Failure to Launch

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 5: 1-11

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Epiphany 5, February 10, 2013

 

“When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.” (Luk 5: 4, NRSV)

 

 While on vacation in Tampa Florida back in 1990, I heard on the news on that on the day we were to leave, the space shuttle was to blast off from Cape Canaveral.   This was my chance.  So early on the morning of our departure we drove straight across the peninsula to the Cape.   When we arrived the crowd was already gathering.  Traffic along the interstate was at a standstill.  I had timed it just right.  Then came the countdown.  “T-minus 15 seconds and counting, 14…13…. .  Then, there was a silent pause.   My heart skipped a beat.  The counting ceased.  We were in a holding pattern at T-minus 13 seconds, the loud speaker said.  All that money spent, all that planning, all the preparation was at risk of failure.  Besides all that, I got everybody up at 4 in the morning while on vacation and now, we had a failure to launch. 

 

Our Bible text today is about the ‘launching’ of Jesus’ ministry.   Jesus took over a fishing boat and made it into a pulpit.   Since the acoustics were better out on the water, Jesus asked Peter to put the boat out a little ways off shore.   Now that Jesus has everyone’s attention, he asked Peter again, “Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch” (5.4).  The King James uses the very specific, singular and stronger word “Launch.” Jesus begins his ministry with a call for his disciples to ‘launch’ out into deeper water.  

 

 But Peter, being a fisherman, perhaps also realizing Jesus to be a carpenter, politely question’s Jesus request: “Master, we have worked all night but have caught nothing.” (5.5).   Our text tells us they were already “washing their nets” (2) so they were preparing to quit for the day.   They had let Jesus use their boat, but maybe they were thinking, “Come on Jesus, its quitting time!”  Besides that, everyone knows in this hot climate that the fish feed at night.  If this is what they were thinking, Peter is still remarkably polite saying, “if you insist, I will let down the nets” (5.5b).

 

 I guess there are always very good reason not to go too far with Jesus.   Religion can be dangerous stuff.  Remember David Koresh and the Camp Davidian compound in Waco, Texas?  Religious people can become fanatics, can’t they?  It can also complicate our lives to get more than casually involved with Jesus’ mission.   We are so busy with so much to do ourselves and have ‘better things’ in mind for our time.   There are only so many hours in a week.  Such excuses are never hard to come up with, as with Moses or like Peter, we’ve all got our reasons for not going any further with Jesus than we have.   The truth is that many, if not most, understand baptism as a finish line, not a launching pad.   Our ship, if it ever goes out, stays close to shore or it remains on the launching pad because it can be costly to go all the way with Jesus.  

 

 

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him to come and die!”   That’s how Dietrich Bonhoeffer once put it, and he meant it, and paid for it, with his own life, when he opposed Hitler in the name of Christ and was hung for it.   Following Jesus can be dangerous.  But it can also be just as dangerous not to launch out at all, can’t it?   As Churches, as Christians, and disciples of Jesus, we’ve got all this wonderful, inspiring history behind us, and we have this unparalleled opportunity before us, and we also have great potential within us, and it is a ‘crying shame’ that we are not doing all that we are capable of doing in Jesus’ name.   What will it take for us to ‘launch out’ and to ‘go deeper’ and to take a risks beyond the normal; to against the odds and to ‘let down’ our nets for a great catch in the name of Jesus?

 

 Of course, if you don’t know by now, this is a message about the core mission and main purpose of the church—our church, every church.   The church is called to be an ‘evangelical’ church.   An evangelical church is one that believes the good news of God changes and saves lives.   We also believe that it is our ‘calling’ as the ‘people of God’ to be faithful to ‘this gospel’ and hear God’s call in our own lives to ‘drop our nets’, leave the safety of shore, and to go ‘out into the depths’ of this world and fish.  In a way, today’s text is like the fellow who was catching a lot of fish, so much that the game warden wanted to see what he was doing.  They were on the boat together and the fellow dropped a stick of dynamite into the water, and all kinds of fish came floating up to the top.   “You can’t fish like that,” the game warden insisted.   The man hands the game warden a stick of lite dynamite and asks, “Warden, are you gonna talk, or are you gonna fish?”

 

Our text is like a stick of dynamite in the hand of a confused, conflicted, complacent church: “From now on, you will catch people,” Jesus told them and reminds us.  The reason for Christ’s mission is unmistakable.   Are we going to ‘talk’ or are we going to fish?  Our mission is not to enjoy the boat ride, but it is go out into the deep of this world, out into in the elements and to go up against the odds and to ‘let down our nets’ so that we too can catch people into the net of God’s love.   This is our definitive calling, purpose, our reason to be, and it is our most basic mission.   But the question is what might a ‘launch into the deep’ look like in our lives and in our churches today?  How can we overcome the ‘failure to launch’?   It is this ‘failure’ which is the greatest threat to the church of Jesus Christ today, much more of a threat than any evil out there in the world. 

 

WE MUST ANSWER THE CALL

Whatever we can say about how the gospel of good news get from ‘the world of the Bible’ into the ‘world of our lives”, we must say that it requires that a human ‘answer’ to the call of God in our lives.   In this story, even against his better judgment, Peter must make himself and his boat fully available to Jesus’ commands.  Peter must make Jesus ‘master’ and ‘commander’ of his ship.  There is no room for discussion.  Peter must immediately give Jesus full control of the direction and outcome of his life.  The way, the work, and the call of God, demands our full human cooperation or there will be no miracle, no catch and no result.

 

Among the many other angles we can take on what it means to answer God’s call in our lives, the one thing Luke seems most concerned with Jesus’ distinctive call.   The call that comes from Jesus is a call for us to go deeper, go further, do more and go the ‘extra mile’.  The call of God is not only definite and descriptive, it is most of all demanding.  True discipleship places real demands upon our lives.  Discipleship exacts a high ‘cost’.

 

I mentioned Dietrich Bonhoeffer a moment ago.  He wrote one of the most important books ever written outside of the Bible.  His book, ‘The Cost of Discipleship’ was written as Hitler and the Nazis were gaining power in Germany.  In German the book is given a one-word title, Nachfolge, meaning one who “follows”.  The point Bonhoeffer was making is that following Jesus will ‘cost’ you.   One of the great phrases of the book is  Bonhoeffer’s term “cheap grace”.   Do you know what cheap grace is?  Let Bonhoeffer define it as he does in the book:  “Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, and communion without confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ.”   The  big problem with ‘cheap grace’ is that among other things, it is a lie.  It preaches a lying gospel which says that ‘you are a sinner, but you are forgiven and now you can stay as you are and enjoy this forgiveness without doing anything else with your life.  The ‘defect’ with such a proclaimation is that it says you can be a Christian without being a disciple---you can have Jesus without ‘following” Jesus.  But this is not biblically correct, Bonhoeffer asserts: “Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus, it comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart.  It is costly because it compels a person to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden it light.”  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cost_of_Discipleship).

 

This are ‘hard’ words, and Jesus did say the way that saves is a ‘narrow’ and ‘hard’ way, not the easy way, or the way of least resistance.  But following Jesus saves us many more times than it kills us.   We need to understand that what the ‘call’ of following Christ means is that we will hear and answer the inward call to rise above what is wrong in this world, in our lives, and even in our religious faith, and we will do the ‘hard’ things that will bring hope, reform and the newness of God’s grace.   This is exactly what Bonhoeffer did.  When most of the German church choose to follow Hitler, to bless the ‘powers’ rather than challenge them, Bonhoeffer recognized the true nature of the Nazi ‘lie’ and establish a ‘confessing’ church to answer God’s call to stand with Jesus, rather than with Hitler, with God rather than with his own countrymen.  It was not easy then, nor is it easy now, but the church that marches to the ‘beat of a different drum’ is the church that does not seek self-comfort nor accolades, but the church that risks all to rise above the culture and hear and answer the call of Jesus in today’s world.   But now, how do we do this?

 

WE MUST OVERCOME OUR FLAWS

The first thing we must do is what Peter had to do in this text.  He had to face, confront, and confess his own weaknesses, doubts, and flaws before God.  Of all things, he had to be ‘honest’ and ‘clean’ with Jesus.   It is a powerful message also for us, isn’t it, that we too must confront and work to ‘overcome’ our own flaws before we can follow Jesus in greater and deeper ways. 

 

There is something ‘holy’ and ‘good’ in Peter’s reluctance to follow Jesus.   By confessing his own ‘hesitations’ before the miracle and by confronting his own sin and negativity after the miracle, Peter comes clean before God and answers the call of Jesus with honesty rather than pretense.  Peter’s confession of his own flaws and sins do not keep him from answering God’s call.  Peter hesitates when he realizes ‘who Jesus is’ and ‘who he is not’, but also, Peter’s flaws do not hinder him, from answering the call and claim of Jesus on his life.

 

Unfortunately, many people see their ‘sins’, ‘shortcomings’ and ‘weaknesses’ and reasons not to follow Jesus, whereas, they should be seen as obstacles which by overcoming them will make us strong and better people.

 

A great example of a ‘flawed’ person who admitted, challenged and overcame his own flaws is the character Jean Valjean in the classic Victor Hugo novel, Les Miserables.  Jean Valjean was put in prison for hard labor for stealing bread.   When he got parole, he got caught again ‘stealing’ silver from a church, but instead of having him arrested, the priest forgave him, gave him grace, but then challenged to go and overcome his weaknesses by answering a higher call in his life.   Valjean does just that, as he helps a dying prostitute by adopting her daughter and raising her as his own child.  Valjean lives his whole life, now, not by living for himself, but by giving his life, even risking his life for others.  In the end, this is what has made him a person who has sinned, but now who can die with no regrets.  He overcame his own ‘flaws’ by answering the ‘higher call’ in his own life.

 

Isn’t it the same for us?  When we take our eyes off of Jesus and we only think about ourselves, we often sink,  like Peter did when he tried to walk on water.  But when we keep our focus on Jesus, and own the calling we are to answer, the power to live is given to us so that even ‘heavy burdens’ and ‘failures’ can become launching pads to new heights of life and living.  But to get to this point, we can’t go on in life pretending.   Like Peter, we have to give ourselves to God, with doubts, fears, frustrations, and failures –all.  We don’t hide them, but we share them, bear them, and we take them to Jesus and let him transform them into stairways rather than roadblocks.   We launch out, not as ‘perfect’ people, but as people who know our strength and our weaknesses, our possibility for good and our potential for evil, and we bring all this honestly, openly, and bravely to God, asking him to help us each step of the way---and he will, and he does.

 

WE MUST DARE TO CARE LIKE JESUS  

Answering the call of Jesus in our lives will enable us to be better people than we thought we could be, and it will also give us a better reality and a better world than we thought we could have.  At Christmastime, a news report told of two ‘old soldiers’, war heros, who were going into schools trying to teach children how they too could be ‘heros’ by doing good things and being good in the world.   One little elementary student understood precisely their message when she told the reporters, “They told us that we are heroes too, when we do the right thing, we make the world a better place.”

 

But what is the ‘right thing’?   What does it mean to answer the call of Jesus, or to overcome our own flaws and weaknesses and become better people?  How do we define it?   The truth is we don’t need to ‘define’ anything any better than Jesus defined what it meant to be his disciple.  In this text, we see clearly that answering the call of God is not just hearing a spiritual message, nor is it only about being a better person who saves their own neck, but answering the call of God to get off the launching pad can only be understood in the most practical terms of hearing Jesus’ call to ‘catch people’ or to become, as the old King James Bible said, “fishers of men”.  

 

This can mean, but does not only mean that you must become evangelists, that you must learn how to witness to people or bring people to church.   It can mean that, and for some of us with the ‘people skills’ it should mean that too, but what Jesus means is even bigger, broader, and more inclusive of every person who has decided to follow Jesus.   When Jesus calls Peter to put down his ‘fishing net’ and pick up the ‘gospel net’ and go fishing for people, Jesus is asking Peter and each of us too, to rise above our normal life of working for a living, and he is calling us to work to live, and to find a ‘calling’ in our own lives that will not only make us better people, but will be a ‘work’ that will help people, and ‘catch others’ in the net of God’s love.  Peter did not leave his fishing boat for good, but later we see him fishing again, to make a living.  But God wanted Peter, and wants us to, not to be content of working to survive, or living only to work, but Jesus wants Peter to take a step of faith and to dare to care, not just about his work, but to enrich his life and the to, as the little girl said, ‘make the world a better place’ by caring for others.  

 

Will you just live your life to survive, or will you learn to thrive, by daring to take a step beyond the doldrums of everyday life, and to ‘exponate’, (is that a word?), or to booster, to better, or to enhance how things are by caring for others in the name of Christ?   I have on my desk a new book I’m reading entitled, “The Aims of Christ”, by Ben Meyer.  However your summarize the most basic mission or aim of Jesus, it was not about saving Jesus, but Jesus’ ministry was about saving Israel, and about bring God’s saving mission into a decaying, dying and tragic world.  

 

 

What made Jesus different than all other religious leaders or would be messiahs, is that Jesus build his ministry not upon high religious ideals, but Jesus build his ministry upon responding to the real needs of real people.   Remember Jesus’ words that got him into hot water with the authorities:  “Man is not made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath is made for man”.  In other words, the greatest need in the world is not simply giving God what we think God wants, but the great need is meeting human need head on in the name of a loving, forgiving God who eats, drinks, and calls sinners to repentance and salvation in the love of God.  It is this love the caught people’s attention then, and it is still this love, this dare to care more about the needs around us, than making ourselves more comfortable, that will bring about the rule of God in the world. 

 

 

This ‘love’ lived-out, acted upon, and demonstrated, in us, as it was in Jesus, is the dare that Jesus is still calling us to answer, one person, one need, and one day at a time.   How can you answer that love right now?  How can you get your life and this church off the launching pad and out into the deep of the world’s needs?  Will you answer?  Will you overcome your flaws?  Will you dare to care, like Jesus did?  Amen.  

Can Jesus Make You Mad?

A sermon based upon Luke 4:14-30

Dr. Charles J. Tomlin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

February 3, 2013

 

Exactly 4 years ago, in February of 2009, Central Baptist Church in Australia got into a bit of ‘hot water’.  Someone in the congregation put on their church sign the words “Jesus Loves Osama Bin Laden”.   I’m sure they meant well, but there message was not well taken.  Knowing that many Australian soldiers put their lives at risk to help America get him made those words look insulting, outrageous, even stupid.  In short, the sign made a lot of people mad.  People got so mad  they began picketing the church and riot fears developed.   Even the Prime Minister John Howard got involved.  The Prime Minister agreed that the church had a right to express their opinion, but that the sign was sending the wrong message; implying that the church ‘approved’ of Osama Bin Laden.  

To the credit of the congregation, the Baptist church did have an explanation at the bottom, quoting Jesus’ own words of explanation for the sign: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”   The church was trying to follow Jesus, but people were not impressed.  (http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-202_162-2420546.html).   

 Can Jesus make you mad?   Sometimes we forget that Jesus was killed by crucifixion exactly because he made people mad.   Remember that scene near the end of the gospels, where Jesus is standing before Pilate and the people decide to save Barabbas and not Jesus.  In an angry and loud voice they screamed in agreement: "Crucify Him!  Crucify Him!"   Jesus really did make people that mad.   And in our text today from Luke, at the very beginning of Jesus' ministry, and on top of that, even in Jesus' own home town we read that because of Jesus "all the synagogue were filled with rage."   How mad were they?  We must understand that Jesus’ own people were mad enough to drive Jesus out of town, lead him up a hill, take him to the edge of a cliff, just so they could 'hurl him off'.  Now that's mad!  Can Jesus make you that mad?   Can he make you mad enough to want him gone? 

Now, I know all this sounds strange, but the gospels are strange documents.   They do not tell us a regular guy hero story.   We prefer our heroes to be nice, caring, wonderful kinds of people.   We can also know from the gospel stories that Jesus was a good person, who went around doing good.  We also know that people loved to be around Jesus.   His personality drew all kinds of people to want to get close to him.   Especially in the early part of his ministry people followed him, and even hounded him much like the paparazzi do movie stars.   But as time goes on the desire to be close to Jesus finally fizzled out.  Jesus said things hard to understand.  Jesus hung around people no one wanted to hang around.  The truth Jesus told could be crude and rude.  Being around Jesus was nice for a while, but taking him too seriously could get ones nerves. 

The truth about Jesus  is that only a few, maybe only a hand full of people were very glad to get to know Jesus, but most people could not stand the guy.  He simply made too many people mad.    Can’t you think of some of them?  The birth of Jesus made Herod mad.  When Jesus disappeared from his parents at age twelve, it made his parents both afraid and mad.  When Jesus healed people on the Sabbath day, it made religious leaders, both Pharisees and Sadducees, mad.   Rich people were troubled by Jesus’ teaching because he said it was practically impossible for a rich man to get into heaven.   The Rich Young ruler went a sorrowful and perhaps more than a little perturbed.   Jesus even called his best man, Peter, a Satan.   In reflection upon Peter’s eventual denial of Jesus, would you cover for someone who called you out in front of everybody?  The Jesus of the Bible definitely appears to have needed a Carnage course on ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People.”  

The truth Jesus brings to the world can still be offensive.   We see this especially in this opening story from Luke.   It appears that Jesus intentionally insults his own hometown people.   Now this is a very strange way to start a gospel.   But what I’ve also come to understand is that Jesus intends to make us mad too.  I’m convinced that Jesus cannot save us fully, freely or abundantly---he can’t save us from our sins, he can’t us from ourselves, and he can’t save us for a life of faith, hope and love, until Jesus also makes us mad—real mad.   Before Jesus can help and heal, he wants to pick a fight with us.   I know this is strange, undomesticated way to look at Jesus, so let’s get on to some explanation.

 Mad For Good Reasons

When I was in college, my roommate had a lot of interesting sayings.  He would use these sayings when he needed to express himself.  One of my favorite was what he always said when he was debating something and the conversation got heated.  He'd say something like, "Come on bro, dogs get mad, people get angry."   What he meant was ‘no calm down, we don’t have to get mad, we’re more than dogs.  We ought to be able to control ourselves, our emotions, etc.   Of course, my roommate was right in ideal situations, but what we know all too well is that sometimes people go mad too.

 A couple of years ago, in a small community south of Greensboro called Pleasant Garden, Mary Ann Holder went mad and shot five of her children in the head.   What is most alarming about such crimes of rage is that very often people turn their rage upon those they are closest too.  In another recent murder, a husband, who was also a fireman, trained to save lives, hired a homeless man to go into a Wal-mart with him and buy a hammer to bludgeon his wife to death.  We also remember how Casey Anthony killed her own child and got away with it.  Maybe you've seen such anger turn to rage, bitterness and hate in your own family.   When I was a child, my handicapped cousin took a 22 rifle and shot his Father three times in the stomach.  Nobody thought he could even pull the trigger, but he got mad enough and did it. 

People do get mad and go mad.   If you want some type of psychological explanation, human anger is most often connected to those things that frustrate us, hurt us, or make us afraid, which, if  left 'bottled up' in our hearts for too long, one day will explode.   Instead of getting all these issues out to deal with them,  too often we keep pushing stuff up under the rug, so to speak, until pressure builds up and then one day, boom!   Even over something completely unrelated, like your husband leaving his socks on the floor, or the wife waiting to the last minute to put on the brakes--something small or inconsequential, then it comes, boom!   Everything blows up.  He loses it and hits her.  She loses it and walks away.  Behind that seemingly small matter was something really big—and it was dynamite.

 Anger is a very human emotion.  It is also a necessary emotion.   Jesus got angry.  We get angry.  If we didn’t get angry, then nothing would matter.  We get most angry about those things we care about.   When a person hurts someone they love, or God forbid, if someone gets killed in a fit of rage, the law may call it a “crime of passion.”  A different set of rules might need to be considered in some of these situations.   We can’t always say why a person suddenly ‘flies off the handle’ and loses it.   We have ways to describe what happens, but we don’t always have full explanations.   Just like a mass murderer, or a murder suicide, it’s very tragic, it’s terribly horrible, but very the anger that is being released upon innocent people is really not about those people, but it’s about something gone terribly wrong inside a person who has lost all sense of reality, morality or self-control.   When people get mad, they can go mad, and it can happen real fast. 

 Yet, here we need to stop and consider something very important.  Anger is a warning sign.  Anger is sign that something is wrong---very wrong.   And the great message about anger in us is that the wrong is not only about what is being done to us, but it can be about the ‘wrong’ that’s also inside of us and needs to be confronted.   Most of us recall how back in the 70’s when counselors and psychologists often advised people to ‘get it out’, get mad, even to throw things---express your true feelings---but just don’t hurt anyone.   They would tell you to get your frustration out, but to do it in a constructive and non-destructive way.   However, it has now been realized that such advice is very risky.  Giving free reign and expression to your anger and rage can be very dangerous---not just for those you are angry with, but even with you, yourself.   Fits of rage and anger can cause unhealthy stress on your body and your heart.  It can teach you negative, bad habits too and leave things unresolved. 

What people need to do with their anger is not just ‘get it out’, but we need to also try to find out ‘why’ it is there.   Anger can be a sign that something is isn’t right with you too.  It can either be a signal that you have too few coping skills or emotional resources in your life, or it could mean that there is something inside you that needs your immediate attention.  In this way, when anger rises up in you and me, anger can be gift.  If we will see it rising up and if we recognize it, identify it, and discover exactly why it is there, we can also put ourselves on the road to understanding, to healing and finding help.   

But I’m not trying to bring you a psychology lesson.   But good psychology and good religion are related.   When people get angry, just like they do in this text and just like we do in life, anger can be a sign that something has gone very wrong.  But the wrong that makes us so angry is not always the wrong that is ‘out there’ or in someone else, but sometimes the ‘wrong’ has also gotten into us, into our hearts, our minds, and into our souls.   Until we feel the anger, we seldom can get to the real problem.   Confronting what’s wrong, is always a ‘two-way street’--going in both directions.   This means that part of what is wrong and find what is right, must also be revealed in us.   Before we can find the help and the healing, we may need to get a little mad, before we become glad.

 

Jesus Still Makes People Mad

With some understanding that anger is not always bad, but can also be a way to healing if we catch it early, let’s move on with this story.  What was it that made the people so mad with Jesus?   He seemed like such a likeable guy.  

Our text tells us that Jesus was ‘filled with the power of the Spirit’ when he returned to Galilee.   Reports about his good deeds spread everywhere in the surrounding area.  Jesus healed the sick.  He ate with sinners.  He makes at God’s table a place for all people to find rest for their souls.  Everybody is inviting Jesus to come to their town and to speak and to teach.  We also read how at Nazareth, Jesus went to the synagogue, ‘as it was his custom’, being a good, church going person.   Then, Jesus opens scroll for the Scripture reading assigned for that day.  It was from Isaiah and was about “the Spirit anointing” God’s prophet to speak and do good things in the world.   So far, so good.  After the reading was over, “the eyes of all were fixed on him” because their hopes seemed to be coming true in Jesus.  Jesus goes on to get more specific, leaving nothing to their imagination, saying: “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  

Up to this point, the people are still with him.   The text says, “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth”.   In full amazement they could not believe what they saw and heard in one of their own.  They spoke their hearts out loud: “Is this not Joseph’s son?”   Up to this point, everything is wonderful.  We might say that the feeling in the air is that “God is in the heaven and all is right with the world.”  Or, as comedian Billy Crystal used to say, It’s simply “Marvelous.”

Why then, does Jesus mess everything up?   Instead of receiving their praise and worship, Jesus turns and insults his home crowd people.   He insults them so badly that they all want to kill them.  Was this really necessary?   Does Jesus have to make people mad before he can really make them fully glad---glad to be alive—glad to have faith in God? 

 I recall several years ago, when I was pastor elsewhere, the church decided to become more intentional in evangelism outside the church walls.  We had received an offer from a local baseball stadium inviting our members to participate in an evening of Christian fellowship in support of the home team.  I shared that this could be a great evangelistic outreach opportunity.  We could ask members to buy a ticket for themselves, but the church would by a ticket for any unchurched friends they would invite.  It sounded like a great opportunity and the planning committee was all excited.

Then came the Sunday we were to head to the game.  We called off Sunday night worship and a warm summer evening and invited the congregation to attend the game with us.  Everything was going fine, until an older lady stopped at the door, looked me in the eye and said, “How dare you call off Sunday night worship for a baseball game!”  I just smiled.  I didn’t answer.  What do you say?  The woman hardly came to evening worship services herself.  She wasn’t always there, but she wanted to make sure that her church only did what she wanted it to do.   As wonderful of a person as she was, and she was that, she was so good she could not see anything beyond herself.   Like the people in Nazareth, she wanted Jesus just the way she wanted him to be---a Jesus who worked for her, who met her demands, and who kept the miracles close at home.

 What we need grasp is not just about what was going on in Nazareth, but what was goes on everywhere.   Jesus gets to the heart of this when he confronts what they really wanted: “Doubtless you will quote this proverb, ‘Doctor, cure yourself’.  And then you will say: “Do here in your own hometown the things that we have heard that you did at Capernaum.”  In this statement we find the real problem---not just the problem that people have with Jesus, but the problem that God has with us:  We want Jesus, and we like Jesus, but not for the sake of God and the needs of the world, but we want Jesus on our own terms.   We want Jesus to give us what we want.  Jesus’ hometown wanted Jesus’ miracles, and they wanted Jesus to do something for them, but they did not want to know what God wanted or expected from them.   They wanted to be served, but they did not want to learn to serve.   Jesus couldn’t be a prophet to them.  And the greatest truth of this text is that long before they ever got mad at Jesus for not giving them what they wanted,  they were not giving God what God wanted, and Jesus had come calling them to repentance as well.        

Jesus Must Make You Mad
I guess we could go on about some of the ways Jesus could make us mad today.   But we see it all the time.  People come to church and come to Jesus to get what they want, and when they don’t get it, they get mad.  What never occurred to them is that you don’t come to Jesus just to get what you want, but you come to Jesus to give God what God wants.  

The popular evangelical speaker sociology professor Tony Campolo was speaking about the needs of the people in Hati, long before the terrible earthquake hit.  Once he was speaking at a large convention hall, but the people didn’t seem to care a bit about what he was saying.   Then, Tony stopped, said a cruse word loud enough for all to hear.  The hall was deadened into complete silence.   Then Campolo, finished his speech.  Thousands of people in Hati need your help, but right now you self-righteous people are much more upset at me for saying a cruse word than you are upset about the situation in Hati.  Shame on you!  He concluded:  I hope I made you mad enough that you might not just sit there, but that you might do something. 

 It may sound hard, at least at first, but God does not plan to always make us happy or give us what we want.  Getting everything you want will not make you a better person.  Getting what you want will not save you either.  In fact, only living for what you want will make you a very spoiled, emotionally starved and spiritually and physically sick person.

This is why Jesus still wants to make some of us mad.   He wants to make us mad enough that we see much more to our life getting what we want.  Jesus wants to give us, me and you, what we really need.  And what we need, more than life itself is God, his grace, his mercy and his demands to be placed upon our lives for our own good.    In fact, Jesus wants to make you mad enough to see ‘red’---to see the red of his sacrifice, a Jesus who did not come to get, but a Jesus who came to give, and by giving himself, he teaches us how to live for more than just what we want.   Can Jesus make you that mad?   Can he make you mad enough to give up what you want for what God wants?   Amen.

The WORDLESS Sermon

A Sermon Based Upon Psalm 19

Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Zion Baptist Church

Epiphany 3, January 27th, 2012

“The heavens are telling the glory of God;…Day to Day pours forth speech.  (Psa 19:1,2 NRS)

How would you like to have a sermon without words?  

A few years ago, mysterious billboards started popping up in Greensboro, and other cities around the nation.   An anonymous donor sponsored these billboards with a spiritual message that caught the attention of drivers all across the nation.   Each quotation was signed "God."    Originally eighteen sayings were selected for billboards in south Florida, but it soon mushroomed into more than 10,000 across the nation.    

SERMON WITHOUT WORDS  

Long before any billboards were erected claiming to be a message from God, God had already emblazoned God’s own handwriting for all to read.   More than three thousand years ago a king looked at the vast array of stars and cried, "The heavens declare (NRSV ..are telling) the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands."  

That king was David, and he was speaking of God’s sermon, the sermon that is preached every day the sun rises----a sermon without words.    Although David was a powerful man, David felt dwarfed by the power of the creator of the heavens.  On a clear night David could likely see 2,000-3,000 stars. If he’d had a good pair of binoculars he could have seen 100,000 stars.  Today, with the Hubble Telescope it is estimated that in our galaxy alone there are 100’s of millions, or about 10 to 10^th or 12^th power stars; and we also know that there are at least 10 to 10^th power galaxies out there all with hundreds of million stars in each one.   David would never have dreamed that, but interestingly, even with the relatively few stars he could observe, it was enough to stagger him, as he observed God’s sermon without words. 

David didn’t have a laptop, but he had a rooftop where he watched the sunrise and sunset, and what he saw spoke to him of the grandeur of God.  He believed God was speaking to the inhabitants of the earth by means of God’s amazing, limitless, creation.   What if David had had not only a telescope, but a microscope?  What more could he have said or seen?    The late Dr. Carl Sagan marveled that a single human chromosome containing 20 billion bits of information.  This corresponds to four thousand 500 page books—and that’s only one chromosome!   

The created world preaches and reveals God in a very general way, pointing people beyond themselves to the ultimate power, creator and source of everything.  The apostle Paul reiterated this truth when he wrote, "From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made…so they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God." (Rom 1:20)   For decades, philosopher Anthony Flew argued that religious beliefs could not meet modern, scientific criteria for rational acceptance.  But in 2004, at the age 81, he changed his mind. The complexity of DNA convinced him that "intelligence must have been involved" in the design and creation of life.  Flew is not yet a Christian, but he became a deist.  The evidence available to everyone of us, when we walk outside, seen a sunrise or sunset, or see the star-lite heavens, is evidence that can persuade even the most ardent atheist that some sort of ultimate power, truth, or creator, must exist.  

Who cannot see the truth of God in the glittering stars flung across his heavenly billboard?  There is so much to consider:  The earth in perfect orbit around the sun—close enough to sustain life but far enough away to keep from burning up.

Sculpted mountains, the earth’s crust carved into a breathtaking canyon, fish that glow in the blackest depths of the sea, the meticulously spun web of a gray spider, molecules, atoms, electrons, the growth of a child in the womb, birth—these all clearly attest to a Creator who made everything, including us.   One leader of the French Revolution, Jean Bon St. Andre, said to a peasant, "I will have all your steeples pulled down, so you will not be reminded any more of your old religion." The peasant replied, "But you cannot help leaving us the stars."

SERMON WITH WORDS

After describing in the first six verses how nature reflects God’s glory, David switches gears. From the sun, moon and stars he turns to consider the beauty of God’s law: God’s sermon with words. 

Earlier in the chapter the psalmist refers to God with a general name that anyone, of any religion, might use—just like our English word god.   But from verse seven on, God is called "the Lord" (a translation of the Hebrew Yahweh)—the personal name God revealed to Moses from the burning bush (Ex 3:15).  It seems as if David is saying, "Yes the heavens declare the glory of God, but God’s law reveals even more—God’s personal voice to God’s people." General revelation (creation) declares God’s glory, but the Scriptures tell us what God did so that we may celebrate that glory.  We need something more specific than creation that reveals clearly the character of God.  That "something more" is the truth, and rule of God found in the Bible.  Today’s Psalm contains synonyms for God’s word: God’s law, testimony, precepts, commandments, fear of the Lord—each describes what God’s word is;  and each pronounces what it effectually accomplishes.  We need both the nonverbal and the verbal to experience the wonder of God’s majesty: God’s world and God’s word. The better you understand your Bible and obey it, the more you will appreciate creation, and the better you will understand yourself and others which gives us stability and vitality for life.

What does it mean to obey God’s law?   A great modern example is found in the Oscar-winning movie, ‘A River Runs Through It’ (1992: dir. Robert Redford), which is based on the 1976 semi-autobiographical novella of the same name by Norman Maclean.   The movie focuses on the Maclean family, especially brothers Norman (Craig Sheffer) and Paul (Brad Pitt). Their father (Tom Skerritt) is a strict but loving Presbyterian minister, and he and the boys’ mother (Brenda Blethyn) raise the brothers in the mountains of Missoula, Montana. Reverend Maclean is fond of fly-fishing and teaches the sport to Norman and Paul. Indeed, in the film, fly-fishing becomes a motif that points to the spiritual components of communing with nature. For this minister and his two sons, there is something sacred about nature. Thus, just as Psalm 19 sees God in nature, so does the film.

Regarding adherence to the law, the movie explores this theme in the two boys. Norman is more responsible and diligent. He goes to college. He works hard. He does not engage in dissolute living. He becomes a teacher and begins dating a sweet young lady named Jessie Burns (Emily Lloyd). Younger brother Paul, by contrast, is rebellious, taking up drinking and gambling. Paul, however, masters fly-fishing to a degree that Norman does not. Paul ends up beaten to death in a drunken brawl. Thus, he is at once tragic and a figure who achieved perfection as a fly-fisherman. Paul defies laws and propriety and pays a huge price as a result. Nevertheless, he also connects with nature and spirituality through his family’s beloved sport.

This film functions as a visual cautionary tale against disobeying God’s law and pursuing sinful behaviors.   But at the same time, the film also shows the merits of following a different kind of law, the law that teaches us to see God’s grandeur in nature.   As the film declares, quoting Maclean’s novella, "Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it."    Ulitimately, God’s truth is not many, but one thing.   And even as we contemplate finding God in nature or following God’s law, we are always the greatest message in all things is the message of God’s love.

There is no conflict between what God does in God’s universe and what God says in God’s word.  They work in harmony together as in the Christmas story—the Magi in Matthew’s gospel started on their journey by following God’s star, a special messenger in the sky to direct them. Then they consulted God’s Word and found that the King was to be born in Bethlehem; so they went to Bethlehem, and there found and worshiped the Savior. When you study God’s creation with a Bible in your hand, you can’t help but find the best directions for life. David says God’s Wordless Book and the Word Book are truly a wonderful pair that belong in every library.

SERMON IN YOUR OWN WORDS

But now consider this final word about God’s sermon, with and without words.   The Psalmist concludes this Psalm with a prayer about his own words:  “Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer (Psa 19:14 NRS).

The work and word of God is of no use to you or to me, unless you put your own “two cents” in, as we say.   You must join in the chorus of praise and prayer or all this glory and grandeur is worth very little.   Isn’t this why we are created in the ‘image’ of God?  Isn’t part of our reason to be, to be able to see, enjoy, and make use of God’s marvelous wonders for our own time, moment and situation? 

Even a mentally ill person name Charlie can put his ‘two cents’ into God’s message.   Charlie has a great longing to "be whole and sound" at least since the war in Vietnam, which ended in 1975. He suffers from war-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as well as schizophrenia.   As he explained to a government office, "My situation when I was in Vietnam was that I was on a small gunship compound in the Central Highlands at the height of the war. The whole time I was in Vietnam we were surrounded by enemy soldiers who were plotting to kill us. I had a sense that they could see us but we could not see them. They regularly attacked us…. Repeatedly when I was in Vietnam I would become so terrified that I would freeze up. This is not something I did on purpose but something that happened to me.

"So my understanding now is that when I would freeze up I imprinted the traumatic situation that I was in, in such a way that this traumatic imprint became for me a permanent way of seeing and experiencing the world…. I am still very frozen up inside. A large central part of my soul is missing. This really scares me! What if I die and part of my soul is still missing?.... I sit on top of the frozenness and I have a small supply of energy and a short leash…. I can only function briefly, maybe for an hour or less, and then I collapse emotionally into the frozenness. At this point I need to just sit down or lie down and wait for a new supply of energy. I wait a long time."

Charlie’s double maladies, PTSD and mental illness, hinder him from having a relaxed enjoyment of God’s presence in nature or community. Yet, even with his handicap and illness, Charlie knows the grace and glory of God in his own way. He knows better than most of us that he depends upon grace every day.   He has said, My basic understanding of God’s grace comes from theologian Paul Tillich: ‘Accept that you are accepted even though you are unacceptable.’ That is really, really, helpful! I would be totally lost without that!  My other understanding of grace comes from another spiritual saying: ‘When you know that God knows everything there is to know about you and still loves you, then you are free.’ Knowing we are known and loved—that brings unspeakable comfort to me."

But there is one more word from Charlie.  Once, when Charlie noticed the heavens declaring the glory of God, his mouth and the meditation of his heart brought him trustingly into God’s presence (vv. 1, 14), and he wrote his own Psalm  of praise.  Even with all his handicapps and hang ups, he put into words and praise his own two cents worth:  The poem or psalm is entiled, “The Sky Is Big Enough.”  He wrote in on mother’s day.

It is the middle of the night   I am on the farm again   under the night sky   w

aiting and watching the sky  and listening  

I am on a bunker waiting to be blown up  watching the sky and listening  the one who is condemned  becomes the one who condemns  so I curse at the sky  and the sky watches and listens and waits with deep big silence so I keep on cursing at the sky  until the cursing loses its charge 

and so I cry out "I need you!" and I keep on crying out "I need you!"  until it loses its charge and the sky listens with deep silence the sky waits and watches and listens and I cry out "Have mercy on us!" and I am gnawing on the sky! 

as fiercely as I can  as long as I can  and the sky watches and waits and listens

with deep silence with deep silent longing  that echoes the deep silent longing in my heart deep silent peace,

deep silent gratitude ,  snuggling up to the sky so now when my neighbor curses at me I wait and watch and listen

with deep silent longing

Sometimes sand does turn into a pearl and I can rest in the pearly gates. (As printed an article by Joan Beck, www.goodpreacher.com/journalread.php?id=2996).

How can we put our own ‘two cents’ in?  Notice what Psalmist declares near the end.   After going through a list of what God’s law or words can do in our lives, he adds this conclusion in verse 11:  “Moreover by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psa 19:11 NRS).”   Do you see his point?   The world and the word of God are wonderful, but even as wonderful as they are, they are of no real value, unless their truth gets into us and make a difference in our lives. 

What does he recommend us to do, to find what this difference might be?    Go outside this week on your work break go outside, observe and enjoy creation.  In the evening watch a sunset or gaze into the night sky, and ask yourself what does creation teach you about God’s power and divine nature?  Thank God for speaking to you through nature and ask God for greater insight into God’s written revelation as you read your Bible in this New Year. 

This morning let us praise God for the story of salvation in the pages of scripture, but let us not forget to praise God for all of God’s creation---and let us also value it and put our own ‘two cents’ of praise into this moment. Whether we look at the grandeur of the heavens or the intricacies of a chromosome, let us stand in awe of our Creator, and let us be all that he has created us to be.   Amen.  

Who Was Jesus, Really?

A Sermon Based Upon Luke 3: 23-38

By Rev. Dr. Charles J. Tomlin, DMin

Flat Rock-Zion Baptist Partnership

Epiphany 2, January 20th, 2012

“He was the son (as was thought) of Joseph …son of Adam, son of God. (Luke 3:38 NRS)

Back in 1999 Time Magazine stated that one of the top four activities on the internet was genealogy.  I doubt that any of us have done as much work on our family tree or ancestry as has the Mormon Church, but most of us have had some interest in finding out where our ancestors came from.   

But in the ancient world genealogy was not simply a hobby or pastime.  Your ancestry established who you were, and who you weren't.   People who could establish some type of royal or priestly lineage were people of status, privilege who had special “rights” and “responsibilities”.   People who could not establish any kind of important lineage or bloodline were considered “nobodies”.  In short, they had no real rights, no special privileges, or no status, whatsoever.

DID JESUS HAVE CONNECTIONS?

One of the reasons two of the gospel stories give us genealogical lists about Jesus’ ancestry is to establish Jesus as a special sort of somebody.   In the ancient worldview, to both Jew and Gentile, if Jesus had no sort of pedigree, then people would immediately have written him off, giving his story no attention at all.   Two of the gospels, Mark and John, see no reason for Jesus’ genealogy.  But Matthew and Luke beg to differ.   They wanted to show who Jesus was, first of all, through his family tree, so that people, particularly Jewish people, would see that Jesus was born as part of the royal bloodline of Israel’s greatest King named David.

But here is exactly the problem.  Jesus didn’t really have a royal bloodline.  Both Matthew and Luke also tell us that Jesus was ‘born of a virgin’ (Matthew 1.23, Luke 1.27) named Mary and did not ‘physically’ have an earthly Father.   Even in the genealogy Luke gives us, he begins by telling us that Jesus was “thought” or “supposed” to be the “son of Joseph”.   Luke is giving us a legal listing of Jesus’ royal bloodline, but this is in no way a literal or legalistic listing of the lineage of Jesus. 

One other interesting question is how Luke and Matthew are structured in completely different ways.  Luke is formed with a descending manner, starting with Jesus and looking back.   Matthew’s list is written in an ascending manner, starting with Abraham and then coming back to Jesus.   But there is much more here than merely a question of form.    Matthew and Luke’s listings also start at different places and go through different people.   For example, if you take a look at Matthew’s genealogical list, you will start with Abraham and move up to David and then follow David’s traditional royal line all the way down to Joseph.  Luke also goes through David, but Luke’s line of backtracking “descent” goes all the back to Adam, beyond Abraham.  Perhaps even more important is that Luke does not even follow the normal, royal lineage of David.   My point is that Luke does not trace the line of Jesus through the somebodies of Israel’s history, but Luke has traced the line of Jesus through the “nobodies”, the people that are unknown and untraceable.

You can especially see this when you compare how Matthew traced the lineage of Jesus through David’s son, Solomon, and other prominent Kings of Israel, like Rehoboam, Jehoshaphat, Uzziah, Hezekiah, and Josiah  (See Matthew 1: 6-11).  But Luke’s genealogy skips all these “important” people and brings the line of Jesus through David’s unremembered son, Nathan (not in the Bible unless it means the prophet Nathan who was not a physical son of David, but perhaps a spiritual ‘son’) and then through a bunch of names that are not only unknown, but are also even questionable because they don’t fit, either the history or the pedigree Luke should be showing if he wants to prove Jesus’ royal identity.    This makes scholars still wonder what in the world Luke was up to.  Whatever he was doing, he was not giving us a literal, royal background check on Jesus’ identity.  Luke must have had much bigger plans than that. 

So, what is Luke trying to tell us about Jesus, through these names, this lineage, and this list of practically nobodies?   Some have answered that Luke is trying to trace the royal line through Mary, inserting the word “son-in-law” after Joseph.  But no, the text traces Jesus “legally” through Joseph, yet he has done it a very different way.   Most scholars will tell you that the main answer to these ‘differences’ is not historical, but theological.  In other words, Luke is not trying to tell is legalistically who Jesus was, but Luke is trying to say something to us theologically, about who Jesus still is.   

Perhaps the best way to begin to see Luke’s goal in this genealogy is to see, not where he started (both genealogies start with Jesus) but to see where Luke’s lists ends up.   Whereas Matthew’s list goes back to  Abraham, naming Jesus the ‘son of Abraham’ who was the Father of the Jewish faith, Luke’s list goes all the back to Adam, and even further than that, declaring Jesus to not only be the son of Adam, but perhaps most importantly of all,  to be the ‘son of God’.   Now, perhaps we can see what Luke may have been up to.  He wants us to know that Jesus is not just connected to David, but Jesus is even better ‘connected’ than that. 

So, who was Jesus?  Who is Jesus?  What was Luke saying to us, not just in his genealogy, but also in the message of this gospel and all the gospels?  

CAN WE KNOW THE REAL JESUS?

The one thing I think is most important about Luke’s genealogy is not only ‘how’ Luke puts his list together, but “where” he puts it.  Notice in our text that Luke does not include the genealogy at the beginning or at the story of Jesus’ birth, but Luke puts the list at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry.   It is at the time Jesus ministry begins and right after Jesus’ baptism that Luke inserts his list.   The list begins: “Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work” (Luk 3:23 NRS).   This should be a “dead giveaway” as to what Luke was trying to tell us about Jesus.  This genealogy is dramatically connected to Jesus’ work, and Jesus’ work is directly connected to Jesus’ background.  Even though Jesus is to be understood to be a King, he is a very different kind of King.  He is a King who does not come from a list of great Kings, but he is a descendant of a great King who comes through a bunch of nobodies.  Luke seems to intentionally associate Jesus with a list of ‘nobodies’ because this is exactly who Jesus came to work with and save.  Luke wants us to know, right up front, that the ‘real’ Jesus, whoever we might think him to be, is not who most want him to be, but Jesus came with his own agenda.   Jesus’ ministry will be about making the ‘nobodies’ of this world, somebody in the eyes of God.

Who are these ‘nobodies’ that Jesus has come to work with?   The listing will be given in the very next chapter, in Luke 4.   When Jesus reads this list in his hometown synagogue he got into a lot of trouble.  You do recall that list, don’t you?   Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah about how his ‘work’ was to bring good news to the poor…”to proclaim release to the prisoners”…”to bring the recovery of sight to the blind” and to “let the oppressed go free” (Luke 4: 18-20).  Are these kinds of nobodies on your list?   Luke tells us that the “Spirit of the Lord” is upon Jesus so that Jesus can work with a very different group of people than people are used to working for or used to working with.  Jesus is to work in behalf of the ‘nobodies’ of this world and this is good news in and, of itself.  This good news of God is not specifically for the somebodies---the people who already have it made---the successful, or the promising or the privileged, but God’s message is for the forgotten, the downtrodden, and the nobodies of this world.  

We should have known this.  Luke has been telling us this all along.  Whereas in Matthew, it is Three Wise men who visit Jesus, in Luke it is poor Shepherds who find Jesus first.   In Matthew, whereas Jesus has come to “save his people from their sin”, in Luke, the message shall be to “all people”.      In Matthew, Jesus is revealed as a child, who is hurried away to Egypt, identifying only with Israel’s slavery in their past.  But in Luke it is an Israelite ‘nobody’, an old man named Simon, who announces that this child is God’s ‘salvation given to us in the presence of all the peoples’ and is to be especially given “as a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”    Now, the people who have been understood to be ‘nobody’, even in the eyes of Israel, have now become ‘somebody’ in the mind and heart of God.

What does all this mean for us?   How does this identity of Jesus who also comes from a long list of ‘nobodies’ mean for us today?   How does it help us think again about who Jesus was, and who Jesus should be for us today?    Isn’t this a question on the minds of many as the mystery of Jesus is bigger now than ever before, and and more people struggle with the truth of the gospels and the historical uncertainty concerning Jesus.

THE JESUS EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW

“Of all the descriptions of Jesus, the one I love the most, said Charles Mercer, is "The Man for Others." Jesus always was there for others; he never put himself first.  He listened to people.  He touched the sick, the blind, even lepers. He ate with sinners.  He fed the hungry.  He comforted the sorrowful.  He taught the multitudes, but they were never a crowd to him.  He saw each person as special, unique and worth saving.   Jesus always taught that the way to the Kingdom of God was to go out there with the ‘others’, the ‘nobodies’ of this world feeding the hungry, sharing a cup of water with the thirsty, welcoming the stranger, clothing the naked, and visiting those who are sick or in prison. (See Matthew 25:34-40).   Jesus was, more than anything else, the one who was born ‘among the nobodies” and who became a ‘nobody’ for all ‘us’ nobodies of the world.  

In a challenging book:" Half the Sky" authors Sheryl WuDunn and Nicholas Kristof describe the lives of poor, forgotten women in India, China and Africa. They are women who, though poor themselves, have made a difference in the lives of others around them, showing us all that even those who are considered ‘nobodies’ in this world, have the power to make a difference.   In this same book, Sir John Templeton is quoted as saying: "Self - improvement comes mainly from trying to help others" (pg. 249).  The way to real happiness is become somebody is not to win the lottery, which may provide an initial spike, but quickly passes.   We find our greatest human riches by connecting to others in the midst of their needs.

http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/557193/Jesus--The-man-for-others.html?nav=5015

It is very humbling to read about people, who have little themselves, the nobodies, who give themselves and their meager resources to help others.   What we all know, very well, is that it is not the great talents of the ‘somebodies’ who save the world each and every day, but it is the great sacrifices by the ‘nobodies’ that holds this world together.   All those ‘nobodies’ need to help them, and to help us, is an initial boost in terms of schools, medical facilities or other resources to escape from their lives of slavery, abuse, ignorance and poverty.   When we reach out to help them, we see quickly see them reaching out to help others and we see all this that can be done, done first in the name of Jesus, who reached out to ‘nobodies’ just like us.   

While there is still a lot of debate, and may forever be debate, about exactly ‘who Jesus was’, we know that the real truth about Jesus is not about only who Jesus was, but it’s also about who Jesus wasn’t.   As John Ortberg has said, Jesus wasn’t great, at least not in the worldly sense of the word.  The greatness of Jesus was on a whole different level. 

As we think about all these nobodies in Jesus’ family tree, we might come to realize that it doesn’t really matter who Jesus was, if you don’t know who Jesus wasn’t.   Jesus wasn’t ‘one of them’, but Jesus was ‘one of us.”  Isn’t this why people still love Jesus so much, even though many have less love for the church.  Jesus wasn’t just some ‘righteous’ somebody, but Jesus was from a long list of nobodies.  And guess what?  The good news is that you can still get on that list.  Amen.