Mark 1:21-28

They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught

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them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching — with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

At the seminar yesterday we began by looking at features of some of the mythologies of the ancient world, from ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia.  These myths tell of the world of the gods and goddesses.    Sometimes they fight and kill one another, sometimes they create worlds and people to live in them.

Why myths?

Why do people tell myths?  Certainly the people who first told the stories of Marduk or Baal knew that they were making them up, so who would believe them?

That’s a very modern question.  People did not repeat their mythologies in the hopes that others would believe that one day the god Marduk killed the goddess Tiamat.  Rather, mythologies were told to explain why things are the way they are.

Why, ancient people wondered, is human life such a drudgery of work, sunup to sundown, and we live in constant fear that calamity will come upon us and leave us damaged, starving or dead?  “Well,” the ancient Babylonians would say, “when Marduk killed goddess Tiamat and her helper god Kingu, he had leftovers and he made humans out of them so that we could work like dogs all our lives and keep himself and the other gods fed with sacrifices.”  We were made for this difficult life: the myth of Marduk explains it all.

Myths explain reality

We humans have myths to tell us who we are: Are we important or just after-thoughts?  Are we made for a purpose, or are we simply at the mercy of forces greater than ourselves?  Can we achieve immortality, or is this all there is?

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The myths we tell, tell us about good and evil.  Myths tell us who is “us” and who is “them;” who our friends are, and who the enemy is.

That’s why there can be a “war of myths.”  Two different stories that disagree about these issues: who are we?  who is our enemy?  what is important?

Jesus and the War of Myths

I started this way in order to set the stage for hearing the story of Jesus that Mark tells.  Mark is showing us Jesus engaged in a “war of myths.” (Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man, p. 143)

What do we see Jesus doing in Mark’s gospel?  We see him casting out “unclean spirits;”  we see him healing people.  In Jesus‘ day there were exorcist and faith healers, that much was common.  But Jesus was engaged in a “war of myths” that made people around him so upset, by chapter 3 they were already planning, Mark tells us, “to destroy him.” (3:6).  Nobody would have any reason to want to destroy an exorcist or a faith healer if that’s all he was doing.  Jesus was doing much more, and for what he did, they wanted to destroy him.

Who knows Jesus’ identity?

Let’s look at the way Mark tells the story.  At the start, the very first thing we read from Mark 1:1 is the voice of the narrator, Mark, telling us inside information.  He says,

“The beginning of the good news of Jesus [Messiah] Christ, the Son of God.”

The first thing Jesus does is get baptized in the Jordan, coming up out of the water, a voice from Heaven says to Jesus:

11 “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

So now we have heard Jesus’ identity announced twice: by the narrator, Mark, and by God himself.

Jesus and the Spirit

Next, the Spirit drives Jesus out into a creepy wilderness in which he withstands the Satan’s temptations for forty days – the same number of days as the number of years the Israelites were in their wilderness of temptation – coincidence?  Hardly.  Israel, who was called, God’s “son,” (“out of Egypt I called my son” – Hosea 11:1) didn’t do so well with their wilderness temptations.  But Jesus, God’s “beloved son “cannot be conquered by the evil one, the accuser.

So Jesus returns from the wilderness, travels along the shores of the lake they call the sea of Galilee, and calls disciples to follow him in his mission to scoop up people for the kingdom of God.

The small synagogue

They leave their nets and boats and follow him and the first place we see them come to is the synagogue in Capernaum.

Synagogue in Capernaum, Galilee

It’s not very big really.  Maybe it could hold as many people as our church can, not many more.  Certainly the locals who attended Sabbath services in that synagogue all knew each other, even without name tags.

So, as this story goes, Jesus goes in and assumes the role of a local rabbi – a teacher (the word “rabbi” actually means, “my teacher”).  Teaching, in the synagogue, was teaching the bible, the torah of Moses.  Mark says,

21 “They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.”

Jesus’ amazing teaching

The focus is on Jesus’ teaching.  What does he teach?  The odd thing is, there is no sermon here, no Beatitudes, no parables.  All we hear is the people’s reaction to the teaching:

22 “They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.”

We do not hear what he teaches yet; all we hear is that his teaching is different.   We hear who it is different from – the “scribes.”  And we hear how his teaching is different, it’s “with authority.”

Authority can come from your education or from your job title, but of course Jesus has neither.  Authority can also come from experience.  You listen to an experienced fisherman to learn about fishing.

Could direct experience of God’s Spirit been the source of the authority behind Jesus’ teaching?  Probably so; in any case, the people were quite aware of it; in fact were “astounded” by it.

The man with no name

Now the camera focuses on one particular person in the synagogue hearing Jesus’ authoritative teaching.  Mark describes him simply by saying:

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 “Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit”

Small town, small synagogue, one conclusion: everybody knows this man.  Everybody knows him and knows about his “unclean spirit” (which is just a normal way of saying demon).  And yet there  he is, at home in their synagogue.

Mark is telling us this story on two levels at once.  Yes Jesus was an exorcist, and yes, he cast out demons.  But the way Mark sets up this scene, we are meant to see that this man is in his own comfort zone – everyone around him is comfortable with him in their place of worship.  What’s going on here?  The next part starts to reveal the message.

We hear the man with the unclean spirit :

 24 “he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” 

Jesus’ identity is now announced for the third time. A third person with insider information, a demon, knows Jesus’ identity.

The forces of evil are in combat with God.  The forces of evil know that God is their enemy who plans to destroy them.  This is the war of myths in action.

Attempted naming

The demon tries to gain control over Jesus, God’s beloved son, by naming him; naming is how you control spiritual forces in Jesus’ world of the first century.  The demon names Jesus, “the Holy One of God.”

The demon’s attempt to overpower Jesus, God’s son, is a total failure.  In the war of myths, Jesus has the upper hand.  He is the one who has authority from his direct experience of God’s Spirit.  Mark tells us what happened:

25 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!”  26 And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.  27 They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” 

The Authoritative Teaching

At the beginning of this scene and now again at the end, we hear about Jesus’ authoritative teaching, and how it amazed the people.  But all we saw Jesus do was an exorcism; we heard no teaching.

That is, unless the teaching that Mark wants us to hear is about the war of myths.  Remember, myths tell us who we are, who are the good guys and the bad guys, who are our friends and who is the enemy.

In this story, the enemies that do battle are the forces of good and evil.  The enemy Jesus does battle with is evil.

It is the kind of evil that has captured a person and has him under total control, and uses him for his own purposes.  It has so taken over this man that it has stripped him of his god-given identity; he doesn’t even have a name; he’s like a statistic.  To everyone he is simply the “man with the unclean spirit.”  The fact that he is being dominated and abused by evil bothers no one.

The demon knows Jesus has come to do battle with all of the spirits of evil, even if they are making themselves at home in the heart of the synagogue, the temple, or the tombs.

Who is the enemy?

In that synagogue, and among those people, according to their story, their myths, the enemy was not the forces of enslaving, destructive evil; the enemy was Rome.  The enemy was political.  The enemy was economic.  The enemy was the non-ethnically pure person.  The enemy was the one who broke sabbath.

But to Jesus, the enemy was evil that enslaves people, evil that has people in its power and destroys them.

Jesus is teaching us not to mis-identify the enemy, and his teaching has the authority of personal knowledge, personal experience.

But we do constantly mis-identify the enemy.  We think the enemy is the market, or the government, or the economy.  We could reach our true potential to be fully alive, fully human if only we could conquer that enemy.

Or the enemy is the people we are at odds with; people in the family who make us unhappy, people who live near enough to us to cause us grief.

But the true enemies we face are the ones that have the power to enslave and to destroy, which is what evil always does.  The true enemies are all of those powers that keep people in bondage – poverty, oppression, discrimination, violence and abuse.

The true enemy is also apathy: being OK with the plain fact that there are people around us who are suffering under these evils, as if it were simply another normal sabbath day at the synagogue.

Which myth is true?

Which myth do we believe explains reality best?

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Who are we?   We are people whom God has called out of darkness into his light.

Who are we?  We are people who have been rescued from the kingdom of evil and who have become citizens of the kingdom of God.

Who are we?  We are people whom God has called to join him in his mission to confront evil in all its forms: in our hearts and in our world.

Who are we?  We are people of the Spirit whom God has called and commissioned to go out into the world with his authority, to bring healing, love and mercy to the people he made in his image.

We are committed to calling every form of de-humanization by its real name: evil, and to know to whom belongs the victory.

We are here, not to “be overcome by evil, but to overcome evil with good.”

Mark 1:14-20

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and

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the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea — for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.

The way Mark tells the story of Jesus is fascinating.  He skips right past Mary and Joseph, the donkey and the Inn Keeper.  No mention of Jesus’ birth or early years.  As Mark lifts up the curtain, the Jesus we see on stage is a full grown adult.

Mark’s Action Adventure

He is in action.  And it is, as they say, “a total God-thing.”  He goes down to where John is baptizing and is baptized and immediately heaven opens, God’s Spirit descends on him and God’s voice proclaims him as the beloved Son.  The imagery is startling and dramatic.  It’s apocalyptic.

Immediately that same Spirit of God drives him into the wilderness where he is tempted for 40 days and confronts the forces of evil, the Satan himself who is there, along with wild beasts and angels.  The way Mark tells it, almost makes it seem like a dream or vision.

But immediately we are given a scene of Jesus as a man walking beside a lake  in Galilee, meeting ordinary fishermen doing normal fishermen things like net-tending as if it were a normal day – but Mark shows us that it isn’t normal at all.

As he is walking in Galilee he is saying – actually Mark says he is “proclaiming” – “the Good News of God.”

 “Good News” – says the Emperor 

This is strange if you miss the code word(s) “good news”.  If you don’t know the code, you might think Jesus was just proclaiming God – as if God was news to a Palestinian Jewish person!

No, the word(s) “good news” is code for “Public Propaganda Announcement” from the Roman Emperor – like the “O my, how lucky we are to know it” good news of the Roman army conquering yet another pagan European tribe.

If the code for “good news” means public propaganda, Mark shows us Jesus “proclaiming” a message that some people might think is being intentionally provocative, if not subversive, calling it the Propaganda, not of Rome, but of God; the “good news of God.”

 Times Up!

Something has happened; events are now in motion in a new way as never before.  The very first words we hear Jesus say are, “The time is

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fulfilled”.  Does this mean “Time’s up”?  Game over?  or does it mean “Time to begin!” “Gentlemen, start your engines?” Or is it a bit of both?  Actually, it’s both.

What event had started the countdown clock?  Mark has just told us John the baptizer had been arrested.  The authorities are getting nervous.  There is tension in this story from the start.

So if the time is fulfilled and the clock is ticking, what should the people who hear the proclamation of the Propaganda of God do now, and why should they do it?

Jesus says,

 “The reign of God has arrived; change your thinking.”  

This is the way it would have sounded like to those Galilean Jewish people to hear:

“The kingdom of God has come near, repent.”

 Josephus says, “Repent and believe in me” 

“Change your thinking” is what “repent” literally means.  One time, shortly after Jesus’ days, a man named Josephus who was a Jewish military leader found some troops that were in a plot against him and said to them nearly the same words, “Change your minds!  Trust me.” Meaning change sides and join my unit – the fight’s on. (NT WRight, JVG, 250 cites Jos. Life 110 in LCL)

“Change your thinking” about what?  About everything, because everything is changing now. The time has come; God is doing something new!  The Kingdom of God has come!  “Believe it.”

Now, to a Jewish person, this is a shocking announcement.  To say the word “kingdom” out loud, in public, where you could be heard and reported was risky, to say the least.  To Jewish ears at that time, this sounds like an announcement that the climax to the whole story of Israel has started.  Israel’s dream is coming true right now.” (NT Wright, JVG, 228)

The arrest of John was the catalyst, like the death of that poor man in Tunisia who set himself on fire – the event which started the whole Arab Spring of uprisings.  Now the Propaganda is from God and about God: the Story of Israel has reached its climax.  The Kingdom of God has arrived.  Believe it – rely on it!

 The call is simple

Mark leaves as much out of his story as he puts in.  He shows us Jesus simply walking by the water, coming upon normal fishermen, and,

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in the context of proclaiming that the Kingdom of God has come, simply says to them,

 “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

The word “immediately” keeps popping up, giving this story a sense of urgency.    “immediately they left their nets and followed… immediately he called them…”.  The pace is fast.  “John’s been arrested: time is up.  Here we go.  Fall-in. Move out.”

We don’t hear any explanation.  Mark does not tell us anything – not the look on their faces, not their own personal reasons for being so willing to drop everything and fall-in behind Jesus, not what they said to the people they left, almost nothing.

All Mark wants us to know is that they left behind things, important things, and important people, and followed Jesus.  They left their nets, they left their father and his boat and his hired men, and they followed.

 The Vision of the Kingdom

The only reason Mark gives for their motivation to follow Jesus is the vision of the Kingdom of God that Jesus was “proclaiming;” the reign of God; the God-thing; the climax of the story of Israel is happening in Jesus, right now, immediately.

And so they followed.  And so we are called to follow.  We are addressed by Jesus’ words, “Follow me, and I will change what you are fishing for with those nets; I will give you a new quest, one that is profoundly more significant than you have ever been on.”

You’ve been fishermen, in quest of fish; you’ve been after economic security.  You’ve thought your life was defined by family ties and geography.  It’s now going to be about so much more.  It’s going to be about the Kingdom of God.

 The New Fishing Expedition Begins

In other words, Jesus says, You will join me in a whole new fishing expedition; this time, it’s for people.  This is a total God-thing.  This is about God’s quest to find people who desperately need God’s rescue-net.

It will be about lowering the net down for people who are caught up in evil and setting them free from demonic forces.  It will be about lowing down the rescue net for the sick who need health care, and it will even be about holding out a net for untouchable lepers who are being shunned and excluded – and all of this is literally chapter one of Mark’s story of Jesus and the Kingdom.

“Follow me” Jesus calls, and I will make you fish for people who are notorious sinners, and even eat at their tables in their homes.

“Follow me” and you will see the kind of work that God says is OK to do even on the Sabbath.

All through Mark’s gospel we see Jesus reaching out across boundaries to scoop up people into the net of God’s love.  He crosses gender boundaries, extending God’s healing to women and girls.

He even crosses ethnic boundaries, embracing Romans.  He reaches out to people who are not Jewish, who do not worship Israel’s God, and extending the rescue net to them and their children (for example, the  Gentile woman, of Syrophoenician origin whose daughter had been possessed, Mark 7).

 The New Family

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Do you see what is going on here?  Jesus has brought the Kingdom of God; now it the time: it has started to form.  The Kingdom had formerly been a Jewish thing for the family of Abraham.  Now, however, the definition of the family has been radically expanded.  God has found sons and daughters that he loves and calls his children in places where formerly, we only saw strangers and aliens.

Would it be worth it to leave the safety net of the little world up on the North end of the Lake in Galilee and follow Jesus?  After the disciples who originally left home and followed Jesus had seen Jesus doing all of this for some time, Peter looks around at what he has left and says to Jesus:

 “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” (Mark 10:28 )

Has he not yet made the connection?  Has he not yet seen the point that the family has radically expanded?  Does he not yet understand what all of this fishing for people has been about?  So Jesus answers Peter by saying:

29 “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news,  30 who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life.  

 The Invitation

There are different kinds of people here today.  It’s possible that some here have not yet come to know that God’s love and grace extends to you.  Maybe for whatever reason you have not thought of yourself as part of the family.

If any of us has made you feel like an outsider to God’s love, we repent; we are sorry.  Please forgive us.  Please don’t let us stand in the way.  God loves you and wants you to know yourself as his child.  “Come,” Jesus says, “Follow me.”

 Taking Family for Granted

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Most of us here have probably understood ourselves as part of the family so long we don’t remember it any differently.  To us, Jesus says, “Follow me” by joining my fishing expedition.  To whom do we need to extend the rescue-net?

From time to time we are reminded how blessed we are to live in this county (excuse me for a moment, friends from other countries), like on the Fourth of July or Memorial Day or Thanksgiving.  We don’t live under tyranny; we live in freedom.  Most of the time, however, we are so used to it that we simply take it for granted.  It’s a typical human failing.

But in the same way, we get used to looking around rooms like this one and seeing each other, and recognizing each other as brother and sister in the family of God, as if it’s normal and expected.

 We were the “them” before we were the “us”

Nothing was further from the truth.  In Jesus’ day, we were those European tribes that the Roman army was going around conquering.  We were the pagans wearing animal skins with bones in our noses about whom the Roman emperor would proclaim his “Good News” – his public propaganda of victory when we were subdued and brought into his “civilized” Empire.

We are Gentiles.  We are the kind of people that even Peter had difficulty eating with.  We were the unclean, the untouchables, the outsiders to the family.  We are that extended family that Jesus told Peter he would get after he had left behind his fishing village in Galilee.

But we have been included!  We have been invited into the family.  We have been scooped up in the net of God’s loving embrace.

Now we are the ones who Jesus calls, “Follow me.”  “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.”

Time is up.

Here we go.

Fall-in.

Move out.

The Kingdom of God has arrived.

Grab the nets, head for the boats.

Get fishing.”

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John 1:43-51

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43   The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.”  44 Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.  45 Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”  46 Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.”  47 When Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him, he said of him, “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!”  48 Nathanael asked him, “Where did you get to know me?” Jesus answered, “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”  49 Nathanael replied, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”  50 Jesus answered, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”  51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.”

We call our community “Gulf Shores” for reasons that are far more clear to me than the reasons they call our neighboring community Orange Beach.  We are clearly on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, so we are “Gulf Shores”; but so far, I have never seen their beaches orange.  (Somebody is probably going to meet me afterwords and start talking about sunsets; but sorry; the sky gets orange, not the beach – not the way I see it anyway).

The Story from the House of Hunting

They call the place where this story in the gospel of John is set “Bethsaida” which means the “house of hunting.”  Back then fishing could be considered a form of hunting too.  Bethsaida is right on the shores of the lake where the disciples went fishing.  It’s at the north end of the fresh water lake that they call the Sea of Galilee.

That would be the territory governed by Herod Phillip, one of the four sons of King Herod the Great.  So we could call the place King Phillip’s House of Hunting.  But that sounds like a dating service so perhaps we shouldn’t.

Hunting and fishing is all about finding.  In this story, set in the House of Hunting, a lot of “finding” is going on.  Jesus finds Phillip – not king Phillip, but just a normal man named Phillip.  Phillip finds Nathanael, and tells him,

“We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth.”

If hunting and fishing is all about finding, this story is off to a great start.

Hitting a Snag

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But it hits a snag right here.  Nathanael is not so sure.  He can see that their fishing line has something tugging on it, but he’s not sure it’s a fish.

 “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”

Nowhere in the law of Moses is Nazareth ever mentioned.   In all the talk in the prophets about the future, when God would return to Zion as king, in all of the prophecies of the time when the world would be put to right, when swords would become plowshares and everyone could sit under their own vine and fig tree without fear, Nazareth is never mentioned.  So Nathanael has reasons for his skepticism.

Phillip has the advantage over Nathanael in this discussion, an ace in his hand, so now he plays it.  Phillip has actually met Jesus personally; Nathanael hasn’t yet.  So Phillip plays his card, saying,

“Come and see” 

How Does He Know?

So off they go to see Jesus.  As they approach, Jesus sees them coming.  When they get within speaking distance, Jesus takes the initiative again.  Like a hunter who has found his game without the game knowing he is watching, Jesus says to Nathanael:

“Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit!” 

It’s quite an odd greeting.  Were Israelites typically deceptive but Nathanael is an exception?  Who knows?

Nevertheless, it does make us think about the fact that the original Israelite, the father of the 12 sons who became the 12 tribes, Jacob himself, whose name was changed to Israel, was indeed deceptive.  Jacob was the one who deceived his older brother Esau and stole his blessing as the firstborn, his birthright.  Anyway, Nathanael is not deceptive like his ancestor, says Jesus.

But the point is that saying something like Jesus did implies that Jesus knew him already – knew him well enough to know not just what he actively did, but knew what he didn’t ever do – and you have to know someone pretty well to know that.  Nathanael wonders how this could be possible, since they are meeting for the first time, so he asks Jesus:

 “Where did you get to know me?”

Jesus’ reply shows even more unexpected special knowledge:

 “I saw you under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

New Conclusions

Now Nathanael is shocked into forgetting the whole Nazareth issue.  He has “come and seen” as Phillip told him to do, and now he gets it.  He jumps to the conclusion that God is at work in a unique way in Jesus.  Maybe he is indeed the long awaited king that is returning to Zion, God’s anointed Son.  Nathanael blurts out:

“Rabbi, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!”

Jesus could understand how this special knowledge might be impressive, but he also knows more.  He knows that Nathanael and the other disciples will see even greater things; things that make it clear that being in Jesus’ presence is being in the presence of God.

 “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.”  51 And he said to him, “Very truly, I tell you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.” 

Jacob’s Dream

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This reminds us of Nathanael’s ancestor Jacob again.  This time we are remembering that odd dream that he had in which he saw a vision of angels on a two-lane ladder from heaven to earth.  When he woke up, he called the place “Bethel” which means “house of God”  – which of course is a temple.

In the ancient world, temples were thought of as the place where heaven, God’s dwelling place, was connected to earth.  Angels are God’s messengers, so they are coming and going from there, delivering the mail.  In other words, the place where angels come and go is the place where God connects with the earth – the temple.

Jesus is saying that God’s connection to the earth is in himself, and that soon enough, Nathanael will see it happening – like water turned into wine,

people healed, even restored back to life, and all kinds of things.  In fact, the very glory of God will be seen in Jesus, who is, after all, the “word made flesh”  as John has told us in chapter one.

This story about hunting and finding has come to quite an unexpected place for Nathanael.  He first thinks that Phillip hasn’t found anything worth finding, then he thinks he may have found Israel’s true king, but in the end, he is told that he has found the person in whom Israel’s God connects with the earth.

“Follow Me”

What is there left to do except to answer the call that got this whole story started, the call of Jesus:

“Follow me.”

As it turns out, the question is not where did he come from, but rather, where is he going?  Whither? not Whence? as they used to say.

This is exactly our quest: to follow Jesus.  We believe that Jesus is that meeting point of heaven and earth, that finding him – really we should say, being found by him, is exactly what we are are “hunting” in our deepest hearts.  So we are committed to following Jesus.

The Scary Test

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But this brings me to one of the scariest problems I’ve heard of.  It comes from a book written by one of my seminary professors, Scott McKnight.  He teaches a course on Jesus, in which he gives his students a test.   The test asks questions about what Jesus is like – what would he do or not do.  Then the test asks very similar questions about the students themselves.  He says,

“The amazing result…is that everyone thinks Jesus is like them!” (The Blue Parakeet,  p. 49)

Instead of becoming more like Jesus, we try to make Jesus like ourselves.  Instead of following Jesus we end up following a mirror of ourselves.  Jesus ends up looking like a middle-class white American whose golf game could use some improvement.

How can we become like Nathanael, people in whom there is no deceit?  Someone once said, “never underestimate the power of denial” – what is denial but self-deception?  If we think that Jesus thinks exactly like us, wants what we want, dislikes what we dislike, we are deceived indeed.

The Teaching Spirit

But how can we ever get past our own personal echo-chambers?  Later in John’s gospel, near the end, this question is going to come up.  The disciples are going to be sharing the last supper with Jesus.  They have been following him during his earthly ministry, but at this point,  they hear him say that he is leaving, returning to the Father. Thomas asks Jesus, “how can we know the way?”  How can we follow Jesus when Jesus is no longer physically present?  Jesus replies:

   “I have said these things to you while I am still with you.  26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. (John 14:25-26)

We believe that the Spirit is active in our days, helping us to see how to follow Jesus.  We do our best to study Jesus; we read the gospels and take note of how Jesus lived, who he took time for, how he responded to people, what kind of people he reached out to.  We learn from Jesus.

And as we do, we expect that his Spirit will teach us.  We humans can be slow learners.  It took us a long time to understand his teaching about

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slavery, and a longer time to understand the Spirit’s teaching about women in ministry.

These were hard for us to learn, because we thought Jesus looked just like us, thought like us, wanted what we wanted, which, for us white men, was to stay in control.

Being Uncomfortable

One thing we can see clearly from the gospels is that Jesus was continually pushing people outside their comfort zones.   One test of whether or not we are following Jesus as the Spirit leads us in our days is to ask what topics make us uncomfortable?  What kinds of people do we feel comfortable despising, as if they came from Nazareth?

Following Jesus is not the most comfortable option in our times.

We are living in times in which money justifies just about anything imaginable.

We are living in time in which security justifies just about anything imaginable.

We are living in times in which the idea of staying in fellowship with those who have different opinions seems completely dispensable.

We are living in selfish, angry times.

None of this is of the Spirit.

Rather, the Spirit leads us to follow Jesus, imitate Jesus, emulate Jesus, because in him, we see the meeting point of heaven and earth.  In him, we are truly found.

“Come and see.”

Genesis 1:1-5

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.

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Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God 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. 

Mark 1:4-11

John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

Our bibles begin with the strange dark picture of a watery world without form: empty; void; chaos.  How did it get there?  How long has it been like that?   We are not told; only that there is nothing there but a deep darkness.

But it is a beginning, because God is beginning to create.  God’s Spirit is there, God’s breath, God’s wind is blowing, and a voice sounds out over the waters from out of nowhere:

“Let there be light!” and there was light.”  

God then separated the light from the darkness: again we wonder, how?  There is no open space of sky that has yet been created, no land has yet been made, no sun yet.  Light without sun?  Separation of light and dark without space between them?  Perhaps we are to think below the surface and see that essential separation of light from darkness as the first step God always takes in creation.

Is the light goodness and the darkness evil?  Is that the essential separation?  Is that what God’s presence does when God creates the conditions for life – distinguishes evil from good?  Without making that difference, between light and darkness, there is only anarchy and chaos.  Life in those conditions cannot be good.  So God begins by creating light, and separating the darkness.

 4 And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called

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Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.

The End like the Beginning

There will be another day, we are told in the book of Revelation, when God will make a new heavens and a new earth.  When that new creation comes, just like on the first day of the first creation, there will be light, without the need of a sun.  No evil will be there anymore.  It will be good again.

But between the first and final creation, there have been many dark nights, and many dark days.

It is “the people who have walked in darkness,” Isaiah said, who finally will “see a great light,” but it has been a long dark walk.

They say the easiest sermons to preach are the ones about how bad the world is.  Once you start thinking about the darkness all around us, the wars, the terrorists, the brutal repressive regimes, the drug gangs, and about the evil that is much closer to us, the unfaithfulness, the deceptions, the cruel words and broken relationships, you can keep up a diatribe that lasts all day.  It has been a long dark walk.

But the God who made the original separation of light from darkness made a world that was essentially good, not evil; and God’s constant desire, ever after, has been to bring goodness out of evil.

So instead of abandoning the world to its darkness, God has found ways to enter the darkness.  God’s Spirit, God’ breath, God’s wind has never been reluctant to blow into dark places.  God has always known that our only hope is that by some means, God must be with us.

God with Israel in Wilderness

God was with the Israelites in the wilderness over many dark years.  They worshiped him at the tabernacle, the tent shrine made of heavy curtains.  It was like a mobile temple that they could set up and take down on their long journey through the wilderness to the Jordan River, the border of the promised land.

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There were curtains that formed the outside edges of the tabernacle, curtains that separated the holy place inside, and another curtain separating the holy of holies.  Behind that last curtain was the ark of the covenant where God’s presence was invisibly enthroned between the wings of the two cherubim.

Solomon’s Temple Curtain

Years later, when Solomon built the permanent temple, it’s walls were solid, except for one: there remained one curtain, the final separation marking the boundary of the holy of holies.

There is something essential and important about God being behind a curtain, and something odd and troublesome.  God is light, and in God there is no darkness at all.  God is holy.  Of course God’s sacred, holiness must be separate from the profane world of human evil and darkness.  That much is essential and important.

God behind a Curtain, or in Heaven

But the God who stays behind a curtain is hardly “with” people in the ultimate sense.  The God behind the curtain is not with them close enough to wipe away tears.  His nearness is oddly out of reach; that much is troublesome.  Perhaps behind the curtain, his light is less illuminating.

The Israelites, of course, understood that God was not contained in the temple.  But the only other way they could think of God was to imagine him up in heaven.  The earthly temple was thought of as a small replica of the heavenly throne-room where God sat as King of the Universe.

The distance between heaven and earth is large, and they felt every inch of it.  The prophet cried out,

“ O that you would tear open the heavens and come down”  (Isaiah 64:1)

Tearing Open the Heavens

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One day God did tear open the heavens and come down.  This is exactly the way Mark describes what happened that day Jesus came to the Jordan river to be baptized.  Listen again to the way Mark describes the scene:

10 And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him.  11 And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.” 

Into the darkness God’s Spirit again plunges down after tearing open the heavens.  It is a new first day of a new creation.  Again a voice is heard over the waters, announcing what has happened.  God’s Son has been anointed by the Spirit to be Messiah.

God is With us

Now God is with his people – all the way with them.  Not up in the heavens a long way away.  He is all the way in their world with them – soaking wet with the water that they have been baptized in.  He is with them in the water that has washed their sins; he is close enough to wipe tears – close enough to shed tears.  The separation is over.  The distance has been brought near.

Jesus has been anointed by the Spirit for his ministry of announcing the Kingdom of God.  It is not finished yet.  It is like the moment at which the prophet Samuel anointed David as king to replace Saul.  David was anointed but could not take the throne until Saul’s resistance forces had been overcome.

Jesus has been anointed by the Spirit, and now his ministry of overcoming the resistance forces of the evil one has begun.  There are still dark days that remain between the anointing and the final triumph.

How will the victory over darkness be achieved?  The beloved Son of God who began his ministry down in the baptismal waters of our humanity and sinfulness, finally overcomes evil by allowing it to exhaust its dark powers on him.  He finally absorbs all of the evil as he is lifted up on a cross.

Listen as Mark describes that moment:

37 Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last.  38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.  39 Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!” 

Another tearing open, another voice of acclamation, and now the final separation has been eliminated.  God is with us.

As the book of Revelation puts it,

“And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with people, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God.” (Rev. 21:3)

Baptized with Christ

We have been baptized into Christ, into Messiah.  We have been buried with him by baptism into his death and raised to walk in new life, to walk in

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the light as he is in the light.  We are now to live in communion with him, close enough to let him dry our tears.

And close enough to see his tears.  Close enough to weep with him for the darkness that remains.  Close enough to experience the blessedness of those who mourn for the suffering that darkness causes.

We have been baptized into his ministry to humans, and we have also been anointed with his Spirit.  He is with us here and now, and with us, by his empowering Spirit, as we venture out in services of mercy and compassion.

He is with us as we gather at table.  He is with us in the bread and in the cup, giving himself to us again, by his powerful Spirit.  He is with us as we come to recognize that those feasting with us are indeed members of the body of Christ.

He is with us, sending us out to be the body of Christ in the world.

Luke 2:22-40

When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord (as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons.”

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Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon; this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, Simeon came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, 
”Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, 
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples, a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.”

And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. Then Simeon blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

There was also a prophet, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshipped there with fasting and prayer night and day. At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him.

People love to tell stories about their kids – and grandkids. We all do it. We tell the stories to anyone who will listen, and we tell them to the kids themselves. Why?

Perhaps one reason is that we believe that some of those stories we remember from their early years contain glimmers of what would come to full-light later on. We think we can see threads of continuity through life.

Child-Jesus Stories

It is surprising how few stories we have of Jesus as a child. The gospels of Mark and John start with Jesus as a full grown adult. Only Matthew and Luke have stories of Jesus’ birth – which are quite different from each other.

Matthew goes from the story of the wise men visiting Jesus, to his family’s escape to Egypt to avoid the crazy king Herod. They return and the next thing you know, Jesus is grown up and is ready to be baptized by John.

Luke alone has one single story of Jesus as a boy, age 12, confounding the Bible teachers in the temple. That’s it.

Clearly the gospels were not even trying to be full biographies as we think of them. If they knew more of Mary’s stories, they didn’t consider them important to tell.

Why this story?

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Which makes us wonder why Luke felt it important to tell this story we read today, of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to the temple as an infant.

If you didn’t know any better, you might think that Jesus was being used as an object lesson in how to be a good, faithful, Law-of-Moses-abiding person. You might think that this story illustrates, for other Jews, the importance of doing everything required by the Torah, the Old Testament, as an encouragement to do the same.

But we do know better. By the time Luke wrote down this story of the baby Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem, there was no temple in Jerusalem. In 70 AD the Romans came, in force, in response to a Jewish revolt, and crushed the temple as an object lesson.

Now we can see that this is like telling a story about the families on the Titanic. The people reading the story are not being instructed in cruise manners and customs: they know what is going to happen.

So why would Luke bother to tell his readers about these Jewish customs and practices, and what does this children’s story have to do with us? Let’s look at the story closely.

Roots – back to Abraham

First, it’s quite clear that for Luke, to understand Jesus is to understand his roots. Jesus is born into completely faithful, observant Judaism. Jesus has just been circumcised, as the Law of Moses commanded; that means he has been given the sign of the covenant. In fact, circumcision goes back further than Moses, hundreds of years, all the way back to Father Abraham.

Why is that important? It was God’s covenant and promise to Abraham that set in motion the whole story of the people of Israel, the story of God’s chosen. Jesus has just been circumcised, that is, branded with that logo. He is part of that story in which God said to Abraham, through your descendants, all the families of the earth will be blessed. How is that going to work out?

Well, it has taken some time. Hundreds of years after Abraham, the Jews found themselves slaves in Egypt. But God heard their cries and had compassion on them. He saved them from slavery by the hand of Moses who led them out. They came to Mount Sinai where Moses gave the the Torah, God’s instructions.

Mary and Joseph were keeping faithful to these laws. One of the laws was that after giving birth to a son, a woman had to go through a purification period of 40 days, after which she would offer sacrifices at the temple. She should bring a lamb, unless she was poor, in which case a pair of doves would have to do. Mary and Joseph were poor: they brought turtle doves.

Meeting Sam (Simeon)

At the temple they meet a man named Simeon. We would call him Sam, short for Samuel; Simeon was also short for Samuel. (Fitzmyer, Luke, AB, 426)

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Perhaps Sam was named after that famous biblical character, Samuel, who knows? But it is interesting to remember that as a little boy, Samuel too was presented at the temple by his mother and father.

Samuel’s mother’s name was Hannah, or as the New Testament would say, Anna – a name which also shows up in this story (if you remember, we have learned that Mary’s song of praise is modeled after Hannah’s song of praise).

Anyway, the little boy Samuel grew up in the temple, and one night heard God calling him. The message God gave to Samuel, for the old priest Eli, was partly good, partly bad news. The message Simeon gives to to Mary and Joseph about Jesus is also mixed. God is now doing something new – but it will get a mixed reaction; some will receive it, others not; it will cause a division.

Who was this man Sam, or Simeon? All we know about him was that Luke tells us he is

“righteous and devout, looking for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him.”

Why would Israel need consoling? Because all of these people, who knew what God’s promise-covenant with Abraham was all about, knew that it had not come true yet. They felt that the blessings were not even true for themselves, let alone being the source of blessing for the whole world.

But here is where the story gets interesting. Sam, or Simeon has, like little Samuel before him, heard the voice of God giving him a message. He believes, he says, that he has been granted the gift of living long enough to see the way God is going to save his people. Luke tells us,

26 “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.”

Nunc Dimittis (now, dismiss)

Luke tells us that the Holy Spirit guided him into the temple where he meets Mary and Joseph with Jesus; he takes the baby into his arms and says his famous poem:

“Master, now you are dismissing your servant in peace,
according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation,
which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,
a light for revelation to the Gentiles
and for glory to your people Israel.“

He pictures himself like a sentinel on the wall, on night duty, and now the sun has risen, and his commanding officer dismisses him. The light has started shining, Messiah has come, the consolation Israel had been dreaming of.

Lights and Shadows

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But as one scholar put it, “anyone who turns on light creates shadows.” (Craddock, Luke, Interpretation, p. 39).

All through this story Luke has woven in echoes of the prophet Isaiah. He told of a light that would shine on all the nations, “all flesh will see God’s salvation” (Is 40:4). Isaiah says that the servant of the Lord will be “a light to the nations” (42:6). This will bring the long awaited “consolation” (or “comfort” – same word in Greek, Isa. 40:1).

But the light of Messiah will cast shadows. Simeon continues:

“This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”

Jesus himself is destined to experience this division in Israel. Some will follow him as Messiah, the new and true King, whose Kingdom has come, whose Kingdom has no end. Others will shout “crucify him.” The light casts shadows.

Luke’s community had witnessed this happen. Some had followed Jesus; some came to the light. Others did not. Some actually experienced the resurrected Jesus of Easter morning. Some experienced him in worship “in the breaking of the bread.”

But others had rejected the prince of peace, had raised up the sword against Rome, and now the temple was in ruins. Light casts shadows.

Today’s Lights and Shadows

Today we see the same. We can bear witness to the light that has shined in our hearts. We are those gentiles on whom the light has shinned. We know of God’s salvation through Jesus.

But sadly, we see those who cling to the darkness. They somehow miss that the light of Jesus is what illumines God for us.

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In the light of Jesus, we see God’s overwhelming compassion for the sick whom Jesus heals – even if he has to break Sabbath customs to do it. There are folks today who seem have no concern for sick people as long as they have good insurance for themselves.

In the light of Jesus we see God’s concern for hungry people, as Jesus stopped to feed them. There are those among us who are well-fed who do not want any of their bounty to go to hungry people.

In the light of Jesus, we see God’s embrace of foreigners, even Roman soldiers – the “enemy,” and his embrace of other non-Israelites. There are those among us who think that helping anyone who is not an American citizen is unnecessary.

In the light of Jesus we see a God of extravagant forgiveness who teaches us to forgive those who sin against us. There are those who live in the darkness of believing they are justified in bitterness, resentment and even vengeance.

Over and over we see that light casts shadows. Following Jesus has never been the majority response. Isaiah predicted a small remnant; Jesus spoke of the narrow path. Simeon spoke of the falling as well as the rising of many.

The light has come, but some prefer the selfish darkness of the shadows.

We are called to walk in the light today! We are called to rejoice that Messiah has come. The long awaited promise to Abraham, the blessing that is for the whole world has come at last!

Let us rejoice to live in the light! Let us live in the light of a loving, merciful, compassionate, welcoming embracing, forgiving Heavenly Father! And let us take up that light and bear it out into the selfish darkness of our day!

Merry Christmas

Micah 5:2-5

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2    But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, 

who are one of the little clans of Judah,
from you shall come forth for me
one who is to rule in Israel,
whose origin is from of old,
from ancient days. 
3 Therefore he shall give them up until the time
when she who is in labor has brought forth;
then the rest of his kindred shall return
to the people of Israel. 
4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD,
in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.
And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great
to the ends of the earth; 
5 and he shall be the one of peace.

Luke 2:1-20

In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. 2This was the first registration and

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was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. 3All went to their own towns to be registered. 4Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. 5He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. 6While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. 7And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

8In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. 10But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: 11to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. 12This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” 13And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying, 14“Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!” 15When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. 17When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; 18and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. 19But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. 20The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

A number of us here could stand and testify in praise of Google Maps, Mapquest, or the GPS system in our cars; the days of getting hopelessly lost are over.  This is especially helpful because well-meaning people can be terrible at giving  directions.  Some tell you how many tenths of a mile to go, but

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don’t know the street name. Sometimes you are given a street name with no idea how far away it is – and how do you know but that you haven’t already gone speeding past it?  “Turn left at the big building on Rt. 59,”  they told me, here in Baldwin County, Alabama.  But I’ve lived ten years of my life in Chicago.  To me, there are no big buildings on rt. 59 in Baldwin County!

Bad Directions

People are not great at giving directions, but then, neither are angels.  They do a great introduction: the sudden appearance in the silent night sky, terrifying the poor shepherds half to death.  They got their attention, but when it came time to tell them how to get to the newborn babe, what are the directions?

 “in the city of David… you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger” 

That’s it.  No street address, no building description – they don’t know but what they may have checked into the inn.  Remember, these were the original shepherds.  They have never seen the annual church nativity play to watch the merciless inn-keeper turn away Mary and Joseph.  These shepherds have never seen a crèche, so they don’t know what the stable is supposed to look like, and they have no star guiding them like the wise men did.

“City of David”

To their credit, the shepherds know what to make of the cryptic “city of David.”  No one would be faulted for thinking that meant Jerusalem, the city that king David made his capital.  They don’t fall for that.  They somehow Intuit that the angels meant David’s hometown, Bethlehem.

It was in Bethlehem, long ago, that the prophet Samuel came to the home of Jesse, the Ephrathite, asking to see his eight sons so that he could anoint one of them as Israel’s next king.  Long story short, it took a while to finally locate little David; he was off being a good shepherd, watching his sheep.

So anyway, the shepherds in the Christmas story recognize that the city of David is Bethlehem, and now all they have to do is locate the manger.  Since a

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manger is a feeding trough, and since everybody had a donkey or a camel or an ox or some sheep or goats, or a combination of them, and they all had to be fed, everyone had a manger.  In addition to animal food, one of the mangers in the town of Bethlehem had a baby in it, but how would you ever find it with directions like that?

Luke simply explains:

 15 When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” 16 So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger.

Manger…manger…manger (?)

Maybe Luke is playing with us a bit.  As useless as a manger is for narrowing down the directions, it is mentioned three times.  First Luke tells us that Mary laid Jesus in the manger, then the angels tell the shepherds to find Jesus in a manger, then Luke tells us they found him in the manger.  You start getting the idea that Luke wants us to look at this whole manger-concept a little more closely.

Okay, let’s look at it.  A manger has only one purpose: it’s where the food for the animals is.  Are we supposed to think of Jesus as a kind of food?

Beth-lehem: “house of bread”

It may be worth noticing something the shepherds knew that we miss: the town’s name, Bethlehem, means “house of bread.”

If you remember the story of Ruth, the woman who became the mother of Jesus’ ancestors, you may recall how the name of the town is important.  Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi is from Bethlehem, the “house of bread” but she has to immigrate to Moab because of a famine: there is no bread in “the house of bread.”   Eventually they return, the family stays there for generation after generation, and finally King David is born in Bethlehem.

David was a shepherd when the prophet Samuel anointed him as king in Bethlehem.  That seems somehow fitting; in the old days, kings were called

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“shepherds” of the people.  A good shepherd cared for his flock; a bad one simply fleeced them of their wool, so to speak.

Glory Days – Future Days

After David, king Solomon made a mess of things.  Soon the kingdom split apart, and kings went from bad to worse.  It is no wonder that looking back on the time of David was looking back on the glory days.  When the prophets, like Micah, pictured a future time when God would do a new thing on behalf of his people, they pictured it happening as it had in the glorious past.  The new king would come from the same place David came from: Bethlehem.  Micah sang:

 2 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel,”

Of course Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the “house of bread”; he was from the family of David.  The angels called him the Messiah – meaning the “anointed one;” the coming king.

The new King’s job

What did prophet Micah picture this newly anointed king from Bethlehem accomplishing for his people?

 “4 And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.”

The new king will feed his flock, like a good shepherd.   So there it is.  Jesus is born in Bethlehem, city of David, house of bread, laid in a manger, destined to be Messiah, the anointed king, to feed his people in the strength of the Lord.

Saving the Hungry

To save a starving person, you have to feed him.  The angels said the shepherds would find, in the manger, a Savior, Messiah, the Lord.  He will feed his people.

On Christmas Day, 2011, I think the Christmas story is exactly what we need.  We are all starving this year.  Starving for effective solutions, starving for stability, starving for security.

Probably most of us are starving personally too.  Starving to be understood, starving for affection, for love, for some way to make sense of our lives.  We own more than we could ever pretend to need, but yet the hunger persists. What’s up with that?

It makes me recall a poem I heard Garrison Keillor read on the Writer’s Almanac

Oniomania by Peter Pereira

Not so much the desire

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for owning things
as the inability to choose
between hunter or emerald
green, to buy
just roses, when there are birds
of paradise, dahlias,
delphinium, and baby’s breath.
At center an emptiness
large as a half-off sale table.
What could be so wrong
with a little indulgence?
To wander the aisles of fresh
new good things knowing
any of them could be hers?
With a closet full of shoes
unworn back home,
she’s looking for love
but it’s not for sale —
so she grabs three of
the next best thing.

It could just as easily been about a man, shopping for new toys.  We share the same condition.

And really, it is a grotesque starvation that puts us in debt to banks and consumer creditors, while a lack of literal bread sends millions of children around the world to bed literally hungry.  Another charity appeal comes in the mail, and finds its way to the round file, while the bills for all our “next best things” add up on the desk.

Hear the call of Christmas.  Come to Jesus.  Let him feed your hungry heart.  And then let him break your heart for a hungry world.

Hear the message of Christmas from the words of the classic hymn, “Jesus, Thou Joy of Loving Hearts”:

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Jesus, Thou Joy of loving hearts,

Thou Fount of life,
Thou Light of men,
From the best bliss that earth imparts,
We turn unfilled to Thee again.

Thy truth unchanged hath ever stood;
Thou savest those that on Thee call;
To them that seek Thee Thou art good,
To them that find Thee all in all.

We taste Thee, O Thou living Bread,
And long to feast upon Thee still;
We drink of Thee, the Fountainhead,
And thirst our souls from Thee to fill.

Our restless spirits yearn for Thee,
Wherever our changeful lot is cast;
Glad when Thy gracious smile we see,
Blessed when our faith can hold Thee fast.

O Jesus, ever with us stay,
Make all our moments calm and bright;
Chase the dark night of sin away,
Shed over the world Thy holy light.

John 1

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was in the beginning with God. ³All things came into being

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through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being ⁴in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. ⁶There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. ⁷He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. ⁸He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. ⁹The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. ¹⁰He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. ¹²But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, ¹³who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. ¹⁴And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

The first chapter of the Gospel of John, the prologue, tells the whole gospel story in miniature.

I used to think of the incarnation as a way of speaking of Jesus as divine; it was a God-thing that God became flesh; a miracle.  Now, I understand that the meaning of incarnation, en-flesh-ment, when God becomes human, is not a celebration of miraculous god-power; an amazingly magical feat of conjuring, the ultimate rabbit out of the hat.  Instead, now I understand incarnation as the ultimate celebration of humanness.  The ultimate affirmation of the sacredness of human life.  NT Wright compares John’s prologue in chapter one to the book of Genesis where human life began:

 “The climax of the first chapter of Genesis is the creation of the human being in the image of the creator” Gen. 1:26-28

26 “Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness… 27 So God created humankind in his image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”

Wright continues:

“The climax of John’s prologue is the coming to full humanness of the logos [word]… The [word] becomes a human being.”

“John is consciously writing a new version of Genesis.” (NT Wright, NTPG, p. 416)

Gender and Flesh

Is it too much to say that the incarnation celebrates humanness?  Perhaps it celebrates only male-humanness; the flesh that the Word became, after all, was the flesh of a man.  Yes, true; but the Word itself that John tells us about, before taking on male flesh, had all of the features of a special biblical woman; Lady Wisdom, who appears in the book of Proverbs.

As Alyce McKenzie explains,

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“The portrait of Jesus the Word of God in the Prologue to the Gospel of John owes much to the portrait of Woman Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs. Like her the Word was active in creation. Like her he brings the light of wisdom into the darkness of folly. Like her, he was not recognized by everyone, for many refused to follow her path. Like Wisdom, the Word requires our response, but is, at the same time, a gracious gift from God to humankind.”

(From Edgy Exegesis, Alyce McKenzie, at Patheos)

In addition to Proverbs, Lady Wisdom also makes an appearance in the Jewish book called Sirach, written about two hundred years before Jesus was born.  Sirach tells us that Ms. Wisdom describes her own “glory,” saying:

“I came forth from the mouth of the Most High… I dwelt in the highest heavens…. Then the Creator of all things gave me a command and my Creator chose the place for my tent.  He said, ‘Make your dwelling in Jacob and in Israel receive your inheritance.‘  Before the ages, in the beginning, he created me, and for all the ages I shall not cease to be.”  (Sir. 24:1-28)

Lady Wisdom is glorious; she is present with God the Creator; she came to dwell among humans, to pitch a tent among people.  Clearly John has this woman in mind when he tells us about the logos,  the Word that was in the beginning with God, full of Glory, who came to dwell – literally to “tabernacle,” to “pitch his tent” among us as one of us, becoming flesh; human.

So John puts together both genders in this one place, this feminine Wisdom-Word, puts on masculine human flesh affirming in a brand new way what Genesis had said

 27 So God created humankind in his image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Incarnation celebrates the sacredness of humanness, male and female.

Glorious Light

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What is the effect of God taking on human flesh?   Light!  It is as though a huge light has been turned on so that for the first time, we can see clearly what were only shadows and shapes before.

 “4 in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  5 The light shines in the darkness…”

Light is the best way to think about the meaning of “glory.”  The angels who appeared to the shepherds in the middle of a dark night are “glorious” – shining, terrifying the shepherds.  They sing about glory: “Glory to God in the highest.”

John tells us, that when the Word became flesh, he came with visible “glory” – “the light shines in the darkness.”

In Rembrandt’s drawing of the angels appearing to the shepherds, they are bursting with light in the dark sky.  Is Jesus glorious in the same way as the angels?  Is that what the incarnation is all about?  God terrifying poor defenseless humans with an overpowering light?  Is that the glory John describes?  What happens when that glorious eternal Wisdom-Word becomes flesh?

In Jesus, glory is transformed.  Rembrandt has another painting called the “Adoration of the Shepherds.”  They are at the manger with Mary and Joseph, some near and kneeling, others standing, looking down in wonder.

In Rembrandt’s unique way, he shows us light is streaming up from the baby Jesus, illuminating the faces gathered around.  “The light shines in the darkness, and we beheld his glory.”  

Only now, “glory” is not the overwhelming, intimidating glory of angels, it is the glory of a  new birth, the glory on the face of every new father, looking down at the miracle of life in his arms.

“14   And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,”

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It is the glory of a baby, a human, made in God’s image; a sacred life.

Illumination

So what has been illuminated by the light of Christ that came into the world?  Now we see, as if the light has just been turned on, the way God sees us, humans, creatures of flesh and blood.

In the light of Jesus, we see the dignity and sanctity of menial shepherds, the first to be entrusted with the glorious news.

In the light of Jesus we see blind people and lame people, sick people and injured people not as economic liabilities, but as flesh and blood embodiments of the image of God.

In the light of Jesus we see lepers, enemy soldiers, Canaanite women, and demoniacs, not as objects of our discrimination and revulsion, but all as flesh and blood subjects of God’s full-bodied embrace.

In the light of Jesus we see ourselves, as Rembrandt painted himself, illuminated by the light streaming from the cross, showing his complicity – our complicity, in the evil of our day for which Jesus died.

In the light of Jesus we see the darkness that we have lived in, and the harm it has done, to each other, to our neighbors, to our planet.  Now we see injustice for what it is.

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Now we see greed and selfishness for what they are.

But now, in the light of Jesus, we see God in a new light.

Now we see a God who loves humanity so much that he came to us, to dwell with us, to be flesh, as we are, so that we could live in his light, and see each other in his light, and find redemption.

Let us live in the light of his glory.

Let us bear his light into the darkness.

“14   And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son,”

In the sixth month [of Elizabeth's pregnancy - with John] the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose

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name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, “Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you.” But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.” Then Mary said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.

Mary’s Yes

I can imagine that the early Christians all wanted to get to know Mary.  They must have had enormous respect for her.  We still marvel at her utterly innocent “yes” to Gods’ will that led to the birth of Jesus.

Asking Mary Some Questions

If I were around her in that first generation, I would love to ask her questions.  What was it like to be in the presence of an angel?  Luke told us you were terrified – which is how some say we should take that word “perplexed.”  How bad was it?

How long was the angel there?  Long enough for you to get over the panic?  Did you catch what he was telling you or did you only ponder it after he had left?

The Greeting?

I want to ask Mary, “Did that odd greeting that Gabriel gave you – that the Lord is with you – did that make you think of the prophet Isaiah?  Did  you get the connection between the you being a virgin who was about to conceive, and the virgin Isaiah spoke of who would conceive and bear a son who would be called “Emmanuel” which means “God with us”?

Elizabeth’s condition?

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When Gabriel mentioned your older relative Elizabeth, were you surprised to hear of her pregnancy?  Did you think of Sarah and Abraham when Gabriel described her former condition as “barren”?  And did you notice that Gabriel then used the same words to you that the angels who came to Sarah and told her that she would have a son used, about nothing being impossible with God?

Did you think that whatever was happening to you was like the first page of volume two in the same story?

Your Son?

And what did you make of Gabriel’s description of what your son was going to be and do?  When the angel spoke of him sitting on David’s throne, did that make you flinch?  What did you think was going to happen with King Herod who was currently sitting on that throne?  What did you think about the Roman army – did you imagine that there would first be a revolution before the throne was secure?

Could you possibly have noticed, in that scary angel-moment, that the whole kingdom picture that Gabriel’s words painted had an oddly non-human look?  Did you catch that your son’s reign was supposed to be forever, with “no end”?

Those Names?

And most of all, what about those names?  You are Jewish so you know that the name Jesus, or in your Hebrew, Joshua, means he is being named after the famous is Joshua, in the Old Testament.   You know well that Joshua was the one who “fought the battle of Jericho” and all the other ones, and conquered the promised land.  Does it make you nervous to have to name your son after a conqueror?

And what about the names your son is supposed to be called, like “great” which is normally what the kings like to be called, and like, “holy” and “the Son of the Most High?”  What did you think was going to be growing in you for the next nine months?  Wouldn’t the idea of giving birth to God blow your mind?

Your Question?

And Mary, please don’t be insulted, but you asked the angel only one question: was your primary concern really only that you didn’t know how a virgin could bear a child?  Would that be any tougher for God than an old lady like Elizabeth or like Sarah conceiving?

Reading Isaiah?

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One last thing.  When you answered the angel, when you said “yes” to everything God was going to do, you called yourself “the servant of the Lord” – had you just been reading Isaiah?  Were you intentionally making the ideal “yes” response to God that “the servant of the Lord” which is what Isaiah sometimes calls Israel was supposed to make?  Were you tempted to add “here I am, send me?” as Isaiah himself said?

How Could she have known much?

Mary is not around to ask, but this year, as I have been thinking about Mary’s famous “yes” to God’s will, I have been struck by how little she must have understood about what was going to happen.  When she said those classic words:

 “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

- what did she imagine she was she saying “yes” to?  She could not possibly have known.

She knew One Thing Well

But in that frightening moment, I believe her response shows that she knew one thing for certain: that God was indeed with her, as Gabriel affirmed.

He was with her then, just as he was with her when she met Joseph for the first time.  God was with her in Sabbath School when she learned the stories of Abraham and Sarah and the miraculous birth of Isaac.

Barrenness and With-ness

God was with her when she reflected on the many times and the many ways in her people’s past, that the issue of barrenness had to be overcome.

Famine, exile, occupation, were all forms of barrenness.  Faithlessness, idolatry, injustice and exploitation were ways of being spiritually barren that Mary’s people had known for centuries.  But nevertheless, through it all, God had been with them.

Now, for Mary, God was doing something brand new.  Certainly the new thing contained the ringing echoes of the former things God had done, but this new thing that Gabriel announced seemed bigger – infinitely bigger.  Yes, God is with us.  and No, nothing is impossible for the God who came to be with us, as one of us, as Jesus, the Son of the Most High.

With us?

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Is it possible for us, today, in all of our situations of barrenness to live and act as people who recognize God is with us?  It is helpful to read of Mary’s confidence in the with-ness of God.  It is also helpful to hear from each other.

In Advent, we have been hearing personal stories of people among us who can bear witness to the present reality of God in their lives.  We heard from from Dick whose witness was recorded by his daughter Pam, just after he went home to be with the Lord.

We heard, last week, from Jean, about God’s work to raise up a new church for a poor black congregation on Chicago’s South side.

This Sunday we will hear from Lynn of his witness to God’s presence in his life.

[Lynn’s witness]

At this time of year, we celebrate what Mary knew, what Dick knew, what Jean and  Lynn demonstrated that they know – that as contrary to normal expectations as it seems, yes, God is with us.  Barrenness can become fruitfulness.  The virgin can conceive and bear a son who will be called the Son of the Most High; Emmanuel: God with us.

Knowing this – even though we have no idea what it may mean for us, we are able to say, along with Dick, Jean, Lynn and Mary,

“Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.”

The Fellowship of Presbyterians has published online a document it calls a “Draft of the Theology of the Fellowship of Presbyterians and the New Reformed Body,” posted on Dec. 7, 2011 for review.  They are inviting feedback, acknowledging that this is a draft form.  These are not initial thoughts.  They have been reviewed by “25 first readers who offered thoughtful critique as this draft developed.”  So I would like to weigh in on a part of the draft dealing with scripture.

The document says:

“The spirit will never prompt our conscience to conclusions that are at odds with the scriptures that he has inspired.”

I know some of the people whose theological positions line up with the Fellowship’s views.  I know them to be smart, thoughtful, careful, scholarly, and deeply committed Christians.  That is why it frustrates me when statements like the one above are put out that are far more nuanced than they appear.   People without the benefit of theological study (formal or not) usually read such statements in their simple form and think they mean things that the ones writing them know that they do not mean.  I do not believe anyone is trying to hoodwink anybody, nevertheless, our churches are full of faithful believers who have no idea how complex we know that interpreting scripture is.  Those of us who have had the blessing of time and resources to study know, for example, how nuanced the word “inspired” is. A person could spend years reading everything written on that one word alone.  But the complexity goes way beyond that one word.  Having written the sentence above, the authors have thought long and hard about issues that scripture speaks to that they feel no qualms of conscience being “at odds with.”  The list of such issues, to limit it to the New Testament for the moment, could include:

Women being silent in the church, not teaching men, hair length, hair style (braids) and head coverings, jewelry restrictions (gold and pearls), family structure (submission of wives to husbands, calling them “Lord”), slavery (no problem), divorce (the various perspectives of Jesus, Paul, Micah, Genesis, Deuteronomy, and the current issues like spouse abuse), not to mention figures of speech (pluck out eyes, etc.).

But it goes even deeper.   Consider the issue of violence in the bible.

Should we not be “at odds with” and  even horrified by the baby-killing, head-smashing, bloody rocks of Spirit-inspired Psalm 137?  How is this sentiment of utter brutal vengeance compatible with the blessed life our Lord Jesus taught us to live?  How can this be an example of “the merciful” who will “be shown mercy”?  How can it exemplify the actions of “the meek” who will “inherit the earth”?  How can it be the goal of “the peacemakers” who will be called “the children of God”?  Even if all this vengeance is a understood as a pain-cry for justice (at least, justice in the sense of “an even score”), how can it be the satisfaction of a  “hunger and thirst for justice/righteousness”?  Is it not rather a demand for “turnabout” as “fair-play” rather than justice as righteousness (dikaiosune) which, if anything, cannot create the conditions for future vengeance, as this Psalm certainly does?

Psalm 18 was the morning lectionary Psalm which I read the day I first saw the Fellowship’s theological statement. The Psalmist praises God our Rock who comes to our rescue.  That much we can embrace.  But the psalm goes into dark places from which decent people should keep their distance.  The Psalmist praises the God he prays to for helping him in specific ways:

34 He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 
35 You have given me the shield of your salvation,
and your right hand has supported me;
your help has made me great. 
36 You gave me a wide place for my steps under me,
and my feet did not slip. 

To what effect was all of this divine help?

37 I pursued my enemies and overtook them;
and did not turn back until they were consumed. 
38 I struck them down, so that they were not able to rise;
they fell under my feet. 
39 For you girded me with strength for the battle;
you made my assailants sink under me. 
40 You made my enemies turn their backs to me,
and those who hated me I destroyed. 

Who can read this without remembering the words of our Lord, that those who live by the sword will die by it as well?  This psalm prays for the exact opposite of mercy, meekness and peacemaking.  Even the  enemy’s cry for help from our God, from YHWH, is unanswered – he gets stones for bread; snakes instead of fish for the asking.

41  They cried for help, but there was no one to save them
they cried to the LORD, but he did not answer them. 
42 I beat them fine, like dust before the wind;
I cast them out like the mire of the streets.

It is right and good for us to sing the praise of the next verse:

46  The LORD lives! Blessed be my rock,
and exalted be the God of my salvation,

until the following verse comes; the verse that knows and tells why it is that God is so valuable and praise-worthy:

47 the God who gave me vengeance
and subdued peoples under me; 
48 who delivered me from my enemies;
indeed, you exalted me above my adversaries;

“Vengeance is mine,” says the Psalmist, as he thanks God, for the help.  The one who ends up in the exalted position, high and lifted up, turns out to be the one whose vengeance was successfully accomplished.

Were these the sentiments of the barbaric days in which violence was mistaken for goodness and brutal vengeance for justice?  It would be easy to think so.  It would be convenient to believe that these brutes of the ancient Near East simply had not achieved the level of civilization that we have attained.  It would be nice to think that their entire perspective on violence as a means was far removed from ours. It would be convenient to believe that, but not possible, as we come to the very last line in this Psalm.  It is a final line of praise, a final acknowledgement of God’s role in this bloody reprisal:

“you delivered me from the violent.”

From whom is God credited with providing deliverance?  From the evil?  From the wicked?  From “the fool who says in his heart that there is no God”?  No.  The deliverance God is finally praised for is from “the violent.”  From the ones who use violence as a means.  Obviously, God would want to save me from such people as “the violent.”  And how should he accomplish this great salvation?   By authorizing my violence?  By making me successful in my violent reprisals on my enemy?

The whole psalm collapses here under the weight of its own moral indignation.  In those ancient, barbaric times, they understood full well that violence as a means was characteristic of the kind of people one needed God’s help against. “you delivered me from the violent.” “The violent” were the bad guys.  That was understood back then, by the people who celebrated God’s assistance with their violence.

What do we do with these Psalms?  Everybody concerned with theological statements is familiar enough with the bible to know that this Psalm is not an outlier, in fact it is characteristic of a perspective about violence we find frequently in the Old Testament.  We have all read Joshua and Judges.  We all hope that the Levite’s concubine was was already dead before he cut her up into twelve pieces, but the narrator of Judges 19 leaves us guessing.  We all hope that there is a morally acceptable way to read of the world’s first mass genocide, the flood narrative; after all, there is a rainbow at the end of the story.  Of course this kind of litany could be extended indefinitely.   My point is only this: that I, as a believing Christian who wants to, and needs to hear God speaking through the written word, and everyone else in my shoes, has a huge amount of work to do to reconcile these texts with my/our understanding of the nature of God that we believe comes most completely from his incarnate Word-made-flesh, Jesus.  And he was the one who taught us what the “blessed” life consists of, which is exactly the reason we have so much trouble these “texts of terror.”

So,  it seems to me that making a short, pithy theological statement about how “The Spirit will never prompt our conscience to conclusions that are at odds with the scriptures that he has inspired” just implodes on itself.

How does the Spirit prompt our consciences?  I pray that the Spirit would always and constantly prompt my conscience.  My fear is that I am no better than anybody else in my sensitivity to the Spirit’s prompts.  I am not at all sanguine about the fact that so many of my ancestors-in-faith were anti-Semitic, owned slaves, thought nothing at all of patriarchy, justified innumerable wars of aggression and expansion, up to an including the dispossession of the natives of the land I live in today. Every river around me still bears a native-American name. What sins, even gross horrors am I blind to that my descendants will see?  I find no reason to think my generation will have any better track record than any of my predecessors’.  I wish that the Spirit would prompt me to every single conclusion that is at odds with God’s perfect will.  But my experience is that the Spirit’s work  looks like (not is like, but appears to be) like the famous “moral arc of the universe” in that it is bent towards justice, but only in a long, slow, agonizingly inscrutable manner.  It simply does not do anybody any good to say “The Spirit will never prompt our conscience to conclusions that are at odds with the scriptures that he has inspired”.  I wish it were so simple.  It isn’t simple at all.

By now, several people like Mark Noll have written extensively about the arguments for and against slavery in America.  The people who wanted to justify slavery from the bible  had a much easier time than those who believed the bible led them to oppose it.  Both sides knew and used scripture in their arguments.  The pro-slavery group had an easy time finding places in the bible in which people owned slaves without reproach, and where slaves were assumed and even regulated in the context of Torah.  In fact nowhere in all of the bible, Old and New Testaments is slavery ever condemned.  Rather, it appears as though a runaway slave, Onesimus is returned to his master (in Philemon – though I am aware of the current dispute about this reading of the situation).  Unquestionably, the “house codes” in Ephesians and Colossians assume and regulate the institution of slavery in the Christian household.  Paul even advises slaves in Corinth not to try to gain their freedom.   The pro-slavery group had no problem finding support for their position in the bible.

Remarkably, the whole situation is reversed today.  I know of no one who would argue in favor of the institution of slavery anymore.  And yet, during the civil war era, those who argued against it had a tougher case to make.  Their arguments were about the general sweep of the bible and the teachings of Jesus that seemed to be incompatible with slave-owning.   Today, we would use the word “trajectory” to describe that same arc-like development of thought that leads to a conclusion far down the line from its point of origin, but in a manner totally consistent with the direction.  Some people (probably most people) believe that the civil rights movement in America was simply following the same trajectory that the abolitionist were on in their day.  We Presbyterians believe that the issue of the role of women in the church is similar.  There are verses that say “no!” but we say “yes.”   Are we at odds with the Spirit who inspired the scriptures?   Or have we adopted a carefully nuanced understanding of the very nature of scripture that is able to affirm its “inspired” character and yet consider the historical horizon over which it could not see and the cultural horizon behind which it sat – as we all do still, though in a different time and place?

I am quite aware of the issues of the day in our church, especially abortion and homosexuality.  My friends who share the perspective of the Fellowship take the conservative position opposing both abortion and homosexuality.  I believe that their positions are totally sincere.  I also believe that framing a doctrine of scripture the way the Fellowship draft does leads people to support their view.  It seems so categorically true.  How could the same Spirit who inspired the scriptures ever prompt a person to believe something at odds with scripture?  And clearly scripture condemns homosexuality and abortion, right (well abortion, as it turns out, needs more than just the bible because, well, it’s quite complicated, as anybody my age is well aware, especially those who have read Randall Balmer’s Thy Kingdom Come: an Evangelical’s Lament.  Balmer recounts the meetings of evangelical leaders that he was a part of in which in which the abortion issue was selected for its usefulness in pushing the conservative political agenda, in spite of the paucity of biblical material on the subject and over the objections of some who questioned its relevance.).

It is one thing for a casual church-attender to think that the church’s position on critical issues is simply cut-and-dried, black-or-white, either-or.  But it is quite another thing for church leaders to present their highly nuanced, carefully constructed conclusions that take into consideration vast areas of difficulty as if they were the settled results of simple “prompts” of the Spirit.  None of us has moral problems with braided hair in spite of clear New Testament prohibitions.  What’s up with that?  None of us is ready to condemn as unbiblical a prayer posture that does not include lifting up holy hands; on what basis?  Culture?  Really?  The bible is so clear on these issues, right?

I want desperately to believe and practice what Jesus leads me to believe and practice.  So I do my best to try to read and understand Jesus in the scriptures.  I’m sure I miss more than I catch.  But it seems to me that he frequently tried to get people to think in moral, not just biblical categories.  He had no problem with his disciples plucking grain as they strolled across a field on the Sabbath.  Were they “working on the Sabbath,” thus breaking one of the ten commandments?  Jesus challenged his opponents to think about the Sabbath in moral terms: why was there such a thing as a Sabbath law?  Was it not meant as a benefit to humans – who had been slaves of Pharaoh who never gave them a day of rest?  Could we not say that people were not made for the Sabbath but the Sabbath for people?  And the same reasoning is behind healing on the Sabbath which our Lord seemed to do quite a bit.

The Spirit inspired the bible, but that does not mean the bible is flat.  Jesus is able to see the “weightier matters of the law,  justice and mercy and faith” which he takes as more significant than the regulations about spices, mint, dill and cumin.  The question “who is my neighbor” in the vision of Jesus becomes “who was a neighbor to him?”  All of the law and the prophets can be summed up by the golden rule: do to others as you would have others do to you.”  Does not our Lord teach us to think theologically and morally beyond the “words on a page” way that his interlocutors  approached scripture?  Is the divorce issue settled just because there are verses in Deuteronomy that regulate it?  Or is the whole question deeper than mere citations, requiring us to think past verses on a page to the whole point of human sexual bonding?

Here is the issue: the twenty-five people that reviewed the Fellowship’s theological draft, in addition to the ones who carefully wrote it, already know all of this.  I did not feel the need to supply verse references for all of the biblical quotes and allusions in this response because I know that the Fellowship folks know exactly the texts I refer to; it’s their world.  It’s my world too.  It’s a complex world.  It is a world that deserves forthright, nuanced statements about how people like us, living in our world today, need, benefit from and use scripture.  Speaking of simple “prompts” of the Spirit is school-boy talk.   Does the Spirit prompt all of us to divest from Fidelity Investments because they profit from Petro-China’s investments in Sudan’s genocidal government?  The Board of Pensions doesn’t feel so prompted.  What does that tell us?  “Jesus is Jesus; but business is business?”  Where does that leave us?  Sheep or goats?  It’s serious, but it’s not uncomplicated.

Here is my plea to the Fellowship: you may think, as I understand you to think, that the PCUSA has lost her way; that she has abandoned her center in favor of the spirit of the age, abandoned her faith in God’s word in favor of man’s opinions; that she has rejected faithfulness to the text of scripture, in favor of coziness with the agenda of the American liberal left.  That is a conversation that needs to be conducted.  Others will be anxious to know whether the other major spirit of the age, the spirit of the American political right, the spirit of stepping over the moral hazard of indolent Lazarus lying at the gate, is not at least as likely a temptation and at least as nefarious to faith in the God revealed in Jesus.  But the test of whether or not either of those spirits have been followed is not whether we can all agree that “The spirit will never prompt our conscience to conclusions that are at odds with the scriptures that he has inspired.”  Our women cut their hair, wear braids, pearls, gold, speak in church, even teach, even teach men who they do not call Lord, and who do not pray with hands upraised and who may wear their hair long.  And nowhere in scripture is there a footnote or a flag saying “now this bit is just cultural so you can feel free to let it go later on.”  The way it works in practice, for all of us, is that we believe the Spirit regularly prompts us to believe and practice things that are indeed at odds with the scriptures that he inspired.  This is how it works for all of us, not some of us.

Sincerely,

Rev. Steven D. Kurtz

Gulf Shores, AL

P.s.  Joe Small just published an open letter in The Presbyterian Outlook on his role in the theology draft, clarifying that he is not in favor of or a part of any schism that may be coming.