Sermon Library
“Joy to the World”
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
February 07, 2010
Service Theme: Epiphany V - 2010
Source: Philippians 2: 1-11
Epiphany V – 2010 February 7, 2010
Joy to the World
Philippians 2: 1 – 11
Gregg Anderson
There is an old joke and caricature about Jesus that has been around for awhile with different versions. Dinah Kinsman sent me a version of this joke a couple of weeks ago and I thought it might fit into my message this morning. I think it is a good and fun introduction, but if this does not work, I can blame Dinah Kinsman – who is sitting right over there.
Jesus Was an Every Man
It is possible that Jesus was African-American because he called everyone brother, he liked Gospel music and he did not get a fair trail. There are another three really good reasons that Jesus was Jewish because he went into his father’s business, he lived at home until he was 30, he believed his mother was a virgin and his mother was sure he was god. Then again, Jesus could have been Italian because he talked with his hands, he had wine with all his meals and he often used olive oil. Jesus could also have been a Californian because he never cut his hair, he walked around barefoot all the time and started a new religion. Jesus as a Native American is also probable as he was at peace with nature, ate a lot of fish and talked about the great spirit. Irish is also a possibility as Jesus never got married, always telling stories, loved green pastures and was out drinking with his buddies the night before he died.. But the most compelling evidence of all that Jesus was a woman is that he fed a crowd at a moment’s notice when there was virtually no food, kept trying to get a message across to a bunch of men who just didn’t listen, and even when he was dead, he had to get up because there was still work to do.
There is a reason why I began with this joke of Jesus. I mean no disrespect. In fact, there is an important message with this caricature. I suspect that it was written as a joke just to be funny, but I see a bigger reason for this cartoon-like image of Jesus. Namely, Jesus is a person and a prophet for all people. Jesus bridges the gap between races and prejudice. Jesus expanded the God of the Israelites to be the God of all people. Jesus has gained respect from people of all faiths when Jesus is understood as the bearer of loving God and your neighbor as yourself.
Jesus Was a Universal Jew
Jesus is associated with Christianity, but Jesus was never a Christian. As I have said often over the years, I do not think Jesus came to start a new religion, but to give new life and to expand the horizons of an old religion. Jesus’ message was a universal message of human compassion, kindness, grace, forgiveness, peace, justice and love for all. Through all of this and through the stories of Jesus, Jesus was a Jew and was called a rabbi.
In a website entitled “mystical seeker,” the writer is describing a book by Marcus Borg which is simply entitled Jesus and begins, “We all know that Jesus was Jewish. Or, at least we all should know this. It does seem like many Christians, in their zeal to grant a messianic role to Jesus in his lifetime, ignore the fact that Jesus did not intend to found a new religion, that as a devout Jew he worshipped in the synagogues, was circumcised, wore fringes, and believed in ‘the law and the prophets’ of Judaism.”
Rabbi Rami Shapiro is a teacher (which is the definition of a Rabbi) who has opened my world and whose words of wisdom I greatly admire, writes in his web site entitled Beyond Religion with Rabbi Rami, “I have tried to find a venue for teaching the wisdom of Jesus to Jewish audiences, but to date I have had no luck. While there are several centers eager to hear about the Jewish Jesus these are not centers of Jewish learning, nor do they attract a lot of Jewish learners. Yet there is a both a growing hunger and a pressing need for this teaching among Jews. The hunger comes from the fact that Jesus spoke to the heart of Judaism: Love of God and neighbor, and opened the table fellowship of the rabbis to all comers. Unlike many Christians who see him as the second Adam, I see Jesus as the second Abraham opening his tent to all who wish to share in the divine feast and learn about the One who manifests the many. As much of mainstream Judaism takes a turn toward tradition, with form once again trumping substance, the simplicity and depth of Jesus’ wisdom brings a welcome balance.”
Jesus the Christ and Jesus the Jew
“The need has to do with the resurgence of right-wing conservative evangelical Christianity. As Jesus and his message become the captives of the very tribalism he preached against, the intensity of evangelizing Jews will increase. For Jews, the best defense against Jesus the Christ is Jesus the Jew. Ignorance of Jesus is not defense against Christianity. On the contrary, ignorance of Jesus and his teaching leaves the Jew open to interpretations of Christ that can be confusing, misleading, and most seductive.”
“As we have [just experienced] the Christmas season, a time when so many Jews feel awkward and even alienated, it is my hope that Jewish leaders will reach out to this prodigal son and make room for Jesus among our most respected prophets and sages. The confluence of Christmas and Hanukkah could be a catalyst for reclaiming Jesus as a God-intoxicated Jewish mystic. This would be a great gift to the Jewish people (and others), and herald a deepening of Jewish wisdom.”
Jesus the Jewish Mystic
Rabbi Rami Shapiro has become a favorite teacher of mine over the past ten years. Marcus Borg has also become a favorite teacher of mine over the past 15 years. This was when he wrote one of his first books creatively entitled Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time. More recently, Marcus Borg wrote a brief article entitled Jesus As A Jewish Mystic. In this article Borg sees Jesus in five different ways: “(1) Spirit person; (2) healer; (3) wisdom teacher; (4) social prophet; and (5) movement founder. It is under the first classification that Borg sees Jesus most clearly in the identity of a Jewish mystic.”
“For Borg, there is a clear definition of terms. “My claim that Jesus was a Jewish mystic means Jesus was one for whom God was an experiential reality. He was one of those people for whom the sacred was, to use William James’ terms, a firsthand religious experience rather than a second hand belief.” Borg goes on to give a straight forward definition of a mystic: “As I use the term, mystics are people who have decisive and typically frequent firsthand experiences of the sacred.”
“The portrait of Jesus as a Spirit person is history remembered and not simply history ‘metaphorized.’ This is the basis for my claim that Jesus was a Jewish mystic, for him, God was an experiential reality. He knew the immediacy of the sacred in his own experience. And this claim leads to a second claim: Jesus’ experience of God was foundational for the rest of what he was.”
The First Christmas
This past Christmas, I referenced another book by Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan entitled The First Christmas. In one sentence, it is about the personal and political role of Jesus in contrast to Caesar Augustus and the dominating Roman Empire. Jesus became the Jewish and Gentile hope for a new kingdom of peace and justice.
Borg and Crossan state at the end of their book that like the play The Christmas Carol, there are three tenses in Christmas. There is a spirit of Christmas past, Christmas present and Christmas future. Scrooge’s experience of the three spirits changes him. Jesus is not just about one change at one time, but made a change in the past and can make changes in our present and in our future. Jesus is not just a revolutionary at the time, but his message lives on in the present and can keep making a difference for our future. Jesus is not only universal for all people, but of all time.
Three Options for the New World
It all depends on how we see this Jesus and how we think the new world is to come about. The first they call “supernatural eschatology,” or “interventionist eschatology.” Within this understanding, only God can bring about the new world. It can only happen through a dramatic divine intervention. All we can do is wait for it and pray for it. It is waiting for Jesus to return. The second one is a letting go of eschatology. This view is also found among some Christians. They do not see a connection between the gospel and a transformed earth. For them, Christianity is only about individual salvation, whether in this life or in a life beyond death. This world may be seen as a pleasant place or a dreadful place, but this Christian hope is not about the transformation of the world.”
The third option Borg and Crossan call “participatory eschatology,” or “collaborative eschatology.” Put simply, we are to participate with God in bringing about the world promised by Christ and Christmas. Rather than waiting for God to do it, we are to collaborate with God and one way to do this is to follow Jesus more clearly and more dearly. In a sense and these are my words, whatever God may do in the future, we are to do our part here and now.
Borg and Crossan reject the first two options, but affirm the third option of being co-creators with God and Jesus. The Christmas stories are not about a spectacular series of miraculous events that happened in the past that we are to believe in for the sake of going to heaven. Rather, they are about God’s passion, God’s dream, for a transformed earth.
They state, “We affirm participatory eschatology which involves a twofold affirmation: we are to do it with God, and we cannot do it without God. In St. Augustine’s brilliant aphorism, God without us will not; we without God cannot. We who have seen the star and heard the angels sing are called to participate in the new birth and new world proclaimed by these stories.”
“The struggle between two visions of life continues. The birth stores are not a pipe dream, but a proclamation that what we see revealed in Jesus is the way – the way to a different kind of life and a different future. Both personal and political transformation, both the eschatology of rebirth and the eschatology of a new world, require our participation. God will not change us as individuals without our participation, and God will not change the world without our participation.” (P. 242)
Jesus, A Man For All Seasons and All People
Jesus is a man for all seasons and all people. And Jesus said over and over again, “follow me.” Has Christmas come and gone for you already? Did it make any difference? Christmas is designed to make a difference, but sometimes we can get caught up in all the circumstantial aspects of Christmas, we forget the heart of Christmas. This Sunday is within the season of Epiphany and it is about fully realizing all that Christmas and Christ mean to us.
The fact that we celebrate Christmas on December 25 is fairly arbitrary. Metaphorically, it makes sense regarding the images of darkness soon becoming light. But in terms of the date of the birth of Christ it is only symbolic. Recognizing the birth and the life of Christ in our lives is an every day endeavor. Christ and Christmas are for all people and all times. Ultimately, the message is always about joy and peace entering our world and our commission to do our part.
Joy to the World
Jesus is our joy and our justice, our peace and our prophet. Borg and Crossan end their book, The First Christmas, with a chapter entitled Joy To The World. Their research and book is a detailed and historical look at the life of Jesus. Who is the real Jesus? is the quest of millions of other scholars and billions of other people over the centuries. What is also significant is that their research does not negate or minimize the life of Jesus, but lifts up the life of Jesus and makes his life more real for more people. Throughout all their concentrated research, they conclude with even more force – Joy to the World.
And even more specifically and really the point they are making is that the words of the carol Joy to the World have a statement that is often overlooked, but theologically profound. It is stated in the very first verse. You have sung it over and over again and perhaps never quite thought about it. Think about it. “Joy to the world, the Lord is come.”
Technically, the words should be the Lord has come, but it is surmised that Issac Watts who wrote these words in 1719 was deliberate in using the phrase “The Lord is come.” The Lord is not about a single time and place, nor for a single group of people. The Lord Jesus is for all people and for all time and this is indeed Joy to the World. Handel was the inspiration for Lowell Mason who created the music to these words some 22 years later and it has become one of our greatest Christmas carols. The second phrase is equally important, “Let earth receive her king! Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing.” Let earth receive her king is the political and revolutionary Jesus. Let every heart prepare him room is the personal and transformational Jesus. And heaven and nature sing is the collaborative part of earth and heaven, people and God, creating together the new earth and the transformed people.
Joy to the world may be a hymn we sing joyously once a year at Christmas. If we think of Jesus as just being around at Christmas, we have missed Jesus and Christmas and any real joy that Jesus wanted us to experience. But if we understand Jesus as a great person, a great prophet, a great Jew, a great leader, a great rabbi, a great king, a great messiah, and a great savior, we can begin to express the words of the hymn by Handel, Mason and Watts– Joy to the World, the Lord is come – Jesus lives. Amen.
Rev. Dr. Gregg R. Anderson
Aspen Chapel
0077 Meadowood Drive
Aspen, Colorado 81611
http://www.aspenchapel.org