Sermons

March 26 2006

"Jesus at the Center" Speech
Niagara Falls

Reverend Dr Cheri DiNovo

In speaking of the radical Jesus. There is first and foremost the radicality of Christ’s love. On the screen you are witnessing the ones that Christ loves. They are members of our congregation. They are the Church, some might say the radical body of Christ. They are prostitutes, brokers, transsexuals, queers of all varieties, young, old, white, black, crack addicts, brokers, seminary students, alcoholics and the children of transsexuals, the children of queers of all varieties, the children of brokers, alcoholics, crack addicts, white, black, and seminary students. I display them not because we’re visual learners these days or to distract or entertain but because it is important to understand that they are our Church. They are not those we do Church ‘at’. They are not the ones we do Church ‘to’. They are not the objects of charity. They are not a project. They are the ones that the One we called Jesus and call Christ, loved.

I read recently in materials designed for lectionary study something not unusual. It asked those participating to imagine themselves homeless. Assumed of course, was that the ones addressed were not homeless. Imagine the same materials used when the bible study included a majority who had been homeless. Imagine the same Bible study used by Jesus disciples, all of whom were homeless. How often we assume "Church" and speak about queers, trans folk, prostitutes, brokers, addicts, homeless and their children as if they are not in the room. They are in the room. They are in this room. They are in all of the rooms of, as Jesus described it, "…my Father’s house."

It is important to understand that as you engage with their eyes I am not speaking because I can in any way pretend to understand Christ’s love, it is that radical, that I nor you nor any of us, could ever comprehend the unbearable depth and breadth of that all forgiving, self sacrificing Divine love. I only know what I read in scripture. It is all I know. We live in a world that is illusory so say physicists who sound far more mystical these days than theologians. I know this podium is energy vibrating at phenomenally rapid rates of speed because of science. I know that I am ephemera, a mere amalgam of carbon and water, dust to dust. In a very real way the stories in the book we call the Bible will last in print longer than any of us will last and speak of experiences that cover a span of thousands of years but more than their longevity and variety is the story they tell, that is for the faithful, reality, more real, than this experience or any experience ‘we’ might have. "Scriptura sola" said Martin Luther. "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so." said Karl Barth. I know that Jesus loves the ones you witness because the Bible tells me so. I know that you and I are loved because of what it says in scripture. I do not nor can I ever pretend to know why, how, who or what constitutes that love. I only know it’s so. There is this record of that love which puts the lie to my own or anyone’s faulty feelings of worthlessness. I and you and they are created in the image of God and the Divine one died for me and you and them.

This radical, revolutionary, death defying love that catapulted me into that holy place with the unlikely name of Emmanuel Howard Park United Church also sent all manner of queer ‘other’s’ there as well. Just as in scripture, God sent Ananias grudgingly to minister to that murderer Saul. Ananias did not go willingly and after going discovered in Saul then Paul, not only a brother but then, astoundingly, teacher. A murderer one day and an apostle the next. Or like Philip who was confronted by the eunuch, sexually as unclean as one could be, loathe to have anything to do with him/her, only to be asked that fateful question by the first convert in Acts, "Why should I not be baptized?" Or like the stone throwers who when confronted by that most radical Jesus asking them to identify the one without sin slithered away from his gaze. I, as Church, have been transformed by these faces, been informed by God if you will, that they are Church.

And what is love if not transformative? That begs the question really, again biblically, of, who does love transform? Was it Ananias or Saul? Was it the eunuch or Philip? Was it the woman taken in adultery or her accusers? Was it the unnamed woman who challenged and changed Jesus’ theology when she said, "Even the dogs feed from the master’s table" or Jesus? That was and is how humble and radical our Christ. Did the change biblically issue from the temple of Jesus’ day or did it issue from outside the temple where Christ lived ? Was it the law abiding, clean, erudite Pharisees that carried the word of Jesus into the world or the murderers, eunuchs, tax collectors, fishermen, and women, unclean all of them? Every disciple around the table of the last supper betrayed him. If it were not for the betrayers, where would faith be?

Love the sinner not the sin is not a Christian concept. Mahatma Gandhi said that. In the Bible sin and the sinner are inseparable. We are all sinners and saints. "Sin boldly and love Christ more boldly still" said Martin Luther. The outrageous equality of the Christian encompasses Romans and Zealots, men and women, slave and free. There is no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. One could continue in that spirit, gay or straight, old or young, black or white. All are one in Christ Jesus. So says Galatians.

In the pews at Emmanuel Howard Park sit all manner of nationalities, all manner of theological opinion, all manner of faith background, all manner of sexuality, all ages. The largest minority are children. Jesus overturned the order and said, "Let the children come first." To him theological acumen wasn’t important, humility was. The face of holiness is the face of a child, not of the wise man. The only wisdom a Christian has is being a fool for Christ, a child if you will. The development of our holiness is becoming greater fools, greater innocents. My only boast over anyone is that I am a better fool for Christ than they are.
Speaking for God is simply blasphemy. Speaking to God is prayer. Can we not only and ever speak to God or of God? And when speaking of God we do so as children. We don’t have a clue. That is why Jesus made it simple for us, the beautiful simpletons, "Love your brother and sister as yourself" He never was more specific than that. Our enemies were included. Loving your enemies is as stupid, as foolish, as it gets. Your enemies may kill you. They killed him. Jesus the practitioner of non violence. Jesus pacifist but never pacific. Jesus the enemy of all war of any kind. That is the radicality of Jesus Christ.

And it is even more transfiguring than that. It is the affirmation that Jesus is Lord, not Caesar, not theologies, not opinions, not beliefs, not anything our petty little intellects can discover or invent. Our "whore reason" as Martin Luther called it, can argue with itself for millennia and it will never ever fathom the words, "Your will not mine be done". At best we can only imitate them. How dare we, any of us, deny the sacrament to the eunuch, or to the murderer, or to anyone? Who do we think we are? If not the sacrament then how do we, in the name of the one who denied us nothing including the giving of his own life, deny anything that we might enjoy from food to housing to civil rights, to anyone? That humans routinely deny each other is predictable but to deny each other using that holy name is deplorable. It is not Christian.
Every communion where we share The Lord’s Supper together we say at Emmanuel Howard Park United, it is not your opinions not your beliefs not your words not your actions that earn you a place at Christ’s table, it is what Christ has done for us that gets us there. Faith speaks for itself as it walks up the aisle. "Faith not works" said Martin Luther. " Neither death nor life, neither angels or principalities nor presbyteries, neither the present nor the future, nor powers, neither height nor depth nor any creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus." said Paul.

We are or should be revolutionaries. After all, the struggle for the poor in Latin America started in Churches not by the Churches but by those like the Christians in these photos. The struggle for liberty in Eastern Europe started in Churches, not by the Churches but by Christians very much like those in these photos. The struggle for universal health care and publicly funded education in this country began in Churches, not by the Churches but by those Christians very much like those in these photos. The struggle for the rights of women and the rights of African Americans and Canadians and for the rights of gays and lesbians started in Churches not by Churches but by Christians like the ones in these photos.

In the early Church the poor were fed and housed and welcomed around the table, those not welcome anywhere else. No wonder they were willing to die for their faith. History teaches us that very rarely do the privileged, the fed, the imprisoners, change systems on behalf of others. Although no one can ever crow about their own accomplishments because the best that we can do is get out of the way of the Holy Spirit. Discipleship is a growing understanding of how not only how foolish we are, but how unfit we are to sit in judgment of anyone, how forgiven we are and how great is God who through Christ loved us so much. For God so loved the world. That is the radicality of Jesus Christ.

And it is even more transfiguring than that. Jesus didn’t care about numbers. He effectively whittled a Church of 5000 at the Sermon on the Mount down to a handful in three or so short years. He cared about evangelism. Jesus didn’t care about a successful life. He walked willingly to his own death. Jesus didn’t care about Church buildings. He offered sanctuary. Jesus didn’t care about money. He said "Give everything you have to the poor" Why, he would ask us, are there no criminals and prostitutes and eunuchs or trans folk and poor on our councils or on our worship committees or on our trustees? Jesus didn’t care about the nuclear family as constituted by ‘Leave it to Beaver’ in the 50’s He said, "Anyone who follows my word is my family" as he turned away from his biological relatives. Jesus didn’t care about laws, "The Sabbath is made for people" he said as he broke the second commandment. He cared about the only law that mattered "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and your neighbour as yourself" Jesus didn’t care about the laws around marriage of his day, he cared about the plight of women, the ones without rights and overturned the marriage laws that harmed the weak. Jesus didn’t care about fixing bodies, he cared about healing and healing arose from touching him, from praying to him, from closeness, from faith. The test of the healing was not conformity to the norms of the world, it was non conformity with the norms of the world. Jesus didn’t care about happiness. Happiness is a ruse. Jesus taught that joy is our birthright, bliss our destination and both are experienced only and ever in service. "Feed my sheep". Jesus didn’t care about danger, real or imagined, what people thought, popularity, fame, any of the idols off his world and ours. He said, "Fear not!"

One evening as I was stewing in resentment, the words of Christ spoke to me through a crack addict member of our evening congregation, one of these faces "Blessed are you," he said, "When people despise you" Blessed are we when we are hated, despised, faithful. Our transsexual members who walk in terror with every step, our queer members who suffer violence from family, friends, either of omission or commission, our members who suffer from mental ill health who are afraid in their souls, our addict members who are powerless over their addictions, preach the gospel with their lives. "When I was in prison you visited me" I often wonder as I live through the bureaucracy of institutional Church life, if the real prison of our Christian lives is not a ‘meeting’. I am visited by an alcoholic in recovery, one of the faces in these pictures, who said, " I come to this Church because I am loved here" Freedom is possible. "When I was a stranger you welcomed me." Exhausted, our young middle class families with children and mortgages listen as a blind man testifies about his faith and never once mentions his blindness. Who is the stranger?

Biblically, the healing happens one person at a time, the conversion happens from God, or Christ, through the one in need, and then the Church is asked to look after the one healed. They are asked by the one in need and by God or Christ, the divine One. The temple responds or not and usually does not. The young Church learns the lessons of love post resurrection by being given the gift of tongues, that is of speaking all the languages of the world so that they might be understood. Again, the good news, the gospel is for everyone now. This is of course a continuation of creation itself as God created difference out of sameness, the proliferation of difference being the ongoing act of creation. Jesus himself was an entirely new creation of God, the Messiah, God as no one had yet experienced God. God in human flesh. That is the radicality of Jesus.

And it is even more transfiguring than that. Jesus was the new human. He modeled a being without malice, a being that redefined what a human and a man is and was. He modeled a human who was not separated from God, God who created man and woman in God’s own image. In Christ, it has been rightly said, we meet not only the true man but the true woman. Christ one with God, in which we are all one, neither man nor woman anymore. As Christ is one with God Christ is also the oneness of humanity. It is no wonder that the role of ‘woman’ in Christ’s ministry is raised up and the role of ‘man’, patriarch, judge, questioned. Jesus challenges all structures of his day. And this Jesus redefines God. God is no long "Master" of the universe but servant, no longer unapproachable, untouchable, but present, close. God is no long the controller of the human but the tortured by the human. A student at seminary once said, "It is as if a human became an ant to save the ants" Yes, but more than that, it is as if God became the poorest, the most defiled, the most condemned, the most hated of the humans, for us. As we see these faces, think of that hated one. Through Jesus we have an outrageous new understanding of God. That is the radicality of Jesus.

And it is even more transfiguring than that. Jesus redefines those two great parameters of human existence, life and death. This specific Jew, this first century creature, this Middle Eastern male born under occupation does not die? "Blasphemy to the Jews, foolishness to the Greeks" writes Paul and by Jews he means the religious establishment and by Greeks he means the erudite ones. No one defeats death! Least of all a no one from a hick town. "What good comes out of Galillee?" How we still bury him today? We allow God to create the universe, inhabit the world but God forbid God rises from a grave in the body of a first century Jew? That, we erudite and religious ones, will not let God do! It is scandalous still.

There is something even more scandalous these days than when Bonhoeffer said during the Third Reich, "The most important information for us to convey right now is that Jesus was a Jew" We are profoundly uncomfortable with this God that walks so closely, cares so deeply, dies a real and agonizing death, a real human death, and then walks again so closely and cares again so deeply. It can’t be so. We will not let it be so. The same charges are lobbed, we are stupid, we are blasphemous. Horoscopes, crystals, channeling, past life regression, all, whatever, but a first century Jew rising from dirt! Impossible! I’ve never understood that this force of love called God, "God is love and whoever lives in love lives in God" says 1st John, that we credit with universes suddenly becomes unbelievable when a body buried one moment walks along a road three days later! It seems pretty small stuff to me in comparison but heh, I’m just a Christian. Jesus teaches that fear of any kind rooted in that great dark fear of death is the enemy. Then he proceeds to show us that the enemy, that dark Lord, has been defeated, not just as in a magic act by him, but by him for us and forever. No wonder we cannot fathom it? Powers and principalities rule the world through the fear of death and if the fear of death, death itself, is defeated then there can be no tyranny over us. No one can rule us except God’s self. If there is no death, and no fear then we are truly free. This freedom frightens we find, more than death. What if we are truly freed? This is the radicality of Jesus.

And it is even more transfiguring than that. If we are free from tyranny, fear, the judgments of the human, the law, we are free indeed but also strangely and beautifully bound. We are bound to the One that frees us. This binding though is what finally transforms us. We are no longer ourselves, but "It is Christ who lives through us." writes Paul, our, oh so human, brother. This is ecstasy. This is bliss. This is what we Christians pray for. This is what we glimpse. The glimpse of this is enough to demand of us our very lives, as Christina Rosetti writes, it is all we have to offer. Our lives become our "Thank you!" Not because we owe, how could we ever repay. Not because we must, we freely delight in doing so. Not because it will earn us anything we haven’t already received , our very lives back. Which brings us back to these faces and these eyes. Our faces and our eyes. Beautiful aren’t they? ‘Love me’ is what they are saying. There is, in Christ, only one answer. We know that now, we Christians. Beyond all the opinions, theologies, practices, beliefs, we know that because we have been so loved. This is finally, to arrive at the beginning again, the extreme and true radicality of Jesus.