A church history professor at Yale Divinity School once invited an Orthodox priest to be a guest lecturer.

Transcription

1 1 Grace Covenant Presbyterian Church Asheville, North Carolina 27 September 2015 Sermon: Without a Castle Kristy Roberts Farber Colossians 1:11-20 John 18:28-38 A church history professor at Yale Divinity School once invited an Orthodox priest to be a guest lecturer. He offered a rather dry talk on the history of the creeds, at the end of which an earnest student asked, Father Theodore, what can one do when one finds it impossible to affirm certain tenets of the creed? The priest looked confused. Well, you just say it. It s not that hard to master. With a little effort, most can learn it by heart. No, you don t understand, continued the student, what am I to do when I have difficulty affirming parts of the creed like the Virgin Birth? The priest still looked confused. You just say it. It will come to you eventually. The frustrated student now pleaded, How can I with integrity

2 2 affirm a creed in which I do not believe? It s not your creed, young man! said the priest. It s our creed. Keep saying it, for heaven s sake! Eventually, it may come to you. For some, it takes longer than for others. How old are you? Twenty-three? Don t be so hard on yourself. There are lots of things that you don t know at twenty-three. Eventually, it may come to you. Even if it doesn t, don t worry. i * * * * * We are an eclectic group of people when it comes to what we believe and how we connect to God. I know that there are those of us who delight in worship every week yet cringe when we get to the part of the service where we affirm our faith with one of the church s Creeds or Confessions. Maybe that s you. Or maybe it has been you at one point or another. Maybe you look around to see if the people nearby say the words easily or if there are parts that make them shift in their seats. Is it the Virgin Birth? Jesus Christ, God s only Son, our Lord? Jesus descending into hell? The resurrection of the body? Jesus coming back to judge the living and dead? In worship at Grace Covenant, we bring in all sorts of different creeds

3 3 from God s church throughout the world in order to help our imagination in this area, but I know that it s still hard for many of us because it s a matter of integrity: we don t want to be dishonest with what we believe and what we don t believe. The earliest Christian confession was only four words: Jesus Christ is Lord. That is stunning in any century. Twenty years ago the Presbyterian Church wrote a Brief Statement of Faith which was 550 words. Jesus Christ is Lord - this was everything to the early church. Lord- the word that so many of us have trouble with was it for the early church. Everything else was subordinate to that. * * * * * Last week in Sunday School we asked the 70 people to write down two things: A description or title of Jesus with which they most connect and one that is a place of disconnect. The ways people felt most connected to Jesus? A lot of those words had to do with caring attributes of Jesus: Shepherd, Caregiver, Teacher, Healer, Comforter And images of Jesus where felt people felt the greatest disconnect to Jesus? suffering Jesus meek and mild Jesus, Judge, and Lord.

4 4 Our earliest creed: Jesus Christ is Lord. What is it about the word Lord that we often don t know what to do with? What is it about the idea of someone who has power and control and authority over a group of people that feels odd? The fact is, it didn t feel odd in the 1 st century Or the 12 th century Or the 19 th century. This is a new thing. I wonder if the place of disconnect isn t with Jesus as Lord As much as it is with the idea of Lord Our lack of comfort with sovereignty in day-to-day life. It starts early somewhere kids learn the phrase you can t tell me what to do way before the sentiment is true. We fight against dress codes And uniformity as adolescents We struggle against anyone telling us what is best for us even when it is best for us When it doesn t align with what we think we want. As we get older, we still get frustrated with the authorities in the world - a zoning board who tells us that we can t build parking in front of our building or we can t add a garage on to the south side of our house. We feel our bodies tense up when people just give us advice - about the way we drive or do our jobs or how we parent our kids or do anything we think we do well. We avoid the doctor when we know something is wrong and we avoid the doctor

5 5 because we don t want to hear that we should lose 5 pounds or stop smoking or eat more kale We want to help our friend with an addiction, but we know the risk of an intervention imposing an I know what s best for you claim can ruin the relationship. We live in a world resistant to authority. We don t want people to tell us what to do. That is bad enough. But then - when the authority is not human, but divine, it raises it to a whole other level. What is it about the power, and authority of Jesus that leaves us feeling disconnected? This idea is known as the sovereignty of God. Jesus, somehow, being in charge. Jesus as ruler and King. ii We are deeply suspicious when people try to exercise authority over us. When you throw the religious component on top of it, many can t handle it. In Jesus time, there were clear authorities that people answered to. Religious authorities, political authorities, family authorities. Our 21 st Century culture isn t set up in the same way.

6 6 With all this in mind we have our gospel text this morning a conflict of authority. At the end of Jesus life he stands before Pilate and the crowd it seems as if Pilate has everything to make him a sovereign leader - the palace and the money and the entourage and the microphone and the weapons and the staff and the army. Everything that we think of that goes with authority Pilate has it. And Jesus has none of those things. Betrayed by his followers, arrested, bound up, struck in the face, put in prison for an angry crowd to determine his fate. And then Pilate has Jesus taken and flogged, as the horrors of Good Friday continue. Is this what the Bible gives us on Jesus as Lord? A text to understand sovereignty? Whose world is this? The sovereign, at the time, Pilate, asks the question are you the King of the Jews? Jesus,who looks as far away from sovereign as he can get, doesn t answer yes. He doesn t answer no. He says You say that I am Jesus looks at Pilate and tells him you have no clue I can t even begin to tell you

7 7 because your world has no category for who I am. I wonder, while we struggle against sovereignty and authority, if there aren t pieces of it that we like - in the ways authority gives us security a sense of someone in charge clear lines, clear regulations a sense of what we can and cannot do so that we aren t always guessing Jesus upsets all of that. * * * * * In an interview last weekend with Krista Tippet for the radio hour On Being, Louis Newman shared a bit about his childhood: Specifically how he was always told over and over again that he was the perfect child. His parents thought he could do no wrong and his teachers told him that he was a model student. Newman a religious studies professor at Carleton College described the joy and then the pain of believing that he was as great as everyone told him. As a kid, he was proud of himself because he was perfect. Eventually he started to realize that his perfection was a double edge sword. To keep up the façade, he needed to appear perfect So anytime he made a mistake or realized he wasn t everything that everyone else wanted him to be, he had to hide something or run from something or make it better immediately.

8 8 After all, he was a good kid. Everyone said so. Eventually, with the help of good therapy, he realized trying to live a flawless life was impossible. iii * * * * * David Lose of Luther Seminary claims that the most vile poem in the English language is William Henley s Invictus, which ends this way: I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. As someone who loves inspirational sports movies Rudy, Miracle, Hoosiers it s hard for me to admit that the end of the Invictus poem is a terribly unfaithful statement. Because in all of these movies You cheer for so long for the underdogs And then the music starts to swell And the coach gives some kind of inspirational speech that riffs off of being a captain of our own souls and mastering our fate The plot turns around with minutes left and the underdogs win. I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul. This sentiment is a trap. We are not in charge of our own souls. We do not master our own fate. Nor do we do that for others.

9 9 This is what Pilate was saying to Jesus I am the master of your fate. I am the captain of your soul. No. If this were true, we would all be on a path of despair, destruction, and death. Instead, we follow another master. Instead we follow one who gives hope One who forgives all of our destructive ways, One who has conquered death. All of the examples of sovereignty in our history and our world today, rule with a very different kind of power than Jesus. At the heart of Jesus authority is grace, love and faithfulness not absolute power. iv In fact, Jesus power is most prominently show on the cross, through vulnerability. The whole idea of sovereignty, authority, and power at the end of the day doesn t rest on our ability to figure out how to make Jesus more powerful or authoritative. It totally depends on our ability to accept Jesus on Jesus terms. There have been times we have made religion, or Jesus, oppressive or controlling or dominant. And quite frankly, we have a long history of the church doing so as well.

10 10 But Jesus, with all his authority, has never presented as oppressive or controlling or dominant Jesus spoke with authority before Pilate And acted with authority on the cross To show us a whole new sovereignty. * * * * * The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard once told the story of a prince who goes out riding through his field one day when he notices a peasant girl gathering the crops. She is beautiful, and the prince falls instantly in love with her. However, he is a noble prince and does NOT want to overwhelm her with his power and riches, so he dresses in peasant clothes and goes to work side by side with her. At this point in the story, Kierkegaard notes that what holds our attention is our curiosity about WHEN the prince will reveal his true identity. We know this story - they will fall in love but how and when will this girl discover that she, in fact, loves the prince? Without knowing the ending, our imaginations start to run. Will they be sharing a picnic lunch one day when the prince cannot stand it any longer, ripping back the peasant clothes to reveal purple underneath? Will it be more dramatic their wedding day when the prince s true identity becomes known? Will they be married for 50 years, and then in old age the prince will reveal who he really was

11 11 and what he gave up for her? Kierkegaard uses this story as a way of describing how most Christians view the cross and resurrection of Jesus. Many Christians picture Jesus as the prince in disguise, the one who cloaks himself with the cross, but knows all along that he s got purple underneath, it s just a matter of time before he reveals it in his resurrection. Kierkegaard s point with this story, though, is that Jesus is NOT at all like the prince. Jesus has no purple under his flesh. Jesus is peasant, all the way down. Jesus is not pretending to be human. Jesus is human, all the way down. v Jesus before Pilate was not authority in disguise. He was exercising God s Sovereignty in the only way God ever will. With vulnerability and gentleness and a love that is both fierce and kind. This is hard to grasp in In a world where, earlier this week, literally, all of Washington D.C. came to a screeching halt when a 78 year old man came one of the highest place of power to deliver an address. Commentators were in a frenzy that he d be too political - too much about earth care or immigration or whatever else might make someone squirm Other that he wouldn t be political enough. Turns out, for fifty minutes, the Pope basically recites the golden rule over and over again. And it made people cry.

12 12 But the next day he was gone And the Chinese Premier showed up and John Boehner resigned and everyone went back to what we are used to talking about in the way we are used to talking about it. Sovereignty that we know what to do with. This is what Pilate thought would happen the day after Jesus was good and dead and in his tomb. But the only real power was standing right before Pilate He just struggled to see it, to understand it. Are you the king of the Jews? You can t even begin to image, Pilate. The only real power in this world is standing right before us. Can we even begin to imagine? Jesus Christ Lord. Until we can understand that all the way to the cross All the way to the core of who we are, To our most vulnerable and valuable places, we won t come close to understanding this Jesus who stands before us. Jesus goes all the way to the cross And it turns out that is the most powerful thing in all creation. i Michael Lindvall, A Geography of God, pg 18 ii David Lose, Crazy Talk, 165 iii Interview with Louis Newman, In Being, with Krista Tippett, as I heard it on Sunday September 20, 2015 iv David Lose, 165 v I got this story from Mark Ramsey through a conversation about the cross in September, 2015