Luke 7:11-17;
1 Kings 17:8-24; Galatians 1:11-24
Preaching is a balancing act. We preachers are constantly dealing with smidgens of scripture cast against the whole backdrop of God’s great activity vis a vis human creation. It is like squinting with one eye to see close up while squinting with the other eye to see far away. All at the same time.
Take today’s reading from Luke. The simple passage is that Jesus goes into the town of Nain and happens on a funeral procession. The deceased man was the only son of a widowed woman. Jesus approaches the bier and tells the woman not to weep. He touches the bier and addresses the corpse, “Young man, I say to you, rise!” And he sat up and began talking. The crowd was seized with fear and awe and gave glory to God.
If we take step back, this story follows immediately on the heels of the story we read last week of the healing (at a distance) of the centurion’s slave. The centurion, although a Gentile, understood the nature of God’s authority.
The two adjacent stories have a number of contrasts:
• male vs. female
• centurion vs. widow
• wealthy vs. (probably) poor
• position of status vs. position of little or no status
• Gentile vs. Jew
• honored slave vs. only son
• deathly sick vs. dead
• requested the healing vs. Jesus intercedes uninvited
• faith is praised vs. no faith mentioned
• healed from a distance vs. speaking directly to the corpse(1)
Together these two stories illustrate one of Luke’s primary gospel themes: the all-inclusive nature of Jesus’ ministry. Where does all this lead? The episode that immediately following the raising of the dead man is the one where the disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus and ask if he is the one who is to come, or are they to wait for another. Part of Jesus’ answer to them is that “the dead are raised” (Luke 7:18-23) — something he had just done. These two miracles begin a section of revealing Jesus as a great prophet (Luke 7:16) and even more than a prophet — the Messiah of God (Luke 9:20).
John Shearman says that the emphasis in the story here was on Jesus' compassion for the widow, not on his power to raise the dead. It exhibited Jesus' gracious concern for the most vulnerable and helpless. When Jesus touched the bier, the Jewish holiness code said he was contaminated. Jesus’ act, however, said that the higher law of mercy trumps liturgical purity. Then Jesus gave the son back to the mother, just as Elijah gave the Zarephath widow’s son back to her.
Prof. George Caird asserted that there is no doubt that the early church had a strong conviction that Jesus did return to life those whom others had declared dead.(3) In this pair of events Luke forcefully asserted that Jesus is the source of life. That is the church’s task today — to make the same assertion to the world.
Who are the dead today? Brian Stoffregen says that the church needs to continually challenge those who claim to be Christ’s disciples: “If you aren’t experiencing God’s presence in your life and telling others about Jesus, why not?”(4) The truth is that God has been doing remarkable, miraculous things in us, with us, and even through us — probably every day, at least weekly, most certainly once in while. What are those stories? If we don’t recognize them, then maybe we are the dead. If we do recognize them and don’t tell them, how are we bringing any other of God’s people back to life?
To bring God’s human creatures back to life – out of non-relationship with God to relationship with God – or to use centuries-old theological language, from sin to salvation – to bring God’s human creatures back to life is the mission which God has entrusted the Church. It is the mission which God allowed Jesus to live out in full human flesh.
The currently popular term for doing God’s work through the community of Christ is “missional.” It has gone viral. Congregations have seized upon the word and claim that anything they do in the spirit of missional is part of the work and ministry of Christ. Alan Roxburgh says that “The word ‘missional’ seems to have traveled the remarkable path of going from obscurity to banality in only one decade.”(5)
George Bullard explains it this way:
“If everything the Church does that hints of the Missio Dei [mission of God] is labeled missional, and if every congregation has to figure out how to be called missional, the word and concept loses its meaning. It moves from high expectation to low expectation. It moves from excellence in serving the Missio Dei to mediocre service. It moves from the exceptional to the ordinary. It moves from cutting-edge ministry to commonplace ministry. It moves from fresh, new, and original to banal.”(6)As Roxburgh suggests, it moves from obscurity to banality. Or more bluntly, it moves from life to death.
George Bullard goes on to say that in order for there to be high expectations for missional service to happen, it has to happen where there is a congregational-wide movement that characterizes everything that is done. That is, it is second nature for the congregation to live in the spirit expressed in the third great parable of Matthew 25: “Just as you did it to the one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
Bullard gives a simple definition: “A missional congregation is captivated by the [mission of God], and seeks to make the world more loving and just through spiritually transforming the lives of neighbors.”(7)
Neighbors are defined here in a full global and local context. It is not a geographical neighbor but a theological neighbor. It is not neighbors to be attracted, but neighbors with whom we can represent the incarnational presence of the Triune God.
Missional congregations, while deeply caring for the needs of one another in their own congregation, are externally focused and seek to mobilize their congregations to be received, accepted, caught, embraced, and trusted by their neighbors. Missional congregations do not send missionaries and volunteers into their immediate or world context. Rather they invite people to be received by the neighbors for whom God has given them great passion. To be missional is
• to be received by the people to whom you feel sent
• to be genuine
• to be internal agents within their culture
• to present the gospel in contextually relevant ways
• to share the gospel with people who are becoming our friends.
Jesus was willing to touch the bier of the dead man in order to make or remake a friend for God. Elijah was willing to stake everything on the ongoing generosity of God which had not failed the widow or her son or him. Paul put himself in the presence of the people to whom he was sent. He did not come of his own accord. He did not present a teaching that he had commandeered, he received the teaching directly from Christ.
God calls us to join Christ in raising the dead and in befriending those whom others decree as dead. The church is not funeral home. The church is a birthing room and each of us is called to be a midwife for Christ. Yet most of the births are not going to happen within these sterile walls. They are going to happen in classrooms and barrooms, in back rooms and back alleys, over coffee and cola, bottled water and organic yogurt.
Paul reminded the Roman believers of the quote from the prophet Joel, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But then he goes on to ask, “But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written [in Isaiah 52:7], “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” (Romans 10:13-15).
If we are not those feet, if we are not the bringers of good news, if we are not the birthers of new life, then we are more dead than those whom Christ calls us to raise for him. Are we not the people who realize that wherever we are is a place of holy mystery and that God is at work? Are we not the ones who move from quietly worshipful to noisily grateful, telling one and all, “God is here, looking to the needs of his people!” That’s how the news of Jesus spread all through the country. That’s how we got it. That’s how we hand it on.
Thanks be to God.
(1) Brian Stoffregen, “Gospel Notes for Next Sunday,” Wed, May 29, 2013 at 1:29 AM
(2) John Shearman, midrash@joinhands.com, Opening Comments for June 6, 2010 which is the Second Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 5. Year C., Sun, May 30, 2010 at 7:03 PM.
(3) George B. Caird, St. Luke. Pelican New Testament Commentaries, (London: Pelican Press, 1963), 110.
(4) Brian Stoffregen, op. cit.
(5) Quoted in Craig Van Gelder and Dwight J. Zscheile, The Missional Church in Perspective: Mapping Trends and Shaping the Conversation, (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2011), p. 1.
(6) George Bullard, “Missional Banality Revisited
Is Being Missional Too Commonplace?” George Bullard’s Journey, May 16, 2013, http://bullardjournal.blogs.com/bullardjournal/2013/05/missional-banality-revisited.html.
(7) Ibid.
Copyright 2013 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Used by permission.
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