I have to confess that I’ve never thought of Jesus as a philosopher. Perhaps that’s because I envision him as having been not so much a seeker of truth as the embodiment of it. Or perhaps that’s because, were I to sculpt Jesus, I would depict him not as an introspective, curled-inward figure, like “The Thinker” by Rodin, but as someone in the full-stride-and-outstretched-arm of ministry—an action figure, whose flexible limbs could be shaped into a wide variety of dynamic poses.
You
see, for me the more pressing question has always been not “What would Jesus
think?” but rather “What would Jesus do?”—WWJD?, “What Would Jesus
Do?”
Have
you ever seen a WWJD tee shirt, like the one on the bulletin cover, or a WWJD
bracelet? This teen-age fashion
craze started about five years ago or so when a group of kids in Holland,
Michigan, were trying to raise money for their service projects. They designed for sale cloth bracelets into which were woven
the letters WWJD. The bracelets
caught on, and millions of dollars later you can now even go on line to www.wwjd.com or www.whatwouldjesusdo.com,
where you will find available to you a wealth of products, like that tee
shirt.
Even
I, uncool as I am, have a WWJD bracelet.
I got mine for free during a recent General Assembly of our
denomination—at the booth of the More Light Presbyterians.
At this distance you probably can’t tell, but ask me to show it to you
on your way out the door or at the coffee hour.
You see, this cloth bracelet is woven with colors from the spectrum of
the rainbow that symbolizes our conviction as More Light Presbyterians that what
Jesus would do would be to have the Presbyterian Church fully welcome and
include gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons.
Anyway,
back to the issue of whether Jesus was a philosopher or an activist!
I agree with all the people wearing WWJD bracelets and tee shirts that
Jesus was an activist and wants us to be activists, too.
This
morning’s gospel lesson from Luke makes that abundantly clear and also makes
clear what kind of activism it is to which Jesus is calling his disciples, to
which Jesus is calling us.
Our
lesson narrates an event that takes place very near the beginning of Jesus's
ministry. Jesus returns to his
hometown of Nazareth, and there, on a sabbath day, he goes to the synagogue.
During
the synagogue service, after the reading of the assigned lectionary passage from
the Torah (that is, from the first
five books, Genesis through Deuteronomy), Jesus stands to read a portion from
the books of the prophets. The
scroll of the prophet Isaiah is handed to him, and Jesus chooses for reading a
passage very near its end.
The
passage describes God’s calling of a prophet to proclaim the good news of
God's deliverance to those who are poor, captive, blind, oppressed, God’s
calling of a prophet to proclaim the start of a year of Jubilee, the start of a
year in which the poor are given a fresh beginning by having all alienated
property returned to its original owner and by restoring all indentured servants
to freedom.
After
reading aloud this passage from Isaiah, Jesus gives the scroll back to the
attendant and sits down in preparation for offering his interpretation of the
passage, in preparation, that is, for delivering his sermon.
For it was the custom in a synagogue to read scripture while standing but
to interpret scripture while sitting.
The
first part of Jesus’s sermon is found in the concluding verse of this week's
gospel lesson. You'll need to come
back next Sunday to hear Part Two of Jesus's sermon and to be shocked at the
aftermath of it.
At
any rate, in this first part of Jesus's sermon he says of the passage from
Isaiah that he's just read, "Today
this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
Jesus’s
sermon is not just bold; it’s audacious.
Jesus proclaims to the congregation that it is he himself, rather than
any earlier prophet, who is the one spoken of in Isaiah, the one anointed by God
for this ministry of liberation.
Jesus
urges his hearers to understand this passage in a totally new way, by seeing
Jesus himself as the key to interpreting the text.
Thus
the anointing of the prophet by God's Spirit is to be interpreted as a reference
to Jesus's baptism in the waters of the Jordan, which, you’ll recall, the
Gospel of Luke describes by saying, "The Holy Spirit descended upon him in
bodily form like a dove. And a
voice came from heaven, [saying,] 'You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am
well pleased.'"
And
the verb "has anointed" is pregnant with additional meaning.
For the Hebrew word used in Isaiah is "mashach,"
the verb that underlies the noun "mashiach,"
which means "anointed one," or "Messiah."
And the Greek word used in Luke is "échrisen,"
a verb related to the noun "christós,"
which also means "anointed one," or "Christ."
Thus,
in Jesus's sermon at the synagogue in Nazareth, he lays claim implicitly to the
title "Messiah," or "Christ," by speaking of himself
as having been anointed by the Spirit.
And
the mission of the Anointed One, and therefore of Jesus, is one of
liberation—to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captive, recovery
of sight to the blind, and to let the oppressed go free.
The
task of the Messiah is to turn the hopes of the poor, the imprisoned, and the
oppressed into reality—bringing the amnesty, the liberation, and the
restoration that Jews identified with the year of Jubilee.
Thus,
as narrated in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus's first sermon boldly announces who
Jesus is, of what kind of deeds his ministry will consist, and to what kind of
tasks his disciples will be called.
Throughout
the ensuing chapters of the Gospel of Luke, which will be the focus for most of
our Sunday services for the next months, we will see Jesus fulfilling the
program he has spelled out for himself in this morning's lesson.
We
will see him teaching, preaching, and healing, moving among the poor, the
outcast, the sick, and the blind, among all those considered marginal, among all
those excluded from full and equal participation in society.
Throughout
the gospel, we will see Jesus releasing persons from various forms of bondage
and oppression: from the bondage of sin, of course, yet from other forms of
bondage as well—from economic, physical, and political oppression.
And
we will see Jesus restoring sight to those who are without it—both those
who’re blind of body and those who’re blind of spirit.
On
most of the Sundays from now through November, we will be following Luke’s
account of Jesus, and we will come to see clearly that Jesus accomplished God's
purpose of liberation through a ministry of deeds and that still today Jesus is
calling his followers to pick up his mantle and to continue his ministry by
performing in his name the same kind of deeds and tasks.
WWJD?
What Would Jesus Do? This
morning’s gospel passage makes Jesus’s agenda quite clear, doesn’t it.
And it points the way to what Jesus would have us do relative to some of
the great needs and issues of our time.
At
the beginning of a new administration and a new congress in Washington and of a
new state legislative session in Albany, and of a new millennium of the
church’s witness to Christ, it is important for Christians to be asking what
Jesus would have us do through the formal structures of government and through
the formal structures of our churches to bring about the well-being of the poor,
the outcast, and the marginal in our world.
What
Would Jesus Do about the homeless on our streets? Next Sunday, assisted by youth in our Theatre Arts Program,
our service will focus on the homeless. And
our Coffee Hour will be held in the shelter that we open each weekend in the
gymnasium below this sanctuary to provide beds for ten homeless men.
Yesterday the word on the street was that the mayor was about to launch
another big sweep to clear the streets of the sight of the homeless by putting
them in jail and dumping their carts in the garbage.
What Would Jesus Do about the homeless?
Help us next Sunday to reflect on this question and to begin to chart a
course for our action.
What
Would Jesus Do about the debt of the poorest nations in the world?
On Monday evening, February 12, at 7:00 pm, right here at the Rutgers
Presbyterian Church, our Peace And Social Justice Network will be sponsoring a
city-wide forum on proclaiming a modern year of Jubilee, like the one Jesus
announced in our lesson today, a year in which poor nations are given a fresh
beginning by having their debt repayments canceled and that money channeled
instead into improving both health care and education in those nations.
Come and hear our own Congressman Jerrold Nadler along with
representatives of the World Bank and the Zambian government help us reflect on
this issue and chart a course for our action.
Monday, Feb. 12, at 7:00 pm, right here in this sanctuary.
What
Would Jesus Do about improving public education in our city?
Would he join with Justice Leland DeGrasse in decreeing a court-ordered
end to the political horse trading in Albany that has worked against the
children of our city for decades and has led to this crisis of too many
collapsed school buildings, unqualified teachers, and tattered textbooks?
Or would Jesus join with Governor Pataki in appealing that decision by
Justice DeGrasse? To me, the answer
to that question is a no-brainer.
And
What Would Jesus Do about a system of justice that is unwilling to provide
lawyers for the poor? It seems our
state legislature has not approved an increase in pay for the lawyers who’re
assigned to defend the poor in our family and criminal courts since 1986, 15
years. Lawyers are still asked to
work for $25 an hour for preparing a case outside the court and for $40 an hour
for presenting the case inside the court—this in a city where law firms bill
$175 an hour for a junior associate.
Almost
all of the 200 or so lawyers in New York City’s Family Courtare refusing new
assignments. New York State’s
appropriation for lawyers representing the poor ranks 49th among the 50 states.
Oh yes, the only state we’re ahead of is New Jersey!
What Would Jesus Do?
And
What Would Jesus Do about the issues of inclusivity that currently roil in our
society and denomination? Well, you
can see from this particular WWJD cloth bracelet that I’m wearing, woven with
colors from the rainbow that symbolizes the More Light Presbyterian
movement—you can see from this bracelet our congregation’s conviction that
What Jesus Would Do would be to have Christian churches fully welcome and
include gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender persons and to have our nation
and its states fully recognize their civil rights.
What
Would Jesus Do? I invite you
throughout this year to keep your mind and your heart focused on that question.
It’s the question you’ll hear wrestled with from this pulpit as
together we encounter the Gospel of Luke and its portrait of Jesus, the
activist.
Let
us pray:
O God,
help us always to ask “What would Jesus do to address the needs of our world?
What would he do today to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim
release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed
go free, to proclaim a year of Jubilee?”
And we pray, O God, that You will lead us by Your Spirit to understand
what Jesus would have us do today in his name. Amen.
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