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"WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?"

5/25/2025

Matthew 22:37-40
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”

Last week I spoke about the teachers we can find online these days and what good teaching we are able to find there even though many of these folks are from denominations other than ours. I believe we can learn and grow through hearing differing points of view.

I often find myself “nudged” to look at things I’d been taught, but didn’t really agree with, while never really looking too deeply into “why” I don’t agree.

I listed several people I have been following recently as examples. One of these is Mark Sandlin, a Presbyterian church pastor from North Carolina. He shares occasional short clips on a variety of biblical subjects and often questions if traditional interpretations are necessarily the only correct understandings.

A recent message from Sandlin is titled, “Why did Jesus Have to Die,” and his answer to the question is, “He didn’t.” Jesus didn’t “have to” die. No one, especially not the one he called “Father” ever pushed him out the door and said, “I expect you to pay the price for these misbehaving people. Somebody has to die for this and it’s going to have to be you.”

I can remember being told, as a child, that sin could only be blotted out with blood. All the way back to the disobedience of Adam and Eve humans had disobeyed God and God was affronted and someone had to pay for this affront!

Even as a young child, I refused to accept that as truth. It made God sound like a monster and I have never believed that God fits in any monster category! But that is what I was taught. I have since found what feel like more reasonable – to me -- explanations. Mostly I just learned to keep my mouth shut and not argue.

According to Sandlin then, Jesus didn’t die for affronting God. He died because he had a knack for drawing the attention of the Roman empire. If he had to die it was because he insisted on aligning himself with the marginalized and speaking out against those who were stepping on those who already had so very little.

Jesus taught that we are supposed to love each other – as Matthew so eloquently puts it:
‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets”.

This comes before any man-made law. Not only did Jesus teach them to love whole heartedly – he told them they were worthy of being loved. They were not created to just suffer and serve the powerful, but to love and be loved.

In other words, we are to love God and love each other completely – so completely that we can never allow those who are in charge to make rules or laws that require us to act in any way contrary to God’s laws. Our first law is always to love God with all we have – and close behind that one is the rule that tells us to love each other. Period. No human law can supersede these.

Those in charge of things at this time – the rich and the powerful -- basically, the Romans – were telling the people their first obligation and loyalty should be to the Empire because that was how they could keep the poor under their thumbs.

Is all this sounding strangely familiar? Like something we hear in the news every day? There’s nothing new happening in our world. It’s an old, old story. The rich need the marginalized to do their bidding in order for them to remain in power. And for all its power and might, the Roman empire needed Jesus to stop preaching because the people were actually listening to him, and his teachings about love. That is ultimately what got Jesus killed, because, of course, he didn’t stop. He had God’s message of love to share and he intended to do just that – no matter what the cost might turn out to be.

Here, Sandlin’s brief message ends with one inescapable truth: In the Roman Empire you only died on the cross when you were a threat to the empire. Not when you offended God’s ego. I think that is where we look for the answer to why Jesus died on that cross.

It’s less a matter of theology than it is one of politics. But Jesus still did it for love.

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DIVERSITY ENRICHES US

5/18/2025

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John 13:34-35
I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

I have, throughout my lifetime so far, been attached to a number of different church denominations – all Christian – but different from each other in both theology and ecclesiology – the ways in which churches order their worship.

Some of you hearing this message may have had similar church journeys, some of you may have been raised since childhood in one setting where you remain to this day. Others of you may have been raised with no particular teaching and have only recently come to your current faith. This is one of the reasons I find church so interesting – because together we are such a vibrant hodge-podge of different beliefs and practices.

Until fairly recently most church goers seemed to choose one and stick with it. It is only in more recent years that many have felt free to change around at will. I suspect that the advent of the internet has had a lot to do with this. It’s easy today to find other voices speaking of their beliefs and practices when all we’ve ever heard before is the voices in our own denomination.

Granted, most Christians share the same base beliefs but we can differ widely in the ways we choose to live out those beliefs. I, for one, am delighted that Christians of different denominations are speaking out in different settings and sharing their ways of living out their faith.

We can learn so much from each other. Will we have differences? Yes, I suspect we will, but I also believe we will find many more similarities. When Episcopal Bishop Mariann Budde offered the sermon at services for the president’s January inauguration, she asked for mercy on those who were feeling frightened by Trump’s newly declared war on immigrants. When Trump demanded an apology for the “insult” she did not cave – she responded simply that she would not apologize for the teachings of Jesus.

I was proud to share her faith even if it wore another name, and I can only hope I could share her courage.

There are several people I follow online and benefit from their hearts and their wisdom. Until the last handful of decades it was harder to do this because first I had to find them (usually in an academic setting) and then order any books they may have written, not knowing if their works would speak to me or not.

Now it is easier to see something brief they’ve written online that moves me and teaches me and draws me to learn more.

Nadia Bolz-Weber, for instance, is Lutheran. Mark Sandlin is Presbyterian. Joseph Yoo was raised and ordained Methodist but has recently transitioned to the Episcopalian priesthood. John Pavlovitz was raised Catholic, but served many years as a Methodist pastor before leaving parish ministry to focus on his writing career and his deep passion for social justice issues. These folks are familiar voices online.

Diana Butler Bass has been a Methodist, an Evangelical, and an Episcopalian and, in addition, is currently studying traditions from Buddist and Hindu settings, and Frederick Buechner, who my church knows I’ve probably quoted more than anyone else on the planet, was Presbyterian.

I could go on all day listing people who are from denominations that differ from our Disciples of Christ – yet are clearly our brothers and sisters in Christ’s love and service. People who have taught me, and then, by extension, taught you, as I pass on what I’ve learned from them to you in my preaching and teaching here.

As for the Disciples of Christ – we are proud to proclaim ourselves as Part of the One Body of Christ. Furthermore, we describe ourselves as “a diverse group of Christ-followers across the United States and Canada. We worship in old sanctuaries, living rooms, coffee shops, and online. We’re called to do justice. We read and wrestle with the Bible. We believe God loves the whole world, everyone included. We’re doing our best to follow Jesus.”

Two specific statements tell us a lot about who we are: first, We are called to study and read scripture for ourselves. Rather than having tests of faith and creedal statements, we critically and thoughtfully study scripture, taking into account the history and background – the context – in which it was written. Second: We honor our heritage as a movement for Christian unity by cooperating and partnering with other faith communities to work for bringing about wholeness – healing and justice – in the world.

We study scripture for ourselves rather than just accepting what someone else tells us is biblically true, especially when what we are told does not fit with the loving God we believe in.

We work with each other because we learn from each other and we can accomplish more to work for justice and spread love and kindness in this world when we work together.

Because that is pretty much at the heart of it all. Jesus taught us to love each other. That’s our calling. That’s what it’s all about. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Regardless of which denominational name we claim, it is Jesus we follow. In that regard, we all speak the same language. Some of us may get the message a little garbled yet, but it is still the teachings of Jesus we seek to follow.

So let us willingly learn from each other. Share what we’ve learned. Lift each other up. Our differences enrich us.

Love one another as Jesus has always loved us – with open and giving hearts.

AMEN

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LAST WORDS

5/11/2025

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Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus gave them this charge: “God authorized me to commission you, so go out and train everyone you meet, far and near, in this way of life, marking them by baptism in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Then instruct them in the practice of all I have commanded you. I’ll be with you as you do this, day after day after day, right up to the end of the age.”

The weeks between Easter and Pentecost can be something of a mish-mosh. It’s hard to build a straight storyline with pieces thrown in from each of the four gospels.

The Feast of the Ascension will be celebrated on May 29th this year. That’s still two or three weeks away, but it will be the last big event in our journey in the life of Jesus — from Christmas through the weeks immediately after Easter, and it all culminates there with his followers standing around, and with Jesus being carried up into heaven – usually depicted as floating gently upward on a cloud, and – this is the key phrase – “disappearing from their sight.” At least this is the image most of us have been given most of our lives.

The ascension can be a “problem” for most modern Christians – those of us who are not literalists, at least. We have so much trouble accepting that Jesus just floated up into heaven and “poofed” away, never to be seen on earth again in his human form.

We tend to think of Jesus’ “last words” as a Good Friday thing – his last words as he is dying on the cross. The reading we just heard, from Matthew’s gospel, is Matthew’s version of Jesus’ last words to his disciples. His gospel ends here. Matthew never actually says Jesus ascended — he just leaves us there and we assume the rest.

Mark, in his gospel, simply says that “Jesus returned to heaven.” Luke says that Jesus blessed his disciples “and while blessing them, made his exit, being carried up to heaven.” That’s the closest to the ascension story suggested above. John’s gospel doesn’t mention an ascension. It ends where we ended last week with Jesus telling Peter to “Feed my sheep.” What we can gain from the writings left for us is that in some manner, from this point on, Jesus was seen no more among them.

Most of us non-literalists have known for a very long time now that heaven is not actually “up there.” If we weren’t sure before, NASA’s exploratory journeys into space pretty well proved that to us. Jesus told us repeatedly that the reign of God is here, right here where we are. So why are we so determined to place it somewhere else?

We happily believe a great many very odd things throughout our Christian journey, so why do some people get so hung up on this one, when we can believe it as figurative truth or metaphor. We don’t struggle like this at the idea that Jesus rose from the dead, or that God impregnated a young woman by way of the Holy Spirit, or that choirs of angels filled the sky at the holy birth.

We accept that we can believe literally or not, as seems right to us, and that both ways of telling the story are true. The point that matters is that when Jesus’ direct work here among us was over, he returned to God, to his home, to “heaven,” which is wherever the love of God reigns. It’s a story that tells us that Jesus’ direct work on earth is over and now will be done in a different manner, in a different form.

Soon we will be shifting our focus from the life of Jesus to the life of the newly emerging church. From here on we stop centering directly on the human life of Jesus and start paying attention to what the new church does with the story of that life.

After all, not a one of us here today was around during Jesus’ earthly life. All we know of it is what his early followers have left behind to tell us. What we have is their interpretation of Jesus’ message, and there has always been a lot of disagreement in just how that message should be heard and passed on.

Whether they knew it at the time, or not, those early followers were organizing a new religion, and a new church — which is interesting (but also very human) in that Jesus never said a word about “go out and start a church.” What it appears he did say was that they should change the way they lived their lives. He said nothing about making up a bunch of new rules. Nothing about buildings with gate-keepers. He certainly said nothing about locking certain people out if their ways were different from our chosen rules.

One thing he did say, to them, and by extension down to us – and he said it quite emphatically -- is that we are not to judge each other. Period. Full stop. Not our job. And so, of course, many of the new church builders, being human, started straight in with the judging and creating rules to govern the judging.

He was, however, equally emphatic, and equally clear on the things we are to do. We are to care for each other — to care for the widows and orphans, not just toss them to the curb to fend for themselves. We are to feed the hungry. There is no absolutely no ambiguity at all in that command. Feed. The Hungry. Three words – that’s it. Clothe the naked; give water to those parched with thirst; seek justice; practice mercy; be kind with each other. He tells us nothing about building institutions.

The more time we spend with Jesus, either in the stories left for us in scripture or in our personal prayers; the more we come to recognize the true voice of Jesus and the more we can recognize when something truly comes from him — and these then, are the things we cling to. The things we do to follow him. The new Jesus followers had a lot of work ahead of them – and we today are still part of that workforce – still struggling to build the legacy of God right here, right now. Still struggling to follow him as he asked to be followed.

AMEN.

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"JESUS BECAME A STORY -- ONE WE LOVE TO SHARE"

5/4/2025

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John 21:1-13    (paraphrase by John Shea *)

After Jesus had passed through the dark door,
   his friends returned
   to what they knew best,
   Galilee and the sea.
One evening Peter said,
     “I am going out to weep.”
But they thought he said,
     “I am going out to fish.”
So they all went with him
    and they wept and fished the night away,
    catching nothing but their tears.
With the dawn
    came a fire on the shore
    and the smell of fish across the water.
Through the mist
    a man was crumbled over coals.
He rose like an arrow
    from the bow of the earth and turned.
“Come, and eat your meal.”
No one, John says, presumed to inquire,
    “Who are you?
. . . They knew who it was.

Jesus told so many stories that he became one. It is through these stories that we know whatever it is we know of him – from the stories of his birth, through the stories of his death and resurrection. Stories told by him, stories told by others about him.

Easter Sunday was two weeks ago and last Sunday I was just returned home from our region’s Annual Gathering and there had been no time to prepare a formal message. This week’s message is about one of my favorites stories among all the many Jesus stories that we all know.

The reading we opened with today is the lead-in to that particular story but it isn’t the story itself. This is the third of Jesus’ post Resurrection appearances as told in John’s gospel account and it is, perhaps, more of a story about Peter, than a story about Jesus, but it is, for me at least, the most important of all the various post-resurrection Jesus stories.

Before the crucifixion, before the resurrection, there had been a night of a shared meal and promises given, and finally, a kiss of betrayal which ended with Jesus being taken away, a prisoner, to be judged by his own religious authorities. These pompous, angry men, wanting his death but not having the power to condemn him, sent him on to the Roman authority to do that job for them.

Through all these maneuvers a handful of disciples followed wherever Jesus was taken and among these was Simon Peter who professed to love Jesus more than all the others. Peter, who -- stunned that the thing he had so long feared was actually happening, or perhaps having convinced himself that now Jesus would make his play and be saved by God’s army of angels -- or maybe it was just plain terror for his own safety – who really knows? – but Peter publicly denied ever even knowing Jesus. Three times he denied it.

And Jesus died. And Peter never got to say how sorry and ashamed he was. I’ve often wondered how Peter managed to survive the guilt and shame and self-loathing he must have carried in the weeks following that crucifixion.

And that is the point of why this is my favorite story. Because the truth of this story from John’s gospel is simply that there was never any blame from Jesus. When they met again, Jesus did not call Peter out and berate him for abandoning him -- there was only love and understanding and trust, because after they all shared bread and fish on the beach that day, Jesus called Simon Peter aside and said, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you,” and Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.” – in other words, “watch over my little ones”.

He then asked him a second time, “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” “Yes, Master, you know I love you” and Jesus said, “Shepherd my sheep.” – in other words,” take care of my people.”

Then he said it a third time: “Simon, son of John, do you love me?” Peter answered, “Master, you know everything there is to know. You’ve got to know that I love you.” And Jesus said, “Yes, I do know and I trust you with it all. Simon, Feed my sheep.”

Three times the same question was asked, to wash out the shame of those three denials made on a night of betrayal and fear. Three times to make it clear that Peter absolutely was forgiven – and that he was trusted. That he was loved. And that he had always been loved.

The beauty of this short story within a story is that there was never any need for forgiveness – because there had never been any blame, only deep understanding.

And that is why I love this story so much because it tells us that no matter how badly we screw up, we are loved. Our fears are understood. No matter how deeply we may find ourselves mired in failure and shame, that is not what Jesus sees when he looks at us. What Jesus sees is love --- just love.

And that is why we tell ourselves and each other the stories that are Jesus because when we look at Jesus we don’t see blame or judgment. We see Jesus looking at us with understanding and love. All the stories we read and share about Jesus reflect compassion and joy back at us. And the world shines brighter.

Thanks be to God

* John Shea “Stories of Faith,” The Thomas More Press, Chicago, © 1980, p.181

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"WHY DID JESUS HAVE TO DIE?"

DIVERSITY ENRICHES US

LAST WORDS

"JESUS BECAME A STORY -- ONE WE LOVE TO SHARE"

Rev. Cherie Marckx

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