The Proper Use of Authority

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 29, 2012, the 4th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Deuteronomy 18:15-20

Psalm 111

1 Corinthians 8:1-13

Mark 1:21-28

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

One of the things our passage today deals with is authority. You have no idea how many times my mind has rolled that little piece of truth around on the way to this message. In truth I’m still working that one out and I’m not getting very far as I do it. I don’t have any problem with Christ and his authority; I’m having a time with the scribes, the teachers of the law, and their authority.

Mark’s passage tells us that on the Sabbath Jesus came to the Synagogue and began to teach. By the way, I love the word “synagogue” because it means “gathering place.”[1] It comes from a verb that means “to cause to come together.”[2] As a building the synagogue was the place where the people were gathered, gathered together to be the Lord’s people.

So let’s imagine the people gathered together in the gathering place. They have come to worship. They’ll sing a hymn, hear scripture, hear interpretation, and thank God the Super Bowl is next week, not this one, because we aren’t ready for the party yet.

On a normal Sabbath Day the resident scribe would take the lead in interpreting the scripture. On this day Jesus went in and began to teach. This will eventually bring Jesus into conflict with the scribes and today looks like a good day for that to start in Mark’s gospel. This is the first time Jesus and the religious leaders meet in the synagogue.

The people declare in amazement that Jesus teaches like one who has authority, not like the teachers of the law. Looking at this a little deeper, the people see that Jesus has authority. The people recognize his authority in his presence, demeanor, and words.

For a moment though, I want to turn a sympathetic eye to the Scribes. The people say Jesus taught as one with authority, not like a teacher of the law; but the Scribes had authority too. They had the authority to teach the law. They had the authority to teach in the synagogue.

During the exile, when all the nation of Israel had was the Law, it was the Scribes who kept and interpreted the law.[3] They were also responsible for preserving the Old Testament scriptures along with the foundations of the Jewish religion and the some of the foundations of what would become the Christian religion. Note that I say religion and not faith. They were responsible not for the faith per se but how the faith was practiced.

For this, we need to give the Scribes credit where credit is due. By their authority, by their work, they helped maintain the foundations of the way the faith was celebrated.

Unfortunately one of the Scribes overriding interests was more about maintaining the legal and social structures of the temple and synagogue than it was about defending the text. At this point, it might be easy to say that they overstepped the bounds of their authority; but since one of the sources of their authority was from the temple elite, they did act within the bounds of their authority.

So again, Jesus comes into the synagogue and teaches with authority. The question is asked time and time again is “What is the source of your authority?” In Mark’s gospel when the Chief Priests, scribes, and elders ask Jesus this very question, he didn’t answer them.[4] If they wouldn’t tell him the source of John’s baptism he wasn’t going to tell them the source of his authority. The good news for us is that the text of Mark’s gospel begins by answering this question for us. It begins declaring Jesus the Christ, the Son of God.

What I’m getting at here, in a roundabout way, is that the Scribes taught with the authority that was theirs. Yes, they did overextend themselves when they put the law above the Word, but by their historical and social position they had that authority.

The authority Jesus brings into the synagogue is something no one had ever seen before. In Jesus, even though they really didn’t know what they were seeing, the gathered people of God saw the Lord’s Messiah at work. They saw someone with authority that they had never witnessed. They saw the Son of God teaching with all of his authority.

They had seen something special and they knew it. Even if they didn’t know exactly what they had seen, they did know they had seen something special. This is before the evil spirit was exercised from the man.

That too must have been a sight. The evil spirit bears witness to his authority and recognizes who Jesus is. “What do you want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us?” Then he drops the big bomb of truth in the synagogue. “I know who you are—the Holy One of God!”

Here’s something kind of scary; at this time, not everyone who recognized Jesus of Nazareth knew he was the Holy one of God, but the evil spirit did. Something even scarier is that in this world today where people do not recognize Jesus of Nazareth, the evil spirits can. Back to the gospel…

This is when Jesus exercises the spirit from the man. The people were so amazed they asked each other what just happened. They see yet another side of the word in action, the word taking a man from anguish to new life. The authority of Jesus over natural and supernatural forces is dramatic. His authority is seen and the news began to spread.

Let’s face it, the authority of the scribes, whether ancient or modern, pales next to the presence of the Lord. I want to say that one more time, the authority of the scribes, whether ancient or modern, pales next to the presence of the Lord.

So what does this mean for us who are disciples of the Triune God? What does this mean to us? The Presbyterian Church’s Book of Confessions[5] says quite a few things about us and authority.

The Scot’s Confession reminds the world that “empires, kingdoms, dominions, and cities are appointed and ordained by God; the powers and authorities in them, emperors in empires, kings in their realms, dukes and princes in their dominions, and magistrates in cities, are ordained by God’s holy ordinance for the manifestation of his own glory and for the good and well being of all men.”[6]

In short, God gives authority to governments to do the Lord’s work for the good and well being of everyone. The Westminster Confession of Faith also teaches governments are ordained by God to do this work on Earth.[7]

The Second Helvetic Confession also warns ministers “remembering the words of the Lord: ‘Let the leader among you become as one who serves’ (Luke 22:26), they kept themselves in humility, and by mutual services they helped one another in the governing and preserving of the Church.”[8]

In an English that makes a little better sense to us, this Confession affirms that ministers have an authority, but their authority is from the Christ who came to serve, not to be served.

The Confessions also remind us “the apostle [Paul] testifies that authority in the Church was given to him by the Lord for building up and not for destroying.”

This Confession also simply tells us Christ “has (as they say) all fulness [sic.] of power and sovereign authority in the Church.”[9]

This is just a handful of the forty-two[10] instances of the word “authority” among the confessions of the Presbyterian Church. In these uses whether it’s the magistrate’s authority over the city, Christ’s authority over the church, or a minister’s authority over the flock; Christ uses his authority to build up, not to destroy. As for the scribes, well, their point of view was more limited. Yes they defended the faith, but they defended their role in the society at the expense of the faith when the need arose.

Of course, this is the way of life. Unfortunately this is also the way of life in the church.

As I briefly mentioned last Sunday, the PC(USA) is currently facing another move toward schism. Within the “Fellowship of Presbyterians”[11] there are congregations that are actively seeking to leave the PC(USA) to join the Presbyterian Church in America or the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. There are others who are affiliating in a group called the Evangelical Covenant Order of Presbyterians. This order is trying to find its way how to organize into a non-geographical theology based presbytery or an order along the lines of Roman Catholic orders, or maybe even becoming a new Presbyterian denomination. There are other fellowship members that are waiting for what they are called to next.

While the conversations are still publically cordial, the Order and the PC(USA) have both budgeted to bring in legal help should schism happen. While both parties might say I am mistaken about schism talk, frankly to me it quacks like a duck.

We are also nationally in a political season. The Republican Candidates have come out swinging on the President and on one another. There is mud being slung that you won’t see at a tractor pull. Let me add, mud is being swung by and at both Republicans and Democrats. I pray from this we will find leaders and not as Shakespeare curses “a pox on both of our houses.”[12] As I have recently written on one of my weblogs, “It’s quit being about people and is more about power more than ever, and that has completely bored me to tears.”[13]

In his book “What Happened,” President George W Bush’s former Press Secretary Scott McClellan wrote that since the late 70’s American politics has grown to be less about use of power and more about obtaining power.[14] Our leaders have the authority to use their power, but do not because to offend any voter bloc is to risk losing power. It’s better to curl up like a porcupine than to risk doing anything at all.

Friends, here is what we have to remember. First, Christ’s authority founded in integrity and living truth is far beyond anything we could ever imagine. In this gospel reading alone Jesus teaches with authority that frees a man from bondage. Christ frees us from bondage too.

Second, Christ gives his authority to civil and faith leaders to do his work, to build up and not to destroy. Christ keeps sovereign power over his authority and what is given can be taken away; but this does not change the fact that Christ not only gives this power but wants to give this power to his people and to his church.

Finally, we should be amazed by what God is doing in this world. By that I mean we should be amazed of the great things God has done and is doing, not the mess created by the human hoarding of power and failing to exercise authority.

This is the proper use of authority, to build up not to tear down. Remember Paul’s words to the Corinthians, “Knowledge puffs up but love builds us. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.”

Now for the worst revelation: Like the scribes, people on this earth exercise authority in what they believe the best way they know how. I believe this is true of people in politics and in the church. I believe this is true of conservatives and liberals.

I do not believe Americans and Christians wake every morning, stretch, and say out loud “How can I make my opponent’s life miserable today? How can I make my fellow citizen’s and fellow Presbyterian’s way more difficult?” I think sociopaths think like this, but mentally healthy people do not. Unfortunately, when people exercise authority or don’t, there are some who believe this is exactly how we are acting, on purpose.

The time for “us and them” is gone. As the musician Kenny Loggins once said, “Ain’t no way we can ever be strong/Worrying about who’s right and who’s wrong.”[15] It is important for the church to know that only Christ is right, by the very nature of sin everybody else isn’t. We hold ourselves to be a Christian nation, and as such we must again acknowledge the way sin permeates everything. From there, we must not despair what Calvin calls our totally deprived nature; we must hold to our only hope in Christ. Not in the church, government, and social structures we create; even those we create in the name of Christ. Our only hope is in Christ.

As I was working on the beginning then, I’m still working on the ending now, but I’m alright with that. We have been gathered together, we have been assembled to do Christ’s work. It is up to us to know that he alone has the authority. It is up to us to know that he alone is our hope. It is up to us to seek his authority to continue his work in this world. When we do, the people will be amazed not by the rancor of our discourse, but by the power of our Lord.

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[1] sunagwgh,, “A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.” Third Edition. Entry #7008. Revised and edited by Frederick William Danker based on Walter Bauer's Griechisch-deutsches Wörterbuch zu den Schriften des Neuen Testaments und der frühchristlichen Literatur, sixth edition, ed. Kurt Aland and Barbara Aland, with Viktor Reichmann and on previous English editions by W.F.Arndt, F.W.Gingrich, and F.W.Danker. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

[2] suna,gw, entry #7007

[3] Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible.

[4] Mark 11:27-33

[5] The Constitution of the PC(USA), Part I, Book of Confessions. Louisville, KY: Geneva Press, 1996. References to the Book of Confessions are in the Book’s notation format.

[6] BOC 3.24

[7] 6.130

[8] 5.160

[9] 5.131

[10] Honestly, didn’t make that number up. Douglas Adams fans are smiling widely.

[11] For more details see www.fellowship-pres.org/evangelical-covenant-order/

[12] Paraphrase from Romeo and Juliet

[13] Bored by Politicos, http://fatmaninthebathtub02.blogspot.com/2012/01/bored-by-politicos.html

[14] McClellan, Scott, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception” New York: Public Affairs Press, 2008.

[15] Loggins, Kenny and Page, Richard. “Who’s Right, Who’s Wrong.” From the album “This Is It!” Milk Money Music and Almo Music Corp and Pa-Giz Music, 1979.

Now and What Happens Next

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 22, 2012, the 3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Jonah 3:1-5, 10

Psalm 62:5-12

1 Corinthians 7:29-31

Mark 1:14-20

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

I have mentioned that all translation is interpretation, and from time to time I believe that the phrasing of one of our many English translations has an edge over the others. Sometimes the difference is an important translation issue, where one word or phrase has a significant difference over another. But there are other times when the difference is just, well, a flavor issue. I like the way one translation sounds over another. It could be just the way the words flow. Sometimes it has to do with language that gets modernized that just doesn’t sound right compared to how we’ve heard it all our lives.

Our reading from the New International Version begins “After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.” The New Revised Standard Version begins saying, “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God.”

There is a real difference between being arrested and being put in prison; it’s a chicken-and-egg thing. You don’t get “put in prison” until after you get “arrested.” As far as the original manuscripts go, the NRSV’s “arrested” is textually correct while the NIV’s “put in prison” gives us insight that “being arrested” doesn’t. Saying that he was put in prison tells the reader that John was not allowed the comfort of house arrest. He was locked up. This revelation helps us understand his plight in a way “arrested” doesn’t. This is a real and important difference, but it isn’t the main issue to me.

No, my issue is with the one word left missing from the NIV, “now.” That’s right, I’m taking issue with a conjunction. Textually speaking the word “now” is in the original manuscript so there’s no reason to leave it out, but that’s not my issue. In this case, the word “now” gives us a transition, a much needed transition and as the old song goes, “and, but, and or can get you pretty far.”[1]

So far, Mark’s gospel has given us the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It begins with John’s proclamation, the declaration of his purpose in the gospel story. The Baptism of the Lord comes next and is immediately followed by the wilderness temptations. After these humble beginnings, Jesus is ready for his ministry. It is time for our Lord to take his place in proclaiming the good news of God.

That little word “now” is the literary signal that Jesus gets himself up and dusts himself off. It is the moment Jesus steels his eyes toward the horizon and sets his jaw toward the work he came to do. I love the word “now” because it separates Jesus from the time that came before and puts him in the time that is to follow. It’s about now and what happens next.

So what happens next? Jesus declares the time has come[2] and the kingdom of God is near. Before making that proclamation you had better get yourself up, dust yourself off, steel your eyes and set your jaw.

Jesus makes his way to the Sea of Galilee where he begins to call his first disciples. Seeing Simon and Andrew he calls them from their boat to join him to be fishers of men.[3]

They leave with Jesus immediately. Further down the shore, they see James and John on their father’s boat and Jesus calls them to follow. They follow without delay.

That’s what happened next. They came. Together they have left boats, nets, catch, family, and business. They left everything that connected them with the society they knew. They left their family and friends. And they did this by nothing more than the word “come.”

Of course, not everyone is such an easy sell.

The reading from Jonah is another example of someone who has been called and prepared for ministry. What’s missing from our reading is how and why Jonah was so reluctant to undertake what God commanded. Of course as we all know how Jonah’s reluctance manifested itself, he ran the other direction and eventually ended up in the belly of the great fish. In truth, Jonah never really got over his reluctance, he just did what he was called to do.

Finally, at the Lord’s command, Jonah reaches Nineveh and tells the people that in forty days the city will be overturned, and because of the size of the city it took three days for him to spread the news. That must have been a daunting task. Not only was he delivering bad news, it took him three days to fully share it.

Then, something miraculous happened. The people repented. The people declared a fast and everyone wore sackcloth. The Ninevites believed God, scripture tells us so. What scripture does not tell us is whether anything would happen if Nineveh repents. Jonah’s message to the city has no mention of mercy upon repentance, only certain doom.

The city of Nineveh either hoped for mercy upon repentance or they figured if they were going to be overturned in forty days they would worship the one who would overturn them.

Jesus tells the world to repent and believe the good news. Nineveh hears the word of the Lord, repents, and believes in God whether it’s good news or not.

Henry Blackaby is the author of “Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the Will of God.”[4] In this study, Blackaby says one of the keys to experiencing God is having what he calls a “crisis of belief.”[5] Don’t let this phrase upset you. Blackaby does not mean that we are destined to have times in our lives when we will believe and when we will not. This isn’t what he’s saying.

Blackaby’s crisis of belief is “God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action.”[6] The crisis has nothing to do with believing in your head. It has nothing to do with believing in your heart. If fact Blackaby’s take on faith is in line with the Hebrew word for believe and belief. Belief is nothing without action. Now if that upsets you…

To Blackaby, you can say, “I believe” all you want, it’s what happens next, where the rubber meets the road that it begins to matter. Blackaby and the Hebrew tongue are very comfortable with James words that faith without works is dead.

In a recent survey from the Barna Group, a trusted name in church research, almost half of churchgoing Americans say their life has not changed a bit because of their time in the pews.[7] Less than half say they sense the presence of God in worship weekly where one-fifth say they have that experience monthly at most.

They report that people see the benefits of church. People know the benefits of connecting with others in the pews and with others in other congregations. People know the benefits of connecting with in the denomination too. People know the benefits of faith and the church, they just don’t experience it. To them, the rubber doesn’t meet the road.

Barna tells the church that it cannot take for granted that just because people are in the pews that they will reap the benefits of congregating. Pastors and Sessions and everyone who leads the congregation must be intentional about making worship and the Christian life worthy of Christ. We are to lead, not just show up and hope everyone follows, we need to lead. There is a group within the Presbyterian Church that feels this pull strongly, and they met last week in Orlando.

For more than thirty years, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been arguing with itself over just about everything you can imagine. We have weathered the “worship wars” and every sort of music from organ to piano to guitar to orchestras and bands both acoustic and electric. We have argued over modern music verses new music verses the hymns “we all know and love.” We have argued over the liturgy and whether it is better to be “high church” or “let the Spirit roll.” We have argued over who should be eligible to be considered as Elders and Deacons. We have argued over whether being missional means local or global. We have argued over what evangelism means and what it means to be evangelical. We have argued over the very word evangelical!

The group that met in Orlando had its genesis in a letter to the church last February. They have grown out of dissatisfaction with the denomination over polity, mission, and evangelism priorities, or this is how I interpret what they have written. I will say this too, I disagree with their positions on polity issues, officer eligibility and property. If you want more details on what I think about this, I would love to take some time to chat with you after worship. But let me tell you where I do agree.

Leslie Scanlan, a reporter for the Presbyterian Outlook magazine made this report from the Orlando meeting:

It was of a bold church unafraid to take risks; one that makes disciples; one that takes the best of Presbyterian history and tradition and points it in new directions. “I’m not really sure we have really dreamed for a long time,” said Ortberg, an author and pastor of Menlo Park Presbyterian Church in California. “I think God is calling us to dream.”[8]

To this I say “Amen!” We must dream. We must seek where the church is being called in every time and age. In fact, Henry Blackaby says “Amen!” to this too. Blackaby wants the church to follow the very specific example Jesus set. As Jesus watched to see where the Father was at work and joined Him, Blackaby encourages the church to watch and see where Jesus is working and follow.[9]

Jesus doesn’t want us to sit in meetings all day long, read demographic reports, consider action plans, and so on and so forth. First and foremost Jesus wants us to look for him. Jesus wants us to see what he is doing. Jesus wants us to see where he is going. And Jesus wants us to follow.

Jesus said to Simon and Andrew, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus called out to James and John. All four followed immediately. They knew it would not be easy. They knew they were leaving important obligations at the wayside, and they turned (another way to say “repent”) and they believed the good news.

It didn’t make their lives easier. In the end it made their deaths harder. Yet they followed. They did not always know where Jesus was leading and he led them in places and ways that they did not understand. Throughout the gospel Simon Peter specifically put in his two-cents about the way things should be done after Jesus says “Come, follow me.” So this isn’t news when we do this today.

Like the disciples, we are called as partners in Christ’s service. We are called as partners of Christ and called as partners one to another within the congregation. We are called to be partners in Christ’s service with other believers in the denomination and with other believers who are not our variety of believer. We are called as partners with those who agree with us completely and with those whose only similarity is that they too are called as partners in Christ’s service.

Called as we are, we are called to be partners. In service to God we are the junior partners to the Lord our God, but as partners in Christ’s service and not as slaves. We are to seek where God is working and we are to follow. We sing, “Lead On, O King Eternal.” We are called to sing in worship and respond to the call and vocation the King leads us to follow.

I believe we are called to do this together as a denomination, not as a bunch of special interest groups that seem not just willing to split but actively seeking a fissure to cause a schism. I believe we are better together than we are apart. I believe we are better when the entire denomination does not look like me. I’m enough me; I need people who are not like me to show me things I wouldn’t see otherwise. As the theologian once said, “I cannot be an ‘I’ without a ‘Thou.’”[10]

It is up to us, individually, as the Session, as the congregation, as the denomination, and as the Body of Christ to seek where Jesus is working and follow. Like Jonah we may still be reluctant, Jesus expects this. Yet we are called to follow.

Jesus has already said come. It is up to us to see the places he leads us to follow. It is up to us as the body to be a part of what happens next. It is up to us to believe the good news of God, join the Christ, and follow making fishers of men.

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[1] Yes, I’ve invoked “Conjunction Junction” in the Name of the Lord.

[2] This is another instance of “translation anxiety.” I prefer the NRSV’s “has been fulfilled” over the NIV’s “has come.” Been fulfilled is more mysterious as the work of God is mysterious.

[3] This is another instance of “translation anxiety.” “Fishers of men” has been around since the King James and is continued into the NIV and the New American Standard Bible where the NRSV uses the gender neutral phrase “fish for people.” Fishers of men is more accurate word-for-word and frankly missing with one of the greatest phrases in the English language is a shame.

[4] Bkackaby, Henry T., King, Claude V. “Experiencing God, Knowing and Doing the Will of God.” Nashville, TN: Lifeway Press, 1990.

[5] Ibid, pages 19, 20, 22-25, 108-125.

[6] Ibid, page 20.

[7] “urvey: Half of Churchgoers Lives Not Affected by Time in Pews”, http://ethicsdaily.com/survey-half-of-churchgoers-lives-not-affected-by-time-in-pews-cms-19114, retrieved January 18, 2012

[8] Presbyterian Outlook, “A Bold Church Unafraid; Fellowship Casts Vision.” http://www.pres-outlook.com/component/content/article/44-breaking-news/12150-a-bold-church-unafraid-fellowship-casts-vision.html, retrieved January 19, 2012.

[9] Ibid. Blackaby, page13.

[10] Karl Barth channeling Martin Buber.

Jesus the Man, Jesus the Christ

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 15, 2012, the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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1 Samuel 3:1-10

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18

1 Corinthians 6:12-20

John 1:43-51

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

The oldest of the church’s confessions is the Nicene Creed. Formulated in 325 and revised in 381, this was the church’s first attempt to define the very nature of the three persons of God. Among the things this creed defines is the two natures of Christ, the fully human and the fully divine. The creed says:

WE BELIEVE in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, Very God of Very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the Virgin Mary, and was made man, and was crucified also for us under Pontius Pilate. He suffered and was buried, and the third day he rose again according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father. And he shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end.

In this part of the creed are statements that show us Jesus the Christ, Emmanuel, God with us. These phrases include “only-begotten Son of God,” “Very God of Very God,” and “being of one substance with the father.” That last one is very important. It says as simply as human language can muster that the God who came is of the same Godly stuff as the Father. If you will, they are cut from the same bolt of fabric.

It also tells us that Jesus was human, just as human as you and I. Jesus was “made man,” “was crucified,” “suffered,” and “was buried.” These are things that can never happen to God who is not also human, corporeal. People are made human. Humans can be crucified and buried. Dare I say the fully divine God suffers when we dishonor our call and vocation, but I don’t think that is what the Nicene fathers were talking about. I believe they meant the particular suffering faced on Good Friday.

The church has been telling people that Jesus is fully human and fully divine for over 1600 years, but scripture, scripture has said Jesus is fully human and fully divine since John’s gospel has been shared.

This first chapter of John’s gospel has a wonderful structure. It begins with the words we love, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.” In this timeless bit of time, we are told that He, the Messiah, the Christ, was in the beginning with God.

He was in the beginning with God. The power and the glory of God in the midst of all truth; and all three persons of God, different in person while same in substance, they dance together in a harmony that we will never fully know this side of glory. This is how John’s gospel begins.

Then the first day of John’s gospel comes, coming as a day the way we measure them. On this day John tells the world who he is and who he is not. Not the Christ, not Elijah, and not the prophet; he is the one who “makes straight the way of the Lord.” He tells the crowd that he baptizes with water, the rest is for someone else.

On the next day, the second day, John sees Jesus. Jesus is that someone else. He is the light; he is the Lamb of God. He is God who walks the face of the earth. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is as the Nicene’s put it, “Very God of Very God;” and John tells his disciples he’s walking by right now.

On the next day, the third day, John the Baptist was with two of his disciples and seeing Jesus cries out, “Here is the Lamb of God!” The disciples ask where Jesus is saying, Jesus says “come and see.”

Sound familiar? Don’t worry; we’ll get back to this soon enough.

On the fourth day, Jesus finds Philip on the hillside and says, “Follow me” and he does.

I speak of this wonderful structure. On the day that cannot be numbered, we hear of the Messiah, the Christ who is as eternal as the Father and the Spirit. For the rest of the chapter we see the man, Jesus of Nazareth who to the untrained eye is just another wanderer on the banks of the Jordan. Only the Baptist sees more. Only the Baptist sees the full divinity of the man. The rest of the world sees only someone his mother might know.

This is what is so wonderful! God, the God who creates, redeems, and sustains all creation is just out walking about. In the book of Job, Satan tells the Lord that he has been “going to and fro on the earth.” John’s gospel shows the Lord can play that game too.

As wonderfully as we walk through these doors, Jesus walked the earth. As ordinary as it was then and is now that someone walks the Judean countryside, Jesus of Nazareth does the same. As common as it is for us to chat with friends and take a meal, Jesus does this with John’s disciples.

People occasionally ask about the church calendar and ask about the seasons the church calls “ordinary time.” They ask how holy time can ever be ordinary. It’s really a good question too. As ordinary as it is for the fully human Jesus of Nazareth to walk the earth this time is ordinary. As glorious as it is for the Christ, the Messiah to walk the earth, it is special and glorious. In God, the ordinary meets the extraordinary.

So on this fourth day, after Philip found Nathanael, he told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” In this one little sentence, Philip tells Nathanael that he has seen the divine Christ, the Messiah. He says he has seen the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets wrote. In the Hebrew Scriptures, these phrases are used to describe the Messiah just like John uses “the Lamb of God” and “the One who is to come.”

Immediately within the same breath, Philip describes a man named Jesus. He tells Nathanael that Jesus was from the city of Nazareth and his father was Joseph. Saying Jesus son of Joseph is like Robbie saying he is the son of a coal miner. It’s like Jade saying she is from the son of Kinney. It is like saying I am the son of Andre, or Andrew, or to move the language one step further, It’s like saying I’m the son of a man.

In one breath Nathanael and the rest of the world learn the truth of Jesus the Christ—that he is both a man named Jesus and the long awaited Messiah. Philip tells the world about Jesus the man and Jesus the Christ; Jesus the fully human and Jesus the fully divine. And what’s the Messiah doing? He’s taking a stroll.

We don’t know what Jesus was doing. Scripture doesn’t tell us. But what we do know is that Jesus is not being compelled into the desert by the Holy Spirit to be tested and tempted for forty days like the other gospels say. Jesus does not duel with Satan. Jesus is not tended to by the angels. In John’s gospel, the most spiritual of the four, Jesus is first presented as an ordinary average guy.

So how does Nathanael respond to this ordinary average Messiah? He responds as people responded to folks from the Judean backwaters of Nazareth, he wonders what good ever came from there. You might as well ask what good ever came out of the backwoods of East Texas.

Well, Philip tells him that he must come and see. When the Baptist’s disciples asked Jesus where he was staying, Jesus told them to come and see. Now when Nathanael asks Philip what could ever come out of Nazareth, Philip invites him to come and see.

Approaching the Lord, it seems that Jesus saw Nathanael first. Jesus proclaims, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false.” When asked how Jesus knew him, the Lord answered, “I saw you before Philip called you.” This is when Nathanael declares “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”

When Nathanael hears the words of Jesus, he sees the Lord. He cries affirming Jesus is the Christ. This time Nathanael uses ancient Messianic formula language calling Jesus “Rabbi,” “Son of God” and “King of Israel.” In a simple moment, Nathanael goes from calling Jesus a “nowhere man” to proclaiming him the Messiah. All because he came and saw.

Jesus points out that Nathanael believes, he believes because he has seen the Lord and heard the word of the Lord in the person of Jesus, but for him this is just the beginning.

He then tells all with ears to hear that we will all see greater things than these, we will the glory Jacob saw when he had his dream at Bethel. We will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.

By the way, it’s no coincidence that Jesus calls Nathanael a true Israelite without guile (in the words of the King James and Revised Standard Versions) and invokes Jacob’s Ladder. The name Jacob means “ankle-grabber” or “usurper.” The name foreshadowed Jacob’s less than honorable actions, stealing Esau’s birthright and blessing among others. Because you see, Bethel, the Hebrew word for House of God, is not only where Jacob had received the image of the ladder, but it is also where the Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel. At Bethel, Jacob received two of the Lord’s greatest gifts, a vision and a new name for a new mission.

I have mentioned before that in John’s gospel, Jesus calls the deceitful temple elite “the Jews.” But in this passage he calls Nathanael a true Israelite. In John’s gospel we see those who are filled with deceit are the heirs of Jacob’s less than honorable ways, but those without guile are the heirs of the name of Israel.

The image of the ladder is filled with mystery. It was mysterious when the Lord first showed it to Jacob, it was mysterious when Jesus invoked it, and it is still mysterious today. One of the joys of the Nicene Creed has this same element. Trying to describe the mysterious nature of God, when the ancient Church Fathers could not create a simple definition they chose to describe mystery with mystery.

This is a lesson for our denomination today as we try to define the “basic tenants of the reformed faith.” The more we move toward the law and a legal interpretation the further we stray from the vision of angels ascending and descending. We move toward the life of Jacob and away from the life of Israel. We move toward the guile and cunning of the temple elite and from the blessing Nathanael, the true Israelite, received.

These are the words of the Lord. Be without guile. Be someone of honesty and integrity. We get to embrace the two natures of the Lord, the fully human and the fully divine. How these natures connect is a mystery to us, and that should be fine.

These things are not for us to know while we are here. Our call is not to understand them, to know them in our heads. Our call is the same call given by Jesus to John’s disciples, the same call given from Philip to Nathanael; to come and see.

Joan Osborne had a one-hit-wonder with the song “If God Was One of Us?” The song poses the musical questions: “If God had a name, what would it be?” “Would you call it to his face?” and “If God had a face what would it look like?” But the big question was “What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us?”

Thanks be to God that the fully human Lord has a name, Jesus, and except for being without sin he was one of us. This is Jesus the Man. But we also testify that God is the holy unknowable Lord of creation. This is Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, the one who was from the beginning of the beginning.

Joy to the world, the fully human fully divine Lord has come. This is who Nathanael meets today. Let us meet him too. Let us introduce him to our friends. Let us all come and see that man and Christ, the Lord is good.

Heaven Torn Open

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday January 8, 2012, Baptism of the Lord Sunday and the 1st Sunday in Ordinary Time.

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Genesis 1:1-5

Psalm 29

Acts 19:1-7

Mark 1:4-11

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

I have always been fascinated by thunderstorms. I’m sure growing up in the heart of Tornado Alley had something to do with this. Their power has always left me awestruck. Last week I said that I wanted a word that meant “awe with a bit of fear,” this word is also helpful for how I feel about tornadoes. When I was in college, my first major was meteorology; I wanted to forecast weather and especially thunderstorms.

As for why I chose a career in higher education instead of weather forecasting, Calculus III and Engineering Physics destroyed me, I mean destroyed me. When people asked why I chose my career path I told them “Engineering Physics made me the man I am today.” When they pointed out that my career had nothing to do with physics or higher math, I told them that they were exactly right.

These days, there are two reasons I’m halfway collected during a big storm. The first is that we have better information about storms and it is more available to people in the path of storms. The other reason is that Marie freaks out about storms more than I do. We can’t have both of us screaming like frightened children, so I suck it up and act like the calm one. In over fourteen years of marriage, so far so good.

I don’t know if I have ever really seen a tornado. I remember once being at the store with my sisters and seeing one on the other side of the Interstate while Mom went to get the car. Honestly I don’t know if that’s a real memory or if I created it; could be either. It could have just been a big storm (which it was) and once I heard the sirens (which I did) I thought I saw a funnel.

I was once on a Boy Scout camping trip at Lake Perry in Kansas when a storm ripped through the reservoir. The weather guys said the winds were blowing up to 105 mph. We took shelter from the storm on the troop’s old school bus. The bus wasn’t overturned or anything like that, but I know why you should never ride out a tornado in a trailer. What I can remember was the fear and the noise. The noise was outrageous.

This wasn’t the only tornado to rip its way across Lake Perry. In the late 70’s, the faculty and staff of the Emporia State University Library Science College, one of the most important Library programs in the country at the time, was celebrating the end of the school year on the lake. While on the water, an East Kansas thunderstorm came up with little warning and dropped a funnel. The storm capsized the boat where the party was taking place. Many were killed. It took nearly ten years for the University and the college to regain accreditation and begin to rebuild its reputation.

Living on the high plains, another tornado hot spot, we could see the skies boil for miles. One day, when the skies were angry, Marie pointed out a cloud that appeared to be turning a color of green that should never be in the sky. Fortunately, I was able to point out that because the land was so flat that the horizons were further in the distance than she was accustomed. Those clouds weren’t bearing down on us, they were over the city of Eads, Colorado, more than 30 miles north. That’s like us being able to see the skies over White Oak from here. That freaked her out almost as much.

It could have been a mess last spring when the twister touched down four miles south of the interstate, five miles from our house. Marie and I watched the weather reports out of Shreveport and saw video from their Marshall tower cams. No funnels, but there was a lot of boiling sky between the square and the south. We eventually went to the closet with the weather radio. Of course the storm was a mess for the family who did lose their house.

Then there are the storms that reek havoc over the earth. The Great 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak lasted from May 3 to May 6, 1999 bringing violent storms to Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Texas, and Tennessee. On May 3 alone 66 tornadoes broke out in Oklahoma and Kansas. The most significant of these first touched down southwest of Chickasha, Oklahoma, and became an F5 before dissipating over Midwest City. The storm tore through Bridge Creek, Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Moore, Del City, Tinker Air Force Base and Midwest City, causing $1.1 billion in damage. Forty-eight people perished during the outbreak. With estimates ranging from 66 to 74 tornadoes, it was the most prolific tornado outbreak in Oklahoma history.[1]

The Greensboro, Kansas tornado of 2007 began forming on May 4 after 5:00 pm in the northeastern corner of the Texas Panhandle, and strengthened during the early evening across the Oklahoma Panhandle. It slowly organized itself as it moved northeast through portions of Oklahoma, and then into Kansas. The first tornado warning with this cell was issued at 8:35 for Clark County, Kansas, and the tornado first touched down that evening just after 9:00. This storm was particularly devastating because it is quite difficult to visually spot a twister at night.[2]

Most recently was the catastrophic EF5 multiple-vortex tornado that struck Joplin, Missouri in the late afternoon of Sunday, May 22, 2011. It was part of a large late-May tornado outbreak sequence that ripped a path in excess of a mile wide during its rampage through the southern part of the city. It rapidly intensified and tracked eastward across the city, and then continued eastward across Interstate 44 into rural portions of Jasper and Newton counties in Missouri.

The insurance payout for these storms is expected to be $2.2 billion with some estimates as high as $3 billion—the highest insurance payout in Missouri history and higher than the previous record of $2 billion in the April 10, 2001 hail storm which swept along the I-70 corridor from Kansas to Illinois. By July 15, 2011, there had been 16,656 insurance claims.[3]

I give you examples of the heavens being torn open and the earth being ravaged. I give you examples of destruction, sorrow, loss, and death. In these images are shock, pain, devastation, and despair. There is sorrow and grief. Rent the skies? Rent your clothes as anguish overwhelms conscious thought. Scripture tells us the Holy Spirit intervenes and knows and takes our prayers even when they are only moans. It is in these times that we need the Spirit’s intervention.

In my own limited way, this is what I think of when I think of “heaven being torn open.” We might see the skies being torn and inflamed. The clouds being whipped into a frenzy from all directions. We can see the funnels form behind wall clouds. We will be able to feel the temperature fall. Lightning crashes to the earth with the rumble of mighty thunder. We will see the effects of the wind as the grass, trees, and even buildings pitch and moan. This is what I imagine.

But in the beginning…

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.”

In a time before there were heavens as we understand them, they were torn open. After these created heavens and earth God spoke the light into being. Before the sun and the moon were placed in the heavens to govern the day and the night, the heavens were created and opened that God created light, light that is good. This is how it all began.

I give you pain and anguish, God gives us the heavens and earth. It reminds me of a conversation in C. S. Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” where the children had just learned from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver that Aslan, the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea, was a lion.

“Ooh!” said Susan, “I'd thought he was a man. Is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion.”

“That you will, dearie, and no mistake,” said Mrs. Beaver. “If there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly.”

“Then he isn't safe?” said Lucy.

“Safe?” said Mr. Beaver. “Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”[4]

God is not safe. God is not like a tame lion. But God is good.

Then “At that time, Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

I wonder what Jesus saw. I gave you my opinion of what I imagine the heavens torn open to be, but is that what Jesus saw? He saw the Spirit descending like a dove. He hears the voice of the Father. In this moment in time, all three persons of God descend upon the Earth to give one fully divine fully human a message, “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”

The heavens being ripped open is probably not safe, but God is not safe. Still, God is good.

Now imagine what everyone else saw, the people of the Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem. According to scripture, they saw nothing special. Scripture tells us only Jesus saw what is written in scripture as he was coming up out of the water. Only Jesus saw heaven torn open. Everyone else saw life its own self, business as usual.

As the line from the old song goes, “I hear the drums echo in the night, she hears only whispers of some quiet conversation.”[5] Jesus sees everything, the people saw nothing special. Maybe today, as we ordain a new class of Elders to the Session, some will see nothing special. For others, it will be life changing.

Let us all make life in Christ a life changing event. Like the heavens being torn open, not everyone will be able to see it. Those who do will not see it in the same way. So Lord hear our prayers and transform us, even if our prayers are little more than moans.

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[1] 1999 Oklahoma tornado outbreak, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1999_Oklahoma_tornado_outbreak, accessed January 7, 2012.

[2] May 2007 Tornado Outbreak, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_2007_tornado_outbreak#The_Greensburg_tornado_family, retrieved January 7, 2012

[3] 2011 Joplin Tornado, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Joplin_tornado, retrieved January 7, 2012

[4] C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe New York: Collier, 1970, 75-76.

[5] “Africa” by Toto, to me, this is one of the greatest lines in pop music.