THE DIRECTNESS OF JESUS: REGARDING GOD’S PLAN

1/22/12

 ^NIV(2011) Mark 8:31-38

He [that is, Jesus] then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.  But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”  Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

We are in a series called “The Directness of Jesus.” We are studying those times when Jesus seems to be totally out of the personification of Christians as we perceive them where the old adage “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” applies. Jesus has jumped outside of that. As you all know, at least by this time you should all know, that is not Biblical. “If you can’t say anything nice…” That was from Bambi and Walt Disney. 

We are looking at the different ways Jesus has confronted a situation and the first one we studied was Martha. Martha was very upset that her sister was not helping her clean up and get ready and be the “hostess with the mostess”; and Jesus told Martha “you are worried and upset over many things, but Mary has chosen the one thing that is needed.”

Then last week we talked about the Pharisees. They were accusing the disciples of not washing their hands properly. Jesus called them hypocrites. Hypocrites because our God is a god of intentions, not a God of rules. Our God looks at the heart while man looks at the outward appearance.

In today’s reading, we are back to a very close relationship. We don’t know how close this incident was to Jesus’ going to Jerusalem when it happened; but we do know it is right on the heels of Peter declaring Jesus as the Son of God. As soon as the disciples have come to this realization and declared that they are going to follow him as the Messiah, this is Jesus’ first teaching about the fact that he’s going to be killed. Peter pulls him aside; and one of the other gospels records “Lord, this will never happen to you.” Peter thinks he’s being loving. “You’re the Messiah.” 

And what does Jesus do? He calls him a name and not a very flattering name. He says, “Get behind me, Satan.” When just a few verses before, he said, “God’s Holy Spirit has revealed to you that I am the Son of God.” 

Let’s just start by looking at Satan, the term Satan. Many words in both the Greek and the Hebrew have their verb part and then create their noun part from it. The verb actually means to obstruct or oppose, to go against. As a noun, specifically in the Old Testament, it means the accuser or the adversary. David talks about meeting his own adversaries on the field. It’s the same word, or at least the same word translated into the Greek Old Testament. We have another word that is very close, Diablos. I’m sure you’ve heard that one. That one we translate the devil, but it actually meant the slanderer. One who slanders someone else. 

In Christianity, we have given Satan his own identity, his own personage. And that may very well be, but the term is used more broadly in the original text. So just like the word hypocrite, which we talked about last week, has taken on its own meaning today (When Jesus said it, it simply meant actor or stage performer.); Satan has also taken on its own meaning today. So, when Jesus was saying, “Get behind me, Satan,” he was saying “Get behind me person who is trying to obstruct God’s plan.” He was simply opposing what God told Jesus was going to happen and Jesus was telling his disciples. 

Now, we really can’t blame Peter for what he said. In studying the persona of the Messiah which they have just claimed him to be, I went to the Jewish records to find out what the Jews believed in the first century. There were many disagreements over this. (http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/messiah.html)

There was a joke running around in the 2^nd or 3^rd century that said, A man was paid every day to go stand at the city gates and watch for the Messiah. Someone came up to him and said, “Why do you do this? This is a very low paying job.” The Jewish man said, “Yes, but it has job security.” There were many who did not believe he would ever come. 

But those who did believe, there were five things they believed throughout the writings and the study of the writings. One, he was going to be a descendant of David; two, he was going to gain sovereignty over the land of Israel. The angel announcing the pregnancy to Mary even proclaims this “and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end.” (Luke 1:33 NIV) They also believed that all the Jews would be gathered from all over the world to once again be in the promised land and he would make this happen. He would also ensure that the laws of the Old Testament would be enforced. And then as a benefit to the rest of the world, he was going to bring world peace. We even read about this in our Christmas Eve service. We read from Isaiah, chapter 11 “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them.  The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.  The infant will play near the cobra’s den, and the young child will put its hand into the viper’s nest.” (Isaiah 11:6-8 NIV²⁰¹¹) This was their expectation of the Messiah, from beginning to end. 

So, the minute Jesus starts telling them that he’s going to Jerusalem to be killed was just beyond Peter’s comprehension. “You’re the Messiah, you’re supposed to be doing these five things. He couldn’t even begin to comprehend what Jesus was saying, what Jesus was talking about.

But we always look for the good, don’t we? This wasn’t a new plan for the Messiah. Genesis 3, verse 15, God’s plan was laid out in the Garden of Eden. After Adam and Eve ate when they were not supposed to eat and Adam blamed Eve and Eve blamed the serpent, God says to the serpent, “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NIV²⁰¹¹) This is the crucifixion.. this is the striking of the heel, promised in the garden. There are many prophecies throughout the prophets of a suffering Messiah. We can see them.

We had, at the church I previously attended, a Christian Jewish rabbi, trained as a rabbi, come and speak to our Sunday School once in a while because he could open the Old Testament like no one else could because he was so well trained. He had in college a Christian roommate; and his Christian roommate like to read his Scripture out loud to him. This was before he had become a Christian and was being trained as a rabbi. His roommate would read the gospels. Jeff said, “If you’re going to read the Bible to me, at least read to me the Old Testament.” So his roommate opened to Isaiah 63 and read about the suffering Messiah. Although it did not happen at that moment, as Jeff continued his studies, he suddenly realized that Jesus was the Messiah, that they had overlooked all the suffering that was supposed to happen because they were so anxious to get to the kingly rule. That was no different 2,000 years ago. 

Jesus was declared God’s Son in his baptism and was then led out in the wilderness to be tempted.  Now Peter has declared and his disciples understand that he is God’s Son and again Jesus is faced with temptation, the temptation to look at the wrong Messiah. So, he addresses it immediately. Jesus’ directness is actually dealing with his own temptation. He does not want to forget he is living God’s plan.

So what can we take away from this? First of all, we could be just like Peter. One minute we know the truth, he is God’s Son and we embrace that; and the next minute we fall outside of God’s plan and return to men’s plans. Secondly, when Jesus talks to Peter, his desire is to complete the mission that God has given him. Should we not do the same? Should we not confront those who are keeping us from God’s plan in our lives? That is a time for us to speak up. That is a time for us to be direct.

God’s plan doesn’t always look like the plan we would like it to be. Jesus follows his confrontation with Peter by saying “My disciples will have to pick up their cross and follow me.” Jesus also says to be his disciple we must give up our own lives for his sake, surrender our own wills to his will. So when you hear words like “do your own thing,” do what’s in your best interests.” Or this latest commercial that really annoys me for CVS, “it’s all about me”; or even the song, “I Did it My Way.” These are all examples of human thinking and we should confront those with “Get behind me, Satan.”

THE DIRECTNESS OF JESUS: REGARDING RULES

1/15/12

 ^NIV(2011) Mark 7:1-13

The Pharisees and some of the teachers of the law who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus and saw some of his disciples eating food with hands that were defiled, that is, unwashed. (The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders. When they come from the marketplace they do not eat unless they wash. And they observe many other traditions, such as the washing of cups, pitchers and kettles.) So the Pharisees and teachers of the law asked Jesus, “Why don’t your disciples live according to the tradition of the elders instead of eating their food with defiled hands?” He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.’ You have let go of the commands of God and are holding on to human traditions.” And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

We are studying the directness of Jesus, the times he spoke exactly what needed to be spoken. It almost goes against our idea of Christ’s gentleness and keeping silent when he meets opposition. As we look at each of these, we need to decide why does Jesus need to take this issue on. What is it about this issue that he decides to say something so that we can follow his example in the same way? When should we directly confront someone about something?

Last week, we talked about Martha. He had a very close relationship with Martha. What made his response to her right? Was it because of this close relationship or was it the topic concerning worries and what is important? 

In Mark’s text, he does not have a good relationship with the Pharisees. In fact, it is as though he purposely tries to antagonize them throughout many of the gospels. His first response to their questions was he called them hypocrites. Our English definition of hypocrites is not the original Greek definition of hypocrites. Our definition reads “a person who pretends to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, or principles, etc., that he or she does not actually possess, especially a person whose actions belie stated beliefs.” (Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.) In other words, our actions don’t match what our mouths declare. 

Do you know what it was in the original Greek? It was an actor. That was it. It was the person on the stage who wore the masks of the different characters he/she was playing. They were called hypocrites. Basically, they were playing a part that wasn’t the real them. Today, if we were to say, “you actor” or “you performer”, it wouldn’t have quite the same connotation. That is actually what Jesus was saying to them when he called them hypocrites. He was simply saying they were like actors on a stage. 

The second thing Jesus does here is not really answer their question. Their question was “Why are your disciples not washing their hands?” This is not about hygiene. This is not about making sure we have no bacteria on our hands. They would go through an entire ritual of washing their hands. Although we say now, we need to wash our hands each time we eat, we don’t usually have a ritual of sorts that they were carrying out in that time period. (Some people might have.) 

The Pharisees were self-designated “police” people (I could say policemen, because in their case it was all men.) They were making sure that the Israelites were obeying all of the Jewish laws. They had been exiled to Babylon about 580 BCE and they were told it was because they were not obeying God’s laws. So when the Israelites came back to their country, the Pharisees appointed themselves to make sure that all the people throughout the country were obeying the laws. Some of the laws were confusing just like they are for us in this Scripture. So they had written, like the IRS Code and then the IRS Regulations which explain the law, their own book that explained all of the different laws. That is what Jesus is referring to as the “tradition of the elders.” This is what this law means and this is how it should be carried out. 

Jesus does not answer their question directly. Jesus is attacking the rules that they’ve attached to God’s rules. This is what he is attacking. He quotes Isaiah 29:13 “The Lord says: ‘These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.’” (NIV²⁰¹¹)

He attacks two things: the man-made additions to God’s rules and their purpose for following God’s rules. He understands, by quoting this verse, that the real reason for us to do what God wants us to do is because we love him. You might as well not do them if you are just following them for no reason.

One of the ways we display this ourselves is coming to worship on Sunday morning. Some of us come because its habit. I don’t mean anyone at Richwood, of course. But in congregations at large, throughout the United States, that’s the thing to do on Sunday morning, come to worship. And they come but there isn’t worship taking place.

It reminds me of a story where a woman went to get her husband out of bed for church and he said, “I’m not going today.” She said, “you have to go.” “No, I’m not going today. I can’t stand going there. The church is just full of hypocrites.” “Honey, you need to get up and go.” “Nobody there likes me,” he added. She said, “Now, I don’t know why you think that. That is just not true.” “Yes, it is true,” he insists. He turns to her and says, “OK, give me one good reason why I should go to church today.” And she said, “because you’re the pastor.” 

Jesus, when he confronts the Pharisees, hits the nail on the head. He can see into their hearts. He can see their intentions. In that sense, we can’t follow his example because we cannot read people’s intentions and why they do things. 

But we can look at man-made rules that we apply to God’s rules. For example, there seems to be an unwritten rule that in every sanctuary, we aren’t to have children noises. A baby starts crying and the parent immediately walks out. But that’s nowhere in Scripture for sure. In fact, God welcomed the children to come to him. That’s why I always try to reiterate that when I hear children noises and when we have a full house here with lots of little ones. I like those noises because it reminds me of how God brings them in. 

Some noises can be rather disrespectful. Another story my sisters love to tell, but I was apparently too young to remember this. I had done something and my parents always sat in the third row even in big churches. We sat in the third row our whole life. Apparently I had done something I shouldn’t have and my father picked me up and walked me out and I yelled at the top of my lungs all the way from the front of the church to the back (and it was much larger than this church) “No daddy, no daddy, no daddy no.” But they were children noises in the sanctuary and I find that delightful.

Another man-made rule that I wonder where it came from. Women are allowed to wear lovely, gorgeous decorative hats when they come to church. Of course, we don’t do that so much anymore. When I was young, every woman was wearing a hat when she came into church, but if men wear hats, it’s considered disrespectful. Where did that come from? Where did that man-made rule come from? It’s not in Scripture. Part of what we need to look at when we talk to people and confront people is what is God’s law and what is not God’s law.

I’m sure you’ve heard many times the phrase, “the churches are full of hypocrites.” I would say they are full of sinners. We all profess one thing and then fall short of carrying that out. But there is another saying that says “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Samuel Johnson is credited with that back in 1775, but that is not what he actually wrote. He wrote, “Hell is paved with good intentions.” No idea where “the road to hell” originated. 

That’s just not true. Our God is a god of intentions. It tells us that right here. He looks at our heart and not at the end result. He looks at what we are feeling, not at what we do if it turns out wrong. Our God is a god of intentions and that’s what he looks at. He wants our hearts to be responding to him in love and cease in forcing man-made rules on others.

THE DIRECTNESS OF JESUS: REGARDING PRIORITIES

JANUARY 8, 2012

 I want to introduce this new series to you before I read today’s Scripture. The series is going to be called “The Directness of Jesus.” We are going to look at, during the next few weeks until Lent, the times when Jesus was very direct. In fact, some of us might think he was a little nasty, according to our Christian thinking.

I’m a real Jane Austin fan. Marcy learned that. I lent her my Jane Austin movies while she was sitting at home. Jane only wrote six books, but I think I have 18 movies, different versions of the six books. One of the reasons I enjoy the dialogue in these books is because… For example, in Mansfield Park, one of the couples is talking and one of them says, “Did you notice anything inappropriate said at the dinner last night?” The other one says, “Yes, she said something negative about the man who raised her, because you just don’t say those things. That was inappropriate.” Or, when Mr. Darcy proposes to Lizzie and she says, “I believe it is appropriate to say thanks at this moment, but I cannot.” And he says, “How can you reject me with so little civility?” She actually sounded very nice. The language was always considerate and forthcoming. 

Today, we don’t see that. In fact, I have a friend who was in a grocery store one time and the child behind her mouthed off to the mother. She turned quickly because she forgot it wasn’t hers and almost slapped the child across the face before she grabbed her hand because she doesn’t let her children talk like that to her. But we hear it all the time.

Within the Christian church we have kind of developed a mixture of the two. Unfortunately, it is not usually a good mixture. It’s a mixture of… We say everything nice to each other and we say the nasty things to someone else. We don’t say it to the person we should be directing it to. This is pervasive throughout all churches. I’m not saying it’s a Richwood Church problem, but it’s a problem throughout. We try so hard to be nice and then inadvertently, we might make a comment to someone else. I say this because I have learned many things that are not liked in this church through the grapevine, not directly from the person who said it. 

Not that I can’t talk about these things. I like feedback. I used to make my employees fill out an evaluation on me, so I could find out which I could do to help them be better employees. That didn’t mean I did everything they asked. At least if they asked me to do something I didn’t think was OK, I could give them my reason. But if they talked about it behind my back, they never found out my reason.

I thought we would look at when was Jesus direct with people. How did he handle it? Why types of people were they? What were the things he said and chose to confront?

I am dedicating this series to Shirley Krueger. For two reasons: 1) She was always direct with me. I always knew what Shirley was thinking. There was never any doubt.  So in following her example, we can all be a little bit more like that. 2) One of the things she did say directly to me was “You need to stop preaching from the lectionary and start preaching what people need to hear.” So I’m going to follow that. Advent, I followed the lectionary; but I am switching back and forth. Since she was on the PNC, I felt she was giving me permission to do that. This entire series is dedicated to Shirley Krueger. 

We are going to follow it up with another series called “The Silence of Jesus.” During Lent, we are going to look at the times he did not respond, where he said nothing. In summary, we are going to look at a few places where he said things directly and when he said nothing. 

I have chosen two verses in the silent meditation that reflect these thoughts. “There are six things the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood [or murder], a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.” (Proverbs 6:16-19 NIV²⁰¹¹) This verse has always struck me because God is equating, with the seven things that are detestable, gossip and murder. He puts them on the same level. I can say that I’ve never murdered anyone, but I know I’ve been guilty of gossip. He thinks they’re the same. “Don’t grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged.”  (James 5:9a NIV²⁰¹¹) 

Let’s look at our first story today of when Jesus is very direct. 

^{NIV (2011)} Luke 10:38-42

“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.’”

 I can see this situation happening many places and in many situations. Only it doesn’t usually get played out like this. It usually gets played out by “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do all the work by myself? Tell her to help me.” And the two people who are sitting there talking just stare back at the person. Then she just in disgust, or he, leaves the room. Then this conversation follows: “She’s so picky. She just doesn’t know that we are doing something important here as well.” Or, perhaps maybe ignoring her complaint. Or, getting up in disgust to help. 

But Jesus looks at her and says, “What’s wrong here, my child? What is wrong is that your priorities are not right. Learning from me should always be the top priority. Serving should be because you love me in response to our relationship. This is your priority. Learn from me.” Know God. It is all about relationship. We often forget that it is all about relationship with him. But Jesus was telling Martha, it is about relationship. 

This idea is especially difficult for people who are task oriented. We usually label people in business as task-oriented or people-oriented. The people-oriented people you are always trying to get back to work. The task-oriented people you are trying to get to open up a little more and to be more friendly. But Jesus was definitely people-oriented with a focus on only what God called him to do. That was his task orientation, the cross and people on the way to the cross. He never hurried. He knew God’s timing would always work out and he wasn’t going to miss what God had planned for him. He was all about relationship. 

It was in that relationship that he was able to be direct with Martha. It was in that relationship, because they were acquainted with each other that he had the ability to talk to her where she was. He knew what was happening. He knew her well enough to say those words. 

You have to get to know people. Sometimes we just don’t understand. Sometimes we just need to say, “Why did you do it this way?” because sometimes their motive was wonderful. We just didn’t understand it because that’s not how we would have done it or that’s not the way we would have thought to do it or to handle it. He was in a relationship with Martha so that he understood where she was coming from and what needed to be said.

Secondly, he also said it with love. Or, at least, I read it with love because that’s how I imagine him saying it. We could have read it very differently. “Oh Martha, you are so upset about nothing.” I could have read it that way. But God is love. Anytime we talk to someone else about things that are bothering us or things that we need to bring directly to that person, ask God’s love to fill us first; so that how it comes out, it comes out with love. 

Then, Jesus said it to Martha. He did not talk about Martha after she left the room to Mary. He said it to Martha. 

These are the important things in this confrontation that we read here, that made it happen. The most important things we need to take away from this is that it was said to the person to whom it was needed to be said, that person Jesus was in relationship, and therefore, he could say it with love. If we are going to be more like Jesus, we need to be more direct when we are talking about things.

Let us pray. Father, there is so much we can learn from the stories you tell or that are told about you. Sometimes we see one thing and sometimes we see another and we are delighted to learn. You touch us where we need to be at that time and at that place with the words. Today, I hear those loving words all the time. You say to me, “Rhoda, Rhoda, you’re worried and upset about many things, but only one is needed.” May we each hear your love and your concern for us in how you talk to us. May we share that with others. May you give us the courage that the next time someone says something to us about someone else, we can say “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset but only one thing is needed.” I pray all of this in the precious name of Jesus and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

2011 REFLECTIONS

JANUARY 1, 2012

CONGREGATION SHARED FROM THEIR HEARTS

DECEMBER 25, 2011

The Christmas Story ...

as told in the Bible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9okVZW-u5Y