Jesus in a Box

Transfiguration Sunday

Luke 9:28-36

JB Phillips wrote a wonderful little book in 1961 (the year of my birth) called “Your God is Too Small.”  In the first part of the book, he reviews a number of small, inadequate, unreal and, he says, destructive images of God.  If you ignore the exclusive male-gender language, (it was 1961, after all) he says a lot of things that still ring true.  In the section titled “God-in-a-Box” he writes, 

“If the Churches give the outsider the impression that God works almost exclusively through the machinery they have erected and, what is worse, damns all other machinery which does not bear their label, then they cannot be surprised if he (sic) finds their version of God cramped and inadequate and refuses to “join their union.”  (p. 38).   

A prescient  description of today’s so-called “nones” (those who choose not to participate in “organized” religion)? 

From the dawn of time, we humans have been trying to cram God in a box.   We live with the delusion (which we regularly deny) that if we can just trap God in a temple, or idol, or tabernacle or cathedral or white clapboard church or website we will somehow be able to control God; that somehow God will do our bidding instead of the other way around.   In the Garden, the primal sin of Adam and Eve was not munching on some fruit, it was aspiring to be gods unto themselves.  We often do the same. 

We try to put Jesus in boxes too.  We reduce Jesus to a friendly, do-gooder, a great storyteller, a prophet who decried the social injustices of his day, a healer, or a teacher of moral truths.  He was all those things, yes, and more.  Much more.  Each generation tries to put Jesus in a box that makes sense to their own day and time (Buddy Jesus??).  Jaroslav Pelikan writes a wonderful survey of these boxes in his historical study called “Jesus Through the Centuries.”  It’s still worth checking out.  But, the Transfiguration story blows all those boxes to pieces.  In that moment, Peter, James and John saw the raw, untamed, uncontrollable power of God radiating from their master and revealing him as God’s Chosen One.  And what did they do?  Peter suggested putting up tents.  To build “dwellings” to capture the moment, put it in a box and tame it.  How silly that seems in the face of such awe-some majesty!

Phillips reminds us that God is never limited to the structures that we humans build – whether those are built out of bricks and mortar, or out of theological constructs, or beloved traditions.  God is at loose in the world.  Jesus is alive and present in the faces of the poor, the hungry and the foreigner we meet (see Matthew 25).    The huge God we dare to worship each Sunday radiates with an overwhelming and untamable love.  The Lord we dare to follow embodied that love and it took him to the cross…  and beyond death itself.   If we, but for a moment, could catch the fullness of that vision, it would change us…  and the whole world.

Peace,

Bishop Mike

As always, feel free to pass this along if you found it meaningful or thought-provoking or just mildly curious.  Thanks for reading!

Sidon, Syria and the Hometown Boy

Luke 4:21-30

Epiphany 4

“Today, this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”  Jesus’ sermon was short and to the point.  He had just read an excerpt from Isaiah 61, a passage that talks about God’s restoration of Israel after the Babylonian Exile, the reconciliation God will bring between peoples, and the Anointed One (Christ) God would send to lead the people.  Jesus says, in effect, “I am that one.”  But, rather than seeing God’s Son, the people of Nazareth only see Joseph’s boy.  Rather than seeing Jesus as the one who brings reconciliation and restoration to the world, they only see a miracle worker who can cure some of the sick hometown folk.  Instead he reminds them that God’s vision and activity goes well beyond the limits of the hometown.  He reminds them of two stories where God sent the great prophets Elijah and Elisha to outsiders, strangers, foreigners.  A widow in Sidon is fed.  Naaman from Syria, an enemy general, who worships another god, is healed.  The local folk are so incensed that they try to throw the hometown boy off a cliff!

Earlier this month, I spent a day along the US-Mexican border learning about what is happening there.  We listened to several speakers, including a US Border Patrol agent who spoke powerfully about the complexities and injustices of our immigration policies, the need for change and the importance of compassion in dealing with the people coming to our borders.   The widow of Zarephath and her son crying out for help.

Through the Oklahoma Conference of Churches, I have been in conversations and shared in fellowship with leaders and others in the Muslim community in Oklahoma City and Tulsa.  I have heard their stories about the hatred, fear and suspicion that they have experienced in our communities.  These are people who have jobs, are trying to raise families and are as concerned about the realities of terrorism as I am.  Many of them were born and raised in and around Oklahoma.  If God, through Elijah, could be compassionate to someone like Naaman…   shouldn’t we extend at least that much compassion to neighbors who are, in fact, our friends? 

For the past eighteen months, I have been a part of the Arkansas-Oklahoma Synod Racial Justice task force.  We have been meeting to discuss and learn about the real, pervasive and insidious sin of racism in our land and in our communities.  We, in the Church, need to be talking and learning about these realities, and finding ways to address them.  The conversation is already going on in a few of our synod churches…  but the conversation needs to expand.

The love and grace of Jesus Christ is not just for the hometown crowd.  The love and grace of Jesus Christ is for the whole world. The love and grace of Jesus Christ is for widows from Sidon, generals from Syria, immigrants, refugees, and people who look and think and believe differently than we do.  God’s love is truly stronger than all the hatred, fear, mistrust, suspicion and anger that we humans can muster.  God proved that by sending his Son to a cross… and then rising him up again on the third day. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

The Politics of Jesus

Epiphany 3

Luke 4:14-21

politics  n.  From the Greek polis and polītēs having something to do with cities or communities or the citizens who live in them.  (www.mirriam-webster.com)

Someone once told me that Jesus had nothing to do with politics.  His earthly ministry was all about spiritual and eternal things.  According to this person, when Jesus spoke about the poor, the captive or the oppressed, he wasn’t referring to those who were poor, captive or oppressed in their earthly life, but impoverished spiritually, captive to sin and oppressed by the devil.  I think he was wrong.

In my opinion, to spiritualize Jesus’ earthly ministry is to deny his humanity.  It is to make all Jesus’ healing miracles, his eating with tax collectors and sinners, his concern for the neighbor into a sham.  It is to turn Christianity into an “opiate for the people,” as Marx erroneously claimed:  nothing more than anesthesia against the harsh realities of life in this world.

The minute Jesus proclaimed that that “Kingdom of God” was at hand, he was involved in politics.  Jesus was not put to death because he comforted the “poor in spirit.”  He was put to death because he claimed God was more powerful than Caesar, and challenged the power and privilege of the Judean leaders who collaborated with the Emperor.  Leaders who claimed, in the Gospel of John, “we have no King but the emperor!”  (John 19:15).  In today’s lesson, Jesus is making a political statement.

But, Jesus’ politics are different, much different, than the hate-filled, angry, divisive, character assignations that frequently define “politics” today.  Instead, Jesus’ politics were the politics of love.  Jesus’ political program focused on reconciliation and restoration;  healing, mercy, and compassion.  Jesus ate with prostitutes and Pharisees.  Jesus healed Jews and Gentiles.  Jesus chastised the Scribes and his own disciples. 

We may eschew the “mixing” of politics and religion – but providing food for the hungry, collecting clothing for the poor, or offering shelter for the homeless are essentially political acts.  They say that the hungry, the poor and the homeless matter to us because they matter to God.  And, if they matter, then shouldn’t we ask why they are hungry, poor and homeless in the first place?  Otherwise, we risk caring just to make ourselves feel better.

Christians can be found on the political left and the political right.  There are Christian Republicans, Democrats and Independents.  Christians can hold a wide range of opinions on the whole range of “political” issues that face our country and our world.  But, no matter what our political perspective, I hope and pray that we always have Jesus’ love and concern for all God’s children front and center in all that we say or do.

Peace,

Bishop Mike.