Jesus Shows the Way!

Begin as you intend to continue!

I have had people say that to me on a number of occasions, usually as I was setting out in a new job.  I like it.  It made me think about how I might do things differently in this place, or because of this job or whatever.

When you begin like this it creates a kind of overture like you have at the beginning of an operetta – something short and sweet that gives you a taster of what is to come.

Marcus Borg, who is an Anglican Priest in America is big on seeing overtures in the Gospels, and he suggests in a book he wrote with John Dominic Crossan called “The First Christmas” that the Birth Narratives in Matthew and Luke constitute overtures of the Jesus Story that will follow.

I am going to suggest that the very first theme that Luke develops after his Overture in the Birth Narrative is itself a kind of overture – in that it seems to be saying right from the outset “This is what Jesus’ ministry is all about.”

Luke gets right into it.

He begins with the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness, and I think the Lectionary will deal with that on another day. 

He moves decisively from that story with the words:

“Then Jesus, filled with the power of the Spirit, returned to Galilee, and a report about him spread through all the surrounding country.   He began to teach in their synagogues and was praised by everyone.”

Of course he was heading to his home town, Nazareth, and the guts of our story today and next week occurs there and I am rather glad that I will be here with you again next week to be able to make my comments in the light of what I say to you today.

So…

He goes to synagogue, like a good Jewish man.  This may well have been the place were as a lad he learned the Torah off by heart.  It would certainly have been his spiritual home if he had actually grown up in Nazareth.

I have no idea how it is decided who will read from the scroll at the meetings, but this story has it that it was Jesus who stood up to do so, and he reads what is now for us that famous passage from Isaiah 61:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to bring good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim

release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Now, last week, I mentioned to you that we have to ask ourselves each day during Epiphany “What is it that God wants us to notice about who Jesus was and is and what he’s about.

Luke tells this story differently from Matthew and Mark and I think it’s because he wants us to notice something very important.  The story told this way is like a programmatic announcement that concerns both the nature of Jesus’ ministry and the character of the Church that would follow it in time.

By having Jesus say to everyone after he has read the scroll “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” Luke makes it very clear that Jesus’ ministry would be a prophetic ministry.   Actually, he had already given us some hints of that in earlier stories – the prayer of Mary that we call The Magnificat suggests very much a prophetic role for this child she is bearing, as well as the child her cousin Elizabeth was bearing; and the words of John the Baptist also point clearly to this as a descriptor of the nature of Jesus’ ministry.

Jesus was a prophet.

He was not a priest or a scribe or a Pharisee and we will explore some of the consequences of that next week.

But I hear a valid question forming in some of your minds already … “So what!?”

It is a good questions, and these are the two things I think we should take notice of as a result of it:

1.     It gives direction about what the rules will be in this new Way; and

2.     It sets out a framework for social policy in the church.

THE RULES

I am sure you are aware that Jesus was no fan of the Pharisees.  The Pharisees had turned the religion of Judaism into a Guinness Book or Rules with hundreds of rules about what you must do and hundreds of rules about what you must not do, and for every rule there were hundreds of little Mishnahs telling you what each rule really meant and how to keep it.

For example WORKING ON THE SABBATH is forbidden, but as you might expect, it is reasonable to ask “what is work?” So the Jews developed a definition involving 39 categories of creative activity that constituted work that could not be done on the Sabbath, some related to Temple work and some related to household work.

The trickiest one was the issue of CARRYING.  We all have to carry things – even the clothes we are wearing.  So they decided that carrying things around within a private place, or within a semi private place, or within a public place was okay but carrying something from one place to another was not.

Now the upshot of all this was that the Pharisees made it seem that their religion was a system of requirements (the Rules) and rewards (the Blessings), and the better you were at keeping the rules the more blessings you would receive.  And they, of course, worked out that you could say it the other way around too – if someone had lots of blessings (particularly if they were very rich) it must have been because they were very good at keeping the rules.

Jesus comes along and reminds everyone that it was the ways of the prophets that lead us into right relationship with God.

The work of the Spirit was an essential part of it – and our Second Reading today gave us the low-down about that – but at the heart of the prophetic tradition is that idea so clearly expressed by Micah

“What does the LORD require of you but to

do justice,

love kindness and

walk humbly with your God?”

This is not about a set of rules, but about a way of living and this can be as liberating for us in our day as it was in the days of the Prophets and of Jesus because there is no doubt that some in the church have turned our religion into a great long set of rules to be kept – when I grew up it emphatically included not playing cards, not dancing and not drinking or smoking.

Followers of The Way, then, are called to do justice and speak out for justice as an expression of their commitment to the LORD; and they are to so love kindness that it becomes the signature tune of their way of living; and finally, their relationship with God was to be one of humility knowing that nothing we receive is deserved but an outright expression of God’s grace; it also means that there can be none of the typical exclusiveness that religions often take on about who is in and who is out.

So, that’s a pretty important thing to take notice of.

But wait, there’s more.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

By citing the words of Isaiah, as he did, Jesus is saying that his ministry was going to be focussed on the seriously disadvantaged of his day:

The Poor

The Prisoners

The Disabled

The Oppressed

This should be a manifesto for the Social-Justice units of churches all over the world, and I am sure you will have observed what I have observed about these units in churches and that is that while they may be tolerated as “necessary” they can be rather discomforting and so are often marginalised in the systems of power within the church.  Nobody likes being told by the “prophets” that they are doing it wrong.

This goes for governments as much as church power-brokers, too.  The situations of greatest distress that I have experienced in our public discourse in Australia have related to failure by governments to act justly or even developing policies that perpetrate injustice:

Our current refugee policies;

The refusal of the Federal government to say “Sorry” to our first nations people;

Our failure to look after our children in care;

And I could go on…

The thing that I think Luke is wanting us to take notice of here is that things are not as they seem.  We look at those people who are respectable and doing well, and we think that this is because they are good people and that God is on their side.

Gods seems to have a preferential option for the poor, the imprisoned, the disable, the oppressed – in a word, the marginalised.  These are the ones that God cares about and God wants us to care about them, too.

Jesus demonstrated this very clearly again and again – and he got a reputation as drunkard and glutton, always hanging out with the tax-collectors, prostitutes and sinners, rather than the good citizens of Israel.

I think we have our marching orders in these words and I trust that you as a community of people who are followers of The Way will commit yourselves to discovering what that means for you right here where you live let alone here in WA and Australia.

What is this season called Epiphany?

When we think of the seasons of the church year, we usually attach something of a theme to them

ADVENT            Waiting or Preparation

CHRISTMAS      Celebration Jesus’ Birth

LENT                  Penitence

EASTER              Celebrating  the Death & Resurrection

PENTECOST      The birth of the Church

So what do we make of this season called EPIPHANY?

The BIG IDEA for Epiphany is REVELATION or DISCLOSURE and I think that our special work for this season is to be on the lookout for those things that reveal to us who Jesus was and is and what he’s about.

Each week we are given a selection of readings from our sacred texts, and generally we seem to focus on the ideas that come out of the Gospel reading – which makes a lot of sense, given that we are followers of THE WAY OF JESUS.  The other readings, however, sometimes give us hints at a bigger idea than just trying to stick with the narrative or make sense of a miracle, etc. and that is very much the case today.

Let’s begin with the Gospel and see what there is to think about.

Now, here is the nub of the story:

Six stone jars where standing there, each holding 80 to 100 litres. Jesus said to them, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them to the brim. He said to them: “Now draw some out and take it to the MC.” So they took it. When the MC tasted the wine........ he said: “Usually they serve the best wine first, and when men are a little drunk they then serve poor wine; but you have kept the best wine until now.” John 2:6-11

Was Jesus overdoing it?

What would you think of someone who near the end of a wedding feast produces another 500-600 litres of wine?  Now I can’t let this opportunity pass without telling you that any guy who can turn water into wine is a friend of mine.

Because this story deals with things that we really can’t prove – miracles – I think that it may be more helpful to think of it as a kind of parable-in-action – and remember that John wants us to notice something very important about Jesus from this story.  Indeed, John says so explicitly right at the end – “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”

So, this story of turning water into wine points us to a God who is an extravagant Creator and Redeemer.  The God of Jesus Christ holds nothing back.  This God goes over the top, persistently over doing it.  We see this pre-eminently displayed in the life and teaching of Jesus.  But it is also present in the Old Testament.

The God of the Bible is most generous.

You may think 500-600 litres of wine are excessive, but that is the kind of God in whom we place our trust.  This story is a sign post pointing us to a remarkable, holy Friend.

THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF CREATION

Think with me now for a while about the extravagance of God in creation.

My wife and I enjoy walking on Mullaloo Beach in the mornings during summer – in fact, if I am not doing church somewhere, we are very inclined to worship at what we call Mullaloo Cathedral – there are generally hundreds of worshipers of all ages.

Every day it is different – the waves make the water different colours, the sand has moved around, exposing or covering rocky outcrops, seaweed has been washed up or washed away and if you were to stay until sunset, God would paint a different picture with the sky every night.

We often stop to inspect a shell or even a small microbe on the shore.  And we marvel at the antics of birds and the many different birds we see.  We are always on the lookout for dolphins just off-shore because we have seen them from time to time and once we even saw a sea-lion on the beach.

I am sure I don’t have to remind you of the amazing diversity – even extravagance – of the plant and animal kingdoms that surround us on planet earth, and if any of you are into the physical sciences you, too, will be amazed at the enormity, complexity and beauty of the universe that we inhabit with God.

On one level you could say that we don’t need all this abundance, but perhaps we do, if only to keep us in awe of the God in whom we live and move and have our being.

In her celebration of God’s enthusiasm, Annie Dillard wrote in her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek:

The extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation.  After that one extravagant  gesture of creation itself in the first place, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profusion on profligacies with ever fresh vigour, the whole show has been on fire from the word go!” 

I recognise who this profligate Creator must be!

It is characteristic of the One who in Christ Jesus confounds people towards the end of a wedding feast by producing about 600 litres of choice wine. The God who excels at overdoing generosity!

THE EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE KINGDOM

This extravagance is evident in our Corinthian reading this morning, too, but in a Kingdom setting.

The work of the Holy Spirit, enlivening the Church with the Breath of Life as well as Signs and Wonders, gives to us gifts such as will build up the life of God’s people.  These gifts range from very mundane gifts to the supernatural gifts – but all are given; none are withheld.

And cast your mind through so many of the parables and miracle stories of the Gospels and you can see a kind of sub-text there of God’s extravagance towards us.

The more readily remembered being those of the prodigal son and the surprising wages paid to the workers in a vineyard.  Time does not permit me to expound on them.  It is enough to recognise that in Jesus’ parables of the kingdom we have the same prodigal grace that is reflected in 600 litres of wine.

Belgian theologian Edward Schillebeeckx writes that God is luxury:  

“For believers, God is the luxury of life..... Sheer, superfluous luxury.”

As John’s Gospel has it: “Out of his full store we have received grace upon grace.”

WHY IS IT SO?

I am not sure how you would describe the purpose of your life as a Christian.  I think that as a younger man I was very much caught up in a quest to do the right thing and so satisfy God.

These days I am more inclined to a view that my Christian life is about living in the way Jesus showed us, The Way as it was called in some early non-Christian references to the Christians. 

In spiritual terms I would say my work is to become more Christlike every day, and what this looks like at its best is when I am able to be authentically human – caring about others fully and generously, as Christ has shown us.

Have you ever surprised yourself by exhibiting a similar generous spirit? 

To go back to where I began, if the BIG IDEA for Epiphany is REVELATION or DISCLOSURE then I think this story of Jesus’ e[generosity and extravagance is a call to us to live our lives with similar generosity towards others – not that we can turn water into wine for a wedding, but we can live lives that are disentangled from the materialism of our day and so leaving us free to share our abundance with others as Jesus did.  

Baptism, the Holy Spirit and Liberation

Last week I trust that you will have celebrated in fine form the 12^th and final day of Christmas.  It is called the feast of the Epiphany and marks the episode in Matthew’s birth narrative in which some foreigners – those wise men from the East – paid their homage to the infant Jesus in recognition of his special status for the whole world.

So we call the season from now until Shrove Tuesday the Season of or after Epiphany and while this word has slipped out of our vocabulary by and large the BIG IDEA for this season is REVELATION or DISCLOSURE. 

So, during this season we are called to be on the lookout for those things that reveal to us who Jesus was and is and what he’s about.

The week before last I was addressing the short episode in Luke’s birth narrative in which Mary & Joseph observed the customary practices of their day by taking Jesus to the Temple on the eighth day of his life to name him properly and have him scarred for life as one of God’s people – he was circumcised. 

When we look at these early stories of Jesus life it is important for us to consider what Matthew or Luke wanted us to notice from them, and in some ways this is tricky. 

You are probably aware that Mary wasn’t keeping a diary of all the things that happened when Jesus was born and as he grew up – even though Luke says she pondered on these things deeply in her heart.

There are two important elements to remember about the way these stories were created.  Firstly, they were all created after they knew the end of the story; and secondly, they lived in oral form for a long while before they were written down.

This meant that by the time Matthew or Luke got to writing the stories down they felt at perfect liberty to build all sorts of code language and symbols into the narrative so that it passed on what they wanted us to know about Jesus.

So, as we listened to this story of the baptism of Jesus, today, I wonder what it is that Luke really wants us to pay attention to, to notice in particular because it will show us, reveal to us, something very important about who Jesus was and is and what he’s about?

Eira and I use a particular version of The Daily Office for our prayers in the morning and as an invitation to sing a short song they sometimes have these words from Psalm 95:

     “Come let us bow down and bend the knee,

             Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.”

We stop there, but the next verse in the Psalm is a good one to ponder:

             “for he is our God.

We are the people he watches over,

the flock under his care.

If only you would listen to his voice today!”

That is what I trust we are doing every day, but also in a special kind of way when we gather here together on Sundays.

SO, what is it that Luke wants us to take notice of in his story of the baptism of Jesus.

Luke could have told the story differently.  Matthew, Mark and John all thought it was important that John, Jesus’ cousin, was the one who baptised him, but that is not important for Luke.  Jesus was simply baptised along with everyone else.

This, I think is picking up on something very similar to what I suggested about Luke’s story of Jesus’ naming and circumcision – it is a way of emphasising the essential humanity of Jesus – he was like us in every way. 

This is a common aspect to many of Luke’s versions of the stories of Jesus, and yet he is not afraid to embed some amazing code language in this story that emphasises is divine status and origins.

In the Orthodox traditions of the church, the story of the Baptism of Jesus has become far more significant than it perhaps is in the West.  Most of us are happy to see this as an example of Jesus fulfilling all the requirements of the law (even though, as I used to hear said when I was a young Christian, he never sinned so he did not need to be baptised for the forgiveness of sins, like we do).

The orthodox regard this as a “Theophany” story – etymology similar to “Epiphany” – one that Reveals God to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit all in one story.  The Son is in the water, the Spirit descends upon him in bodily form as a dove and the Voice of The Lord is heard from the heavens saying:  “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

So, for the Orthodox, this story has embedded in it all the symbols of a most glorious Theophany of God Almighty, Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the first Christian hint at this idea of the Trinity that is so important to us as Christians today.

Another key symbol that Luke embeds in this and the following stories of the beginnings of Jesus’ ministry is the Holy Spirit.  Luke is the story-teller of the Signs and Wonders Holy Spirit. 

In all of the stories by Luke of the work of the Holy Spirit the evidence of the Spirit is found in signs and wonders – powerful events that point us to the Glory of God.  The story we read from Acts (written by Luke) has echoes of this and the Psalm we read today is calling all of creation to speak in praise of God’s glory.

I am not sure about you, but I have to confess that I am not a great one for the Signs and Wonders stuff of the Holy Spirit – they have never been part of my experience, and I am very glad the John’s Gospel gives me a completely different way of understanding the work of the Holy Spirit; but this confession leaves me with a dilemma:  “What sense do I make of this story if the Holy Spirit – in power and glory – is the central idea?”

I don’t think it is possible for us to read this story of Jesus’ Baptism without giving some thought to our own baptism, and as you may recall, there are some very special words and gestures within the Baptism/Confirmation liturgy concerning the Holy Spirit.  When the water for Baptism is blessed the Holy Spirit is invoked to sanctify the water and those baptised, the priest later signs the person with the sign of the cross to show that you are marked as Christ’s forever, using CHRISM OIL – made holy at Easter as a symbol of the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and at Confirmation the Bishop prays with the laying on of hands “Strengthen, Lord, your servant with your Holy Spirit.  Empower and sustain them for your service.”

So, whether or not I am into a Signs and Wonders view of the Holy Spirit, something about the Spirit is central to this story.

This is where the Lectionary helps me, and I hope this will give you something to take away from our reading of the Scriptures today.

The Prophet Isaiah wrote an amazing piece of poetry for us which we read this morning.  The second verse has some clear allusions to baptism, as well as expressing something of the glory of God.

          When you pass through the waters,

     I will be with you;

          and through the rivers,

       they shall not overwhelm you;

          when you walk through fire

     you shall not be burned,

          and the flame shall not consume you.

John the Baptist, like most of the prophets was good at reading the political and social context of his day, and he describes the work of Jesus as like one who was “clearing his threshing floor to gather the wheat into his granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”  I think that Luke has John here hinting at the probability of a fiery end to the Roman occupation of Jerusalem – but with an assurance that the faithful would not be overwhelmed but would be saved, redeemed, liberated.

So Luke is saying to us that this Jesus is the one who will really get you through the mess of the world we live in.

I suspect if I was to ask you “What does Jesus save us from?” most of you would say “Our sins!  He forgives us!” and in many ways this is an important message of the Gospel of Jesus.

But I think Luke is opening a door here for us to add something quite different to our understanding of who Jesus was and is and what he’s about.

I think he is wanting us to consider that one of the big things he is about is our liberation:- freeing us to live fully and authentically human lives that glorify God.

We all easily acknowledge the struggle we have being the good people we know God wants us to be, and our inability to do this is not so much about sin as it is about an inner urge to look after ourselves before we look after others – and that messes things up all too often.

What Jesus comes along and offers is the transforming power of grace that assures us of God’s love for us thus freeing us from the tyranny of trying and failing to meet his expectations.  This freedom then transforms us so that we are able to live more authentically and for the good of others.

Perhaps such a transformation is a little less dramatic than the Holy Spirit signs and wonders that Luke likes to tell us about, but it is no less miraculous.

May you know this Holy Spirit power of transformation and liberation every day.