System Failure / Not the End

System Failure / Not the End

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

November 17, 2013

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Luke 21: 5-19

 

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen.

 

⁵ When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶ “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

⁷ They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” ⁸ And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.

⁹ “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” ¹⁰ Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹ there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

¹² “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³ This will give you an opportunity to testify. ¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; ¹⁵ for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your souls. ^[1]

 

I want to take note of the Prayer of Preparation before I start because I wrote it while I was studying this passage, and it says succintly much of what I want to say today, so I'll start there before we get into the weeds of this passage, lest as I warned of last week, we get lost on the way:

When we think the ends justify the means,

We mean the ends we think are imminent,

And in our control, but when do ends occur?

Rarely, if not never, especially when forever

Is the ever of beginning and the end. 

So having said that, let's begin. . . Luke 21 seems to be completely about what we call Armageddon, the end times, at least it seems to be. It sounds scary. It has a ton of difficult imagery. It's harsh. It's intense.

“Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹ there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. ^[2]  

When we hear texts like this we think, Revelation and Armageddon, and it scares us, and here it's out of the mouth of Jesus, so it's real, and whether we like to think it or not, whether we like to admit it or not, these things seem to surround us daily. Maybe it's not as bad as all this, or maybe it is, maybe things are spiraling out of control, and that it's harder now to be a follower of Jesus, but it isn't easy to be a follower of Jesus any time, and truthfully it never has been easy. Throughout the 2000 years of Christianity every generation felt that they were on the brink of "The End," With people pointing to passages like this as proof, looking at our world, and many times they use that trumped up fear to extend their control through fear. It happens again and again, and there is great danger in this type of thinking.

We've been working our way through the Gospel of Luke since the beginning of Summer, and the reality of the Gospel, the picture it paints of what following Jesus is like certainly has not been an easy walk through the park. Instead it has been an inside and out complete conversion of action and intention, a complete give away all your stuff, and your heart, total submission of will, following towards a complete sacrifice of self for others, and not just friends but even enemies. So with that story as preface to this passage, and the betrayal and crucifixion following fast after, the images of this passage are put into perspective, and though the images are similar to an Armageddon type scene, or an Old Testament prophetic destruction type scene,  at the beginning I said seems, seems to be like Armageddon, seems, so before we jump to conclusions, and let me quote Lee Corso, from College Game Day, and say, "Not So Fast My Friend." The world of this passage does seem to be on the brink, but of what? Is it the end? Before we jump to scary conclusions, that tend to enslave us to and through fear, instead let us take a look at the details to get to the bottom of what is going on here, and what it really means, and what it is saying to us in our context, we may find that it is not pointing towards the end of the world at all. . . we may just find that it's much more intense than that.

First off, lest we get blinded by the imagery, let's look at the question that Jesus is responding to. They are speaking about the temple, how beautiful it is, how large the stones are that it's built of, and how it has beautiful gifts on it "dedicated to God," so the people say, and Jesus says, "⁶ “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” This temple and these gifts, "dedicated to God," though they claim to be will fall apart. Then the people ask him, ok well when will all this happen? So Jesus is responding to a question about the temple and within the context of it being taken down and destroyed. Now is the temple in destruction the same thing as Armageddon? If so, then it all happened already, the temple was destroyed in 70 A.D. and was only rebuilt, and not as a temple but as a mosque over 600 years later in 691. So yeah, if we are to take this literally, the temple did come down, but it was not the end, you know at least not in a final sense, of the end, you know THE END, thanks for coming. Again there is danger in strictly literal interpretations.

Ok, so let's dig deeper into context. . . a figurative understanding of the temple could be more applicable. If you look at what directly precedes this passage, you see Jesus in conflict with officials of the temple, Sadducees and the Scribes. We talked about the Sadducees last week, seeking to catch Jesus in a trick question, and then also in chapter 20, Jesus speaks directly and harshly about the scribes saying:

⁴⁶ “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have the best seats in the synagogues and places of honor at banquets. ⁴⁷ They devour widows’ houses and for the sake of appearance say long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” ^[3]  

So Sadducees and Scribes, both temple officials, both proud, both using their positions for themselves, both giving Jesus a hard time, both included then in the coming destruction of the temple. Does Jesus simply mean that these guys will soon get what is coming to them, that the tradition that they represent is coming to an end, and being replaced by what Jesus brings. Wouldn't that type of understanding fit, where Jesus claims that he will destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, which is typically understood as the Resurrection on the Third Day. The temple would be rebuilt, but in the hearts of Jesus' followers, the hearts of all people, broken down outside the walls of the temple, broken down walls that divide people, bringing people together, isn't this the heart of Jesus' message. It is similar to what Jesus tells the Sadducees in what we read last week, God is bigger than what you have built, and bigger than  your traditions, and bigger than those stone walls, and so God will bring them down because he can't be contained in them, no, God will be running loose in the world, not shut up in a temple and not a part of your control any more. Yes this interpretation makes sense.

And certainly attacking tradition like that would cause the divisions talked about, nations and kingdoms, and persecutions to follow. No one likes to be challenged, especially those in power, those of privilege, those who have been all but happy to rest on the traditions and exploit people based on those traditions. Once the rug starts to be pulled from under them they do typically fight back, and who to their opponents. But it appears that the system is broken and is in need of repair. The temple, supposed to be a house of prayer, but has been turned into a den of thieves. The religious leaders, who you would think would be excited about the coming of the Messiah, are not. The poor are being exploited by a system that is supposed to be building them up. Yes the system is broken and needs to be fixed. Yes the system is broken, but Jesus when will it be fixed? Isn't this the question here?

Then come the bewares. Beware of imposters saying, I am he, the time is near. Here is the real danger of this passage, and those like it, and how often is it forgotten? How many times does a person come along, saying the system is broken, and I am the key, I offer solutions to fix it, to save people from the broken system, only to renew the broken system in some other way, the unintended consequences always leave a system still broken, and many time broken worse. Jesus says beware. . . of these quick fixes, these imposters with false solutions, saying the end is near. We call this demagoguery, and the demagogues are always in fashion. Stirring up fear, stirring up worry, promising that they have the only fix to the broken system. In this type of panic about the end, stirred up fears about the end, the demagogues, these false saviors, promise an end that is in their control, and are then authorized to bring about that end by any means necessary, all means are justified. People turn over their lives to them, their hopes their dreams, their freedom, and the broken system is simply sustained, or renewed even more harshly, not destroyed and rebuilt as Jesus promises.

He says that wars and insurrections may also take place, but to not worry. Because the end will not follow immediately, nation against nation,  what war was ever waged that was not supposed to end all wars, but they don't, they never do. But then Jesus says there will be earthquakes, and then famines and plagues, also great fertile ground for a demagogue to rise, all of these are often thought to be dreadful portents and signs from heaven, but remember from Elijah, that God was not in the earthquake, but rather a still small voice, not always the loudest voice, interesting. The right way is not always illuminated by the loudest voice. So all this will happen. . . and then the end will come. . . right, that is what you'd expect, but it doesn't say it. I kept looking forward for the end, but it isn't anywhere.

Instead he says, before this happens, you yourself will be persecuted, and arrested, turned over to the Synagogues, (that's an interesting one) and prisons, brought before kings and governors for my name. You'll get to testify, you'll get to stand up, I'll let you know what to say, but you'll be betrayed by your parents, relatives, even friends, and they may even put some of  you to death. . . You'll be hated, but not one hair upon your head will perish. . . whoa really, "by endurance you will gain  your souls. Did you hear the end? Me neither, rather endurance, strength, on-going trials. The end doesn't come. How interesting. . . Don't you see it. . . It's way too easy to write this passage off as an Armageddon, end times passage, way off in the future type deal, and it still may be that, but it doesn't talk about an easy and quick end, but rather a long arduous journey, where the ends are the false parts, the imposters, where the easy escapes are just aspects of the brokenness of the system trying to remain, like those threatened Sadducees and Scribes who lash out at Jesus and have him Crucified. But look at where Jesus goes in the passage following this one, I want to read it because it isn't the lectionary text for next week:

²⁰ “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. ²¹ Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; ²² for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. ²³ Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; ²⁴ they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

²⁵ “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. ²⁶ People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷ Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. ²⁸ Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”^[4] 

Not the end, after all that, but your redemption. The word can also be translated, deliverance, payment of ransom given. Some things end, but the things that end are the broken systems, Jerusalem is what is destroyed. Those inside the city, that system, must leave it. It's over. We talk about the end as if it is something to be feared, something to be avoided, but the end doesn't come the way we think, it's simply a new beginning. When Jesus says that he is the beginning and the end, he means it. That's what it means to be infinite, what it means to be God. Infinite, literally means, no end. We sing it every week.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :

and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :

world without end. Amen 

I was thinking about this idea lately, especially as I was preparing for this sermon, reading this difficult text, but also, all over the place these days is the idea that the "Ends justify the means." Last Saturday we had a morning program at Blue Ridge where we discussed Lance Armstrong as a case in honor, or really lack thereof, and we talked about how cheating produced for him, money and glory, and fame, and riches, and also money for cancer research, and all kinds of other things we would consider good, and that the boys certainly considered good, and we posed the question was it worth it to cheat. Most said no it wasn't worth it because it all fell apart, or maybe it was because that is what we wanted them to say, but yeah it all fell apart. That's an ends justify the means. . . and if time stood still after he won his tour de frances, we would see it different, but time didn't stop, rather it went on, the end was merely an illusion, time went on and his actions came back to haunt him. There are other stories similarly problematic all over the news. . . questionable means  they may be positive things, they may be sellable as ends justifying the means, but as we see again and again, the ends don't come because they aren't in our control for one, and that there is just no such thing as an end, other than Jesus and he instead offers redemption and deliverance, just like God has done since the beginning.

This isn't the first time that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. Check out Jeremiah and Lamentations, Jerusalem's destruction is well documented, but then read Ezekiel, and you'll see who is still in control if there was any doubt. History didn't end then, nor did it in A.D. 70 when the Second Temple was destroyed, nor will it when we stand to trial and are persecuted, or we suffer loss, or get we discouraged, or even when we die, instead through enduring all those things do we come not to the end, but to a beginning beyond our broken systems that we build trying again and again to stave off the end, but the only things that end are those broken systems, and they all do eventually, for they are only the illusion of reality, just as Jerusalem is the illusion of God. When it has all come to pass, and systems fail, God remains, and offers redemption.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 21:5-19). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[2]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 21:10-11). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[3]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 20:46-47). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[4]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 21:20-28). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

This Side and That Side

This Side and That Side

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

November 13, 2013

For the funeral of George Newman Allman, Sr.

at  Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

2 Corinthians 4:16 - 5:1

 Let us pray,

Source of all true wisdom

calm the troubled waters of our hearts,

and still all other voices but your own,

that we may hear and obey

what you tell us in your Word,

Through the power of your Spirit.

Amen. 

      ¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, ¹⁸ because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.

5 For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 

 

I've always been drawn to Emily Dickinson's poem, "My Life Closed Twice before Its Close," which goes. . .

My life closed twice before its close—

It yet remains to see

If Immortality unveil

A third event to me  

So huge, so hopeless to conceive

As these that twice befell.

Parting is all we know of heaven,

And all we need of hell. 

Emily Dickinson wrote this poem in this life. She had lost two great loves during the course of her life when she wrote these words, and at both, both instances of loss, as she describes in this brief and poignant poem, her life also closes. One of the times was the loss of her father, and the other the loss of her first and only love. Loss, and especially these two losses, shaped much of her life, and gave inspiration to some of the greatest lines of insight ever written on the subject of death, at least our perspective from this side. It is the pair of last two lines that has always grabbed my attention, because she really does state so clearly and so completely much of what we feel on this side while we mourn for those we have lost. She writes, "Parting is all we know of heaven and all we need of hell." So true so brilliant. The key words contrasted in the poem are know and need, whereas parting, remains the constant.

We know that there is parting, we know that we have suffered loss, we know that there is and will be an empty space surrounding us now, empty chairs, an empty bed, silence, where conversation had once flowed freely. These are what we know of death, and so she says that it is enough to make Hell real to us, not needing fires or torment, just loss, parting, and is therefore also the  limits of what we know heaven to be, from this side. . . again, know and need.

But hope is not based in knowledge, is not based in what we know. Hope is based in faith, hope is based in what we believe, what Christ has taught us, what Christ has done for us, what Christ represents in our lives. We may not know much about heaven, but our belief transcends what we do not know, and includes wonders beyond what we can even imagine, or as Paul writes "glory beyond all measure." We use words like rest, and joy, and love, and light, and wholeness, and eternal, and peace to describe what we believe heaven to be. In our minds eye and through our hearts spectacles we see loved ones gathered, all together, joyous harmony, and reunion, joined together in God's amazing love, a bright shore, made sure by the will of the father, the sacrifice of the son, and the love of the holy spirit.

We see in the scripture passages like 2 Corinthians 4 that what we see and know on this side is not all there is. On this side we see age and sickness making us weak, crippling our bodies, making life a challenge beyond our understanding, but we cannot see the spirit within, growing in strength, preparing for communion with the Lord, communion with the love that created it, communion once again at home, as life was created to be, at one with God, able again to walk without falling, to run without slowing, to work without tiring, and to dance without ever faltering, the stressless restful peace and harmony of love: Everything that the world was created with and for finally made whole.

This side and that side, is a heart wrenching juxtaposition, especially for those grieving loss on days like today. Though there is emptiness in our vision, though there is vacancy where George used to be, there will never be emptiness within your heart, for in your heart love never dies. . . and that love that you feel, though you can't see it, the fullness of love that you feel in your heart, every memory that put that feeling there in your heart, every hug, every laugh, every tear, cried alongside our dear friend and father and husband and grandfather, that has filled your heart and will continue to fill your heart, is just a taste of the glory yet to come on the other side, for though we do not always see it, love is the connector that takes away the boundaries between life and death, between this side and that. . . and for love we thank God, for it has touched us all, giving us more than hope, but the life giving waters that make it all somehow worthwhile. It is this truth that we witness to today, the Resurrection and the Life Everlasting. Amen.

 

In the Weeds

In the Weeds

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

November 10, 2013

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Luke 20: 27-39

 

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

 ²⁷ Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him ²⁸ and asked him a question, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother. ²⁹ Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; ³⁰ then the second ³¹ and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless. ³² Finally the woman also died. ³³ In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her.”

³⁴ Jesus said to them, “Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶ Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. ³⁷ And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” ³⁹ Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” ⁴⁰ For they no longer dared to ask him another question. ^[1] 

This passage may be one of the most pleasingly useful ones for us in our day and age because Jesus finds himself in a situation where we often find ourselves, or I'm not sure about you all, but I certainly find myself in this situation. You are surrounded and confronted by non-believers, you get a question that is leading, its deliberately leading you into the weeds, just to get you lost, contradictory and hypocritical. There seems in today's world that there is no one more sure of what Christians believe than non-Christians. Many if not most non-believing people, are ex-Christians, who have been turned off by the faith by something. Sometimes a person, sometimes an intellectual issue that somehow they felt caused them to be outside of the established faith, and therefore decided to completely turn their back on all trappings of religion. Not all of course, but some, I'll call them evangelical Atheists, are people who have become or at least are Atheist and now want everyone else to be, too. They do this confronting often; they assume they know what you believe, and then they ask a question that they are sure will put your faith in binding contradiction with itself, and then they wait. They wait for you to start stuttering or saying "well" or back tracking, or admitting to yourself and to them that your faith is based on flimsy truth and flawed logic, all justifying their non belief, and their rational superiority, their intellectual supremacy, and their completely condescending attitude over you and anyone else foolish enough to believe in such ancient superstitious ideas, like God. You often ask yourself, if they were so confident, why would they care so much to get you to agree with them? It's as if their doubts about what they claim to rationally believe without question, are reinforced by your faith in something else, leaving them with shaky confidence at best, and so an aggressive chip is sitting squarely on their shoulder called doubt and distain. I'd say this very aspect, their shaky confidence, is important to remember, and Jesus does remember it here in this exchange.

Let's look at the situation Jesus is in. The passage tells us that some Sadducees came up to Jesus and started asking him questions about what the Resurrection would be like, but it also tells us that Sadducees do not believe in the Resurrection. They know it, Jesus knows it, now we know it because it states it so plainly. They ask him about a situation where seven brothers marry the same woman. Under Mosaic law, which they uphold literally,  it was traditional for a younger brother to marry his older brother's widow, should the older brother die. They make up a scenario where this happens seven times, just to ask Jesus, which one of the brothers will have her as wife in the Resurrection. It's totally a trap question, and they do not expect Jesus to have an answer to it. It's actually kind of a childish question in a way. I'm reminded of some of the whoppers that Sunday School teachers get asked. Stuff like: if God is all powerful can he create a rock that is so heavy that even he can't lift it? How do you answer questions like that? They take human logic and turn it on its side. Faith in the light of such a question certainly seems irrational and then foolish, and that is the point of the question, trying to make the teacher foolish. I remember when I was in science class in tenth grade, I had Mr. Aukermann, I was never really all that into science, so making people laugh and the teacher look foolish was a much more interesting pastime. This class was biology, and he was talking about proteins one day, amino acids, and traits and genetics and stuff like that. Now I remember always trying, in my best smart aleck sort of way to ask him questions that were ridiculous,  silly questions, but I loved doing it because he would always take the questions seriously and give me, or at least try to give me a serious answer, despite the juvenile giggles that fueled my adolescent confidence. On that day I asked him, "Hey Mr. Auk, if proteins are what determines our traits, and meats like steak are filled with proteins, if I eat a lot of steak would I eventually turn into a cow. Every class clown, has a side kick, and he is now saying, doubling down, "Oh yeah, teach, that's a great question." Now the teacher should have answered, fighting smart aleck with smart aleck, something like you may not turn into a cow, but you may become a fat pig, ended it and moved on. That's what he should have said, but instead he got into the weeds, he started explaining how amino acids break down the proteins, and that the traits are lost. . . he spent 20 minutes, giving me a legitimate answer, stopped only by the bell. . . teenage success, mission accomplished, derail the teacher one whole class period. That's what these questions are meant to do, derail the message and make the teacher look foolish, getting them to enter the weeds, and get themselves lost.

The Sadducees even begin by calling him "Teacher." I couldn't help but reading that, hey if you are so smart, and are teaching all these people, if  you got a lesson for me, riddle me this one batman: If a woman has 7 different husbands who die, then she dies and they all are present and resurrected, who is she married to? You can almost hear one of the other Sadducees, saying, "Oh that's a good one, yeah teach, which is it?"

Now we have to look at what Jesus does, how he answers. He dismisses the question. He says that they don't understand how the resurrection works. It's bigger than your little games. That's the key isn't it? It's bigger. Look at what he says specifically:

Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage; ³⁵ but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage. ³⁶ Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection. 

He doesn't go into the weeds with them. He simply tells them that your conception is way too small, heaven is different from here. You are looking at things on your own terms, and your terms are way too limiting.

How about that for handling a condescending question? It takes it and flips it, it flips the high ground. Condescending literally means "with going down," as if talking down, from the large brained, got it all figured out, down-hill to the small brained, believing in nonsense. Jesus turns the ground upside down, and lets them know that their thinking is actually the small thinking. The established thinking, the herd thinking, is the limited close minded thinking.

The next part of Jesus' response even goes farther. Now the Sadducees were a class of priests in Judea, who were in charge of keeping the temple. They were high priests. They believed very highly in a literal interpretation of the Torah. It is this literal tradition that gave them their place in society. It is this literal tradition that they claim to be questioning Jesus on the Resurrection. And then it is this literal tradition that they base their question about the marriages on.

An interesting fact about the Sadducees is the derivation of their name. In Hebrew the closest word to Sadducees, which is thought to be the same root as their name is Sadiq, which means "Right, just." They are the ones in society who are right, according to the meaning of their name. Imagine the added condescension then in their question. Jesus, teacher, how are you teaching what you teach, it goes against the torah, it goes against tradition, it goes against us. It is to these people that Jesus evokes himself the source of their authority, the Torah, bold move.

Jesus says:

"And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. ³⁸ Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive.” 

The story of the bush, that's the burning bush. Dead are raised? Why is that? Where is that in the story? What is Jesus talking about? Now we know that Jesus answered their question enough at least for them because it says right after this in v. 39, "Teacher you have spoken well." They don't challenge him. Why not? Why don't they?

The name of God is important in Jewish Tradition. It was never to be spoken, actually in the language the way it is spelled it is technically unpronounceable. It is the sound of wind. Sometimes in English it's transliterated Jehoveh, or Yahweh, but it's more like yhvh. The idea of not speaking it, is that you can't control it. Naming something, speaking a name,  can limit it, and control it, but God can't be contained that way, not in a word, not in a building, not in one idea. The name of God, best translated from that story about the bush in Exodus is I am, in English. God is the is. The eternal present. All places and all times. There always is an "is." Now is "is", and now is "is", and there is another one, and another one. The is of a minute ago is not defining or limiting on the is of now. I know it sounds weird, it sounds like philosophical nonsense, but it is all about the idea that God is bigger than any one idea, bigger than any one moment or event, but is every moment and event, and is then also bigger than the limits we seek to put on God, bigger than the Sadducees concept of God, the one they have been selling. God is not of the dead but of the living, and if he is God still of Abraham and Isaac and of Jacob. . . and Jesus says, now, he is. . . to him, who lives eternally in the present, they also are still alive to him. To think other wise would certainly be limiting God, and the Sadducees certainly would never want to do that, at least not publicly. They'd instead wait their time.

Now obviously its different in a situation that we are in now, when atheists put us on the spot, trying to paint us into a corner, lead us into the weeds with a question to make us feel foolish and silly. We can't necessarily catch them back in an area of inconsistency on their part, but we can take something from what Jesus does, and that is we need not enter the weeds. Number one, I've talked before how I'm not sure that apologetics, trying to prove the rationality of God and Jesus is the best use of our time, that Jesus doesn't defend himself at his trial, so why would we feel like we need to be his trial lawyer. Words aren't going to produce belief anyways, it takes the cross to do that. We don't necessarily need to do that, but to put it in sports terms, this is defense not offense right. We're the ones who have been cornered, and backs against the wall. Maybe it's miracles like walking on water that people can't believe, or maybe it's the world created in 7 days, maybe it's fitting all the animals on Noah's ark, maybe it's any number of things. Someone points to something like that and says, "How can you believe something like that." Our first inclination is to go into the weeds and fight each battle, but Jesus seems to suggest that the only argument we need is the God is bigger argument. God is bigger than any of those details, just as Jesus does in this passage. I can't speak to the details of that, but I know Jesus is working in my life. What do you mean? You are a Christian right, you believe this and you believe that, always experts on what we believe, aren't they. . . I believe that God is. . . it's enough and it's bigger than you can imagine, and bigger than you can refute, and it gives me life, it redeems my life, it sustains my life. The power of faith is pretty impressive. But what it really does is it seeks to invite them back in. They have been turned off by something, maybe it was someone who was close minded and they think all Christians are closeminded, maybe it was a detail that doesn't jibe with their scientific view of the world, great, fine, invite them back in, God is big enough for them, too. Don't be one more thing that pushes people away by putting limits on God.

I was in a situation like that this week. A friend of mine said to me because I was saying how God's sovereignty is central to my worldview, and hope. He said:

"To me the idea that human action is secondary to God's control is frightening. I prefer to believe that we are in the driver's seat, and that we shape our own destinies. Perhaps this is naive. But why would God be controlling our lives? are we his entertainment in some elaborate game he invented to amuse himself?"  

Now like the Sadducees not believing in the Resurrection, I know that he doesn't believe in God, so it's interesting to me how he can be afraid of something he doesn't believe in. He was sure that I would try to explain to him about why it's not an elaborate game, and about God's glory, and love, but instead I said. . . that depends on your definition of God. Whether or not  you believe in a human god with a beard sitting on a cloud, watching us and pulling the strings, or whether you believe that God is the creator of all things, or whether you believe that God is simply a manifestation of what is true. . . I told him instead, I believe in a God who "is." Jehoveh, Yahweh, yhvh, I am. What "is" is big enough to encompass all truth, and would have to by definition. . . interesting to think which one of us is living in superstitious human notions of reality, but that's not the point, the point is that possibly, and it may not do anything, but possibly I opened the door for him to look at God a little differently from what he rejected at best, or at least I didn't again shut another door. God isn't limited to the notion of God that he rejects, instead what do you believe in, start there. . . Jesus meets people where they are and invites them in, God does the same. . . that's being "I am" the "is" everywhere at once. It's not a mental trick, or a way to be falsely inclusive, it's simply true, and good for all of us to remember.

As some of  you know I wrote a poetic gospel while I was in seminary called "Song of Salvation" I closed it like this:

But on the third day, the stone was rolled away

And His body was raised,

Satan was wrong, death isn’t as strong,

Instead God shall be forever praised.

 

So we are saved, at least from the grave

The Bible allows us to know it

But there is more, for us to learn for sure

For God is also a great poet. 

And any artist knows that his creation grows

Under his watchful care

So you and me, should struggle to see

And keep searching for what is there. 

Don’t miss a miracle trapped in the literal

Instead thank Him for every breath,

His power is all, and even after our fall

God is still stronger than death. 

And so victory was won with subtlety

But many still cannot see

But perfection takes time, and through reason and rhyme

One day all will truly be free. 

Don't miss a miracle trapped in the literal. . . It's good for us to remember lest we feel we all have it figured out. Why go in the weeds, why alienate people by trying to convince them, instead bring people together with the amazing limitless nature of God, rigidity has failed, like it does for the Sadducees in the midst of Jesus, close minded tradition in the midst of Emmanuel, God with us, is like waiting at the Red Sea for it to open there again, when God has moved from was to is.  The way of Jesus is amazingly unifying. . . and Jesus shows us that way, again, and again, eternally. Thanks be to God! Amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 20:27-40). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

Lost and Known

Lost and Known

A sermon delivered by Rev. Peter T. Atkinson

November 3, 2013

at Gordonsville Presbyterian Church, Gordonsville, Virginia

Luke 19: 1-10

Let us pray,

Help us to see despite our eyes

Help us to think outside of our minds

Help us to be more than our lives      

For your eyes show the way

            Your mind knows the truth

            Your being is the life.

Amen. 

19 He entered Jericho and was passing through it. ² A man was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. ³ He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. ⁴ So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that way. ⁵ When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house today.” ⁶ So he hurried down and was happy to welcome him. ⁷ All who saw it began to grumble and said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” ⁸ Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.” ⁹ Then Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰ For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.” ^[1]

 

 So today I'm supposed to talk about Zacchaeus, the wee little man, who climbed up the sycamore tree, for the lord he wanted to see. Like most people I've heard the song all my life, but really hadn't ever thought too much about this story. It's a well known one, mostly because of the song. I wonder if it wouldn't be so well known if it wasn't for the small detail about Zaccheaus being small in stature. The fact that he is a wee little man makes him memorable. Otherwise he's much like the other tax collectors and sinners, Jesus associates with, at least on the surface. At least I had thought, but studying this story more closely this week I noticed a much more interesting distinguishing mark for Zacchaeus, and that is that he is a salvation, redemption story. Jesus comes to his house, and he is so touched, so moved, that he changes his life at that moment. He does so with a great gesture of goodwill towards his fellow man, the very people he had been fleecing and cheating from during his career. He promises to give half of his possession to the poor, and to pay back anyone who he has ever cheated four times what he took from them. Yes climbing up the tree was just the beginning. . . I thought about a bad pun about, going out on a limb, but thought better about it. He does though, he is completely moved by the person or the message of Jesus, it's interesting that the story in the song, ends with Jesus coming to his house, rather than the salvation, which also comes to his house. Speaking of puns, Jesus' name means salvation in Hebrew, which then literally is true in Hebrew or in Aramaic, Salvation, Yeshuah, does come to his house. . . There is something about the complete life change that occurs within Zacchaeus here.

It's been well documented in sermons I've heard, and for that matter delivered, exactly who these tax collectors were, and what they did with their position. They were agents of the government, and in this case a foreign power an occupying empire, thousands of miles away back in Rome, and they were responsible for getting money, tax money from the poor people of the area. They took what they were required to, and sent it on to Rome, but they often would skim off the top, often they would charge more than was necessary, making themselves very, very rich, sold out to their occupying government, and selling out their country men. They were despicable people. It's like the Sheriff of Nottingham, Benedict Arnold, a organized crime boss, a war profiteer, a corrupt banker, and his brother the corrupt politician all rolled into one. That's him, that's Zacchaeus, but what gets me is why does he change, why does he climb up the tree, why does Jesus grab him, why does he care? Does he know how lost he is? and if so, how does he know?

It says at the beginning of this passage that Zacchaeus is rich, he's got it all going for him. He is winning, what makes him think twice about his success? It appears that he is on the top of his game, and then Jesus walks by. What is it that draws him? Is it just curiosity? Is it just that he is interested in the crowds that Jesus has amassed. They have to be substantial since he has to climb a tree to see, but why does Zacchaeus bother? Does he wake up that morning searching for something, was something empty in his life, or was he just drawn to Jesus? Whatever it was, he climbs the tree, then Jesus invites himself to his house. And he goes ahead, gets everything ready, has Jesus come, and then is it something that Jesus says? Is it something that Jesus does? But then Zacchaeus gives up half of his wealth, and you'd assume he then becomes a follower of Jesus. What is it about Jesus that draws him in?

Do you ever ask these questions? We have been in Sunday school the last few weeks. It has been one of the repeated questions we've looked at as we've been going through the gospels. Jesus has all these followers, but how is it determined, who follows and who doesn't? Why would one person follow and then so many others not? What makes the difference for them? How do they know, when so many others don't. We have the benefit of reading these gospels, hearing them preached, backwards and forwards. We all get to read about John the Baptist at the beginning of each gospel, the voice in the wilderness making the way straight, pointing us in the right direction, but these eye witnesses do not have that luxury. We said, well they have the prophets and the law, these point to Jesus don't they. Sure I guess, they do for us. Matthew has so many great quotations from the prophets, showing how Jesus fits them, but you don't get those real time. Sure he's done some miracles and some other signs, but many people see those, and not everybody is swayed by such things. What about the religious professionals. They are the religious question answerers, the literate ones in an illiterate society, the ones who know, but we keep seeing again and again that they just do not know, but here all of a sudden, and he is not the first, a sinner comes to know, a seemingly bad example of humanity, the scum of the culture, the dishonestly wealthy. He gets it, when everyone else doesn't, the wrong people get it, the wrong people get to walk with Jesus, the wrong people get access to Jesus, the wrong people get saved. Why? Why do they go, when others decide against it?

In Sunday School we have put ourselves in the shoes of these folks, or at least tried to. What would you have done? How do we feel about great crowds of people? How do we feel about miracles and healings, How do we feel about challenging teaching? How do we feel about messages that challenge our traditions? How do we feel about someone questioning those traditions? How do we feel about changing traditions? Who do we listen to about matters of faith, religion, God? If you listen to me at all, I have to admit, I find myself being very skeptical about someone claiming to be God, challenging tradition, with great crowds following him, of people he has "saved and healed." I think cult, I think brain washing, I think crazy? And we shortchange Jesus if we don't see him in this world challenging light. 2000 years of Christianity has in many cases softened Jesus' edges making him all that much more palatable for us, but would we have followed Jesus in real time? And if we followed would we have given up half our wealth, and gone on a crusade to undo the damage we have done through our dishonesty? And if not then, why today, or more honestly, do we today?

Are we lost, do we know it? And can we recognize salvation when it walks by us on the street, when it invites itself to our homes for dinner, and when it requires us to commit completely to it, seeming to require us to put it all on the line, half our stuff, our safety, our security, our livelihood, our success, our lives? Or do we say to ourselves, grumbling, "Salvation has gone to the house of a sinner"? Jesus says, "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out the lost?" Have you ever wished to be of the lost before? Would you ever consider yourself to be lost? Did Zacchaeus?

Have you ever heard the poem The Hound of Heaven, that speaks about how Christ seeks us out? Let me read a bit of this to us. . .

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;

  I fled Him, down the arches of the years;

I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways

  Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears

I hid from Him, and under running laughter.

                  Up vistaed hopes I sped;

                  And shot, precipitated,

Adown Titanic glooms of chasmed fears,

From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.

                  But with unhurrying chase,

                  And unperturbèd pace,

                Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,

                  They beat--and a Voice beat

                  More instant than the Feet--

                "All things betray thee, who betrayest Me." 

                  Now of that long pursuit

                  Comes on at hand the bruit;

                That Voice is round me like a bursting sea:

                  "And is thy earth so marred,

                  Shattered in shard on shard?

                Lo, all things fly thee, for thou fliest Me!

                Strange, piteous, futile thing,

Wherefore should any set thee love apart?

Seeing none but I makes much of naught," He said,

"And human love needs human meriting,

                How hast thou merited--

Of all man's clotted clay rhe dingiest clot?

                Alack, thou knowest not

How little worthy of any love thou art!

Whom wilt thou find to love ignoble thee

                Save Me, save only Me?

All which I took from thee I did but take,

                Not for thy harms.

But just that thou might'st seek it in my arms.

                All which thy child's mistake

Fancies as lost, I have stored for the at home;

                Rise, clasp My hand, and come!" 

  Halts by me that footfall;

  Is my gloom, after all,

Shade of His hand, outstreched caressingly?

  "Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,

  I am He Whom thou seekest!

Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me."

Jesus pursues us like this. . . again it's not about what Zacchaeus does. It's about Jesus seeking him, bringing salvation to him. In this situation there is no other choice. It's the only thing that seems reasonable. It's Jesus doing the seeking, may he come by us, in the midst of our day, may there be a sycamore tree there for us, but we need not climb it, Jesus comes, will come. . . and then we react. Oh may we be like this sinner, Zacchaeus, who repents, because he was lost, and he comes to know it. If we are lost, may we know it, may we realize it, and rather than making our own way, may we invite salvation into our homes for dinner, and then let it stay in the only way it can, the life changing true way.. . .  Amen.

---

^[1]The Holy Bible : New Revised Standard Version. 1989 (Lk 19:1-10). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.