"Our Journey Continues," the senior sermon of E. Heath Abel, LSPS Class of 2008, from the Texas-Louisiana Gulf Coast Synod, given on October 2, 2007, in Christ Chapel

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Luke 9:43b-48

As I read the gospel lesson this week, and I heard again the story of the disciples jockeying for position and Jesus teaching about welcoming a child… I couldn’t help but remember the first day I walked into my office on internship. The office was adorned with 50 to 100 year old pictures of Jesus, most of them having Jesus even fairer complected than I am. In one particular photo assortment…one that resembled a Christological compass…had four photos of Jesus and a clock in the middle. We won’t talk about the clock today.

The first photo on the west side of our Christological compass was a friendly Jesus that had Jesus holding one of the whitest sheep you’ve ever seen in a 50 year old print, his square shoulders and proud physique were admirable, this is a Man’s Jesus…and a woman’s Jesus…this Jesus to seemed a long way from the cross.

On the North side of our Christological compass was Jesus collage….it reminded me of one of those friendly family displays that lives in hallway any one of my relatives. It displayed the proud moments from his life. Surely the cross was in one of these photos, but I don’t remember it. Its essence was too quaint to remember a cross.

To the East was one of my favorites… The organist came into my office every couple of weeks to look again at what he called, “lipstick Jesus.” It was a cropping of another painting of Boy Jesus teaching in the temple, which adorned the far wall, but the artist who painted the red on this lips of this sepia print made Jesus fit for the cover of Vogue. Lipstick Jesus too seemed a long way from the cross.

To the south was the photo that I thought of this week…it had Jesus with a child on his lap, his golden locks waving. This was an all American kind of Jesus that children would like and grandparents would love… this was a Jesus that even old dogs and sheep would gather around…this Jesus too seemed a long way from the cross.

Sometimes our ideas of Jesus get conflicted…the one I grew up with isn’t the same on I find strength in today…a question from one of my esteemed professors, Eliseo Perez Alvarez, who will critique this sermon on Friday…Which Jesus do you know? Because what you know of Jesus has everything to do with how you follow him….and your role as a minister.

Our Gospel story today has always been a curious one for me. We hear the disciples arguing about who is greater and I’ve always wondered what kind of self absorbed fellows Jesus was hanging with…What Kind of Jesus is this. But as I worked on this reading this week, I realized that this wrangling by the disciples may not have been as misplaced as I have always thought.

In some way, this wrangling was how their society works. Whether they were concerned that Jesus was going to die or even if they had been wondering about who would sit at his right hand at dinner that night…questions of status would have been appropriate…at least not as inappropriate as I once imagined…something like us discussing how to plan a 401K or our child’s 529B. So if this story isn’t about inappropriately proud disciples, what was it about?

As we look at this passage in more detail, I wonder if we should widen the reading just a bit…

This episode of the Gospel actually starts up on the mountain at the transfiguration. We remember Jesus face turning a dazzling white, and then we see Moses and Elijah. Peter figures it must be good to be there and wants to build a mountain lodge or three. (I personally like the way Peter thinks) But we all hear a voice that stuns us to silence.

No doubt our ideas about Jesus are inflated (or taller) after the mountaintop event…surely Jesus will do something powerful and godly now…our people and our rulers will be restored! Yet from this high place, they return to find a crowd and a child possessed…and not just a little bit possessed, here is a shrieking, foamy child being thrown to the ground. Here is a child the disciples can’t cure. Jesus gets mad at their faithlessness “you perverse generation,” which might remind us of another generation on a journey with Moses. Jesus cures the boy and all are amazed. What kind of Jesus is this? There are reminders of Moses, but is this ministry the kind of restoration we expect?

Our roller coaster continues as Jesus lets us know that he will be handed over to human authorities. This is not the restoration we expect! Our teacher can drive out demons…God is on his side! Surely he can overpower anyone who challenges him…and if God is on his side, just think where we will be…

Yet Jesus takes a child and lets us know one more time, what his ministry is about “Whoever welcomes this child welcomes me and the one who sent me.”

At a time when one would only welcome someone whose social status was greater than or equal to theirs…it would have been inconceivable to welcome a child…that would mean washing the feet of one who should be washing ours. Throwing a party for someone who should be cooking in the kitchen… Jesus lets us all know one more time that his rule will not take us the high places we are thinking…his idea of honor is not our idea of honor…his idea of power is not our idea of power.

We remember Jesus quoting Isaiah “The spirit of honor is upon me because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.”

If Jesus is not meeting the disciple’s expectations, perhaps he is meeting ours…What does our Jesus look like?

Perhaps our version of Jesus is taught us everything we ever needed to know about living a moral life…our Jesus died for our sins…End of Story.

Or would our Jesus remind us that his mother or his brother would hear the word of God and do it…

Or perhaps our Jesus is one who would support our buying into the best school district possible so that our children would have every opportunity. Our Jesus will make us feel okay with our station in society… because the poor will always be with you…is our Jesus an opiate for the rich.

Or is our Jesus one who helps us through papers and sermons, protecting from profs

Or would our Jesus point out the systems of this world that we are too busy or too caught up in to see…like the spirit in our country that promotes security as a value to the detriment of those who are starving and jumping fences to find life…

Maybe our Jesus is some combination of these depending on which way we are looking… If, like the disciples, we can’t understand who our Jesus is anymore or if we are afraid of what that means …we are in good company

After our gospel lesson and just before Jesus turns his ministry toward Jerusalem, John asks about that other someone else who is casting out demons in Jesus name…the one he tried to stop because that person isn’t following them. Never mind that this person is doing the healing work that the disciples couldn’t. John doesn’t like it. John is still working from is idea of honor and protecting his ruler… he still doesn’t get it…

But Jesus doesn’t abandon John or us…In fact, now that we are somewhat disoriented, we are ready for the journey. Jesus calls us with him on the road to Jerusalem…there will be more time to teach on the way… Amen