5th Sunday after Pentecost [Pr. 9] July 5, 2009 “Series B”
Grace be unto you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Let us pray: Dear Heavenly Father, you have come among us in the person of your Son, Jesus the Christ, your living Word, incarnate in human flesh. Through the power of you Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to receive Jesus as your means by which you pour out your redeeming grace, and enable us to call upon you for our salvation. This we ask, through his holy name. Amen.
Back in 1979, I began a sermon on our Gospel lesson with a quote from a theologian by the name of the Reverend Dr. Joseph Sizoo, the source of which has long been forgotten. Nevertheless, I would again like to begin my meditation this morning by citing his comments. Dr. Sizoo states, “The most distinguishing characteristic which separates Christianity from all other religions lies in the personality of its founder.”
He then goes on to state, that “Hinduism is based on a loyalty to an idea; Confucianism is loyalty to a tradition; Shintuism is loyalty to a country; and Islam is loyalty to a code. On the other hand, Christianity is loyalty to a person. You might conceive of Christianity without an organization; you might conceive of it without a ritual; you may even conceive of it without a creed. But to think of it without Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, is impossible.”
What is disturbing, however, is that in the long years of its history, the Christian Church has often lost sight of that fact. We have taken secondary things and made them primary; we have taken primary things and made them secondary. In short, we have lost sight of the gardener in his garden; we have forgotten the king in his kingdom.” End Quote.
In all honesty, this is how I feel at this point in my life, as I see our church spending so much energy pursuing issues that are motivated by the political agenda of our culture, rather than embracing and following Jesus, the incarnate Son of God. After all, he is and always will be the center of our faith. He is God’s incarnate Son, who gave his life to reveal God’s will for our lives, and accepted death on the cross that we might know the redeeming grace of God.
Yet in light of all of the various issues that confront us in today’s society, is the question that each of us has to ask ourselves – who is it that we truly worship? Is it an idea, such as Hinduism worships – an idea such as the freedom of the individual to pursue his or her own interests? Is it loyalty to a tradition, such as Confucianism – in which we view history as the test of what will work, and squelch innovation? Is it loyalty to our country, such as Shintuism espouses – in which we vow to support our nation, right or wrong? Is our loyalty to a code of ethics – such as caring for the poor?
All of these issues might seem laudable. All of these issues might even
inspire us from time to time, to get motivated and get involved in helping those around us, or even taking some time to care for ourselves, to recharge our batteries. But the Christian Church does not worship any of these noble ideals. We worship Jesus the Christ, who is God’s incarnate Son, his word become flesh.
Yet in actuality, we know little about him. He wrote no book, and kept no diary. All that we know about him is recorded in a few pages at the opening of the New Testament, which we can read in a couple of hours. He grew up in a country village, among the common people. He had at least four brothers, and more than one sister. For most of his early life, he was but one of the children living in the community of Nazareth. He even learned his father’s occupation, that of a carpenter.
But then things began to change in his life. It was if a fire burned within him, that of his relationship with God the Eternal Father. Although a human being, he knew that he was different. And so, he followed the call of God, and proclaimed God’s word to all who would listen.
Now this was not just someone who felt some mysterious call that they perceived to be the call of God. This was God’s own Son, who when he came to be baptized by John at the Jordan, God himself proclaimed to be his Son with whom he was well pleased. And so Jesus began his ministry, preaching to the crowds and healing those in need, and still there were some who questioned his authority.
In our Gospel lesson, Mark tells us that Jesus visited his hometown of Nazareth. As was his custom, Jesus went to the synagogue on the Sabbath and began to teach, to share with those who gathered the Word of God. And we are told that the people of Nazareth, who knew Jesus so well from having lived with him for so many years, were astonished with his teaching, and offended by his wisdom.
They were acquainted with his mother and brothers and sisters. Some of them went to school with him and played with him as they were growing up. Some of them may have frequented his carpentry shop. So in the eyes of the people of Nazareth, Jesus was still that same person they always knew. They could not attribute to him the divine dignity and authority to which his teachings pointed. So they rejected him. And Mark tells us that Jesus was limited in his ability to minister to the people of his own hometown.
As I mentioned before, during my internship I developed a friendship with an eighty-year-old woman, who was a member of our congregation. One day, while sitting with her on her porch, a middle aged man jogged past us. This woman watched him out of the corner of her eye, and when he was out of earshot, she said to me, “That was Dr. Simpson.
“Oh,” I said. “I hear he is a very good doctor.”
“Well,” she said. “You couldn’t prove that by me. I used to baby-sit that young man, and I changed plenty of his diapers. Let me tell you, he was a little devil when he was growing up. There is no way that I could bring myself to let him examine me. There are some things in life that you just can’t reverse.
This could be the same dynamic that was at work in Nazareth, at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. They knew his humanity so well, that they couldn’t perceive him to be the incarnate Word of God. Well, I wonder if this may not be what is happening in our church? To be sure, a part of Jesus’ ministry had a social nature to it. Jesus cared for the poor, the sick, and those living on the fringe of society. He was clearly concerned about the human aspect of life.
But Jesus also taught with an authority that was unparalleled in human history. Jesus was fully human, but he was also fully divine. As the incarnate Word of God, he spoke God’s Word to us, as clearly as we could ever hear it spoken. And that Word confronts us as both Law and Gospel.
Unfortunately, our church seems to be focussing more on the human nature of Jesus, and the social aspect of his ministry, to the exclusion of his divine nature and his revelation of God’s Word to us. If my reading of the latest issue of The Lutheran is correct, at the National Assembly, which will convene in August, it appears that our church will adopt one of the most poorly written social statements on human sexuality that I have ever read. It says little, and provides little direction, except that our church is divided on the issue of ordaining couples who are involved in committed same sex unions, and developing a rite to publicly bless same sex unions.
However, rather than recommending that we revert back to our current social statement and policies on human sexuality, in light of our division on this issue, the national church counsel has voted to override this suggestion of the Conference of Bishops. The reason for this override of the recommendations of the Conference of Bishops, is that we should err on the side of social justice. After all, Jesus humanly cared for those living on the fringe of society.
But what about Jesus speaking God’s divine Word to us? Mark tells us in Chapter 10, that Jesus told the Pharisees that were trying to trick Jesus with a question about divorce, “From the beginning of creation, God made us male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh… What God has joined together, let no one put asunder.”
I view this as not only an endorsement of God’s law in his created order of the universe, that marriage is to be between a man and a woman, but also a statement of Gospel, in that God blesses this union. There is nothing in all of Scripture that leads me to believe that God blesses same sex unions.
I know that there is division among the national church on this issue, as well as division within our own congregation. But as Dr. Sizoo pointed out, my allegiance is to Jesus, the incarnate Word of God. And although I have not always been true to his will for my life, I strive to follow his direction – both in caring for the human needs of others, and in striving to live according to the Word of God that Jesus revealed.
Therefore, regardless of what decision our church reaches in August, I can not, and will not participate in the blessing or sanctioning of same sex unions.
Amen.
