The Jesus We Find

The Jesus We Find
Rev. Mark Schaefer
Kay Spiritual Life Center
March 2, 2003
2 Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9:2-9

INTRODUCTION

How much harder would it be to use that Where's Waldo book, if you didn't know what Waldo looked like? How would you go about finding such a person in a book with myriads of people on the pages if he wasn't on the cover? You might try to find out if anyone's ever written about this guy, you might try to find a description of him, or maybe someone collected sayings of Waldo and you could glean something about him from them. Chances are, that with a name like Waldo, you'd have a pretty good idea of what he looked like. We would have a preconceived notion of what someone like him would look like, and then invariably find this person in the crowd in those books, and feel content we identified the right person. How much harder would it be to a word search if they didn't have a list of words to look for? You'd spend a lot of time finding words you weren't sure counted, or maybe making up a few. It is very hard to find something when we're not sure what it is we're looking for.

Sometimes we engage in a process of deciding what we're looking for so that we can find it. I've been thinking a lot lately about finding things. Since I lost my palm pilot, my world is crashing down around me. I know what I'm looking for, but it's not helping me find it. I look in the places it would be obvious to find such a thing: my home, my office, my car... There's a way that we go about finding things we're looking for. Sometimes, we're surprised by what we find.

THE TEXT

What Peter, James and John were up to in the story we just heard from the New Testament is something of that nature. They went with Jesus up on a mountain to pray and be with their master. But something strange happened... Jesus changed before their presence. Now some would say that Jesus didn't change, perhaps the disciple's perception of him changed. Some would say that this is a symbolic event suggesting who Jesus is for the world. What's interesting is that Jesus is up on the mount and is greeted by Moses and Elijah.

Now, Moses and Elijah aren't just any two figures from the Old Testament. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. According to tradition, Elijah has never died. He was taken in a chariot of fire to be with God. Now, we don't know where Moses is buried. A tradition developed in Judaism that he had not died either, but had also been taken up into heaven. So, Jesus is standing there on the mountain with two great figures from the Bible who are understood to be still alive in some meaningful way. But they are symbols: Moses symbolizes the law, and Elijah, the prophets. The law and the prophets are two of the three parts of Jewish scripture. The writings, or Psalms are the other part.

So here is the Bible personified standing with Jesus on top of this mountain. Jesus is radically transformed and is radiant with light shining white. And the best thing Peter can think to do is build a couple of tents, like the Sukkah the Jewish students build every Fall on the quad. He's sort of at a loss to process this. Jesus explains to Peter again about the son of God suffering and dying to be raised again. It's not clear that Peter or the disciples understand this. These are the three disciples that fall asleep on Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and Peter is the same one who is rebuked by Jesus for failing to not critically understand what Jesus' mission was. It's possible that these disciples went up on the mount with an understanding of what it was they would find there, come upon something radically different and are still unable to process it fully. In fact, as Mark tells the story, they don't get it the entire time Jesus is with them. It's only after Easter that anyone figured out who Jesus was. Notwithstanding that Jesus was the same person to them from the beginning to the end. It was who the disciples found Jesus to be that changed. It's fun to be hard on Peter, James and John, because we get it. Of course, we have the benefit of the ending of the story. In many, many ways, we don't get it. And often, we find a Jesus that might look different than we expected.

THE HISTORICAL JESUS QUEST

There's an entire quest in the church's tradition, dating to the eighteenth century. German scholars began to look at the Bible as another book of literature. They decided it's not fair to leave the Bible out of methods of analysis and study that we use for everything else. They began the process of text criticism, and began to figure out who wrote parts of the Bible and what parts were related. As part of this process, they began what's known as the quest for the historical Jesus. They thought that with enough study of language, culture and text, they could figure out what Jesus was really like. Albert Schweitzer pointed out that the Jesus they found tended to look a lot like the people who were looking for him. The Jesus that nineteenth century German academics found looked a lot like nineteenth century German academics. They went looking for a certain kind of Jesus, and sure enough, they found him.

We are not immune, but do the same. If we are looking for a liberal, we find a warm, inclusive and almost fuzzy Jesus who loves everyone and condemns no one. We feel good about this image of Jesus. However, we come across some things we don't like, so we figure he most not have said those things, or he must have meant something else. If we're conservative, we find a Jesus who upholds tradition and demands a rigorous discipleship, who convicts the world of sinfulness by the very presence of his being. The problem is that both images can be supported by the Bible, but only because we are looking for a certain Jesus. We are reminded that Jesus is more complex than we are not necessarily comfortable dealing with. Just as Peter, James and John, we look for the Jesus we want to find.

FINDING AND SEEKING

Maybe, finding Jesus is a little bit less like finding Waldo, or doing a word search, and more like fishing. Fishing is different than hunting or seeking in an active way. You don't know what you're going to catch when you cast your line into the water. The trick is the method in which you seek out where Christ is. So what's the bait? Part of it is openness about what we're looking for. It's very easy and comforting for us to paint Jesus with our own brush. While Christ has things in common with who we are, or where we are, he cannot be limited by what we project upon him. We must cast our lines in the water and take the Christ we find.

There is a difference between seeking and finding. With my Palm Pilot, I've done a whole lot of seeking and not a whole lot of finding. It is possible, however, to do a lot of finding and not a whole lot of seeking. Our religious lives of faith are much more about finding than seeking. The problem is, when I find my Palm Pilot, I'm done. I'm happy... it's over. But in a life of faith, our journey is never really over. We continue on the road of faith.

It's a tricky thing to find instead of seek, because we can't draw up as many checklists. We can't ever be certain that we've found the thing we're looking for, because we aren't really sure what that is. It requires a certain openness to God, a willingness to experience the things that God seeks to give us as we simply try to find what those things are. There are times in our lives, no matter how open or careful we are, we feel we can't find God. We feel that no amount of openness can help us find God, or give us peace. That's where this becomes something of a collaborative enterprise.

HELPING OTHERS TO FIND

We Christians are not in this alone: church is a collective word. We have professed to be Christians; part of the body of Christ, something greater than ourselves, not limited by our own ability or experience. When it comes to finding Jesus, we can participate in other people's quests by being the Christ they are looking for. We know what Christ calls us to do when we read and meditate on the scriptures. Even as we are on our own quest and journey of discovery to find what Christ means to us in our own lives, we can try and model that for each other through our compassion, charity, witness for justice and work for peace. We can help others find Christ, by being Christ for them. We also find Christ through the Eucharist. There are many different traditions in this room, with many different understandings of what goes on in the Eucharist. One thing the church as always maintained, is that in the sharing of bread and wine, in the simple act of eating and drinking with each other, as a family and as a fellowship, we encounter Christ there. We find Christ in the bread and wine as we partake of the meal together.

CONCLUSION

We are entering a period of Lent. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, a time of penitence, reflection and preparation for the glory of Easter. It's a six week period during which we can stock of ourselves and our lives. It's the perfect opportunity for us to try and find Christ all over again, to try to feel what God is to us in our lives, and what God is calling us to do. It is a time also to reflect on the ways we can live out that reality to and for each other. It's a time of penitent reflection. Something about the nature of our worship changes. We don't sing alleluias any more, we don't put flowers on the altar. Our paraments change from the white of transfiguration to the purple of Lent. In this time, we walk together and we find who Christ is for us, as we look forward to the day six weeks later, when Christ reveals himself in glory, power and majesty through resurrection and new life. We seek to discern what that resurrection means for us in our lives.

God reveals himself to us all the time: in the creation, in the word made flesh among us, in the spirit which gave birth to his church, and in the people who make up the church and live out his reality. As we enter this time of reflection, we commit ourselves to find God. Sometimes, that means we stop looking and start finding. Sometimes that means we put away our preconceived notions of what we are looking for and putting aside our fears and expectations, allowing Christ to be Christ. So that we can be as Christ, and Christ can be all in all and in us as well.

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*The Jesus We Find* Rev. Mark Schaefer Kay Spiritual Life Center March 2, 2003 2 Kings 2:1-12; Mark 9:2-9 INTRODUCTION How much harder would it be to use that Where's Waldo book, if you didn't know what Waldo looked like? How would you go about finding such a person in a book with myriads of people on the pages if he wasn't on the cover? You might try to find out if anyone's ever written about this guy, you might try to find a description of him, or maybe someone collected sayings of Waldo and you could glean something about him from them. Chances are, that with a name like Waldo, you'd have a pretty good idea of what he looked like. We would have a preconceived notion of what someone like him would look like, and then invariably find this person in the crowd in those books, and feel content we identified the right person. How much harder would it be to a word search if they didn't have a list of words to look for? You'd spend a lot of time finding words you weren't sure counted, or maybe making up a few. It is very hard to find something when we're not sure what it is we're looking for. Sometimes we engage in a process of deciding what we're looking for so that we can find it. I've been thinking a lot lately about finding things. Since I lost my palm pilot, my world is crashing down around me. I know what I'm looking for, but it's not helping me find it. I look in the places it would be obvious to find such a thing: my home, my office, my car... There's a way that we go about finding things we're looking for. Sometimes, we're surprised by what we find. THE TEXT What Peter, James and John were up to in the story we just heard from the New Testament is something of that nature. They went with Jesus up on a mountain to pray and be with their master. But something strange happened... Jesus changed before their presence. Now some would say that Jesus didn't change, perhaps the disciple's perception of him changed. Some would say that this is a symbolic event suggesting who Jesus is for the world. What's interesting is that Jesus is up on the mount and is greeted by Moses and Elijah. Now, Moses and Elijah aren't just any two figures from the Old Testament. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind. According to tradition, Elijah has never died. He was taken in a chariot of fire to be with God. Now, we don't know where Moses is buried. A tradition developed in Judaism that he had not died either, but had also been taken up into heaven. So, Jesus is standing there on the mountain with two great figures from the Bible who are understood to be still alive in some meaningful way. But they are symbols: Moses symbolizes the law, and Elijah, the prophets. The law and the prophets are two of the three parts of Jewish scripture. The writings, or Psalms are the other part. So here is the Bible personified standing with Jesus on top of this mountain. Jesus is radically transformed and is radiant with light shining white. And the best thing Peter can think to do is build a couple of tents, like the Sukkah the Jewish students build every Fall on the quad. He's sort of at a loss to process this. Jesus explains to Peter again about the son of God suffering and dying to be raised again. It's not clear that Peter or the disciples understand this. These are the three disciples that fall asleep on Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, and Peter is the same one who is rebuked by Jesus for failing to not critically understand what Jesus' mission was. It's possible that these disciples went up on the mount with an understanding of what it was they would find there, come upon something radically different and are still unable to process it fully. In fact, as Mark tells the story, they don't get it the entire time Jesus is with them. It's only after Easter that anyone figured out who Jesus was. Notwithstanding that Jesus was the same person to them from the beginning to the end. It was who the disciples found Jesus to be that changed. It's fun to be hard on Peter, James and John, because we get it. Of course, we have the benefit of the ending of the story. In many, many ways, we don't get it. And often, we find a Jesus that might look different than we expected. THE HISTORICAL JESUS QUEST There's an entire quest in the church's tradition, dating to the eighteenth century. German scholars began to look at the Bible as another book of literature. They decided it's not fair to leave the Bible out of methods of analysis and study that we use for everything else. They began the process of text criticism, and began to figure out who wrote parts of the Bible and what parts were related. As part of this process, they began what's known as the quest for the historical Jesus. They thought that with enough study of language, culture and text, they could figure out what Jesus was really like. Albert Schweitzer pointed out that the Jesus they found tended to look a lot like the people who were looking for him. The Jesus that nineteenth century German academics found looked a lot like nineteenth century German academics. They went looking for a certain kind of Jesus, and sure enough, they found him. We are not immune, but do the same. If we are looking for a liberal, we find a warm, inclusive and almost fuzzy Jesus who loves everyone and condemns no one. We feel good about this image of Jesus. However, we come across some things we don't like, so we figure he most not have said those things, or he must have meant something else. If we're conservative, we find a Jesus who upholds tradition and demands a rigorous discipleship, who convicts the world of sinfulness by the very presence of his being. The problem is that both images can be supported by the Bible, but only because we are looking for a certain Jesus. We are reminded that Jesus is more complex than we are not necessarily comfortable dealing with. Just as Peter, James and John, we look for the Jesus we want to find. FINDING AND SEEKING Maybe, finding Jesus is a little bit less like finding Waldo, or doing a word search, and more like fishing. Fishing is different than hunting or seeking in an active way. You don't know what you're going to catch when you cast your line into the water. The trick is the method in which you seek out where Christ is. So what's the bait? Part of it is openness about what we're looking for. It's very easy and comforting for us to paint Jesus with our own brush. While Christ has things in common with who we are, or where we are, he cannot be limited by what we project upon him. We must cast our lines in the water and take the Christ we find. There is a difference between seeking and finding. With my Palm Pilot, I've done a whole lot of seeking and not a whole lot of finding. It is possible, however, to do a lot of finding and not a whole lot of seeking. Our religious lives of faith are much more about finding than seeking. The problem is, when I find my Palm Pilot, I'm done. I'm happy... it's over. But in a life of faith, our journey is never really over. We continue on the road of faith. It's a tricky thing to find instead of seek, because we can't draw up as many checklists. We can't ever be certain that we've found the thing we're looking for, because we aren't really sure what that is. It requires a certain openness to God, a willingness to experience the things that God seeks to give us as we simply try to find what those things are. There are times in our lives, no matter how open or careful we are, we feel we can't find God. We feel that no amount of openness can help us find God, or give us peace. That's where this becomes something of a collaborative enterprise. HELPING OTHERS TO FIND We Christians are not in this alone: church is a collective word. We have professed to be Christians; part of the body of Christ, something greater than ourselves, not limited by our own ability or experience. When it comes to finding Jesus, we can participate in other people's quests by being the Christ they are looking for. We know what Christ calls us to do when we read and meditate on the scriptures. Even as we are on our own quest and journey of discovery to find what Christ means to us in our own lives, we can try and model that for each other through our compassion, charity, witness for justice and work for peace. We can help others find Christ, by being Christ for them. We also find Christ through the Eucharist. There are many different traditions in this room, with many different understandings of what goes on in the Eucharist. One thing the church as always maintained, is that in the sharing of bread and wine, in the simple act of eating and drinking with each other, as a family and as a fellowship, we encounter Christ there. We find Christ in the bread and wine as we partake of the meal together. CONCLUSION We are entering a period of Lent. Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, a time of penitence, reflection and preparation for the glory of Easter. It's a six week period during which we can stock of ourselves and our lives. It's the perfect opportunity for us to try and find Christ all over again, to try to feel what God is to us in our lives, and what God is calling us to do. It is a time also to reflect on the ways we can live out that reality to and for each other. It's a time of penitent reflection. Something about the nature of our worship changes. We don't sing alleluias any more, we don't put flowers on the altar. Our paraments change from the white of transfiguration to the purple of Lent. In this time, we walk together and we find who Christ is for us, as we look forward to the day six weeks later, when Christ reveals himself in glory, power and majesty through resurrection and new life. We seek to discern what that resurrection means for us in our lives. God reveals himself to us all the time: in the creation, in the word made flesh among us, in the spirit which gave birth to his church, and in the people who make up the church and live out his reality. As we enter this time of reflection, we commit ourselves to find God. Sometimes, that means we stop looking and start finding. Sometimes that means we put away our preconceived notions of what we are looking for and putting aside our fears and expectations, allowing Christ to be Christ. So that we can be as Christ, and Christ can be all in all and in us as well. Back to Sermons page Back to AU UMC Home Copyright © 2003. Mark A. Schaefer. No part of this text may be reproduced or otherwise disseminated without the express written consent of the author.

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