Sermon 22 Aug 2021
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JESUS, BROTHER OF JAMES FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF GREENWOOD 22 AUGUST 2021 REV. GORDON TUBBS There are quite a few blockbuster movies in the theaters right now that you may be aware of. For a big movie buff like me, it’s nice to have a bunch of options, but that just creates another problem: which one am I going to prioritize seeing over the other. You may be familiar with this problem, it’s known as analysis paralysis. And one proven strategy to solve this problem is to simplify and narrow down your choices to their essential features. In fact there are three ways we normally do this when it comes to movies. The first way is to read the synopsis, the second way is to see what genre the film is, and the third way is to check the critic ratings. But if you’re on Twitter or social media, you’ve no doubt seen posts of people providing a short synopsis that’s so bad it’s actually good. Take these for example: Lord of the Rings Trilogy Group spends 9 hours returning a ring to a volcano. Titanic Rich girl lets a poor boy freeze to death. Star Wars Saga One family’s dysfunction ruins the galaxy. Beauty and the Beast Good girl meets a bad boy and thinks she can fix him up. Jaws Big shark bites a small boat. Then they get a bigger boat. Casablanca Man is torn between a girl and the war-effort. My Fair Lady Girl learns to speak in an accent to make it in a new town. Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory A bunch of children participate in a lethal social experiment. Now none of these synopses are entirely wrong, but they’re not entirely right either. And if you have your own bad yet good synopsis of a favorite movie, let me know after the service. At any rate, I think the reason why we like reading the synopsis of a story is because we want to get a basic impression of it before we decide to invest any more time into it. And when I read the New Testament, all I see is one synopsis after another. Each book of the Bible is presenting a synopsis of who Jesus is, as each author is presenting what they think was the most important aspect of the life and teaching of Jesus. This is why scholars refer to Matthew, Mark, and Luke as “the Synoptic Gospels” - because these gospels provide a proper synopsis of Jesus: biographical information on his background, the biggest events in his life, and the essential teachings that came out of his three years of public ministry. Every other book in the Bible is doing the same thing, just in the unique way the author related to Jesus. The sermon series we’re in right now featuring the Book of James is a great example of this. James is really focused on the practical aspects of following Jesus, not so much the theoretical like Paul focuses on, or the spiritual like John does. But the fact that the New Testament is a mosaic of different perspectives is why it can be difficult to make sense of all of it combined. I mean, you might say the reason why we have different denominations is because each tradition is going through the New Testament and highlighting different verses and passages that they think are really important. Even in our own private Bible studies we do this right? Through the Holy Spirit, Jesus is speaking to each of us differently in the way we need to hear his words the most. Some days we need his grace, other days we need his rebuke, but every day we need to hear him. And one thing I love about the Bible, is that in a few different places we’re given a synopsis of what it’s all about. In Matthew 22, a Pharisee asks Jesus: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” [and then] 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” In this response Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18. The Law and the Prophets spoke about our covenant with God and each other. And as I said the Bible is sprinkled with all sorts of summaries of these things. Right before delivering the Ten Commandments, God spoke to Moses and said 4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, 6 you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” (Exodus 19:4-6a) The prophet Micah said “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Micah 6:8, NIV) In the book of James, he says 26 “If anyone thinks himself to be religious, yet does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this person’s religion is worthless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” (James 1:26-27, NASB) I love these little nuggets in the Bible because oftentimes I need things broken down for me like I’m 5 years old. I need people to make a long story short, to be quick and snappy. To just give me the facts. The bottom line up front. The elevator sales pitch version. The abstract. The summary. But for those of you who have been in a committee or are currently on one, I’m sure you know there’s a big difference between sitting in the meeting as opposed to simply reading the minutes report from that meeting. This always happens to me, because after the fact I think “my goodness how did we spend so much time talking about so few things?” The opposite seems to be the case for school. For the parents in the room, I’m sure you’ve asked your child “what did you learn in school today?” And for the students in the room, the answer is always “stuff.” Oh yeah, what kind of stuff? Stupid stuff. There are just some things that you can’t condense into a summary. You had to have been there. There’s no way you can describe it to somebody else. If you know you know. There’s no shortage of stuff like that in the Bible too. We can imagine what the parting of the Red Sea looked like, or how exactly Jesus walked on the water, but we were never there. The information provided in the Bible isn’t exactly descriptive either, but on some level I don’t think it could be. There are a million different ways you could document or describe what it is like to ride a roller coaster, but none of those ways are going to replicate the experience itself - what you feel. I can imagine what this must have especially been like when discovering the empty tomb. There must have been so much amazement and bewilderment, that it was difficult to convey in writing. This is why perhaps in the Gospels, we have four different versions of the Resurrection narrative. In Matthew there’s two women and an angel sitting on top of the rock at the empty tomb, in Mark there’s three women and the angel is standing beside the rock, in Luke there’s a whole group of women and two angels show up inside the tomb, in John it’s just Mary Magdalene at first. Each Gospel is providing a synopsis of what actually happened, which is why they all differ on the details. Each author is trying to focus on a different sequence of events or people at different moments. Bear also in mind, these books were written at different times, and so as Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were attempting to reconstruct the events from memory or by interviewing Mary and the other women, it’s likely that some things would’ve been remembered differently over time. But as interesting as that sort of stuff is, none of the Gospels left out the most important part of the story: the empty tomb itself. Paul provides his own synopsis of the story in his first letter to the Corinthian church, in chapter 15 he writes: 1 Now I make known to you, brothers and sisters, the gospel which I preached to you, which you also received, in which you also stand, 2 by which you also are saved, if you hold firmly to the word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain. 3 For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that He appeared to Cephas/Peter, then to the twelve.