Anything Jesus

Anything Jesus.

This is the third week of the Easter season. We celebrate that Jesus is alive and is the Lord of OUR lives. Jesus is above and Jesus is present. Jesus is beyond, and yet he is with us now.

On Tuesday this congregation fed over a hundred people.

Those hundred people came for a meal because they needed something. Perhaps they needed food. Maybe they needed to spend time with others. Some may have needed a break from cooking at home. Probably some came without knowing what they needed but they came.

You all fed over a hundred people. I like that. I would love to see more of that type of ministry. The gathering of Jesus' disciples blessing one another. These things can be hard work. I appreciate the donations of food. I appreciate the work of the volunteers. Serving and giving of oneself is always rewarding but it isn't always easy. Sometimes we even do things that are uncomfortable and difficult (I have a magnet on the refrigerator that keeps reminding me of a bike ride for H.E.L.P ministries in August). But that is what we are called to do.

Jesus blesses us through our participation (submission and service) in the community of believers.

This point on the spiritual journey, when one realizes that it is not what we get from our faith but it is how we serve our God and our neighbors, is the point when we start to realize the fulfillment of Jesus promise of an abundant life.

There is this distorted view of Jesus that I call the “Anything Jesus.” This is where Jesus is anything I want him to be. Anything Jesus can be molded to fit my life. Anything Jesus fits in my pocket and can be taken out when it is convenient for me and can be put away when it is not.

Anything Jesus looks exactly like me and does not look like you. Anything Jesus makes makes me feel okay about trashing the environment, because after all, we have been given dominion over the earth. Anything Jesus says its okay what I do what I have done as long as the pastor and the folk at church don't find out.

The problem is Anything Jesus doesn't exist.

Jesus, the man who lived in Nazareth, who defeated death by raising from the dead after being crucified, does exist and lives today.

We talked last week about how Jesus was there with the disciples in the locked room, twice. He was there on the day of the resurrection and showed himself to them. But Thomas wasn't there. He came a second time so that Thomas would believe. He showed them the marks of the nails in his hands and he showed them his side where the soldier speared him.

In today's scripture Jesus again is with his disciples and he shows them his hands and feet. He assures them that he is the one they have been with all along. He demonstrates to them that he has flesh, that he is not a ghost. In fact he asked them for something to eat.

He asked for something to eat!

The Lord of Life, the Author of Salvation, God in the flesh, the one who fasted for 40 days in the wilderness, the one who multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed the thousands, asked for something to eat.

If Jesus were here, in the flesh right now and you had utterly no doubt that it was indeed him, what lengths would you go to to get Jesus something to eat if he asked for something? Would one of you volunteer to go out buy him something? Would you go home and cook him a meal?

I would sell all I owned to buy food if that meant that I could serve the Lord Jesus a meal.

Our God, the God of all creation became a person. Jesus is God. Jesus walked the earth and ate and drank and lived life as we do.

God has given us a body. We have flesh and bone. We have hunger and we thirst. Sometimes we make poor decisions. We don't treat our bodies with reverence. We fail to use our bodies in the service of others. We forget that our strength is to help the weak; that our gifts and talents are to build others up. The problem is that we get caught up in our failures. We start to focus on ourselves. When we lose sight of God when we quit focusing on God and focus on ourselves that is when we get lost. When we get lost we start to have anxiety and we focusing on our sin. You ever get stressed out? Your shoulders start to get tense. Some people tighten their stomach muscles. Some get ulcers. None of these physical things that happen to our bodies help alleviate the cause of stress or anxiety in our lives.

Focusing on our failures and trying through will-power to change our actions and ways of thinking is like trying to keep your boat from sinking by lifting up on your seat! (I am indebted to Alan Watts for this illustration. Something similar is found in his work The Art of Contemplation)

When we fail we have the opportunity to turn from that failure and refocus on what God would have us do. This is called repentance. Jesus commands us to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to the whole world. It is not a message of making others in our image. It is a message of God's love. It is a reminder of our God-given purpose in this life. When we remember our purpose, and we make a course correction we are have forgiveness for the mistakes we have made.

The Anything Jesus has a message of forgiveness but not of repentance. Anything Jesus makes us feel like we can do anything because , after all, it will be forgiven right?

Instead of following this false, Anything Jesus, lets take the focus off of ourselves and start living a life where “anything Jesus” becomes an answer to how we will respond to His call to serve him.

What will you bring me to eat? Anything Jesus.

What will you do to bring about my kingdom? Anything Jesus.

What will you give or give up to make my love known? Anything Jesus.

Jesus blesses us through our participation (submission and service) in the community of believers.

Jesus asked do you have anything to eat? I am sure that any one of us would have given him what ever we could. In fact you who served those 100 plus people at the Community Table this week did serve Jesus. What ever you do or do not do even to the least of these you do it or fail to do it for Jesus.

That is the beauty of service in the Christian community. We have the opportunity to serve the Risen Lord. Through that interaction we are transformed. Not by gaining merit for our hard work and not by making up for the bad that we have done, but by the Spirit of God living in us and changing our nature.

We are powerless on our own. We are broken. We are flawed. But with Jesus we are redeemed. We are forgiven. We are made new.

So, How is it with you today? Is today the day that you turn toward Him? Is today the day you find forgiveness for your failures? How will you go out today and share Jesus' message of repentance and forgiveness?