josephholubsermons


 

October 31, 2010   Pentecost 23 - Reformation Sunday
Luke 7:18-23

Paradigm Shift
What Goes Around Comes Around

“So John summoned two of his disciples and sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another.”  - Luke 7:19

Paradigm shift!  This passage clearly reveals that John the Baptist was not all that sure that Jesus was the “long expected one,” meaning of course, the Jewish Messiah.  John had doubts.  Why was John not sure?   To put it in a nutshell, Jesus didn’t look like the popular messiah that John was expecting.   Jesus didn’t proclaim God as a harsh and judgmental divinity as John did in his preaching, portraying God as wielding an ax cutting off at the roots anyone who did not bear good fruit; Jesus didn’t look at all like one wielding a winnowing fork gathering up the good grains and mercilessly burning the chaff.   Jesus didn’t behave like the long awaited Son of Man of the book of Daniel who was expected to arrive out the clouds of the sky and be given dominion over all things and in the process crush all of Israel’s enemies. 

Did John have doubts? You can bet he did!  From his prison cell, he had sent out his own disciples to scout out Jesus and then report back to him.  His disciples hurried back and told John what they had seen and heard; that Jesus had held up Gentiles as models of faith, outsiders to Israel; and even healed the slave of a Roman centurion, an enemy of Israel.  They had heard him preach things like, “Love your enemies and do good to those who hate you.  If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.”   He came announcing the year of Jewish Jubilee was fulfilled in him – Jubilee was a social and economic leveling of the wealthy and the poor. This was not expected.  This was something new!   Paradigm shift!  

If Jesus was the messiah, he was not like any messiah John was expecting.  Of course, Luke wrote his gospel to proclaim just that – that, yes, his community experienced Jesus as the long-awaited messiah, but in Jesus they experienced a paradigm shift – he was, but was not – he was, but not as expected – in Jesus messiah was redefined – recast – and refashioned - paradigm shift!

We see the same thing in the other gospels, Matthew for example.  In Jesus’ sermon on the Mount in Matthew, Matthew’s Jesus repeatedly used a simple expression (formula), “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times… but I say to you…” - paradigm shift.   The early followers of Jesus experienced him as a paradigm shift from what they were expecting, and it put them on the unexpected road of living his kind of life in the world, exemplified by taking up the cross and following. They called themselves followers of “the way” – the way of Jesus, living and embodying his life in the world. 

Today is Reformation Sunday and reformation is about paradigm shift.  It was October 31, 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the Wittenberg Chapel door, statements he desired to debate with Catholic scholars and church authorities.  His action set off a firestorm and chain reaction of religious controversy and political violence that resulted in what is known as the Protestant Reformation.  It officially extended until the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, but its ramifications are felt down to this day. One result of the Reformation was the explosion of Christian expressions, each organizing around specific doctrinal beliefs and practices - paradigm shift.  

But the Protestant Reformation was not the only period the church went through a paradigm shift.  The fourth century was a time ripe for paradigm shift.  First all, there was the baptism and conversion of Constantine.  This was a time when the Christian movement officially ceased being a kind of counter-cultural movement to the imperial values of Roman Empire, and became more aligned with and reflected the values of empire.  This is the beginning of Christianity taking on imperial characteristics.  This was time when religion began to legitimize the use of power and violence which were commonly used in the affairs of the empire – paradigm shift!

The 4^th century was an accentuated period of numerous church councils when various  representatives of developing Christianity came together to seek a consensus on belief and doctrine and some of the great creeds were formulated like the Nicene Creed and Athanasian Creed.  In many circles strict adherence to the precepts of the creeds were demanded, and there are accounts of instances of those who did not subscribe to their doctrinal formulations being persecuted and even put to death – paradigm shift. 

A couple of centuries after this saw the rise of the papacy, expansion of the power of the papacy unifying the churches of western Europe in the establishment of the papal states and development of the Holy Roman Empire – paradigm shift.

In the 11^th century a great schism arose and medieval Christianity split into two great sectors, the Eastern Greek and western Latin expressions – paradigm shift.

The purpose for my over-generalized church history lesson is to show that paradigm shifts have been an almost constant event in the history of Christianity beginning with Jesus.  They have been both good and bad, positive and negative.  When Christianity has used religion and the name of God/Jesus to legitimized the use of coercive and oppressive power and violence, and history is full of examples, a tragic, immoral and even criminal legacy has been left behind. 

When Christianity has resulted in servant-hood and selfless acts of compassion and advocacy for social justice, it has left a positive and life-giving legacy.  For example, at the time that many these other imperial-like developments were taking place in Christianity, we also see the rise of early monasticism, asceticism and mysticism which were essentially protest movements against imperial Christianity – paradigm shift.

We are living at a time of paradigm shift in Christianity.  Like many of the other paradigm shifts, it is not one homogenous movement, but is disparate and diverse in its various expressions.  This congregation is an example of the paradigm shift with our emphasis on inclusivity, compassion and economic and social justice, toleration and respect for diversity including other religions.   The current paradigm shift in is in an infancy stage, and no one knows for sure what a later result will be, any more than Martin Luther knew what would happen in the ensuing decades when he  tacked his 95 thesis on the Wittenberg chapel door. 

But I think there are some things we can say about it at this early stage,  In fact, I can think of at least ten or twelve things I can say about it, but don’t worry, time and circumstance do not allow me to do that.  I will say only one thing about this new paradigm shift and that is, it’s not all that new.  In fact it is very old and ancient. 

You have heard the saying, “what goes around comes around.”   That is usually used in the context of retributive justice, but I attach another meaning to it.  The more I read and study and learn about the earliest origins of Christianity, the more I am convinced that those earliest communities that formed around Jesus, communities that formed and existed even before the gospels were written in the form we have them, struggled and strived to shape their lives around the life of Jesus.     

When I was in my mid teens I went to youth camp, and one evening I responded to the message of a charismatic and convincing speaker.  The speaker was a cool guy, casual and friendly. He spoke conversationally and punctuated his message with humor.  But his message was dead serious.  He made it clear there was a doctrine I had to “believe” to enjoy relationship with God.  Specifically I was asked to believe Jesus was God; that I was a despicable, horrible, loathsome sinner, that the divine Jesus had died on my behalf to save me from an angry and wrathful God who demanded satisfaction and appeasement; and by believing those things I would go to heaven, and not hell, when I died.  The speaker offered the opportunity for youth to come forward and publically affirm the theology he’d just shared while the song “Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So” was being sung in the background. 

Though I no longer embrace that theological paradigm, the experience of going forward ignited within me the desire to learn more, grow more and seek deeper understanding, so I don’t regret it.

What is unfortunate is that for many years I believed the sole value of Jesus rested in his ability to usher me into heaven – a message reinforced every week as I attended meetings of that particular youth ministry organization and heard that message repeated over and over again.    

That was not the message of those earliest Christian communities – that was not the God and Jesus they organized around – that was not what they meant by “good news!”   It comes through in the gospels, the earliest of which was written some 25–30 years after Jesus, the latest written almost 60 years after Jesus. 

For them faith was not belief in doctrine and dogma.  Faith was trust in and commitment to Jesus and the quality of life he led them into.   Faith in Jesus was not a doctrine they embraced with “belief” about Jesus so they would someday go to heaven. It was trust in Jesus and following him, at his invitation, into a deeper of experience of God in this life as they were transformed in the power of the love that characterized Jesus’ life.

For them the cross and resurrection had more to do with a living transformative process that occurred in them and in their communities as they "took up their crosses" and followed in Jesus’ way than a divine transaction conducted to appease an angry God.  

I saw and read an article in this week’s Denver Post that I found interesting and somewhat revealing.  The article described the results of a survey conducted by the Barna Group.  They found that one in four people in the general population could not think of one positive societal contribution by Christians in recent years.  Also, one out of every five people said Christians have incited violence or hatred in the name of Jesus, and among non-Christians that number rose to 35%. 

Also, among Christians  who said they are mostly conservative on socio-political matters, they were least likely to name serving the poor, oppressed and underprivileged as an important contribution.  Finally, young Christians under the age of 25 were those least likely to align with politics and power and named getting back to the basics of Jesus’ love and compassion as an important contribution – paradigm shift? 

I close with a quotation and paraphrase of the Rev Vernon Jordan, who was Martin Luther King’s predecessor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama.  He spoke these words to a large group of his Baptist colleagues in 1960, much to their consternation. 

I have turned from a Christian expression that, for all practical purposes, ignores the life of Jesus.  “If the death of Jesus as a sacrifice for sin is the sole heart of Christianity then all God had to do was drop him down on Friday, let them kill him, and yank him up again on Easter Sunday."  His life is what mattered - the way he lived - the way he loved - the compassion he had for the last and the least - the social justice he called for in the face of an oppressive political, economic and religious domination system that gave leverage to the rich and powerful of both secular and religious institutions.  “Jesus spoke against religion when it elevated regulation over love. All of that and more is what got the leaders of his own church and the colonial authorities from Rome so enraged that they killed him.  I want to encounter the Jesus before the cross.  There is no authentic religion after the cross if we don't take the Jesus before the cross seriously.”  Salvation is, first of all,  the process of being made whole and fully human as we follow Jesus into the way of his life and embody it in our own, not afterlife for believing "correct" theological propositions and dogmas about Jesus.  

Similar to Luther's 95 thesis, Jordan's words are a launching pad of a new reformation into which those who name Jesus as Lord are called.  “What goes around comes around.”  It is not something totally new, but the paradigm and place where Christianity began, but along the way of the centuries and time lost touch with.  The new reformation is calling us home to those humble beginnings.