Kenneth L. Nelson - "That's the Thing I Don't Like about Jesus" (October 24, 1999)

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-	The third reading is from the Gospel according	0:06
	to Saint Mark, the second chapter.	0:08
	One Sabbath he was going through the grain fields	0:12
	and as they made their way,	0:15
	his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.	0:16
	The Pharisees said to him, "Look,	0:19
	"why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?"	0:21
	"And he said to them, "Have you never read	0:24
	"what David did when he and his companions	0:26
	"were hungry and in need of food?	0:28
	"He entered the house of God	0:31
	"and when Abiathar was high priest,	0:32
	"he ate the bread of the Presence	0:35
	"which is not lawful for any but the priest to eat.	0:37
	"And he gave some to his companions."	0:41
	Then he said to them, "The Sabbath was made for humankind	0:44
	"and not humankind for the Sabbath.	0:48
	"So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath."	0:51
	This is the word of the Lord.	0:56
-	Thanks be to God.	0:58
-	Let us pray.	1:13
	In the still silence of these moments, oh God,	1:21
	silence any voice in us that would speak but your own.	1:25
	Speak, Lord for your servant is listening	1:29
	and give us ears that we might hear your truth.	1:34
	Amen.	1:39
	Recently while I was listening to the radio,	1:43
	I was intrigued by a song	1:45
	that has stayed in my mind ever since.	1:48
	The first verse tells the story	1:52
	of a woman who complains to her pastor	1:53
	about serving wine at communion.	1:55
	She doesn't think the church should be in the business	1:59
	of serving alcohol.	2:01
	The pastor replies by saying	2:04
	that Jesus drank wine.	2:06
	In fact, once he even turned water into wine.	2:08
	"But," says the woman,	2:12
	"that's the thing that I don't like about Jesus."	2:14
	(congregation chuckling)	2:18
	Next, a man complains to the pastor	2:21
	about seeing some persons	2:23
	of a different race in the church.	2:24
	"They're just not our kind.	2:27
	"Why don't they go where they'll be more comfortable?"	2:28
	The pastor reminds him	2:32
	that Jesus associated with all kinds of people.	2:34
	Including the outcasts of society,	2:37
	eating with tax collectors, sinners,	2:40
	running around with fishermen and prostitutes.	2:43
	"Yes," says the man, "but that's the thing	2:46
	"that I don't like about Jesus."	2:49
	Too bad the Pharisees didn't know that song.	2:53
	They would have loved it.	2:56
	You can hear them complaining.	2:59
	Look at this disgraceful behavior of your disciples, Jesus,	3:01
	picking grain on the Sabbath.	3:04
	Haven't you taught them	3:07
	that that's against the law?	3:08
	And Jesus replied,	3:11
	"Don't you remember the example of David?	3:12
	"Anyway, the Sabbath was made for human beings,	3:15
	"not the other way around."	3:18
	So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.	3:20
	Can't you hear the Pharisees going down the road	3:26
	mumbling to each other?	3:29
	Can't he follow the rules like everybody else?	3:31
	What nerve.	3:34
	He acts as though he knows what's more important	3:35
	than God's law.	3:38
	Now, that's just the thing that I don't like about Jesus.	3:40
	I know that most of us don't like to admit it	3:46
	but there are things that we don't like about Jesus.	3:49
	You see, every time we think we have things figured out,	3:54
	every time we've got faith under control,	3:58
	Jesus comes along and shakes us up.	4:02
	The Gospel for today	4:06
	is the perfect case study.	4:07
	The Pharisees weren't entirely wrong.	4:09
	They had started from the right place,	4:12
	the law as God's gracious gift.	4:14
	In Deuteronomy, the observance of the Sabbath is commanded.	4:17
	It is an observance based on what God	4:22
	has done for Israel in the exodus.	4:24
	On the Sabbath, Israel is to remember the time	4:27
	when it was a people who were once no people.	4:31
	Slaves in the land of Egypt	4:35
	who were rescued by God with a mighty hand	4:37
	and an outstretched arm.	4:40
	Israel is to remember, first of all,	4:44
	by setting aside the Sabbath	4:46
	as a day of rest.	4:49
	It is a fitting remembrance for slaves	4:51
	to celebrate their freedom	4:53
	by being freed from work.	4:55
	At the same time, there's to be the same concern for others.	4:58
	Freedom is extended to all of one's children,	5:02
	one's servants, strangers, even cattle	5:04
	and beasts of burden.	5:07
	The command to observe the Sabbath	5:10
	is seen as a response to God's gracious act	5:12
	and is oriented towards human need.	5:15
	Unfortunately, the Pharisees	5:21
	like most of us couldn't leave well enough alone.	5:23
	They fell victim to the natural human tendency	5:28
	to spell everything out	5:30
	in excruciating details	5:32
	so that there would be no doubt	5:34
	as to what was proper observance	5:36
	and what was not.	5:38
	Without going into elaborate detail,	5:41
	we are reminded in Mark's Gospel	5:43
	that the Sabbath had been distorted	5:46
	and loaded down with countless restrictions	5:48
	making it a burden rather than a gift.	5:51
	Thus attention was shifted away	5:55
	from the remembrance, a celebration of the gift of freedom,	5:56
	to having to remember what is forbidden activity.	6:00
	The focus on God's act was lost	6:05
	and human action became priority.	6:09
	Now, if it was threatening to the Pharisees	6:14
	to have Jesus come along	6:16
	and point out just how they had lost sight	6:18
	of the meaning of the Sabbath observance,	6:20
	how much more threatening is Jesus to us?	6:23
	There Moses stood looking	6:30
	into the promised land,	6:33
	we say what a shame he never saw Israel settled.	6:35
	Like we say of Julian Abele.	6:40
	Too bad he was shunned the opportunity	6:42
	to view his own creation of Duke University.	6:45
	We hear of people holding on to die	6:49
	until the last child reaches the bedside.	6:51
	We like tidy endings,	6:55
	clear resolution, happy endings.	6:57
	We think we get this by ordering our lives.	7:01
	We trade on the expectation	7:05
	that life's uncertainties can be tamed.	7:07
	And they can be tamed simply by applying the right rules.	7:12
	That's what the Pharisees were doing.	7:19
	Wallpapering over the intention of the law	7:22
	to make a tidy appearance of it.	7:24
	Rules are for following, Jesus.	7:27
	Don't you know?	7:29
	No wonder the Pharisees didn't like Jesus.	7:32
	No wonder we are not very fond of this Jesus.	7:37
	But of course, we do know that the spirit of the law	7:44
	is what mattered, right?	7:47
	Our moral tendency is to believe	7:51
	that we can actually achieve satisfaction	7:53
	by having all the loose ends tied up,	7:56
	by submitting to a canopy of rules	7:59
	rather than living by the spirit of the law.	8:01
	Jesus comes along among us and breaks the illusion,	8:06
	to shatter the order that we tried	8:11
	so desperately to protect.	8:13
	Jesus does all of this for our good.	8:16
	That's the thing that I don't like about Jesus.	8:19
	But if we can admit it,	8:24
	if we can admit it to ourselves,	8:27
	that's also the reason we find ourselves	8:30
	so attracted to him.	8:33
	Jesus went on to remind them	8:36
	of what they already knew,	8:38
	that human beings were created by God	8:40
	before God instituted the Sabbath rest.	8:43
	Thus priority lay with human need.	8:46
	The Sabbath was created for humanity,	8:51
	not humanity for the observance of the Sabbath.	8:53
	The Pharisees had lost their perspective,	8:59
	they insisted on strict observance,	9:02
	the reason for the observance had been largely lost.	9:04
	No longer was the Sabbath a gift, but a burden.	9:09
	Jesus as Lord of the Sabbath rediscovered it for humanity.	9:13
	He removed the burden and gave the Sabbath back	9:18
	as a gracious gift.	9:21
	The good news is this.	9:24
	Jesus frees humanity to see laws	9:27
	and regulations in their proper perspective,	9:29
	as aids for life, designed for human beings	9:33
	by a loving God whose purpose	9:37
	was to free them from bondage.	9:40
	Well, I guess Jesus sure did tell off the Pharisees, right?	9:44
	But what does that have to do with us?	9:50
	We're not Pharisees.	9:53
	Why get all worked up	9:54
	about plucking heads of grain?	9:56
	And anyway, if we as Christians	9:58
	have been freed in Christ,	10:00
	rules and regulations aren't our problem, are they?	10:02
	Pastor Ken, can I talk to you?	10:08
	I've got this problem with my roommate.	10:12
	He says he's a Christian	10:15
	but I know he's not.	10:16
	He comes in late every night	10:18
	and I just know he's been out to the pub.	10:19
	I hardly ever see him reading the Bible.	10:22
	Once I looked in it, it's not even a Red Letter edition.	10:26
	(congregation laughing)	10:29
	Hardly anything is underlined in the book.	10:30
	I bet my Bible is at least a pound heavier	10:33
	because of all of the ink and the underlining.	10:36
	I asked him once, I asked him once	10:40
	when he came to know Jesus as his Savior	10:42
	and you know what he said?	10:44
	When he was baptized.	10:47
	What kind of answer is that?	10:49
	I happen to know that he was only six weeks old at the time.	10:52
	How can a baby know Jesus?	10:55
	Anyway, I confronted him with the truth	10:58
	and all he does is get mad at me.	11:02
	I'm just doing it out of love.	11:04
	Not 20 minutes later,	11:08
	his roommate came to see me.	11:11
	Ken, we have got to talk.	11:14
	I've got this problem with my roommate.	11:16
	Ever since he's found Jesus,	11:19
	he's been a real pain in the neck.	11:20
	He spends all of his time in those fellowship groups	11:24
	talking about what Jesus has done for him.	11:27
	Doesn't he know that Christians are supposed	11:29
	to reach out to a hurting people in the world?	11:31
	He goes to some church downtown.	11:35
	He says that liturgy is not worship for him.	11:37
	He even got baptized by total immersion.	11:40
	Once in the room he started talking real weird.	11:45
	I guess he was speaking in tongues	11:47
	but I thought it was creepy.	11:49
	Anyway, I told him that I was not interested	11:51
	in his kind of Christianity.	11:54
	By the way, I recommended to the Dean of Housing	11:57
	that these two students	12:00
	should be forced to room together next year.	12:01
	(congregation laughing)	12:04
	Like the Pharisees and often like you and I,	12:09
	both of these students lost their perspective.	12:14
	They insisted on strict observance	12:18
	but had forgotten the reasons.	12:20
	The discipline of Christian life	12:22
	was no longer a gift but a burden,	12:24
	especially a burden imposed someone else.	12:27
	Each had come up with his own checklist	12:32
	of what kind of behavior identifies a Christian	12:34
	and each used his list to tabulate how close one does	12:37
	what God requires.	12:41
	Each knows that he's not perfect	12:43
	but as long as there are more checks in the do column	12:45
	than there are in the don't column,	12:48
	each can feel pretty self-righteous.	12:50
	You know, I kind of like that model myself.	12:54
	That's a convenient way to live a life of faith.	12:56
	You don't have to think.	12:58
	All you have to do is memorize the list	13:00
	of dos and don'ts	13:02
	and then check them off one by one.	13:04
	And the really neat thing	13:08
	is you can apply exactly the same list to everyone.	13:09
	You can deal with everybody in the same way.	13:12
	It's much less time consuming than relating to individuals.	13:16
	Like the incident in the Gospel,	13:22
	it doesn't make a difference that the disciples were hungry.	13:25
	What they did was wrong and that's that.	13:29
	The law says no harvesting on the Sabbath.	13:33
	Period.	13:36
	End of discussion.	13:37
	Jesus' answer to the Pharisees and to us	13:42
	is to set us free from the burden of the law,	13:46
	the burden of ourselves.	13:49
	But it is a freedom that demands great responsibility.	13:52
	God doesn't take away the checklists	13:57
	but frees us to see them in proper perspective	14:00
	as aids for our lives,	14:03
	gifts from a loving God	14:05
	and in giant letters, God adds a preface	14:08
	to each checklist.	14:11
	Remember that these are designed for my children.	14:13
	My love for them comes first.	14:19
	It is Jesus, not the law	14:25
	or our boxes that comes to bring life	14:28
	and life abundantly.	14:31
	We are always going to be jolted out	14:33
	of our security, out of our boxes if you will.	14:36
	That's the thing that I don't like about Jesus.	14:41
	But Jesus has his priorities straight.	14:45
	He broke the Sabbath law again and again	14:48
	to heal the sick.	14:51
	He shocked those who were most righteous	14:53
	by associating himself with sinners and outcasts.	14:56
	He was accused of blasphemy	15:01
	for daring to forgive sins.	15:03
	For Jesus, people were always more important than the law,	15:07
	even people like you and like me.	15:13
	Maybe especially people like you and me.	15:19
	And that's the thing I like about Jesus.	15:25
	Thanks be to God.	15:32
	Amen.	15:36

Item Info

Title:

Kenneth L. Nelson - "That's the Thing I Don't Like about Jesus" (October 24, 1999)

Description:

Sermon start time: 01:13. Sermon end time: 15:37.
We like to have our matters of faith neatly contained in checklists of do's and dont's, because it gives us a sense of security and control. Yet, doing so puts us under bondage. Jesus comes to us in these times and shatters our order and security. We may resent this at times, but he does it for our good, in order to free us to see God's commands as a gift rather than a burden. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Jesus frees humanity to see laws and regulations in their proper perspective, as aids for life, designed for human beings by a loving God whose purpose was to free them from bondage.”

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https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42b8vs0t

Date:

October 24, 1999

Speaker:

Nelson, Kenneth L.

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Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0982
ref10123_f2g
uachapelsermaud
duke:320554
dcrau001626
ark:/87924/r42b8vs0t
1167a3f9-cb14-41c2-9731-84fe08cd7e2e

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Duke Chapel Recordings

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Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

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Kenneth L. Nelson - "That's the Thing I Don't Like about Jesus" (October 24, 1999)

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