Sermons

"In the Name of Jesus"

Delivered from the Pulpit of First Congregational Church by The Reverend Mark E. Long on May 19, 2009

Lections:  Gen. 2.46-47

                  Ezek. 37.9

                  Rm. 8.1-9

                  Jn. 20.19-23

This was one of those weeks where early on I felt completely right about my sermon title and the Scriptures that fell quickly into place, but I had no idea how any of it relates or even what the title refers to.  The title conjures for me images of those who pray with a particular relationship between Jesus and themselves in mind which I, frankly, don't share - as they conclude their prayers in the religiously tinged cliché, "in the name of Jesus," or perhaps "in Jesus' name."

You may notice I don't.  I may say "in the manner and after the example of Jesus the Christ of the Church," or something like it but this is as close as I get, most of the time I just say; "thank you God, amen!"

You may have wondered why I don't say "in the name of Jesus" or something similar.  Our Scripture lessons today read in light of the post-resurrection story of John give us a platform on which to consider why some say it and why I, among others, don't.

First the story - it is simple and brief.  Just prior to this part of the story Mary Magdalene mistakes the gardener for Jesus, quickly realizes her error, listens to his instructions then runs and tells the disciples that "[she] has seen the Lord," and what Jesus has said to her.

The disciples in short order lock themselves behind closed doors for fear of the Jews (the evangelist wouldn't want you to think they were afraid of Jesus), but soon find Jesus standing among them anyhow.  Jesus anticipates the potential upset of his sudden appearance and says "Peace be with you."  Then he shows the disciples his hands and pierced side; the disciples are overjoyed to see Jesus.  Jesus then gets down to the point of his appearance.  He says:  "As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  Then he breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit," and something puzzling about sin and forgiveness.

I went home with energy to write my sermon on Thursday night, a timely burst as I knew there would be no time on Friday.  I read the story then the other Scriptures, mulled over them for a time and decided to go to bed because I had nothing to say about them.  What had I done to myself?  How in the world would this title and these Scriptures ever fit together in a coherent way?  Maybe we should make it a Quaker service and just sit in silence for twenty minutes - maybe that is the message.  Don't worry, it wasn't.  I don't often feel this way at as late a date but this was one of those weeks.

I continued to have no idea what to say as Friday afternoon turned to evening and I sat up here as a participant in a funeral service.  They were Samoans, as much of the language spoken I did not understand, but they were also Methodists and Assembly of God.  There were three pastors who spoke, all lovely men from what I could tell, Tuii and Maga, Methodist ministers, and Jerry, an Assembly of God pastor.  As Jerry was making his appeal to those gathered to consider that without Christ in their hearts they were not going to get the afterlife they wanted, it came to me - not Christ - the message for which I had waited.

Just how do we get the Christ?  Jerry's way is pretty much familiar territory to me as one-time Southern Baptist and student leader in Campus Crusade for Christ.  Most of you know it too which is why you are here and not at the Assembly of God church.  It does not resonate with you either.

But what do we offer in the alternative?  How do we say we have Christ sufficient to guide us on our way here and beyond?  Do we discard such language at the outset - my experience tells me not many of us?  Just what do we mean when we claim to have Christ in our hearts?  How did Christ get there?

We know how Jesus got in Jerry's heart; "Jesus breathed the Christ into him."  This explains why it would be common to hear those from Jerry's church close their prayers something like "in the name of Jesus."  Access to God goes through Jesus; these folks may reject vigorously human popes and their surrogates as intermediaries between them and God but they don't lack for an intermediary.  Jesus is their go-between.  They give up their will so to create space for Jesus' Spirit to possess them in a friendly way.  Jesus is their access point to God.  No Jesus, no access.

It is what Paul says to the literal minded congregations of Rome.  Everything has its season and place, the Bible is no exception.  First century audiences were literal minded.  Paul was literal minded writing to literal minded audiences.  Just the way it was.  For those such as Jerry, it continues to be, even in a different season and place.  O.K. it is a way to see things; it is not my way.

It is not the way of Jesus' clan either; the Jews tell us that God breathed God's nature and image into man at his creation.  Moses and the Seventy would be quite surprised to hear that no Spirit falls fresh on man until Jesus' Spirit comes on the scene.  The Old Testament is filled with examples of the Spirit of God falling, coming, guiding, and convicting men - sometimes out of nowhere but more often through human voices, e.g. Ezekiel, Elijah, Samuel.

Now no one before Jesus called this Spirit the Christ, it was more likely called the Spirit of God or Wisdom.  It was actually a number of years before anyone actually got around to linking together Jesus, this unfortunate carpenter or resurrected rabbi depending on who you talked with, and the idea of the Christ.  In at least the first half of the century after Jesus, his followers (as Acts says) were called People of the Way.

Since Jesus as Christ is a rather late forming notion of the early church, I have my answer to the question "how did the Christ get in our hearts?"

It has always been there.  We have never been without Christ in our hearts, brains, and lives; it is God's Spirit, the gift embedded in creation is Godself.  We call this gift the Christ, or Spirit of God, as Paul interchangeably called it.  God is here - not out there somewhere a Cosmic Santa Claus or Keeper of Time.  The question is whether or not we know it, and then live like it.  As I have said before, what you know and what you make of it will make all the difference in your life.

True - John draws a clear parallel between Jesus "breathing" and the Jewish story of creation but he may be saying something different than Jerry would tell you.  The clues for my claim lie 1) in what Jesus says just before he breathes on the disciples and 2) in the apparent "throw-away" comment about forgiveness and sin.

"As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  John, I believe, says that Jesus "breathes" his followers onto a path to continue the work of the mission given to Jesus by their Father and God.  John expresses this commission to go "in the name of Jesus" to track with a story of "divine breathing" well known to his audiences.  As God created with his breath, so Jesus puts a "new man" in motion with his.

The second clue for me is John's definition of sin - not recognizing that Jesus comes to reveal God.  Sin is "missing [this] mark."  As the commentary to The New Interpreter's Study Bible puts it, "Forgiveness of sins is the [Christian] community's (in the story disciples) Spirit-empowered mission to continue Jesus' work of making God known in the world &"  The community of God is restored to wholeness as the fractures in community (sin) are forgiven.

So Jesus' breath does not give a Holy something where something wasn't before but rather empowers, puts into action or commissions what is already there.  It is John's way of saying to his audiences at the turn of the 2^nd c. - you know who you are, you know what to do, get busy doing it.  It is sort of John's Pentecost/Great Commission story.

"In the name of Jesus" go and do likewise!  Whether fundamentalist, mystic, or something else - we can all understand that.

This is how I see the first post-resurrection story with my spiritual, but modern, eyes.  Amen.