This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday March 29, 2009, the 5th Sunday in Lent.
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Psalm 51:1-12
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
Next week we celebrate Palm Sunday. So this is the time of year when we break out the DVD’s of “The Passion of the Christ,” “Jesus Christ Superstar,” and “Godspell.” Marie agrees with this statement so strongly that she is singing “Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord” to herself right now. That’s fine with me; any of you who wish to sing along with her are welcome to go right ahead. Of the three, “Godspell” is my favorite film of the Passion genre. In their own way, each of these movies is a recreation of the final day of life of Jesus on earth. Well, let’s just say it’s the first-last day. We’ll get to that in a couple of weeks.
The scene in our gospel reading comes immediately after the events we will celebrate next week, Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. Jesus came to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. This isn’t the first celebration of the Passover in John’s gospel. John 2 contains the earliest account of Jesus at the Passover festival. John 5 has Jesus coming to Jerusalem for a festival, but it could have been First Fruits or Tabernacles or Passover. Jesus made other trips for other festivals during his life too.
The point here is that Jesus knew his way around the temple and since he would teach while he was there, the temple knew him too. But this time, something different is going on, there is a charge in the air like before a storm. There is a feeling that something new is about to happen, and it begins with the arrival of some Greeks. The Greeks who had come to see the festival were also there to see Jesus. So they sought Philip and Andrew, the Apostles with Greek names, to make the introduction.
What’s so important about the arrival of the Greeks? The Greeks were travelers, not just tourists. The cosmopolitan Greeks would come, learn, and take the cultures they encounter with them. This is how the most important transcripts of the New Testament came to be written in Greek. According to a reference on Greece, “Not only is the New Testament a Greek book, but all Christian literature down to the early third century, even in Rome and the West, and to this day in the East, is in Greek.”[1]
Greek was the language of art and culture. This is how so many of the works of Ancient Greece have survived when so many works of other cultures have been lost to antiquity. The Greeks were the travelers and philosophers of the day, constantly moving from place to place drinking in the culture of the world.
So when Jesus gets the news that the Greeks had arrived from Philip and Andrew, Jesus knew that his time, his hour, had come. Where in every prior instance in the gospel Jesus had kept the “messianic secret,” now there was no need. His time had come; he is to be lifted up.
Jesus told everyone who was around him “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” He used a story with an agricultural base to show them explosive growth. He told them when a single seed dies in the proper way and time it produces much fruit. He lets them know this death is necessary.
He tells them that people who love their life will lose it and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Such a twisted statement would be confusing but it is ultimately comforting. It is joyful when we realize what is gained by eternal life; a life of plenty to be lived today, life where those who serve the Lord will be honored by the Father.
Then Jesus tells us a story that doesn’t seem quite right coming from the mouth of the Son of Man, his soul is troubled. Yes, the Lord our Savior is disturbed by what he knows is to come. God Incarnate is in personal turmoil over what will follow oh so soon. But he knows that it is for this reason that he has come to this very hour.
Jesus knows his own story. Jesus knows what is to come and what is to follow. He knows of the pain and the mocking and the torture and the death. He knows what is to come, what is to follow. He knows he will be betrayed by one of his followers, his Apostle Judas Iscariot.
It is this scene the betrayal that I find the most touching in “Godspell.” Jesus has just finished teaching his disciples the final lessons. There is a sense of hurry. Jesus is rushed, but not panicked. Then Judas arrives with the garrison. Judas comes to give the kiss that will separate Jesus from everyone else.
When Judas stands before the messiah, he cannot do it. He cannot betray Jesus with a holy kiss. Jesus stands before Judas and says, “Do what you have come to do.” Judas balks. Maybe Judas is even reconsidering the whole plan; maybe he can’t betray Jesus after all. Jesus says “Do what you have come to do.” Judas is frozen. So Jesus suddenly and quickly leans in and kisses Judas… and smiles. Then the chaos of the arrest begins.
Jesus knows his story. He knows what has to happen. He knows his destiny and he both dreads and embraces it. To me, this is the glory of the scene from “Godspell.” Jesus knows what has to happen and when the scene’s other principal cannot bring himself to do it, Jesus does. Jesus knows his own story so well that when others don’t follow the script, Jesus takes over and ensures that what must happen happens.
There are very few movie scenes that make me cry, but that one does it every time.
Jesus came to glorify the Father and the Father glorifies the Son. This is affirmed by the voice of God who says for all with ears to hear “I have glorified my name and I will glorify it again.” Jesus tells the people what they heard was for their sake, not his own. Jesus doesn’t need to hear the story, he knows it well enough. We need to know the story. We need the affirmation of the Word of God, so we hear it for our sake. We hear it to affirm the story of faith in the world.
We have our stories too. Take a moment out of this busy day and ask God to remind you of an important story in your life with God. Let me share this example from the beginning of my life in this part of the body of Christ.
Four years ago in Conway, Arkansas, I was examined by the Committee on Preparation for Ministry at a meeting of the Presbytery. I had preached a sermon. I was questioned by the committee. When it was finished, as is the tradition in this Presbytery, I left the sanctuary as the Presbytery discussed the issue. When it was over, Marie and I reentered the assembly to applause and rejoicing. The moderator then asked members of the Berryville congregation to stand and be recognized. Wayne and Janet were there standing, so was Shelly. Carolyn was with her.
I smiled with the love of God coursing in my very being. It was a glorious moment. I went over to the corner of the sanctuary where Shelly and Carolyn were. Carolyn was beginning to tire, it had been a long day, and she and Shelly were getting ready to return home.
I leaned over and hugged Carolyn. She said, “I love you.” And I said “I love you too.” By the grace and love of God, at that moment, I became her pastor. At that moment I began to love her as a pastor loves every member of the church, with the love God calls all of us to share with one another. In that moment, I went from being a candidate for ministry to being a minister, her minister. It was a wonderful moment, and it came only by the love and grace of God.
Jesus had a story to tell and an audience to take it with them. And when they left Palestine, after the Passover, after the crucifixion, after the resurrection; the Greeks would take word of Jesus with them.
We too have stories to tell, stories of how the Lord has lifted our lives. Take a moment here and now, and consider the question. Ask God to remind you of an important story in your life with God. Our lives in God are filled with wonderful stories, stories of peace, mercy, and joy; stories of power and might, stories of sorrow and redemption. Be reminded of these stories and do yourself a favor, share them at lunch today. Share the stories of God as you break bread. Then you will taste and see that the Lord is good.
Take a couple of minutes to contemplate your story.
Amen
[1] The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, “Greece,” part 9, Age of Hellenism.
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Heavy Lifting
This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday March 22, 2009, the 4th Sunday in Lent.
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
There are some things that are unavoidable for the preacher. John 3:16 is one of them. Since I have been in the pulpit, I have preached this piece from John’s gospel twice. Today makes three. Now for the third time, I begin with this thought on this most beloved of all bible passages:
Some call this “the Gospel in a nutshell.” Others call it a confessional summary of the Gospel. Believers and unbelievers alike have a special connection to this verse. For many, this verse is seen as the answer. Of course, if this is the answer we had better do a good job of identifying the question. Because if this is the answer, then it has got a lot of heavy lifting to do.
Heavy lifting is nothing unusual in our readings today. Our reading from Numbers is another example of heavy lifting. In the time of this passage from the Old Testament, the people had become impatient, other translations say discouraged and faint hearted. They spoke against Moses and they spoke against God.
The people were sick and tired of making the journey to find the promise of God, the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. They detested the miserable food and preferred the thought of square meals and unending slavery. When starving; hard work under harsh conditions might be seductive to the faint hearted. So the Lord sent serpents, poisonous serpents, among the nation and people died.
It doesn’t take long for the Israelites to realize they had erred, so they came to Moses and they asked him to “pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” Yeah, Moses has gone before Pharaoh, and the Lord on behalf of the people; and now the people who had been complaining about his leadership are at Moses’ feet crying for him to solicit the mercy of the Lord. Moses has done some heavy lifting during his days. Today they ask him to do some more.
Moses asks on behalf of the people and does as the Lord directs. Moses makes a serpent of bronze and puts it on a pole. A people who made a golden calf know how to do flamboyant metalwork, so I imagine a bronze serpent at least twelve feet long. I don’t know if it is coiled or stretched out, scripture is silent. Regardless, you know this is one big piece of heavy metal.
Imagine the US “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, but as a bronze sculpture on the end of a stick. This is what Moses lifts up above his head. He lifts it so that whenever one who was bit would look upon it; they would live.
While considering this passage, I wondered why looking at the bronze serpent healed the bitten Israelites? Maybe this miracle simply served as a reminder of who the Lord is? Surely it shows the mystery and sovereignty of God Almighty. Seeing as how the Israelites had forgotten who the Lord was in this passage, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
It is a reminder that the Lord sent the serpents of both injury and healing—along with the implicit reminder of the serpent of deception from Genesis. Snakes in the ancient world were a symbol of death and danger; and fertility, life, and healing.[2] This ties into the sovereignty theme well. While the nation would always tie the serpent to the story of the banishment from the garden it would also show that the Lord can use the same symbol for the good of the people, to heal the people, to redeem the people.
These are the sorts of things poets wonder about on a warm summer’s night. These musings are lovely; they come to the aid of the mystical and mysterious pieces of our souls to the glory of God. But they surely aren’t the sorts of questions that are going to be asked on the quiz. (Wait, didn’t I tell you there was going to be a quiz?)
Some things are certain. We can be sure that this is the kind of story that would be popular within a people who carried their history by oral tradition. There isn’t a twelve year old boy alive who would ever forget this story after hearing it. So when Jesus uses this image in our passage from John’s gospel; the listener returns to this time in the wilderness.
Jesus tells the people that in the wilderness, God is there. In the wilderness of forty years in the desert, God is there. In the wilderness found within the temple, God is there. In the wilderness found within the depths of our lives, God is there. God is present with them on that day as during the days of Moses. We read this story today knowing that God is here with us too. This was true when it was said, and it is just as true today.
Now that’s some heavy lifting.
We read “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” But where the verb for lifting up in Numbers implies picking something up to look up toward it, the New Testament verb we translate as lifting up means to raise physically or to exalt. So as Moses lifted the serpent to be seen, the Son of Man is lifted to be praised and lauded.
Again, that’s heavy lifting.
Scripture tells us why the Son of Man is exalted, why the Son of Man is lifted. The Son of Man is lifted so that those who believe may have life eternal. So, what is eternal life?
Eternal life is a gift. It is given to everyone. Imagine if you will, everyone on earth is given a flashlight; a light that will never be extinguished or burn out. Imagine we are all given this light.
We are saved by the grace of the sovereign God. We are freely given the gift of grace, a gift of eternal life given to us even though we could never do anything to deserve it. This is the light we have received.
Now imagine we turn on this light and it shines brightly showing us the way. This is what happens when we demonstrate faith. We are saved by grace through faith. It is these two things together that make eternal life, the things that make life worth living.
This is the Good News, to take to the eternal life we begin by turning on the light we have received. Those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
So life eternal is a quality of life instead of a length of life, a way of living today that transcends how we see living in our bodies, our earth, and our time. The Son of Man is lifted up not just for the afterlife, but for our present lives. This changes how we live and breathe and love and behave not in some future time and place, but here and now.
Yet, Jesus warns us that when we have a light and don’t bother to turn it on, when we receive the gift but do nothing with it the gift is useless. It hangs like an albatross around our necks; and Jesus warns this would happen.
He warns us that people love the darkness rather than the light. And this evil, this darkness is heavier lifting than we could ever imagine. It’s a pity that we don’t have to do this lifting, but still we choose to. It’s lifting that we drop when we turn on the light. It’s lifting we drop when we exercise our faith by the grace God has freely given us.
Moses did some heavy lifting in the desert. Jesus did some heavy lifting too, and the lifting of his body at Golgotha is not the half of it. The body of the Lord might have weighed even less than a twelve foot long brass snake.
Eternal life is for all who believe, for those who are saved by grace through faith; now that’s some heavy lifting. Thanks and praise to the one who alone is willing and able to lift us. Saved by grace through faith, that’s the answer to today’s quiz.
[1] Holy Bible, King James Version, Gideon International, page 10.
[2] New Interpreter’s Study Bible, notes on Numbers 21:4-9.
Numbers 21:4-9
Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22
Ephesians 2:1-10
John 3:14-21
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen
There are some things that are unavoidable for the preacher. John 3:16 is one of them. Since I have been in the pulpit, I have preached this piece from John’s gospel twice. Today makes three. Now for the third time, I begin with this thought on this most beloved of all bible passages:
Page ten of the current edition of the Gideon Bible contains this in the introduction:The introduction continues with this verse translated into languages ranging from Afrikaans to Vietnamese. These simple words have a tremendous impact on people everywhere. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”
“There is a verse in the Bible which has been translated into more than 1,100 languages. It tells of One who loved us with an everlasting love. The verse is here recorded in 27 languages of the world which are understood by more than three-quarters of the earth’s population. That verse is John 3:16.”[1]
Some call this “the Gospel in a nutshell.” Others call it a confessional summary of the Gospel. Believers and unbelievers alike have a special connection to this verse. For many, this verse is seen as the answer. Of course, if this is the answer we had better do a good job of identifying the question. Because if this is the answer, then it has got a lot of heavy lifting to do.
Heavy lifting is nothing unusual in our readings today. Our reading from Numbers is another example of heavy lifting. In the time of this passage from the Old Testament, the people had become impatient, other translations say discouraged and faint hearted. They spoke against Moses and they spoke against God.
The people were sick and tired of making the journey to find the promise of God, the fulfillment of the promise made to Abraham. They detested the miserable food and preferred the thought of square meals and unending slavery. When starving; hard work under harsh conditions might be seductive to the faint hearted. So the Lord sent serpents, poisonous serpents, among the nation and people died.
It doesn’t take long for the Israelites to realize they had erred, so they came to Moses and they asked him to “pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.” Yeah, Moses has gone before Pharaoh, and the Lord on behalf of the people; and now the people who had been complaining about his leadership are at Moses’ feet crying for him to solicit the mercy of the Lord. Moses has done some heavy lifting during his days. Today they ask him to do some more.
Moses asks on behalf of the people and does as the Lord directs. Moses makes a serpent of bronze and puts it on a pole. A people who made a golden calf know how to do flamboyant metalwork, so I imagine a bronze serpent at least twelve feet long. I don’t know if it is coiled or stretched out, scripture is silent. Regardless, you know this is one big piece of heavy metal.
Imagine the US “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, but as a bronze sculpture on the end of a stick. This is what Moses lifts up above his head. He lifts it so that whenever one who was bit would look upon it; they would live.
While considering this passage, I wondered why looking at the bronze serpent healed the bitten Israelites? Maybe this miracle simply served as a reminder of who the Lord is? Surely it shows the mystery and sovereignty of God Almighty. Seeing as how the Israelites had forgotten who the Lord was in this passage, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
It is a reminder that the Lord sent the serpents of both injury and healing—along with the implicit reminder of the serpent of deception from Genesis. Snakes in the ancient world were a symbol of death and danger; and fertility, life, and healing.[2] This ties into the sovereignty theme well. While the nation would always tie the serpent to the story of the banishment from the garden it would also show that the Lord can use the same symbol for the good of the people, to heal the people, to redeem the people.
These are the sorts of things poets wonder about on a warm summer’s night. These musings are lovely; they come to the aid of the mystical and mysterious pieces of our souls to the glory of God. But they surely aren’t the sorts of questions that are going to be asked on the quiz. (Wait, didn’t I tell you there was going to be a quiz?)
Some things are certain. We can be sure that this is the kind of story that would be popular within a people who carried their history by oral tradition. There isn’t a twelve year old boy alive who would ever forget this story after hearing it. So when Jesus uses this image in our passage from John’s gospel; the listener returns to this time in the wilderness.
Jesus tells the people that in the wilderness, God is there. In the wilderness of forty years in the desert, God is there. In the wilderness found within the temple, God is there. In the wilderness found within the depths of our lives, God is there. God is present with them on that day as during the days of Moses. We read this story today knowing that God is here with us too. This was true when it was said, and it is just as true today.
Now that’s some heavy lifting.
We read “just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.” But where the verb for lifting up in Numbers implies picking something up to look up toward it, the New Testament verb we translate as lifting up means to raise physically or to exalt. So as Moses lifted the serpent to be seen, the Son of Man is lifted to be praised and lauded.
Again, that’s heavy lifting.
Scripture tells us why the Son of Man is exalted, why the Son of Man is lifted. The Son of Man is lifted so that those who believe may have life eternal. So, what is eternal life?
Eternal life is a gift. It is given to everyone. Imagine if you will, everyone on earth is given a flashlight; a light that will never be extinguished or burn out. Imagine we are all given this light.
We are saved by the grace of the sovereign God. We are freely given the gift of grace, a gift of eternal life given to us even though we could never do anything to deserve it. This is the light we have received.
Now imagine we turn on this light and it shines brightly showing us the way. This is what happens when we demonstrate faith. We are saved by grace through faith. It is these two things together that make eternal life, the things that make life worth living.
This is the Good News, to take to the eternal life we begin by turning on the light we have received. Those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.
So life eternal is a quality of life instead of a length of life, a way of living today that transcends how we see living in our bodies, our earth, and our time. The Son of Man is lifted up not just for the afterlife, but for our present lives. This changes how we live and breathe and love and behave not in some future time and place, but here and now.
Yet, Jesus warns us that when we have a light and don’t bother to turn it on, when we receive the gift but do nothing with it the gift is useless. It hangs like an albatross around our necks; and Jesus warns this would happen.
He warns us that people love the darkness rather than the light. And this evil, this darkness is heavier lifting than we could ever imagine. It’s a pity that we don’t have to do this lifting, but still we choose to. It’s lifting that we drop when we turn on the light. It’s lifting we drop when we exercise our faith by the grace God has freely given us.
Moses did some heavy lifting in the desert. Jesus did some heavy lifting too, and the lifting of his body at Golgotha is not the half of it. The body of the Lord might have weighed even less than a twelve foot long brass snake.
Eternal life is for all who believe, for those who are saved by grace through faith; now that’s some heavy lifting. Thanks and praise to the one who alone is willing and able to lift us. Saved by grace through faith, that’s the answer to today’s quiz.
[1] Holy Bible, King James Version, Gideon International, page 10.
[2] New Interpreter’s Study Bible, notes on Numbers 21:4-9.
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