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Posted on Mon Jan 25 2010
Diane Eubanks Hill
What I’ve Learned from Jesus
I Corinthians 12:12-31
Luke 4:14-21
A Sermon by Diane Eubanks Hill
Watts Street Baptist Church
January 24, 2010
On Thursday of this week, I sat at my desk assisting with the proofing of this worship bulletin. My eyes fell on the title of Mel’s sermon: “What I’ve learned from Jesus.” “What an interesting title!” I thought. “Wouldn’t it be great if all of us in the congregation had the opportunity to pull together our thoughts around this topic?!” Little did I know that very soon I, indeed, would be given the opportunity to use this prompt to develop a sermon!
And so, I put before you today some of what I’ve learned from Jesus. I’ve chosen not to use Mel’s material, trusting that, at some point in the future, he’ll tell you about what he’s learned from Jesus.
The Luke text which you heard today contains words of Jesus, spoken in what some call his inaugural address. And, certainly, throughout the Gospels we read the words of Jesus. Some of what I’ve learned is based on the spoken teachings of Jesus, his instructions to his disciples and to the crowds that followed him wherever he went during his three years of ministry. But a lot of what I’ve learned comes from the teachings of Jesus as based on his actions.
I had an 8th grade algebra teacher who often said “Your actions speak so loudly, I cannot hear what you are saying.” With Jesus, however, we don’t see contradictions between his actions and his spoken teachings.
Sooo---what have I learned from Jesus?
First, I’ve learned from Jesus the importance of staying close to the source of his life and power. Jesus attempted nothing without spending time with God. Just prior to this inaugural address, we read of the experience of Jesus in the dessert. He left that time of prayer filled with the spirit. He reported in his inaugural address that he had been filled with the Spirit of the Lord, and anointed “to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed to free….”
Again and again throughout his ministry, we learn that Jesus withdrew from the crowds that followed him, to rest and reconnect with the Source of his life and power. The words are familiar: he left the crowd, “to go across to the other side.” He even frustrated his disciples by sleeping in the boat while the storm raged around them! He was chastised by the sisters of Lazarus for not being there when they needed him. “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.”
Second, therefore, I’ve learned that it’s important to have a clear sense of who I am and to resist the temptation to be controlled by what others expect me to be. Balance, here, is difficult for many of us. We can, and we should, listen to feedback from those on the journey with us, observations about our gifts and talents and where God might be leading us. And we must be responsive to requests for aid on the journey. But, God has given each of us gifts and talents, and, along with these gifts and talents, the responsibility to be good stewards. Nobody else can do that job for us, just as no one else could tell Jesus who he was.
When our Gifts and Call Committee members gather to do their work, as they now are doing, they pray for wisdom and for the guidance of God’s spirit as they attempt to match WS people with ministry opportunities. But that group is not God. They can invite. They can place before you opportunities. But it is your responsibility, working from a sense of who you are, to sort out where God might be calling you to minister within this congregation and community.
Third, I’ve learned from Jesus that it is more important to love than to keep all the rules. Jesus taught this truth with his words: “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” But he also taught this truth in his actions. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. He associated with those considered unclean. He sat down to eat with some pretty unsavory characters, and even called them to be his disciples. It’s very likely, for example, that Matthew the tax collector had been skimming from the funds he collected, keeping these funds for his personal use. But love was more important to Jesus than keeping the rules, and love, not a set of rules, guided his life and ministry. We are called to love, and to leave the judging to God. A tough challenge for many of us!
Fourth, I’ve learned that forgiveness is a natural consequence of a life of love. Jesus taught this truth in his words as well as in his actions. “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” He even adds “…but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” That sort of seals it, doesn’t it? If his teaching here is true, we all have a lot riding on our willingness to forgive the wrongs that others have done to us.
Jesus forgives when he opens himself to a lavish gift from the woman of ill repute. He forgives when he talks with the Samaritan woman and offers her living water. But the most challenging example of forgiveness offered by Jesus is the account of the words spoken from the cross: “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” He’s dying. He’s suffering immensely. And he pleads for forgiveness for those causing this suffering.
My guess is that several of you in this room are weighed down by your unwillingness to forgive. If you are to be all that God created you to be, if you are to enjoy to the fullest the extravagant gifts of joy that God puts in your path each day, you must let go of past hurts. Offer them up to God, and move on.
When I began this sermon, I thought I’d probably tell you two or three things I’ve learned from Jesus. So far I’ve listed four: 1. Stay close to the source of my life. 2. Operate out of a clear sense of who I am. 3. Focus more on love than on keeping all the rules. 4. Forgiveness is a natural consequence of a life of love.
But I must mention a couple more, and leave the rest for later. The first of these, and the fifth on my list, is especially important to my life and ministry, and one for which I probably have the most passion.
In Matthew 18 we read:
…(T)he disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” He called a child, whom he put among them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever we
These are, indeed, strong teachings of Jesus. We have no greater responsibility than to love and nurture the children entrusted to us, at church, at home, in our community and throughout the world. And it does, indeed, take the whole church community to take care of our WS children and to help them grow in the faith. It’s not just the responsibility of the parents, it’s not just the responsibility of the teachers of our children and youth. It’s a responsibility that clearly rests on all of us, and earlier in the service we, as a congregation, pledged to put our energy towards loving and nurturing Joseph Rublein.
The sixth truth is one I learn from the actions of Jesus, from the choices he made when he was in the midst of one task, but was presented by human need. We have no record of his saying “I’m too busy. Please come back later.” Jesus gave his entire life and ministry to being with the people whom he loved. He was diligent about teaching them by his words, but he also took time to share life with them. And when he was presented with a need, he stopped what he was doing and gave his full attention to that need.
The I Corinthians text carries this truth a bit further with its emphasis on the value of all members. No one deserves less attention and honor than any other. We are all essential to the work of the kingdom, and we all need a healthy dose of loving care from each other.
What a challenge! How do we prioritize when our own time and resources are finite? How do we know when to stop working on our list of tasks and start responding spontaneously to the needs around us? How do we know which plea to answer first?
I don’t have the answer. All I can do is point to the example set by Jesus. From his actions and from his words, I hear from Jesus a resounding “YES” to Cain’s question “Am I my brother’s keeper?” I hear YES when Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan, and I pray for forgiveness when I walk on the other side of the road. I hear YES when Jesus stops to give attention to the man lowered through the roof, or the leper crying for healing, or when he goes to the home of Jairus to tend to his ailing daughter.
We serve a master who needed very little in his lifetime. And still he gave, even giving his life. He rarely had more than the clothes on his back. He traveled from place to place and asked his friends for food and a place to sleep. I don’t know the source of the words, but sometime recently I wrote on the front of my church director: “The happiest people don’t have the best of everything. They make the best of everything they have.” I see these words every time I sit at my desk. Certainly, Jesus modeled this truth with his life and with his words. And he trusted God, who cares for the sparrow, for the rest.
Recently I was in a children’s toy store. Our friend Raffi, whose voice is heard in all cars and homes where there are young children, was singing, and the words caught my attention: “All I really need is a song in my heart, food in my belly, and love in my family.”
Perhaps the song in our hearts is the one we sang following Joseph’s dedication: “Jesus loves me, this I know.” The food in our belly must nourish both our bodies and our souls. And I pray that the love we need, we’ll find here, among this church family.
What have you learned from Jesus?
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