Proper 7+Year C The Reverend Robert R.M.
Bagwell+
23
June AD 2013 St
Thomas Parish Isle of Hope GA
Isaiah
65:1-9 Psalm 22:18-27
Galatians
3:23-29 Luke
8:26-39
"O Lord, make us have perpetual
love and reverence for your holy Name,
for you never fail to help and govern those whom you have set upon the sure
foundation of your loving kindness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who
lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen."
We live in a world that longs for heroic figures. We see it in our
adulation of great leaders, those who accomplish great feats and those who we
hold up as role models. Have you ever wondered what the world was life before
Jesus Christ? We learn from ancient writings that there was a common longing
and even a thought among the wise across the Middle East that a Messianic
figure was about to come on the earth. If we look about us we can see that
longing even in our culture, certainly in the Jewish and Muslim faiths as well
as in our own Christian faith.
For example, the long awaited latest production of a story created by two
high school students in the 1930s has been released. As children of Jewish immigrants, the students
peppered their fantasy hero with antecedents of their Hebrew faith throughout
the story. They called him: Superman. Even more striking however are
the themes and parallels to our Christian faith that appear in this story if we
have eyes to see. He was sent to the
earth to live a very modest life by his parents with the words of his father: “Goodbye,
my son. Our hopes and dreams travel with you.” His mother worries, “He will be an outcast. They’ll kill him.” Remind you of anybody else who you know about?
His life begins supposedly the
son of the Jonathan and Martha Kent family, on their family farm. His name, Kal-el contains the Hebrew name for
God: "El". Later in the story he would seem like a god to the human
race yet he remains humble, loving and caring and ultimately saves the world. What similar struggles Jesus must shared as
he "grew in
wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man" (Luke) as
the scripture relates. When the earth is
threatened with destruction by the exiled Kryptonian villain General Zod, he
must make a decision, he would possibly die, but he would die to save the
earth. In the movie he says: “I’m
not surrendering myself to Zod. I’m surrendering myself to mankind.” I don't
know, sounds a bit like Jesus.
In his essay, “Myth Became Fact,”
C.S. Lewis noted, “The heart of Christianity is a myth which is also a fact.
The old myth of the Dying God, without ceasing to be myth, comes down from the
heaven of legend and imagination to the earth of history. It happens – at a
particular date, in a particular place, followed by definable historical consequences.”
Paul wrote: " “Have this mind among yourselves,
which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not
count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking
the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found
inhuman form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).
People still wonder
about the man Jesus. Two thousand years
later he is the most admired figure that ever lived. He is the original
Superman, the one that set humanity free from sin, selfishness and every form
of degraded love. He was like no other
man who had ever lived. Jesus transformed the world. He is I would argue, even as a human being,
the most significant figure in human history. From the moment of his birth,
history was split in two: Before Jesus and after Jesus. Despite his detractors in his own day right
up to the present moment, he continues to confound and transform, give hope to
the hopeless, help to the needy, lifting up the downtrodden and raising up the
weak. 'Jesus Saves ' is the testimony of millions and millions since he first
came to earth and it is Jesus everyone of us desperately needs to be our
defender, Redeemer and friend. “ Like the story of Superman,
"The Son of Man did not come
to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many”
(Matthew 20:28).
In the readings the themes of
liberation and freedom are paramount. In the readings today not only do we see
the display of Jesus' power but of his loving caring response to the man
afflicted by the demonic oppression. He does not neglect the soul afflicted by
torment. He who is the God-Man reaches out to save. He liberates him from oppression. As the
collect recounts: we need God's governance which he supplies through
grace. The grace we experience as we
come to know Jesus in a more deeply and personal way.
Paul also echoes the theme when he talks about LAW and
GRACE. Have you ever noticed the tendency of the faithful to often with good
intentions, seek to turn the gospel literally translated "good news"
into something less good, from freedom to a form of bondage? But Christ's gospel
puts everyone on the same level playing field. Paul wrote""no slave
nor free, no male nor female."
Martin Luther said:" It's the supreme art of the devil
that he can make the law out of the gospel." Paul said the law was an interim measure. He
said: we were imprisoned and guarded
under the law. It was keeping us safe, like someone in protective custody,
until faith came. Faith is the great liberator of the soul and spirit. Faith is God's gift--not of works, as Paul
wrote.
So why do we want to go back to law? Perhaps because we think we can understand
law better. Cause and effect: something we can measure. However, if we have
been set free by Jesus Christ, why can't we let the Holy Spirit lead us into
all truth as Jesus promised? Paul said: the law was to lead us to Christ. It is
a mirror that shows our true nature and character. It shows us that we cannot
live all of the commandments of the law consistently for a lifetime! Half the time I can barely keep the laws of
the city and state much less live a life of perfection. Faith declares the guilty justified. Nor that the guilty is not guilty, but that
the law has declared them innocent.
Rather than trying to make us morally paranoid, Jesus says,
"I love you, I expect you to fail more than you do yourself. I love you anyway. I'll help you. Be secure
in that love." Paul says we are
clothed with Christ as with a garment.
Paul said "in him we live and
move and have their being." The Holy Spirit now has become our
"disciplinarian", "our
schoolmaster" on the inside to keep us in Christ Jesus and the Father's
love. Christians live obedience because
we love. Love has been placed in our
hearts and our lives have changed. We have engaged the Superman of God who quite literally has saved the earth from
ultimate destruction by bringing a people into the family of God, a new order
of being, sharing in God's life and work.
Our deliverer, THE SUPER GOD-MAN has delivered us
forever. Think of it, if you see the
movie. Think of it when you read the
Bible. Think of it when you pray. AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment