Past Sermon

Sermon Title: "Following Jesus, Led By the Spirit "
Date: January 20, 2008
Minister: Rev. Charles E. Ensley, Jr.

Lesson:  John 1:29-42

Sermon requests:  “How do we follow Christ today?”  “The role of the Holy Ghost in the

Christian faith.”  “What it means to be a Protestant in the 21st century.”

I imagine that everyone of you sitting here has your own image of Christ, honed by Sunday School pictures and lessons, scriptures you’ve read, sermons you’ve heard, studies you’ve undertaken.  By image, I don’t mean picture, but an impression of who this man was, how he interacted with others, and how he related to God.

I guess the first thing to figure out is who we attempt to follow.  There are some differing impressions one might glean from the gospels.  At a memorial service yesterday, the family asked me to read these words from Matthew’s gospel.  Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (11:28-30)

A very pastoral impression of Jesus; a caring and loving counselor.  Someone you can lean upon, no matter what burden or crises you face.

Last weekend, when I was with our Confirmation class on retreat, I gave the high-schoolers a quiz on their faith.  One question was, “Was Jesus known to get angry?”  Eleven chose NO; three chose YES.  Before I could even give the correct answer, one attentive teen asked, “What about when he got angry in the Temple and tossed all the tables over?”

So, do we follow a meek and mild Jesus, or one known to get angry?  Both.  Just as the creation story says humankind was created in God’s own image, God endowed the human Jesus with the same characteristics we have in our lives:  loving care and compassion at times, anger and outrage at others.  And often we need both.  On this weekend when we remember the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr., you might recall many of his speeches spoke of great dreams and compassionate care.  At other times, he must have been fueled by outrage at the injustice and inequality that existed in the middle of the 20th century; some of which still exists today.  Yet, at all times, I suspect King could have affirmed he was following the Jesus he knew and believed in.

In today’s lesson from John, the gospel writer uses several names for Jesus.  John the Baptizer makes the remarkable announcement that Jesus is the “Lamb of God,” the one who “will take away the sin of the world.”  This may have been a reference to certain Old Testament scriptures where animal sacrifice is indicated as a “sin offering.”

In the several other names for Jesus in these verses, each reveals something of the identify and mission of Jesus.  Various names might speak to the reader or listener today who says, ‘This is the Jesus I follow.’  “Son of God” designates Jesus’ close relationship with God.  “Rabbi” is a Hebrew title of respect meaning “teacher,” indicating Jesus’ role as a teacher of God’s way which we can follow.  “Messiah” is a Hebrew word meaning “the anointed one.”  Hebrew prophets spoke of God’s anointed one as the righteous ruler who would usher in a reign of justice and peace.

To follow Jesus is to learn about him, to study him by reading what the gospel writers interpret him as saying, and what study guides and scholars suggest this means for us today.  To follow Jesus is to attempt to treat others the way we understand he would treat them:  sometimes with great care and compassion, as when he wept while comforting Mary and Martha after the death of their brother Lazarus.  Sometimes it means a gentle admonition against someone we believe to be treating ourselves or others without respect, or in a harmful way.  And, from time to time, I suspect we might even be following Jesus when we get justifiably angry.

People of Jesus’ time were also wondering, as we do today, how to follow Jesus.  Today’s conversation with Jesus is an example:  when Jesus asks the two seekers what they’re looking for, they ask him where he lives.  “Asked a momentous, life-challenging question by the one proclaimed as the Son of God, the followers reply by asking for Jesus’ address,” commentator Charles Campbell writes, and he continues with a beautiful reflection on what it means to seek and follow Jesus, and how the disciples may not have missed the mark after all, whether they realized it or not.  Rather than losing themselves in endless disputes of fine theological points or complex and abstract questions, they are seeking a person, Jesus himself… “to be with him, to know him, and to follow him…Their simple question,” Campbell writes, “challenges the church today to examine what we are seeking – Jesus or something else.”  When we sit quietly and think about our deepest longing, or right in the midst of a long church meeting, we might ask ourselves what, and whom, we’re really seeking, what we’re really hoping for.  As much as Christianity is about a person, Jesus Christ, we have mostly turned it into those complex, abstract theological questions and overloaded it with burdensome moral restrictions.

The answer Jesus gives is no long-winded sermon full of obscure theological truths, but just three simple words that could provide a theme for our best evangelism efforts:  “Come and see.”  Campbell writes that rather than first understanding who Jesus is (we might call this “having it all together”), and then setting out to follow him, Jesus’ three word invitation brings these seekers close to him, in relationship, to “where he lives,” and knows that being in that relationship will transform their lives.  Along the way, we slowly come to understand better who Jesus is and what it means to be faithful to him.  Campbell concludes, “At a time when the church is tempted to become just another appealing commodity for middle-class consumers, the text from John poses a significant challenge to our communities of faith.  Do our words and deeds bear witness to Jesus?  And when we invite people to ‘come’, will they be able to ‘see’ Jesus in our congregations?”

While the most truncated description of Jesus’ baptism is found in John, the last-written of the Gospels, there is no doubt that John the Baptizer believes that the Holy Spirit of God, descending upon Jesus like a dove, is a clear recognition that he is the Son of God.  If we can get a handle on God as Creator, and Jesus as God in human form walking on this earth for three decades, then the Holy Spirit is the continuing presence of God in our lives.  I like to think of the Holy Spirit as “Holy Inspiration.”  I have ceased to use the term “good luck,” for I believe it is often the presence and influence of the Holy Spirit that grants us what we so blithely claim as “luck.” 

I cite two examples from early in my ministry.  In one, over thirty years ago, I randomly called on a church member, back when it was expected that the pastor just dropped in, without an appointment.  The church member answered the door with tears in her eyes.  “How did you know already?” she asked.  It seemed her father had just died, and she thought I was coming to comfort her.  In a second example, perhaps 24 years ago, I left my office to call on folks.  Looking at the apartment complex next door, where I had at least four church members residing, I decided to call on our newest member.  Long story short:  unbeknownst to me, she had phlebitis in her leg.  I called her doctor, took her to the hospital where she was admitted.  The doctor said I probably saved her life, which is how she introduced me for the rest of my ministry there.

Now do I take credit for any of this?  Absolutely not.  I believe to this day it was the Holy Spirit guiding and directing me to make both those calls, when I had no idea whatsoever what was to greet me on the other side of the door.  The Holy Spirit is where I receive the inspiration for much of what I say, pray, write and preach.  There is no way I can minimize, nor adequately define, the role and influence of the Holy Spirit upon our lives as Christians today.

Finally, “what does it mean to be a Protestant in the 21st century?”  We are far from the great build-up of the Protestant church that existed in the decades after World War II.  Churches were packed, couldn’t be built fast enough through the fifties and sixties to contain all the adults and the baby-boom generation.  However, we live in a far-more multicultural world and multifaith society now, half a century later.  Many new churches do not even identify with the denominations of our parents and grandparents.  They simply call themselves “Christian”, as if we Protestants are not.  Attending Sunday morning worship or other participation in church activities is just one of the many attractive options the general population has available.

Does that make worship attendance and church particpation any less valuable?  Do we Protestants have any less of a role, or responsibility, in society today?  Some of the hottest discussion in the current presidential primary season has to do with religion.  Among the leading candidates we have an evangelical Christian who is a former Southern Baptist preacher, a Mormon, a United Church of Christ member whose father was nominally Muslim, a United Methodist, and a former Episcopalian who is now Baptist.  With the exception of the Mormon, a religion which has never considered itself Protestant, all of the rest claim some Protestant background.  And, I hope when all the political rhetoric is over, their individual faiths help shape who they are as persons.

In short, I think nothing less is expected of Protestants in the 21st century, perhaps even more.  There are so many other competing ideologies, as well as weekend attractions, vying for our time, energy, commitment and money.   Yet if we do not persevere, continue to march steadily on, what will be left to influence our children and grandchildren?

Only after I had already selected these sermon requests for today did I see the article printed by our denomination on the back page of the worship bulletin.  Perhaps the last paragraph is the most effective conclusion for all three requests:

“If faith is a journey, then our quest for Jesus never ends in our lifetimes.  Moreover, thanks to the biblical research coming from our seminaries, and elsewhere, we are constantly meeting Jesus again – for the first time, as one scholar puts it.  But above all, as Protestants, we meet Jesus fundamentally in the Gospels, our eyes sharpened by the world around us, our ears attuned to the Stillspeaking God, and our understanding continually refreshed by the Holy Spirit.  In short, we meet Jesus with open hearts – and open minds.”