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October 5, 2008 What Jesus Meant! By Alan Miller Alan Miller is a long-time member of FCC. Before he retired, he taught Environmental Ethics at Cal. In an earlier life, he was an ordained Presbyterian minister. Julianne seemed a tiny bit surprised when I accepted her invitation to lead services today during her absence. A few days after accepting, I was also surprised that I had agreed to say "yes". I almost never preach sermons anymore for a variety of reasons. One is that as I grow older, I have more and more questions about matters of faith and practice. I do not want anyone to be offended by what some may feel is my "lowest common denominator" approach to Christianity. But I decided not to renege on my promise to Julianne because I've lately been reflecting more and more about why it was that I decided to go into the ministry almost 60 years ago. Thinking that some of you might be interested in how I now define some of these issues, I decided that a few reflections on the "how" and "why" of my initial entry into the church might be of interest. So, let me first share some of my more recent "thinking through" of one of the issues about which I've always had concern--What Jesus Really Meant!--and let that serve as at least a good attempt at a sermon. A few days after Barbara and I were married in September 1951, we moved to Chicago to begin seminary. It was a very illogical, non-intuitive thing for me to do. I had absolutely no earlier connection with the church. My father was a plasterer who worked hard and always spent his Sundays playing golf. He and my mother had no interest in the church. I had almost never been in a church until I was in graduate school. I received my draft notice just as WW2 was ending and two days after graduating from high school I was on a troop train to Ft. Belvoir, Va. I was discharged from the army in 1947 in time to enroll at the U. of Minnesota. I will always be grateful for the help provided by the G.I. bill. I needed that help. Neither I nor my immediate family had any money and, as always, I worked to make ends meet. I moved in with my sister Mary Lou, her two kids David (2) and Jill (4), and my mother Marge. I really learned how to live with and help raise small children during the four years we were together. I spent three years completing my B.A. and then a year in grad school studying philosophy & political science. A couple of significant events happened to me in my last year. A visiting philosophy professor from Holland taught me of the dangers of hewing too closely to any ideological position. He had been an absolute pacifist when the Nazi's invaded the low countries and began murdering or hauling Jews off to concentration camps. His pacifism was severely tested and he joined the Dutch underground. He made the moral compromise with his principles by opposing, and when necessary killing, S.S. troops. I agreed with him. Ideology does not often hold up when real life contradicts it. One of my many jobs while a student at the U was going to skid row to hire homeless people to deliver newspapers. One older man told me one day, "If there were people somewhere who would not think of me strictly as bum, I think I could have some hope". A minor incident but important for me. And so I began to think more seriously about how one can live both a satisfying personal life and also become part of the larger problem of helping to find solutions to the terrible problem of isolation and lack of community facing so many people. I have never had anything even resembling a "conversion experience". I have never suspended my rational way of looking at the world. Entering seminary was essentially a journey of exploration more than a vocational decision. I somehow understood in the abstract that Christianity was important in part because it provided a world-wide community of people who more or less agreed on a set of priorities for living a good and worthwhile life. And, I understood that although the world wide church has always been imperfect, it still seemed to me to be a mighty vehicle for channeling the ethical expression of the concern for justice so well outlined by the Old Testament prophets and then by the newer gospel of Jesus that calls us to love and serve and live responsibly. Who exactly Jesus was in theological language and how one defined the nature of God weren't big issues to me. In spite of all kinds of doubts and uncertainties, the message of Jesus really grabbed me. And much of the rest of this sermon will be my reading that message to you from the bible. Barb and I had basically no money in the bank when we entered seminary, and I needed to work to pay the bills so I accepted the position as student pastor in the Parish of the Open Door in S. Illinois. This was all pretty much new to me considering I'd almost never even been in a church. Every Friday afternoon I'd take the "El" to the Illinois Central station in Chicago, jump on the Green Diamond (the express train to St. Louis) and three hours later get off at the Litchfield station. This was farm country with many small towns and I conducted three and sometimes four services every Sunday for 2.5 years, and did as much parish work as I could time-wise. Then it was back to Chicago on the train Monday morning. I earned $ 300 per month plus a house. I always preached a social gospel. I understood that miracles and unique biblical accounts were mythic ways of describing important religious understandings. But I steered away from trying to explain such events in sermons. I always made sure that people did not have to park their brains at the church door (as Julie has sometimes mentioned). So I graduated seminary, following perhaps the easiest and most comfortable track, and was ordained in 1954. I then pastored churches in Michigan & New Orleans before beginning campus ministry work in 1960. I never again had full parish responsibilities in local church. This was perhaps the best thing for me and for prospective churches I might serve! Although I certainly did not swallow whole hog the theology of the Presbyterian church, I continued to be captivated by the life and prophetic power of Jesus and the potential of the church to make the world a better place. This was partially the reason I devoted so much of my later ministry to civil rights and anti-war organizing. A reminder: everything we know about Jesus is from biblical accounts and from tales told about him by his followers. He died in 29 AD. The earliest gospel-Mark-was written in 60. Nothing in the New Testament was written by Jesus yet even these second hand accounts have had the power to initiate a spectacular movement-the Christian church. Now-more directly to Jesus. Think for a moment of how you picture Jesus in your mind. Close your eyes and bring up an image of what he may have looked like. Now let me describe what bible says about him. He was a mid-eastern Jew and like most of the mid-eastern semitic people dark complexioned; from relatively poor family; homeless all his adult life. He was a political exile on the run from the authorities; contemptuous of all established religion; condemned the state for its misdeeds and for robbing the poor; was called by religious leaders an "agent of the devil"; on some issues he was intemperate and judgmental; overturned tables of money changers & bankers (not a bad idea for today); a political subversive; at times he must have been seen as a wild eyed radical because he believed world would soon end and the kingdom of God would soon be established. For most people, he was probably a hard man to be around because he believed the absolute truth of his message and acted upon it & had high expectations of his followers. He was also always tender and loving and caring for those who lived on the lower levels of the society. His life was dedicated to serving the poor and caring for children and comforting the troubled.. Now--close your eyes again & listen to some of the things he had to say:
When Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying... You have heard that it was said, "You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy." Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." "All who draw the sword will die by the sword." - "Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." -Matthew 6:3 "Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. " "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." "Whoever wants to be first must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many." "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you"and even more." "Whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother." "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". Of course, these are tough words. No one can perfectly follow these teachings in the kind of world in which we live. But isn't it worth thinking about how different the world would be if we actually believed and acted upon some of the teachings of Jesus. For most of us, these words can become real when we begin to fulfill the lesser acts of grace--serving, caring for others, teaching the good, giving whatever we can to even "the least of our brethren", living our life with some degree of excellence and in some degree, giving service to others The Lord's Supper is not a complicated ritual either in its meaning or in its reception . It is a simple, grace filled act of remembrance by a special community of friends and strangers. It reminds us of meaning of cross-that we are encouraged ourselves to be ready to sacrifice and assume responsibility for helping others. It reminds us of the resurrection-that we are to be open to the future and to all the wonders and responsibilities and beauty that are all around us. That's what Jesus' life was all about. It was a life-and for us now is a celebration of that life-open to anyone even willing to listen. And so we do these things-once again today and forever-in remembrance of him. |
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