Meeting Jesus Again for the 1st Time

Sermon 9a: Meeting Jesus again for the first time

We live in the age of spin doctors.  The presidential candidates speak and legions of commentators are unleashed to correct their statements, to soften or to harden their words, to put their candidate in the best light and to cast the opposition in the worst.  Whether good or bad the spin doctors certainly have precedent, and Jesus tells us that both he and John the Baptist have been the victims of spin doctors.  The spin doctors of his age criticized of John the Baptist for fasting and strictness, what we call the ascetic life.  They criticized Jesus for eating with the wrong people and drinking, period. 

Spin is another word for propaganda. Spin doctors don’t try to get at the truth, they try to manipulate the truth and then use it as a weapon against their opponent.  I am sad to say that we know it works.  In our times, it is the tried and true method of winning an election.  Negative ads work, fear mongering works.

In the day, Jesus wasn’t campaigning for office or for the title of Messiah, but he does talk like someone who is trying to win the hearts and minds of the people.  His only response to his critics is that Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.  Beyond the propaganda and spin, beyond the manipulation of truth, the negative words.  Jesus points to the facts, the accomplishments, the positive results, the deeds that are done in the name of God.

In the late 19^th century just after the discovery of psychology, there was a lot of negative analysis of religion.  Psychology was new almost any claim could be justified in the name of the science of psychology.  Some called religion a group psychosis, some said that believers were mad, and some said that religious experience was a hallucination caused by fasting or indigestion.

One man, a philosopher and a psychologist, William James, defended religion and in a sense, he re-stated the words of Jesus that wisdom will be known by her deeds.  James critiqued the endless speculation about the causes of religious experience and the sources of inspiration in the mixed up unconscious.  James stated categorically that it is not the roots of religious experience that count, but the fruits.  Not the roots but the fruits. Naturally, we just have to taste the apples to know the tree is good.  The fruits of our religious experience are the good or bad works that are manifested in our world.  If the fruits of our religious experience are violence and hatred, this invalidates our religious experience, but if the fruits of religious experiences are the feeding of the hungry, the curing of the infirm, the freeing of captives, these fruits validate religious experience.

Jesus explodes at the spin doctors, at those who make personal attacks on his character to turn the crowds against him.  Truth is not in the words, but in the deeds and beyond what we see and hear:

 “no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

Religious experience is fundamentally a Mystery.  Jesus is always at work in our most secret of secret places, the places that no one can see and judge, there Jesus is always revealing the Father. When you hear someone making points by criticizing someone’s private experience, be afraid—very afraid.

In the Anglican communion, there is a lot of spin going on usually from the extreme left or from the extreme right. Instead of engaging in the sport of spin or mutual self destruction, let us take seriously the words of Jesus that Wisdom will be vindicated by her deeds.   Let us vie with one another to do the deeds of wisdom. Criticism contributes nothing; judgment counts for nothing.   Only the final judgment matters.  On that day, when the Son of man comes in his glory, let him count us among those whom his Father has blessed and let us pray to be in that kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.  We will be if we were among those who gave food to the Lord when he was hungry. We will be blessed if we are among those who gave a drink to the Lord when he was thirsty, We will be in that kingdom, if we are among those who put a shirt on the back our precious savior when he was naked.  We will be blessed in that kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world if we are among those who visit our dear Lord when he is sick or among those who come to see him, our one and only savior Jesus Christ when he is in prison.

Wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.  Are these our deeds, our works, the fruits of our labor?  Does it even matter what we think or judge?  When Jesus comes and tastes the apples of our orchard, will he judge?  Will he know we are Christians by our love?  Jesus doesn’t want spin or propaganda just the facts.  And we know that we will meet him in heaven, if we have already met him on earth, in the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and those in prison.  We will meet him for the first time but we will have known him all along.  We will meet him again for the first time. Amen.