Sermon-Sunday, July 9th
2 Corinthians 12:2-10 and Mark 6:1-13
There is a question that has been posed by many leaders and movers and shakers in contemporary Christianity who come from movements as denominational as mainline Protestantism to movements as non-denominational as conservative evangelicals. This question is issued more as a challenge to shape the way that we as the Body of Christ can effectively bring the gospel to a complex, post-modern twenty-first century culture. That question is "How can we make the Gospel relevant?"
Let me say that again, "How can we make the Gospel relevant?" I don’t like that question, and not just because it’s a question that tends to be posed by bishops. I don’t like it because it misses the point. It denies the power of the Gospel. It puts the power of relevance in our hands. It makes the Gospel dependent upon us, when the truth is we are more dependent on the Gospel than we could possibly realize. We don’t make the Gospel relevant, the Gospel makes us righteous.
As you see in the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus was not worried about making the Gospel relevant when He proclaimed it in His own hometown. He didn’t worry about how He could make it less offensive or more palatable. To paraphrase one of my seminary professors, "He just gave them the goods." And they were amazed at this wisdom that He provided and the deeds of power that He did.
When Jesus came to His hometown to teach and announce the coming of the kingdom of God and also cured a few sick people, the people were dumbfounded. However, they were not so shocked that they didn’t believe the wisdom that Jesus provided or question that He would cure people of their illnesses. What blew their minds was that it was Jesus who was able to do all these things. Jesus was the son of Joseph, He was a carpenter’s son.
Now you could point to all sorts of possible reasons as to why they may have felt that way. It could have a simple case of familiarity breeding contempt. It was probably also related to the fact that their was an ancient mentality that suggested that geographical and hereditary origins determined who a person is and just how gifted and successful they will be. And there are probably many other reasons, but at the heart of this is something that you still struggle with today.
At the heart of the rejection of Jesus by the people of Nazareth is the reality that the world’s standards of judgement appear to run completely counter to those of God. By appealing to reason and rationale in their evaluation of the events that are unfolding before their eyes, the people of Nazareth can only conclude that it just doesn’t make sense that this son of a carpenter would be able to do such miraculous things, and it doesn’t make sense for this son of a carpenter to be who He says He is. If only He could have made it a little more palatable, maybe sugar-coated it a little bit.
We all do that. We all come up with reasons to doubt, question, or reject the Gospel. That’s why when you go to a Christian book-store, some of the biggest-sellers will be the books on Christian apologetics. Christian apologetics is the field of study that explores the historical and scientific elements of scripture and seeks to provide Christians with tools to defend their faith in the face of objections that secularist, humanist world might throw out at them.
While the authors of these books are very well-intended, I don’t really like the message that they send. Again, I’ll take you back to the question that has been posed by some leaders in the Christian community; the question of how we can make the Gospel relevant. Just the field of study that these books are a part of; Christian apologetics, suggests that we have something to apologize for.
Many of the authors of these books will suggest that Christians give copies of these books on apologetics to their non-believing friends. As if we can make the Gospel more relevant, palatable, or acceptable through reason and science. While these books and resources may be valuable in providing people with ways to defend their faith, they are no substitute for the Gospel. Faith is not created through reason and science.
Faith is created when the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the pure proclamation of the promise of the Gospel. Paul reminds us of this in Romans 10 when he writes of faith being created through the hearing of the word of Christ. That’s how it happens. We hear the Gospel, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Gospel and creates faith in us. That is how it happens. Its’ all a part of our baptism. Faith is not created by making the Gospel more friendly or less offensive or more palatable.
That is what Jesus understood. In the face of that rejection, He may have been tempted to make His message easier to swallow. He may have been tempted to throw in a little reason and science, or to water His message down, but He knew that is not where faith is created. We don’t really know what happened after this. We don’t know whether they ever came around to believing.
Jesus’ brother James, rejected Jesus at first but eventually James was grasped by the reality of who Jesus is. Maybe the same thing happened to the people of Galilee, we don’t know. But Jesus knew that if faith was going to be created there, it wasn’t going to be by watering down the eternal promise and eternal hope that He brought so that it might get more positive feedback.
This is why He sends the disciples out two by two, telling them to take nothing but a staff and themselves. There is all kinds of speculation as to why He would have them take a staff, but basically I see it as a reminder to them that they are to be dependent on nothing but Christ, who is their Shepherd. A shepherd would carry a staff. There is also all kinds of historical speculation as to why He would send them out two by two, but I believe it basically comes down to Jesus’ promise that where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is. By depending on each other, they would be depending on Christ.
By not relying on their "stuff," the disciples were able to focus on Christ Jesus and what Christ Jesus was calling them to do. Our calling is this; to love and care for the people in and around our communities. We love them through words and action, through the proclaiming of the Gospel so that they might know that God does indeed love them so much that He sent His Son to die for them so that He could be with them for eternity, and we show our love to them through our actions so that they might experience the very love of Christ through us.
Martin Luther wrote
Now to preach of the kingdom of God is nothing else than to preach the gospel, in which is taught the faith of Christ by which alone God dwells and rules in us.
In faith, God dwells and rules in us. It’s not about us, but what God does through us. In our second lesson, Paul tells of when Jesus said to him "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." God’s grace is indeed sufficient and in the waters of baptism you are brought into that grace. And living in your baptism, God speaks to you and comes to you in His word, in the sacraments He comes to you and you are able to see, taste, touch and feel forgiveness, and in fellowship with each other He reaches out to you and shows you His love.
So, how do we make the Gospel relevant? We don’t. The Gospel does not need our brilliant and insightful contributions. The Gospel is the manifestation of God’s grace, and God’s grace is sufficient. No matter what challenges and trials may come our way, God’s grace is sufficient. The Gospel of Christ Jesus needs to be proclaimed through our words and experienced through our actions. And when we get out of the way, and put down our stuff, and our attempts to make the Gospel relevant, God in the Holy Spirit dwells and rules in us and the Gospel is proclaimed and shared. It happens because God’s grace, and nothing else, is sufficient.
Amen
There is a question that has been posed by many leaders and movers and shakers in contemporary Christianity who come from movements as denominational as mainline Protestantism to movements as non-denominational as conservative evangelicals. This question is issued more as a challenge to shape the way that we as the Body of Christ can effectively bring the gospel to a complex, post-modern twenty-first century culture. That question is "How can we make the Gospel relevant?"
Let me say that again, "How can we make the Gospel relevant?" I don’t like that question, and not just because it’s a question that tends to be posed by bishops. I don’t like it because it misses the point. It denies the power of the Gospel. It puts the power of relevance in our hands. It makes the Gospel dependent upon us, when the truth is we are more dependent on the Gospel than we could possibly realize. We don’t make the Gospel relevant, the Gospel makes us righteous.
As you see in the Gospel lesson for today, Jesus was not worried about making the Gospel relevant when He proclaimed it in His own hometown. He didn’t worry about how He could make it less offensive or more palatable. To paraphrase one of my seminary professors, "He just gave them the goods." And they were amazed at this wisdom that He provided and the deeds of power that He did.
When Jesus came to His hometown to teach and announce the coming of the kingdom of God and also cured a few sick people, the people were dumbfounded. However, they were not so shocked that they didn’t believe the wisdom that Jesus provided or question that He would cure people of their illnesses. What blew their minds was that it was Jesus who was able to do all these things. Jesus was the son of Joseph, He was a carpenter’s son.
Now you could point to all sorts of possible reasons as to why they may have felt that way. It could have a simple case of familiarity breeding contempt. It was probably also related to the fact that their was an ancient mentality that suggested that geographical and hereditary origins determined who a person is and just how gifted and successful they will be. And there are probably many other reasons, but at the heart of this is something that you still struggle with today.
At the heart of the rejection of Jesus by the people of Nazareth is the reality that the world’s standards of judgement appear to run completely counter to those of God. By appealing to reason and rationale in their evaluation of the events that are unfolding before their eyes, the people of Nazareth can only conclude that it just doesn’t make sense that this son of a carpenter would be able to do such miraculous things, and it doesn’t make sense for this son of a carpenter to be who He says He is. If only He could have made it a little more palatable, maybe sugar-coated it a little bit.
We all do that. We all come up with reasons to doubt, question, or reject the Gospel. That’s why when you go to a Christian book-store, some of the biggest-sellers will be the books on Christian apologetics. Christian apologetics is the field of study that explores the historical and scientific elements of scripture and seeks to provide Christians with tools to defend their faith in the face of objections that secularist, humanist world might throw out at them.
While the authors of these books are very well-intended, I don’t really like the message that they send. Again, I’ll take you back to the question that has been posed by some leaders in the Christian community; the question of how we can make the Gospel relevant. Just the field of study that these books are a part of; Christian apologetics, suggests that we have something to apologize for.
Many of the authors of these books will suggest that Christians give copies of these books on apologetics to their non-believing friends. As if we can make the Gospel more relevant, palatable, or acceptable through reason and science. While these books and resources may be valuable in providing people with ways to defend their faith, they are no substitute for the Gospel. Faith is not created through reason and science.
Faith is created when the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the pure proclamation of the promise of the Gospel. Paul reminds us of this in Romans 10 when he writes of faith being created through the hearing of the word of Christ. That’s how it happens. We hear the Gospel, the Holy Spirit speaks to us through the Gospel and creates faith in us. That is how it happens. Its’ all a part of our baptism. Faith is not created by making the Gospel more friendly or less offensive or more palatable.
That is what Jesus understood. In the face of that rejection, He may have been tempted to make His message easier to swallow. He may have been tempted to throw in a little reason and science, or to water His message down, but He knew that is not where faith is created. We don’t really know what happened after this. We don’t know whether they ever came around to believing.
Jesus’ brother James, rejected Jesus at first but eventually James was grasped by the reality of who Jesus is. Maybe the same thing happened to the people of Galilee, we don’t know. But Jesus knew that if faith was going to be created there, it wasn’t going to be by watering down the eternal promise and eternal hope that He brought so that it might get more positive feedback.
This is why He sends the disciples out two by two, telling them to take nothing but a staff and themselves. There is all kinds of speculation as to why He would have them take a staff, but basically I see it as a reminder to them that they are to be dependent on nothing but Christ, who is their Shepherd. A shepherd would carry a staff. There is also all kinds of historical speculation as to why He would send them out two by two, but I believe it basically comes down to Jesus’ promise that where two or three are gathered in His name, there He is. By depending on each other, they would be depending on Christ.
By not relying on their "stuff," the disciples were able to focus on Christ Jesus and what Christ Jesus was calling them to do. Our calling is this; to love and care for the people in and around our communities. We love them through words and action, through the proclaiming of the Gospel so that they might know that God does indeed love them so much that He sent His Son to die for them so that He could be with them for eternity, and we show our love to them through our actions so that they might experience the very love of Christ through us.
Martin Luther wrote
Now to preach of the kingdom of God is nothing else than to preach the gospel, in which is taught the faith of Christ by which alone God dwells and rules in us.
In faith, God dwells and rules in us. It’s not about us, but what God does through us. In our second lesson, Paul tells of when Jesus said to him "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness." God’s grace is indeed sufficient and in the waters of baptism you are brought into that grace. And living in your baptism, God speaks to you and comes to you in His word, in the sacraments He comes to you and you are able to see, taste, touch and feel forgiveness, and in fellowship with each other He reaches out to you and shows you His love.
So, how do we make the Gospel relevant? We don’t. The Gospel does not need our brilliant and insightful contributions. The Gospel is the manifestation of God’s grace, and God’s grace is sufficient. No matter what challenges and trials may come our way, God’s grace is sufficient. The Gospel of Christ Jesus needs to be proclaimed through our words and experienced through our actions. And when we get out of the way, and put down our stuff, and our attempts to make the Gospel relevant, God in the Holy Spirit dwells and rules in us and the Gospel is proclaimed and shared. It happens because God’s grace, and nothing else, is sufficient.
Amen
posted by Steve at 11:01 AM
1 Comments:
One word, AWESOME!
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