“Faith: Not about Thinking or Being. It’s about Doing”
The Second Sunday After the Epiphany, January 20, 2008
May I speak only the truth, and may only the truth be heard by you. In the name of God our Creator, our Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Amen.
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As Christians, we tell the story of Jesus’ dying for our sins in our theology, in our hymns, and in our liturgy. In a way, it turns God into an ogre, into a deity that practices child sacrifice, a guilt-producing figure who tells us that our sinfulness is the cause of the death of Jesus. The requirement of a sacrifice made sense to first century Jews, who were used to it, for whom the idea of bloody sacrifice resonated. But I have to say, it does not sit well with me.
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In the culture to which José, my son-in-law, was born, every child receives not only his or her father’s last name, but also his or her mother’s last name.
Jose’s name is José Angel Quiñonez (his father’s last name) Soto (his mother’s last name).
José and Jennifer are carrying on the tradition.
Our new granddaughter’s name is Amelia Jane Quiñonez (her father’s last name) Brooks (her mother’s last name) (and my last name as well!).
Some might say it’s silly, or unimportant, to carry on such a tradition in our culture, which rarely understands it.
But I disagree.
I think names are very very important.
Our names define us.
Our names are links with the past.
Our names are links to the future.
My great grandmother’s own name is lost to me.
She gave up that name when she married.
This won’t be happening in my family!
The Lamb of God
The author of this morning’s gospel selection apparently thought names were important also.
In telling the story of John the Baptist’s “epiphany”, the descending-dove event that suggested the availability of Christ to non-Jews as well as Jews, in telling that story, the author felt it important to give the characters new names.
The two disciples, he tells us, first call Jesus by the name “Rabbi”, “Teacher.”
Later they call him “Messiah”, “Anointed One.”
Then, the author tells us, Jesus returns the favor.
He declares that Simon’s new name will be “Cephas”, “Peter” in English.
At every turn in the story, someone gets a new name.
The new name the writer gave Jesus was “Lamb of God.”
The idea of a need for atonement
The idea of calling Jesus the “lamb of God” is based on the notion that assumes that God entered this fallen world in the form of a human being in order to pay the price of human evil by sacrificing himself.
It was the central theme in Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, which represented a barbaric, sadomasochistic…
gruesome, distorted biblical and theological perspective.
I expect that the basic theology behind it all finds it root not in the story of the cross, but in the Jewish Day of Atonement.
The Yom Kippur liturgy
In the Yom Kippur liturgy, an innocent lamb was slain, and the people were symbolically cleansed by the “saving blood” of the sacrificed “lamb of God.”
Jesus, of course, has been similarly portrayed as the new Lamb of God.
As Christians, we tell the story of Jesus’ dying for our sins in our theology, in our hymns, and in our liturgy.
In a way, it turns God into an ogre, into a deity that practices child sacrifice, a guilt-producing figure who tells us that our sinfulness is the cause of the death of Jesus.
Even though we deserved it, God did it to him…
to Jesus, or possibly to himself, depending on how you understand the concept of the God as “Trinity.”
Consciousness is rising on this issue all over the church.
The requirement of a sacrifice made sense to first century Jews, who were used to it, for whom the idea of bloody sacrifice resonated.
But I have to say, it does not sit well with me.
The Epiphany: a dove descending
In describing the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist defines the dove that descends from heaven as the Holy Spirit of God.
He declares to his disciples, twice, in case they don’t get it the first time, that Jesus is that Lamb of God.
Two disciples who do get it begin to follow Jesus right away.
Jesus says to them, “What are you looking for?”
Their odd response is, “Teacher, where are you staying?”
Jesus answers, “Come and see.”
The exchange is strange and bewildering, less than illuminating.
Kathleen Norris, a best-selling writer about Christian spirituality, suggests that this strangeness is a key to understanding what faith is all about.
It’s not so much a matter of thinking as it is a matter of doing, she says.
It’s not so much a matter of being, as it is a matter of “witnessing”, observing, watching, noticing!
Just come and see, and we might realize that it’s Jesus who makes us more holy, and more fully human.
Just come and see, and we will understand the life and ministry of Jesus as the very center of our own faith.
They asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?”
If we were asked where we “stay”, where we stake a claim, what we stand up for, what would we say?
Would we look like everyone else in the rat race, distracted and disaffected, prone to resentment, ready to stick derogatory labels on those who don’t act or look or speak the way we do?
Or would we remember that we are called to be saints?
The importance of naming
Names are important.
Jennifer and José picked out the name, Amelia Jane Quiñonez Brooks.
My former foster son, Donald Hebert, told me recently that he’s changing his name to Donald Brooks.
Naming signifies a new creation.
In our case, in the case of the church, an institution populated with flawed people, each of us has been given a new name, “Christian”, signifying a new creation.
A new way of being
In the stories surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, we get a glimpse of the God that Jesus was pointing us to.
And it was a life-giving, life-enhancing, awesome, surprising presence.
Jesus pointed to a God of affirming generosity, a God of invitation and inclusiveness.
Jesus pointed to a God who could bring healing to the human condition.
Jesus pointed to a God who opened people’s eyes, opened rooftops, opened the doors of a wedding banquet, offered a new experience, a new life, a new way of being, a way of being that is clearly evidence of the new name…
“Christian”…
a new creation.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
In the culture to which José, my son-in-law, was born, every child receives not only his or her father’s last name, but also his or her mother’s last name.
Jose’s name is José Angel Quiñonez (his father’s last name) Soto (his mother’s last name).
José and Jennifer are carrying on the tradition.
Our new granddaughter’s name is Amelia Jane Quiñonez (her father’s last name) Brooks (her mother’s last name) (and my last name as well!).
Some might say it’s silly, or unimportant, to carry on such a tradition in our culture, which rarely understands it.
But I disagree.
I think names are very very important.
Our names define us.
Our names are links with the past.
Our names are links to the future.
My great grandmother’s own name is lost to me.
She gave up that name when she married.
This won’t be happening in my family!
The Lamb of God
The author of this morning’s gospel selection apparently thought names were important also.
In telling the story of John the Baptist’s “epiphany”, the descending-dove event that suggested the availability of Christ to non-Jews as well as Jews, in telling that story, the author felt it important to give the characters new names.
The two disciples, he tells us, first call Jesus by the name “Rabbi”, “Teacher.”
Later they call him “Messiah”, “Anointed One.”
Then, the author tells us, Jesus returns the favor.
He declares that Simon’s new name will be “Cephas”, “Peter” in English.
At every turn in the story, someone gets a new name.
The new name the writer gave Jesus was “Lamb of God.”
The idea of a need for atonement
The idea of calling Jesus the “lamb of God” is based on the notion that assumes that God entered this fallen world in the form of a human being in order to pay the price of human evil by sacrificing himself.
It was the central theme in Mel Gibson’s movie, “The Passion of the Christ”, which represented a barbaric, sadomasochistic…
gruesome, distorted biblical and theological perspective.
I expect that the basic theology behind it all finds it root not in the story of the cross, but in the Jewish Day of Atonement.
The Yom Kippur liturgy
In the Yom Kippur liturgy, an innocent lamb was slain, and the people were symbolically cleansed by the “saving blood” of the sacrificed “lamb of God.”
Jesus, of course, has been similarly portrayed as the new Lamb of God.
As Christians, we tell the story of Jesus’ dying for our sins in our theology, in our hymns, and in our liturgy.
In a way, it turns God into an ogre, into a deity that practices child sacrifice, a guilt-producing figure who tells us that our sinfulness is the cause of the death of Jesus.
Even though we deserved it, God did it to him…
to Jesus, or possibly to himself, depending on how you understand the concept of the God as “Trinity.”
Consciousness is rising on this issue all over the church.
The requirement of a sacrifice made sense to first century Jews, who were used to it, for whom the idea of bloody sacrifice resonated.
But I have to say, it does not sit well with me.
The Epiphany: a dove descending
In describing the baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist defines the dove that descends from heaven as the Holy Spirit of God.
He declares to his disciples, twice, in case they don’t get it the first time, that Jesus is that Lamb of God.
Two disciples who do get it begin to follow Jesus right away.
Jesus says to them, “What are you looking for?”
Their odd response is, “Teacher, where are you staying?”
Jesus answers, “Come and see.”
The exchange is strange and bewildering, less than illuminating.
Kathleen Norris, a best-selling writer about Christian spirituality, suggests that this strangeness is a key to understanding what faith is all about.
It’s not so much a matter of thinking as it is a matter of doing, she says.
It’s not so much a matter of being, as it is a matter of “witnessing”, observing, watching, noticing!
Just come and see, and we might realize that it’s Jesus who makes us more holy, and more fully human.
Just come and see, and we will understand the life and ministry of Jesus as the very center of our own faith.
They asked Jesus, “Where are you staying?”
If we were asked where we “stay”, where we stake a claim, what we stand up for, what would we say?
Would we look like everyone else in the rat race, distracted and disaffected, prone to resentment, ready to stick derogatory labels on those who don’t act or look or speak the way we do?
Or would we remember that we are called to be saints?
The importance of naming
Names are important.
Jennifer and José picked out the name, Amelia Jane Quiñonez Brooks.
My former foster son, Donald Hebert, told me recently that he’s changing his name to Donald Brooks.
Naming signifies a new creation.
In our case, in the case of the church, an institution populated with flawed people, each of us has been given a new name, “Christian”, signifying a new creation.
A new way of being
In the stories surrounding Jesus of Nazareth, we get a glimpse of the God that Jesus was pointing us to.
And it was a life-giving, life-enhancing, awesome, surprising presence.
Jesus pointed to a God of affirming generosity, a God of invitation and inclusiveness.
Jesus pointed to a God who could bring healing to the human condition.
Jesus pointed to a God who opened people’s eyes, opened rooftops, opened the doors of a wedding banquet, offered a new experience, a new life, a new way of being, a way of being that is clearly evidence of the new name…
“Christian”…
a new creation.
Prayer
Let us pray.
Eternal God, the Great Mystery that is outside everything and yet at the same time inside, keep alive in each one of us the search for a faith that is real, a faith that helps us to live happier lives, a faith that gives us a fuller meaning to life and the events of life. Bring us to know the goodness that flows from the heart of the universe and may we be expanded in heart and soul by that goodness.
This is our prayer. Amen.
Jerry Brooks
