Link to the audio file and manuscript for my sermon from Sunday, April 25th, 2010

Today was the 4th Sunday of Easter.  We're still celebrating the resurrection of Jesus, still trying to come to terms with Jesus being raised and in our midst. 

Here's the link to the audio file for the sermon recorded in this morning's worship service: 

http://www.box.net/shared/5x7skh8aa2



The manuscript I worked from follows below: 



The Fourth Sunday of Easter; April 25, 2010
Park Avenue Presbyterian Church; Des Moines, Iowa
Texts: Acts 9: 36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7: 9-17
John 10: 22-30 *

“Believing Jesus is the Christ”

--} Western Christianity has a strange view of the world. When we’re asked about believing in Jesus, we’re easily convinced it’s simply about getting into heaven. “Where are you going to spend eternity…” And the answer goes something like, “If you don’t want it to be ‘down there,’ you need to believe in Jesus….” And just like that, Western Christianity tends to have us “having faith rather than our living “in faith.” In part, because of our westernized history, we often fault the Jews around the Temple in John’s story for “not believing in Jesus.” But we fail to apply the critique to ourselves.

As I read today’s gospel lesson, it seems to me that the Jewish leadership around the Temple is asking something that you and I already have the advantage of “believing.” From our perspective we might ask, “How could these Jews not know already or believe that Jesus is the Messiah?” But there are a lot of reasons—even good reasons—for the Jewish Temple folk to be in doubt, or shock, or awed, or threatened… even when we’re not. We often assume that our post-modern faith should be exported “backwards” through time—thinking that everyone should or could believe as we do. WE don’t find it so challenging to “believe” Jesus is the Messiah, and think other’s shouldn’t either. And yet, FAITH—now or then—still comes with the significant challenge of changed behavior.

While many modern “believers” feel slighted by the Jewish authorities’ lack of belief in Jesus, we needn’t. What we should be trying to cope with is what Jesus’ messianic appearances mean in terms of a post-resurrection and post-modern faith. And we can start, not by asking ourselves about how first-century Jews could have doubts about Jesus, but by asking ourselves what it means that WE BELIEVE Jesus is the messiah. Since we believe that Jesus is the Messiah, what is supposed to be different about our lives? Our story? Our Church? Our Faith? Consider that for a moment: What is “different” about your life because you believe?

Because in any age, the faith of Jesus the Messiah should have a powerful expression in human living. In first-century Palestine, the powerful expression Jesus offered was belief that the signs pointed to God’s kingdom being present in the world—both in Jesus, but also in the faith of people who trusted as they saw him and acted on that trust. Time and again, Jesus invited people to believe and take stock of a new way of being—a way not dominated by the ways of the world, but a way that capitulated to the norms of the Kingdom of God. It sounds good, doesn’t it? But BELIEVING in Jesus means our lives have to be reshaped by that faith. And that’s where the rub is. “It is not enough to say “I have faith,” one has to BE in faith!”

What kinds of things did you consider were different in your life because you are in the faith of Jesus the Messiah? We often come up with differences like:

• I go to church;
• I act morally;
• I believe in God;
• I respect others.

But how often do we consider the more stringent rubrics of being in faith and find them necessary for daily living? Things like:

• Loving our neighbors;
• Praying for our enemies (we probably don’t think we have any enemies!);
• Ensuring all people have access to the necessities of life (food, water, shelter, pursuit of happiness);
• Do we find ways of being compassionate, kind, and truly just every single day! And do we think about those who have less than we do and are we willing to work toward ways of sharing?

These things COST us something; and we often fear the price must be too high, literally and otherwise. People actually say things like, “do you think we should have to pay for ALL people to have healthcare in this country? For everyone to have a doctor, to be able to go to the pharmacy, to have needed surgeries? It’s too expensive! We can’t afford it.” Really? Is that our answer? Why isn’t our answer, “health care should cost less; our morality means something more than our net worth! Shouldn’t we WANT everyone to have healthcare and have their needs met? Wouldn’t we want THEM to do the same for US? And why aren’t we working hardest to solve these problems!

Faith COSTS US SOMETHING! To believe Jesus is the Messiah forces us to deal with a reality of life that is more than just ourselves. We would do well to remember that the first two questions God ASKS of human beings are these: “Man, where are you?” And, “Where is your brother—what have you done to your brother.” In the aftermath of “be fruitful and multiply” and “have dominion over all of creation” comes the reality of human cruelty. And it’s into this reality that God sends us the Christ.

But it’s not hard to understand why human beings—not just the Jewish folk around the Temple with Jesus, but even ourselves—would be resistant to this new and special reign of God. To live like God in Christ COSTS us something.

I imagine for the Jewish leaders at the Temple that even if they could believe that Jesus was the messiah, the costs of that “believing” were perceived to have been too high. If Jesus is the Messiah, it would have turned their world upside down. They would be removed from power; they would be incorporated into a necessary rebellion—by their actions. It would have cost them their jobs, their families, their security—probably even their lives. What seems amiss, is that we blithely ask them to make such a sacrifice, without seeing the same mandate for ourselves.

WE somehow find it possible that our believing in Jesus doesn’t threaten life, family, job-security, or standing in the community. But it’s not true. We have the privilege of living in one of the most powerful nations on the globe—and quite possibly one of the most unjust. Our cultural concern for “self” often fundamentally obliterates not only the concern for others, but the rights others may have toward meeting their own needs. Healthcare is still a good example. We are told to believe the cost is too high; our perception is pushed and changed, so that we’re convinced it would be “cheaper” if we don’t have to cover people who have unhealthy lifestyles (those who smoke, those who don’t exercise, those who eat too much at McDonalds or other fast-food places). Is it right to save a few dollars for our own pocketbooks at the expense of other people being sick? Because plenty of hard-working decent people these days don’t have healthcare and they’re not the unhealthy types—they can’t afford to be.

While we may believe that because it’s true that most of us don’t rob banks, kill other people, or have sexual affairs; we should think we’ve done pretty well with the commandments—that because we’ve tried to live what we might describe as “good and honorable lives,” we don’t have to answer to the larger concerns of humanity’s ill-treatment of the world and human beings. Even though we’ve tried to keep to ourselves and tried to help in ways that we could, what Jesus calls us to do is to proclaim the gospel and live out the life he shows to us. Because I’m absolutely certain, that the people at the Temple whom we think can’t or won’t believe in Jesus probably could have said the same things about themselves that we think about ourselves. They, too, thought they were doing right and living justly.

So when we consider what it means for us to put our faith in Jesus Christ, our believing that Jesus is the Messiah needs to be demonstrated BEYOND just the affirmation of faith in worship on Sunday mornings. We need to become people who are known for our association with Jesus—despite the costs. The works we do, should testify to the living Christ. As Jesus says to the Jews, “the works I do in my father’s name testify to me. …my sheep hear my voice, and they follow me.” The claims of the gospel should be our claims too. And if they are, our lives have to demonstrate them. Maybe even at great cost. Elias Chacour says, “If you want peace, you have to pay for it… often with your own blood.”

As people who claim the resurrected life of Jesus for ourselves, what we do and make in the world is not insignificant. WE have the advantage. WE BELIEVE Jesus is the Messiah. We don’t have to fret about it, we don’t have to try and figure that out. We know and are convinced. YET, what remains are lives that demonstrate that BELIEF every day—beyond the platitudes.

But here’s the thing. We think too often as Westernized Christians that once we commit ourselves to believing in Jesus as the Messiah, we’re assured a good outcome—that because of our faith “we can’t be snatched out of the savior’s hands.” That our place in heaven is uncompromisable. But I don’t believe that’s what John was trying to teach us.

Instead, John demonstrates for us that if Christians are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah, WHAT’S STOPPING US FROM LIVING ACCORDING TO THE MESSIAH’S WAYS? All the “costs” can be worked out. The worst thing that can happen to you is that you’ll die; but the resurrection of Jesus means that death is never the last word. Worst case, you die…. I don’t want to make light of dying for our faith, but I’m just saying that John’s intent seems to be to convince believers and followers that part of the Kingdom of God is up to us. We have to help God make it happen. We have to work with God—because we believe.

So “believing” isn’t ever just a way of getting ourselves to heaven. Believing is a way of transforming the world in the ways of Jesus Christ. It’s a way of giving up our fetters, for us to be unbound by the world, and instead, to demonstrate the full life of the Kingdom of God in all its glory—in us, through us, and among us.

--+ Christ is risen - indeed! AMEN