GENTLE JESUS
Matthew 16:13-20; I Thessalonians 2:1-8

A sermon given by the Rev. Richard H. Taylor
October 23, 2005 / 23rd Sunday of Pentecost

When I was a young minister, decades ago, I went to one of my first continuing education events for clergy. The workshop style in the late sixties and early seventies was participatory. So the leader asked us to name some aspect of Jesus that drew us to him, something about Jesus that we felt was essential to our ministry.

I commented that what I liked about Jesus was his gentleness. That answer did not please our leader, for you see the late sixties was also a time of confrontation. "Gentleness!" she said, "Jesus was confrontational, Jesus was revolutionary. If you think Jesus was gentle your stuck in memory, in some time warp of an inaccurate child's prayer." Well, I guess it was participatory if you saw it the leaders way.

And, of course, in some ways she was right.

Jesus was confrontational. We have Jesus overturning the tables of the money changers in the Temple. We have Jesus announcing "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites." We have Jesus challenging the decorum of a Sabbath day synagogue service, or sparring with the intellectual leaders of his time. Yes, there was this fiery, justice seeking, unflinching, demanding Jesus.

But there is this other Jesus, this sorrowful Jesus, that we encounter when he sees or feels or meets someone in need. We saw it last week when Jesus feels the touch of the hemorrhaging woman on his robe. We see it when Jesus has compassion on the hungry, and tells the disciples to give them something to eat. We see it when he shelters the woman taking in adultery from stoning and tells her to go and sin no more. We see it is Jesus sitting on the grass and talking with friends. We see it in Jesus conversing with a foreigner at the Samaritan well. We see it in Jesus hugging lepers, putting salve on the eyes of the blind, sleeping in the back of the boat. We see it in Jesus talking with some children, perchance joining in their games. We see it is Jesus breaking a loaf of bread, holding out his wounded hand for someone to touch, crying over the city. The shortest verse in all of scripture is this, "Jesus wept."

Surely Jesus is confrontational. To the principalities, to the powers, to the engines of empire he is a thorn in the side. But to the common people, those who suffer on the margins of reality, there is this other Jesus, this gentle Jesus, this man so much more calm than the twenty-first century's view of the masculine: this peaceful, playful, thoughtful man.

I love this passage in Matthew where Jesus gives the ministerial task to Peter, the keys to the kingdom. Protestants tend not to like this passage because it is used by the Catholic Church to support the appointment of Peter as the first pope. But let's take it instead as a call to ministry, a description of ministry. Jesus says, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Ministry as binding and loosing: Protestants haven't thought much about these tasks.

Binding. What would we like to bind? Injustice, greed, sin? Maybe I would like to bind the strong man who has been taking advantage of the weak. Perhaps I would like to bind us to the duty of righteousness, mercy, and justice. What do you think?

But loosing. Today I am interested in loosing. Today I want to call you to the ministry of loosing. I looked up where that word was used in the Bible. Its used for prisoners, people in chains. People are loosed from prison, loosed from chains. What kind of bondage have you been in? You are loosed. Think of a person that had to wear a brace while their broken leg healed, and now it is strong, and we can release the leg from the brace. Or a person who has had a bandage around their eyes, and now it is loosed taken off, and they can see. Or a refugee forced to walk in tight shoes with swollen feet, or legs that are filled with water from heart problems, and now someone kneels down in front of them, and looses the lace, and opens the shoe, and relieves the pressure.

There is a famous passage in scripture where Jesus heals a crippled woman in the synagogue on the Sabbath. When Jesus see her he says "Woman, thou art loosed." They recently made a movie with that title. Whatever has been constricting you, holding you back, imprisoning you, "woman thou art loosed!" And the text goes on to say "ought not this woman to have been loosed?"

So think of the gentleness of loosing. Think what a joy it can be to loose someone from bondage. Your hand taking the chain off, with gentleness and compassion. Woman, thou art loosed! I like this loosing Jesus. I like this gentle Jesus.

I am saying this, for I want all the oppressed to meet this gentle Jesus that I have loved so much.

But I say it also because you need to know the gentle Jesus if you plan to enter conversation about what it means to be a Christian in our time. You need to know what we are up against.

Lutheran seminary Professor Barbara Lundblad spoke this year about some visits to Colorado Springs, CO, and about some Christian conferences and events held there. Even though Colorado Springs is the home of the liberal arts Colorado College, founded by Congregationalists, it has also become the home of many para-Church organizations that claim to speak for at least a part of the Christian Church. At one suburban Colorado Springs event entitled "Soldiers of Christ," people were warned not to go downtown, because the downtown is confusing. There the President of the National Association of Evangelicals called for "Violent, confrontive prayer." A local Colorado Springs host pastor, Ted Haggard, of a congregation called "Life Church," used his time to affirm power, affirm pre-emptive war, and he seemed pleased that the Bible is bloody. A Christian education program at the event was entitled "Fort Victory." President Frank Wright of the National Religious Broadcasters announced that they will fight against the fairness doctrine in the media. He is quoted as saying that "if we give time to every view point, we will have no time for truth telling." Another speaker, James McDonald, said that "Jesus commands." He said, "those who want to share and be sensitive to others are all wrong." ¹ Lundblad concludes that those of us who "affirm the value to preach to differences are up against something."

Certainly the calm introspective Jesus that I have come to love, seems to have few friends or companions. Gentleness is still one of the twelve fruits of the Spirit. But there are so many enemies of gentle way of living. Take our Thessalonians reading home with you and read it again. Flattery is not gentle; it is often a pretext for greed. True speech is not speech to please mortals, but to please God who tests our hearts.

Paul calls forth a Christianity that is like a tender nurse caring for her children.

So, I invite you to the round table discussion. What is it about Jesus that most draws you to him? How do you see him?

"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild, look upon this little child. Pity my simplicity. Suffer me to come to thee."

Amen.

1 - Lundblad, Barbara, When the Barn Comes Down: Preaching Across Differences, an address given at the Festival of Homiletics, Chicago, 2005.