Pentecost XVI

Pentecost XVI Proper 20
Whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.

Jesus is the fulness of God in human flesh.

In Jesus Christ God permanently united his divinity with our humanity. The Infinite and Eternal Trinity has embraced human nature through the second person of the Triune God, the co-eternal Word of God, the Beloved, incarnate in Jesus Christ.

So it is that Jesus says- if you receive me you receive him who sent me. If you receive me you receive God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. To those who say they want God but not Jesus, the testimony of the Holy Spirit is: what?

God is fully revealed in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus is God reaching out to all humanity with the outstretched arms of love and compassion saying Come. Come as a little child comes. Come with joy, come in sorrow, come with trust, come with questions- but come. Come and receive the blessing. Come and become the blessing.

Once again in this passage we see two themes that have characterized the Biblical insight into human nature: Separation and self will.
Once again we see how the apostles choose not to ask Jesus any questions. They clearly don’t understand the teaching about the cross. But, they don’t ask for help in understanding.
James gives us insight into why the apostles didn’t ask for clarification. They didn’t want to hear any more. What they heard offended them and frightened them. What they heard contradicted everything had learned throughout their lives. It contradicted what they believed about God and what they expected God to do for them.

They believed God was on their side. God was for them. And since God was for them he was against everyone else. They believed the blessing God promised through Moses and the prophets was the power, possessions, pleasure, pride and prestige they desired.
And so, even as Jesus is teaching about the fulfillment of the sacrificial system God revealed to Moses, the apostles are arguing amongst themselve about the offices they will hold in the new government they expect Jesus will establish.

We can only imagine how the conversation among the apostles devolved into an argument. Matthew might claim the office of Treasurer based on his experience as tax collector. Judas would argue, but Jesus has entrusted me with the money box. I am the logical choice for Treasurer. Peter might assert- Jesus called me a rock. I get to be prime minister. James would argue. No way. You are too old, too slow and too stupid. My brother John is young and smart and Jesus’ best friend. He should be Prime Minister and I will be his chief of staff and first advisor.

And so it goes. We can imagine this since we share a common humanity with the apostles. We only need to consider how we might have acted. We only need to observe how we in fact do act. It is all too human to think this way, to react this way. It is all too human to tell God what we want and expect God to grant our requests. It is all too human to look at God and either fear punishment or expect self indulgence.

Jesus reveals God’s nature in a very different way. Jesus is God in human flesh. If we want to know about God’s nature and character we only need to study the life of Jesus Christ. And, what Jesus reveals about God is consistent with what God revealed through Moses and the prophets.
When the religions leaders of his day questioned or attacked Jesus, Jesus would direct them to study Moses and the prophets. Jesus once said: I have not come to abolish the Law of Moses, I have come to fulfill it.

The first principle in discerning God’s nature and character is to read the four biographies of Jesus Christ, the four gospels.

The second principle is to read the Moses and the prophets. Moses and the prophets provide the context for understanding Jesus. Jesus brings final clarity to the revelation God gave to Moses and the Prophets.

This requires two very difficult choices. It requires study. And, it requires prayer. We can master the material contained in the Bible but miss the message. The Temple priests, the scribes, the pharisees and the other religious leaders of the time had a certain knowledge of the Bible. But they lacked understanding.

So it was with the apostles. The Bible is brutally honest about its heros. The apostles were self centered xenophobic and closed minded. They were in fact fully enmeshed in the human condition. But, Jesus had come to present a new way of being human.

That is why Jesus says he is the Way. The Way is not to be found in the human created categories of religions experience. Those categories are aggression, submission and withdrawal. The Way Jesus teaches is the Way he embodies. The Way of Christ is the Way of total immersion in divine love and holiness. It is in fact, the way of the cross.

In our scripture readings this morning we see three examples of living according to the Way. One is from Proverbs, one is from the Psalms and the other from the letter of James. All offer goals. All offer warnings. There is a sermon supplement in your bulletin this morning that lists the actions and attitudes God reveals will proceed from the new Way of being human.
The list is daunting. For those who like to do lists please take this home. But, I invite you to pray about it first. It is only possible to do these things by the power of the Holy Spirit whom Jesus sends into our souls.

Jesus invited his apostles and through them us to adopt the attitude of a servant and a child. Notice, Jesus did not say slave. He did not invite us to be childish. The servant devotes himself to study two things: his job description and his employer. A good servant is an excellent employee who is always expanding his knowledge of his job. He is also always listening carefully and observing his employer to understand better how to do the job.

The child is the perfect symbol of what theologians and religious teachers call "beginners mind". The child works with few assumptions. The child is open to new ideas and new understandings.
The apostles were not yet servants. They did not yet have the desire to study the Bible. They had heard the stories and passed the tests at their Bar Mitzvah. Their attitude about the Bible was: been there done that. What’s next? The servant studies his job and his employer. The servant asks questions. It is clear from this passage the apostles did not want to be God’s servants. They wanted to be his absolute infallible representatives on earth. They wanted to command and control, not serve.

The apostles lacked beginner’s mind. Their minds were made up. They embodied the modern proverb: often wrong but never in doubt. They not only thought they knew who Jesus was and what he wanted, they knew they knew. And, in that knowledge they either ignored or rejected any information to the contrary- even when it came from Jesus himself. The apostles needed to adopt the beginner’s mind of the child.

The application for us is clear. Are we God’s servants? When we call Jesus Lord do we make choices that support that statement? The servant studies his job description. For us, that would be the Bible. The servant studies his employer. For us, that would be the sacramental real presence of Jesus Christ at the altar.

Where is you passion? Where is you mind? Do you have a passion for Jesus Christ? Do you have a desire for service? Are you offering you mind to the Holy Spirit to be transformed, renewed, blessed?

Is it your goal to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for your life?

Very simply stated: God’s plan and purpose for human beings is to receive divine blessing in Jesus Christ so that we may become a blessing to other people. We do that by embracing the way of the servant. We do that by embracing the Way of the child’s beginner’s mind.
When Jesus tells his apostles, if you receive me you receive God he is also challenging them to discern what it is they really want? He is asking them a very powerful and profound question: in what way are you choosing to be human?

There are only two answers to that question. The two answers are "my way", or "God’s way." God’s way of being human is Jesus Christ. It is the way of the servant. It is the way of the child’s beginner’s mind. This is why Jesus teaches: whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me. The one who sent Jesus is the Living God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost.