Sunday, September 30, 2007

Sermon: "Through the Eyes of Jesus"

Scripture: Luke 4: 14-21

Reverend Larry M. Gerber

A.C. Green was known for his atheleticism with the Los Angeles Lakers and a long standing favorite with the Phoenix Suns Basketball team. A.C. wrote a book in 1994 entitled Victory: The Principles of Championship Living. It is an intriguing book about his focus on who he was (is) as a basketball player and as a devoted Christian.

His opening words in the Introduction: "I was taught to be a well-mannered youngster. I was coached to be a championship-level player. I was inspired to be a good Christian. But when I finally gave God my life completely and let go, He developed me into something bigger and better than  anything I was ever taught, coached or inspired to become. He will do the same for you."

In his opening remarks under Principle #22, A.C. said: "?.Sometimes you even have to put your own family behind you - not by dishonoring them but by not allowing yourself to be swayed - in order to go forward with God. ?"

He goes on to say:  "Now that I was known by the team as a Christian, the oddball in the bunch, I had to prove myself on the court. The guys didn't know how to handle me, didn't expect me to play with the style and intensity that I did??..My dad taught me never to start a fight, but never to back down from one, either. I play basketball the way I think Jesus would play the game. I'm not angry or mean to other players, but I definitely stand my ground and get the better of opponents any time I can. That's the name of the game."

How do you play the game of life? Do you play your game of life the way you think Jesus would, or would have you do? How do you see in your life, and what do you see?  The way we see things can be affected by such things as: amblyopia (lazy eye), color blindness, dry eye syndrome, far sightedness, and near sightedness, to name a few.

Those are related to physical aliments. Some of us have spiritual vision problems as well, such as: Spiritual lazy eye (seeing a problem but doing nothing about it), spiritual color blindness (not paying attention to some people because of their race, ie. We recognize the plight of people in India and Africa, and even at home, but do not give it much priority), spiritual dry eye syndrome ( we sometimes lack compassion for others. We don't cry when we see them hurting.)

How does Jesus see people? Matthew 9:36 says "When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd"; I Samuel 16:7 says: "The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."

How can we see like Jesus? We have given Jesus our hearts, but now we need to give him our eyes.

Our text for today tells us that Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. He taught in their synagogues and everyone praised him. Now just before this statement in verse 14 is verse 13 where Jesus had been tempted by Satan in the wilderness. Between v. 13 and 14, several months have passed. This indicates the rapidity of Jesus' popularity. Within a few months the whole countryside was seeking him for his power over Satan, because they had heard how he had not allowed Satan to overpower him.

Jesus has returned to his hometown, it's the Sabbath, he goes to the Synagogue which is filled with people, and before long one of the elders invites Jesus to read from the scroll.  Jesus begins to read from the scroll, but everything is heard differently because he is not reading as if it is old stuff, he reads with compassion and conviction: " The Spirit of the Lord is upon ME?" Jesus does not sound like he is just reading something that was written hundreds of years ago. He is identifying with it.  Read v. 14 again: "Jesus returned to Galilee  "...in the power of the Spirit?..he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."

Jesus rolls up the scroll - hands it to the attendant - and sits down. Everyone is staring at him - their eyes are glued. You can hear a pin drop. He breaks the silence with these words, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."

That was a slam-dunk statement.  That was J.C. speaking, not A.C. That was Jesus' mission statement. He was proclaiming himself as the Messiah. His mission: to preach good news to the poor. The people were in shock. They thought that being rich was a sign of God's favor and being poor was a sign of God's judgment.  Jesus had turned the tables - good news for the poor.

Jesus' mission was to take Good News to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoner, to restore sight to the blind. Jesus' mission was to release the oppressed and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.

Jesus' mission was a people-focused mission. It was a mercy and compassion driven mission. Jesus' mission was the secret to his vision. His mission guided his vision. His mission was the lens that made him see people the way he saw them. People were his mission. The lens was his compassion.

We have a mission statement here at Shepherd. We have a vision statement. A core group of leaders in our church have been assigned by The Church Council to look at and revise our mission statement and our vision statement, and set up Core Values. As we look at our selves, as we look at our mission, as we look at our vision as a church, who are we? What do we see? Who do we see? Are we looking through Jesus eyes?

Your Mission Committee is asking each of us to focus on compassion and service for the week of October 8 - 14, just one week. Just for one week, look at the world through Jesus' eyes and reach out in mission. The committee has three main areas that they are suggesting. You will have others. Keep track of your outreach to others and return them to Pastor Susan at the end of that time. Our goal is 1,000 hours of mission in one week. With a church our size I should think we can double that.

As we see in today's reading, it was through participation that Jesus perceived, comprehended and interacted with the world. He did not criticize anything that he did not experience first. Every sliver of light the Bible sheds on Jesus' early years, and on his beginning ofpublic ministry, shows a level of involvement and interaction that is striking.

If the church is to communicate the gospel to the 21st century, it must come to terms once again with Jesus's Participative, Interactive and Experiential methods of ministry. Jesus had a P.I.E. ministry which involved him intimately in the lives of those around him. The church must grab a piece of Jesus' P.I.E. The church must get involved and understand what get involved means: participate - interact - experience!

Getting involved means moving from Representation to Participation

In the '70s and '80s, what was the #1 daytime television programming? Soap operas.

In the 1990s, what was the #1 daytime television programming? Talk shows.

What is the difference between soap operas and talk shows? It's the difference between representation and participation. In soaps you hire professional script writers and actors to act out the most bizarre scenarios a writer can come up with. In talk shows the audience becomes the "stars," and people come out of the woodwork and step forward to showcase scenarios that are beyond the imagining of even the best scriptwriters. In talk shows, viewers get real-life experiences, not fictional realities. In the course of one day, viewers can tune in to Oprah Winfrey for a look into "Viewers' Homes," Jenny to find out what it's like to be "Abducted by a Serial Killer," Jane Whitney for advice on "Promiscuous Teen-Daughters," Sonya to learn about "Women Who Love 'Bad Boys,'" Jessy to find out about "Women Who Marry the Men Who Rape Them," or Leeza for a "Prom Makeover."

When I grew up, we watched Dragnet. Today we watch 911, Cops, ER.

When I grew up, we watched Candid Camera. Today we watch America's Funniest Home Videos.

Talk Radio is emblematic of a karaoke culture where everybody has an opinion, a commentary, and they want you to hear it and respond. By 1996, 46% of Americans listened to talk radio every day. People want to interact with the message, not just listen to it. By 1997, there were over 40 syndicated talk shows on television, with viewers able to choose from 150 daytime talk shows per week. David Letterman jokes that he is one of the lucky hundred people to have his own talk show. In July 1994, CNBC's America's Talking began, a cable station airing only talk shows 24 hours a day. Other all-talk cable networks are in various stages of development. Clinton chose to appear on Donahue, not Meet the Press, to clarify his role in the Vietnam War. Clinton used the "talk show" over the lecture format in his "town meetings."

How do you explain the phenomenal success of Pope John Paul II's Crossing the Threshold of Hope (New York: Knopf, 1994), his long-running book on the best-selling list? It is partly because of its interactive, talk-show format, which positioned Italian journalist Vittorio Messori as the Larry King who posed questions for the Pope. People liked the book-length interview format.

How do you explain the phenomenal turn-around of the Today Show from its basement ratings to its dominance on morning television? It is partly because a few years ago, the producers of the Today Show decided to move it down from its "upper story ivory tower overlooking the city" format and return it to "the streets," where it began. They spent $15 million redoing the street-side studios at Rockefeller Center, and positioned the anchors behind a glass wall where passersby can see the show themselves and interact with the hosts.

Is there anyone here who did not in some way participate in the Princess Diana funeral? What really killed "The People's Princess?" We could not stop participating in her life. We wanted to be a part of everything she did. We wanted to know what she was wearing, where she was going, who she was seeing, how she was doing. We literally loved her to death. We participated in her life. And we participated in her death. Almost one-quarter of the world's population watched her funeral. The world showered her habitats and haunts with flowers. The world waited in line and online for hours to sign memorial books. We even could not resist participating in her funeral service itself. For the first time in history, there was congregational clapping in Westminster Abbey.

To minister in a participatory, interactive, experiential world, the church must come to terms with the participatory, interactive, experiential nature of the gospel.

The greatest indicator you have of a healthy church? The level of participation. The greater the number of "ministers" with practicing ministries, the greater the health and growth. The fewer the "ministers," the greater the decline and danger.

Getting involved means walking slowly

Jesus taught his disciples then, and Jesus teaches his disciples now, that if we want to develop our spiritual senses and if we want an effective ministry, we need to walk slowly. We need to learn what spiritual directors call the act and art of "noticing," and from the "noticing" begin to "get involved."

Tim Dearborn tells another story that demonstrates how walking slowly and noticing are yoked to involvement.

"David and I were driving across the Scottish countryside early one Sunday morning to lead the worship service in a rural church. David was a fine theological student with a fascinating background. He had been a shepherd for twenty years and now, in his forties, following a dramatic conversion, was preparing to become a pastor.

As we crested a hill, the sunlight broke through onto a green pasture where dozens of sheep grazed. I said to David as we passed, "That must bring back many memories."

All David said in reply was "Tim, please stop the car."

I stopped, and he asked me to back up to a point opposite the field we had just passed. David quietly opened the door, walked across the road and climbed over the stone fence. As I watched, he walked to the far end of the pasture. A distressed sheep was stuck on its back, and he gently shoved it upright so that it could scramble away.

I didn't realize this until David later explained what he'd done, but unsheared sheep are so top-heavy that they can get stuck on their backs and suffocate. Unless they are set right, they will die.

David and I had seen the same field. I had admired its pastoral beauty. He had seen the one sheep out of a hundred that was in danger. He viewed the sheep with the experienced eyes of a shepherd. I viewed them with the eyes of a lifelong city-dweller. Without his sight and his touch, the sheep would have soon died.

All around us are people whose distress we may not be able to see. Often it's carefully hidden. God would give us the gift of his sight, so that we can stop, climb over the walls that divide us, gently touch others and help them to their feet." (Tim Dearborn, Taste & See; Awakening Our Spiritual Senses [Downers Grove: Ill.: Intervarsity Press, 1996], 131.)

 Will we break bread and share in the hellish places of the 21st century? Will we walk slow and interact with the world that is around us? Will we live and minister out of the participative, interactive, experiential ethic of our Saviour? Will we get involved --in the world God loved so much God sent Jesus to die for it?

This is a call for people to participate in God's life. It is not a call to participate in the life of celebrities, sports figures or media stars. We have an opportunity now to experience the life of the real Star of the universe, Jesus Christ. Properly understood, God's people cannot not participate in this mission, we cannot not get involved in God's work and his mission in the world. We must Participate, Interact and Experience!

Are we looking at the world through the eyes of Jesus?