Everyday Jesus

                                                Sermon by Pastor Dan Wilkie

                             First Congregational Church United Church of Christ

                                                    Grand Junction, Colorado

                                                            May 29, 2011

 

Scriptures: Mark 1:1-5, 7-11, Matthew 4:1-11, 23-25, Luke 5:27-32, John 12:44-50,

13:34,35

 

 

How many of you have seen a bumper sticker, a tee shirt, a friendship bracelet, or other piece of jewelry with the letters WWJD on it?  Can you tell me what that means?  Yes you are correct “What Would Jesus Do”.  But, did you know how that saying came about?  This is the part that I found interesting: the saying was coined by a Congregational Preacher by the name of Charles Sheldon in 1890; Charles was not a particularly interesting speaker, as speakers go, but was a bit of a show man and he used the phrase to keep his congregation interested.  He would talk for a while; then ask the question, “What Would Jesus Do?”  He published these sermons in a national Congregational Publication, which then took this entire sermon series and published it as a book in 1896 called “In His Steps”.  This book is still actively published today and has been translated in 20 languages by 80 different publishing houses. 

            In 1980, after reading some of the book, “In His Steps” at a time when the beaded friendship bracelets were in style, a young man thought it made a rather catchy saying for his church youth group.  He had some of the bracelets made for the group and they became a their unique symbol for expressing their faith and connection with each other in the class.  These bracelets were so popular it was not long before they were followed by tee shirts, bumper stickers, and assorted jewelry, in fact I even have a small ring with WWJD on it. . 

            In October 2000, another youth minister Janie Tinklenberg from a church in Holland Michigan used several quotes from this sermon series, “In His Steps” in her youth group class.  Her quotes and the saying “What Would Jesus Do” made such an impression on her students they adopted the phrase as the center of their belief system, vowing to use it in all of their decision making.   As these young folks went out in their schools and communities, and shared their values with other youth, it spread like wildfire and became a Youth movement for Jesus, and impacted the lives of hundreds if not thousands of youth, their parents, extended families, friends, and communities.  It truly turned many lives around in the process. 

            What is interesting is that this is only one type of movement, there are others, by Borg, Spong, and Crossen and even in the book I am reading now called Saving Jesus from the Church, with the sub title How to Stop Worshipping Christ and Start Following Jesus by Robin R. Meyers. 

            What makes these movements different is that they go against much conventional worship and back to the roots of “The Way” or what the first followers of Jesus called their movement, when people worshipped Jesus differently, by trying to emulate Jesus, trying to follow his teachings, and live the kind of life he lived by caring for and teaching others what he taught them.  Not for their own value, or their own salvation alone, but because of the needs they had.

So how did this change come about?  As the message of Christ spread, it was a natural progression really, this quote from “Saving Jesus From The Church” explains it very well: “Those first disciples who had been forever changed by their encounter with Jesus did not set out to domesticate the message of Christ.  But with the passage of time and the inherent pressure to market the message for a larger audience, the second and third generations of disciples felt compelled to turn the Galilean sage into the “Son of God” Like advertisers today who must break through the clutter, the early church wanted and needed to get the world’s attention.  The audience was largely Jewish, and the message was so counterintuitive as to appear ludicrous—especially the notion that God’s power is made perfect in weakness.  (2 Cor. 12:9).  Then as the message spread beyond the Middle East, and was ultimately adopted by converts from Rome and the Catholic Church and the Papacy gained prominence, this image of Jesus as the Son of God spread, and Jesus became almost an idol to worship, something to turn to for salvation and comfort, or as Robin says a “Cosmic Comforter”.   

            This image of Jesus as the Divine, the Son of God, the one who saves and redeems, has not only remained constant; but, has grown ever since the Protestant Reformation. And, while some folks have always challenged this view of Jesus, and sought to emulate Jesus, it has not been taken seriously until the last forty or fifty years or so, as more and more people realized that if the church was to survive it was important to follow Jesus, to follow His teachings, to work for Justice, to work for peace, to put an end to oppression, to feed the hungry etc. Again, to quote Robin Myers in Saving Jesus from the Church “If the church is to survive as a place where head and heart are equal partners in faith, then we will need to commit ourselves once again not to the worship of Christ, but to the imitation of Jesus.  His invitation was not to believe, but to follow.  Since it was once dangerous to be a follower of “The Way”, the church can rightly assume that it will never be on the right track again until the risks associated with being a follower of Jesus outnumbers the comforts of being a fan of Christ.  Until we experience Jesus as a “radically disturbing presence,” instead of a cosmic comforter, we will not experience him as true disciples.  The answer is:  What are you willing to give up to follow Jesus?  In fact In Luke 11 when a woman in the crowd starts praising Jesus as an object of adoration he becomes uncomfortable and almost belligerent, so he shifts the focus from object to objective “Blessed, rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”  Notice here that Jesus did not say those who hear the word of God and believe it, nor did he say those who hear the word of God and enshrine it” Sadly, for many in our culture this is difficult, because to obey is seen as subservient, not independent, and that keeps us from truly emulating Jesus and following Jesus. 

            When we think of following Jesus, what is it that we are really saying?  Who is Jesus really?  Since Mark’s gospel is considered the first, let’s start there, with the words of John the Baptist and the events of Jesus’ baptism, John makes it plain, that he is not the messiah, that he is only the messenger, that while he baptizes with water, Jesus will baptize with the Holy Spirit, then after Jesus is baptized by John, we hear the voice of God proclaiming Jesus, “My Son, by beloved with whom I am well pleased.” 

            Then in Matthew’s Gospel, we hear how Jesus is tempted by Satan, and how Satan tries to use his power as the Son of God, against him, but Jesus replies with his teachings, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God, or “Away with you Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God, and serve only Him.  Jesus the goes out on his ministry, and the people are brought to him and he heals the sick and the afflicted, and the crowds followed him.  Or let’s look at Luke’s gospel, Jesus is eating at Levi’s banquet, and the Scribes and Pharisees were complaining because Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners?  Jesus answers: “Those who are well have no need of the physician, but those who are sick.  I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. All is summed up in John’s gospel when Jesus says all who believe in me believes not in me but in the one who sent me.  And whoever sees Jesus sees also God, whoever believes in Jesus should not remain in the darkness and whoever hears my words but does not keep them I will not judge them for I didn’t come to judge the world but to save it. I speak as just as the Father as told me.  Then Jesus goes on to say, I give you a new commandment, that you love one another as I (Jesus) have loved you. By this everyone will know you are my disciples. 

            In this we can see how easily it would be to see Jesus simply as the Son of God, to see only his divinity and worship him, yet the words are clear, hear my words and follow them, obey them, love one another as Jesus loved us. 

            No where even in these few passages does Jesus say worship me, set me up as an idol, rather everything that Jesus says, is listen, follow, do, they are all action words, they are not passive.  Jesus does not say to be passive.

            So in reflection, maybe Clarence in 1890 or those youth in 1980, or in 2000 have it right.  Maybe thinking about what Jesus would do, putting His teachings at the center of our decisions and actions, might make more sense than we might imagine. If Jesus came among us today amidst the devastation caused by Tornados and Floods, or saw how others who were different were treated, or how we welcomed the immigrants or how some were oppressed or treated unfairly, I wonder what he really would do.

Imagine for instance, if we really treated the immigrants in our borders with great love, or we gave marriage equality to our GLBT sisters and brothers, or we worked for equality of health care, or prayed for our enemies, or worked harder to end homelessness, or worked less for the bottom line and more for the economic equality of all. I really wonder what our world would look like. 

You see, as Jesus traveled and healed, taught, and preached, the things he taught were relational, he understood that we do not live in a vacuum, what we do affects others, and what they do affects us and through caring, loving, praying, and serving, selflessly the message is spread.  He understood that simply believing in Salvation for one’s self doesn’t spread the message of the Good News the same as living it.

So when I talk about everyday Jesus, I am talking about how we live, how we portray ourselves, about the message and the image we share with others. 

This then is our challenge, how do we individually meet Jesus, how do we put Jesus into our lives?  How do we answer the question, What Would Jesus Do, and what should we?

 

Amen!