Who is Jesus, and What is Jesus to You?
Grace and Peace to you,
My Sisters, Brothers and Siblings in Christ
Even when we are questioning
Who the Son of Man is
Jesus,
Reminds us
That we are always invited
To lay our burdens
Our fears
Our worries
Down,
When we are weary,
Because Jesus is always there
To give us rest
And
Peace
Amen.
(pause)
During my routine visits to my Grandmother,
Now Ancestor
As a Seminarian,
Her deepest concern was that,
My Aunt
Did not attend church regularly
Granny, I am sure
Had a direct line to Jesus
But in all seriously was rooted in her faith,
And taught her children this,
And was a model for those of us
Who were proudly her Grandchildren
So she did not understand,
When my Aunt
Or my cousin
Didn’t attend church.
I shared with her that,
Sometimes the wider Church
Was as corrupt
And unloving
As the world could be.
Adding to that argument,
My Mother would disavow that answer-
That we are all to have a relationship
with the Triune God,
That not attending church was an excuse.
And yet,
As one who follows the Risen Christ,
I really can’t blame people,
Especially at the mixed messages
That the institution of Christianity pours out
Contributing sadly,
To the brokenness
Of our society.
(pause)
There are so many people who claim to follow Christ!
They proudly declare their membership
in well known Churches
As if that’s all it takes
to cement their relationship with God
But ignore the poor as they are leaving.
Spouting scriptures that the poor are always with us,
Therefore they just don’t want health care!
They LOVE that verse,
That Jesus states the poor will always be with us,
And that poverty is a moral failing,
And not the result of us
As humanity
Failing to live out the commandment of Jesus
That we are to love one another,
Through action.
(pause)
They proclaim loudly that they worship Jesus Christ,
And not Mother Earth,
That they are good stewards,
So that they don’t have to care about global warming,
Not acknowledging our complacency
In inflicting damage upon Creation,
Because of the misinterpretation
That domination meant we had free reign
To take from Creation.
(pause)
So imbedded in American culture,
It was the same thought pattern
Immersed in the upbringing and teaching
Of the dominant culture,
That people were taught by the Church
If they led chaste lives,
Through the 10 Commandments,
And believed in Jesus Christ,
That it would be okay
To own slaves,
To baptize slaves so that they would be saved
from the horrors of hell,
while ignoring the hell that they created for those same
Black Bodies
And refusing to acknowledge their sacred humanity
Thereby confirming that they are truly
A Sister or Brother in Christ
As Baptism bonds us,
Making us one
Beneath the Cross
And that it was okay,
To label Black bodies
As inferior.
(pause)
Who was Jesus to them,
And what did Jesus Christ mean for them?
(pause)
Music,
Accompanies throughout the week,
As I am discerning
Listening
To She,
The Holy Spirit
As how the Word
Is leading me,
And so this question that is continually raised
About
“Who do you say the Son of God is?”
Found me humming the song,
“Who is He
And what is He to you?”
By Meschelle Ndegeocello
Who covered the original
Bill Withers hit.
However,
If you know the song,
You realize quickly
that it has nothing to do with the Gospel,
But
This question,
We cannot ignore
Who is Jesus,
And what is Jesus
To us?
Is important for us
As People of Faith
To really determine
What the presence of Jesus Christ means in our lives
Especially,
In these times
When the institution
And the authenticity
of Christianity
Is on trial,
Because of the contradictions
The world is seeing
A people who confess every Sunday,
A Creed
That we, believe in the Creator God
And in Jesus Christ,
Our Savior and Lord.
We pray the Lord’s Prayer
We come to the Table,
To receive substance
And forgiveness
But is that for our own personal salvation?
Do we think that Jesus Christ,
Will absolve our sins,
Simply because we follow the rules?
And yet,
When we leave this place
We ignore those outside who are wandering
Hurting
We dismiss when statistics
And images
Of atrocities
And oppression
Are made public,
We are silent
When legislation further digs us into the systemic racism
That this country was founded on
And instead blame those victims
That they weren’t strong enough
Or didn’t pray hard enough
Or pull themselves up by their bootstraps
That Jesus was only speaking metaphorically
About welcoming in the stranger,
Caring for the sick
Feeding the poor.
(pause)
That when it clearly says in Scriptures
That Jesus Christ healed,
Helped
And died
For ALL,
It literally means all of humanity
And all of Creation,
Not just those of the House of David,
Or those who stood up in Church
And profess that Jesus Christ
Was their Lord and Savior.
Who is Jesus,
And what is Jesus to us?
(pause)
My own relationship with Jesus,
Has always been rather complicated
Because although I clung to the feet,
Of the Creator
I was conflicted in cementing a relationship
With a Man,
Whose very name,
Guaranteed someone passage into heaven,
While ignoring the vast throng of Ancestors
Who perhaps,
Did not know Jesus,
Merely because that is not how they related to Him
Favorite Gospel hymns,
Which boldly proclaimed
The only way to get into the door,
Was through Jesus
And that you had to be saved,
Even though
Because of the ways we have learned to condemn people
There are those who will never step into a church
And we ignore that
Even if they have never been baptized,
They are still
A beloved Child of the Creator God,
And that they will return to the Creator God,
Regardless of our verdict that we cast upon them.
But now,
My only struggle with Jesus,
Is that the knowledge that if we do indeed
Confess our shortcomings and our failings,
In our moments alone,
With the One,
Who continually calls us into the Light,
When we fall back
In that second,
We are forgiven
Regardless of what the world says.
And I think this question that Jesus places before Peter,
Of Who do you say the Son of Man is?
Is not about stating who Jesus is,
But where we place ourselves
If we allow the Holy Spirit to move,
And freely live into the LIBERATION
Of what the Gospel is calling us into.
Jesus then,
Does stand with the oppressed,
As we cannot fail to see them
And the lepers, as we label them
And the felons, as we do not forgive them
Jesus is the one,
Who I shamelessly fall before the Cross
And submit of myself
Because Jesus calls us,
To then turn around,
And to actually DO
Jesus is more than just a figurehead of holiness
Or a prophet that spouts morality and perfection,
Jesus calls us to break boundaries
To flip tables
To express righteous anger,
When families are separated
because of unjust immigration laws
When bodies are battered
because of unfair policing practices
When the mentally ill are forced out into the streets
to die,
When its okay for the poor to perish
since that means we are sacrificing them
So we don’t have to feel the weight,
Or the struggle
Of how unfair and perilous life can be
Clawing and securing our place in an unloyal society,
These are acts of selfishness that have been condoned
By the wider Church,
Who has run to Calvary
And refused
To do what Christ has called us,
Commanded us
To do.
Jesus is not some figurehead
Jesus is,
Martin,
Malcolm X
Jesus is
Tamar Rice
Sandra Bland
Jesus is
The Charleston Nine,
Every unknown leper in the scriptures
Every unknown Palestinian
who has been attacked for who they are
Every victim of poverty,
And slavery
Jesus is,
The One who comforts those,
Battling disease and illnesses,
Never leaving their side
The One who comes to those,
Because of trauma and the ugliness of life,
Take their own lives,
And Jesus then,
Gives them LIFE
And the One who I submitted to
When my Bishop laid his hands on my head
Because of the power of the CROSS,
(pause)
Jesus cannot be shoved in our theological boxes
for our comfort,
Jesus is
the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation;
for in Jesus all things in heaven and on earth were created,
things visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers
all things have been created through him and for him.
Jesus came for us,
To love us
And to Transform us
So in turn,
We would share that Good News,
And continue the work,
That Jesus gives to us.
So,
Who is Jesus
And what is Jesus
To you?
Thanks Be to God.
