The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for July 22, 2007

Texts: Luke 10:38-42/Colossians 1:15-28

Title: “Connecting the Dots”

              Once when Jesus was traveling with his disciples he pulled them aside to ask them a very important question.  “Who [he asked] do people say that I am?  The disciples shared with him the word on the street.  “[Some say] John the Baptist; but others, Elijah; and still others, that one of the ancient prophets has arisen.”

              The identity of this worker of miracles, teacher, and bane of the religious establishment, had aroused much conjecture. You might recall that after hearing the disciples’ report the Lord asked a second question, “But who do you say I am?” Without hesitation Peter responded, “[you are] The Messiah of God.”

              It’s regrettable that Jesus didn’t press Peter further, for Peter was merely reporting what other Jews were saying as well. Peter might have offered the right answer, but that is not to say that it was really his answer.

              Who Jesus was for Peter, it would be proven, was by no means cut and dried. Scripture reports that neither Peter, nor the other disciples, REALLY grasped Jesus’ identity until after the resurrection, instead they consistently projected onto him their opinions about who they would like him to be.

             “Messiah of God,” the embodiment of Jewish hopes, the one who would ascend to the throne of David and use his mighty arm to restore Israel’s tarnished glory. The “Messiah of God” would break the yoke of the Roman occupation. At the sound of the trumpet blast the “Messiah of God” would rally his avenging army and march on to glory. 

            “Who do you say I am?”  The “Messiah of God,” Peter responded. Mind you, there was nothing at all wrong with Peter’s answer, but this brother of Jesus, and the other brothers who accompanied Jesus in his travels, embraced a misperception. The             “Messiah of God” with whom they were affiliated was not the grand, regal, and sword-bearing “Messiah of God” they were anticipating.

             Not the Messiah they were anticipating.  Jesus consistently confounded both his friends and his enemies.  Scripture reports that his friends, daily exposed to the words and deeds of a man who challenged the conventions to which they were accustomed, his disciples awaited the defining moment when Jesus would embrace his regal destiny. The enemies of Jesus, observing the impact he was having on the people among whom he moved, believed that Jesus’ true motives were hidden, that sooner or later he would reveal himself to be the enemy of the state he was.          

                 We may share very little with the good folks among whom Jesus traveled, but there is one thing we definitely do share.  Jesus continues to confound both those who seek his friendship as well as those who dismiss me as irrelevant. 

                   Jesus confounds, this despite the written record, Holy Scripture, passed down to us generation to generation.  He confounds even though generations of scholars have made Jesus their life’s work, disseminating the fruits of their labors in thousands, if not millions, of articles, books, and audio video recordings.

                     Jesus confounds us.  A guest of the sisters Mary and Martha, he chooses to take sides in a dispute arising between the two.  Not, perhaps, the wisest thing a house guest might do, but when you are Jesus you can get away with that stuff. He got away with a lot of things we would never get away with. 

                     At issue was priorities.  Martha, stressed at being buried under a load of housework, asks Jesus to intercede with her sister, Mary.  Poor Martha received no satisfaction, for Mary, Jesus declared, chose and acted upon a priority of the first order.                       Here is Jesus, a guest in the home, challenging the stressed Martha to reconsider her priorities. Functioning on the small stage, an audience of two, Jesus asserted his authority with pithy elegance. 

                   Jesus confounds us. He was a man who staked out his reputation among common people, often in out of the way places.  Though his deeds inspired awe, there was nothing about his appearance that had that affect.  Could this son of ancient Palestine have actually quieted storms, multiplied loaves, and raised the dead?

                  The son of ancient Palestine confounds us, but so too the Jesus to whom Colossians points.  The small stage upon which Jesus acted in the Gospel of Luke is expanded exponentially in Colossians.  The stage becomes the world itself. 

                     The adjective “grand,” is too limiting to convey what the author of Colossians wishes to convey. For this Jesus we meet in Colossians is no longer the Jesus we meet breaking bread and dispensing wisdom in the home of Mary and Martha, this Jesus is the “image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”  “In him [Colossians continues] all things in heaven and earth were created, things visible and invisible.” But wait, the superlatives do not stop there.  “He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”  Quite a resume Colossians presents.

                  Again the question, “who do people say I am?”  Is he the son of ancient Palestine who forged his reputation in out of the way places among out of the way people?  Or, is he the “firstborn of all creation” who is the very “image of the invisible God.”

                Our two lessons this morning give us two images of Jesus to ponder. Yet consider the other names and images in which Scripture presents Jesus.  Jesus is teacher, or rabbi.  He is the Christ.  He is the Savior.  He is Lord.  He is the redeemer of Israel. He is head of the church. He is the Son of God.  He is the Son of Man.  He is the Word of God.  He is the king of the Jews.  He is the prince of peace.  He is the shepherd of the sheep.  He is the gate to the sheepfold.  He is the bread of life. He is the great high priest.

              Each of those titles or images used in the New Testament describe a flesh and blood man whom the Church believes also happens to be God.  Yet even those titles and images I presented, and the list I presented isn’t meant to be all inclusive, fail to do justice to the Jesus we meet in scripture. Example. The Gospel of John closes on these words, “But there are also many other things that Jesus did [presumably prompting even more awe and speculation among those who witnessed those things]; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”   

                “Who do people say I am?”  An important question, but the follow up question Jesus asked was the more important question, “Who do you say I am.”  I have already suggested that Jesus may have let Peter off the hook in his response,  the “Messiah of God.”  Jesus may well have asked Peter to clarify what he meant by assigning the Messiah of God title to him.

                “Who do people say I am?”  You and I have been thoroughly exposed to the church’s beliefs regarding Jesus.  Though we acknowledge with Colossians that “the fullness of God was pleased to dwell [in Jesus],” we also know that Jesus consistently elevated the servant vocation, that he deemed himself to be first and foremost a servant of God, and a servant of his fellow man.

                 We have been exposed to the church’s beliefs regarding Jesus.  We have been educated in the scriptures and the theological, ethical, and moral convictions of the church.  We borrow from all that when we think about and speak about Jesus, but what do those borrowings amount to?  Jesus puts the question to each one of us, “Who do you say I am?” 

                  What scripture says about Jesus is important. What the church says about Jesus is important. What the church counsels and theologians have said, and say, about Jesus is important.  I believe that what I present here Sunday and Sunday about Jesus is important.  But none of that really amounts to much, unless it helps you find something personal to say about Jesus.

                   Many in the membership of churches like this one have not deliberately taken up the all important question Jesus put to his disciples: “Who do YOU say I am?”  We have no response to give, or the response is simply one borrowed from another source.

                 The ramifications of that should be obvious, but unfortunately they are not.  Even as we bemoan the lack of vitality in our churches, the shrinking membership of our churches, the seeming irrelevance of our churches, individual church members are incapable of expressing who Jesus is for them.  Many across the church are content to live, if you can justifiably call it living, [many are content to live the faith] without truly examining what it is they believe about Jesus who is the principal subject matter of the faith.

              The person who said, “the unexamined life is not worth living,” had it right.  The same pertains to faith, unexamined faith amounts to nothing. Yet for many of us the faith goes unexamined, depriving ourselves of the opportunity to grow into the faith. And depriving ourselves, we deprive the church also. The church, you see, only thrives where there is ardor to make faith issues prominent. 

                An example from another setting.  I went into one of the big local outlets that sells televisions, computers, DVD players, and all that sort of stuff.  The inventory that store maintains is huge, and much thought was obviously given to show off that inventory to best effect.  All the televisions and gadgets looked great. 

                 I would have been satisfied with my experience in that store, but one fact deprived me of satisfaction.  I wanted a DVD player, but there were several from which to choose, several models, several manufacturers, with a wide variance in prices.  To whom do you turn when you have questions? The sales staff, right?  Fact of the matter is, one member of the sales staff didn’t know the merchandise well enough to provide a recommendation, a second knew a bit more but only surrendered it when I coaxed in out of him.  The staff didn’t know the merchandise, or were reluctant to discuss it.

                  It is not a stretch to say that you and I are the sales staff of the church. What we have to offer here, friends, is not primarily fellowship, though we do quite a good job with that. Music is wonderful here, but music is not our principal offering. Even as we attempt to stand along side of each other and bear each others burdens, therapy is not our primary offering. Though the restoration of our facilities is an important item on our agenda, restoration that will allow us to host STAIR, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and self-help organizations, we are not principally a community meeting place.     

                  What this church offers, friends, is you, people who love the Lord, and who can explain in a coherent and informed way, who exactly this Lord is that you love.

                  The author of Colossians, it may have been Paul, more likely one who knew him well and wrote in his name, took it upon himself to “present everyone mature in Christ.” Emphasis added, “mature in Christ.”  He explains, I became [the church’s] servant according to God’s commission that was given to me, to make the word of God fully known.”  A more concise summary of what this church is appointed to do could not be written, we are “to make the word of God fully known.”     

                An obligation has been placed on the church to make the work of God fully known, and in addressing that obligation we start at the most basic starting place, the individual person in the pew.

                You are in the right place to take up the subject of Jesus, but not necessarily to engage in the subject of Jesus.  You can engage in the subject of Jesus by reading about Jesus.  One of the gospels is a good place to start, or you can accept my invitation to join a group of us in Sunday school who have been challenged to look at Jesus, salvation, and the church through the eyes of St. Paul, and his letter to the church at Rome. Your Christian education committee and I will be looking for more ways to engage all our members in some form of Christian education.

                 The subject is Jesus the Christ, the son of God.  To get a handle on the subject requires connecting a lot of dots. There is much information to sort through and sort out before any of us can make a personal confession of faith.  It is a challenging and often humbling task to come to grips with scripture and Jesus, but not so challenging or humbling as the task Jesus embraced when he yielded his life to the cross and death that you and I might enjoy the blessings of salvation.

               This decisive moment in our church’s history calls for Christian maturity of the sort that only comes as each of us accepts the challenge to answer that most basic question Jesus put to his disciples, “Who do YOU say I am?”

PRAYER

               Lord of the ages, it is but a short span we are privileged to spend on this earth, but not so short as to be insignificant in your eyes.  The time we spend here is not insignificant, and we are not insignificant, for you willingly surrendered your Son, our Lord Jesus, on the cross that we might live in freedom from sin and death.

              We are not insignificant, O Lord, even though some are treated as such in the eyes of the world. The poor, the marginalized, and the forgotten, these, O God, you have not forgotten, and will not forget. Forgive us when we, who are members of one of the world’s wealthiest societies, withhold our support from those who lack the basic necessities to sustain life.  Forgive us, O God, when we privileged to rebuild our facilities owing to the generosity of friends across the church, withhold our help from others.  May we who have benefited so greatly, be likewise prepared to give generously.

              O Christ, to you many titles have been accorded. You are for the world a prism reflected hope, salvation, truth, and peace.  Each of your brothers and sisters experience you in different ways, pray to you in different ways, harbor varying expectations of what you might bring to our lives. You are the world’s savior, but you present yourself to each of us as brother and friend.  Grant onto us the faith and the wisdom to embrace you in the people and circumstances in which you present yourself. Grant us the courage to follow you, even when to do so may deprive us of treasures we covet.

              O God, the world claims to love peace, but peace is not the subject of the newspaper reports, the television and radio broadcasts.  We are all casualties of war, O Lord, people so resigned to that reality that we cannot envision the world any other way. Loose the bondage in which we are held, that as world citizens united as one across geographical boundaries, we may do what is necessary to create space for a new world to take form.    

              We pray, O God, for all those who continue to live with uncertainty as insurance and Road Home proceeds remain encumbered in a bureaucratic web. Discouraged and disaffected many have lost hope. Abide with those who see no way out, those whose frustration continues to undermine their lives and relationships. 

              O God, we pray for our brothers and sisters who live in peril in this midst of war this day, and for those who maintain an anxious vigil at home. Even as the wisdom of our present course in Iraq is debated, an assignment that will see the soldier put his life on the line is not debatable. Duty calls, and the soldier must answer. May those, O God, who represent us in Congress likewise attend to their duties, and find unity in efforts that will produce legislation, rather than an endless record of debate.          

              We pray your blessing upon this church and its session, O Lord, that ministry undertaken here may be pleasing in your sight.  Blessed by gifts and talents to use in ministry, may both acknowledged gifts and talents, and gifts and talents yet to be acknowledged, be summoned to efforts to expand your kingdom.

              For the privilege of living another day, O Lord, and gathering together as this worshiping congregation, we give you thanks and praise even as we pray…