Jesus as Presence

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Jesus as Presence
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 6
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 15:4-5, Matthew 28:19-20

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch can’t produce fruit by itself, but must remain in the vine. Likewise, you can’t produce fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, then you will produce much fruit. Without me, you can’t do anything.

John 15:4-5 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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Presence is a challenging word in our culture.  On one hand it seems simple enough.  When we were in school, the teacher called our name and we said “present” or “here.”  We are present by virtue of the fact that we are physically located in a particular place.   On the other hand, we have all been present in places or situations when we were physically there but our thoughts or feelings seemed a million miles away.  We’ve also likely been talking with someone only to realize that their mind is somewhere else and despite their physical proximity, they are not really present at all to the conversation.  Being fully present in a moment or with another person requires intentionality and paying attention.

In a spiritual sense, the word presence is even more complicated.  There is an element of mystery, uncertainty, and perhaps even fear involved with the idea of a spiritual presence.  Some describe feeling a “presence” in ghostly terms, like a chill up the spine.  Others find comfort in sensing the “presence” of a loved one who has passed away.  Any spiritual presence, particularly the presence of God, is impossible to fully describe or define. 

Even through all the mystery, Jesus promises to be present with us, to abide in us, so that we can produce the fruit of God’s love.  He also invites us to remain present with him in the same way he is present with us.  If we find it difficult sometimes to be fully present with another flesh and blood person, how can we abide in, remain in, or be fully present with Jesus?

Prayer is one of our primary means of connecting with or remaining present with Christ.  Esther DeWaal writes...

Absolute attention is prayer… If one looks long enough at almost anything, looks with absolute attention at a flower, a stone, the bark of a tree, grass, snow, a cloud, something like revelation takes place.  Something is given…

That “something” is nothing less than the grace of God and the gift of awareness that God is with us.  We need not live in a monastery or isolate ourselves from the world to pay closer attention to a God who is always near.  We only need to carve out those moments in the day where we intentionally turn our attention to God.

Just as with any other relationship, intentionality and paying attention is necessary to grow in our relationship with Jesus.  The question is not, “Where is God?”, but rather, “How is God inviting me to open my eyes and pay closer attention to Christ’s presence already with me?”

No matter how busy our lives may be, we can all learn to be more attentive to God’s presence in everything we see, everything we do, and in everyone we meet. 

What steps will you take this week to pay more attention to the presence of Jesus who is already with you, inviting you to be fully present with him?

Jesus as Way

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Jesus as Way
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 5
2023 - A Lenten Journey
John 13:33-14:7

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Thomas asked, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going.  How can we know the way?”  Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”

John 14:5-6a (CEB)

Apologies that we do not have an audio recording of the sermon this week. Please enjoy the reflections below on Jesus as Way.

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John 14:6 is likely among the most quoted verses in the Bible.  There is only one problem.  It is rarely quoted in the context in which Jesus spoke these famous words, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Typically this verse is used as a way of bolstering Christian exceptionalism or exclusivity, often condemning those outside of Christianity to hell.  Interestingly enough, people are more willing to use this verse to condemn someone born and raised in another religion with minimal or even no access to the Christian gospel than they are to challenge those who call themselves “Christian” while living in a way very much opposed to the way of life Jesus taught and modeled for us. 

The truth is, Jesus did not have Buddhists or Muslims or Hindus or Atheists or Samaritans or even his own Jewish people in mind in this moment.  There is no indication in John’s presentation of the Last Supper (John 13—17) that anyone is concerned about the fires of hell or eternal punishment.  The disciples are not worried about eternity, they are worried about losing their friend and teacher right now.  They are grappling with the fear of the unknown as Jesus’ tries to prepare them for his own imminent death at the hands of the religious leaders and the state.  What will become of them when their leader is gone? 

Throughout these chapters, Jesus emphasizes the way of love and service.  It is in this way of life that his disciples must continue on.  As John would later write, “perfect love drives out fear, because fear expects punishment” (1 John 4:18).  We must remember, Christianity did not even become a religion until well after Jesus’ death.  It is unlikely that Jesus, the disciples, Paul, or any other good Jew at that time would have threatened the whole world with the fear of eternal punishment if they did not convert to a new religion and subscribe to creeds and doctrines that would not be firmly established for another 200 to 300 years.

Jesus is not setting up a barrier between us and God.  Rather, he is reminding the disciples that through the way of life and love he has modeled for them, they have already seen and known the Father’s heart.  “No one comes to the Father except through me” is simply away of saying that except for Jesus, they would never have known the deep love and mercy of God and would have remained in fear.  Except for Jesus, or to put it another way, “if it were not for Jesus,” we would continue to live in fear.  We would continue to fight and scrape our way to the top through violence, anger, hatred, greed, jealousy and every other vice that turns us against one another in a desperate effort to protect ourselves and our own interests. 

But Jesus showed us another way.  We have nothing to fear from our enemies, not even death, because we know how much we are loved by God the Father and we are invited and called to live out the truth of that love in the way we give ourselves for the sake of others.  As the Mandalorian says, “This is the Way.”

Jesus as Lord

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Jesus as Lord
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 4
2023 - A Lenten Journey
Luke 6:46-49; Matthew 7:21-23; John 13:12-17

 (based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

Not everybody who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only those who do the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Matthew 7:21-23 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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We don’t use words like “Lord” very often today, but the truth is that lords were pretty common in Jesus’ day and throughout much of history.  A lord is simply a master or ruler over a kingdom or even over a household.  In some contexts, lord was simply a title for a landowner.  Generally such a title implied having slaves or servants in some form.  Diana Butler Bass puts it this way:

In a world where millions were held in slavery  and millions of others lived in poverty and powerlessness at the bottom of a rigid social hierarchy, claiming Jesus as “Lord” announced one’s liberation from oppression.  “Jesus is Lord” made sense in an empire of slaves, as submitting to his lordship amounted to spiritual freedom, especially in the new community called the church where, apparently, female slaves held leadership positions and Roman social status was upended

Freeing Jesus, 120

Rome would have been perfectly fine with Christians claiming Jesus as “a” lord, as one among many.  There was always room for a new god or two in the roman pantheon.  The problem was that all other lords or gods must submit to “the” lord, “the son of god” who was Caesar himself.  Such titles were common in Jesus’ world, but they refereed only to the emperor who held absolute power and divine authority.  Any challenge to that fact was considered high treason.  This is why Jesus’ supposed title, “King of the Jews,” was written above the cross as a statement of his crime; threatening the sovereignty of Caesar. 

The point was that people could worship or serve whomever they wanted, so long as they maintained their place in the Roman hierarchy.  Paul’s declaration to the Galatians that there is no more slave nor free (Gal. 3:23), does not sit well in such a system.  Empires built on the backs of the poor, the oppressed and the enslaved cannot stand when those on the bottom begin to see themselves as free and worthy of equal treatment or justice. 

Whether we want to admit it or not, we still have many “lords” in our lives today.  We do not live as free people who live into the divine image in which we were created.  Consider the things we spend most of our lives obsessing over: money, politics, health, appearance, social status, possessions, comfort, etc.  We are all “lords” of our own lives, “masters” of our own destinies, and we fight each other to get to or to remain near the top of the social pyramid.  In the absence of a single “Caesar” at the top, we spend our lives fighting for that coveted position of absolute power and prestige.

What would it mean today to truly say that Jesus is Lord? 

At the very least it should mean that all of those things which consume our time, our energy and our resources have no control over us.  We shout that our “freedom” is threatened, for example, when the opposing party takes control of the government, but if Jesus is Lord, our freedom is found in Christ, not in the capital.  If Jesus is Lord, nothing except Christ has power over us, and we have no right to lord power over others.

Jesus as Friend

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Jesus as Friend
Series: Meeting Jesus Again - Part 1
2023 - A Lenten Journey

John 15:15; Matthew 9:9-12, 11:19

(based on the book Freeing Jesus, by Diana Butler Bass)

I don’t call you servants any longer, because servants don’t know what their master is doing. Instead, I call you friends, because everything I heard from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:15 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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What comes to mind when you think of a friend?  Do you make friends easily or do you find yourself relatively isolated?  Do you feel accepted, included and truly loved among your friend circle, or do you generally find yourself surrounded by acquaintances, colleagues or others who may not really know you for who you are?  No matter how many friends you have, how often do you feel lonely?

For years, loneliness has been a growing epidemic in American culture.  Consider just a few statistics below from the Barna Research Group (www.barna.com/research/friends-loneliness):

In 2018, a study from health insurer Cigna found that most Americans report feeling lonely, left out and not known. This research mirrors a host of other reports and commentary on the increasing isolation of Americans.

The majority of adults has anywhere between two and five close friends (62%), but one in five regularly or often feels lonely. 

The interactions Americans have with their neighbors (those who live within easy walking distance)—which happen either weekly (39%) or daily (28%)—are usually friendly but consist mostly of a brief greeting with very little interaction otherwise (37%).

Given our cultural tendency toward individualism, isolation, lack of trust and vulnerability, overfilled schedules, fear of rejection, and countless other factors that play into our limited friendships, it may be difficult to relate when we hear Jesus calling his disciples “friends.”

Jesus, after all, is in heaven, sitting at the right hand of the Father, just like we say in our Creed every Sunday.  We know a lot about him from the Bible or from our childhood Sunday School teachers, but do we really know him.  If we’re honest, sometimes it may feel like he’s just too far away to be called a “friend.”

Religious leaders often mocked Jesus for being a “friend of sinners” (Matt 11:19).  In other words, Jesus was one of those people who hung out in “the wrong friend circles.”  I’m sure we’ve all met someone like that.  At first we thought maybe they could be a good friend, but then we found out who they hung out with, or something they believed that we didn’t like, or they’re affiliated with the wrong political party, the wrong religion, or any other number of groups we would prefer to stay away from.  Is it possible that if Jesus were still on earth, we might avoid him too, if for no other reason than we didn’t want to be associated with his friends?

Reflect this week on what friendship really means to you.  Try talking to Jesus as a friend.  Hang out with the kind of people Jesus hung out with.  Ask others about their friendships and why they would or would not consider Jesus a close friend.  Really listen to their stories. 

Deep down, what emotions come up when you think of Jesus as friend? 

What do you hear Jesus, your friend, saying to you?

Come and SeeJ

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Come and See
Series: Called - Part 1
John 1:35-52

When Jesus turned and saw them following, he asked, “What are you looking for?”
They said, “Rabbi (which is translated Teacher), where are you staying?”

He replied, “Come and see.”

John 1:38-39a (CEB)

Nathanael responded, “Can anything from Nazareth be good?”

Philip said, “Come and see.”

John 1:46 (CEB)

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Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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In her book, “Inspired”, the late Rachel Held Evans describes her earliest memories of Jesus. She, like many of us, learned to pray around the dinner table. “Thank you Jesus for my mommy and daddy, my sister and my food.” “The first thing I knew about Jesus,” she says, “ is that he was responsible for the existence of my parents, my sister, me, and my food. That seemed like good enough news for me.”

When asked as a teenager to share how she “came to Jesus,” she responded with confusion. There had never been a time in her life when she did not know Jesus, but she never “came to him.” Rather, Jesus had always come to her. Jesus had simply “always been there.”

We spend a lot of time and energy in churches trying to figure out the latest and greatest strategies to get more members and more money in the offering plate. On the whole, the church has become quite proficient at mass producing Vacation Bible Schools, Community Meals, polished worship services, and countless other programs and events in hopes to “draw people in.” We try hard to be “seeker sensitive.” There’s only one problem. There are fewer and fewer “seekers” to be sensitive too. People are not looking for a church. They have no need for church, no matter how impressive it’s programs and ministries, or at least that’s the general perception for so many valid reasons.

Somewhere along the way, in our desperation to “get back to the good old days” when church stood at the center of our community, we have lost our ability to introduce people to what they really need… the Good News of Jesus. Yes, people may meet Jesus in church, but more often than not, Jesus did not meet people in the synagogues or at the temple. He met them in the marketplace, at their jobs, in their homes, on the streets, in the leper colony, among the sick, at funerals, at weddings and parties and feasts.

What if the church itself has become our idol? Just like the golden calf, church has come to function like a mediator between us and God so we don’t have to climb the mountain in the cloud of thunder and lightning where God’s Holy Presence may consume us. Instead, we are content to sit at the base of the mountain saying, “This church is the god who brought you out of Egypt.” So long as we are in the church, we feel comfortable and safe. We have “come to Jesus” by building walls between us and the rest of the world. We want to leave each Sunday morning feeling good about ourselves, having been encouraged and inspired in worship, but not challenged or convicted. We want just enough of “Jesus” to fill up our Spiritual gas tank for the week, but we are not overly comfortable with the thought that he might just walk out the door with us. Like the imaginary ghosts in Disney’s Haunted Mansion, Jesus may just follow you home, or to the restaurant or the bar, or to work, or anywhere else you may go.

In John 1:46, Nathaniel wonders, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” In truth, there are many people in our world to day who might ask us, “Can anything good come from the church?”

Philip did not reply by inviting Nathaniel to Nazareth. He didn’t talk about how great the town was, about all the hidden gems there that nobody noticed. He didn’t tell him about all the great meals and fellowship opportunities or the amazing entertainment that was available. Nazareth was not the point. Philip didn’t need to defend the goodness of Nazareth. He wanted Nathaniel to meet Jesus.

What would it look like if we stopped trying to defend and promote our churches and instead just invited people to meet Jesus? They may come to your church or they may not, but in the end, attending a service or an event at church is not the point. The Good News is not that the church came into the world. The Good News is that God came into the world, wrapped in flesh, to dwell among us.

When we invite people to “Come and see,”, what exactly are we inviting them to? Do we want them to come see our beautiful sanctuary, our inspiring choir, our brilliant Sunday school teacher, our new preacher, or our favorite potluck recipes? Or might we simply invite them to Jesus.

“Can anything good come out of church?”

I don’t know. God can make beautiful things out of the dust, so surely he can bring something good out of Nazareth or the church. But that’s not the point. It’s not about Nazareth. It’s not about the church.

It’s about Jesus. Come and see him for yourself. Come and see the God who has stepped out of heaven to find you.

Come and see.

The Holiday Jesus Celebrated

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The Holiday Jesus Celebrated
Series: Happy Holy Days - Part 3
John 10:22-23; Isaiah 52:7-15; 2 Maccabees 10:1-6

The time came for the Festival of Dedication in Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple, walking in the covered porch named for Solomon.

John 10:22-23 (CEB)

Listen to this week’s sermon here:

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They cleansed the temple and made another altar. Then they struck flints to make fire and they offered up sacrifices after a lapse of two years, and they prepared incense, lamps, and the sacred loaves.  After they had done these things, they bowed to the ground and pleaded with the Lord that they would not experience such misfortunes again, but if they should ever sin, they would be disciplined by him with fairness and not turned over to slanderous and barbaric nations.   On the anniversary of the temple’s defilement by foreigners, on that very day, the sanctuary was purified, on the twenty-fifth of the month, which is Kislev.  They celebrated eight days with cheer in a manner like the Festival of Booths...

2 Maccabees 10:1-6 (Apocrypha)

The festival we read about above in the account of the Maccabees is known today as Hannukah.  Before Jesus was born in Bethlehem, Jerusalem had been taken over by the Greek Empire under Antiochus IV.  He had murdered the high priest along with 40,000 inhabitants of Jerusalem, banned all sacrifices, Sabbath observances and feast days at the temple, and dedicated the temple to Zeus.  His greatest act of desecration and defilement occurred in 168 BC when he slaughtered a pig on the sacrificial altar.  Antiochus IV had one end in mind, the complete annihilation of the Jewish people, which every empire before him had seemingly failed to accomplish.

In response to this desecration, a priestly family called the Maccabees led a multi-year uprising.  This small group of zealots accomplished the impossible by taking back the temple and overcoming the Greek occupation.  When they restored the temple, they purified it and relit the sacred candles.  The legend is told that they only had enough oil for one day, but the lights continued burning for 8 days until replacement fuel could arrive.  Whether the miracle of the oil is factual or not, the miracle of the Jewish victory over those who had desecrated their temple is firmly established in history. 

In the Jewish calendar, Hannukah is a relatively minor holiday, though it has gained cultural prominence in part due to it’s proximity to so many other winter holidays, and especially Christmas.  As Christians, we must never forget that without Hannukah, there is no Christmas.  Without the miraculous victory of this small band of faithful Jews, there would have been no Jews to carry on David’s line.  Without the Maccabean victory and the rededication of the temple, there is no Zechariah and Elizabeth, no Mary or Joseph, no John the Baptizer, and no Jesus.

Years later when Jesus steps into the temple during the Festival of Dedication, the people question his identity.  “I have told you,” he says,” but you don’t believe, because you don’t belong to my sheep.  My sheep listen to my voice.  I know them and they follow me.  I give them eternal life… I and the Father are one.” (John 10:25-30). 

In some ways, Jesus is rededicating the temple to the people of God rather than those who have allied themselves with the current Roman occupation.  While Christmas often gets lost under the cultural trappings of the season, may Hannukah invite us once again purify and rededicate our own lives to God in the midst of a world that is still not our own.