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All Clean With Jesus’ Scrub Brush of Love

By Riviera UCC | February 1, 2009

All Clean With Jesus’ Scrub Brush of Love
a sermon based on Mark 1:21-28
given at Palm Bay, FL February 1, 2009
by Rev. Scott Elliott

A man fell into a pit and couldn’t get himself out.

A guru came along and said “You only think that you are in a pit.”

A fire and brimstone pastor came along and said “Only bad people fall into
pits.”

A Fundamentalist added “You deserve your pit.”

A Sunday school teacher said “Just confess you are not in the pit”

Some volunteers came by and said “We brought you some food and clothing
while you’re in the pit.”

A Calvinist looked down and said “This was no accident you know.”

An Optimist said “Things could be worse.”

A pessimist said “Things will get worse.”

Jesus seeing the man in the pit, took him by the hand and lifted him out of
the pit.

In the gospel stories we hear time and again how Jesus blesses the outcast
and expendable, the down trodden and unclean, the trapped and
imprisoned by putting them on an equal level with himself and
everyone else in his community. 1

In other parts of the Bible though the people of Israel are admonished by the
authors of many sections to stay away from the unclean. God is
presented, like most humans, as not wanting to be with the unclean. 2.
The unclean is that which is considered by the culture to be dirty,
soiled, tainted, impure blemished.

The Bible has many, many prohibitions against those the ancient near east
considered unclean. You cannot eat this or touch that.

It’s not just the ancient near east that has this notion of unclean.

In India, I am told, eating a cow is considered by many to be unclean. Not so
for us, Americans eat a lot of beef.

In America eating a dog is considered unclean , not so in other cultures
where dogs  are served as a part of meals.

What is unclean depends on the culture.

Even dirt can be clean and unclean. Out in the garden or beneath crops in
the field it is not unclean, but fertile soil. When that same dirt is on
your clothes or under your finger nails, it and you, acquire an unclean
status. 3.

In places of worship holiness has long been associated with cleanliness.
Listen to some of the cleanliness laws in Leviticus (21) relating to
priests:

1The Lord said to Moses: Speak to the priests, the sons of Aaron, and
say to them:

…5They shall not make bald spots upon their heads, or shave off the
edges of their beards, or make any gashes in their flesh. . . . 7 They
shall not marry a prostitute or a woman who has been defiled; neither
shall they marry a woman divorced from her husband. . .
10 The priest who is exalted above his fellows, on whose head the
anointing-oil has been poured and who has been consecrated to wear
the vestments, shall not dishevel his hair, nor tear his vestments. . .
13He shall marry only a woman who is a virgin. 14 A widow, or a
divorced woman, or a woman who has been defiled, a prostitute, these
he shall not marry. He shall marry a virgin of his own kin, 15that he
may not profane his offspring among his kin; for I am the Lord; I
sanctify him. . .
16 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: 17Speak to Aaron and say: No
one of your offspring throughout their generations who has a blemish
may approach to offer the food of his God. 18For no one who has a
blemish shall draw near, one who is blind or lame, or one who has a
mutilated face or a limb too long, 19 or one who has a broken foot or a
broken hand, 20 or a hunchback, or a dwarf, or a man with a blemish
in his eyes or an itching disease or scabs or crushed testicles. 21 No
descendant of Aaron the priest who has a blemish shall come near to
offer the Lord’s offerings by fire; since he has a blemish, he shall not
come near to offer the food of his God. 22 He may eat the food of his
God, of the most holy as well as of the holy. 23 But he shall not come
near the curtain or approach the altar, because he has a blemish, that
he may not profane my sanctuaries; for I am the Lord; I sanctify them.
24 .

The unclean were not to be priests and priests were not to be connected to
the unclean. The New Testament has this stuff like this too. 1 Timothy
2:12 prohibits female pastors, and teachers it reads: “permit no woman
to teach or to have authority over a man she is to keep silent.”

Of course, it is not just clergy who are not to be unclean. We are considering
some of this in our Adult Sunday school class. Ancient Israel found all
sorts of things unclean and made them abominations. Pork and rabbit
and shell fish; lepers and menstruating women, homosexual acts in the
land of Israel between Hebrew men, mixed fiber cloth, tattoos, and
piercings, even shaving. The ancient Hebrews wanted to keep what
their culture considered unclean out of their lives, and away from God.

Churches are known to do this still, trying to keep the holy away from what
they determine is unclean. Ushers in other churches make homeless
people leave. Pastors ask the poorly dressed to be more presentable.
People of color, non-heterosexuals and those of other beliefs are made
to feel unwelcome or shunned by the community, even asked to leave–
or maybe accepted, but, expected not to show or somehow telegraph
their uncleanliness (gays are welcome as long as they don’t act gay).
Churches that do this base these exclusions on this idea that unclean
things are not to be amongst cleanliness.

But Jesus’s teachings are completely opposite of these practices and
scriptural traditions. The path to God that he followed and taught was
all about bringing in those others see as unclean, not necessarily
cleaning off of the unclean whatever made them unclean, but, making
their dirt not longer dirt.  Indeed for Jesus there appears only one kind
of dirt that can defile.

In Mark 7 Jesus made this clear when  he said,
“It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from
within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come:
fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit,
licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things
come from within, and they defile a person.”

In today’s Lectionary a man with an unclean spirit is amongst the gathered
in a synagogue. This story is about an exorcism and healing.

Stories of Jesus’ healings and exorcisms can be some of the most troubling
parts of the gospels for us. We tend to hear the stories as asking us to
believe Jesus performed supernatural events which are otherwise
unbelievable. And typically we approach them as either believable
supernatural events, unbelievable events or symbolic events.

But there is another option that I have discussed before, we can understand
that “healing” and “exorcism” events had a different meaning in Jesus’
day.

Today we tend to hear “healing” as the  complete cure of an ailment; and we
hear “exorcism” as the removal of a separate spiritual entity from a
human being.

But in first century Palestine healing did not necessarily mean curing a
disease, it meant healing what we might call today the perception and
psychological effect of a person having a disease, the sense of illness,
of uncleanliness was removed. 4.

In this way Jesus’ healing, of say a leper, may not been the removal of the
physical ailment but the removal of the social stigma that ailment
caused. The outcast is no longer cast out, but, invited in. We know
Jesus did exactly this washed the cultural uncleanliness away.

In Matthew (8:2-3) a leper said to Jesus “[I]f you choose you can make me
clean.’[Jesus] stretched out his hand and touched him, saying, ‘I do
choose. Be made clean.’” In this report we can hear Jesus heals the
leper’s illness of being an untouchable by simply touching him,
declaring him clean and making him a member of his community. As
a consequence the leper is no longer untouchable, an outcast or
unclean. He is healed of his social illness.

In Jesus’ culture people believed in spirits and spirit possession. Spirits
caused diseases, they are unclean. So those with diseases were
understood to be spirit-possessed and were treated as unclean outcasts.
5.

The idea of demonic possession lays blame on the afflicted, whom it was
thought must have done something wrong to become possessed. 6

In cultures that believe in spirit possession there are folks who can cast them
out: Shamans. In the Roman Empire it was a capital offense to perform
exorcisms.  “[I]n the first-century mind, there was a connection
between demonic possession and colonial oppression”7. So exorcisms
necessarily were a challenge to Rome. And by all accounts Jesus did
exorcisms.

Today’s story is the first story in Mark of Jesus exorcising a demon.

This is an apt introduction to a string of stories in which Jesus
casts out unclean spirits. Whenever they see him they fall down
and cry out. . . [Jesus] exorcizes [the] man with an unclean spirit
named Legion . . .he casts out an unclean spirit from the
daughter of a Syrophoenician woman . . .  he heals a deaf-mute
boy by casting out an unclean spirit from him . . .And because of
this activity Jesus is said to have had an unclean spirit. .
.Engaging the unclean casts one into their world. 8

As modern folks what are we to make of these stories? First of all, we don’t
necessarily have to believe in demons and spirits, we can, but we do
not have to. But we do need to appreciate that the stories come from a
time and  place that did believe in demons and spirits and those who
could remove them.

What this means for us today is that one way or another Jesus was
experienced– and can still be experienced– as one who engages in
struggles “with the things that render one unclean and outside of the
company of God and humanity. His ministry meant inclusion for the
ostracized. . . 9.  Consequently whether we see Jesus as a shaman who
really removed demons or see Jesus as one who embraced the unclean
and invited them in as they were to his community, the meaning of the
stories “is the same: in Jesus we have come to know a God who
renders impotent the power of dirt to keep the unclean outside the
human community.”10.

Jesus challenged the cultural rules of uncleanliness with the Empire of
God’s scrub brush of Love. And those Jesus scrubs clean with love
and brings in are considered completely clean as we can hear in
today’s story. This means there is no cultural stigma left and so there
is no longer grounds for exclusion or different treatment in Jesus’
community.

It is critical to understand, to get, that Jesus is not practicing toleration. He
is practicing total acceptance, complete welcome. Jesus does not bring
the culturally unclean into his fold and then simply tolerate what the
cultural sees as filthiness.

What Jesus does is refuse to consider anyone unclean – he does not tolerate
the unclean–  he accepts them one hundred percent as they are. One
Hundred percent!

As a result the unclean are clean as a whistle and they get to be who they are
in his community and that makes all the difference.

Jesus taught, practiced and lived what we call today egalitarianism, a
theology and way of living that asserts equality –across the board– for
everyone. This means that if one has the right to a kind of conduct all
have the same right. There is no privileged person or group in the
community.

The push for Blacks to gain access to the same rights as whites whether it be
drinking fountains, schools or holding hands with and marrying whom
they love is an example of recent steps toward egalitarianism in our
culture.

So is the push toward women being treated equal as men.

And we can see this same type of push for non-heterosexuals to get the
rights as heterosexuals in the cultural.

These pushes are happening in America and a lot of it stems from Jesus’
teaching about love and compassion and treating all equally.

So it is weird that some churches are places that actually oppose this
egalitarianism. Sadly the culturally unclean are considered filthy in
some churches not everyone is loved as a child of God. Some churches
promoted slavery, some churches, to this day, support racism, sexism
and certainly heterosexism.

But I am happy to report that many other churches promote egalitarianism as
Jesus did and as a consequence such churches opposed slavery, and
today there are churches – LIKE THIS ONE– that oppose racism,
sexism and heterosexism, accepting the unclean as clean just the way
they are, no washing required, since Jesus has already scrubbed clean
for his community all those who are culturally unclean.

This can be hard to accept. Abandoning all prejudices and living with
discomfort of being in the presence of what we have been taught to see
as unclean can be an uneasy thing. But it’s what Jesus did. It is what
he calls us to do. It is what he heard his God– OUR GOD– call us to.

And so Riviera United Church of Christ – this house of that God– is a place
where the culturally unclean are not seen or treated as unclean, but
equals.

So people of color and women and non-heterosexuals enter this community
as fully equal with all the same rights as whites and men and
heterosexuals; from singing in the choir to sitting in the same pews to
holding hands in the pews and kissing good bye in the parking lot to
being united in marriage before God in this place.

This is not the result of the dictates of this pastor or any past pastor, this is the
result of the congregation’s decision to follow the teachings and
practices of Jesus who washed the unclean with Love, who renders
impotent the power of dirt to keep anyone unclean outside his
community and granting all inside Jesus’ community equal – equal–
rights across the board.  11

This church is Jesus’ community. Consequently no one in this church is
considered lesser than anyone else and so must not in any way be
treated unequally.

While it may be natural to some extent to be uncomfortable with this– since
it goes against many of our upbringing in the culture– it is nonetheless
what God calls us to, what Jesus taught. It is our calling as Christians
to see all as clean just as they are, just as Jesus did, and still does.

This table before us this morning is a great symbol of all of this. Everyone is
clean enough, is presentable enough to join in at the Lord’s Supper in
this holy place just as they are. Why?  Because this is Jesus’
community and his table is open to all, and here in this place all, all,
all are considered equal, welcomed, and clean enough just as they are.

AMEN

ENDNOTES
1. The story is from May, Steve, The Story File, Hendrickson Publishers, (2000), 65. I modified the words but the
gist is the same.

2. Patterson, Stephen, The God of Jesus, Harrisburg, Trinity Press international (1998), 71.

3. Ibid.

4. Crossan, John Dominic,  The Birth of Christianity, San Francisco: HarperSanFranciso, (1998) 294. Crossan
notes that there is a “dichotomy between two aspects of sickness: disease and illness. Disease refers to a
malfunctioning of biological and/or psychological processes, while the term illness refers to the psychological
experience and meaning of perceived disease” (quoting Kleinman).

5. Ibid.

6. Crossan, John Dominic,  The Historical Jesus, San Francisco: HarperSanFranciso, (1992), 86.

7. Ibid,   89.

8. Patterson,  72.

9. Patterson,  73.

10. Ibid.

11.Ibid

COPYRIGHT   Scott Elliott © 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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By Riviera UCC | January 25, 2009

Sorry there is no sermon post for January 25, 2009. There is, however, a column in this week’s Hometown News at:

http://www.myhometownnews.net/index.php?id=54059

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Worthy as Another from Nowheresville

By Riviera UCC | January 18, 2009

Worthy as Another From Nowheresville

a sermon based on John 1:42-51Given on January 18, 2009 at Palm Bay, FL

by Rev. Scott Elliott

I spent a good deal of time acting in plays in high school and in college. It gave me great pleasure and stirred my soul in ways only as few things have.

And even as an adult theatre has played an important role in my life. I have acted in productions, written reviews as a critic and in the seven years before seminary I co-founded a theatre group and directed youth and adults in full scale theatre productions.
Even here I find myself using theatre and production ideas in holiday services, and things like lighting and visual and audio effects in worship.

This year I even hope to start up a family theatre group through this church– with real live production for families and children.
If you know me even a little bit, you probably know that I love theatre, or are at least not surprised that I have deep roots in the theatre. I cannot deny that sometimes I am a bit dramatic.
But, you know what? I almost never got started in drama because I did not feel worthy enough to even audition for a play.

The summer before my first year of high school I had tried to sign up for a summer school history class, I waited in long lines for a long time, but, as an underclassman I couldn’t get in: they were full up. So, rather than wait for an opening, I decided to take a drama production class that my older sister had already started. Since that class had plenty of room for underclassmen,  I did not have to wait around anymore, and I figured at least I knew someone in the class.  So, I signed up.

When I showed up to the class, auditions for the play were well under way. The directors were  calling everyone to the stage from the class list and had them read parts.
After they’d heard everyone on the list (which I was not yet on) they asked if anyone wanted to read a role they had not yet read.  Since I was new to the whole drama scene, I did not consider myself worthy of being considered for any role, so,  I did not raise my hand.
And just to make sure no one called on me I concentrated on making myself hard to  be seen by chanting over and over: “I am the color of my chair.  I am the color of my chair.” The chant must have worked because the directors completed the readings without calling on me. I thought I had pulled it off. . . but, then every student was ordered to go up on stage. There was nowhere to hide, so I shuffled on up with the others to stand in front of the curtain on stage.
Line after line of students were called forward from the curtain to the apron. Again I found that there was nowhere for me to hide and finally I had to go downstage to the apron for the last line up. And unlike the other lines of students who went before us, there seemed to be much hub-bub amongst the directors as my line stood there. We were not released right away but kept on the apron.

As we stood there I quietly mumbled the incantation “I am the color of stage curtains” over and over, but, this time it did not work.

The others on the stage had started quietly talking during the wait (while I mumbled my incantation). Eventually an assistant director came up to the stage from the audience level, peered over the apron. Basically all I could see was her head kind of floating at the end of the stage. Then some arms came up and she tapped the stage with her hand while looking directly at me. When all was quiet she said to me, in a surprisingly booming voice: ”Excuse me we haven’t seen you before or heard you read. Who are you?”
I somehow got my name out.

And she handed me a script and asked me to read. I had no viable option, no  escape. I’d been caught. So, I read. There was lots and lots of applause when I was through reading. . . Well, actually I can’t swear to there being any applause, but, that is how I like to remember the story.

I do know for a fact, though, that I was cast in a speaking and singing part (a lead part of belive it or not Pappy Yokum in Lil’ Abner).
And the rest is, as they say, history. I fell in love with theatre. And it drastically helped me back then; believe it or not I was a painfully shy young fellow before theatre and church gave me confidence and a sense of worth.

My sense of unworthiness nearly kept me from discovering what has been one of the great joys of my life. I discovered my worth as an actor and drama’s invaluable worth to me. The people in charge of the production had a sense of my worth and they literally made me act on it. And it has made all the
difference in my life.
When it comes to self worth I think most of us cannot trust our own negative evaluations, or for that matter the culture’s.
In today’s story Jesus is derided for being from a lowly place; Nathanael asks, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”  Jesus overcame this. In fact as a poor peasant who was not his father, Joseph’s, son,  Jesus overcame all sorts of human strikes against his worth. This illegitimate peasant guy from Nazareth, a lowly man from Nowheresville, ends up being worth a whole lot to God, and as it turns out to humankind and history–and of course us!

But how many of people in history have not found a calling or a love because they do not feel worthy of it? Or were told they weren’t worthy.

How many folks think that they are not worthy of Divine love? Or unworthy of the joys and wonders of following the Christian path to the Sacred? or otherwise answering God’s call to bring Peace and Love to the world. Maybe some of us here today feel that way about ourselves.

One of the greatest men of the twentieth century, and I’d argue in all of history, was Martin Luther King Jr. A black man in the South whose value to his culture at the time was deemed of little worth. Well, tomorrow, nearly forty-one years after his tragic death – even here in the South– a holiday is held to celebrate his birth and his life. It’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day tomorrow.
Our culture has come to greatly value a man it once consider of little or questionable worth, a man though that God always, always felt was of great worth. And a man who did not let the devaluing of his worth by others keep him from knowing his great worth to God and the worth of his answer to God’s call to
do worthy things to bring more Peace and Love into the world.

Martin Luther King Jr. did many great things for the world, all of which resulted by disregarding cultural sense of worth and embracing God’s sense of worth.

There are many, many messages in the Bible.  One very clear message is that God does not judge worth by how worthy you think you are, or by how worthy others’ think we are. God knows our worth and it is great regardless of any human’s opinion –including your own– on the matter.

Your very existence whether you are black or white, brown or yellow, gay or straight, male or female, old or young, your existence makes you worthy of God’s Love. Just show up for life and God will call you to the front of the stage to be a part of the Divine show. Grace is yours no matter who you are,
what you have done, or what you believe. The path to the Sacred has no ticket booth, no entrance fee. No toll charges.  No prior experience is necessary.

And, now, this is really cool, you will play a lead role, if you just step up and let God see you and hear you and cast you in a role doing God’s work.

And if you do not come forward, well, the Christ is going to tap on the stage and call you forward anyway. Maybe you are already hearing that tap, tap and the call to step on up and have a role in the Divine play. A role of loving and helping others, of facilitating Christ’s work in the community and in creation.

Maybe it is a call to work on a garden to feed those in need; or to work at a shelter; or with children and youth. Maybe it is a call to serve on a compassion team or Stephen Ministry to help others. Maybe it’s a call to sing in the choir. Maybe it is to lead or administer church matters; or donate time or gifts or resources you have to the church. Whatever it is, don’t be afraid to step up for fear of worth. Just by being you are worthy.

We could, of course, just settle for God’s love and not answer the call. God will love us just the same.

Divine love is free you do not have to audition for it, but it sure is nice to make a difference on the stage of life, to be Christ’s instrument in the world.

You may not be sainted by a church or make the cover of Newsweek, or have a holiday in your name, there may not even be a review on your performance, but, the goodness you do will undoubtedly leave footprints in the sands of time.
You will change lives; your life; your family’s lives; your friends lives; untold lives you affect as they bob in the wake of the ripples your splash in life has set in motion.

Many of us here today probably doubt our worthiness to do God’s work in the world, in our world. Maybe you have made mistakes and feel unworthy. Maybe you have problems, maybe you have done things you wish you had not done and so feel unworthy. Maybe someone has told you you are not worthy.

Let me assure you the Bible outlines a long history of God taking and using folks that the world would certainly deem to be unworthy of Divine blessings, let alone Divine use.
But, you see, God ignores our worldly standards and chooses conduits for Divine acts from those we would brand as sinners or unworthy.  Indeed, I would go so far as to say that the Bible teaches that our sense of unworthiness is meaningless to God’s ability to use us for good, for God’s work.

At the very start of the Bible there are these two folks whom we are told trespassed into a garden stole some fruit,  blamed it on a snake and then wore fig leaves while they hid and lied to God. God didn’t give up on them, did not discard them as unworthy or put them on a worse dressed list. No, the story is that God used them to begin all of humankind and even let them keep the fruit of the  knowledge that they took from the garden.

The list of folks unworthy under human standards whom God chooses for Sacred work is long and includes the best of the best in the Bible.

Take Abraham the father of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. From what we know of Abraham today he would be jailed on felony charges, fired from his job and have his parental rights terminated. He married his half sister, deceived rulers
of state and his boss about his marriage, and apparently tied a child on an altar unsheathed a knife and prepared to sacrifice the child. He also abandoned a wife and child in the desert without even adequate rations of water or food. Abraham might be unworthy in our eyes, but not to God, who founded three religions with this fellow’s help.

My guess is that whatever you think may make you unworthy to do God’s work cannot be topped by the folks we are told God chooses for the big jobs in the Bible. Right now all God wants to do is honor you with little Divine jobs that God thinks you are worthy to do.

Just “Seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.” You are worthy to do that.
“Love God” You are worthy enough to do that.
“Love your neighbor as your self.” You are worthy enough to do that.
“Love your enemies.” You are worthy enough to do that.
“Love creation.” You are worthy enough to do that.
If you still have your doubts about your worth to God;  Moses, one of the greatest humans mentioned in the Bible, could also be labeled the most unworthy by our standards. He murdered a man. He was a fugitive for that murder. He couldn’t properly speak in public. He argues with God about whether he should do God’s bidding. He whines at God all the time.  He breaks the first tablet of laws in anger. He disobeys God. Yet he is of immeasurable worth!
If God could find Moses worthy and he obviously did (and rightfully so) you most certainly are worthy in God’s eyes too.
Getting back to today’s reading about the worth of the man from Nazareth, using our standards, the ones we may judge ourselves to be unworthy with, even Jesus could be claimed an unworthy sort. Illegitimate. Poor. Born on a stable floor. Some lowly person from lowly Nazareth.

Jesus leads a life of worthlessness– at least to humans.
At twelve he disobeyed his parents by wandering off to the temple and letting them fret and worry where he might be.
As an adult he drinks.
He eats.

He makes merry.
He has a reputation as a glutton and drunkard.
He hung around with low lifes.
He illegally worked, illegally committed blasphemy, illegally disrupted the temple.
He was arrested, convicted, sentenced to capital punishment and was lawfully executed as convict.
This is not the background of some guy most would judge worthy of even having over for tea, or alone hanging out with the children, let alone being the Son of God.

I am talking about Jesus, yet we know that despite what the world thought, what we might even think of him today if we did not know him as Lord and Savior, God from day one knew Jesus’ worth; and that worth was and is great.

Well, the good news is that God knows your worth too. And no matter what you or others may think, to God your worth is also great.

If you want to know who’s is worthy of love by God. Look in the mirror, no matter who you see there, God always sees someone of great worth, someone worthy of Love.
And listen carefully because Christ is tapping and tapping calling you to the front of the stage of life to play a lead role in God’s plan for Peace and Love in the world.
Know this: you are worthy of God’s love; you are worthy of God’s call; and you are worthy of answering God’s call.
You are worthy of performing great acts of Peace and Love!
AMEN.

COPYRIGHT   Scott Elliott © 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Human Potential

By Riviera UCC | January 11, 2009

Human Potential
a sermon based on Mark 1:4-11and readings from the Process Perspective by John Cobb given at Palm Bay, FL on January 11, 2009
by Rev. Scott Elliott

We have spent the last month thoroughly considering the Nativity and Christmas stories found in the gospels of Matthew and Luke. I love those stories and it has been a bit of a high for me to be able to focus on them for so long.

Unlike Matthew and Luke the gospel of Mark (the earliest gospel) does not begin with a Christmas story. Mark begins with the story we just heard, with Jesus going out to John and being  baptized.  In each of the gospels Jesus gets
baptized, but Mark’s starts with it.

And to many followers of Jesus it always seems a little weird that Jesus get’s baptized.

Why would Jesus need to confess or repent if he is Christ, a Godhead of the Holy Trinity?

What the heck is he doing getting baptized?

He’s sinless right?

Those types of question suggest to scholars that Jesus must have been baptized by John because it appears to be an inconvenient truth. In fact, scholars think Jesus was a follower, perhaps even a disciple of John for a while, but broke
away.

Last year on this Sunday– the Baptism of Christ Sunday– I mentioned that when Jesus broke away from John he also broke away from the image of a vengeful God; that while John was expecting baptism by fire, Jesus’ baptism brings
about a dove, the universal sign of peace. I pointed out that the Spirit of God descends on Jesus as peace and that God-of-peace is what Jesus ministry is all about.

Well, that was last year. I believe today that what I preached last year is very true.

Jesus rejects a vengeful God and carries the Spirit about all through his life just as it descended on him that day: as a dove. And that same Spirit of peace continues to be carried about in all that Jesus means to us today.

What I want to do this morning, though, is consider another aspect, add another layer to our reflection on the story of Jesus’ baptism. In the process I am going to present, perhaps for many of us, a different way to hear how Jesus can been understood. Ideas that might help some of us better “get” why Jesus may have been baptized and what that might mean for us today.

First of all it is important to note that Jesus can be understood on two levels: human and divine.

One way to understand the whole of Jesus’ life story is that he was a very unique supernatural being beyond compare. That’s a fair way to understand Jesus. It is probably the way most of us grew up understanding him and it may be the way many of us still do. It’s quite alright to do so, and don’t let anything in
this sermon be heard as an effort to take that understanding away.

Experiencing Jesus as uniquely God provides an amazing understanding of God’s love and commitment and presence for us in one person specially sent to save
us from our lesser being.

In addition to understanding Jesus as divine, however, we can also hear the stories in Gospels on a completely different level suggesting an equally amazing way of understanding Jesus. It is fair, you see, to also understand Jesus as being a fully human being.

What is amazing about this angle of viewing the Gospels is that it presents the astonishing Good News that Jesus’ capabilities are our capabilities, all of humankind’s capabilities. You see if Jesus as a fully human being could live a transformative – really transformative– life we can too. It’s within our reach, within the spectrum of possibility.

That’s mind bending. If Jesus was a human like us, and lived a truly human life and went to John as a human being and still did all his other marvelous deeds, then that would mean we could do it too. We could be Christ. Let me rephrase that: we can be Christ.

This is not a new out-there idea. I have mentioned this before; as early as the second and third centuries some Christian leaders “believed  their own spiritual essence to be the inner presence of God.” 1  Jesus’ incarnation as God was
meant to show us the way to such perfection ourselves. That is, “human nature was not only perfectible, it seems, but positively deifiable.” 2

In fact, Jesus himself is remembered as inviting us to follow his way. Indeed we are instructed in the New Testament to walk as Jesus walked.

Why would such instructions be given if they could not be achieved?

Jesus’ life was about hospitality and love and selflessness. The core of his teaching is to love God, and others. Why can’t we do those things? Well, we can. If Christ is God incarnate not just in a baby that first Christmas, not just in a man called Jesus who lived and died two thousand years ago, but also on
earth now, then surely other human lives are and can be full of Christ.

It is no accident that after Easter morning Christ is reported in other Bible stories to appear in a garden, and on a road and on a beach in human forms not recognizable as Jesus. If they were not seeing the person Jesus, then they can be understood to have been experiencing Christ in others.

We can choose to hear those stories as indicting Christ lives on in others, others who are like Jesus selfless and compassionate, hospitable and loving; Christ- filled. We can hear the Gospel stories to be about the Good News that we our very selves can become Christ’s physical presence in the world today doing
good and caring and love-filled acts.

This way of thinking is to hear the word “Christ” to not just mean one man named Jesus who roamed the earth in the first century. It is to hear the word “Christ” to mean that God is with us now, Immanuel. In this Way “Christ” is heard to
mean God’s incarnation in all creation!

So what does it mean to say that Jesus is the Christ? In his book The Process Perspective  3 theologian John Cobb asks that very question. He begins his answer with an explanation that “Christ” is a translation of the Hebrew word for messiah, “a title given to one who performs a particular role in human
history”(35).

The messiah’s particular role is someone in Jewish history who brings about shalom, –peace throughout the world. This is a role that Jesus has not yet literally fulfilled, as shalom simply has yet to happen. From a Jewish perspective, then, the title of messiah does not fit Jesus (36).

Cobb notes, however,  that while Christians can understand Jesus does not fit the Jewish meaning of messiah, Jesus nonetheless can be seen as “‘effect[ing] at a deeper level the kind of salvation of the Messiah was supposed to bring.’ In
this way Christians claim that the label ‘messiah’ is appropriate by transforming it” (36).  “Christ” has a different meaning for Christians. It’s been (to quote Dr. Cobb)

transform[ed] into a cosmic notion instead of simply using  it as a title given to one who performs a particular function in history. The universal principle of life and light, creation and redemption, which is the presence of God in all things, is what we call Christ. The redemptive, creative activity of God everywhere is what the Christian discerns as Christ (37).

In Christianity this universal principle of Christ is connected to, and part of, language about Jesus because it is Jesus who serves to connect Christians to the universe “under God as creative, redemptive power working everywhere at all times”(Ibid.). In other words, whether we emphasize Jesus as divine or as human, the bottom line is that the nature of reality for Christians is that in Jesus we know Christ –God’s universal presence. Christ is the name for
God’s incarnation in our lives.

This leads to the question “What is the meaning of incarnation . . .?” (37).  The answer Professor Cobb gives is that incarnation is a “nature of reality that one actual entity is present in subsequent actual entities, participating in their very
constitution”(39) . . .

Huh? I know. It’s unfortunate, but, academics sometimes end up saying things in seemingly incomprehensible ways. Boiled down Cobb is saying that the entity of God is in all entities. Or to be even plainer God exists in all things.

Cobb later says it a different way, essentially asserting God is a “constitutive presence” “in every creaturely occasion.” Cobb’s point in the end is that God is present in all of life and all of humanity, and more to the point, that Jesus’ divinity need not be understood as unique.

Although Jesus is not considered divinely unique by Cobb he is considered different in that “the idea of incarnation developed around Jesus and has provided a different way of thinking about God and the world.” That is, it is through Jesus that Christian’s learn and experience that God is incarnate in the whole world (39). Jesus’ story evidences that God is in us, calling us to fulfilled moments in our lives, and when we fully respond to that call we more fully embody God as Jesus did.

Cobb puts it like this:  “Thinking in terms of degrees, it is not difficult to see Jesus as having incarnated God with remarkable fullness. He can function for us as a paradigm of incarnation” (39-40). In short, Jesus’ significant understandings
of his experiences and connections with God are what ends up being unique and an example to us of how best to accomplish incarnation. So while God may be in each of us Jesus differs in that his “response to God had world- historic importance . . .”(40).

In fact, as I have mentioned in sermons before Professor Cobb sees Jesus’ existence as being so powerful that he created a “field of force” into which people ever since have been able to enter and be empowered with a realization of the Christ within, and experience transformation in and with that field of force.
(41, note 2).

It’s as if there is this path, this Way left by Jesus’ effect on  the cosmos. And what we have to do is find that Way, step onto it and experience God and the transformation that Way brings. Such transformation through Jesus’ field of force, Jesus’ Way, allows us to learn of God’s love and forgiveness, as well
as to serve God (as Jesus did) in the face of great cost (41).  So we can see Jesus was fully human and still also see that God was and is incarnate in him, Jesus the Christ.

This helps us to deal with the specific incarnation inquiry that has puzzled Christian theologians for eons: Can sense be made “of the [Church’s] claim that Jesus is true God and true man?”

Dr. Cobb points to John 1:14 (which reads: “The Word became flesh and lived among us”) and asserts that we can see Jesus as a revelation of the meaning of God’s presence, and also see that God is incarnate in all of creation not just in Jesus (41, 43). This does not make Jesus less Holy or less divine, but it is a way that sees Christ over the horizon of Jesus’ story out in the world beyond the curve of his time and place in the world.

God in humans is present and a constitutive part of, “the very self” through which we experience life’s moments.

Cobb even goes so far as to wonder if perhaps the “self” or “I” we feel as separate from “others,” might actually be the God incarnated within.

In other words, God may be the organizing center of each moment of our experiences of self – making all of us in reality a God united Oneness with all other experiences and selves.

It is in these experiences of moments, that Jesus may have found he was able to wholly relate in unity with God’s presence. That is, Jesus melded his human existence with the divine Christ within.

If that is true, then the Good News, no make the that Greatest News, is that we can do it too. This is exactly what Jesus’ Way can lead us to! To walk as he walked.

Getting back to the initial question of why Jesus would need to be baptized: if Divine incarnation and human existence occur  “moment by moment,” then human conceptions of unity with God – even in Jesus–  may at times feel broken or threatened. To be fully human is to ebb and flow with experiences of God. In this way embodiment, even at Jesus’ heightened level, would not be a constant, but would rather wax and wane.

Moments in the Jesus story can be heard to include such waxing and waning. Like when Jesus is tempted in the desert or feeling forsaken on the cross. This way of understanding suggests incarnation had to be in Jesus’ experiences, not in
his metaphysical or physical self (since God could not forsake God’s self) (44).

As Professor Cobb puts it:  “In this way we can distinguish the full and radical incarnation of God in Jesus from the way in which God is incarnate in the world in general. Plus we can speak of an incarnation that is not mythological, yet still allows for Jesus being “‘truly God and truly human’”
(45).

“[T]the Christ event,” (that is God’s incarnation in any and all of creation)  for Christians then can be seen as present everywhere, yet, most effective for those who have faith in Christ (God’s presence in life). Those who concentrate on Christ through Word and Sacrament “strengthen[]its efficacy
in [our] lives.” In such ways we are opened to “the present working of the Holy Spirit” which can make us “receptive to God’s empowering and directing presence”(46).

In other words, our Sacred practices like prayer and communion, gathering in love, focusing on God and acting with Love and Compassion serves to put us in, and keep us in, the field of force Jesus created. As a consequence we are better able to experience and even be God’s incarnation through word and deed.

In the end Jesus baptism can be understood to allow us to see and to celebrate that he was like us. And to “get” that we can be like him and bring Christ into the world through our own words and deeds.

That’s Good News!

That is great news!

AMEN

ENDNOTES
1.Laughin, Paul Allan,  Remedial Christianity, Polebridge Press (2000)  p 155-160

2. Ibid., at 162.

3. Cobb, John, The Process Perspective, St Louis, Chalice Press (2003). The cites in parenthesis are in reference to page numbers in this book.  From this point on in the sermon many of the ideas are derived in one way or another,
directly or indirectly from Cobb’s work (which also influences much of my day-today theology). Other books by Dr. Cobb on the topic of process theology include Process Theology and Introductory Exposition and Christ in a Pluralistic Age.  He also penned a chapter in the best introductory book I know of on the basics of process theology/thought: Process Theology: An Introduction by Robert Mesle.

COPYRIGHT   Scott Elliott © 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Radiating Light

By Riviera UCC | January 4, 2009

Radiating Light
a sermon based on Matthew 2:1-12
given at Palm Bay, FL January 4, 2009
by Rev. Scott Elliott

I have early memories of the Magi. No, I did not see the original ones.  I am talking  about some other almost-as-sacred-to-me Magi.

When I was growing up our  nearest relative was my great aunt Tante who actually lived in my hometown of San Jose. On a few Christmases it was my turn to  go with Tante to the big and mysterious city north of us formally called “San
Francisco,” but known to us locals as “The City” (and never, ever, referred by us as “Frisco,” a name that for some reason was akin to swearing in the Bay Area).

Tante would take me to The City on the train and we would travel all over town from Fishermen’s Warf to Giradelli Square to the cable cars and wonderful shops. But the end point, the focal point, the primary point was to get to
Macy’s.

The City’s downtown Macy’s by the standards of the day was the Taj Mahal of all stores. And at Christmas it was probably as close to heaven as a small boy could ever hope to get on earth. There was so much going on. Santa and lights and chocolates and toys and toys and toys and the granddaddy of all
holiday treats a huge multi-storied Christmas tree gussied up like a glittering jewel box with a huge glowing star on top. It was a tree  that you could see from anywhere on the escalator. These were grand sights and usually most everyone else’s quest at Macy’s (along with merchandise, I suppose).

Tante and I, however, had two other less lofty, but no less important, goals.
One was for me to get to ride on that humongous escalator passing story after story of Christmas goodies and that tree while going up and then while going down and back up and down again and again. It was better than a roller coaster. I loved that escalator.

San Jose is a big place now, but, back in the day it had no escalators that I know of, so it was a real treat to ride the one at Macy’s– especially with Tante who’s mere presence kept at bay any employees hoping to stop my joy riding those
endlessly moving glimmering clickity-clacking hypnotic re-folding stairs.

The second unusual quest was less fun, but much more sacred and perhaps even more interesting and rewarding. Tante you see was an artist. Her art was Christmas crafts.  From ornaments to elves to snowmen and gingerbread houses Tante was a blessed craftswoman the likes of which I have never seen
since.

Tante was good at every craft she did, but she had a specialty niche. She especially excelled at making two foot-tall Christmas Magi. She was in fact the Michelangelo of such Magi.

Tante entered window display contests at Macy’s and naturally won. So when we arrived at Macy’s the first thing we did was go to all the display windows until we found her knee high Magi carefully displayed in a diorama depicting them on their journey to find Jesus – right there in Macy’s window for all of The City to see!

Once we found the Magi we’d stare and admire them and listen to passersby “Ooo” and “Aw” at her art. We’d talk about how great they looked in the window. I was so proud of Tante, I told more than one gawker who the artist was– my Tante, right here before them. After we had our first visit with the Magi then we’d go into Macy’s and explore and ride (and ride!) the escalator; then on the way out we’d go and look at those beautiful wise men one more time to say good-bye.

My family was not much of a church going family back then. I doubt I ever made it to a Christmas Eve or Christmas Day service as a kid, yet, the Magi have long held a very special place in my heart because Tante and I had a marvelous journey to see them.

That fondness makes me fond of this day because it is Epiphany Sunday, a day Christians have long celebrated the revelation of the incarnation of God in humanity, and more specifically it is the day we celebrate the Magi’s successful quest to locate the child who had been born the “King of the
Jews,” the child who would one day be known as Jesus the Christ, the very incarnation of God on earth.

Epiphany is the last day of the twelve days of Christmas as they run from December 25 to January 6, so by rights it is still Christmas this Tenth Day of Christmas and this story of the Magi has long been a part of our Christmas celebration.

We sort of mix all our Christmas stories up in our head and Luke’s story melds with Matthew’s.  I think sometimes we even picture secular songs in the story too. There is, though, no known Bible story of a drummer boy or animals talking
with Jesus at Christmas. And despite my wife’s annual singing of them there is no truth to the secular lyrics that the “Three Kings of Orient Are, Tried to Smoke a Rubber Cigar.”

Even from what we do know from the Bible it is sometimes hard to tell exactly what is going on in this story with the Magi.

For example, we cannot really tell when the Magi in today’s story arrive to see Jesus. They do not arrive at an inn or a stable, and there is no manger – the story indicates they arrived at a “house.” And Joseph is not there, only Mary
and Jesus. Even though we do not know what day the Magi arrived, in modern tradition we celebrate their story as a part of Christmas.

Our tradition also has three Magi, and all of them kings and all of them men, wise men. But did you notice that the number of Magi is not stated in the story, nor is their gender or a royal rank. Indeed the Magi may have been more than three and may have included both men and women, and they were religious
leaders not kings. 1

The word Magi comes from the Greek word “magos” referring to the priests of a Near East religion called Zoroastrianism. The Magi were known to study the stars and have an expertise in astrology, a highly regarded science at the time. “Wise Ones,” is a good translation that connotes the meaning the word
“Magi” would have had to Matthew’s community.

These Wise Ones come from afar, so they can be understood to symbolize the discovery of Jesus by the world outside of Israel.  And we can hear how God guides them first with that wonderful star and then with enlightenment through exposure to scripture and then through a profound spiritual visit in
their dreams.

It is important to keep in mind that the Magi are depicted as only able to get so far in their efforts through science and nature. They have to ask for directions in Jerusalem. And did you hear where their directions come from? Scripture.
And it is funny and ironic that they get the scripture and it’s meaning from Herod’s religious elites who see the Word and understand it, but do not act on it. The Magi, on the other hand,  act on it and they are led to where? Christ. God
nudges them through nature, science, wisdom, and the law, but it is the willingness of the Magi to act on what God’s calling them to that makes all the difference in the end.

And let’s talk about that star. First of all, Matthew is brilliantly connecting the pagan Magi motif of star study and science with Jewish traditions relating to stars.

In the book of Numbers another magi, the sorcerer Balaam prophesied that “A star shall come forth out of Jacob. . .” and Jewish tradition at the time of Matthew had it that this was to be a sign of the Messiah.

And the historian Josephus reported that a comet could be seen in the skies above Jerusalem for a year at the time of the temple’s fall around 70 A.D. Although this was long after Jesus walked the earth,  Matthew was written not long after that fall and the comet.

Moreover, the legend of the city state of Rome involved a star that Aneas followed to the place where Rome was founded.

So stories of stars heralding events or being a part of events were not strange to Matthew’s community and they helped connect the foreign Magi to their own cultural experiences of star stories. Today’s star story validated Jesus under
known star legends. Jesus was heralded like great things of the day: by a star!

Every year at Christmas I hear or read some explanation of celestial happenings that could account for the star. It’s usually supposed to be this comet or that comet or a clustering of planets or other natural occurrences in the sky. And
every year I want to send the person with the explanation the text from Matthew. This is no ordinary star, no normal celestial happening. No star in the known universe has ever behaved like it. The star rises in the east like most things in the sky with the rotations of the earth, but that’s about the only
natural thing about it. It leads the Magi to a particular geographic locale, Jerusalem; and then hovers waiting for them to pick up directions from scripture.

Have you ever tried to follow a star to a particular location? It cannot be done. Stars do not hover in the sky over things, pointing down to houses, or even towns.

And this star does not just hover over locales it turns south and leads the Magi a few miles away from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then right to a very particular
spot–  the house Jesus is at. No star can lead you to a particular pinpointed geographic location, let alone wait for you and then turn south and point to a house. (And, NO they did not have giant hovering GPSs back then!).

Stars in nature can give a compass direction (like North) but they did not and do not lead and point down to places. This is no ordinary star that can be explained by comets or other known celestial occurrences. It’s a Light, God’s Light that
enlightens the Wise Ones in the world– and always has. Jesus’ birth is about the coming of a Light that draws the wise to its radiance. 2. Matthew’s point is that “Jesus is the light of the nations.” 3 Matthew is making the same point that John does in the last Gospel: “Jesus is the light of the world.”

In the Christmas story as soon as Joseph and Mary have the Light of Christ in their lives, God speaks to them in dreams, and they both act as God calls to them in their dreams. Did you notice how the same thing happens to the Magi? Once they reach the Light of Christ, then God speaks to them in a dream, then they too do what God requests.

And it is no accident that Joseph and Mary and the Magi are all called to acts for the Empire of God over and against the Empire of Rome and its minions, the religious elite. Mary and Joseph defy the earthly empire’s laws that make Mary’s impregnation outside of marriage a crime, and they defy Herod’s earthly empire decree designed to catch and kill the baby Jesus. The Magi defy the earthly empire too and refuse to follow the order to disclose the location of the newborn King of the Jews.

Those who have the Light of Christ in their lives are not afraid to follow the edicts of God’s Empire. And the en-Lightened actors in the story (Joseph; Mary and the Magi) set up this role model of civil disobedience that places allegiance to Love of God and others far above obedience to the unloving and ungodly edicts of earthly empires.

It’s a model we see Jesus play out more fully as his life unfolds– everything Jesus does is in done in complete allegiance to Love, to God and the results are nothing sort of world altering!

And even today just the stories of his life full of Love still resonate, still vibrate with Love for us. I mean we can literally feel Love radiating off the pages of the Gospel. It’s quite remarkable.

And the Magi are the first to prove that homage to Jesus, to the Light of Christ, leads to remarkable acts by those who pay homage:  you do not put Caesar’s Empire or the dictates of the religious elite first! No, what you do is, always, always put Love first.

Love of God, love of neighbor, love of self and love of creation, this is what God calls us to in this story, in the rest of Matthew and the New Testament–  and wherever God talks to us, even in our dreams; even in our memories of
Christmas past.

I can hear love in that Christmas trek with Tante. Her love for crafts and Christmas and a talent to display it in her art. And even in Macy’s desire–for whatever reason– to make the store attractive with the glow of Christmas.

Tante’s love for me (taking me on an adventure I will never forget). Our love shared together on that street looking at the amazing replicas of the Wise Ones, holding hands and sharing the joy of the season with each other and passerbys
we did not even know.

Last year at Epiphany I mentioned a favorite Christmas saying of mine by a seven year old named Bobby. Bobby is reported to have said  “Love is what’s in the room at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen.” 4. I love that quote.

I will add to it this observation: Love is what is in the air at Christmas if you just stop and listen; and you can hear that love in Christmas memories. Memories of the Wise Ones acts, memories of Mary and Joseph’s acts, and in memories
of other people’s Christmas acts, like Tante’s long ago. And, of course, we can especially hear it and feel it in the memories of that Christmas baby the Wise Ones sought and found.  That baby grew up to lead a life of words and acts that were and are all about love.  And God, God, is love.

And it is that Love we live in. So, Bobby’s right love is in the room if wee just stop and listen.

AMEN

ENDNOTES

1. Harper, Jennifer, The Washington Times, “A ‘Magi’ Makeover for Three Wise Men,” Nov. 2, 2004 article located on line at  www.washtimes.com/national/20040211-121228-7836r.htm.

2. Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic,  The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth, (New York: HarperOne, 2007) p. 182.

3. Ibid., at 184

4 This from one of those e-mail “forwards” about what children are supposed to have said about love. The e-mail did not have a listed author and credited this particular quote to “Bobby.”

COPYRIGHT   Scott Elliott © 2009 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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A Christmas Truce

By Riviera UCC | December 25, 2008

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A Story of Peace Filled With Truth

By Riviera UCC | December 21, 2008

A Story of Peace Filled With Truth
a Christmas Sermon based on Matthew 1:18-24
Palm Bay, FL December 21, 2008
By Rev. Scott Elliott

People tend to think of the books of Matthew and Luke as being the earliest Christian writings on the birth of Christ, but they aren’t.
Paul makes the earliest known references to Jesus’s birth. In Romans 1(3) he wrote that “Jesus was ‘descended from David according to the flesh’”1 And in Galatians 4 (9) he notes that “Jesus was ‘born of a woman, born under the law.’”2

That’s all Paul had to say on the matter. Nothing striking really. But at least it is more than the earliest Gospel had to say, as Mark recorded nothing about Jesus’ birth; for that matter neither did the author of John, the last gospel.
Scholars infer from the loud silence on Jesus’s birth (outside of Matthew and Luke) that early Christians did not consider stories about Jesus’s birth extraordinary.

That silence also suggests  the birth stories did not exist 9at least not in widespread fashion) , or were in early stages of formation, when Paul’s letter and the gospel of Mark were written. During those early days of Christianity’s formation Jesus’ death and resurrection seemed to have mattered most.3

Folks also tend to think that Matthew and Luke tell essentially the same Christmas story, but they don’t.  In today’s verses from Matthew the Holy family does not travel to Bethlehem, they are already there presumably as residents. In Matthew’s
Christmas story there are no shepherds, no innkeeper, no manger, no heavenly host and the angel does not speak to Mary, it speaks to Joseph.

While Matthew and Luke tell different stories about Jesus’s birth they do have some things in common which suggests they had access to a common birth story otherwise lost to the ages.
Listen to the details of Christmas that Matthew and Luke share:
Mary, a virgin was engaged to Joseph, and conceived Jesus by God’s Holy Spirit. Jesus was  named by God; was a savior; was the Davidic Messiah, was born in Bethlehem during Herod the Great’s reign and lived in Nazareth with Mary and Joseph.

There is not much else in common other than that small amount of information.

To make it even more difficult historians think that the only probable bits of historical information contained in Matthew and Luke’s Christmas stories are: that near the end of Herod the Great’s reign a person named Jesus was born to parents named Mary and Joseph whose home was in Nazareth.

I hope you noticed that in these bare bones of acceptable academic history there were no lowing cattle, radiant beams, a drummer boy or a long-eared donkey with a voice like Roger Miller. Also missing in the historian’s facts are angels, shepherds, an inn keeper, a census, a star, magi, a virgin birth, a stable and even a manger.

So, does that mean our Sacred Christmas stories are no good?
NO! Just because Matthew and Luke’s stories vary in the telling, and scholars find little evidence of historic proof does not mean Matthew and Luke’s Christmas stories are any less truth-full.

No doubt some of us here today don’t care what academics say about baby Jesus’s story, we believe it happened just as it is written.

No doubt some of here today do care what academics say and we find the story hard to believe as history.

No doubt there are still others here who believe some of the story, but can’t believe other parts.

Some of us believe it all. Some of us believe part of it. Some of us don’t believe much, if any, of it as history anyway. And that’s okay– sounds just like the United Church of Christ!

For those of you who are visiting, here at Riviera United Church of Christ we will not tell you what to think or believe. “Thinking Openly” is one of our visions, one of our goals. Pastors in this pulpit have long preached as they feel called to preach by the Holy Spirit, but no one– most especially a pastor– is going to tell you how you have to understand God or scripture, or for that matter Christmas.

In our sermons we try share God’s Word,  help illuminate the Sacred texts and to guide others toward God as we walk together on the Way that Jesus led and leads us to. We share our views, to be sure, but they will not be forced on anyone.

There is in the press and across the nation a lot of wrangling about whether scripture is meant to be seen and heard as fact or whether it is meant to be symbolic metaphor. I know this is going to sound weird, but, either way it does not really matter. The real question is not whether it happened, but, what does it mean? 4

Last Christmas a book came out by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan called The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth, (New York: HarperOne, 2007). – Our Adult Sunday School class studied this book recently– Among the many interesting observations Borg and Crossan present is that the birth stories by both Matthew and Luke are subversive parables that need to be read as such in the context of the time and place they were written. They assert that Jesus’s parables “subverted conventional ways of seeing life and God . . . by invit[ing] hearers into a different way of seeing how things are and how we might live” (36).

Matthew and Luke’s Christmas stories do the very same thing. And they do this regardless of whether we think the words and action conveyed in either story actually happened or not.

(As I mentioned) we’ll hear Luke’s story Christmas Eve. Today we heard Matthew’s story. It’s the shortest of the two Gospel renditions of Jesus. birth.
Matthew wrote this story sometime around 90 A.D., more than three quarters of a century after Jesus’s birth to a peasant family. When Matthew took quill to papyrus Judaism was still reeling and torn asunder by the destruction of the Temple and the disorganization caused by Rome’s violent suppression of the rebellion around 70 A.D. . This was a violent suppression that not only razed the Temple, but, caused te death and enslavement of many, many Jews.
At the time Matthew was written Judaism was beginning to break off into two main branches–both branches continue to exist today. One branch was Rabbinic Judaism. The other branch was the followers of Jesus, who eventually became known as Christians.

Both of these branches of Judaism found it hard to cow-tow to the Roman Emperor. Rome’s brutality and injustices and oppression of Palestinian peasants were in direct contradiction to Yahweh and Jesus’s call to love and peace, for righteousness and justice and compassion for widows and orphans, strangers and neighbors– and, yes, even enemies!

Moreover, Rome made its stooges in the Herodian family the Kings of the Jews; and Rome DEIFIED its emperors declaring brutes like Augustus to be Son of God, Redeemer, Liberator, Lord and Savior, Augustus (as we’ve discussed before) was understood by his culture to have been divinely conceived.

Judaism had a history of expectation of an anointed one, the Messiah, the Christ a person who would rescue Israel. A person who would wrest control from the powerful (who were oppressive and unjust) and bring peace.

The Messiah was mostly expected to be of the house of David and a conquering warrior type. Judaism had seen its share of heroes who would use violence in an effort to bring about change. Some like the Maccabees and those at Masada had
legendary, if limited, success.

The very popular prophet John the Baptist was remembered for his non-violent baptisms in the river Jordan in anticipation of the coming of a violent God who would lay axe to the root and burn with fire the unrepentant.

All these Jewish rebels, combating violence with violence, dreaming of victory through violence were themselves stopped by the powerful machinations of the Roman empire that relentlessly held onto its peace – its Pax Romana– through the
power of more violence. It has always been that way. Empires, even good empires, have always met violence with violence.

Parts of the Bible can be read to support violence, there is no doubt about it. There are strains of “Royal Theology”where God is remembered as having been experienced as appointing, supporting and siding with kingdoms and the powerful in war and intrigue. Royal Theology legitimates power structures including systems of domination.

But there is a counter strain to Royal Theology called “Prophetic Theology.” Prophetic Theology calls us to the pursuit of shalom through justice and righteousness and love. It’s a theology that understands God as a force that is subversive to the worldly ways of power and the pursuit of peace through
domination – victories necessarily obtain by violence. God’s way in Prophetic Theology is the Way Jesus taught:  the pursuit of peace through what Borg and Crossan call “non-violent justice.” Early Christians in Matthew’s community understood and experienced God as the opposite of the Roman Empire, as calling humanity to subversion of the ways of violence through unequivocal love for all–which is what shalom is all about.

Jesus the Messiah from the house of David was divinely conceived, but unlike Caesar he was not tainted with noble birth or by wealth achieved on the backs of countless peasants and at the point of legions of spears. He was in fact born a peasant and given a name common to countless peasants–  Jesus.

Unlike Augustus’s adoptive father, Julius Caesar, Joseph was not a man of violence. In fact we hear in today’s Christmas story how very unlike Joseph was from the men in power in his day. He did not treat women with disdain. Even before he knew that the cause of Mary’s swollen belly was due to the Holy Spirit, Joseph was compassionate.

Joseph who had heard what the law said about adulterous women did not treat Mary violently instead he had decided to not disgrace her, to let her go peacefully, non- violently.

In fact, with the Angel of the Lord’s urging he changed his mind and did an even better thing, he accepted that Mary was not carrying his child stayed with her anyway to adopt, protect and raise that child as his own.

Jesus’s name in Hebrew was really Yeshua in Greek it’s Joshua (“Jesus is how we say it). Yeshua  means “Yahweh helps” or “Yahweh saves.” You may recall that the Old Testament Joshua was the successor to Moses and a repeated refrain in his story was that God was with them. Jesus in Matthew becomes the New Testament successor to Moses,  and Matthew wants us to know that through  Jesus: God is with us.

Matthew reminds us that little baby Jesus ends up helping us, saving us as individuals from our lesser being and offering the amazing promise of also saving humankind as a whole from its lesser being.

In today’s story God alone speaks through an angel. In stark contrast Mary and Joseph do not speak,  they act. Joseph disregards his culture’s norms and its law and honors Mary.Mary and Joseph wed and create a family unit. Mary accepts from God the high risk of pregnancy in her day and age and carries Jesus to term – no small matter for any woman.

And together Mary and Joseph bring into the world a  “King of the Jews” very different from Herod; and bring into the world a Son of God, Redeemer, Liberator, Lord and Savior vastly different from Caesar.

Jesus enters the world in our Christmas story as a new choice for humanity, a choice that is stunningly distinctive from the choice worldly empires offer, a choice subversive to rule by might and oppression, a choice of real peace and real justice.

We hear in the Christmas story that Jesus, who lives his life and ends his life vulnerable and passive and fragile, begins his life in the same way. 5 Legions of armies, noble birth and vast wealth do not support this baby boy – THIS King of the Jews. His might at the first Christmas lies solely in compassionate parents and a compassionate God. As an adult his victories lie solely in acts of love and non- violence.

Matthew’s Christmas story means nothing short of the fact that two thousand years ago a peasant man named Joseph and a peasant woman named Mary living in a harsh and cruel world of violence and war and oppression gave birth not just to a bundle of joy named Jesus, but to new hope.

A Messiah was born who gave us the unexpected gift of living a life incarnated with God, a life lived so well we remember it. We long to follow it. We cheer it. We celebrate it. We yearn for the promise of peace it points to. A peace obtained by love. Love without violence, on a personal level as Joseph and Mary emulated for sure, but also love of enemies, love of neighbors. Love that gains its victories –all of its victories– through non-violence.

This, of course, is not the usual way of the world. It is the Way of compassion; the Way of Love; the Way of Jesus; the Way of God.

At Christmas we want this Way to be ours. We wish for it. We ache for it. We give a good go at trying to live it for a month each year and it makes the world a nicer place, a place where we smile and hug and give good cheer; and we even joyfully sing songs about it at Christmas!

All this love; this Christmas Spirit is evidence of the great truth that is conveyed by Matthew and Luke’s Christmas stories. The truth is that humans long for a way different from empires and caesars, a way different from oppression and violence.
The truth is that a different Way lies in these stories in the baby Jesus who grew up to show it to us, to prove it is possible. It is the Godly path to shalom by means of the pursuit of peace through non-violent justice.

Christmas is about the truth of Love. It’s a truth we turn to and consider and dream about this time of year, a truth we embrace and get all excited about. It’s a truth we can and should live with and be excited about all throughout our lives, every year, every month, Every week, every day, every hour, every moment.

Christmas is about the ultimate truth that we are meant to live hope-filled lives aimed at peace, bathed in love and bursting with joy. It’s God’s call to us. It is the promise of Christmas that thankfully gushes forth every winter proving to us year in- and-year out that we can live lovingly toward each other, and when we do we feel better than we do the rest of the year! And the whole world is a better place because of it!

Some day, one day Christmas will last all year. That is the promise of the season.

AMEN

END NOTES

1. Borg, Marcus and Crossan, John Dominic,  The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s
Birth, (New York: HarperOne, 2007) p. 26

2. Ibid

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid. at 36.

5. The New Interpreters Bible, NIB vol. VIII commentary on Matthew, p. 137.

COPYRIGHT   Scott Elliott © 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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