Rituals of Holiness - Maundy Thursday (based on John 13)

March 24, 2016

            Has Jesus become a brand or a cultural-political mascot?  Theologian Michael Horton suggests as much in his Christianity Today article analyzing why people who call themselves ‘evangelical Christians’ give their votes and support to candidates who curse, advocate torture, don’t attend church, don’t confess sin, and remain unrepentant in spite of numerous divorces and affairs.  How is it that such candidates can use Jesus’ name for their own purposes and supposed Christians line up behind them and declare them to be Godly leaders?  Horton, professor of theology at Westminster Seminary in California, thinks pragmatism is the reason believers tolerate and even promote for president individuals who are antithetical to ways of Jesus.  They think certain people “get things done.”

            Jesus got things done, but he also paid attention to how he did things.  He did not surrender compassionate methods to achieve Kingdom results.  Every act portrayed the new reality God was in the process of creating. 

When Jesus knelt and washed his disciples’ feet, he demonstrated life in the Kingdom of God.  We are humble before one another. We serve one another for the sake of love of the other.  Michael Horton writes, “Jesus enacts a performance parable about power.  … Taking off his out garment, he wraps a towel around his waist and begins to wash his disciples’ feet.”[i]  Horton refers back to John 10 where Jesus asserted that there is no power that takes life from him.  Rather, he lays his life down (10:17-18). 

Horton then points out that the kingdom of God is founded in blood, but not the blood of the people, the subjects.  This kingdom is founded in the shed blood of the kingdom who led through compassion and sacrifice.  This contrasts the stance of many in American politics who claim the name Jesus, but then grasp desperately for earthly power that is divisive, destructive, and temporary.  “When Christian leaders are drawn to breath-taking expression of ungodly power, it raises questions about which kingdom and which sort of king they find most appealing.”[ii]

Our practices this evening are rituals that show what sort of King has our allegiance and what kind of life will be lived when the Kingdom comes in full.  We sing in worship.  In this way, our voices are joined to one another’s so that the worship we offer comes not from me but from us.  It is a communal act that says our hearts are joined out of love for Christ and for those around us and we are one in Christ.  We are invited into mediation – quiet prayer in which we invite God to fill us.  We don’t empty ourselves for the sake of being empty.  We empty our minds of the noise of the world in order to be filled with the peace of God. 

Also we have opportunities to see the story of our faith through windows, also called icons.  There is art – creative use of photography and other mediums that invite us to see Jesus washing the disciples’ feet.  There is creative writing, a practice that helps us awaken our own imaginations as we pray.  Our cultural currency sways back and forth from the gut to the intellect back to the gut – head and heart.  Both matter very much, but so too does the emotion, and our imagination awakens our emotion.  The creative writing station gives voice to another part of our selves as we pray.  And then there is enactment – as Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, we wash one another’s.  The story comes alive.

Finally, the offering and the receiving.  We have stones, the burdens we carry, and we drop them at the cross, offering our sins, our hesitations, our doubts to God.  We give God our mess and God takes it.  We receive from him bread – the broken body of Jesus, the removal of our sins.  We receive from him juice – the shed blood in which we have eternal life.

What do all these rituals reveal about the kingdom of God?  When we sing, when we pray, when worship through art and writing, when we wash feet and release burdens as we drop stones in a bucket at the cross, when we eat bread and drink juice, when we do all these things, what of the kingdom is seen in these experiences? 

The Kingdom is a place of space – space to be and grow in Jesus.  The Kingdom is a place of beauty.  We serve each other.  We honor and care for each other.  God is present.  There are no presumptions, no prerequisites, and no regrets because we are free and made new in Christ.  All are welcome, all are forgiven, and all have life because Jesus has made a way.  Our participation in the worship practices is one way God prepares us to live in His kingdom.  I think we’ll find that this Kingdom is richer and more joy-filled than any kingdom we might build.  How could it be otherwise?  This is the kingdom of a loving God who desires to welcome us into His embrace.

AMEN

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[i] M. Horton (2016) - http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/march-web-only/theology-of-donald-trump.html?start=2

[ii] Ibid.

How Will You Be Remembered?

Fifth Sunday of Lent, March 13, 2016

            I imagine the beloved disciple, pen in hand, eyesight failing, joints aching, and bones tired.  He’s hunched, wizened, wrinkled.  How has he lived this long?  Easterly winds send a breeze.  His wild hair flows as he gazes at the ships that sail from the Aegean Sea into the Ephesus port.

The writer of the Gospel of John never says, “This was written by John.”  Others have come to that conclusion.  He does the Gospel was written by “the disciple Jesus loved.”  He also clearly says he was an eyewitness.  The Gospel of John comes from his memory.

            He arranges the story, not chronologically, but in order to help the reader come to faith in Jesus.  Everything in this account is meant to guide you and me to believe and have life in Jesus’ name.  This includes what he tells us about Mary the sister of Lazarus and the disciple Judas Iscariot. 

            The Beloved Disciple remembers the high priest, Caiaphas, was persuasive when he convinced other priests and Pharisees that Jesus’ claims were so revolutionary, he had to be killed for the good of the nation. 

            The beloved disciple sets the scene.  Caiaphas plots the undoing of Jesus at a council meeting, while in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, Jesus is another kind of meeting, a dinner meeting in the home of Lazarus.  This is the same man who had been dead, 4 days in the tomb dead.  Jesus brought him back to life.

            Lazarus has a dinner party for Jesus and the 12 disciples.  There are others around them including his sisters Martha and Mary.  The beloved disciple remembers all of this. 

            Martha was serving.  Those who reclined at the table eating were the men, Jesus, Lazarus the host, and the 12 disciples.  Mary enters and dumps a pound of expensive perfume on the feet of Jesus.  Social conventions dictated that she help Martha in the kitchen. 

But we’ve read the gospels.  We remember Luke 10 where Martha dutifully served, but Mary sat among the men because to her Jesus’ teaching was worth whatever scorn she would receive for sitting among the men.  Jesus commended her decision.  She has chosen “the better part,” he said, and it will not be taken from her.

In the previous section of the Gospel, John 11, Lazarus dies, and both Martha and Mary are upset with Jesus.  When he finally comes, Martha confronts him with a theological argument.  Jesus responds in kind.  Mary says the same words as Martha, but where Martha spoke out of her head knowledge, Mary spoke the same words through tears.  Jesus wept with her.

Now, the beloved disciple tells this story and once again Martha with apron on serves a meal fit for a king.  Mary is off somewhere and when she comes in it is to dump a year’s worth of income spilled out onto the feet of Jesus.  The Beloved disciples remembers this. 

I don’t remember smells.  However, when a powerful smell associated with an event from my past hits my nose, it takes me back there.  I cannot imagine the smell from my grandmother’s house.  But if I smelled it right now, I would feel great joy and sadness.  The joy would come from the memory evoked by the smell, all the laughter and love in that house.  The sadness would be because I can smell the smell, but cannot go there.  I cannot see her, not now, not yet.

The beloved disciple remembers that the house was filled with the fragrance of that perfume Mary poured on Jesus.  His memory associates her with absolute adoration of Jesus and with beautiful smells that fill the house.

He remembered Judas too, but it was a very different memory.  When he writes Judas’ name, he includes a parenthetical note.  Judas was about to betray Jesus.  The beloved disciple didn’t know it at the time.  Peter didn’t know it then.  Neither did Mary or Martha.  But looking back, they remember Judas as the betrayer.  The beloved disciple tells us Judas was the group’s treasurer and used to steal from the common fund.  We see in Luke 8 that a group of affluent women provided for Jesus and the disciples’ material needs.  Judas pocketed some of the money those women gave and he was able to do so because he was given the responsibility of managing their funds. 

On that breezy Ephesian shore as he writes his gospel, the beloved disciple remembers Judas and Mary.  One, in his memory, is a betraying thief.  The other worships so extravagantly the entire house is blessed by the aroma. 

How are we remembered?  Sixty years from now, someone from here will write the story of HillSong Church as a community that gave witness to the Kingdom of God in Chapel Hill in the opening decades of the 21^st century.  When that person remembers your part in the community, what will she remember?  What words will she associate with your life as a disciple of Jesus?

Judas and Mary are complex people.  All people are. Judas was far more than a thief and a betrayer.  The other gospels record Jesus filling all 12 with the Holy Spirit so that they had the power to work miracles and defeat demons.  He gave the power to Judas. 

And Mary made her mistakes.  The same qualities that allowed her to weep empathetically, to present her heart before the Lord, and to worship extravagantly also had a dark side.  She left a lot of the hard, banal work to Martha.  Yes, Jesus commended her for listening to his teaching and we should too.  But Martha’s efforts in the kitchen were needed by the community.  Sometimes dreamers like Mary need to take their turn washing the dishes. 

Judas had his good qualities.  Mary had her faults.  When the beloved disciple remembered her, he remembered joy in Jesus and wonderful smells.  When he remembered Judas, he remembered treachery.

He also remembered the way each of them elicited a response from Jesus.  Judas saw Mary dump the perfume and he snapped at her.  Something in him was missing.  He couldn’t appreciate her beautiful generosity.  And even though he was under the covering of Jesus’ grace, somehow, he couldn’t be in the sphere of grace.  Somehow, even when he was in grace, he wasn’t in it.

While she worshipped big and bold, he did math.  Was he truly concerned about money that could go to the poor or money that would go in his pocket?  Maybe both.  What the beloved disciple remembers is Jesus was quiet, until Judas snapped at Mary.  Then, Jesus sharply chided him.  “Leave her alone,” Jesus said.  How embarrassed was Judas at that point?  He tried to be logical but missed the outpouring of love and grace, and Jesus slapped him down.

The beloved disciple tells us what Jesus said next.  “She is honoring me before my burial.”  He remembers that Judas elicited a rebuke from Jesus.  Jesus responded to Mary by commending her for what she did. 

How will we be remembered, you and me?  And how does the Lord receive what we give?  There is a place for strategic thinking, like that of Judas.  Economists, finance people, logical thinkers, and strategists all have something to offer to the church and to the Lord in the work of helping the poor. 

But that offering does not take the place of fully committed worship.  When she broke that jug of perfume and it began pouring, that was full commitment, but she did not hesitate a moment because she was driven by love for Jesus. 

The phrase that has been most repeated out of this remembrance the beloved disciple shares is Jesus’ statement in verse 8.  “You will always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.”  Christians have used this as an excuse to not give money to help the poor.  The ones using that excuse are not like Mary, using ridiculous amounts of money to worship God extravagantly.  They use Jesus words, but then do what Judas.  They keep their money in their own pockets.  They do not practice the generosity Jesus commended.

Or, others quote John 12:8 to explain why they give a little to compassion ministries, but not a lot.  Or others quote John 12:8 to explain why, even though they’ve given money and worked to eradicate debilitating poverty, the efforts have failed.  No matter how hard we work, they’ll say, we’ll never end poverty because Jesus said …  .

The beloved disciples wasn’t making a statement about what policies Christian should adopt in social justice ministries.  He was remembering.  He remembered beautiful smells and unrestrained worship from Mary, and he remembered that Jesus was grateful.  He remembered dishonesty and betrayal and hypocrisy from Judas, and Jesus was angry. 

We know followers of Jesus are called to help people and helping people includes fighting against injustice, disease, hunger, inadequate housing, unfair practices in business and the justice system, and poverty.  We know that we are to fight these things because we follow Jesus.  We’ve read Luke’s gospel.  We know this.  We’ve read James.  And the prophet Amos.  And Isaiah.  And the book of Deuteronomy.  And the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew.  Well, all of Matthew’s Gospel.  And Galatians 6.  And … well, you get the picture.  Followers of Jesus help people and give generously.  That’s not in question.

In the memories of the beloved disciple, it is clear to me that what we do and how we do it is completely related to how we stand in relationship to Jesus.  Do we worship with abandon or restraint?  Are we driven by our love for him and what we can give to him, or by more self-serving desires? 

How we answer these questions is irrelevant.  People don’t remember what we say.   They remember what we do.  When we do give to the poor and help people are we acting out of our love for Jesus and in response to his call?  What memories will people have of our actions, taken today?  What do those actions say about how we feel about Jesus and about who we are in relation to Him?

Mary was a follower.  She followed Jesus.  She worshiped him.  She loved him.  She obeyed him.  She didn’t do it all perfectly, no one does.  But her heart was driven by passion for God and she knew Jesus was the one to bring her to God. 

Do we?    

Are we free enough to pour ourselves out before God?  Or is something preventing us from coming to the Lord in unrestrained, free, fully committed, ridiculously God-indulgent worship? 

My guess is, most of us have something that blocks us from truly free expression of our love for God.  Contemplate that.  Are you able to pour yourself out before him? 

AMEN

Is Jesus who We Want Him to Be? (Matthew 26:47-50; John 3:25-30)

Is Jesus who We Want Him to Be? (Matthew 26:47-50; John 3:25-30)

Matthew 26:47-50

⁴⁷While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived; with him was a large crowd with swords and clubs, from the chief priests and the elders of the people. ⁴⁸Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I will kiss is the man; arrest him.” ⁴⁹At once he came up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi!” and kissed him. ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and laid hands on Jesus and arrested him.

Why did Judas Iscariot do that? He was paid 30 coins to hand Jesus over to the chief priests. Thirty coins, a paltry sum! Why, did he really betray Jesus?

Each gospel was written at least 30 years after the resurrection. The story was burned into the memory of the core members of the early church before it was written and circulated, and in that story, Judas was the betrayer and nothing more. Whatever good he did in his life was forgotten. This is clear in the way the Gospel writers portray him. He’s always listed as Judas who betrayed Jesus. Didn’t they all flee? Didn’t Peter deny? Didn’t Thomas doubt? Judas is singled out by Gospel writers for special blame, cast as one of the villains of the story by the storytellers. Are they being fair?

There’s always more to the story. Matthew 10 says Jesus sent out his 12 disciples in pairs and he gave them the power to cast out demons and miraculously heal diseases. Jesus endowed the disciples with the power of the Spirit – all 12 of them. That includes Judas. Knowing Judas as he did, Jesus still blessed him and trusted him as he did the others on this miracle-working mission. Along with the other disciples, Judas was able, on that specific mission, to do the very things that Jesus did. It would have been appropriate to refer to him as the Apostle Judas.

We don’t ever see him that way, though, do we? He’s the betrayer, not the apostle. Apostle Peter, Apostle Paul, Apostle John – it just rolls off the tongue. But Apostle Judas? No, that’s not how he’s remembered.

Judas Iscariot – he’s the crook among the disciples. On top of all the gospel authors telling their stories with him as a turncoat from the very first mention of his name, John’s gospel adds to the negative light cast on this unfortunate person. A woman came and anointed Jesus with costly perfume. All the gospel writers report that the disciples criticized the woman and criticized Jesus for receiving her lavish, impractical offering. Only in John’s Gospel is Judas specified as the vocal critic who is all too willing to challenge Jesus.

From John 12

⁴But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ⁵“Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?” ⁶(He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) ⁷Jesus said, “Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. ⁸You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” ⁹

The narrator’s editorial comments make it clear that Judas is a hopelessly fallen character from the outset and throughout in the story of Jesus. We’re all sinners. Each New Testament book and especially the Gospels make that clear. Each human being, each reader, each one of us, has sin sticking to us, and our only hope is forgiveness and salvation that we receive as a free gift of God given in the person of his Son, God in the flesh, Jesus, the Messiah. That’s crystal clear. What is equally clear is we have hope because of Jesus. But somehow, because of his specific sin, Judas did not.

So, we can distance ourselves from Judas. I commit my sins and you commit yours, but we weren’t the ones who betrayed Christ. We aren’t that bad, are we?

I have to go back to that moment in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas led a band of armed ruffians. He called out the title of highest respect, ‘Rabbi,’ and gave the display of honor so appreciated in the Middle East, the kiss. Why? Why did Judas betray Jesus?

Maybe it really was for 30 pieces of silver. John’s Gospel says he was greedy and had his hand in the till. He wouldn’t be the first person involved in a revival movement that was stained with greed and financial corruption. Sadly, the pages of Christianity Today magazine and other media outlets are often reporting on Christian leaders who fall from grace because they cheated the church, took money that wasn’t theirs. And there are many who don’t steal money, but are simply paid exorbitant salaries and after some time come to think they worth the six figure incomes they receive. At 22 years old, when I first said I wanted to go into vocational ministry and believed I was being called to be a pastor; two different pastors gave the same advice, not knowing what the other had said. Watch out for women and money. I thought it was strange, unspiritual advice, definitely not what I expected. Now, 20 years later, I know why they said it. Sexual temptation and greed are things that destroy followers of Jesus Christ. Maybe we try to read too much Judas’ motives for betrayal. Maybe it was a simple a case of old fashioned greed – 30 coins for the life of Jesus.

Maybe it was more than that. Maybe Judas believed what the Gospel of John tells us he said. Maybe he was, sort of, concerned about the needy. Maybe Judas was a pragmatist who saw 300 denarii worth of coins wasted on perfume that was poured over Jesus, and the excess truly irritated him. He might have stolen some of that money, but he also might have truly given a lot of it to help poorer people. Human beings are that twisted and torn. Made in the image of God, we can show great compassion. And in the next moment, fallen sinners in the heritage of Adam and Eve, we turn around and hurt others. Maybe Judas, blind to his own sin and also blind to who Jesus really was, was annoyed at the generous worship shown by the woman who anointed Jesus.

We could speculate further. In Matthew 10, when Jesus sends out his 12 on the mission of miraculous healing and exorcism, Judas is paired with Simon the Zealot. The Zealots were a revolutionary group that wanted to take up arms and drive Rome out of Israel with military force. Maybe Judas was also a Zealot or at least sympathetic to their cause. Maybe he turned Jesus into the authorities because he thought his action would provoke a violent uprising. I am certain Judas did not know Jesus would be crucified. I am positive that in his own mind, he wasn’t sending Jesus to death. I am not clear on Judas’ motive, but I am sure he was surprised by how things turned out.

Whatever his motive, Jesus wasn’t who Judas wanted him to be. Judas did not truly see Jesus as master worthy of complete respect and loyalty, or else he would not have stolen from him. Judas did not accept Jesus as Lord, or else he would not have objected to worship of him and in fact he would have joined in the adoration of Jesus as Peter and the women disciples expressed at different times. Judas did not trust Jesus as leader or trust that Jesus knew what was best, or else he would not have betrayed him. He would not have tried to force Jesus’ hand. Whatever drove Judas; Jesus was not who Judas wanted him to be.

Who do we want Jesus to be? Personal Lord and Savior! No, Jesus is not my personal Lord. Jesus is not mine at all, or yours. I am his. He is the possessor and we the possessions. He is the master and we the servants. Jesus is not our personal god to turn to when we need him. He’s Lord of the universe and our story must conform to His. He is not to be fit into our lives where it works for us. We are to be fully committed to Him.

Who do we want Jesus to be? The one who answers our prayers? Yes, but also no. Yes, we are to pray without ceasing, in all circumstances. Yes, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are interested in the most intimate and small details of our lives. Yes, Jesus answers our prayers. Yes, we are to take all things to him in prayer. Yes! Yes! Yes! However, Jesus is not the divine wish-come-true, the one who gives whatever we want. Jesus is not a catalogue. In prayer, we seek God’s will. There has to be more to our prayer life than simply asking for things. And when we ask for things, we have to be prepared for what God gives. When we ask to have the thorn removed from our side, we have to be prepared to hear as Paul did, “My grace is sufficient.” And we have to accept that, as Paul did, thorn and all. When we ask that this cup be taken from us, we have to be prepared to drink it as Jesus did. He didn’t want to be crucified, and he asked God for a way out. But he finished that prayer saying, “Not my will be yours be done.”

Who do we want Jesus to be? The one who makes us right and others wrong? We’re with Jesus and the world isn’t or “they” aren’t. Is that how we see it? The Muslims, the Communists, the Fascists, the Liberals, the Occupiers, the Tea Partiers … who would we “they” are? Jesus is for us, and against them. Jesus is the one who justifies us as we live for ourselves. Is that how we see it? Be careful! Bible scholars universally identify Pharisees as the conservatives and the scripture experts. In the world of the New Testament, the Pharisees were the Biblical fundamentalists, and Jesus was constantly refuting them, challenging them, and offering an alternative to the way they said one should live. Yes, it is true, Jesus justifies us, but on his terms not ours. Too many Christians create their own picture of the good life and then slap Jesus’ name on it like a bumper sticker. With the “Jesus tag,” they justify a materialistic, self-serving, hypocritical life. If that’s how we see Jesus, we need to go back again and read the depictions of judgment in the New Testament and also the conditions for which one falls under judgment. Matthew 25 and Luke 16 are good starting points.

Who do we want Jesus to be? Personal Savior? Buddy? Prayer answerer? Label to justify the lives we’ve decided to live? Whatever else we might say about Judas, the one who betrayed Jesus, we can know this. Jesus wasn’t who Judas wanted him to be because Jesus doesn’t conform to man’s expectations. Not Judas’ expectations or the Pharisees’. Not your expectations or mine. He won’t be who the world says he should be or who the church says he should be. I think the issue with Judas has to do with conformity. We might not each do what Judas did, but do we conform to Jesus’ ways or do we want Jesus to conform to our expectations?

In another New Testament person, John the Baptist, we find another posture to be taken toward Jesus. It comes up in a conversation between John and his disciples, who perceived that Jesus was competing with John for followers. Note how John sees it when his most faithful followers show concern over Jesus’ rising popularity.

From the Gospel of John, 3:26-30

²⁶They came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” ²⁷John answered, “No one can receive anything except what has been given from heaven. ²⁸You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah, but I have been sent ahead of him.’ ²⁹He who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom’s voice. For this reason my joy has been fulfilled. ³⁰He must increase, but I must decrease.”

In what situation would we say that our own decrease actually makes us happy, fulfilled? In America today, the most popular sport, by far, is professional football. And the most admired people in the NFL are those who seen as ultra-competitive. Commentators speak in admiring tones when the describe the coach or player is so pathologically competitive that he wants to win at any and everything – checkers, ping pong, everything! He wants to win at all costs. He’s obsessed with winning. We love our NFL and we put on a pedestal the greatest winners.

Now here comes John the Baptist saying Jesus must increase, but I must decrease. John doesn’t care if the Lions beat the Bears next week. John is happy with his own decline for the sake of Jesus’ exaltation. Put more simply, John wants people to forget about him and turn to Jesus. He couldn’t be any clearer about that.

John gets what he wants. His life comes to an end when, after languishing in Herod’s prison, he is beheaded. Everyone who puts Jesus first and dies to self in order to glorify does not die a martyr’s death, but everyone who claims to be a passionately devoted follower of Jesus has to be ready to do just that.

It is a matter of how we approach Jesus. Do we come to him hoping he will be who we want him to be? Or do we come as broken sinners? Do we come seeing him as a loving God who welcomes us with open arms and offers complete forgiveness? In approaching that way, do we have the humility to die to self that we might be made new? Not “a new, improved, better me” that we hear about on diet ads and in self-help books; do we come with such complete surrender that Jesus takes over our lives and we are made new?

Judas died a horrible, lonely death. He was forgotten by all except to be remembered as a betrayer. At the judgment, he will, to his own horror, see openly what he failed to see in his time with Jesus. John also died a horrible, lonely death, but before he did, in this life, he saw the ascension of Jesus, and his joy was made complete. At the final judgment, he will come and see what he already testified to in his life – the love and the reign of Jesus. Then, John will hear these words. “Well done good and faithful one. Enter into the joy of your master.”

May we let go of roles we’d like Jesus to fulfill. May we instead be given eyes to see who Jesus is and when we see Him, may we give ourselves to Him in total surrender.

AMEN