Kenneth L. Nelson - "That's the Thing I Don't Like about Jesus" (October 24, 1999)
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| - | The third reading is from the Gospel according | 0:06 |
| to Saint Mark, the second chapter. | 0:08 | |
| One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields | 0:12 | |
| and as they made their way, | 0:15 | |
| his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. | 0:16 | |
| The Pharisees said to him, "Look, | 0:19 | |
| "why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?" | 0:21 | |
| "And he said to them, "Have you never read | 0:24 | |
| "what David did when he and his companions | 0:26 | |
| "were hungry and in need of food? | 0:28 | |
| "He entered the house of God | 0:31 | |
| "and when Abiathar was high priest, | 0:32 | |
| "he ate the bread of the Presence | 0:35 | |
| "which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat. | 0:37 | |
| "And he gave some to his companions." | 0:41 | |
| Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for humankind | 0:44 | |
| "and not humankind for the Sabbath. | 0:48 | |
| "So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath." | 0:51 | |
| This is the word of the Lord. | 0:56 | |
| - | Thanks be to God. | 0:58 |
| - | Let us pray. | 1:13 |
| In the still silence of these moments, oh God, | 1:21 | |
| silence any voice in us that would speak but your own. | 1:25 | |
| Speak, Lord for your servant is listening | 1:29 | |
| and give us ears that we might hear your truth. | 1:34 | |
| Amen. | 1:39 | |
| Recently while I was listening to the radio, | 1:43 | |
| I was intrigued by a song | 1:45 | |
| that has stayed in my mind ever since. | 1:48 | |
| The first verse tells the story | 1:52 | |
| of a woman who complains to her pastor | 1:53 | |
| about serving wine at communion. | 1:55 | |
| She doesn't think the church should be in the business | 1:59 | |
| of serving alcohol. | 2:01 | |
| The pastor replies by saying | 2:04 | |
| that Jesus drank wine. | 2:06 | |
| In fact, once he even turned water into wine. | 2:08 | |
| "But," says the woman, | 2:12 | |
| "that's the thing that I don't like about Jesus." | 2:14 | |
| (congregation chuckling) | 2:18 | |
| Next, a man complains to the pastor | 2:21 | |
| about seeing some persons | 2:23 | |
| of a different race in the church. | 2:24 | |
| "They're just not our kind. | 2:27 | |
| "Why don't they go where they'll be more comfortable?" | 2:28 | |
| The pastor reminds him | 2:32 | |
| that Jesus associated with all kinds of people. | 2:34 | |
| Including the outcasts of society, | 2:37 | |
| eating with tax collectors, sinners, | 2:40 | |
| running around with fishermen and prostitutes. | 2:43 | |
| "Yes," says the man, "but that's the thing | 2:46 | |
| "that I don't like about Jesus." | 2:49 | |
| Too bad the Pharisees didn't know that song. | 2:53 | |
| They would have loved it. | 2:56 | |
| You can hear them complaining. | 2:59 | |
| Look at this disgraceful behavior of your disciples, Jesus, | 3:01 | |
| picking grain on the Sabbath. | 3:04 | |
| Haven't you taught them | 3:07 | |
| that that's against the law? | 3:08 | |
| And Jesus replied, | 3:11 | |
| "Don't you remember the example of David? | 3:12 | |
| "Anyway, the Sabbath was made for human beings, | 3:15 | |
| "not the other way around." | 3:18 | |
| So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath. | 3:20 | |
| Can't you hear the Pharisees going down the road | 3:26 | |
| mumbling to each other? | 3:29 | |
| Can't he follow the rules like everybody else? | 3:31 | |
| What nerve. | 3:34 | |
| He acts as though he knows what's more important | 3:35 | |
| than God's law. | 3:38 | |
| Now, that's just the thing that I don't like about Jesus. | 3:40 | |
| I know that most of us don't like to admit it | 3:46 | |
| but there are things that we don't like about Jesus. | 3:49 | |
| You see, every time we think we have things figured out, | 3:54 | |
| every time we've got faith under control, | 3:58 | |
| Jesus comes along and shakes us up. | 4:02 | |
| The Gospel for today | 4:06 | |
| is the perfect case study. | 4:07 | |
| The Pharisees weren't entirely wrong. | 4:09 | |
| They had started from the right place, | 4:12 | |
| the law as God's gracious gift. | 4:14 | |
| In Deuteronomy, the observance of the Sabbath is commanded. | 4:17 | |
| It is an observance based on what God | 4:22 | |
| has done for Israel in the exodus. | 4:24 | |
| On the Sabbath, Israel is to remember the time | 4:27 | |
| when it was a people who were once no people. | 4:31 | |
| Slaves in the land of Egypt | 4:35 | |
| who were rescued by God with a mighty hand | 4:37 | |
| and an outstretched arm. | 4:40 | |
| Israel is to remember, first of all, | 4:44 | |
| by setting aside the Sabbath | 4:46 | |
| as a day of rest. | 4:49 | |
| It is a fitting remembrance for slaves | 4:51 | |
| to celebrate their freedom | 4:53 | |
| by being freed from work. | 4:55 | |
| At the same time, there's to be the same concern for others. | 4:58 | |
| Freedom is extended to all of one's children, | 5:02 | |
| one's servants, strangers, even cattle | 5:04 | |
| and beasts of burden. | 5:07 | |
| The command to observe the Sabbath | 5:10 | |
| is seen as a response to God's gracious act | 5:12 | |
| and is oriented towards human need. | 5:15 | |
| Unfortunately, the Pharisees | 5:21 | |
| like most of us couldn't leave well enough alone. | 5:23 | |
| They fell victim to the natural human tendency | 5:28 | |
| to spell everything out | 5:30 | |
| in excruciating details | 5:32 | |
| so that there would be no doubt | 5:34 | |
| as to what was proper observance | 5:36 | |
| and what was not. | 5:38 | |
| Without going into elaborate detail, | 5:41 | |
| we are reminded in Mark's Gospel | 5:43 | |
| that the Sabbath had been distorted | 5:46 | |
| and loaded down with countless restrictions | 5:48 | |
| making it a burden rather than a gift. | 5:51 | |
| Thus attention was shifted away | 5:55 | |
| from the remembrance, a celebration of the gift of freedom, | 5:56 | |
| to having to remember what is forbidden activity. | 6:00 | |
| The focus on God's act was lost | 6:05 | |
| and human action became priority. | 6:09 | |
| Now, if it was threatening to the Pharisees | 6:14 | |
| to have Jesus come along | 6:16 | |
| and point out just how they had lost sight | 6:18 | |
| of the meaning of the Sabbath observance, | 6:20 | |
| how much more threatening is Jesus to us? | 6:23 | |
| There Moses stood looking | 6:30 | |
| into the promised land, | 6:33 | |
| we say what a shame he never saw Israel settled. | 6:35 | |
| Like we say of Julian Abele. | 6:40 | |
| Too bad he was shunned the opportunity | 6:42 | |
| to view his own creation of Duke University. | 6:45 | |
| We hear of people holding on to die | 6:49 | |
| until the last child reaches the bedside. | 6:51 | |
| We like tidy endings, | 6:55 | |
| clear resolution, happy endings. | 6:57 | |
| We think we get this by ordering our lives. | 7:01 | |
| We trade on the expectation | 7:05 | |
| that life's uncertainties can be tamed. | 7:07 | |
| And they can be tamed simply by applying the right rules. | 7:12 | |
| That's what the Pharisees were doing. | 7:19 | |
| Wallpapering over the intention of the law | 7:22 | |
| to make a tidy appearance of it. | 7:24 | |
| Rules are for following, Jesus. | 7:27 | |
| Don't you know? | 7:29 | |
| No wonder the Pharisees didn't like Jesus. | 7:32 | |
| No wonder we are not very fond of this Jesus. | 7:37 | |
| But of course, we do know that the spirit of the law | 7:44 | |
| is what mattered, right? | 7:47 | |
| Our moral tendency is to believe | 7:51 | |
| that we can actually achieve satisfaction | 7:53 | |
| by having all the loose ends tied up, | 7:56 | |
| by submitting to a canopy of rules | 7:59 | |
| rather than living by the spirit of the law. | 8:01 | |
| Jesus comes along among us and breaks the illusion, | 8:06 | |
| to shatter the order that we tried | 8:11 | |
| so desperately to protect. | 8:13 | |
| Jesus does all of this for our good. | 8:16 | |
| That's the thing that I don't like about Jesus. | 8:19 | |
| But if we can admit it, | 8:24 | |
| if we can admit it to ourselves, | 8:27 | |
| that's also the reason we find ourselves | 8:30 | |
| so attracted to him. | 8:33 | |
| Jesus went on to remind them | 8:36 | |
| of what they already knew, | 8:38 | |
| that human beings were created by God | 8:40 | |
| before God instituted the Sabbath rest. | 8:43 | |
| Thus priority lay with human need. | 8:46 | |
| The Sabbath was created for humanity, | 8:51 | |
| not humanity for the observance of the Sabbath. | 8:53 | |
| The Pharisees had lost their perspective, | 8:59 | |
| they insisted on strict observance, | 9:02 | |
| the reason for the observance had been largely lost. | 9:04 | |
| No longer was the Sabbath a gift, but a burden. | 9:09 | |
| Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath rediscovered it for humanity. | 9:13 | |
| He removed the burden and gave the Sabbath back | 9:18 | |
| as a gracious gift. | 9:21 | |
| The good news is this. | 9:24 | |
| Jesus frees humanity to see laws | 9:27 | |
| and regulations in their proper perspective, | 9:29 | |
| as aids for life, designed for human beings | 9:33 | |
| by a loving God whose purpose | 9:37 | |
| was to free them from bondage. | 9:40 | |
| Well, I guess Jesus sure did tell off the Pharisees, right? | 9:44 | |
| But what does that have to do with us? | 9:50 | |
| We're not Pharisees. | 9:53 | |
| Why get all worked up | 9:54 | |
| about plucking heads of grain? | 9:56 | |
| And anyway, if we as Christians | 9:58 | |
| have been freed in Christ, | 10:00 | |
| rules and regulations aren't our problem, are they? | 10:02 | |
| Pastor Ken, can I talk to you? | 10:08 | |
| I've got this problem with my roommate. | 10:12 | |
| He says he's a Christian | 10:15 | |
| but I know he's not. | 10:16 | |
| He comes in late every night | 10:18 | |
| and I just know he's been out to the pub. | 10:19 | |
| I hardly ever see him reading the Bible. | 10:22 | |
| Once I looked in it, it's not even a Red Letter edition. | 10:26 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 10:29 | |
| Hardly anything is underlined in the book. | 10:30 | |
| I bet my Bible is at least a pound heavier | 10:33 | |
| because of all of the ink and the underlining. | 10:36 | |
| I asked him once, I asked him once | 10:40 | |
| when he came to know Jesus as his Savior | 10:42 | |
| and you know what he said? | 10:44 | |
| When he was baptized. | 10:47 | |
| What kind of answer is that? | 10:49 | |
| I happen to know that he was only six weeks old at the time. | 10:52 | |
| How can a baby know Jesus? | 10:55 | |
| Anyway, I confronted him with the truth | 10:58 | |
| and all he does is get mad at me. | 11:02 | |
| I'm just doing it out of love. | 11:04 | |
| Not 20 minutes later, | 11:08 | |
| his roommate came to see me. | 11:11 | |
| Ken, we have got to talk. | 11:14 | |
| I've got this problem with my roommate. | 11:16 | |
| Ever since he's found Jesus, | 11:19 | |
| he's been a real pain in the neck. | 11:20 | |
| He spends all of his time in those fellowship groups | 11:24 | |
| talking about what Jesus has done for him. | 11:27 | |
| Doesn't he know that Christians are supposed | 11:29 | |
| to reach out to a hurting people in the world? | 11:31 | |
| He goes to some church downtown. | 11:35 | |
| He says that liturgy is not worship for him. | 11:37 | |
| He even got baptized by total immersion. | 11:40 | |
| Once in the room he started talking real weird. | 11:45 | |
| I guess he was speaking in tongues | 11:47 | |
| but I thought it was creepy. | 11:49 | |
| Anyway, I told him that I was not interested | 11:51 | |
| in his kind of Christianity. | 11:54 | |
| By the way, I recommended to the Dean of Housing | 11:57 | |
| that these two students | 12:00 | |
| should be forced to room together next year. | 12:01 | |
| (congregation laughing) | 12:04 | |
| Like the Pharisees and often like you and I, | 12:09 | |
| both of these students lost their perspective. | 12:14 | |
| They insisted on strict observance | 12:18 | |
| but had forgotten the reasons. | 12:20 | |
| The discipline of Christian life | 12:22 | |
| was no longer a gift but a burden, | 12:24 | |
| especially a burden imposed someone else. | 12:27 | |
| Each had come up with his own checklist | 12:32 | |
| of what kind of behavior identifies a Christian | 12:34 | |
| and each used his list to tabulate how close one does | 12:37 | |
| what God requires. | 12:41 | |
| Each knows that he's not perfect | 12:43 | |
| but as long as there are more checks in the do column | 12:45 | |
| than there are in the don't column, | 12:48 | |
| each can feel pretty self-righteous. | 12:50 | |
| You know, I kind of like that model myself. | 12:54 | |
| That's a convenient way to live a life of faith. | 12:56 | |
| You don't have to think. | 12:58 | |
| All you have to do is memorize the list | 13:00 | |
| of dos and don'ts | 13:02 | |
| and then check them off one by one. | 13:04 | |
| And the really neat thing | 13:08 | |
| is you can apply exactly the same list to everyone. | 13:09 | |
| You can deal with everybody in the same way. | 13:12 | |
| It's much less time consuming than relating to individuals. | 13:16 | |
| Like the incident in the Gospel, | 13:22 | |
| it doesn't make a difference that the disciples were hungry. | 13:25 | |
| What they did was wrong and that's that. | 13:29 | |
| The law says no harvesting on the Sabbath. | 13:33 | |
| Period. | 13:36 | |
| End of discussion. | 13:37 | |
| Jesus' answer to the Pharisees and to us | 13:42 | |
| is to set us free from the burden of the law, | 13:46 | |
| the burden of ourselves. | 13:49 | |
| But it is a freedom that demands great responsibility. | 13:52 | |
| God doesn't take away the checklists | 13:57 | |
| but frees us to see them in proper perspective | 14:00 | |
| as aids for our lives, | 14:03 | |
| gifts from a loving God | 14:05 | |
| and in giant letters, God adds a preface | 14:08 | |
| to each checklist. | 14:11 | |
| Remember that these are designed for my children. | 14:13 | |
| My love for them comes first. | 14:19 | |
| It is Jesus, not the law | 14:25 | |
| or our boxes that comes to bring life | 14:28 | |
| and life abundantly. | 14:31 | |
| We are always going to be jolted out | 14:33 | |
| of our security, out of our boxes if you will. | 14:36 | |
| That's the thing that I don't like about Jesus. | 14:41 | |
| But Jesus has his priorities straight. | 14:45 | |
| He broke the Sabbath law again and again | 14:48 | |
| to heal the sick. | 14:51 | |
| He shocked those who were most righteous | 14:53 | |
| by associating himself with sinners and outcasts. | 14:56 | |
| He was accused of blasphemy | 15:01 | |
| for daring to forgive sins. | 15:03 | |
| For Jesus, people were always more important than the law, | 15:07 | |
| even people like you and like me. | 15:13 | |
| Maybe especially people like you and me. | 15:19 | |
| And that's the thing I like about Jesus. | 15:25 | |
| Thanks be to God. | 15:32 | |
| Amen. | 15:36 |