Sunday’s June 22nd Sermon

22Jun08

I am including the sermon prepared for today, but I am going to actually read a story by Anthony Di Mello that I will include on the stpaulsblog.wordpress.com site, hopefully both in print and recorded.

Jesus as our Rabbi

 A very kind, devout, holy pope dies after years of faithful service.  In recognition of his faithfulness, he is told that he can have anything he wants.  He responds that he would like to go back through history and hear exactly what was said, when, with every nuance, and intention.  His wish is granted.  Two years later there is a cry that shakes the foundations of heaven “THERE’S AN R, THERE’S AN R, it is not Celibate, it is CELEBRATE!” 

Translation is important.

Today’s gospel looks a bit like a church picnic, biblical pot-luck.  It just seems like a bit of this and a bit of that.

Until we get a key, until we get a translation- then everything begins to fall into place.

We need to do some translation this morning, usually we try to bring everything into today’s language- how does this apply to today.

Today we need to understand something of Jesus’ day before we can apply it to our lives together.

We need to unlearn before we learn.

 

Today:  A Teacher imparts knowledge

Object of the student, and the hope of the teacher is that their student exceed them- to take what they know and build upon it.

A Rabbi was different- he did not just impart knowledge- teach from the textbook, teach the required curriculum.  They were about something much bigger.  It was not just what they said, but how they lived their lives that taught their students

 

The Rabbi’s and their students knew that People learn by seeing truth lived out, they learn from example.  Not just experts on the law, but experts on living it out.  Their students were passionate about following God, wanted to learn everything they could so that they could please God by following His Law, His word to them.

 

Rabbi Akiba, a student of Rabbi Joshua, so wanted to learn how to live out every aspect of Torah, how to follow God’s Law that he followed Rabbi Joshua into the bathroom.  When Rabbbi Joshua asked him what he was doing, Rabbi Akiba said, I have to watch you as you relieve yourself, just in case there is some lesson that God might be wanting to teach me.

Joshua Why did you think that that was so important?

Akiba- even that is Torah, Even that has something to do with the teaching of God.

I need to learn it

 

Rabbi Kahana, learn about Torah in marital relationships, snuck into his Rabbi’s bedroom and hid under his bed, to hear about Torah in the words of his Rabbi’s discussion with his wife in those intimate times.  I need to learn.

(*Thanks to Bruxey Cavey of The Meeting House for these examples of Rabbibic discipleship from the Babylonian Talmud)

[If even the hairs on our head are numbered by God, doesn't that make brushing our hair a holy thing?  Something God cares intimately about.]

Jesus was an example of truth lived out loud

Point ONE-

As disciples of Jesus, we are to model every part of our lives on Jesus- not just what is in our heads, but how we live every part of our lives.  We are to be both right thinking and right acting people as followers of Jesus.

There is nothing that is trivial or unimportant to God, He loves each of us so much that, he even knows how many hairs are on your head.  God has that kind of intimate relationship with you.

 

Point Two- As a follower of Jesus, as a student of Jesus- There is nothing secret about our spiritual lives- it is all out there in the open- there is no such thing as an inner life that is separate from the outer life.

It is no use saying, I am really a good person on the inside.   It is no use filling our heads with all kinds of orthodox theology if we are not willing to have orthopraxy, orthodox living, right living.  Who you are, the kind of follower of Jesus you are is demonstrated in your behaviour.  Out of the abundance of your heart the mouth speaks, Jesus says.  Who you really are, is out there, on display.

Jesus exemplified that- he did what he said and he said what he did.

His inner life and his outer life matched- that is called Integrity.

As followers of Jesus, as Jesus’ students, we are called to have our inner life, our so-called spiritual life match the way we live our lives. 

If there is to be integrity about our lives, our inner and our outer lives, if they are to be one- then acknowledging Jesus is done not with the words we speak, but with the behaviour we exhibit.

 

Point Three- How do we know that we are doing that?  How do we know that we are following Jesus as our Rabbi?

We will face opposition, living as Jesus did, loving with the kind of radical, self-giving, authentic love that Jesus had will mean people hate you.

Now just because we experience opposition does not mean that you are following Jesus-  Just like just because you are paranoid doesn’t mean that the whole world isn’t after you, But if we are following Jesus, if we are following living lives where our insides are matching our outsides, we will face persecution.

 

Why?

Because evil does that.  There is a force in this universe, and in us that wants nothing more than to stamp out the work of God in this world in us and you- it can take any form- disease, dispair, political persecution, religious persecution, even persecution from your own family.  There is no rhyme or reason to it- that implies a kind of goodness- evil has one agenda- destruction of all that is good and godly.  It is a simple fact.

 

There is no doubt, Jesus says Living with integrity, following Jesus with our whole being, being Jesus’ student with our heart, soul mind and strength, is a radical and dangerous thing.

And Jesus says, it takes our whole life, our home life, our work life, our family life, our sex life, every part of our lives, nothing, not even the hairs of our head are outside God’s concern.

But Jesus says, there is no life like it.  His life is eternal life, all others are pretenders.  If you want to find your life anywhere else, you will lose it.   Jeremiah says that if he doesn’t follow, it is like his bones burn within him.  We live in a world with people with burning bones, uncomfortable in their own skin and unable to figure out why But following Jesus, really being his student, imitating his life, his love, his behaviour, that is the way to true integrity, a true integration of who we are and who we were made to be, In His Name Amen.

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