Message 11-11-07
Series: What I’ve Always Wondered
Scripture: John 20:24-31; [1 John 1]
Title: Drawing Near to an Untamed God
Intro:
My question for you is if someone asked you for the one strongest piece of evidence that the only way to eternal life is the belief that Jesus Christ is our salvation, what would it be?
My son who believes in Krishna keeps asking me, how can you love God if you don't know what he looks like? What does he look like?
So Jesus and Moses were playing golf. Jesus teed up and sliced the ball severely. It landed behind a rock. Moses shot straight down the fairway. When they got to Jesus’ ball Moses said, “That’s an impossible shot. Just take a drop and we’ll go on.” “No, no,” Jesus said, “I saw Tiger Woods make this same shot and he birdied at the green.” So Jesus chooses his club and swings. The ball ricochets off the rock, bounces off a tree, sails across the fairway and into a pond. “Okay,” Moses says, “that truly is an impossible shot. So, now, just take the drop and let’s go.” “No, no,” says Jesus, “I saw Tiger Woods make this shot and he still birdied on the green.” So Jesus walks out on the water to where the ball went in.
Just then a groundskeeper comes ripping up in his cart shouting. “Hey, hey, hey! Get out of there. Who do you think you are, Jesus?”
“No,” says Moses, “He thinks he’s Tiger Woods.”
So, who does Jesus think he is anyway?
I doubt that I am alone in this, but I have a problem with Jesus. It’s what he says and what he does. And I also have this problem in that I was brought up to believe the Bible. So, I basically go with it and that’s part of my problem. When I come to questions like these today I have to go back to Jesus.
And when Jesus is saying it, I have to deal with it.
It would be much easier if I didn’t. I mean it would be much easier if I could just read my psychology books and my history books and my theology books and just come up with a game plan of my own. You know? It would be nicer if I could just talk with other people and get their opinions and come up with some nice way to forget about Jesus and just make it up as I go along.
So, you know, there’s something appealing about the Jesus Seminar. I kind of like the idea of deciding what Jesus actually did say and didn’t say. Just deciding. No big deal. No big worry. I just listen to the arguments like John, our Gospel today, the Jesus Seminar tells me it was completely made up… just a pleasant story, fun to think about but nothing you have to take seriously. I mean it didn’t really happen. It’s just somebody’s explanation of what happened. It’s someone’s idea of how it could have happened if there was a bit of organization to it, you know? Seven Miracles, seven “I Am” statements, 4 or 5 great conversations, I just have to listen to the arguments over what Jesus said and did and pick which ones I like.
That’s kind of appealing. And if you keep going with that idea then the other Gospels were written for communities, not really to tell us about Jesus. There’s nothing you have to take seriously. Not like Jesus actually any of this.
It’s appealing because I have this problem with Jesus. I keep bumping up against things he said. I mean on top of that. I’m what you used to call a born again, Bible believing, Spirit filled, Christ centered Christian. And along with that I’m middle aged, I’m middle class, I’m out of shape, I’m from the suburbs, I’m in a mainline denomination and I’m white and I’m male. I mean, I’m like the poster child for the “out-of-touch with reality” segment of society. I mean I’ve still got a testimony. I’ve shared it here. I can tell you the moment when Jesus cleansed my soul and took command of my heart.
Do you understand I have this problem?
I keep running up against this guy Jesus and what he said and did.
I wish I could just join a party and just go with the party line. That would be great. I wish I could be a Republican, but now all their leaders are accused of lying and crushing the poor and taking bribes. So I check out the Democrats but their leaders are accused of not really having a moral base, at least they seem to think that they make it up as they go along as well. It’s distressing. My son tells me I should join the Green Party and I think well, they seem to be pretty out of touch with reality. Maybe I would fit there.
So, do you see my problem?
I keep coming back to the Jesus of the Bible who seems to be the only one who actually claims my heart, the only leader who continues to hold a consistent approach. I mean maybe it’s because it’s written down. Other people are pretty good at picking out the inconsistencies. I keep looking but the more I look, the more I think, the more I weigh what I’m reading the guy just comes off looking consistent and if nothing else bold. He just seems to get in my face.
I was in Jerusalem once and went to the Jerusalem museum. I thought it was fascinating that the first thing I was presented with was a painting of Jesus. It was the work of a Jewish artist and it was of the scene of Jesus before Caiphas and the Sanhedrin. It was a fascinating picture, just in the way it was laid out, but then there was Jesus’ face. He was a young man – one of those 30 something’s – and he was arrogant. There really isn’t a better word for it.
He was in Caiphas’ face.
And that’s the way I find him. When you read these words don’t you see something of that? I mean… maybe you think arrogant is a bad word, maybe you’re caught up in Jesus meek and mild, but that’s not the Jesus I have problems with. I’d love it if Jesus were meek and mild.
But this guy is claiming that God raised him from the dead. He was dead and now he’s alive. This guy is claiming that if you didn’t actually see him or touch him and still believe in him you’re better than the disciples who did.
But even before the whole alive/dead/alive thing, this guy doesn’t try to prove anything. He just expects that you’re going to be able to follow him. He seems to expect that following him, living as he did, is going to prove anything you want proven. Jesus says he’s it, just him, now and always.
This guy is scary. I mean if we follow this guy we’re supposed to bend our wills to him. Doesn’t he know this is America? Doesn’t he know that we get to make the rules here? Doesn’t he know that we’re in charge of the world?
Who does he think he is?
He thinks he can order us around. He thinks we’ve got no other choice than to follow him. He thinks that it’s his way or… well, or you’re out of the kingdom of God. He thinks he gets to say who’s in and who’s out of the kingdom of God… I mean really, we’re Presbyterians. We’re all children of God, right? Everybody gets in, right? There’s no entrance fee that was paid on our behalf, right? I heard, just the other day, that this is what Presbyterians – Well, PCUSA Presbyterians – think and I thought, “Well, that’s good to know. I’m so out of touch with reality I don’t even know what I think.”
See according to what I’m reading Jesus is the one who actually does know. And Jesus is the one who actually paid the price and there actually was a price that had to be paid.
And because the price is paid the Kingdom is open to all those who are called and who hear and respond to the call. According to what I’m reading he’s the one who lavishes on us the name “children of God.” And we come under his guidance and his rule. He becomes our authority, our only authority, even above James Dobson and even Hillary. Jesus is our authority.
If this is true then Jesus is saying that our righteousness has to be something that radically alters the lives of other people. Our righteousness is supposed to bring education and food and welcome and shelter and comfort into the lives of other people. And we’re never supposed to tell them that they’re just fine the way they are. They’re not fine the way they are. They need a Savior. We’re supposed to tell them that they need to become disciples of Jesus and follow him because he is that Savior. We’re supposed to tell them that they’re supposed to become like him through the work of his Spirit in them. And if they don’t get changed… we’re supposed to let them know they aren’t really a child of God. And Jesus says that as other people see us do this or act this way that they will come to know God and praise God. He says that as we live in the same way he lived and let people hear what he said that he’ll take care of proving it to them.
Who does this guy think he is?
It appears that he thinks he is God. Back at the Last Supper another disciple, Philip, asks Jesus to just show them “the Father” and he says, “Have I been with you for so long and you still don’t know me. Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
What does God look like? He looks like Jesus. He doesn’t look like Jesus like beard and brown hair. He looks like the experience of living like Jesus. God isn’t a thing to be grasped. God is a person to experience and the experience looks like Jesus.
So, I’m stuck with Jesus. I’m stuck with the Book. I’m stuck with the way the Book presents Jesus. It presents that he is the way into eternal life. So what is the one strongest piece of evidence that the only way to eternal life is the belief that Jesus Christ is our salvation? I’d have to say it is Jesus and a Christ follower who clearly knows God. You see what I find is that what Jesus as the Bible presents him and a Christ follower who clearly knows God have in common is that they’re not trying to prove that Jesus is the only way. Jesus says “eternal life” is knowing God and him. When I meet a Christ follower who truly and clearly knows God, I find that they let me into the presence of God and I can touch the experience of eternal life.
John – one of Jesus’ closest friends – wrote a letter of which we have a copy in our Bibles. This is what he wrote there:
That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
John experienced the proof of eternal life through knowing Jesus. You see my problem is that I’m stuck with Jesus and I’m stuck with what he said and the way he said it. Other people will tell me what I have to do to get connected with God – I have to become nothing. I have to follow all these rules. I have to be just like them. Jesus tells me I have to accept God’s love and get to know him. You know it’s like he’s just doing something else. The rest of us are thinking that we have to prove something and Jesus – he’s just doing something else.
I love dancing.
I remember watching Mikhail Baryshnikov speak one evening about dance. He was talking about Fred Astaire, but he was using a tennis analogy. He said that John McEnroe used to come to a tournament he’d always complain when Bjorn Borg showed up. He supposedly said at some point, “It just isn’t fair. The rest of us are out here playing tennis and he’s doing something else.”
And Baryshnikov said that’s the way he felt about Fred Astaire. He said, “the rest of us are out here dancing… and he’s doing something else.”
And that’s the way I feel about Jesus. He just untamed. He’s just wild. He doesn’t act decently and in order. The rest of us are working our tails off and him… he’s doing something else and he’s calling us to do it his way.
And that’s it, right. I mean the rest of us, we’re children and he… he’s the Son of God. What’s God like? Jesus says, “he’s like me.”
Man… and that’s what he seems to think he is… man…
What’s the strongest piece of evidence… unfortunately I’m sent back to Jesus words which are – you and me… Jesus said you are the light of the world. We are the light of the world.
Don’t even get me started.
