"Which
Messiah Is Ours?” Sermon Delivered By Rev. Dick Stetler – April
13, 2014 Centenary United
Psalm 118:19-29, Matthew 21:1-11
Palm Sunday Every Palm Sunday we
rehearse the story of Jesus riding into This morning we are
going to consider how our understanding of Jesus as
the
Messiah has made a difference in our lives.
This is not an easy issue to discuss because our personal beliefs
and preferences about Jesus have wide differences among believers. This
is why there have been more books written about Jesus than any other
personality in history. When we
recognize Jesus as our Savior,
how has our understanding of Jesus impacted our lives? For example,
some Christians believe that divine intervention plays a very important
role in their lives. During
interviews by news reporters we have heard people say, “The tornado came
through our community destroying nearly everything in its path.
Our home, however, was virtually untouched.
The only explanation our family has is that God spared our
lives.” A woman in my
last church blacked out as she was driving her car.
The car went off the road, smashed into a tree and burst into
flames. A passing car
stopped and a father and son pulled her to safety.
When she saw the damaged car she said, “I cannot imagine how I
survived. I can only credit
God who was with me. God
must have a purpose for sparing my life.
Isn’t God good?” We
have all heard people express their faith this way. These
illustrations are similar to the image that the Jews had for thousands
of years concerning the nature of God.
God routinely intervened in their national history influencing
their expectations of the coming of a future
Messiah. The Jews were clearly ready for
another Moses that would liberate them from the tyranny of Even a casual
review of Old Testament books suggests that the Jews understood God as a
protector of His chosen people.
During the Jewish celebration of Passover, they remind themselves
how God sent his angel of death
to kill the first born of the Egyptians (Exodus 12:23).
This final act of God after
numerous plagues forced Pharaoh to allow the Israelites to leave The Jews
believed that God was their protector when the Israelites marched into
the Promised Land with the Ark
of the Covenant in front of them. Moses
said to the Israelites: Just as God promised
your ancestors, God will give you a land with large and prosperous
cities which you did not build.
The houses will be full of good things which you did not put in
them, and there will be wells that you did not dig, and vineyards and
olive orchards that you did not plant.
When God brings you into this land and you have all you want to
eat, make certain that you do not forget that God rescued you from Few of us can
forget the words of the prophet Samuel when he said, “Listen to what God
commands. ‘Go and attack the
Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Do not leave a
thing. I want you to kill
all the men, women, children and babies; the cattle, sheep, camels and
donkeys.’” (I Samuel 15:1f)
We must be reminded that this was Samuel speaking on behalf of God. This image of
God continued when The cultural
heritage and belief system of the Jews was deeply invested in the
understanding that God intervened on their behalf.
After thousands of years of
rehearsing how God took charge in protecting When it comes to
Christianity, believers have a mixed understanding of how Jesus
protects people from the
pitfalls of living in the material world.
Some of them understand that Jesus’ crucifixion was like that of
a sacrificial lamb being offered to take away the sins of the world.
(John 1:29) This new understanding of the nature of God was a quantum leap away from being the divine protector of the Jews. Jesus demonstrated through his life and death that God would not intervene in the same way that Hebrew authors had written in their scrolls. He would come as a suffering servant as was described by the prophet Isaiah. (Isaiah 42:6f) While dying,
Jesus reassured a thief that hung on a cross next to him that he would
join Jesus in paradise that day.
While dying, Jesus asked John to care for Mary, his mother.
While dying, Jesus forgave those that had convinced Pontius
Pilate to crucify him and the Roman soldiers that drove nails into his
body. Clearly, the nature of this
Messiah was quite different. Our
Messiah
never stopped teaching people how to define themselves through
the spirit by which they live.
Many of these qualities were mentioned by the Apostle Paul.
In his letter to the Galatians,
Paul wrote, “Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, humility and self-control.
There is no law against such as these.” (Galatians 5:22)
What made
Christianity distinctive are these words from Jesus, You have heard it
said, “Love your friends and hate your enemies.”span style="mso-spacerun:yes">
But now I tell you:
love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may
become the children of your Father in heaven.
God makes his sun to shine equally on those who are misguided in
their beliefs and on those that understand the ways of God.
God also allows the rain to fall on people whose spirits are
loving and on those whose spirits are self-absorbed with evil.”
(Matthew 5:43f)
The Kingdom of God will not
come on earth as a result of God forgiving everyone of their sins.
The Kingdom will come
on earth when everyone has learned to love others even when there are a
variety of beliefs that people have.
This is how God loves.
When people are able to
love as God loves us, they become one in spirit with God.
(John 17:20) How do you
describe your relationship to Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God?
After being in ministry since 1968, I have learned that what matters for
people is when their beliefs sustain their faith and trust in God’s
presence through every circumstance they face.
God is not looked upon as an ATM,
or One that intervenes in people’s lives
to fix problems.
This Carpenter helps people rebuild their lives from the inside out.
It does not matter if these beliefs differ significantly from the
beliefs of others. A number of us
have experienced miraculous events in our lives because we chose to interpret them
through the eyes of faith.
For example, one Saturday night,
I sat up in bed and said, “Lois, I cannot preach the sermon that I have
prepared for tomorrow.
Something is not right about it and I have go to the church and work on
a new one.” Lois said,
“Dick, it is 10:30 p.m. and tomorrow is Easter Sunday.
What’s the matter with the sermon you prepared?”
I had no answer but I could not silence the urge that was telling
me that I needed to write a different message. This drama took
place when we were at our church on Capitol Hill where I was still
wedded to an IBM electric typewriter. Computers were in another universe
that I had not yet entered.
The urgency was that Easter Sunday would have one of our larger
congregations and creating a sermon less than two hours before midnight
on Saturday night was an insane idea.
I walked up the
street to the church, entered my office, sat at my desk and said out
loud, “Okay. My message for
tomorrow must change. I need
your help.” I faced my
typewriter and a completely new message poured through my fingers.
It was among the most remarkable experiences of my life!
I wrote a new sermon in 45
minutes. The Scripture came to
mind that when we ask for help, it will come.
(John 14:14) Was my sermon
among the most profound that I had ever delivered?
Not from my point of view.
I had no idea why the sermon I prepared was not suitable.
The importance of the sermon was not the issue for me.
What impacted my life was the way it came once I asked for help.
I teasingly said, “Hey, any time you want to feed me my sermons
in this way, I am very open to that.” Each of us must choose
the way we relate to this carpenter who rode into God relates to everyone on the level of their understanding. God understands where each of us has come from. Yes, God is good and God’s spirit is filled with infinite mercy for each of us. |