Having read the Bible several times
with somewhat different perspectives over the years, I often have thought; man,
I am glad I did get called by God to do that.
Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah surely tops my list.
Moses listening to a burning bush
would have been tough. This voice called
I Am told me to go back to where I am
wanted for murder, that’s tough to swallow.
Moses wasn’t too keen on the idea himself, but I am glad it was him and
not me.
Balaam had to get his instructions
from a donkey. So God spoke to you
through a burning bush? Nope, he had my
donkey talk to me. Yeah, OK,
No way, I could have done Noah’s
job. He used Gopher Wood as instructed
by God, but I always get the basic rule mixed up and measure once and cut twice
and have to go for more wood. I would not have been a good fit for the
whole ark business.
Here is a position that I think I
might have qualified for once upon a time—editor for the Christmas Story. The editor position is not in the Bible, but
I could have done it. Really, how did
some of this stuff get past the editors?
Let’s start with this whole babe in a
manger scene. That’s no way for the King
of kings to enter the world.
No room at the inn, really? That reservation would have been made before
Adam lost a rib. They can just keep that
room empty until needed.
If there is a foal of a donkey waiting
for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem three decades or so later, they could have
held a room at the Inn. I don’t mean
Motel 6. We’re talking Embassy
Suites. It comes with a full, to order
breakfast, quite the happy hour in the evening, and suites—not rooms—suites!
But what do we get? A kid that’s born in a barn or a cave. At least they knew to edit out the first
couple years of dirty diapers, but bring the one and only Son of God into the
world in such a mean estate. Who let’s
that get by the first draft?
Try working the first divine dirty
diaper into the lectionary readings every third year. That’s when you go on cruise and get a pulpit
supply.
And then this is this whole fleeing to
Egypt bit. What gives? I am thinking a couple legions of angels get
garrison duty. That’s good duty for
them. It’s absolute security for the Son
of God. If Herod wants to mess with them he can just
be known as Herod the wasn’t around very
long.
The shepherds and Magi might not have
like the full body search and getting X-rayed and wanded five times to finally
get to the waiting area to see the one who was Lord at his birth, but hey, we
eventually learned to handle TSA procedures, and we are a spoiled generation. The shepherds could have handled it.
And who scored this story? Silent
Night, really? I’m thinking Ride of the Valkyries!
Richard Wagner or the Little Drummer
Boy? Puh rump pa pum pum. C’mon people, this is the King of kings!
If the careless editing only stopped with
the Christmas story, I could live with that.
But it continues. We get this
whole last will be first and first will be last theme that Jesus delivers for
about 3 years.
What gives? He is the King of kings. How about establishing a formal hierarchy here? We put Jesus at the top and…
And why is he eating with sinners and
tax collectors and talking to women that shouldn’t be getting anywhere near him
even if he was just a common rabbi?
This whole story of God with Us seems upside down. And then we come to a meal not too long
before Jesus will return to the Father.
He has done his time. He surely rates a couple medals for having
stepped out of heaven and lived the human life.
He obviously gets the Good Conduct Medal. Throw in one for fasting, parables, and
walking on water.
Jesus can go home to Dad with some
fruit salad on his uniform. He has done
some stuff. But, he is not just catching
the next flight home. He will be
betrayed and sacrificed as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world
and he knows it.
So, what does he do? No, he doesn’t turn more water in to wine,
though I would have no problem if he did.
C’mon, think of what lies ahead of him.
Jesus takes off his outer garment,
wraps a towel around his waist, gets a bowl of water and starts washing the
feet of his disciples. He doesn’t leave
them with wet feet. He dries them on the
towel that’s wrapped around him.
Apparently, none of the 12 are saying
anything about this. Yes, Judas was
still among them. He didn’t leave until later.
So, Jesus comes to Peter, and Peter
says—mind you this is in traditional Okie with much license and not in the
classical Greek or even Aramaic—Peter says, “That dog don’t hunt, Lord.
Ain’t no way you are doing what the lowliest servant would normally do.”
Jesus answers, “OK, then you are not
going have anything to do with what I am all about.”
Peter replies, “OK then, I’ll take the
full body wash, spa package, and pedicure.
Give me the works!”
Jesus knows that they don’t get
it. Peter is just the spokesman for the
dumbfounded disciples. “What just
happened?”
Jesus at least gives the disciples
some encouragement by saying that they will understand what’s happening at some
point in their future, but for the moment, these men are just stunned.
These dozen men have heard Jesus say
that he must die but they witnessed him ride into Jerusalem to shouts and
cheers. Jesus has rebuked the religious
leaders. He has chastised those doing business in the temple as if it were a
common market place.
Maybe, this man whom they witnessed
walk on water and raise the dead was about to take his rightful place on the
throne and take his place at the top of this world.
That is exactly what he did, but the
world was upside down and did not know it.
He said—
· You call me Teacher
· You call me Lord
· You are right on the money
I am your Teacher and your Lord, and I
just washed your feet. I just performed
the job of the lowest servant. Now, you
have an example. You have a model for
what to do when I am gone.
You have a model for guiding this
world to a right-side up position when it does not even know it is upside down. In one more chapter, Jesus tells his
disciples that because they follow him—even though he will be with the
Father—they will do greater things than even he did.
At this very moment, he reminds them
that a servant is not greater than his master.
The messenger is not greater than the one who sent him.
Jesus is telling these men, and he is
telling us, that the reward for following Jesus is not a bigger tent or a
fatter paycheck—though there is nothing wrong with either unless they become
your gods—but their reward for following him is greater service.
We don’t see a lot of feet washing
from the apostles in Acts or in the course of the New Testament letters. This was not a religious ritual to be
instituted in place of songs for children or reading the Apostles’ Creed.
Jesus demonstrated to 12 men that
their understanding of the world was upside down. He showed them that the patterns of the world
still had too high a place in their thinking.
Think to Paul’s words which came a few
decades later. Do not conform to the
patterns of this world any longer. Any
longer denotes that the models and paradigms and patterns of the world
already had their hooks in people.
People understood the world through the upside-down lens of the world.
Jesus would not send these disciples
into the world to offer a plan B or option C.
He would not send them with a you
need to hedge your bet spiel.
Jesus sent his closest followers into the world—equipped with the Holy Spirit so they could make sense of what had been a mostly cloudy experience over the past 3 years—to bring grace and truth to the world.
Grace came from God himself, was God
himself, and walked with these men over a few hundred miles teaching and
healing and proclaiming good news for the captives, until it was time to shed
his blood on the cross.
The story did not end at the cross but
the power of sin and death to separate us from the love of God did. The story continues with resurrection and
life and life eternal.
It is a story that we carry to this
upside-down world today. It is a story
of love and faith and hope but how will we tell it.
Will we try to make it fit into the
world’s model? Will we try to make it
less offensive to those who don’t believe in God or who think one god is as
good as another?
Will we try to tell this story without
disturbing the patterns that rule this world?
We really do want to keep our status in this world, don’t we? We don’t want to be looked upon as if we were
the lowliest servant around, do we?
Can’t we pay at least a little
allegiance to the god of this world, so we blend in just a little?
Jesus alone saw the dichotomy of upright
disciples in an upside-down world. He
gave them a stunning example of how out of sync this world had become with God
the Father when he became what the world would regard as the lowliest servant
and he washed their feet.
These disciples—at least 11 of
them—with the help of the Holy Spirit, would soon have these right-side up eyes
to see as well. But, do we?
How do we take this 2000-year-old
example and put it to work in this out of control century?
Let’s start with truth. We
are talking Truth with a big T and truth with a little t. We must always—not occasionally—be people of
truth. We speak it in love but love does
not dilute the truth.
Let’s not be dumfounded as Pilate was
and have to ask, “What is truth?”
Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the
Life. The truth is that God loves us so
much that through Jesus, he made a way for us to be right with him. We can live in this world as right-side up
people.
God did not send his Son into this
world to condemn the world but to save it through him.
The truth is that through him, in him,
following him, believing in him we have eyes to see exactly how we are to live
in the truth—right-side up in this upside-down world.
Let’s not forget love. Paul
coined the phrase speaking the truth in
love in a very narrow context, but the phrase is nearly universal in
application. We bring the truth of Jesus
Christ to people out of love. It’s not
out of duty or obligation or desire for greater rewards.
It is love that propels us to bring
good news of the Truth to people who think we are upside-down.
It is love that shapes our heart like
that of our heavenly Father’s—a heart that desires none to perish.
Love does not dilute the truth. Love doesn’t even make the truth taste better
all the time. Love causes us to bring
the truth to the blind once more, when the world condemns us for it.
Let’s speak the truth, live the truth,
and bring the truth to the world but always in love.
There are many other areas—faith,
hope, patience, kindness, peace, and more.
Many of these we will discuss in 2018.
But there is one more area that I would like you to consider as you
enter this new year. Consider
inclusion. Consider communion. Consider that someone cannot know the
fullness of life that we know from the outside looking in.
I have said this year after year, but
this year, I charge us to live this as followers of Christ Jesus. Abundant life in this modern century centers
around inclusion in the body of Christ.
Jesus didn’t just pick a dozen guys
walking down the road and pulled them over for a foot wash. He didn’t send Judas out to round up some
people with dirty feet, and tell him to take care of his other business while
he was out.
This lesson was for those who already
had been cleaned. They just needed their
feet washed. They didn’t need a whole
bath. Their salvation was in Jesus and
it was secure, even before Jesus went to the cross. Jesus noted to his Father in heaven that he
saved all that were given him, except for the one that had to bring about the
sacrifice that was to come.
But Jesus needed to give these men
eyes to see right-side up in an upside-down world. He washed their feet as the lowliest of
servants would. He knew that with the
Spirit’s help, they would see the world as it was and as the Father in heaven
designed it to be, and know the difference between the two.
We do a lot to bring people into the
body of Christ. We really do. A response to serve the Lord seems rare these
days when we minister to the disconnected and the lost.
Think of the waitress at a restaurant
that you visit only occasionally. She
takes your order, gets it right, checks on you regularly, remembers what you
asked for, and takes very good care of you.
You give her a decent tip.
One minute after you pay your bill,
she can’t remember what half the people at her table ordered. She is focused on her other customers and
those just now walking in the door. It
makes her a good waitress. She can deal
with her customers until they are out the door and then it’s on to what’s next.
Many of the people that we help with
bills, food, baskets, gifts at Christmas who are not really an active part of
the body of Christ, stop trying to connect with us once the bill is paid or the
gifts are in hand. We might see a single
visit at a worship service, but then it will be another 10 months before they
surface again.
Like the waitress, it’s on to what’s
next.
Sometimes paying a bill, buying
Christmas gifts, loading up a family with food, and other acts of benevolence
work against us with those who are not really connected. For those active in the body of Christ, all
of these things are blessings.
So we come to a New Year. For many it is a time to catch our breath
from Christmas. Some are still wired
waiting on the outcome of the football playoffs. Many have resolutions. Many have resolved not to do resolutions any
more. It’s a new year set before us.
In this year, I challenge us all as
the body of Christ to bring the truth and love to the world and to bring the
disconnected home.
Without the distraction of a food
basket or Christmas ham, lead people to the truth.
Without the obsession over Christmas
gifts, invite people that you know need to come home back into the fellowship.
With all the love you can muster,
speak the truth to those who remain content apart from the body of Christ. You have been given eyes to see the world
right-side up. Will you leave people
that you know—some you call friends—subscribing to the patterns of the world.
Jesus washed the feet of his disciples
to give them an example. His actions
were extreme. He was and is Lord. What was he doing washing feet like a lowly
servant?
If Jesus was so extreme and
provocative and bold to show his disciples how upside-down their world was, how
can we be timid in our discipleship?
How
can we be reserved in our evangelism?
The New Year is upon us. What will we do?
You may reject or receive what I
challenge you to do, but you cannot say that you didn’t know.
Take truth and love into the world
from day 1 of this new year. Without promise
of anything of this world—food, money, gifts—call people home. Invite them to know the truth and know love
and know what it is to live right-side up in this upside-down world.
Amen!
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