in Egypt before finally moving to Nazareth where Jesus grew up following in his father’s footsteps as a carpenter. That’s the Gospel according to Matthew. In the Gospel According to Biff, Jesus traveled with Biff, his sacrilegious and foul-mouthed childhood pal. They met up with the three wise men, in this story a magician, a Buddhist, and a Hindu Yogi. Among other things, they taught Jesus and Biff how to multiply food and how to become invisible. And the origins of cappuccino. When Jesus and Biff returned home from their fantastical journey, they shared tales with their friend Maggie, later known as Mary Magdalene. These young friends shared their hopes and dreams and under the influence of Biff, some occasional mischief. Since the Bible offers so little information, it stands to reason that people are left to speculate. Biff is a little more blasphemous than most, but speculation has often included the idea that Jesus spent part of his young adulthood traveling. For example, in the Aquarian Gospel of Jesus the Christ, he spent his 20s travelling across India, Persia, and Tibet, learning from Eastern religions, especially among Buddhists. While I love this idea, scholars like Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan assert that none of these theories about Jesus encountering other religions are supported by actual scholarship. They are “without historical foundation.” That’s too bad. I love pictures of the Dali Llama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu poking at each other and making each other giggle and think that Jesus and the Buddha would have made marvelous friends too, although they were 500 years apart in age. But back to the Bible, in the Gospel according to Luke, when Jesus was 12 years old, the family traveled to Jerusalem for the Festival of Passover, just as they did every year. But when it was time for everyone to return home, Jesus went missing. He had stayed behind to talk with teachers in the Temple and caused his parents great concern. Lacking any sensitivity to their anxiety, perhaps under the influence of Biff, Jesus rudely responded, “Where else would I be?” The only other thing Luke said about Jesus’ childhood is that he “increased in wisdom (perhaps with a good talking-to by his mother), and in years and in divine and human favor.” How? We can only speculate. There’s another ancient source called the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, dated around the same time as Luke. It did not make the cut to be included in the Bible, but in it, Jesus is described like a trickster in Greek mythology. A trickster and petulant. A neighbor once complained about something to Mary and Joseph and Jesus made the neighbor blind. But it was all good because later he healed them. My favorite story from that collection is "When Jesus was five years old he was playing at the ford of a rushing stream and shaped soft clay into twelve sparrows. Jesus clapped his hands and shouted to the sparrows: "Be off, fly away, and remember me, you who are now alive!" And the sparrows took off and flew away noisily." That’s actually a story repeated in the Quran. Did you know Jesus is spoken of in the Quran 90 times? In it, Jesus says, “I create for you out of clay the likeness of a bird, then I breathe into it and it becomes a bird with God’s permission." (Quran 3:49) Both the Gospels of John and Mark don’t bother with any of the lost years of Jesus. Mark jumps immediately to his baptism, presented as the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. In fact, all four gospels present the baptism, around age 30, as the point after which Jesus began his ministry of teaching and healing and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Perhaps our first question should be: What is baptism? What do you think? I asked the participants in our Lunch and Lectionary group on Thursday what baptism means to them. One said, baptism is the initiation rite into the community. Similar to what another said, it represents a choice or a promise made to join a community or raise a child in the faith. One said she baptized her children as an insurance policy against hell. It’s not what she believes now, but it a remarkably common view. I regularly get asked to baptize babies from people with no interest in being part of a church. I assure them that their child is not going to go to hell if they are not baptized. Almost all of them breathe a sigh of relief and I never hear from them again. I could grow a church if I was willing to stoke their fears and guilt, but it’s not a church I would ever want to be a part of. Another person said that baptism is an opportunity to be cleansed in order to develop a closer relationship with God. Cleansing is, in fact, part of what baptism was originally built upon. There have been practices involving ritual purification for thousands of years, but right around the time of Jesus, shortly before, it became common to ritually cleanse oneself in a mikvah. Mikvah can simply mean a body of water, sometimes natural, sometimes constructed, into which you could completely immerse yourself in a pool of clean water as a symbol of ritual purification. Well, a mikvah had been constructed outside the main sanctuary of the Temple, in the court of the faithful. Enter the temple, make a sacrifice. But to go a little further, pay another fee. A hefty fee. It wasn’t affordable for everyone. And, if wealthy people wanted an even nicer experience they could pay for a premium upgrade at the mikvah in the home of a priest, away from all the common folk. It was a lucrative opportunity for everyone involved and all of it getting a little out of control. But, just a day’s journey out of town, a guy named John was doing it for free. The price of admission to his natural mikvah, a river, was simply metanoia. A willingness to admit your mistakes and a promise to follow a better path. Metanoia. To turn around. John turned this water immersion into a symbol of forgiveness instead of a purification ritual. But hold on – only priests had the authority to declare God’s forgiveness. The religious authorities were upset that this was cutting into their profits. They came to the wilderness to check out what was going on. John called them hypocrites and broods of vipers – kind of like Jesus turning over the tables of the greedy profiteers changing money in the Temple. Ordinary people didn’t care about that. More and more made the journey out into the wilderness to John’s cave along the Jordan River to be baptized. To be honest and to claim a new life. That’s where it starts: a desire to be honest. So, if baptism by John was metanoia, to repent and promise to follow a better path, why would Jesus ask to be baptized? Maybe the Gospel According to Biff has some truth – that Jesus and his childhood pal lived a brief life of debauchery among the wise men. Probably not. Well, Richard Losch (All the People of the Bible) offers a very compelling answer. Jesus asked for baptism by John to identify with the poor who couldn’t afford the hefty fee at the mikvah at the Temple. Jesus’ baptism was a sign of his solidarity with the poor. Which then he made explicit in his first sermon, “Blessed are the poor, for to them belongs the Kingdom of Heaven.” Ultimately, however, what do we do with this passage today? Baptism has a lot of meanings: An initiation into the church and the Christian faith. A rite of passage. A sacrament, a promise, a dedication. I like the addition of an act of solidarity with the poor. But I think the best meaning of all, the one we need in our world today, is this: be honest, let go of your past, and try over again. That’s a real cleansing. This is something our divided and polarized world needs. We often assume the worst about our neighbors. We think people can’t change and refuse to forgive one another. But whether we are talking about other people or ourselves, bottom line: No matter what you’ve done, I’ve done, or they’ve done, no one is ever cut off from the possibility that, with honesty, we can begin again. That’s the grace of God. That’s how God changes us. Bryan Stevenson said of prisoners on death row, and which applies to all of us, “We are all more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.” We accept that in the ritual of baptism. Or recommit to it. It’s kind of too bad that we don’t wait to be baptized until we have truly and royally screwed up our lives, when the guilt or shame of something we have done weighs so heavily upon us we can’t imagine ever being free. Then, the dying and rising to new life would make sense and shock us into an awareness of our freedom. And then with newfound confidence join with Jesus in his ministry: To welcome the seeker and the refugee To heal a broken planet To feed the hungry To build bridges of trust To share our gifts To seek justice and peace for all people To bring Christ’s light into the world. The invitation and good news of baptism in Jesus Christ is that we can change. All it costs is honesty. |
AuthorI love being a Archives
April 2024
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