Unitarian Universalist Church at Washington Crossing

A modern day rendition of the question Jesus asked: “Who do you say I am?”

They answered: “You are the eschatological manifestation of the ground of our being, the kerygma in which we found the ultimate meaning of our interpersonal relationship.”
And Jesus said, “WHAT?”‘

Thomas Jefferson, our third U.S. President and self-proclaimed Unitarian sat down to read his Bible with a scissors in hand. He literally cut out the supernatural parts that he did not accept as believable. That is how he gave us what we know as the Jefferson Bible.

Christians disagree intensely about who Jesus was and what it means to follow him. Some followers of Jesus denounce evolution while others believe in it. Some followers of Jesus champion the Iraq war; others march in opposition. The list of issues that divide various groups of Christians include: AIDS, abortion, poverty and even the United States’ tax policy.

Down through history, Christians have never agreed on who Jesus was or what it means to be his follower. You may not be surprised to learn that others may disagree about how to understand Jesus. Understand, that I take Jesus very seriously and that I deeply respect what he said, what he did and that for which he stood.

There are many ways to interpret the story of Jesus. My study of Jesus over the past forty years causes me to believe that Jesus would agree with the words in our opening hymn: “Though I may speak with bravest fire, and have the gift to all inspire; and have not love, my words are vain, as sounding brass, and hopeless gain.”

Why all the disagreement about what manner of man Jesus was? One major answer is, there is a tension built right into the very Gospels. You see, the Gospels are a mixture of passed down memories from a number of sources plus - and this is very important to note - outright testimonials by the Christians who wrote them long after Jesus died. Add to this, the Gospels are rich in poetic metaphor, ageless sayings, creative narrative and mythic tales like walking on water and virgin birth.

Reading the Christian Scriptures we find stories of a pre-Easter Jesus or the Jesus of history and other stories of a post Easter Jesus or the Christ of Christian faith. They are not the same. Like other sacred scriptures, the Gospels and, the entire Bible, are human responses to experiences of what we call the holy or the sacred. The words of the Bible do not come directly from God; they come from our spiritual ancestors, people who were moved and inspired by their experience of the holy and tried their best to share that spiritual experience through the use of the written word.

Flash-forward about 2000 years. We should recognize that our lives, our culture, our understanding of history, science and religion have gone through monumental changes since the authors of the Christian Scriptures wrote their stories.
Last November in the first of this sermon series on Jesus, I talked about the basic historical fact that Jesus spoke in Aramaic not in King James English. He did not even speak the Greek of the original biblical manuscripts. Jesus did not write anything down. Jesus was a Jewish prophet who spoke and associated almost exclusively with Jews. Jesus did not intend to start a new faith called Christianity. The Gospels were written by second and third generation Christians, people who had never personally walked with, talked with or even listened to Jesus. The authors were writing about how Jesus, as their Christ, spoke to the current situations of their unique Christian communities.

Can you imagine if Jesus were to appear in the United States today? He would be totally bewildered by the many beliefs and doctrines that people have about him. Imagine how surprised and mystified Jesus would be with the Churches named after him today.

The gospel stories came from gathered oral traditions that had been told about Jesus, starting during his lifetime and then retold and molded and changed for 30 to 40 years within the earliest Christian communities. They wrote down what they thought Jesus would have said if he had been there with them or maybe what they felt he, as a spiritual presence, was inspiring them to write.

Given all that, we do have the short account about Jesus from Josephus, a non-Christian Jewish historian. He wrote the opening words for our service today near the close of the first century. This was the time the Gospels were also being written. Josephus observed that: Jesus was “a wise man,” a teacher whose lessons were received with pleasure. Jesus did “startling deeds,” what those were Josephus did not say. Jesus attracted many followers, among both Jews and those of Greek origin. The Roman government condemned and crucified Jesus.

Surprisingly, his followers continued to love him after his death and joined together in what Josephus called a tribe that became known as Christians. Josephus was generally positive toward Jesus. He learned about Jesus through the followers of Jesus while he was still in his Jewish homeland or maybe after he moved to Rome. Most likely, he heard about Jesus from his non-Christian Jewish community.

What manner of man was Jesus? By all accounts, Jesus must have had some remarkable verbal abilities. The reading from the Gospel of Mark may or may not be factual in the details of how people came to be followers of Jesus, but it is clear from the bare essence of the Gospel stories and from Josephus’ description of Jesus that people were drawn to him. Some wanted him to free them from Roman oppression. Some wanted him to heal them. Some just wanted to see him do something spectacular. Some wanted to be taught by Jesus. Clearly, Jesus had something special causing people to not only want to see and hear him but also just to be near him. Jesus clearly had the “It” factor.

By all accounts, Jesus was wise and intelligent. His short life is full of memorable stories and parables attributed to him. Most people today recall the parable of the Good Samaritan and the one about the person who spread seeds on rocky ground, among thorns and on good earth, or the parable about the man who comes knocking on a friend’s door in the middle of the night asking for bread and refuses to take no for an answer. Jesus had exceptional ability to capture wisdom appropriate and timely for his audience.

Surely, Jesus knew how to create excitement. Repeatedly, the Gospels tell of times when Jesus used conflict to his benefit. There was the time when the Pharisees confronted him because his followers were doing something they said was forbidden on the Sabbath. Jesus responded to them, that the Sabbath day was created for man; man was not created for the Sabbath. There is the story about Jesus staging a demonstration at the temple by turning the money lender’s tables upside down and driving them out. There was his dramatic entry into Jerusalem riding on a donkey with palms being spread before him.There are stories about Jesus healing people. There were other healers before, after and during Jesus time. Whatever we might say about his healing people, the reputation Jesus gained as a healer clearly indicates that there was something remarkable about him.

Still, all that I have said so far about Jesus, as wonderful and as exciting as it is, would not have caused his followers to regroup around him as their Christ after his death. Nor would it be enough to cause future generations of Christians to continue to see Jesus as their teacher, guide and savior.

Marcus Borg, my inspiration for this sermon series, wrote that the word, “God” does not refer to a supernatural being ‘out there,’” rather, he wrote that he, “…began to see, the word God refers to the sacred at the center of existence, the holy mystery that is all around us and within us. God is the nonmaterial ground and source and presence in which, to cite words attributed to Paul by the author of Acts, ‘we live and move and have our being.”‘ (p. 14)

Borg identifies several important images of Jesus that cause him and others to follow him. Today, I will deal with the first, Jesus as a “spirit person.” I will talk about the others later in this sermon series. As a “spirit person,” Jesus is clearly a real flesh and blood human being, but one who experienced the sacred, holy or spiritual in a powerful, forceful and noticeable ways. As a “spirit person” he was able to communicate the essence of his experiences about spiritual reality to others. There have been and continue to be men and women in numerous cultures who are able to experience what we call the spiritual, different realities or different levels of being. We call them many names: the holy man, the shaman, the rainmaker or the charismatic religious or political leader. (pp. 32-33) They are highly regarded within their communities because others know them as “spirit people.” Spirit people are in touch with the holy and are able to pass their special wisdom on to others.

We might suppose that since the Enlightenment, the age of reason and science, we moved beyond such thinking. The wonder of the Enlightenment was that it helped humanity cut through many layers of superstition and dogmatic traditions. This has allowed us to see what is real and understand the universe in wonderfully scientific ways. Since the Enlightenment, much of our western culture has believed that only that which we can see, touch, taste, hear and smell is real.

However, with quantum physics we now understand that there is even more to reality than our senses can capture. This is not to say that we should rush back to the superstition and dogma that too long stifled the creative human spirit. It does, however, mean that even using our best science and our sharpest intellect we still need to remain open to understanding the ever deeper mystery, meaning and wonder of life.

“Spirit people” seem able to intuitively connect with the deeper mystery and meaning of the universe through various spiritual disciplines like fasting, silence and meditation. Jesus practiced these disciplines. Jesus intuitively sensed the meaning and the mystery of life. He had such an intimate connection to his personal sense of the holy that he referred to the holy as his father.

These experiences left Jesus with a powerful sense of spiritual grounding and authority The water-walking stories, and other such magic can be understood as metaphors used to help people explain the power they felt in Jesus the man. We need to be able to read behind the poetic metaphors and mythic language used. Then we too will be able to be inspired and moved by the moral courage Jesus demonstrated when he felt called to challenge the political and religious status quo of his day.

What manner of man was Jesus? He was a human being. He found the courage to challenge the unacceptable and yet accept and have compassion on all who he encountered because of his connection to what I call the holy and sacred in the universe, and others call God,. At times that meant teaching, feeding or healing them. Sometime it meant tough love requiring compassionate confrontation in the name of those who were being excluded and oppressed. How would you describe that sort of person?

I want to return to Jesus’ cultural context. He came from landless peasant stock. He grew up in a small village of 200-400. The homes were of rough stone, with dirt floors and often a cave was part of the living structure. There were no public buildings, not even a school. Yet, just 4 miles away was the city of Sepphoris with opulent homes and impressive public buildings. He may even have helped his father build of some of the structures.

Sepphoris was a center of Jewish revolt against Rome about 4 B.C.E., shortly before Jesus was born. It was brutally re-conquered and the Romans put down all resistance violently and cruelly. Jesus grew up hearing stories about what had happened. He knew that many of the religious leaders in charge had sold out to the Romans in order to stay in power.

He referred to Herod Antipas, who had executed his mentor John the Baptizer as “that fox.” Marcus Borg points out that a better translation into English would be “that skunk.” A fox indicates cleverness, but a skunk clearly indicates that Jesus thought Herod Antipas carried a terrible stench. Jesus would clearly have understood he was in danger for what he was saying and doing. But he felt called to speak truth to power. Yet as courageous as Jesus was, he was a human being and there must have been times when he felt the words of the song:

If there is a way,
Take this cup away from me.
For I don’t want to taste its poison.
Feel it burn me,
I have changed.
I’m not as sure, as when we started.
Then, I was inspired.
Now, I’m sad and tired.

Jesus, was a holy or spirit person. He exceeded his own expectations. After his death beliefs about Jesus developed. Slowly and surely, many different theologies developed about him, but they pertain to the post Easter Jesus or the Christ of faith.
The song asks:

What if God was one of us?
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home

Yes, he was trying to make his way home, to “the center of existence, the holy mystery that is all around us and within us.” Many see this grounding source and presence in Jesus and that is why they want to be in relationship with him. People experience the same presence in the Buddha, the Dali Lama and other great spiritual leaders. I believe this is the same mysterious presence we feel within our community of faith, hope, love and action. This is not a belief about God or about any “spirit person” rather it is an experienced reality.

I invite you to be open to experience “the center of existence, the holy mystery that is all around us and within us.” We too can encounter a relationship to the ground of our being, to the life sustaining source of existence and the mysterious presence of love in which, “we live and move and have our being.”