Have you been following the Occupy movement?
I have been reading online articles and Facebook posts and have been especially struck by how many times and how many
people have made reference to the words of Jesus.
Did you read the article in The Huffington Post written by the
now retired the UU minister, the Rev. Marilyn Sewell? She ended the article which she entitled “The
Church and Occupy Wall Street” quoting Jesus…reminding her readers what he said.
I am just guessing, but I bet a lot of the folks who are sharing
posts that quote Jesus don’t ordinarily define themselves as traditional Christians. They are probably not active, signed up members
of a Christian church. And, like Rev. Sewell, they probably stand far outside
what might be even broadly defined as the Christian faith.
But does that really matter?
In our world, when you go quoting the greatest teacher who
ever lived, it doesn’t make any difference what part of Christianity you belong
to, or even if you do! You’ve simply
appealed to a higher authority, an authority whose face, words and deeds are recognized
by almost everyone.
.
Everybody knows that Jesus and what he said carries way more
weight than Christianity does!
Well, everybody might know that now.
What I would like you to realize is that Americans haven’t
always been so keenly tuned in to Jesus and what he looks like, what he said,
what he did. Americans haven’t always understood
him to be the greatest sage of all
time. Americans haven’t always lifted up
the words of Jesus as the best there are when it comes to teachings about
justice, equity and compassion
.
Last month I showed you what Jesus looks like!
Well you saw what an ad man, named Sallman, thought Jesus
looked like. You may have heard me say,
or you knew already, that millions in the 20th century agreed that Sallman,
the portrait artist, got it right. He
captured what Jesus really looks like, at least in the minds of so many. He created a portrait. The American people
turned that portrait into an icon.
This month, I am going to enlighten you as to why Americans grant so
much “authority” to what Jesus has to say.
We know what he looks like. And
we all think we know what he said.
Well,
sometimes we need to be reminded. But
whenever we do remind ourselves or each other what he said; when we quote Jesus... whatever we are trying to say is given more weight, authority, power, prophetic
voice…..
In our culture Jesus functions as a familiar personality much
bigger than any one church, or even any one religion can hold. His is a personality with superstar status that
almost everyone not only recognizes, but respects.
Jesus says…we listen.
The process that made Jesus the cultural hero that everyone
stops and listens to was brought about by the same kind of “cut and paste” operation
that severed Jesus’ head from his body, from any particular context, like the
Sallman portrait did. The one I showed
you last month.
It was in the 19th century, when Jesus’ words were
severed from Christianity, by guess who?
After this President
was done, Jesus would no longer belong exclusively to the faith movement that
his life and death brought about.
Before I tell you about how that happened, it is important for
you to know that in the earliest century of the American experience, the 17th,
the figure of Jesus was not central even for Christians. The Puritans, who in so many ways personified
the quintessential American religion, who dreamed of building the City on the
Hill, who banded together with each other to be in a new covenantal
relationship with God the Almighty didn’t have much use for Jesus.
For them, Jesus was only important in a sacrificial way, his
death having brought about a new relationship between a new people and an old god.
The son’s role was minor compared to big daddy. For the Puritans, worship was not about 'Jesus my savior', or 'Jesus my friend', or even 'Jesus the wise teacher'. It was about getting and staying in right
relationship with God the Father.
We UU’s often claim to be heirs to the Puritan form of
church governance, the “we-are-all-in-this-together” part. But we make no claim to have inherited the “fear-of-God-
Almighty” piece! Sometimes we forget
about how BIG and Important God used to be!
Getting from the Puritans to
the third President of the United States is a long and complex tale.
But the short version is: Along
with the Puritans, many others came to the new promised land with all sorts of religion and no
religion. What they mostly had in common
was a growing disdain for the real or the imagined power of any King, almighty
or not. All of the left wing of the
Reformation including the Puritans rejected popes, Kings, Lords and all the reigning
bishops in the Anglican Church as far as spiritual matters went. It would only be a matter of time, before the
idea that all (white) men are equals before God would influence
everything.
Along with the idea and
practice of democratic society, came the elevation of Jesus into the Super Man among men. The radical notion that everyone is capable of deciding and
acting for themselves, would bring education and enterprise, and deeply affect
not just forms of governance, but change who was imagined to be in charge of spiritual
and moral and ethical matters.
One could make the case that the passage of the first
amendment not only guaranteed religious freedom, it also had the effect of
demoting God- the Lord it Over-You to be feared Father. In his place rose Jesus, the perfect teacher
of how to live together in brotherly love in a just society of equals. (It was as if Americans left God behind, when
they began to worship Jesus…)
It was Thomas Jefferson the creator and passionate promoter
of the separation of church and state, who was the major player in separating
Jesus from Christianity. Jefferson paved
the way for Jesus to be the super sage every one listens to, everyone respects.
While Jefferson was the third president of the United State,
in office, he found the time to take a razor to the Bible, cutting out the
parts he agreed with- that he found to be reasonable-pasted them together and produced
what would become known as The Jefferson Bible.
What motivated him to do such a thing on “our” time? Was he just trying to produce what he needed
Jesus to say, in order to make an appeal for his agenda by making reference to
a much Higher Authority?
Maybe. That might be
how we interpret his actions now…
At the time it was more likely that he was motivated by what
moved most educated, passionate leaders, who wanted America to be
great. He used reason to look for the reasonable things Jesus likely said. He threw on the floor the parts of the
gospels that were, in his mind, unbelievable, silly or inconsistent. The result was the clear undeniable message
of justice, equity and compassion. (The
same message that would later cause UU’s to disavow their relationship with Jefferson,
the slave holder.)
Nearly a quarter century later, another “cut and paste” operation
would bring about The Woman’s Bible.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton one of the early leaders of the long movement to
secure women’s right to vote, was censored by most of the other suffragists because
she wouldn’t give up her efforts to produce a Bible that eliminated, or
explained the offending sexist passages.
Yes, of course the vote was important to her, but getting the Bible to
say the essential message of justice, equity and compassion that she knew must
be there beneath the misogynist details was more important.
Unlike, Jefferson, she at least had a committee of 26 to
help her.
Yet, neither Jefferson, nor Stanton, relied on Biblical
scholars.
So what!
Contemporary Biblical scholars endlessly debate what the
Bible really says about what Jesus really said.
We don’t know for sure. We only sort of know what people much later said he said.
When the Jesus Seminar, comprised of academics at work in
public and private universities all over the US from the late 1980’s forward, voted
to determine what the great teacher “really” said…it ought to come as no surprise to learn that the academics
drawing straws produced nearly the same set of words that Jefferson had put in
Jesus’ mouth two centuries before.
I shared with you last month that this sermon series “Who is
Jesus” comes from my having read Stephen Prothero’s book American Jesus: How
the Son of God Became a National Icon.
Prothero again and again calls America the “jesus nation”, because
whenever there is something we need to fix, that brings us back into alignment
with justice, equity and compassion, who do we call on to have the last word?
In America, it does not matter whether one is on the right or
the left…or in the middle, or whether one is Christian or not….ALL Americans have
inherited a strategy for effecting cultural change, especially change which asks/demands that people to be transformed.
It is the cut and paste… strategy that goes like this:
First, refuse to equate Jesus with the Christian
tradition. Say something equal to: “The
religion of Jesus…is not the same as
the religion about Jesus; and what
really matters is what Jesus did and taught.”
Secondly, use the cultural authority of Jesus to denounce
whatever it is you as change agent deem to be contrary to “true” Christianity. Or, press on and use the authority of Jesus
against the whole of Christianity…like our own Theodore Parker did.
For when the person or the people calling for change unmoors/disengages
Jesus from the beliefs, practices and institutions of the traditional Christian
faith, Jesus is then free to be whoever the change agent needs him to be. Jesus is already a cultural icon among
Christian so he loses no authority there.
AND when separated from Christianity, he gains authority among those who
want change.
What did Jesus say?
The Jesus who stands separate from the beliefs, practices
and traditions of the ever – evolving and incredibly diverse Christian
church…can say whatever our culture or the various sub-cultures within our broader
culture need him to say.
He can say whatever we hope will bring about the change we
want to see, as long as we believe what he says carries the potential to change
our nation and our world…as long as Jesus, our Super Hero, gives voice to the
frustrations and fears of ordinary people who know something is wrong, as long as we-Americans give him this power, we-Americans
will continue to believe in Him and his
message.
Rev. Sewell ended her article by reminding us that Jesus did
not say; “I have come that you might be comfortable”. But rather, “I have come that you might have
life”
How we interpret “might have life” has everything to do with
who we are and where we stand, where our hurts and fears are…
There is no denying the super hero weight, power, authority that
the words of Jesus have, especially when severed from any historical or traditionally
Christian context…
…especially when everybody knows what Jesus says and only needs
to be reminded…
What did Jesus say?
I am guessing you know already...
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