Jesus Inside

Advent III Sermon preached at First Presbyterian Church on December 19, 2010 (Delayed one week due to the blizzard.)

When Heaven Came to Us: Jesus Inside
Colossians 2:6-12, 16—3:4

What if you weren't who you thought you were? What if you didn't know WHO you were?
In The Bourne Identity, a suspense novel by Robert Ludlum, the protagonist Jason Bourne wakes up after having washed ashore and he has no idea who he is. As the plot moves along there are hints along the way for him, but they're often confusing and even contradictory clues. Many of the clues are frightening. Bits and pieces of his life come back to him out of his subconscious: “Who am I?” he wonders. “Who am I, really? And how could I be someone as horrible as it seems I might be? And now what do I do about it?”

“Who am I... really,” is really the overarching question of the whole book. And it's our big question too.

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What if you're weren't who you think you are? What if you were once someone else before you settled into this life? Almost like Superman, like Clark Kent... what if you were from another planet? Or what if, long before your first year in school, you were from another country, another life?
Can you imagine something like that?

Now, can you imagine that today someone from that “old country” is going to meet you for Sunday dinner to tell you, once and for all, all about that other life. Maybe even about relatives you never knew you had. And now imagine the flippity-flops your stomach is doing as you anxiously await all the things this messenger will be telling you. (And now you can't concentrate on the sermon at all... because all you can think about is... “What will the messenger say? Who am I... really?”)

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In her book Take This Bread, Sara Miles describes her encounter with the mystery of the sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Struggling with basically the same question as Jason Bourne in a completely different but very real way, she gets up on a Sunday morning, throws on a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt, and takes the short walk from her apartment to the Episcopal church she passes every day but has never been inside.

And during communion she is moved to come forward... and someone puts a piece of bread into her mouth and said, “The body of Christ.”

And, as Sara Miles tells the story... “Jesus happened to me.”

Jesus inside.

Communion is one of the ways that the living Lord Jesus Christ gets inside of us. Now, as Cornelius Plantinga Jr. explains it, according to much popular thinking, Jesus Christ is either “back there” in history or way “up there” in heaven. Whichever it is, he's not here. And that's a problem. Because (and I'm quoting John Calvin here) “As long as Christ remains outside of us... all that he has suffered and done for the salvation of the human race remains useless.... All that he possesses is NOTHING to us until we grow into one body with him.”

Into one body with Christ.
Jesus inside.

Isn't this what Paul is talking about in his letter to the Colossians? Of course it is, and it's what we talk about when we baptize, and when we remember our baptism.
In your baptism you were buried with Christ. And in your baptism you were raised with Christ.

Sometimes baptism is referred to as a “naming ceremony” and there are multiple layers of meaning in that. A baby might receive a special (sometimes “extra”) name in baptism. But in baptism we all receive a new name... we become part of a big new family, the church... we discover WHO WE ARE..... citizens of heaven... we have a dual citizenship... because we are in Christ and Christ is in us.
The messenger meets me...
and tells me where I'm really from,
and who I really am....

It's like Queen Clarisse Rinaldi announcing to her unsuspecting teenage granddaughter Mia, “You are Princess of Genovia. And Mia says, “Me, a princess... (screaming)... Shut up!” To which the Queen responds, “I beg your pardon. 'Shut up'?” And her aide explains, “Oh, your majesty, in America, it doesn't always mean to be quiet. Here it could mean "Wow, gee whiz, golly wolly!"

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At Christmas, heaven came to us.

At Christmas our true Elder Brother – do you remember the Prodigal God series? – at Christmas our true Elder Brother came looking for us... from the old country... from our true home... And even though we were scared to hear the news... the message of the angels... to Mary... to Joseph... to the shepherds... and to us... was always consistent... “Do not be afraid.”

"Wow, gee whiz, golly wolly!" Jesus tells us who we are... shows us who we really are... and makes it possible to BE who we really are...

N.T. Wright says,

Part of the central achievement of the incarnation, which is then celebrated in the resurrection and ascension, is that heaven and earth are now joined together with an unbreakable bond and that we too are by rights citizens of both together. We can, if we choose, screen out the heavenly dimension and live as flatlanders, materialists. If we do that, we will be buying into a system that will go bad, and will wither and die, because earth gets its vital life from heaven.
But if we focus our attention on the heavenly dimension, all sorts of positive and practical results follow.

Paul is describing these “results” to the Colossians. Paul is talking about “...actual current physical reality shot through now with the life of heaven.... Heaven and earth... are made for each other, and at certain points they intersect and interlock. Jesus is the ultimate such point. We as Christians are meant to be such points, derived from him” (N.T. Wright).

We are these points of intersection. We are – this is amazing – we are glimpses of heaven because....

Because we believe we have Jesus inside.

“Christ did not rise alone. Christ arose as the head of a whole body of people elected to have faith in him, to benefit from him, and to extend his mission in the world” (Plantinga).

Jesus inside. To be the presence of Jesus in this broken and hurting world. It's who we are.

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At the end of The Bourne Identity, Jason discovers who he is really is and why everything seemed so confusing to him and, for that matter, confusing to others, too.

But when he knows WHO HE IS, then... and only then... can he be SURE OF WHAT HE HAS BEEN CALLED TO DO... OF WHAT HE MUST DO!

And even though Mia doesn't feel like a princess, she is. And even if you're just shocked as Mia when you think of who the Messenger is telling you that you are...

It is, nevertheless, really, really true.

You are Princess of Genovia.
Jesus inside.
Raised with Christ.

Believing THAT ought to make it crystal clear who you have been called to be... and what you have been called to do!

“So if you're serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides” (Message).

The Holy Spirit, the scriptures, the sacraments, the church, our weekly gathering for worship, the times of fellowship we enjoy, weeping with those who weep and rejoicing with those who rejoice, giving food to the hungry, visiting the sick, sharing the gifts God has given you....

All those things are given by God so that the “double life of Jesus,” both heavenly and earthly, can become ours as well, right here... right now...

“So don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up, and be alert to what is going on around Christ — that's where the action is. See things from Christ's perspective” (Message).

Because it's who you were called to be.

It's who you really are.

Amen.

Bibliography:
Clayton Libolt, “When Heaven Came Down, Reformed Worship 97.
Cornelius Plantinga Jr. Engaging God's World: A Christian Vision of Faith, Learning, and Living
N.T. Wright. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church

Be Mine

BE MINE
Sermon for the Feast of St. Valentine
Readings from James 1:2-4, 12; John 15:1-17
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Rev. Randal K. Lubbers
First Presbyterian Church • Lake Crystal, Minnesota

Valentine’s Day is a day to celebrate God’s gift of love.

We love because God first loved us. God so loved that he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, who came into the world to rescue sinners. He personally bore our sin in his own body on the cross so that we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good.

That’s really the whole of the good news, is it not? God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, the one who loves us to the uttermost…
And Jesus loved so much that he humbled himself—yes, even humiliated himself and came and became one of us. Jesus proclaims the height and depth and breadth and intensity of God’s love: in his birth, in his life, in his preaching and his healing, in sharing our laughter and our tears, in sharing our trials and temptations, and in his death; yes, in his every word and deed Jesus proclaims God’s deepest desire for you and for me and for all creation, “Be Mine.”


Jesus proclaims “Be Mine” because you are branches on the Vine to which God—the Vinegrower—has grafted you in order to bear fruit. This is your reason for living. Have you been searching for the illusive “meaning of life”? This is it! To be “in Christ,” to bear fruit by living in oneness with the Vine, in communion with Christ. Not only is this our reason for living; it is life itself.

Jesus says, “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” Self-sufficiency, my friends, is overrated. And self-sufficiency, my friends, has been oversold in Christian institutional thought over the last 200 years. Jesus did not come into our world to create self-sufficient, go-it-alone Christians. Jesus comes and heals us of our driving desire to do it ourselves. The power to do all things and to endure all things, the miracle of a transformed life and a transformed church, the courage to be the Light of Christ in the world… this comes from God… NOT in our self-sufficiency… but in our sufficiency in Christ.

Jesus says, “Be Mine because I am the Vine and you are the branches… Be mine because you belong to me.” This is not “belonging” as “ownership” but “belonging” as in an “organic union.” Jesus says “be mine”—but not like the contemporary love songs—Jesus doesn’t sing “can’t live, if living is without you.” But rather, Jesus says “be mine” because “YOU CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT ME!” Remember what I’ve said so often before: In acknowledging and living out our belonging to God, we are more alive, more free, more human than we could ever be apart from being who we are in Christ. And be very sure of this— the branches, outside the Vine, will surely die.

Jesus wants you to be alive and filled with joy. He says “Be mine because I love you. And because I love you, I want the best for you, I want you to be happy…” Quoting John chapter 15, Jesus says, “I want your joy to be complete.”

God’s deepest joy is you fully alive, you truly happy, you filled with joy—yes, overflowing with joy, elation, delight, amazement and wonder and awe.

Many of my friends have been talking about K.D. Lang’s solo at the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics. Maybe you saw her sing, “Hallelujah.” It was beautiful and very moving. The opening ceremonies—the whole event—was very worshipful, don’t you think? The procession of athletes was like a processional into a church; the spectacular celebration of the diversity of Canada was like a worship celebration in the best possible ways: mysterious, awe-inspiring, filled with joy, hospitable, inclusive, a delight to the senses...

It pulled us in… It filled us with wonder and awe and joy…

It was a celebration of beauty and diversity. We glorify God when we live fully in God’s love and when we recognize the beauty of other human beings living in God’s love. The passage from James alludes to this. And it speaks to the reality of difficulties and trials along the way. James says, “Whenever you come face-to-face with a daunting or challenging circumstances, think of it as joy—pure, wonderful joy!”

Does that make sense?

“Well, of course it makes sense,” you may answer, “That’s what the Bible says, so of course, of course—it must—it has to—make sense!”

But does it? Does it really?

You’re going through the worst of times, God says be joyful? Now if that doesn’t seem ridiculous or impossible, then you’ve been anesthetized through years and years of agreeing in your mind to whatever is said in church. Because it doesn’t make sense. It actually sounds crazy, doesn’t it?

And yet.

And yet, James says, “Blessed is anyone who endures temptation. Such a one has stood the test and will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised….”

Joy regardless of circumstances—
Joy in passing through hardest of times—
It doesn’t make sense, but it’s true.
God says, “Be Mine, because I love you and I want your joy to be complete.”


God says, “Be Mine, because I made you in my image…”
Created in God’s image, you are God’s work of art.

Every work of art has something of its creator in it. This water color painting by my high school art teacher usually hangs in my study. Don Harding is a neat guy and a follower of Christ and an old friend, and there is something of Don Harding in this painting. This goldfinch—the state bird of Iowa—was painted by Miriam Jones and given to me. She didn’t know it was the state bird of Iowa, but now she does. And there’s something of Miriam in this painting. These cross-stitchings of Carolyn—of course I feel something of her in these. The homemade cards given to each of you today and made by the card-making group a few Sundays ago. There is something of each of them in each card.

Abraham Kuyper says, “That you have been created after God’s Image, declares that by virtue of your creation, God feels himself related to you…. Because God has made your soul, there is something in it of God himself, a Divine stamp has been impressed upon you, there is something of God’s power, thought, and creative genius in you, as in no other. You are one of the Lord’s own works of art, precisely like which he created no other….”

God created you and you uniquely in love.

And just like an artist would be devastated if someone should do damage to his painting, God is devastated when his creation is harmed. Just like the mother lion who staunchly guards her cubs, God cares for you; indeed, God is fiercely protective of you.

The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit… the Triune God says, Be Mine.

The Holy Spirit longs for us to be truly alive and truly joyful in Christ. The Spirit whispers every moment, hoping for those times we’re quiet enough to hear.

The Father longs for us to come home. Loving and longing; long-suffering and patient. Welcoming and waiting… and waiting… like the Father waiting for the prodigal son to return home.

The Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, longs for fellowship with us. “Be mine,” says Jesus, “because I love you so much that I gave my life for you… No one has greater love than this, than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. Be Mine. And whatever you need, I will provide; Be Mine. And whatever you ask, I will give.”

Jesus longs to be in communion with you. He says, “Behold I stand at the door and knock. And if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter… and eat with him.” Jesus says, “Be Mine.”

And, really now, where else could we go for Real Love than to Christ?

In Christ alone my hope is found;
he is my light, my strength, my song;
this cornerstone, this solid ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all—
here in the love of Christ I stand.

Where else could we go? And how else can we respond?... than to pray…

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee,
Take my moments and my days, let them flow in ceaseless praise.
Let them flow in ceaseless praise.

Be Mine. This is no mere theological concept. God really, really loves you. This is not love “in theory,” but a passionate, burning, longing, hurting, deep, wondrous, amazing, beyond-the-deepest-heartache you or I have ever experienced, like a knife in the gut, like the spear piercing the side of the Savior. Passion means suffering. Christ is passionately, heart-wrenchingly in love with you.

And he asks just one thing:

“Be Mine.”

Be Mine: Excerpts from the sermon on St. Valentine’s Day

We love because God first loved us. God so loved that he sent his one and only Son, Jesus, who came into the world to rescue sinners. He personally bore our sin in his own body on the cross so that we might be dead to sin and alive to all that is good.

That’s really the whole of the good news, is it not? God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son, the one who loves us to the uttermost…

And Jesus loved so much that he humbled himself—yes, even humiliated himself and came and became one of us. Jesus proclaims the height and depth and breadth and intensity of God’s love: in his birth, in his life, in his preaching and his healing, in sharing our laughter and our tears, in sharing our trials and temptations, and in his death; yes, in his every word and deed Jesus proclaims God’s deepest desire for you and for me and for all creation, “Be Mine.”

Be Mine.” This is no mere theological concept. God really, really loves you. This is not love “in theory,” but a passionate, burning, longing, hurting, deep, wondrous, amazing, beyond-the-deepest-heartache you or I have ever experienced, like a knife in the gut, like the spear piercing the side of the Savior. Passion means suffering. Christ is passionately, heart-wrenchingly in love with you.

And he asks just one thing. “Be Mine.”