sermon notes from the Vineyard Church of Milan 09/14/2014
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Welcome to the young people among us today. I have a question for you as we get started. How many of you sometimes don’t like the food your parents give you for lunch or dinner? Do they ever make you eat it, or discipline you if you don’t? Is that one of the hardest things about being a kid, sometimes?
And adults, for those of you that remember your childhood – can you empathize with these kids? Do you still carry scars from that part of your life?
For those of you that are parents, can you imagine how much you’d pay to have someone wave a magic wand and make all the battles around food disappear?
Alas, I can’t do that, and I don’t think that’s the business God’s in either, but hold those experiences in your heart, because I think they’ll help us understand something of the New Humanity we’ve been looking at in the Bible.
Just last week we began a new conversation, a set of lessons – what we adults call a “sermon series” – called New Humanity. Humanity just being a fancy word for people and what it means to be people together in this world. We’re talking about how Jesus is a whole new kind of person, who sees the world differently than anyone has ever seen it before, who relates to himself and to God and to other people in a whole new way, never seen before in history. We’re talking about how Jesus, this first new kind of person, shows us what it means to become, and makes it possible to join him in becoming, a whole new kind of person. He invites us to follow him as he transforms us into new kinds of people born, through the Holy Spirit, just like he was, into a new world that’s standing shoulder to shoulder with the old world we’re all used to. You know the old world I’m talking about - the world where hard things happen all the time, scary things, and ugly things. The world that brings out the worst in us, and the world that we ourselves have helped make difficult and scary and ugly by our own failings and fearful, self-protective actions.
Last week we started with this story from the book of Mark.
1 This is the Good News about Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It began as the prophet Isaiah had written: “God said,
‘I will send my messenger ahead of you
to clear the way for you.’
Someone is shouting in the desert,
‘Get the road ready for the Lord;
make a straight path for him to travel!’ ”
4 So John appeared in the desert, baptizing and preaching. “Turn away from your sins and be baptized,” he told the people, “and God will forgive your sins.” 5Many people from the province of Judea and the city of Jerusalem went out to hear John. They confessed their sins, and he baptized them in the River Jordan.
6 John wore clothes made of camel’s hair, with a leather belt round his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. 7He announced to the people, “The man who will come after me is much greater than I am. I am not good enough even to bend down and untie his sandals. 8I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
9 Not long afterwards Jesus in the came from Nazareth province of Galilee, and was baptized by John in the Jordan. 10As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, he saw heaven opening and the Spirit coming down on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”
12 At once the Spirit made him go into the desert, 13where he stayed 40 days, being tempted by Satan. Wild animals were there also, but angels came and helped him.
Younger people, your parents and other adults may find some parts of this conversation more suited to them, but feel free to tune in as much it all makes sense to you. Some of it has to do with things we can learn from you, actually, and some of it may help you have much more and better life from God in your own life, so keep your ears open.
Last week one of the most important things noticed about Jesus, and the new humanity revealed in him, is that he isn’t afraid of the fact that to be a person in this world is to be vulnerable. He’s happy to let other people look better or more powerful than him, and he has no shame about that. Jesus lets his cousin baptize him, as if Jesus is a weak and messed up person just like everyone else, someone who needs God’s help so much that he’s willing to let the whole world see it.
We noted that when we see our vulnerability, we are deeply disturbed by it – we hate that it reminds us of that we might die, and that others might reject us because of it, if they see it, because it reminds them that they might die and that we might not be much help to them in preventing that. All we want to do is get rid of it. Cover it. Hide it. Fix it. Distance ourselves from it. Comfort ourselves that others are more vulnerable than we are. Run from it. Live in denial, pretending it isn’t there. Or just as bad, be consumed by it, depressed by it, cowering in shame and fear, bitter, angry. [Ever notice how much kids love band-aids…? And how they love their boo-boos being kissed…?]
But not Jesus. He steps right into our vulnerability. First as a baby, and then in his baptism, and eventually in his death on the cross.
This is where the new humanity starts. With an embrace of our common vulnerability in the wilderness, made possible by a child-like confidence that God will address our needs as we take the steps he leads us to take, without fear of loss or hurt or the negative judgments of others, without the need to make ourselves look good or defend our reputation or secure our standing. With freedom from the cursed concerns about comparison and worthiness and strength and sufficiency. With a singular view towards what is it God would have me do today, right now? What is the posture God would have me take before others? The new humanity, in other words, begins with a naked faith in Love. A lot like a baby that’s just been born.
Jesus is so committed to not hiding his needs, or pretending they aren’t there, or finding ways to protect himself from the reality of his needs, that after this amazing thing happens where God makes it clear that Jesus is really something special, who has his favor, Jesus doesn’t try to take advantage of that for his own sake. Instead, he heads off, into the wilderness where he’ll be more vulnerable than he’s ever been in his life, alone except for wild animals, Satan, and some angels.
We’re going to talk about that part of the story more next week, but this week we’re going to talk about two trees. About two potential, competing sources of life and strength for human beings who are vulnerable in this world. One tree that the old humanity chose – and that we usually choose over and over again. And the other tree that Jesus chose, and keeps on choosing (and in fact, becomes) and invites us to choose with him.
Remember, Mark’s gospel starts with “the beginning” and has all kinds of signposts pointing to the first beginning, the account of the original creation story in the book of Genesis. There is a temptation scene in Genesis that includes important background for our understanding of the new humanity revealed in Jesus.
Maybe you’ve heard the story. God makes the world, and human beings in it, and provides everything they need to thrive for them. In the middle of this great garden he shows them two trees – the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He warns them, though, that although they are free to do whatever they choose, and eat whatever they desire, that they shouldn’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, because if they do, they will die. And then, we read this:
3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ”
4“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5“For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. 7Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
Human beings need to eat. If we don’t eat, we’re in trouble. And we’re not self-sufficient – the food has to come from outside of us, from the world around us, and it’s dependent on a whole lot of things we don’t have direct control over.
It’s no accident that this significant event takes place with eating at the center of it. Our need to eat is a core expression of our vulnerability, our neediness, along with the need to breathe, and have shelter and protection from the environment. But our need to eat is a special expression of our neediness, in that we get to choose what we eat, from a wide variety of foods. Our freedom expresses itself first, in fact, in our eating.
Think about it.
We don’t choose the air we will breathe. We take the air we can get. At least at first.
And we don’t struggle about clothing choices or our houses, not until we’ve grown quite a bit. We humans generally wear whatever our caregivers clothe us in and live in the places we are given to live. [case in point – do these look like pictures of someone who has chosen their clothing?]
But food is another story, isn’t it? Human beings are picky eaters.
The early battles over food that only escalate, it seems, as kids get older and develop strong preferences and disgusts… [engage with kids and parents, shows of hands about various food questions…]
The joy and struggle of the baby latching on to the mother…
What will we eat in order to survive and grow? This is our basic and first question as human beings, and it’s at the heart of all the other choices we will ever make in our lives.
This is the question before Adam and Eve, and before Jesus.
The serpent says, basically, you can eat what your dad provides for you and says is good, or you can say, “Dad, I don’t need you anymore. I’d rather figure out for myself what’s good and bad and take care of my own survival and growth.”
Adam and Eve chose to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They chose to stop having a child-like faith in God, to stop bringing their needs to God to address, and receiving from him whatever he provided. They chose to try to find a way out of vulnerability into self-sufficiency. They chose to stop being kids, to leave home and go out on their own, confident that they could do a better job than their divine parent. They thought, if I could just know what’s good and what’s bad – like God does, or better! – then I could take care of myself. I’d be able to have the wisdom I need to make a good life for myself. I wouldn’t need a dad anymore.
They chose to live in denial of reality, denial of their fundamental vulnerabilities, and to instead pretend to be gods.
That hasn’t worked out as well as we’d hoped, has it? We’ll talk about that more next week.
But for now, notice that Jesus, the first of the new humanity, never ate from that tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He’s still eating from the tree of life. He’s still like a child, vulnerable and aware of it, depending on his Father to lead him and give him what he needs.
That’s why the voice says “You are my own dear Son. I am pleased with you.”
It’s because Jesus only eats from the tree of life that he doesn’t use that favor to go into the city where he can capitalize on it and use it as a strength to get others to serve him. Instead, he follows the Spirit’s leading, like a child, into the wilderness, where he’s going to be hungrier than ever. He doesn’t become an expert at judging what’s good and what’s bad for himself or others. He’s just becoming an expert at recognizing his father’s voice, bringing his needs to him, waiting for his dad to respond, receiving what his dad gives him, going where his dad directs him, doing what his dad is doing.
Growing up for him means learning to desire the same things his dad desires, so that he’s not judging for himself what’s good and bad, but rather learning to love what his dad loves and receive what his dad gives him, and reject what his dad rejects and not receive anything that comes from anyone who isn’t giving it under his dad’s authorization.
This is how the new humanity thrives and grows, vulnerable and needy in the world under the authority of its Father. I think that might be part of why Jesus joins in the baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Repentance isn’t mainly getting a better idea of what’s morally right and wrong, and deciding to do the morally correct thing. (Good luck with that!) Repentance is turning away from depending on one’s own strength and/or the favor of others to survive in the world, and turning towards God for help, recognizing oneself as a child in need of God’s leading and provision. (More on that in coming weeks).
Practical Suggestions:
1. Use mealtimes to reflect on your neediness as a human being. God, our hunger reminds us that without your loving provision, our life is in limited supply. And this food reminds us that not even death can remove us from your strong and loving care. We bring you all of our hungers, and wait for whatever food you desire to feed us. Thanks for being our Father.
2. Help in children’s ministry, with the goal of learning to be like a child, bringing your needs in faith to God to address, as Jesus does. Ask the Holy Spirit each week that you serve to teach you something you need to learn to put the old humanity to death, and put on the new humanity the Spirit is creating in you.
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