What Jesus are We Talking About?, by Rev Steven R Mitchell, Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 7/1/2012

What Jesus Are We Talking About?
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
Mountain View United, Aurora, CO 7/1/2012
Based on “Love Wins” by Rob Bell and Mark 5: 21-43

 Once each month we as a congregation celebrate the life of Jesus in the act of “Communion.”  We take almost a quarter of the Worship Service with communion, which indicates the importance we give to it.  As indicated by part of the words of institution, Jesus said, “as often as you do this, remember me.”  But what is it really that we are to remember about Jesus?  Are we to remember Jesus as a victim of murder, or remember Jesus as the man who rose up from the dead?  Do we remember Jesus in “thanks-giving” for giving us salvation?  Or do we remember Jesus for his teachings?  Just what Jesus are we talking about when we come to the communion table?
Last week Judy Rowe brought her granddaughter to church.  That was the very first time that this little five year old had ever been exposed to anything that deals with discussions about God.  After worship, Judy and her granddaughter attended the weekly communion service that is held in the back parlor for those who wish to take communion weekly.  I had the privilege of standing next to the five year old.  The language of that service was heavy in sacrificial type images, not unusual for those of us who have grown up with those images, but I heard the little girl ask her grandmother if that was really the body of Jesus and did she have to eat it?
 Her question immediately reminded me of one of the problems that the early church had as it would celebrate communion behind closed doors. Those who were standing on the outside of those closed doors interpreted those sacramental words just like Judy’s granddaughter.  The early church was accused of being cannibalistic because the language used imagery of eating flesh and drinking blood.  How frightening this must be to a five year old, of to someone who has not been raised in the church.
In this morning Gospel reading from Mark, we see Jesus returning from the other side of the Sea of Galilee.  He is met by a Priest of the Synagogue, asking Jesus to come to his house to heal his sick daughter.  Along the way, a woman who had been ill for many years grabbed Jesus’ robe in an attempt to be healed.  Is the Jesus we are remembering today, a healer?   Or is there something, some message that goes deeper, that describes what Jesus we are to remember?
In the celebration of communion we share Jesus, yet is that the only way in which we share Jesus?  This brings up another question: When we are talking about Jesus, what Jesus are we speaking about?  A few of the biblical references to Jesus are: teacher, Messiah, healer, son of God, son of man, Priest, Prophet.  In modern thought we have expanded references to Jesus as: Man of God, God’s only son, miracle worker, savior, risen Lord; some know Jesus as one who condemns behavior that we disapprove of. 
Rob Bell shares a story about a woman who had invited a male friend to one of their worship services.  He asked if this service was a Christian church.  She responded yes, it was.  He then shared a story about Christians in his village in Eastern Europe who rounded up the Muslims in town and herded them into a building, where they opened fire on them with their machine guns and killed them all.  He explained to her that he was a Muslim and had no interest in going to her Christian church. Love Wins, pg 7/8 
What Jesus are we talking about?  Many practicing Christians think of Jesus as the one who saves the world, “For God so loved the world that he sent his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”John 3:16 This implies that God’s love is conditional, that even though God provides a scapegoat for our behavior, we still have to act upon that.  For many evangelicals, this means reciting a prescribed confession or prayer often referred to as “the sinner’s prayer.”  This view of Jesus leads to the discussion of “heaven” and “hell”; both are words Jesus used in his teachings.
Again these two words lead to discussions as to the relationship that we have with God and God’s relationship to us.  These two words are basic questions that humanity has always asked.  Depending on how we understand the concepts of “heaven” and “hell” shapes our response in both personal behavior and our interaction to others.
Do we see God as a loving God, one who is interested in justice and if interested in justice, justice for who?  For all peoples or just justice for those who call upon God’s name, and if for only those who call upon God’s name, what name is the right name?  When we come to this table, do we look to a Jesus that saves?  Do we look to a Jesus who saves only a particular few?  Are all people actually welcomed to this table or does Jesus exclude those who do not say “the believer’s prayer?”
If we think of “heaven” and of “hell” as specific locations, then what happens if the church looks to “heaven” as the goal, the desired destination?  This is the message that a large portion of the church preaches.  If you do not accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior you will not make it into heaven.  With this type of belief, with this type of message, it is easy then for the church to not worry itself about what is going on in the world, of the millions of people who are starving, who have no home to live in, or of the exploitation of those who are weaker.  In a word – social justice would not be a concern for those who follow Jesus.  Is this the Jesus we are to remember?
Is Jesus’ message really about getting to heaven and staying out of hell?  If this were so, then why was Jesus crucified?  What possible reason would anyone have in killing a man who taught about getting into heaven?  No, I think that what Jesus was teaching had something more to do about how we viewed our immediate world and not so much about waiting or preparing in order to get to “heaven.”  If the true message of Jesus was only about “getting to heaven” then what do we do about Jesus’ statement that, “the Kingdom of God is among us?”
This summer, we will be taking a journey, discussing what Jesus means when he refers to “heaven” and “hell”, of his understanding of “the kingdom of God is here, now”.  We will explore some basic questions of what does salvation mean and who is in and who is out.  We will be discussing questions about “faith” and how this faith affects our lives and our responses to not only spiritual matters, but at the level of our humanity.  We will be asking the question of “What Jesus are we talking about.”
If God so loved the world that through Jesus all might find salvation, what does that really mean?  Is life in God conditional or unconditional? These are hugely important questions to ask, I’m not sure that we can fully answer them, but if we call ourselves followers of Christ, then they are questions that need honest exploration.  We use phrases such as “More Light”, “Reconciling”, and “Open and Affirming”, these phrases speak more broadly than just about sexual orientation.  They speak about a relationship between us and God, between us and others, it speaks about where our hearts and minds are with ‘truth’.  As we come this morning to the banquet table of Christ – What Jesus are we remembering?  Amen