Power Transformed by Love Defined on the Cross
Epiphany 4: January 28-29, 2006
The Rev. Mark Sherwindt, Pastor
Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church
With what authority he speaks! The Gospel of Matthew does a better job at actually preserving the record of the new teachings that so many found so powerful. It's called the Sermon on the Mount, which begins with the Beatitudes, and then continues on to the contrasts that connect Jesus with the older standard against which new teachings would always be measured. I am sure that you will recall this section of the Sermon on the Mount also. "You have heard it said of old, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist evil with evil…. Turn the other cheek…. Give to all who beg…." Again, "You have heard it said of old, 'You shall love your neighbor…. But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who harm you, so that you may be children of your heavenly Father, who makes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and makes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust alike." [Matthew 5:38ff.] The standard against which all new teachings were measured was Moses. And again, Matthew makes it clearer than Mark, both by the five-fold structure of his Gospel and in the powerful sermon Jesus preached on the mount, that Jesus was the prophet cut from the mold of Moses. Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise set forth in Deuteronomy 18: 15, that God will raise up for his people a prophet like Moses, who would lead God's people to the promise of their salvation. The location may have changed in Luke, from the sermon on the mount to the sermon from the plain, but the point is the same. With what power he preaches, and with what authority Jesus teaches. Jesus' long and profound discourses in the Gospel of John make this same point. The Gospel of Mark did not preserve any of Jesus' memorable sermons. The authority with which Jesus speaks and the power of his words are displayed in the response his words commanded and received. Even the demons obey! In chapter two, it's the power to forgive sins. In chapter three, Jesus forms his cabinet by appointing the twelve. In chapter four, even the wind and sea obey him. In chapter five, it's the Geresene demoniac and the daughter of Jairus, more demons cast out, more diseases cured, all signs of the authority Jesus' words commanded and received. In chapter six, Jesus calms the waves and the disciples' fears when he comes to them walking on the water during the fourth watch of the night. The blind see, the deaf hear, the dead are raised: blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! By the time we get to chapter eight, we're ready for the most powerful man on the face of the earth to step out from behind his cover. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, faster than a speeding bullet: it's Super-Jesus to the rescue! But we've gotten ahead of the story. In fact, we're actually in the wrong story if that's what we think is going to happen with the coming of the Messiah. Oh, don't get me wrong. That's exactly what God's people in ancient Israel expected with the coming of the promised Messiah: complete and total victory over everything that resisted God's reign. The truth is that that is exactly what many among God's people expect now with the Second Coming of the Messiah: complete and total victory over everything that resists God's reign. With what power he speaks! With what authority he teaches! Even the unclean spirits, the demons resisting God's reign, listen up and obey! Yes, I know it's true that too many of us, still today, fall prey to the false signals Mark is sending as he tells the story of Jesus Christ in these early chapters of his gospel. He's giving us a pretty good look at what we want to hear and are looking to see. But soon we'll see much more clearly, and we'll get a clear view of the call that comes from the Cross. The Cross is really the point, the point that Mark is leading to, the point that Jesus is getting at. The Cross is the key to the kingdom and the truth about God. I don't know what came over me as I was looking at that hymn I chose to open the service, All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name. How could I choose not to sing the only verse that really matters? That would be verse 5. I sometimes try to steer clear of phrases that baffle, and that is all I saw in verse 5. "Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget the wormwood and the gall." The hymn has an interesting history as an early American favorite, written by an Anglican-turned-Methodist, who was inspired by the Book of Revelation to lift up the consummate reasons for Jesus to be crowned Lord of lords. Neither of the hymn's original authors penned verse 5. Its Scriptural root is not Revelation 5, but Lamentations 3:19. But despite these reasons for leaving it off the "verses to sing" list, it refers to the Cross as the place where Jesus' worthiness to wear the crown is clearly and fully seen. "Go spread your trophies at the foot of the Cross, because that is where the power of God's love finds its fullest and clearest expression. There are two stories that have been in the news this past week that I would like to draw to our attention primarily because of what they say about this Gospel text. The first is the story covering Pope Benedict XVI's first pastoral epistle entitled God Is Love. The second is the story that has grabbed the headlines the last couple days concerning the election that just occurred in the Middle East, with the voting on Wednesday, the results announced on Thursday, and the effect reverberating around the world still today. Let's cover this latter story first. Just about all of us have been following the news about recent elections among the Palestinians, which resulted in the establishment of Hamas, a well-known terrorist organization advocating suicide bombings and the destruction of Israel, now empowered to form the next government of the Palestinian Authority. The election was a shocker. It seems to reveal why Yasser Arafat didn't sign on to the peace agreement back in 2000 when he was here in Washington. The Palestinian people wouldn't support it. Their quest to find a different formula for peace and justice continues to follow the way of violence and continued bloodshed. Now, I am not suggesting that the ways that nations choose to pursue their struggle for peace is on par with the way of the Cross, which is the way that leads to the kingdom of God. In fact, the stark contrast between Jesus' way and the ways of the nations could not be clearer. An eye for an eye, vengeance for past wrongs, peace through bloodshed: these are the ways of the world. Jesus came to offer an alternative to the ways of the world. It is called the way of the Cross. It is a radical alternative to how the world sees things, to what nations at war seek as peace. The truth about life as we know it in the Middle East is the world from which Jesus came, and that is the world to which he was sent. With what authority he speaks! What power his words possess and command! He's the One. That's the message of our Gospel text this morning. But just what does that mean? That's why I found the story about the Pope's pastoral letter so interesting. I've got to tell you that I was eating lunch at historic Bender's Restaurant in downtown Canton with Roman Catholics from the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown (at the Synod's expenses) on Wednesday, and that was the occasion that made this papal encyclical a natural topic for table talk. The very title, God Is Love, is certainly a good beginning when it comes to understanding the call to follow Jesus. The very title of the pastoral epistle made it clear that when it comes to matters important to Christian living, the Pope was at pains to get our focus on what Jesus reveals about God's love. Time and again, he reminded his audience that the Church is not called to be the State, and while we must join with fellow citizens in defending the weak, caring for the poor, and working to establish justice at home and abroad, our call as Christians is the grow in love and service by grace. Well, those would be our words - in fact, they are our words, drawn directly from Zion's mission statement - but they are not far from what the Pope was driving at. In the newspaper account I read, the point was made by Pope Benedict himself regarding his choice of subjects as, in his words, "both timely and significant in a world where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence." Without doubt, his message is clearly timely. It was written on Christmas Day. Now that is a great time to reflect on the gift of God's love. It was ready for publication this past Wednesday, which was the culmination of our Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. That's very timely for addressing a message to the whole church. Its timeliness, however, is related to more than dates on our Christian calendar. The elections among the Palestinians this past week underscore the timeliness of this message. It is these recent events that make it so very clear once again that ours is a world "where the name of God is sometimes associated with vengeance or even a duty of hatred and violence." These are, unfortunately in terms of taking a realistic look at the ways of the world, the emotions that the nations tap in pursuit of their aims for justice and peace. In stark contrast, love is what the church must tap as we pursue the aims of peace, true peace - peace with God, peace within, peace with others. God's love is what we see revealed on the Cross, where power is transformed at the intersection of grace and forgiveness, where sacrifice gives way to service. That's the way that leads to peace, God's way to peace and ours, peace within and with others, peace in heaven and peace on earth, and especially among those who are called to follow … in Jesus' name. Amen