Monday, March 24, 2014

Reflections on"Jesus the Descending God" Philippians 2: 6-11; Isaiah 64: 1-4

I had a pretty good story (I thought) to point out the paradox that we most often find the descending God when we are at a low point.  The story did not work (see Move 2, e. 3 below).  I think that the sermon has a sort of serious tone at that point, so the story did not come across.  At one point, I had the story at the beginning of the sermon, and probably should have left it there.  Earlier in the sermon I think the congregation would have been receptive to the humor in the story.

If I had done that, then I could have used that paradox as a way of getting into the sermon, which probably would have worked better.  One of the challenges in preaching about a book topic is that it is hard to get away from using the same sequence of points that the book uses, even when there might be a better away to present the sermon.

I thought this was a difficult concept to conceptualize, or at least part of it was.  The idea that God descends to us works well; the idea that we need to follow Christ by adopting a descending way of life ourselves is more challenging, particularly when we are comparing ourselves to the example of Jean Vanier.  Part of the problem is that we should not be comparing, but when the example Nouwen uses is so hard to imagine for my own life, it makes it difficult to connect the point he makes with my own life.

Jesus: The Compassionate God”  March 16, 2014; Lenten series; Philippians 2: 6-11; Isaiah  64: 1-4

Introduction:  “I get the feeling that, under the blanket of success, a lot of people fall asleep in tears” (Nouwen, 43).

So writes Henri Nouwen. 

We hear his words and recognize their truth.  It is often the case, that in the midst of our climbing the ladder of success or achieving our highest goals, that we find ourselves lying awake at night or staring out the window of our car as we drive down the road, wondering why we feel so alone. 

As we continue reading through Henri Nouwen’s Letters to Marc, we are invited to reflect on how Jesus, the descending God joins with us so that we will never be alone.

Move 1: God's love for us is discovered in the coming of Christ.

            a.  Nouwen shares the story of a minister preaching a sermon with a “Huge round window of stained glass” in the background.

            1. The minister notes that the stained glass window “is a work of art made by human beings.  But unless God’s sun shines through it we see nothing’” (39).

            2.  We can build a successful life; we can accomplish many things, but unless we have God in our lives, then our loneliness will carry the day.
           
            b. We need God in our lives.

Move 2:  Christ comes toward us by descending.

a. We look to the biblical text and see Jesus coming toward us and making decisions to join with us.
      1.  Being born of a human

      2.  Even though at twelve Jesus could question the authorities at the Temple, he stayed at home until he was thirty;

      3.  Even though Jesus was without sin, Jesus joined with the sinners being baptized at the River Jordan. We remember that John the Baptist did not want to baptize Jesus because he did not feel worthy to do so, but Jesus insisted, and in so doing he joins with the sinners.
           
            4.  Jesus descent culminates on the cross when Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” “Only then do we know how far God has gone to show us God’s love.”  He hangs from the cross, submitting to the power of the world and dying with criminals by his side.  “For it is then that Jesus has not only reached his utmost poverty, but also has shown God's utmost love” (45).

            4.  Jesus continually “opts for what is small, hidden, and poor, and accordingly declines to wield influence” (44)  

  1. AS the early church sought to understand how God has moved toward them in Christ, they developed a hymn that is captured in Paul’s letter to the Philippians that we read this morning.

1.      How is Jesus’ descending way described? 

2: Jesus emptying himself out for us.

  1. Notice that as Jesus empties himself out for us and invites us to do the same, he invites us into a new community. 

1.      a community that is not based on ones wealth or success, but on one’s willingness to share their lives with one another.
2.       Jesus was not a “masochist in search of misery,” but he was descending as “the way to new fellowship in which we human beings can reach new life and celebrate it together” (42).

3.       At the core of who we are lies this question:  “Am I really loved?” (43).

4.  Not a new question.  We hear the prophet Isaiah asks something like that in the passage we read.  "God, will you tear open the heavens and come to take care of me?"

4.      God answers that question with, “Yes, you are loved so much that my son Jesus empties himself out for you and invites you into a new life and new community.”

e.  . The descending way of Christ is both a mystery and a paradox.
           
            1.  “It is the way of suffering, but also the way to healing. It is the way of humiliation, but also the way to resurrection.  It is the way of tears, but of tears that turn into tears of joy.  It is the way of hiddenness, but also the way that leads to the light that shines for all people.  It is the way of persecution, oppression, martyrdom, and death, but also the way to the full disclosure of God” (46).
          
2.    “the descending way of love, the way to the poor, the broken , and oppressed becomes the ascending way of love, the way to joy, peace, and new life.  The cross is transformed from a sign of death into a sign of victory, a sign of despair into a sign of hope, from the sign of death into the sign of life” (47).

            3.  There is a Story told about an older couple named Morris and Sadie.  Morris is in his final days at the hospital, and Sadie was sitting by his side, which seems appropriate, since she has been at his side for nearly sixty years of married life. 

Morris looks over at his wife Sadie at his side and says, “
“Honey, do you remember when we were young and just married and we opened up our little store in the Bronx, but then the gangs came and drove us out? You were right there by my side.”

Oh, yes, I remember”

Morris went on:  “Do you remember how we packed up and moved to the West Coast, but then forest fires burned down our business and our home.  You were right there by my side?”

yes, Yes, dear, I remember.”

And then remember how we moved down to Miami after we retired and then I had my heart attack, and you were right here by my side?”

how could I forget?”

And here I am (McConnell, 7), on my deathbed in the hospital and you are right here by my side.”

I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”

“Sadie, there’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

What’s that, dear?”

I think you’re a jinx.”

The paradox – we most often find the God who descends not when we are king or queen of the mountain, but when we have been kicked off the mountaintop and are struggling.

Move 3:  How do we join with Christ in descending?

a.  Nouwen shares how L’Arche, the home for handicapped men where he is staying and working, reveals this truth.

2.      Jean Vanier, the founder, had grown up in an aristocratic environment in Canada, served in the navy, and then became a very popular professor St. Michael’s College in Toronto.

1.      When the success left him unsatisfied, he fell “called to another kind of life:  simpler, poorer, and more centered on prayer and commitment to service” (40)

2.       He thought about becoming a priest, but instead discerned that he was being asked to return to France to live with mentally handicapped people (40). Although he does not make this point explicitly, it is informative for us to note the role in which another person played in his spiritual discernment.  The reminder that being connected with others is critical to our discernment process.

3.       Vanier asked two men, Philippe and Raphael, to leave an institution to join with him “in a simple life in imitation of Jesus” (40).

3.       His initial efforts grows into “a worldwide movement with homes for mentally handicapped people not only in Western Europe, but in Asia, Africa, and the Americas as well (41).

4. A difficult act to follow.

b.  The best way to discover the God who descends in Christ is through prayer

            1.   “God's way can only be grasped in prayer. The more you listen to God speaking within you, the sooner you will hear that voice inviting you to follow Jesus the way of Jesus.
           
  1.             2.  The more we pray, the easier it is to discover Christ in our own lives and to hear how Christ calls us to empty ourselves for others.

d.       Descending brings us into the brokenness of the world.

1.      the farther we descend, “the more your eyes are opened to the brokenness of our humanity“(41).

2.      Nouwen suggests that “We don’t mind paying attention to poor people from time to time, but descending to a state of poverty and becoming poor with the poor – that we don’t want to do” (42)

3.       And yet it is the way Jesus chose as the way to know God (42).

4.      That comment of course, challenges us to the core.

                                    5.  No easy answers, but the reminder that watch of us has to find our own way to live out the descending way

Conclusion:  A wise, old rabbi was once asked why so few people were finding God, especially when so many people were looking for God.  The rabbi replied.  “Most people are not willing to look that low.”

Jesus, the God who descends.

Resources:
Nouwen, Henri.  Letters to Marc about Jesus:  Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World. HarperOne, 1988.


When the Wind Is Against You: Encouragement for When Life Pushes Back, Stephen McConnell, 2013.

Friday, March 21, 2014

"Jesus: the Descending God" Philippians 2: 6-11

This week we reflect on Jesus, the descending God.  I'm trying to shift the sermon style a bit to break away from the pattern of the last few weeks.  Maybe more stories, if I can find them.  I don't want the sermon series to become too much like the class on this topic.

1.      Nouwen begins his thoughts on Jesus, the descending God, by sharing the sermon he heard in which the minister referenced the “Huge round window of stained glass and said, ‘It is a work of art made by human beings.  But unless God’s sun shines through it we see nothing’” (39)

a.        We know about stained glass windows at FPC, Troy, so we can see [literally] his point, although I find that even without sunshine on a gloomy day, the stained glass windows reveal themselves.
b.      Nouwen’s topic will be “the love of God made visible by Jesus in his life” (39).

2.      Nouwen shares how L’Arche, the home for handicapped men where he is staying and working, reveals this truth.

a.       Jean Vanier, the founder, had grown up in an aristocratic environment in Canada, served in the navy, and then became a very popular professor St. Michael’s College in Toronto.
b.      When the success left him unsatisfied, he fell “called to another kind of life:  simpler, poorer, and more centered on prayer and commitment to service” (40).
c.       He thought about becoming a priest, but instead discerned that he was being asked to return to France to live with mentally handicapped people (40). Although he does not make this point explicitly, it is informative for us to note the role in which another person played in his spiritual discernment.  The reminder that being connected with others is critical to our discernment process.
d.      Vanier asked two men, Philippe and Raphael, to leave an institution to join with him “in a simple life in imitation of Jesus” (40).
e.       His initial efforts grows into “a worldwide movement with homes for mentally handicapped people not only in Western Europe, but in Asia, Africa, and the Americas as well (41).
f.        Vanier invited Nouwen to leave his teaching at Yale and come to L’Arche to make it his new home.

3.      Nouwen sees Vanier’s movement in life as an act of descending to the weak and poor, instead of ascending the ladder of success (41).
     
a.       For Nouwen, “it has become very clear to me that the further you descend, the more your eyes are opened to the brokenness of our humanity (41).
b.      The love of God in Christ arrives in this same way – “it is made visible in the descending way… God has descended to us human beings to become a human being with us; and once among us, he descended to the total dereliction of one condemned to death” (41)
c.       Initial reaction – even when we think about Jesus becoming human, we think of him descending to us, but don’t really ant to push our thought to Jesus descending to the worst of our humanity.
d.      Second reaction – not sure Nouwen’s concept of God’s descending love fits with the prosperity gospel that is preached in many of our churches (and to look in the mirror, is probably felt by many of us).
e.       Nouwen picks up on these two reactions when he notes “We don’t mind paying attention to poor people from time to time, but descending to a state of poverty and becoming poor with the poor – that we don’t want to do. And yet it is the way Jesus chose as the way to know God (42). That comment of course, challenges us to the core.

Conversation starter: From your own life, what are signs of how you ascend the ladder of success; what are signs of descending?

4.      Nouwen references the early church hymn that is found in Paul’s letter to the Philippians 2: 6-11.

a.       Jesus was not a “masochist in search of misery,” but he was descending as “the way to new fellowship in which we human beings can reach new life and celebrate it together” (42).
b.      Nouwen notes that wealth does not lead to a new sense of community. Instead, “there is more competitiveness, more envy, more un3est, and more anxiety” (42-3). 
c.       He notes that “success has isolated a lot of people and made them lonely” (43).
d.      At the core of who we are lies this question:  “Am I really loved?” (43).
e.       Nouwen suggests that one reason he left Yale to come to L’Arche was his “hope of staying closer to the love that lies concealed in poverty” (44).

5.      Nouwen makes the point that Jesus did not just choose the descending way of love once, but that he chose it over and over again (44).

      a. Examples of Jesus descending:  Even though at twelve Jesus could question the authorities at the Temple, he stayed at home until he was thirty; even though Jesus was without sin, Jesus joined with the sinners being baptized at the River Jordan
            b.  Jesus continually “opts for what is small, hidden, and poor, and accordingly declines to wield influence” (44)
            c.  Jesus descent culminates on the cross when Jesus cries out “My God, my God, why have your forsaken me?”  “Only then do we know how far God has gone to show us his love. For it is then that Jesus has not only reached his utmost poverty, but also has shown God's utmost love” (45). 
            d. I would note that if we concur with the Apostles' Creed that Christ “descended into hell,” then God goes farther than Christ's death on the cross.

Conversation starter:  Is Christ’s death on the cross something that happened that saves us only, or can you envision how we might join Christ in dying for others in our daily lives?

6. Nouwen notes that we can only apprehend the mystery of Christ descending to his death through prayer.

            a. “God's way can only be grasped in prayer. The more you listen to God speaking within you, the sooner you will hear that voice inviting you to follow Jesus the way of Jesus.
            b. Again we see this outward push from Nouwen – what we claim for ourselves about God, we extend to others.

7. The descending way of Christ is both a mystery and a paradox.
           
            a. “It is the way of suffering, but also the way to healing. It is the way of humiliation, but also the way to resurrection.  It is the way of tears, but of tears that turn into tears of joy.  It is the way of hiddenness, but also the way that leads to the light that shines for all people.  It is the way of persecution, oppression, martyrdom, and death, but also the way to the full disclosure of God” (46).
            b.  “the descending way of love, the way to the poor, the broken , and oppressed becomes the ascending way of love, the way to joy, peace, and new life.  The cross is transformed from a sign of death into a sign of victory, a sign of despair into a sign of hope, from the sign of death into the sign of life” (47).

8.  Nouwen notes that each person has to find his or her own way to live out the descending way.
            a. Nouwen believes it can best be done through prayer and through life in a community of faith that is grounded in the Eucharist.
            b. Nouwen suggests that when we eat of the bread and drink of the cup we participate in Christ's descending way (49).

Conversation starter: How might prayer reveal to you the way of descending?

ow





Resources:  Letters to Marc:  Living Spiritually in a Materialistic World, Henri Nouwen


Monday, March 17, 2014

Reflections on "Jesus: The Compassionate God" Matthew 16: 21-28; Matthew 12: 38-42

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 region (23).

                        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 to the south, Dr. Robert Wilson [one of the missionaries] went with them and carried the. That was at a time when you thought that if you touched leprosy, you got it.  The church bought land in the very southern part of South Korea and put up a leprosarium and the church grew.  Later when leprosy victims could be cured but could not go back into society, we gave them little plots of land where they had gardens, and raised chickens, and built a church out of rocks.”

The Presbyterian Church in Korea has grown tremendously through the years, which leads Carpenter to note:  “When you stand with people when they are persecuted, the church grows every time” (44).

            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 Stories from Around the World. Presbyterian Publishing Corporation, 1995.

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.

Friday, March 14, 2014

"Jesus:The Compassionate God" Matthew 12: 38-43; Matthew 16: 23-28


The third week in Nouwen's book Letters to Marc.  Last week I brought into the conversation a song from the musical Big River.  this week Nouwen brings into the conversation some art work.  I enjoy using other modes of reflecting to help unpack the Scripture lesson.  If you want to see the painting Nouwen references in color (it's in black and white in his book), follow this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mathis_Gothart_Gr%C3%BCnewald_019.jpg

1.      Nouwen begins his chapter on Jesus as the compassionate God by referencing the Isenheimer Altar  that was painted between 1513 and 1515.
a.        The altar was located in a chapel at a hospital for plague victims in the small village of Isenheimer, near Colmar, a French town in the Alsace region (23).
b.      According to Nouwen, it is not certain who painted the altarpiece, but most authorities agree that Matthias Grunewald was the artist who painted it (23). Note that the an Internet search provides resources (including Wikipedia link and the link to an article from the Smithsonian magazine, both of which are listed in the resources cites below).
c.       As an aside, if you have seen the movie Monuments Men, this altar piece is one of the art pieces that the Germans took to a cave to store for removal back to Germany.
d.      Nouwen suggests that the painting of Christ on the cross with ulcerations would have made those suffering from the plague or ergotism (skin disease) to connect with God:  “ON this altar they saw 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 love brought together in this one suffering figure.  They saw that, in their mortal anguish, they had not been left on their own” (25).
e.       While I agree with Nouwen’s argument, I do find his focus on the gory aspects a bit like watching The Passion of Christ and its bloody, gory crucifixion.  I am also reminded that the Catholic  tradition usually has Christ handing on their crosses; the Presbyterians seem to gravitate to the empty cross – both true, but different emphases.

2.      As the front panel opens up, there is a painting depicting the resurrection.
a.        Nowen 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)
b.       Nouwen also notes that the other panels reveal depictions of Chirst’s birth, St. Anthony’s temptations, and the resurrection, reminding the viewer that to follow Christ means to be tempted, to suffer, to die, and to be resurrected (25).

Conversation starter: Which has more meaning to you:  a cross with Christ on it or an empty cross?   Which evokes more of a sense of connectedness for you?

3.      For Nouwen, the story of Christ's death and resurrection is the “gospel,” and it “constitutes the core of the spiritual life” (27).
a.       People have to claim this truth for themselves.
b.      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).
c.       Nouwen notes that “rebirth is what you are called to – a radical liberation that sets you free from the power of death and empowers you to love fearlessly” (27).
d.  As I hear Nouwen mention rebirth, I am reminded of the story in the Gospel of John when he tells Nicodemus: “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit”(John 3: 6).

4.  What comes to mind when we think of suffering and death?
            a. Nouwen suggests that we immediately think of these words:  “preventing, avoiding, denying, shunning, keeping clear of, and ignoring.”
            b.  He notes that we spend so much time and effort keeping people alive, that we ignore the dead.  I would suggest that shift seems to have intensified in our world where medical technology makes it seem as if everything can be treated and made death much cleaner and sterile than in previous generations.
            c. Nouwen indicates Jesus approaches it differently:  “Jesus' attitude was quite different.  He encountered suffering and death with his eyes wide open.  Actually, his whole life was a conscious preparation for them. Jesus doesn't comment them as desirable things, but he does speak of them as realities we ought not to repudiate, avoid, or cover up” (29).

5.  Nouwen turns to the story in the Gospels when Jesus foretells his suffering and death, only to have Peter rebuke him (Matthew 16: 23-28).
            a.  Peter's response reflects the human desire to avoid death and suffering.
            b. Jesus' response indicates that 'He regards Peter's reaction as the most dangerous of all for those in quest of a spiritual life” (29).
            c. Jesus continues by noting that those who will follow him must “take up their cross” and lose their life (Matthew16: 24).

Conversation starter:  How would you characterize what it has meant in your life of discipleship to take up your cross and lose your life?

6.  Nouwen also brings up the story in Matthew (Matthew 12: 38-43) in which Jesus responds to the request for a sign by noting that the only sign they will get is the sign of Jonah.
            a. For Jonah to return to God, he has to be transformed by three days in the belly of the huge fish.
            b. Notice the connection between Jonah's experience and Christ's crucifixion and being in the tomb three days before being resurrected.

7. Nouwen finally makes his point:  “God sent Jesus to make free persons of us. He has chosen compassion as the way to freedom” (31).
            a. Nouwen notes that instead of God removing suffering from us, God comes in Christ to share in our suffering (31). 
            b. “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).
            c. 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).
d. 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).

8. Nouwen again take the truth we discover in Christ and pushes it to become a challenge for how Christ's disciples extend themselves into the world.
            a.  Nouwen notes:  “When you come to see Jesus more and more as the compassionate God, you will begin increasingly to see your own life as one in which you yourself want to express that divine compassion” (34)
            b.  Nouwen connects this with the spiritual life: “Living for other people in solidarity with the compassionate Christ: that's what it means to live a spiritual life. In that way you too achieve true freedom” (34).

9.  Nouwen finishes by connecting the compassionate God with the Eucharist.
            a. This leads to his suggestion that Grunewald chose the altar to do his painting
            b.  Nouwen suggests that Grunewald “was showing these mortally ill what it was that the Eucharist really gave them.  They had no more need to endure their plague alone.  They were incorporated into the suffering of Jesus and so could trust also that they would be allowed to share in his resurrection” (36).

Conversation starter:  When you receive the bread and cup during communion, what images of Christ do they give to you?
Resources:
Meisler, Stanley.  “A Masterpiece Born of Saint Anthony's Fire,” Smithsonian Magazine, September, 1999.             http://www.stanleymeisler.com/smithsonian/smithsonian-1999-09-grunewald.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mathis_Gothart_Gr%C3%BCnewald_019.jpg


Nouwen, Henri.  Letters to Marc about Jesus:  Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World. HarperOne, 1988.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Reflections on "Jesus: the God Who Sets Us Free" Luke 24: 13-27

Jesus: The God Who Sets Us Free”  March 9, 2014; March 2, 2014; Lenten series  

We officially began Lent with our second week in Henri Nouwen's book Letters to Marc.  Again the challenge not to become too dry with all the material that I have to work with that comes directly from Nouwen.  The notes below are probably more structured than the sermon ended up as I tried not to make the sermon merely connect the quotes. 

The journal entry illustration seemed to work (it was a last minute addition to the sermon), as well as the recording of "Free at Last."  I found finishing with the song, which you can't hear on this blog, was a powerful finish.  The words of the song connected very well with what I was trying to 

Introduction:  We continue our Lenten series reading through Henri Nouwen's book Letters to Marc:  Living a Spiritual Life in a Materialistic World. 

Last week we focused on how Jesus is the heart of our existence.

This week we contemplate how Jesus is the God who sets us free.

Move 1:   Freedom and oppression in our world.

            a.  Nouwen notes that “for most people freedom is a dream.  It’s a lot easier to find evidence of oppression in our world than of freedom” (12). 

1.      he suggests that his read of history indicates it has been like that throughout history.

                        2. In his time, he can point to violent elections in the Philippines; Duvalier’s reign and then flight from Haiti; genocide in Uganda; unrest in South Africa, Northern Ireland, Iran, and Iraq as signs of oppression in the world.

      3.  In our time, we might lift up places that struggle such Crimea; Afghanistan; Iraq; China; N. Korea; or reflect on how the economic volatility has oppressed some.

b.  Nouwen indicates that for his nephew Marc life is rather good.
     
                  1.  We would, of course, resonate with Marc's world.

                  2.  In our own lives, we know freedom and opportunity more than we know oppression.
3.  Nouwen wants to focus on freedom in Christ.  What it means to follow the resurrected one.

Move 2:  He turns to the in Luke that we read this morning about Cleopas and his friend who are traveling from Jerusalem to Emmaus three days after the crucifixion of Christ.

a.      Nouwen notes that they “were going home, disillusioned, dejected and downcast” (12).
                        1.  Although they have heard from others that the tomb in which Christ had been buried is empty, they cannot conceive of what has happened.
                        2.  They lived in time when Romans were their masters, but in Jesus they had discovered the hope that they could be set free.
                        3. Then Jesus had been crucified – the world and its authorities had spoken and Christ was dead and buried.
                        4.  Cleopas and his friend had lost heart and were making their way back home. 
                        5.  It was not a journey of hope, but a journey of despair. (13).

            b.  Nouwen connects the despair and disappointment they feel with our human frailty.
                        1.  Jesus had not just been crucified, he had been buried in the tomb. 
                        2.  Three days. Three days of his dead body rotting.
                        3.  Nouwen suggests that  “decomposition is surely the most telling symbol of human desperation.  Whatever we do or say,…we shall rot.   
                        4. Remember the words we speak as the ashes are traced across our forehead on Ash Wednesday:  “From dust you have come.  To dust you shall return.”
                        5.  That’s why we are so deeply affected by life’s disappointments and setbacks. They remind us that, sooner or later, everything decays.  Decomposition is our inner conviction that, in the end, it is utterly impossible to prevent anything from coming to nothing”(13-14)

c.  Consider the implications that has for us. 
            1.  When we fail or are disappointment in what life presents us, part of our reaction is tied to our recognition of our human frailty.
            2. Maybe not consciously, but our failures trigger in us a sense of hopelessness.
            3. We become oppressed by this sense that life is hopeless.

d. Notice who Jesus responds to Cleopas and his friend.
            1.   Jesus does not try to tell them what they feel is not real or that they just misunderstand the situation.
            2.  Too often, we think that if we just understand something or can just figure out why it happened, then it will not disappoint us or somehow we can handle it. 
            3. Jesus does not try to explain their disappointment away; instead, he offers them something more than their despair.
            4.  He tells them this truth:  “the Jesus in whom they had placed all their hopes, the Jesus who was indeed dead and buried, this Jesus is alive...for the Jesus whom they had admired so much, death and dissolution have become the way to liberation” (14).
            5.   Jesus transforms their reality; he does not just change their perspective of things.

            e.  Nouwen connects this transformation with our hearts: 
                        1.  Only in our hearts can we understand that Jesus gives us life that is stronger and greater than death and dissolution (15)
                        2.  he notes that the two on the road did not suddenly understand what had happened, but “their hearts burned within them” (15.
                        3.  At the core of who we are, we discover “something much more than a new outlook on things, a new confidence, or a new joy in living; something that can only be described only as a new life or a new spirit” (15).

Move 3:  Ironically, this is not the freedom that Cleopas and his friend thought they wanted.
  
          a.  When they first met Jesus, they wanted someone who could liberate them from the Romans (17).
                        1.  Their despair at Christ’s death was that the one who they thought could set them free from the Romans was killed by the Romans.
                        2.  But now they are being offered the “freedom of spirit:  a freedom from any specific political, economic, or social expectations for the future, a freedom to follow the Lord now, anywhere, even if it should mean suffering” (17)
                        3. that is the freedom we too are being offered – the freedom of Spirit.
                        4. The world may continue dealing us disappointments; the world may continue to oppress; but in Christ we are set free.

            b.  Nouwen makes an important point that the freedom not only frees the person from that which oppresses them, but it also frees the person to “forgive others, to serve them, and to form a new bond of fellowship with them. IN short, the freedom to love and to work for a free world” (18-19)
            1.  Nouwen illustrates this type of freedom in the woman he met in Jalapa, Nicaragua, whose husbands and sons had been brutally murdered by the Contras, but who still will to pray for their enemies to be forgiven and to give up any vindictiveness or hatred (18).
            2. Imagine living in a world where you are so vulnerable and so helpless. 
            3. Imagine how free those women are when they are able to show the world that they may suffer at the hands of the world as seen in the murder of their loved ones, but they are free in Christ to respond with forgiveness.

c.  Amy Frykholm quotes Russian write Nicolas Berdyaev”  “It would be a mistake to think that the average man loves freedom.  A still greater mistake would be to suppose that freedom is an easy thing.  Freedom is a difficult thing.  It is easier to remain in slavery.”  The Christian Century
            1. it is not easy to lay claim to our freedom in Christ.
            2. Journal entry from Ash Wednesday two years ago, which was a few weeks after my friend and colleague Ed DeLair had died and at a time when I was doing at least one funeral a week:  “I am tired of our human frailty.  I want to skip the ashes and get to the resurrection.”
            3. Fast forward two or three weeks.  By that point, my father had died unexpectedly.  Now I have a journal entry:  “I am tired of resurrection, because every time I preach resurrection, it is at a funeral.”
            4. We know our human frailty.  We desperately need the hope of resurrection.  But it’s not easy laying claim to that hope.
            6.  being people of the resurrection means turning away from the way of the world and following Christ. 
            3.  Being free in Christ not only offers us hope in the face of despair, but demands that we live our lives accordingly.

Conclusion:  Let me finish with the powerful song, “Free at Last,” from the musical Big River, in which Jim, the slave seeking to escape to freedom, sings of the joy that freedom will bring.

****CD “Free at Last”
                        Free at Last
 I wish by golly I could spread my wings and fly
And let my grounded soul be free for just a little while
To be like eagles when they ride upon the wind
And taste the sweetest taste of freedom for my soul

CHORUS:
Then I'd be free at last, free at last
Great God Almighty I'd be free at last

To let my feelings lie where harm can not come by
And hurt this always hurtin' heart
That needs to rest awhile
I wish by golly I could spread my wings and fly
And taste the sweetest taste of freedom for my soul

CHORUS:
Then I'd be free at last, free at last
Great God Almighty I'd be free at last
I'd be free at last, free at last
Great God Almighty I'd be free at last
Great God Almighty has sent Jesus to set us free.  Amen.


Resources used in preparation of these notes:
            The New Oxford Annotated Study Bible
             Letters to Marc about Jesus:  Living a Spiritual Life in a Material World;        
            CD of Big River, produced by MCA Records, Inc., 1986.