Another week in Nouwen's book Letters to Marc. One of the challenges of preaching a series like this is that each weeks builds, or at least accesses, the what has come before it. This means it may be important to those who have not been in worship the previous weeks to briefly be told what has already been covered. The temptation is to begin each sermon by summarizing the previous weeks, which may be helpful, but also can be a bit repetitive. This week I decided to start with a powerful statement from the biblical text. It must have surprised people because I had some people jumping up in their seats when I hit the first sentence of the sermon!
I used the Marj Carpenter story from her book on Presbyterians in mission, but as I told it I realized how distinctive her style of telling stories is. Her words from my mouth do not do justice to how powerfully she related that story the time I heard her tell it in person.
As I reflected on the sermon, I also realized that I missed an opportunity to mention Nouwen's powerful ministry strategy that he shares in his book The Wounded Healer. In that book, he describes how important a ministry of "presence" can be. That description is what has made that book a must read for many pastoral care classes at seminaries. it fit perfectly with this sermon topic, but I did not make the connection until last night while driving home from a soccer game. I imagine that his work in this book helped shape his work in The Wounded Healer.
In the Sanctuary service we had the two paintings mentioned on display on the screens. not sure how effective that was, but it added a different element to the sermon, which was good.
“Jesus: The
Compassionate God” March 16, 2014;
Lenten series; Matthew 16
Introduction: “God
forbid it, Lord! This must never happen to you.”
“Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are
setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.”
Peter does not like Jesus talking about having to suffer and die.
We might have reacted the same way.
Peter's
response reflects the human desire to avoid death and suffering.
1.
Maybe for selfish reasons.
2. Maybe he just could not imagine Jesus
suffering.
But
Jesus maintains that not only must he suffer and die, but that his disciples,
those who will follow him, must also take up their crosses and lose their lives.
a.
In this exchange, we discover the one whom Henri Nouwen describes
as Jesus, the compassionate God.
1. As a reminder, we are
spending Lent reflecting on Nouwen’s book Letters to Marc:
Living a Spiritual Life in a Materialistic World.
2. We began by reflecting on Jesus as
the heart of our existence.
3. Last week, we focused as the one who
sets us free.
4. This week, we reflect on Jesus, the
compassionate God.
b. Compassion means literally “to
suffer with.”
1. Unlike Peter who wants to deny that
Jesus must suffer and die, Nouwen believes that Jesus the compassionate God is
the foundation for the spiritual life.
2. In other words, as we discover the God who
sends Christ to suffer with us, and as we join others in their suffering, we
live the spiritual life.
Move
2: Begin unpacking that by looking at
the Isenheimer Altar that was painted between 1513 and 1516
a. The altar was located in a chapel at a hospital in the small
village of Isenheimer ,
near Colmar , a French town in the Alsace
1. A hospital that had many patients who were
suffering from the plague or ergotism, a skin disease marked by ulcers breaking
through the skin.
2. This is
important when we look closely at Christ hanging on the cross in the painting
we Notice the ulcers on his skin.
4. Imagine the scene in the chapel during the
early 16th century: patients
with the plague or ergotism; patients suffering from skin ulcerations; these
patients come to the chapel to cry out in pain and seek some hope in the face
of their disease.
5. When they look to the front of the chapel, they
see “their God, with the same suppurating ulcers as their own, and it made them
realize with a shock with the incarnation really meant. They saw solidarity,
compassion, forgiveness, and unending love brought together in this one
suffering figure. They saw that, in
their mortal anguish, they had not been left on their own” (25).
b. Jesus the
compassionate God.
1.
Jesus, the one who finds us no matter what our circumstances.
2. Jesus, the one who not only finds
us, but joins us even in our suffering.
c.
Do
not mistake this for Jesus wanting to suffer.
1.
Nouwen
makes the point that Jesus does not suggest that suffering is a desirable
thing.
2.
But,
Jesus “encountered suffering and death with his eyes
wide open.”
3.
IN fact, Jesus’ “whole life was a conscious preparation for them”
(29)
4.
As we hear Nouwen say that, we remember the conversation Jesus and
Peter had.
5.
Peter wants to deny what will happen to Jesus, but Jesus embraces
it.
6. Why? Because Jesus has compassion for us and
suffers with us.
Move 3: The death of
Christ is not the final answer.
a. As the front panel opens up, there
is a painting depicting the resurrection.
1. Nouwen notes that “the tortured body of Jesus, born of Mary,
had not only died for them [those suffering from disease who look at the altar
in the chapel], but—also for them – had risen gloriously from death. The same
ulcerated body they saw hanging dead on
the cross exudes a dazzling light and rises upward in divine splendor – a
splendor which is also in store for us” (25)
2.
A
powerful reminder that the God who suffers with them, also offers them the hope
and power of the resurrection.
3.
Nouwen also notes that the other panels reveal depictions of
Christ’s birth, St. Anthony’s temptations [not really part of our Reformed
tradition], and the resurrection, reminding the viewer that to follow Christ
means to be tempted, to suffer, to die, and to be resurrected (25).
b. We have
to lay claim to the resurrection in our own lives.
1.
Nouwen suggests that when we think of
suffering and death, we immediately think of these words: “preventing, avoiding, denying, shunning,
keeping clear of, and ignoring.”
2. He cites
as an example how much time and effort we spend to keep people alive.
3. And, in fact, not only do we keep
people alive; we make it so that their deaths are much cleaner and sterile than
ever before in history.
4. In the old days, when people died
their bodies were kept in their homes until they were buried. Now we whisk the body away to be cremated or
to be dressed up and made pretty for the viewing, all the while losing any
sense of the suffering that accompanies death.
4. In some ways, we have made it so
that suffering is something we can all avoid.
4. Nouwen suggests that “If you don’t
see and feel that [the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus as the most
far-reaching event ever to occur in history] then the gospel can, at most,
interesting; but it can never renew your heart and make you a reborn human
being (27).
5. To avoid suffering and death would also mean avoiding the
resurrection.
Move 4: Which leads to Nouwen’s
point that “God sent Jesus to make free persons of us. He has chosen compassion
as the way to freedom” (31).
a.
WE remember the story from earlier
in the Gospel of Matthew (Matthew 12: 38-43) when the religious
authorities are asking Jesus for a sign.
1.
Jesus responds that the only sign they will get is the sign of
Jonah.
2.
Jonah who spent three days in the belly of the whale; three days
in the belly of death.
3. For Jonah
to return to God, he has to be transformed by those three days.
4. .
Notice the connection between Jonah's experience and Christ's
crucifixion and being in the tomb three days before being resurrected.
b. Jesus is transformed in his suffering; Jesus
invites us into that transformation.
1. Instead of God removing suffering
from us, God comes in Christ to share in our suffering (31).
2. “God's love, which Jesus wants to
make us see, is shown to us by his becoming a partner and companion in our
suffering, thus enabling us to turn it into a way of liberation” (31).
3. Nouwen notes the paradox that
even as he has wondered why God allows poverty and suffering, that Nouwen has
discovered that “the victims of poverty and oppression are often more deeply
convinced of God 's love than we middle-class
Europeans [I think we American Presbyterians in Troy would fit Nouwen's profile
as well]” (33).
c.
Nouwen again takes the truth we discover in Christ and pushes it to become a
challenge for how Christ's disciples extend themselves into the world.
1. When we come to see Jesus as the
compassionate God, we will begin to our own life as on in which we want to
express that divine compassion (34)
2. Nouwen gives the example of a real friend who
chooses to stand with their friend in need, rather than telling them what they
should do (33).
2.
I am reminded of a story from our own Presbyterian heritage that Marj
Carpenter tells about Presbyterian missionaries in Korea
One
of the primary tasks of the missionaries was to take care of leprosy patients. When the army of occupation tried “walk the
leprosy victims into the sea by moving them from the center of Korea South Korea
The
Presbyterian Church in Korea
b.
This is what it means to live the spiritual life – to live for other
people “in solidarity with the compassionate Christ.” In that way we achieve
true freedom” (34).
Conclusion: Peter rebukes Jesus: “You cannot suffer and die.”
Peter
will learn that not only will Jesus suffer and die, but Jesus will do so for
Peter and with Peter.
Jesus,
the compassionate God.
Resources:
Carpenter,
Marj. To the Ends of the Earth: Mission
Meisler,
Stanley. “A Masterpiece Born of Saint Anthony's Fire,” Smithsonian Magazine, September, 1999. http://www.stanleymeisler.com/smithsonian/smithsonian-1999-09-grunewald.html
Nouwen, Henri. Letters to Marc about Jesus: Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World. HarperOne,
1988.
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