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The Humanity of Jesus

(The Humanity of Jesus homily was given on Easter Sunday, April 20th, 2014 at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship.  It was partnered with a homily from Rev. Alison Miller entitled “The Divinity of Jesus.”)

I grew up in South Georgia.  And let me tell you, down there you only hear about one Jesus.  The Perfect Jesus, all in caps.  And as a child who grew up unchurched and at the time strongly identified as atheist, I naturally rebelled hard against what Southern evangelical culture was trying to tell me about Jesus Christ, the end all be all.

Jesus, so the popular myth goes, was perfect.  He was the Son of God.  He was God.  Ok, that part always confused me – the Son of God?  Wasn’t he God too?  Virgin Birth?  Uh hunh.  And how exactly could he rise from the dead – my father died when I was 10, and he certainly never rose from the dead despite my hopes.

I just discarded the entire thing as foolishness and argued with approximately every single one of my peers in my high school about how they were just silly as Christians to believe all of that, and I carried around with me a list of biblical errors to prove my point.

But something I never did?  I never actually read what I was arguing against.  I sat there, yelling at people from my smug high horse, because I knew that nothing alive could ever be perfect.  And you know what?  Jesus wasn’t either.  Jesus was human just like you and me.

And I realized that when I picked up the Bible for the first time.  I read through the Gospels, and what did I find?  A human Jesus – human in the same ways as you and I.  As all of us.

Jesus got angry.  Boy howdy did he get angry.  And I’m not just talking about righteous anger.  Let’s read from the Gospel of Mark Chapter 11, verses 12-21.

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city.

In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots.  Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!”

There’s a lot there that just screams, “Jesus was a Human!” to me.

Jesus was hungry.  That I get.  So he went over to a fig tree because hey, some fruit, he’s hungry, this makes sense so far.  I’m with him.  He doesn’t find any fruit on the tree.  So his response isn’t to, you know, go look for another tree, it’s to curse the Fig Tree and cause it to die.  Because he was angry there was no fruit and he was hungry.  Um.  Hunh?

There’s righteous indignation, and just plain human irrational anger.

Across the lands and throughout time, people see righteous anger in the story of the money changers in the temple.  He wanted to get corruption out of the church and make the holy ground holy.  But notice that right before he was hungry.  And couldn’t get something to eat.  We’re all a little rash when we’re hungry, aren’t we?  It’s human.

Just don’t go around killing trees next time you need a snack.

 

The Call to Teach

(The Call to Teach homily was given on Easter Sunday, April 20th, 2014 at the Morristown Unitarian Fellowship.  It was partnered with a homily from Rev. Alison Miller entitled “The Call to Heal”)

We begin with a reading from Matthew Chapter 3, verses 13 through 17

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”

Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Jesus was 30 when he was baptized and realized his calling.  Before and after, he wandered the wilderness.  Before his baptism, not much is known, and after his baptism, he was tempted away from his calling to live an easier life.  But he eventually followed his call, and traveled across the lands to teach.

I was 28 when I realized my calling, and just this year at 31 I was finally able to start living it.  Before my realization of my true calling, I was living a comfortable life.  Worked for a tutoring company, in mid level management, and got my volunteering in at my local UU Congregation.  When I finally discerned that calling, it felt like I had finally woken up.  It was like a glass of ice water being dumped on me.

I knew I had two options.  I could go back to that comfortable life and just live life.  Or I could defeat my inertia, choose a path of the unknown, and thrive.  I chose to follow my call, and it brought me here to New Jersey with all of you, here today.

We all have a calling, but it can take decades to discern it.  In high school, we’re taught that we need to have all the answers figured out now and decide what we want to be when we grow up, so we can decide if we want to go to college, and if so, what major.  Undecided majors are treated like the mark of the beast.  When I was in high school, I knew exactly what I would be when I grew up – a weather man.  And look at me now!

People back in Jesus’s day typically lived to be 50, and he realized his calling at 30.  He was over halfway through life.  In our era, he would already be worried about retirement options 60% of the way through his life expectancy.  He was a carpenter before, and now he realized his true calling.  His second calling.  Who else among you has faced some sort of mid life crisis, where you emerged having discerned your second, your true calling?  You’re in good company.

And you know, Jesus and me?  Our callings aren’t that much different really.  Jesus was called to teach religion through parables.  And I feel called to teach religion through stories.

From Matthew Chapter 3 verses 10 through 17

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:

“Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

For this people’s heart has become calloused;

    they hardly hear with their ears,

    and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

    hear with their ears,

    understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

Jesus taught in parables because it was the best way for people to truly hear his message.  If he just flat out told them what to think and what to believe, people would likely never have taken it into their hearts.  When we hear a story, when we grapple with the moral and the lesson the story attempts to teach us, when we remember that story years later when we’re faced with an ethical decision that could go either way, we’re truly listening with our hearts.  We hear.