Scripture is Matthew 7:13-14
The Universal Christ by Richard Rohr
Bread of Angels by Barbara Brown Taylor
Friends, I have so appreciated Bob’s series on loving wastefully. Today I received a gift from a friend that has the words from Psalm 23:6 etched on its wood – Your love is wild for me. This idea of extravagant love is something that Jesus spent his time teaching and in his three years in ministry living it out every day. I think of the story of the Prodigal Son where Jesus describes the lavish and wasteful love the Father gives to the son that wants to leave the house and make it on his own. He doesn’t want the weight and restrictions of his father’s house. And the father gives him his inheritance - sounds ridiculous and rash and wasteful. The father knows that his son will throw this all away. But gives it to him anyways. That is loving wastefully, and I think that is the point of Jesus story. God’s love is not merited, not conditional, doesn’t require us to adhere to a set of rules and can’t be bought or sold. As Bob has shared during the last three weeks, our only true way to worship God is by living fully, loving wastefully and having the courage to be all that we can be in full authenticity.
Today I want to examine how Jesus calls us to a different way of living. It is not an easy way, or a comfortable way. I think we sometimes focus so much on the theology of Jesus that we miss the call in his teachings and his way of living out these teachings. Jesus is many things to many people. He is this person that we have come to love, admire, understand to be unique beyond us and our savior. But I think we have diminished his humanity throughout the last 1700 years. This particularly started when Christianity became more tame and respectable during the time of Constantine. I think we have spent more time creating a belief system and less time on the actual words and actions of Jesus as narrated in the gospels. Following Jesus is no casual thing. Sometimes it seems like we are more willing and ready to quote Jesus words versus how we put those words into action in our lives.
I think most of us are familiar with the Apostles’ Creed – “I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended into hell…..” you know the rest. Richard Rohr in his book The Universal Christ asks if we ‘have ever noticed the huge leap the creed makes between born of the Virgin Mary and suffered under Pontius Pilate? A single comma connects the two statements, and falling into that yawning gap, as if it were a mere detail is everything Jesus said and did between his birth and death.” The Great Comma! It seems like this statement sent Christianity on a path of a belief that Jesus was all divine and that his words were important, but we could never try to step into his experience and embrace his teachings and life in our own lives because we are just ordinary humans.
It is clear from Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that Jesus was flesh and blood just like us. Sometimes we think of Jesus as this part man part God person and think he is not like us. It gives us an excuse to stay comfortable and in place. But friends, Jesus was totally human- full of flesh with all our human thoughts and feelings. He experienced our fears, our disappointments, rejections, pain, and longings. And aren’t we all part human, part God? It is a foundational principle in our Quaker faith – that of God in every human being.
When Jesus calls his disciples, he asks them to leave their jobs and their families. Just as Jesus did. The disciples traveled with him for three years without jobs, without their families, without knowing where they were going to sleep each night. Talk about a path of sacrifice. I think they did this because they embraced the teachings of Jesus that turned the establishment of both the church and the government upside down. And they took this path because they saw that Jesus lived the way he taught. There was no hypocrisy to his words and actions. Jesus gave them a vision for a future that was different. And they bought into this vision as they watched Jesus love wastefully to many in that society that were unlovable, poor, marginalized, left behind. He healed folks and shared the vision of a God that loves wastefully and without exclusivity.
I believe Jesus was able to teach, preach, heal and love wastefully because he was filled with God’s spirit. He faced his demons out in the desert where he was tempted just like we all have to face our shadows. I think he was out in that desert for a long time as evidenced by the fact that he was thirty years old before he began his public ministry. How did Jesus move out from the shadows and into the Light, responding to the call of God? He became incarnated. Because the spirit of God was in him all along and he allowed that Spirit to direct his life – from ministry, healings, his death and resurrection.
I love what Barbara Brown Taylors shares in her book Bread of Angels. “The power of the Holy Spirit is talked about two ways in the Bible. First as the abiding presence of God in Christ with all the safety and comfort that relationship promises. This is the Spirit most of us know and love – the spirit of peace and concord – the one that smooths our ruffled feathers and revives our weary souls, the one that – lo!-is with us always, whenever we have the good sense to breathe in and say thank you. But there is another way the Spirit acts – not another Spirit but another manifestation of the same Spirit – that is not nearly so comforting. This is the Spirit who blows and burns, howling down the chimney and turning all the lawn furniture upside down. Ask Job about the whirlwind, or Ezekiel about the chariot of fire, Ask anyone who was in that room on Pentecost what it was like to be caught up in the Spirit and whether it is something they would like to happen every Sunday afternoon
We have seen many examples of humans that have followed this radical call of Jesus in the Gospels. Our saints and our martyrs willing to give up everything for Jesus. Just as Jesus was willing to give up his life to show the world that God stands with us in our suffering, that each one of us can be incarnated with God’s spirit and experience resurrection. Richard Rohr, again in his book The Universal Christ, shares a beautiful story of Etty Hillesum, a Jew living in Amsterdam in the 1930’s who saw the Nazi’s were getting closer and closer to imprisoning and killing her family. She wrote extensively in a diary and did not question or blame God for these circumstances but says ‘Alas, there doesn’t seem to be much You Yourself can do about our circumstances, about our lives. Neither do I hold you responsible. You cannot help us, but we must help You and defend Your dwelling place inside us to the last.” Etty did not hate her oppressors even though the Nazi’s killed all of her family including Etty in their concentration camps. She wrote in her diary….. “Those two months behind barbed wire have been the two richest and most intense months of my life, in which my highest values were so deeply confirmed. I have learnt to love Westerbork". What an example of living in humanity amidst a brutal and violent world while transcending internally with God’s spirit and showing the world how to love wastefully.
I wonder if the human Jesus were here today with us what he would say about our churches. Have they become buildings of comfort and care and preservation of our tradition and belief system? Are we living the radical life of transformation and Spirit that Jesus taught and lived? Jesus calls to each of us is to carry his vision into our world. If we answer that call, Jesus may take us into uncomfortable places, may push us to give up things, may take us down a path that is not in our list of goals and objectives for our life. If we say we believe in Jesus, are we willing to sacrifice and suffer as he did?
Brown again in her book Bread of Angels book says, “Let’ not let Jesus get away from us again. Let’s listen to him, to each other and live together like people who believe.”
Friends as we enter a time of waiting worship, we are not going to have music play in the background; rather I encourage you to sit in silence and consider the image of Jesus, however you see Jesus. How might I more fully embrace the teachings and the life of Jesus to love wastefully? Am I ready to go where Jesus might lead me? Am I willing to have my lawn furniture turned upside down?