Jesus First.
Pentecost 13, Proper 15
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I invited Jodie to share her witness to encourage everyone to think and pray about people in our orbit who might – might – be interested in Alpha. I say might because we never know whom the Lord will call into that program. We never know when the right time may be.
She is not alone. She is one of many who have come into the life of faith or have gotten deeper in it through Alpha. Alpha isn’t the only way, of course, but it is the best program we have for people to explore and ask hard questions about faith without fear of judgment or pat answers. And while encouraged to speak, they can also listen to others’ thoughts and experiences.
Jodie’s experience is uniquely hers, yet it bears some elements in common with others’, whether through Alpha, Emmaus Walk, Cursillo, Kairos or that good old standby, Church. Jodie was invited by friends. She felt welcomed. She sensed integrity in the people and the program, whether or not she agreed with them. The initial touch by Christ invited her to unanticipated blessings.
An unexpected and special blessing has grown out of Jodie and others’ Alpha experience.
Several in the program last year were widows and widowers. As they talked about questions around faith, they inevitably touched on their grief and its challenges. Out of those conversations an idea emerged to start a grief ministry group at Good Shepherd that would be open to anyone in our community. Mark Alford was a driving force behind it, along with Kathy Smith, Jodie and Brenda Sheffield.
People come as often and as long as they will. Leadership has shifted around a bit as circumstances evolved. The church provides the space and the air conditioning. We let people know about it. Anyone can come. The people minster to each other and in the midst of it they find blessing and healing.
Isn’t that beautiful? I asked Jodie to share her story at sermon time rather than announcements because her experience is, like so many, a wonderful testament to the ways Jesus transforms our lives. Please do think and pray seriously about whom you could invite to Alpha.
Jesus said, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat of the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” (Very truly in the Greek is “amen, amen”.) This is a rather shocking thing to say! Some accused the early Christian of cannibalism because of this language in the Eucharist. Today, people may object to it because it sounds exclusionary. It isn’t if we understand who Jesus is and what he’s trying to accomplish.
From the beginning, the Jewish testimony has been to One true God, and revealed to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the people of Israel ever since, when they are faithful, of course. The ebb and flow of that witness is what we call the Old Testament.
Jesus is at once reaffirming that witness and also making the radical claim that God is fully resident in him, the Son of Man. He is the One who has come down from heaven to bring the fulfillment of God’s promises to all peoples through his atoning sacrifice for our sins and taking up residence in us, body mind and spirit along with the power of the Holy Spirit.
So here is the proposition: We are to hold God, and not just any god but the One true God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob first. Love him with all our, heart, mind and strength, and out of that relationship flows the capacity to love our neighbors, love ourselves, to even love our enemies and persecutors. There’s an endless flow of grace from that relationship with Him, through Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit.
If you take that first principle away, or even bump it down a notch, what is going to take its place? I suggest to you that the self takes over, and it takes over with one (or both) of two leading temptations: power and pleasure. Some of you might be thinking money belongs up there, but remember money is a medium of exchange of the self. Our work gets translated to money, our needs and desires get translated to money. So yes, money is all knotted up with power and pleasure, but it’s a means rather than an end.
Power tends to work itself out in control. We want to manage everything to our advantage and security, and we get very angry and defensive when that control is undermined, threatened or even exposed to be an illusion. We can chalk up four of the “Seven Deadly Sins” to power: Pride, Envy, Wrath and Greed. The theme song for this desire for personal control and self-reliance goes something like, “I did it my way.”
Pleasure tends to work itself out in the endless, disordered pursuit of our desires. The three Deadly Sins here are Lust, Gluttony and Sloth. Each of them is a twisting limitation of a good. Lust falls tragically short of love. Gluttony is a sick diversion from nutrition. Sloth is a mockery of Sabbath. I can’t offer a theme song here because there are too many!
Do you see the problem? When, not if, we don’t put God first, one or the other or many of these, and many, many more things, will take that top spot, fill that vacuum. Some, like drugs, alcohol, sex, or gambling may lead us straight to hell. Others will subtly distract us from heaven. But anything that does take that top spot other than God will lead to a dead end.
When we have God first, there’s no disorder. Power becomes a good tool. Pleasure becomes delight in God’s blessings. Money becomes a means enacting true grace. Forgiveness flows. When we lose focus and something else takes the top spot, we find real trouble. Teenagers: You want to be accepted, even popular. Don’t let that be first. Put Jesus first. If then you get popular, you can be an influence for him, not yourself.
This is why I’ve always struggled with John Lennon’s Imagine. It’s a beautiful song and a sweet sentiment, but candy when we need food. When I imagine no heaven, nothing to live or die for, that’s knocking God off the top. I see nothing but chaos and hell coming from it. We aren’t that good. We need a savior and we need him every day.
And so, we pray and reenact that drama of the Last Supper as our principle focus of worship week to week. We lift him up as first in our lives, and to take him in, eating his body and drinking his blood, inviting him to be a part of us. We teach him to our children and try to be of some good use for him, to each other and all his people.
Let us pray.
AMEN!