Seeing Jesus Sermon #2 Cynthia O’Brien
In Search of the Historical Jesus April 17, 2005
ISA 53:1 Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
ISA 53:2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
ISA 53:3 He was despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.
Like one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Mark 6:1-6
MK 6:1 Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
"Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
MK 6:4 Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
What was Jesus really like?
Tall? Short? Overweight?
Handsome? Maybe, but maybe not. Isaiah 53, which the Bible seems to indicate describes Jesus, says “He had no beauty or majesty, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.”
You see a lot of pictures of Jesus with blue eyes and sandy hair. But Jesus was thoroughly Jewish. What if he looked more like someone from Iraq or Saudi Arabia? Would that bother you?
Philip Yancey, in his book The Jesus I Never Knew writes that someone in the 16th century forged a document under the name of Publius Lentulus, the Roman governor who succeeded Pontius Pilate, which contained this description of Jesus:
"He is a tall man, well shaped and of an amiable and reverend aspect; his hair is of a color that can hardly be matched, falling into graceful curls... parted on the crown of his head, running as a stream to the front after the fashion of the Nazarites; his forehead high, large and imposing; his cheeks without spot or wrinkle, beautiful with a lovely red; his nose and mouth formed with exquisite symmetry; his beard, and of a color suitable to his hair, reaching below his chin and parted in the middle like a fork; his eyes bright blue, clear and serene...
Yancey continues: "I recognize that Jesus from the oil paintings hanging on the concrete-block walls of my childhood church. The forger gave himself away, however, with his next sentence: No man has seen him laugh."
Some movies about Jesus have given us that very image, where he is portrayed as having an otherworldly quality. But in the gospels, we see that Jesus was a person of humor. See him performing his first miracle at a wedding, giving playful nicknames to his disciples, and gaining a reputation as a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber..." (Yancey, p. 86)
There’s much we don’t know about Jesus. But for a long time scholars have been asking the question, who was the historical Jesus? Who was the pre-Easter Jesus? What did he say? What did he really do? What did he know and when did he know it?
In Mark, there’s much that we learn in these few short verses.
Jesus left there and went to his hometown, accompanied by his disciples. 2 When the Sabbath came, he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were amazed.
"Where did this man get these things?" they asked. "What's this wisdom that has been given him, that he even does miracles! 3 Isn't this the carpenter? Isn't this Mary's son and the brother of James, Joseph, Judas and Simon? Aren't his sisters here with us?" And they took offense at him.
MK 6:4 Jesus said to them, "Only in his hometown, among his relatives and in his own house is a prophet without honor." 5 He could not do any miracles there, except lay his hands on a few sick people and heal them. 6 And he was amazed at their lack of faith.
He was amazed. Surprised. Truly.
We often ascribe to Jesus total omniscience, as if he knew everything that was going to happen. But if he was fully human, how could he know?
Maybe you can think of a time you were successful…
but when you came home…
Imagine if the Gresham Gophers won three away games in a row, then came back for a home game, and started to play an amazing game but people didn’t cheer.
Or like, remember last year, Josh, when your Gresham High School choir traveled to New York and won the national choral competition, what would it have been like if you came home, did your home concert and people said, “Oh, it’s just Josh Taylor and his friends, we know him, that competition must not have been as hard as we thought."
Jesus had just returned to his hometown from a very successful string of events. (Mark 5) He healed someone of a long term illness, he had shown power over a demon, and he had even raised Jairus’ daughter from the dead.
He then returns to his home town.
Maybe you’ve had this experience, when you went away to college and gained valuable education and skills and grew in wisdom, only to have people not appreciate it.
At my 10 year high school reunion, a group of us were commenting on how radically some people had changed. Then Linda, who looked exactly the same as she had 10 years before, pointed around the circle and said “You’re the same, you’re the same, you’re the same” and to me “you’re the same.”
I wasn’t the same!
I remember before I came here, looking for a pastoral position, and the way the Presbyterians do it, churches and pastors are free to contact each other and choose whomever they want as long as the final choice is approved by the presbytery. In addition to that, we have a kind of computer dating. A pastor seeking a church will put his or her resume in the system, then all the churches seeking pastors put their resumes in the system, and there’s a computer matching based on certain qualifications and interests.
If a pastor sends a resume to the church, you probably should acknowledge it, but if the computer dating gives you a pastor’s name, you don’t have to contact that pastor.
So I was surprised to get a terse letter from my home church, the church where I was a high schooler and on the leadership team in the college group, where I taught young adult Bible study and sang in the adult choir and directed the Spanish speaking choir, and the letter said, we have received your resume for Associate Pastor and we’re sorry but your gifts don’t meet our needs at this time. (which is how they usually say that Puerto Vallarta will freeze over before they'll consider you.)
I couldn’t understand why they would bother, until I read the signature of the chair of the associate pastor seeking committee – it was the sister of one of my classmates.
Then all my teenage stuff came back to me and I thought, even though this church trained me for the ministry, they could never see me as one of their pastors.
This is not all that hard to believe.
Would you want to go to a church where your son or daughter was the pastor? Probably not.
I do know of an exception. Last year you might remember we did the 40 Days of Purpose and studied the book The Purpose Driven Life, and I was working with Pastor Reed Mueller from Columbia Ridge church in Troutdale. I had a few conversations with a woman from that church, Dawn is her name, and about the second or third time we talked, she said, “You may not know that I’m Reed’s mother.”
I said, “You go to church where your son is the pastor?”
Well it turns out that Reed and his family had been attending that church for a while, and he had stepped up out of the congregation to become the pastor. And Dawn loved Reed’s teaching and thought he was a great pastor and had no problem with it.
This is how it should have been for Jesus. The people who knew Jesus best should have been the first to follow him. But they asked, “Whose son is this?” And it may just have been an insult. They were scandalized by his human origins.
The truth is that this happens in families all the time we may be highly skilled in solving all kinds of problems, but we can’t fix our own families. And we’re very familiar with the idea of a prophet being without honor in his or her hometown.
So the question will be: Will Jesus’ family believe? Will those who already have social ties to Jesus, will they believe?
And will you and I, who have such close ties to Jesus already, when God is doing a new thing, will we believe?
Monday, April 18, 2005
Monday, April 11, 2005
Sermon: Holy Humor
“A Reason to Laugh” Cynthia O’Brien
Luke 15 April 10, 2005
This Gospel reading was straight from the version you have in the pew. But sometimes a different translation can help you understand it better.
For example, the story of the Forgiving Father… in the key of F.
“Melody in F”
The story of the Prodigal Son in the Key of F
from “Greatest Skits on Earth, vol. 2” by Wayne Rice and Mike Yaconelli
Feeling Foot-loose and Frisky, a Feather-brained Fellow
Forced his Fond Father to Fork over the Farthings,
And Flew Far to Foreign Fields
And Frittered his Fortune Feasting Fabulously with Faithless Friends.
Fleeced by his Fellows in Folly, and Facing Famine,
He Found himself A Feed Flinger in a Filthy Farmyard.
Fairly Famishing, He Fain would’ve Filled his Frame
With Foraged Food from Fodder Fragments.
“Fooey, my Father’s Flunkies Fare Far Finer,”
The Frazzled Fugitive Forlornly Fumbled, Frankly Facing Facts.
Frustrated by Failure, and Filled with Foreboding,
He Fled Forthwith to his Family.
Falling at his Father’s Feet, he Forlornly Fumbled,
“Father, I’ve Flunked.
And Fruitlessly Forfeited Family Favor.”
The Far-sighted Father, Forestalling Further Flinching,
Frantically Flagged the Flunkies to
Fetch a Fatling from the Flock and Fix a Feast.
The Fugitive’s Fault-Finding brother Frowned on
Fickle Forgiveness of Former Folderol.
But the Faithful Father Figured,
“Filial Fidelity is Fine, but the Fugitive is Found!
What Forbids Fervent Festivity?
Let Flags be un-Furled! Let Fanfares Flare!”
Father’s Forgiveness Formed the Foundation
For the Former Fugitive’s Future Fortitude.
_____________________________________________
Why did Jesus tell these outrageous stories? Why didn’t he tell about perfect families with brothers who get along with each other and who respect their father? Why did he tell about banquets where everything goes wrong, unjust judges and unmerciful slaves?
Maybe because God has a sense of humor. Read the Bible this way and you’ll get it. From the very beginning, people are being funny.
God told Adam " I could create you a partner, that will always adore you, serve you, never be angry and treat you as a King, the only problem is that you must give up an arn or an leg for it" Adam "Hmmm, I don’t know - what can I get for a rib?"
OK, that’s not in the Bible, but you see Eve doing exactly what she shouldn’t, then she cons Adam into it, then when they get caught, Adam blames Eve and God (it was the woman you gave me) and all of a sudden being naked is a bad thing. You can just imagine God slapping God’s forehead and saying, “OK, here we go.”
Abraham and Sarah.
(Frederick Buechner, The Gospel as Comedy)
They are laughing at the idea of a baby’s being born in the geriatric ward and Medicare’s picking up the tab. They are laughing because with part of themselves they do believe it. They are laughing because with another part of themselves they know it would take a fool to believe it. They are laughing because laughing is better than crying and maybe not even all that different. They are laughing because if by some crazy chance it should just happen to come true, then they would really have something to laugh about. They are laughing at God and with God, and they are laughing at themselves too because laughter has that in common with weeping. No matter what the immediate occasion is of either your laughter or your tears, the object of both ends up being yourself and your own life.
God asked about Sarah’s laughter, and Sarah was scared stiff and denied the whole thing. Then God said, “No but you did laugh,” and of course, he was right. Maybe the most interesting part of it all is that far from getting angry at them for laughing, God told them that when the baby was born he wanted them to name him Isaac, which in Hebrew means laughter. So you can say that god not only tolerated their laughter but blessed it and in a sense joined in it himself, which makes it a very special laughter indeed – God and man laughing together, sharing a glorious joke in which both of them are involved.
Jesus shares these kinds of stories.
Take the story of the prodigal son.
This isn’t a story about two brothers who get along perfectly and their successful father. If it were, it would be impossible for us to live with the brothers and fathers and sons that we have. But in the humor of this fractured family, we can find hope for our own families.
What about the apostles? What changed Jesus’ disciples after the crucifixion from a scattered, frightened band of fugitives into the most remarkable collection of human beings the world has ever seen?
Luke 24:51-52 “Now it came to pass, while Jesus blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
Sherwood Wliot Wirt says: “Joy was what changed them. .. Joy was the atmosphere in the early church. It was euphoria, hilarity, unspeakable gladness. The believers had become aware that the bars of nature had been broken through by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.” [1]
Then Paul writes to the Corinthians about being fools for Christ.
1 Corinthians
“We are fools for Christ’s sake. God is foolish too. God is foolish to choose for his holy work in the world the kind of lamebrains and misfits and nit-pickers and odd ducks and stuffed shirts and egomaniacs and milquetoasts and closet sensualists as are vividly represented by us all.
Frederick Buechner:
“God is foolish to send us out to speak hope to a world that slogs along heart-deep in the conviction that things can only get worse.. He is foolish to have us speak of loving our enemies when we have a hard enough time just loving our friends… God is foolish to have us proclaim eternal life to a world that is half I love with death… God is foolish to send us out on a journey for which there are not maps, and to aim us in the direction of a goal we can never know until we get there. Such is the foolishness of God. And yet, and yet, Paul says, ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than men.’ ”
The followers of Jesus met regularly to share food, to celebrate, to worship. Sharing in the Lord’s supper was a grateful thanksgiving.
In the early Greek Orthodox tradition, an Easter custom developed, in which on the day after Easter, clergy and laity gathered to tell jokes and stories. The theology behind this was that they were celebrating the greatest joke of all, the joke God had pulled on the devil – the Resurrection. Theologians called it Riscus paschalis, the Easter laugh.
We can so easily miss our Easter joy. Once the comedian Groucho Marx was getting off an elevator and he happened to meet a clergyman. The clergyman came up to him, put out his hand and said, “I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve put into the world.” Groucho shook his hand and replied, “Thank you, Reverend. I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve taken out of it.” [2] How often do we go around looking like Easter never happened?
I learned from Jim Moiso that in 390, Chrysostom preached a sermon against it. He said, “This world is not a theatre in which we can laugh, and we are not assembled together in order to burst into peals of laughter, but to weep for our sins… It is not God who gives us the chance to play, but the devil.” [3]
But many Christian theologians through the ages have had a joyful point of view. Martin Luther, a very serious professor and reformer, was also a fun loving spirit and said that the Christian can and should be a joyful person.
Evangelist Paul Rader, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago in the 1920’s, said that laughter is from God. He said, “When God chooses a man, he puts laughter into his life. God is delighted to fill the hearts of men with laughter. The anointing oil that was poured upon the head of David put laughter into David’s life…. It is the oil of Jesus’ presence that makes holy laughter in life – not only in the disposition to laugh at a joke, but the ability to laugh at calamity, to laugh at death, to laugh at the victory which the devil thought he had won.” [4]
Do you laugh at death? Neither do I, but that’s not exactly what is being said here. It’s more of a life attitude, a confidence in knowing you are in God’s hands.
Last Thursday I was driving with Rachel and Laurel when a 4x4 truck hit us. The young man, driving without a license, made a quick turn, didn’t see me and my first view of him was the front of his truck coming right at my window. It was a terrible crash, glass everywhere, pushed us into the curb and totaled my 96 Taurus. This is where you ask me if we’re all OK. Yes, I got the worst of it but the doctor thinks I’ll be better in just a couple of weeks, and the girls are fine.
One thing that was odd is that I wasn’t hysterical after it happened. When the other driver came up to me and told me he was the one who hit us, the first words out of my mouth were “God bless you.” After that, he pretty much avoided me.
If there’s ever a legitimate time for cussing, that was probably it, but I missed the opportunity, maybe because I am just a different person. I’m not laughing, but I know that I’m in God’s hands, and my automatic response this time was thankfulness. If it had been worse, I don’t know what I would have done. But when there’s laughter in your life on a regular basis, when you are enjoying God, when you have the hope that God is good and that God loves you, you handle everything differently.
I am reading this book by Philip Yancey, “The Jesus I Never Knew” – the one we are going to have the study on Monday nights --
He talks about people who had hope. Like the slaves on the plantation, who could keep going because they had hope in God.
Yancey writes, “My wife, Janet, worked with senior citizens near a Chicago housing project judged the poorest community in the United States. About half her clients were white, half were black. All of them had lived through harsh times – two world ward, the Great Depression, social upheavals – and all of them, in their seventies and eighties, lived in awareness of death. Yet Janet noted a striking difference in the way the whites and the balcks faced death. There were exceptions, of course, but the trend was this: many of the whites became increasingly fearful and anxious. They complained about their lives, their families, and their deteriorating health. The blacks, in contrast, maintained a good humor and triumphant spirit even though they had more aparent reason for bitterness and despair.
What caused the difference in outlooks? Janet concluded the answer was hope, a hope that traced directly to the blacks’ bedrock belief in heaven. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew)
Pope John Paul II was speaking in Trent, Italy, to a crowd of several thousand rain-soaked young people. After warming up the crowd with some jokes, he said,
“Don’t tell your colleagues, and above all the press, that the pope made jokes instead of making a serious meditation on the council… Being holy means living in profound communion with the God of joy, having a heart free from sin and from the sadness of the world.”
[1] Sherwood Eliot Wirt in More Holy Humor P. 175
[2] Joyful Noiseletter 4/2000, p. 7
[3] And God Created Laughter, p. 26
[4] Paul Rader, quoted by Sherwood Eliot Wirt, quoted by Cal Samra, More Holy Humor, page ix
Luke 15 April 10, 2005
This Gospel reading was straight from the version you have in the pew. But sometimes a different translation can help you understand it better.
For example, the story of the Forgiving Father… in the key of F.
“Melody in F”
The story of the Prodigal Son in the Key of F
from “Greatest Skits on Earth, vol. 2” by Wayne Rice and Mike Yaconelli
Feeling Foot-loose and Frisky, a Feather-brained Fellow
Forced his Fond Father to Fork over the Farthings,
And Flew Far to Foreign Fields
And Frittered his Fortune Feasting Fabulously with Faithless Friends.
Fleeced by his Fellows in Folly, and Facing Famine,
He Found himself A Feed Flinger in a Filthy Farmyard.
Fairly Famishing, He Fain would’ve Filled his Frame
With Foraged Food from Fodder Fragments.
“Fooey, my Father’s Flunkies Fare Far Finer,”
The Frazzled Fugitive Forlornly Fumbled, Frankly Facing Facts.
Frustrated by Failure, and Filled with Foreboding,
He Fled Forthwith to his Family.
Falling at his Father’s Feet, he Forlornly Fumbled,
“Father, I’ve Flunked.
And Fruitlessly Forfeited Family Favor.”
The Far-sighted Father, Forestalling Further Flinching,
Frantically Flagged the Flunkies to
Fetch a Fatling from the Flock and Fix a Feast.
The Fugitive’s Fault-Finding brother Frowned on
Fickle Forgiveness of Former Folderol.
But the Faithful Father Figured,
“Filial Fidelity is Fine, but the Fugitive is Found!
What Forbids Fervent Festivity?
Let Flags be un-Furled! Let Fanfares Flare!”
Father’s Forgiveness Formed the Foundation
For the Former Fugitive’s Future Fortitude.
_____________________________________________
Why did Jesus tell these outrageous stories? Why didn’t he tell about perfect families with brothers who get along with each other and who respect their father? Why did he tell about banquets where everything goes wrong, unjust judges and unmerciful slaves?
Maybe because God has a sense of humor. Read the Bible this way and you’ll get it. From the very beginning, people are being funny.
God told Adam " I could create you a partner, that will always adore you, serve you, never be angry and treat you as a King, the only problem is that you must give up an arn or an leg for it" Adam "Hmmm, I don’t know - what can I get for a rib?"
OK, that’s not in the Bible, but you see Eve doing exactly what she shouldn’t, then she cons Adam into it, then when they get caught, Adam blames Eve and God (it was the woman you gave me) and all of a sudden being naked is a bad thing. You can just imagine God slapping God’s forehead and saying, “OK, here we go.”
Abraham and Sarah.
(Frederick Buechner, The Gospel as Comedy)
They are laughing at the idea of a baby’s being born in the geriatric ward and Medicare’s picking up the tab. They are laughing because with part of themselves they do believe it. They are laughing because with another part of themselves they know it would take a fool to believe it. They are laughing because laughing is better than crying and maybe not even all that different. They are laughing because if by some crazy chance it should just happen to come true, then they would really have something to laugh about. They are laughing at God and with God, and they are laughing at themselves too because laughter has that in common with weeping. No matter what the immediate occasion is of either your laughter or your tears, the object of both ends up being yourself and your own life.
God asked about Sarah’s laughter, and Sarah was scared stiff and denied the whole thing. Then God said, “No but you did laugh,” and of course, he was right. Maybe the most interesting part of it all is that far from getting angry at them for laughing, God told them that when the baby was born he wanted them to name him Isaac, which in Hebrew means laughter. So you can say that god not only tolerated their laughter but blessed it and in a sense joined in it himself, which makes it a very special laughter indeed – God and man laughing together, sharing a glorious joke in which both of them are involved.
Jesus shares these kinds of stories.
Take the story of the prodigal son.
This isn’t a story about two brothers who get along perfectly and their successful father. If it were, it would be impossible for us to live with the brothers and fathers and sons that we have. But in the humor of this fractured family, we can find hope for our own families.
What about the apostles? What changed Jesus’ disciples after the crucifixion from a scattered, frightened band of fugitives into the most remarkable collection of human beings the world has ever seen?
Luke 24:51-52 “Now it came to pass, while Jesus blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy.”
Sherwood Wliot Wirt says: “Joy was what changed them. .. Joy was the atmosphere in the early church. It was euphoria, hilarity, unspeakable gladness. The believers had become aware that the bars of nature had been broken through by Jesus’ resurrection from the dead.” [1]
Then Paul writes to the Corinthians about being fools for Christ.
1 Corinthians
“We are fools for Christ’s sake. God is foolish too. God is foolish to choose for his holy work in the world the kind of lamebrains and misfits and nit-pickers and odd ducks and stuffed shirts and egomaniacs and milquetoasts and closet sensualists as are vividly represented by us all.
Frederick Buechner:
“God is foolish to send us out to speak hope to a world that slogs along heart-deep in the conviction that things can only get worse.. He is foolish to have us speak of loving our enemies when we have a hard enough time just loving our friends… God is foolish to have us proclaim eternal life to a world that is half I love with death… God is foolish to send us out on a journey for which there are not maps, and to aim us in the direction of a goal we can never know until we get there. Such is the foolishness of God. And yet, and yet, Paul says, ‘the foolishness of God is wiser than men.’ ”
The followers of Jesus met regularly to share food, to celebrate, to worship. Sharing in the Lord’s supper was a grateful thanksgiving.
In the early Greek Orthodox tradition, an Easter custom developed, in which on the day after Easter, clergy and laity gathered to tell jokes and stories. The theology behind this was that they were celebrating the greatest joke of all, the joke God had pulled on the devil – the Resurrection. Theologians called it Riscus paschalis, the Easter laugh.
We can so easily miss our Easter joy. Once the comedian Groucho Marx was getting off an elevator and he happened to meet a clergyman. The clergyman came up to him, put out his hand and said, “I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve put into the world.” Groucho shook his hand and replied, “Thank you, Reverend. I want to thank you for all the joy you’ve taken out of it.” [2] How often do we go around looking like Easter never happened?
I learned from Jim Moiso that in 390, Chrysostom preached a sermon against it. He said, “This world is not a theatre in which we can laugh, and we are not assembled together in order to burst into peals of laughter, but to weep for our sins… It is not God who gives us the chance to play, but the devil.” [3]
But many Christian theologians through the ages have had a joyful point of view. Martin Luther, a very serious professor and reformer, was also a fun loving spirit and said that the Christian can and should be a joyful person.
Evangelist Paul Rader, pastor of Moody Church in Chicago in the 1920’s, said that laughter is from God. He said, “When God chooses a man, he puts laughter into his life. God is delighted to fill the hearts of men with laughter. The anointing oil that was poured upon the head of David put laughter into David’s life…. It is the oil of Jesus’ presence that makes holy laughter in life – not only in the disposition to laugh at a joke, but the ability to laugh at calamity, to laugh at death, to laugh at the victory which the devil thought he had won.” [4]
Do you laugh at death? Neither do I, but that’s not exactly what is being said here. It’s more of a life attitude, a confidence in knowing you are in God’s hands.
Last Thursday I was driving with Rachel and Laurel when a 4x4 truck hit us. The young man, driving without a license, made a quick turn, didn’t see me and my first view of him was the front of his truck coming right at my window. It was a terrible crash, glass everywhere, pushed us into the curb and totaled my 96 Taurus. This is where you ask me if we’re all OK. Yes, I got the worst of it but the doctor thinks I’ll be better in just a couple of weeks, and the girls are fine.
One thing that was odd is that I wasn’t hysterical after it happened. When the other driver came up to me and told me he was the one who hit us, the first words out of my mouth were “God bless you.” After that, he pretty much avoided me.
If there’s ever a legitimate time for cussing, that was probably it, but I missed the opportunity, maybe because I am just a different person. I’m not laughing, but I know that I’m in God’s hands, and my automatic response this time was thankfulness. If it had been worse, I don’t know what I would have done. But when there’s laughter in your life on a regular basis, when you are enjoying God, when you have the hope that God is good and that God loves you, you handle everything differently.
I am reading this book by Philip Yancey, “The Jesus I Never Knew” – the one we are going to have the study on Monday nights --
He talks about people who had hope. Like the slaves on the plantation, who could keep going because they had hope in God.
Yancey writes, “My wife, Janet, worked with senior citizens near a Chicago housing project judged the poorest community in the United States. About half her clients were white, half were black. All of them had lived through harsh times – two world ward, the Great Depression, social upheavals – and all of them, in their seventies and eighties, lived in awareness of death. Yet Janet noted a striking difference in the way the whites and the balcks faced death. There were exceptions, of course, but the trend was this: many of the whites became increasingly fearful and anxious. They complained about their lives, their families, and their deteriorating health. The blacks, in contrast, maintained a good humor and triumphant spirit even though they had more aparent reason for bitterness and despair.
What caused the difference in outlooks? Janet concluded the answer was hope, a hope that traced directly to the blacks’ bedrock belief in heaven. (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew)
Pope John Paul II was speaking in Trent, Italy, to a crowd of several thousand rain-soaked young people. After warming up the crowd with some jokes, he said,
“Don’t tell your colleagues, and above all the press, that the pope made jokes instead of making a serious meditation on the council… Being holy means living in profound communion with the God of joy, having a heart free from sin and from the sadness of the world.”
[1] Sherwood Eliot Wirt in More Holy Humor P. 175
[2] Joyful Noiseletter 4/2000, p. 7
[3] And God Created Laughter, p. 26
[4] Paul Rader, quoted by Sherwood Eliot Wirt, quoted by Cal Samra, More Holy Humor, page ix
Monday, April 04, 2005
Sermon: Doubting and Believing
John 20:19-31 Cynthia O'Brien
April 3, 2005 SMPC
JN 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
JN 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
JN 20:24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
JN 20:26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
JN 20:28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
JN 20:29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Thomas is one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, neither the greatest nor the least, but mentioned in the list somewhere in the middle. He is known to Greek-speaking Christians as Didymus -- His name means "The Twin," but we have no idea who his twin brother or sister is, or whether that person is also a disciple. Tradition holds that Thomas is a carpenter, like Jesus.
When Jesus is crucified, this is no surprise to Thomas. Why? Because Thomas is a realistic person. He has known all along that this would happen. Let's flash back to earlier in the story, in John chapter 11.
Jesus and the disciples have just heard that Jesus' good friend Lazarus has died in Bethany. After two days, Jesus says to the disciples, "It's time to go to see Lazarus."
Thomas is a realistic person. He knows that Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem. And he remembers that the last time they were up that way, Jesus was nearly killed by having rocks thrown at him. So Thomas and the other disciples say to Jesus, "The Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" But Jesus is determined, and he says, "Let us go to him."
Considering the circumstances, I don't think I would be so excited about going. But it is Thomas who turns to his fellow disciples and says, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."
Thomas is the realist of the group. He is certain that if they go to Jerusalem, it will mean the end of this little traveling band. But he is also loyal and completely devoted to Jesus, and he is determined to share whatever danger awaits his Master. (I wish I could be that courageous.)
When the time comes that Jesus is crucified, it is no surprise to Thomas.
Thomas is not only realistic -- perhaps pessimistic -- and yet loyal, he is also a little slow to understand things. But he is honest about it. In John 14, Jesus is explaining to the disciples that he is going away. The verses are familiar to us today:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. {2} In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? {3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. {4} And you know the way to the place where I am going."
{5} Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" {6} Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Children – When you are confused or don’t understand, how often do you speak up? Sometimes? Most of the time? Never?
Many of you remember Eloise Winklebleck. For those of you who don’t know, she taught Sunday School for not just one or two years, but more like 40. Eloise used to say that her best classes were the ones where everyone asked lots of questions. We want our students to ask questions. We want them to understand. And yet, when we are students in a class, we don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to reveal that we are ignorant. I am much more inclined to follow a saying of Abraham Lincoln, which goes something like this:
"Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
But removing doubt is what Thomas is in the business of doing. When Jesus says, "You know the way to the place where I am going," Thomas speaks up. Of the whole group, Thomas is the one who is honest about his ignorance. He really wants to know what Jesus means. He wants to understand his Master. (I would like to be this honest in exploring my faith.)
Thomas wants to know the way to where Jesus is going. Why? So he can go with him. Thomas loves Jesus enough to be willing to go to Jerusalem and die with him, when the other disciples are hesitant and afraid.
Thomas is honest, down-to-earth, and completely loyal. But don't forget his well-founded pessimism. He knows that Jesus is going to come to a tragic end.
Now return from our flashbacks to the present moment in our Scripture reading. Jesus has been crucified, and this is no surprise to Thomas. What he expected has happened, and despite his predictions, Thomas is still brokenhearted. So much that he takes off to be by himself, to be alone with his sorrow.
King George V used to say that one of his rules of life was this: "If I have to suffer, let me be like a well-bred animal, and let me go and suffer alone."
This is where I would not like to imitate Thomas, but where a lot of us do. Just when sadness comes, we withdraw from the Christian community. We look for loneliness rather than togetherness. I do this; I'm sure you've done this too.
Nevertheless, Thomas goes away to be alone with his sorrow. So it happens that when Jesus comes back again, Thomas, who loved Jesus so much, is not there to see it. This is the problem when we separate ourselves from the Christian fellowship -- we miss the good things that happen to us within the fellowship of the church -- good things that don't happen when we are alone. The time when we are hurting is the very tie when, in spite of our sorrow, we should seek the fellowship of God's people, for that's where we are the likeliest to meet Jesus face to face.
When the news reaches Thomas, it seems too good to be true. Remember, he is a realist, so he says that he won't believe that Jesus has risen until he sees and handles the nail prints in his hands and puts his hand in the wound the spear made in Jesus' side. This is not so bad -- remember, Thomas is honest. He hasn't seen what they have seen.
When I was a kid we used to play a card game called “I Doubt It.” Something about how I say I have a certain card, maybe I do, maybe I’m bluffing, and somebody else challenges me by saying “I Doubt It.” In real life, you wouldn’t want people to challenge what you say, would you? Isn’t that like calling you a liar?
When the disciples say they have seen the Lord, Thomas says, in effect, "I doubt it." So is he calling them liars? Is it a challenge? Is he trying to call a bluff? Or is it the honest questioning of someone who really wants to be sure? This disciple is simple, honest, matter-of-fact – he refuses to be rushed into believing, even though he wants to believe with all his heart that he was wrong about the end.
A week goes by and Jesus comes back again; this time, Thomas is there. Jesus knows what Thomas wants, and so he repeats Thomas' own words, and invites him to make the test.
Thomas -- simple and slow to understand. Thomas -- pessimistic, grounded in reality. Thomas -- devoted and loyal enough to want to die with Jesus. Thomas is overcome. You'd think he would be speechless, but he blurts out the words which are the highest statement of faith in Scripture, words that are to become the very heart of the Christian Church:
"My Lord and my God."
Doubting Thomas isn't Doubting Thomas at all -- he is Believing Thomas.
Do you have doubts? About your future? About your faith? Because at the end of the story, Jesus gives the final beatitude of the Gospels:
"You have seen and so you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Why does Jesus say this? To rebuke Thomas? Maybe. But maybe Jesus is pointing forward to the multitudes who will later believe and make the same confession without requiring such visible proof.
Tradition says that when the Apostles took the good news into all the world, that Thomas went to India. We can't prove that, but there are ancient books which tell of his ministry in India. The present-day Christians in St. Thomas of India claim that they are descended from his preaching. Thomas, who finally came to a full, believing faith, took his belief into the world.
When in doubt, remember Thomas. Not afraid to ask, not afraid to show his ignorance, not afraid to reach out and touch Jesus, not afraid to believe, not afraid to go into the world. He asked, he saw, he believed, and he went.
Jesus says you and I are blessed because we have not seen, and yet have believed. In these next few weeks, we will look for Jesus together. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t be afraid to believe.
April 3, 2005 SMPC
JN 20:19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
JN 20:21 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
JN 20:24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"
But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."
JN 20:26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" 27 Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."
JN 20:28 Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
JN 20:29 Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Thomas is one of the 12 disciples of Jesus, neither the greatest nor the least, but mentioned in the list somewhere in the middle. He is known to Greek-speaking Christians as Didymus -- His name means "The Twin," but we have no idea who his twin brother or sister is, or whether that person is also a disciple. Tradition holds that Thomas is a carpenter, like Jesus.
When Jesus is crucified, this is no surprise to Thomas. Why? Because Thomas is a realistic person. He has known all along that this would happen. Let's flash back to earlier in the story, in John chapter 11.
Jesus and the disciples have just heard that Jesus' good friend Lazarus has died in Bethany. After two days, Jesus says to the disciples, "It's time to go to see Lazarus."
Thomas is a realistic person. He knows that Bethany is only two miles from Jerusalem. And he remembers that the last time they were up that way, Jesus was nearly killed by having rocks thrown at him. So Thomas and the other disciples say to Jesus, "The Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?" But Jesus is determined, and he says, "Let us go to him."
Considering the circumstances, I don't think I would be so excited about going. But it is Thomas who turns to his fellow disciples and says, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."
Thomas is the realist of the group. He is certain that if they go to Jerusalem, it will mean the end of this little traveling band. But he is also loyal and completely devoted to Jesus, and he is determined to share whatever danger awaits his Master. (I wish I could be that courageous.)
When the time comes that Jesus is crucified, it is no surprise to Thomas.
Thomas is not only realistic -- perhaps pessimistic -- and yet loyal, he is also a little slow to understand things. But he is honest about it. In John 14, Jesus is explaining to the disciples that he is going away. The verses are familiar to us today:
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. {2} In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? {3} And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. {4} And you know the way to the place where I am going."
{5} Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" {6} Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."
Children – When you are confused or don’t understand, how often do you speak up? Sometimes? Most of the time? Never?
Many of you remember Eloise Winklebleck. For those of you who don’t know, she taught Sunday School for not just one or two years, but more like 40. Eloise used to say that her best classes were the ones where everyone asked lots of questions. We want our students to ask questions. We want them to understand. And yet, when we are students in a class, we don’t want to stand out. We don’t want to reveal that we are ignorant. I am much more inclined to follow a saying of Abraham Lincoln, which goes something like this:
"Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."
But removing doubt is what Thomas is in the business of doing. When Jesus says, "You know the way to the place where I am going," Thomas speaks up. Of the whole group, Thomas is the one who is honest about his ignorance. He really wants to know what Jesus means. He wants to understand his Master. (I would like to be this honest in exploring my faith.)
Thomas wants to know the way to where Jesus is going. Why? So he can go with him. Thomas loves Jesus enough to be willing to go to Jerusalem and die with him, when the other disciples are hesitant and afraid.
Thomas is honest, down-to-earth, and completely loyal. But don't forget his well-founded pessimism. He knows that Jesus is going to come to a tragic end.
Now return from our flashbacks to the present moment in our Scripture reading. Jesus has been crucified, and this is no surprise to Thomas. What he expected has happened, and despite his predictions, Thomas is still brokenhearted. So much that he takes off to be by himself, to be alone with his sorrow.
King George V used to say that one of his rules of life was this: "If I have to suffer, let me be like a well-bred animal, and let me go and suffer alone."
This is where I would not like to imitate Thomas, but where a lot of us do. Just when sadness comes, we withdraw from the Christian community. We look for loneliness rather than togetherness. I do this; I'm sure you've done this too.
Nevertheless, Thomas goes away to be alone with his sorrow. So it happens that when Jesus comes back again, Thomas, who loved Jesus so much, is not there to see it. This is the problem when we separate ourselves from the Christian fellowship -- we miss the good things that happen to us within the fellowship of the church -- good things that don't happen when we are alone. The time when we are hurting is the very tie when, in spite of our sorrow, we should seek the fellowship of God's people, for that's where we are the likeliest to meet Jesus face to face.
When the news reaches Thomas, it seems too good to be true. Remember, he is a realist, so he says that he won't believe that Jesus has risen until he sees and handles the nail prints in his hands and puts his hand in the wound the spear made in Jesus' side. This is not so bad -- remember, Thomas is honest. He hasn't seen what they have seen.
When I was a kid we used to play a card game called “I Doubt It.” Something about how I say I have a certain card, maybe I do, maybe I’m bluffing, and somebody else challenges me by saying “I Doubt It.” In real life, you wouldn’t want people to challenge what you say, would you? Isn’t that like calling you a liar?
When the disciples say they have seen the Lord, Thomas says, in effect, "I doubt it." So is he calling them liars? Is it a challenge? Is he trying to call a bluff? Or is it the honest questioning of someone who really wants to be sure? This disciple is simple, honest, matter-of-fact – he refuses to be rushed into believing, even though he wants to believe with all his heart that he was wrong about the end.
A week goes by and Jesus comes back again; this time, Thomas is there. Jesus knows what Thomas wants, and so he repeats Thomas' own words, and invites him to make the test.
Thomas -- simple and slow to understand. Thomas -- pessimistic, grounded in reality. Thomas -- devoted and loyal enough to want to die with Jesus. Thomas is overcome. You'd think he would be speechless, but he blurts out the words which are the highest statement of faith in Scripture, words that are to become the very heart of the Christian Church:
"My Lord and my God."
Doubting Thomas isn't Doubting Thomas at all -- he is Believing Thomas.
Do you have doubts? About your future? About your faith? Because at the end of the story, Jesus gives the final beatitude of the Gospels:
"You have seen and so you believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed."
Why does Jesus say this? To rebuke Thomas? Maybe. But maybe Jesus is pointing forward to the multitudes who will later believe and make the same confession without requiring such visible proof.
Tradition says that when the Apostles took the good news into all the world, that Thomas went to India. We can't prove that, but there are ancient books which tell of his ministry in India. The present-day Christians in St. Thomas of India claim that they are descended from his preaching. Thomas, who finally came to a full, believing faith, took his belief into the world.
When in doubt, remember Thomas. Not afraid to ask, not afraid to show his ignorance, not afraid to reach out and touch Jesus, not afraid to believe, not afraid to go into the world. He asked, he saw, he believed, and he went.
Jesus says you and I are blessed because we have not seen, and yet have believed. In these next few weeks, we will look for Jesus together. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to reach out. Don’t be afraid to believe.
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