the jesus story: a parable of being

By Rev. Elizabeth K. Ellis

Readings: Genesis 1:26a, 27, Wisdom of Solomon 7:24-26, Gospel of Matthew 5:38-45, Gospel of Thomas #3.

This week, while writing this sermon, I have been periodically asking myself why I am preaching about Jesus in a UU church!? Of course I understand that there are other UU Christians like myself, but I know that this is the exception in our movement and that some people find this tradition irrelevant if not offensive. So I’m always a little anxious when I’m dong this!

Once I was invited to North Carolina to speak to a district conference on UU Christianity. A new congregation was starting up as an intentional UU Christian church and there was protest and a bit of outrage in response, with some even referencing the Inquisition and other horrors of Christian history. But wearing my little figurine of Kwan Yin – the Buddhist goddess of compassion - with my cross, and calling myself a feminist universalist jesian mystic I was well received. Following my speech the UUA Board member himself stood up and “came out” as a mystical Christian. Later I did a workshop in which I had two sheets of newsprint. I said “ let’s us create a Christian religion – what do we keep, what do we throw out?” People got excited throwing things out of course – but they also got excited about keeping them. That’s why I preach about Jesus, it matters to so many of us.

And because Christianity is so badly represented in our society. Face it, there’s been a problem ever since Constantine adopted it as the state religion. What Jesus taught was an alternative ethic, an alternative view of the social world – power with, not power over; a world ruled by goodness and compassion and nonviolence - with a constitution of Love. A way of living with heart, mind, and spirit. An intelligent religion of freedom and responsibility.

But human institutions have a way of taming powerful things. And so today when we hear about Christianity, or for many of us when we experienced it, it has become a religion of narrowness, of rules and regulations which discourage the very things that Jesus encouraged. Christianity became Churchianity wishing to preserve itself and establishing a patriarchal hierarchy in which they placed Jesus at the top with the male God. Jesus, that ragtag radical peasant teacher who liked to hang out with the folk.

Following a Jesian path for many years and experiencing the amazing grace therein, it hurts me almost daily to see how the conservatives have stolen the religion and the media has gone right along with them. So I look for ways to tell the truth. That’s just it, simply. As a prayerful student I am looking to tell the truth as I have come to know it. Why tell the story to UUs? I am Unitarian Universalist and I am grateful for the community and for the freedom to question, incorporate, imagine, transform, challenge and enjoy this ethical, personal, social, and mystical path - this story about human life; this parable about God.

In her recent book, Quest for the Living God theologian Elizabeth Johnson lays down three ground rules for talking about God. I’d like to keep these in mind this morning while considering the story of Jesus of Nazareth as a parable – a parable of Being, of Holy Mystery, of Divinity, of God or as Paul Tillich said, God beyond God.

The first ground rule is that God is essentially indescribable. God is “an ineffable mystery beyond our ability to name or describe.” As soon as you think that you know what/who God is and can name and describe God – you are wrong.

Secondly, “no expression for God can be taken literally. None.” All godspeech is myth, metaphor, analogy, poetry – which ever particular form you wish to choose – godspeech is always symbolic language, not literal speech. And symbol here is that which can say more, not less, than literal speech.

Third: While we can never define God it is even more important to give God lots of descriptions. Father, Mother, playmate, guide, king of kings, washer woman, beggar god, liberator, comforter , dancer, lover, gardener…..knowing that we can never be complete we enter into the process and experience of naming the Holy experience as women and men have done for all ages. We attempt to name what we do experience, even though we cannot define it.

There has been a significant change in mainstream theological writing over the last 50 years or so. Johnson and others describe the shift as moving from the modern viewpoint of supernatural theism to a post modern approach which incorporates an appreciation of history, social/economic, cultural realities, and human experience. This shift has been described as doing theology from below rather than from above. The modern rationalist view removed God from human life and put Him, always Him, above the world. In some views He intervened occasionally, in others He created a natural world which went its own way. This God was sometimes represented as a Santa Claus kind of figure, judging our every move to later reward or punish.

In the second half of the twentieth century however the move was toward the incarnate God. God in all things. Conversations of God became conversations of human experience. The Divine, the Spirit, located not above but in human life. The Catholic theologian Karl Rahner describes the difference – in a theology of above one is describing something outside of oneself; in a theology below one is describing one’s experience. God is located within as well as without– not only within each of us, but within our relationships with one another and the world. The world is a dynamic holy place filled with divinity, which we as spiritual beings experience.

This is a radical change in perspective and has spawned twentieth century movements such as liberation theology, Black theology, feminist/womanist theology, serious interfaith dialogue, ecofeminism, and more.

“The kingdom of God is inside you,” says Jesus according to the gospel Thomas – “and it is outside you.” We might call this panentheism – not pantheism which is many gods, but panentheism – god is in all things and all things are in God.

It is from this inside experiential place that I want to share with you the story of Jesus as a parable of God. And before I tell the story I’ll share a little bit of where I am coming from. When significant stories are told it’s important to know the teller.

I’m an historical Jesus person. I read the story knowing that Matthew Mark Luke John Thomas Mary Magdalene, Paul and the other gospel writers were people or communites who wrote down what they remembered of Jesus 15-100 or so years after he died, and they told it with certain points of view and purposes which differed.. And I’m a social gospel person – much of my own growth as a Jesus follower has been rooted in social justice work in an ecumenical setting; I’m a universalist – understanding that god is present in many great traditions and always seeking to learn more of other traditions. I’m a feminist – and object to patriarchy, violence, and sexism anywhere and especially in religion. And I am a mystic. For 20 years I’ve followed a spiritual path of imaginative, contemplative prayer – contemplative activism - in a tradition of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits. I experience and accept a deep, vast, profound holiness in human life, in, including, and transcending human life.

So let me tell you a story. Remember I’m not telling a factual story. This is a parable.

One day the Creator looked over Her creation and while she rejoiced at the beauty of it all, at the same time her heart was broken. Being a multiple-imaged God (remember Genesis one “let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness”) She talked to himself – and shared her distress. There was war; there was poverty and greed; there was suffering and violence. It was terrible! Give people freedom and what do they do with it! The constantly moving forms of the Holy Mystery discussed what to do about this – destroy it all and start over perhaps?

No, no, no – there were resounding no’s. Love. Love is the center of our being. We love them. “For I am God and not human and I will not come to destroy” (Hosea 11:9)

Okay, then let’s go tell them and show them what human life can be. Let’s go show them how to feed and heal and love and touch one another and live in a kingdom as it is in heaven.

Just as we have placed a divine spark in all people as Jeremiah noticed, let’s make a bigger presence in someone – let’s so fill her with our very selves that she will show the people the way of love!!! And then the god-form know as Wisdom or Sophia said “yes, yes, I’ll go. Let me go fill the human one with my very presence!”

In order for someone to be born with such power and risk Holy Mystery thought it was important that the mother give consent to having such a child, after all this was not going to be an easy life. So they sent a messenger to an appropriate young woman, Mary, a lovely good-willed peasant in Nazareth, and they explained to her what they wanted. Godness held its breath. There was suspense in heaven. For God to be born into human life – somebody has to say yes. And Mary did, Mary said yes.

Jumping ahead in the story. Jesus, the child born of wisdom, began to travel the countryside and teach about love and truth and freedom; to feed and to heal people and cast out a few demons.

He began this ministry in his hometown and this foreshadowed how the three years would be. Jesus, who was Jewish, began to teach in the local synagogue, and to begin his ministry picked an appropriate teaching from Hebrew scripture, from the prophet Isaiah: “The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor.” This last part was important, “the year of the Lord’s favor” - that year was a reference to the jubilee year in which all debts were canceled, all foreclosed land returned.

He was greeted at first with acclaim, but as people began to think about that jubilee thing they ended up running Jesus out of town and trying to kill him!

Well, this was how it was going to be for Jesus’ three years of teaching. Thousands of people heard his message, witnessed the feeding, the healing, the deep loving engagement with life, and some gave up whatever they were doing to follow him. Often these were poor people, peasants, marginalized people. But there were others who didn’t like Jesus’ message at all – they confronted him, challenged him, and plotted as to how to get rid of him. Some of the people who opposed him were religious leaders, very devout, who were incensed at Jesus’ disrespect for doctrine and strict religious practice. In fact Jesus advocated religious freedom if grounded in two principles – commandments he called them: To love God and to love one’s neighbor as oneself.

While the religious authorities were challenged it was ultimately the Roman Empire which arrested and executed Jesus. It was, of course, the Empire which was ultimately the most threatened by his radical teaching and his growing following. The Roman Empire established peace in the countries that it occupied – Pax Romana - peace through violence and victory. On one occasion they crucified 2000 people at once. Cooperate, you were fine, you had beautiful buildings and great roads and viaducts – fail to cooperate and there were consequences.

Jesus was accused, tried in a mock trial, tortured, and executed. Poor Sophia. Poor Multiple imaged God. She had decided to be with the people and to show them the truth and she had been killed by human Imperial power. And that seemed to be the end of it all. But, of course, it was not the end. The story has a surprise ending.

While his followers were grieving and in great despair and confusion Jesus appeared, first to his disciple Mary Magdalene and to other women followers, then to many. Now he was beyond death. Resurrected. Jesus was resurrected! Seen in visions and imaginal dimensions so real as to feel embodied. There was too much life here to get rid of. Too much of the power of Love. “You are imprisoned by your fear of death” he once told his challengers who declared that they were free.

Life and Love triumphs over fear and death.

At that time in history the Romans said that the emperor was Kyrios, Lord, the son of god. Jesus’ followers said no, Jesus is the Kyrios, the Lord. Jesus - the laughing, weeping, loving, humble, defender of the weak, trouble maker, truth teller, powerless Galilean, he was the one born of God, not Caesar. In the face of the violence they proclaimed a peace of love, not the Roman peace through victory. And a phenomenal movement followed.

Our multiple imaged, dynamic Godness was there through it all of course, weeping with those who mourned, rejoicing with the victories. And through the years our multiple imaged God continued to rejoice, but also to weep as people misunderstood and even misinterpreted the message that Wisdom lived among us. People established new rules and regulations sometimes oppressing people with the message itself – using religion as a reason for war instead of a nonviolent alternative as Jesus taught – making strict boundaries instead of opening hearts to neighbors.

But there were also continuing movements, sometimes subversive, of compassion, and courage, liberation and love when others heard the story, told the story, and changed their lives toward Wisdom’s teaching of radical equality, social justice, and the transcendent spiritual reality beyond our naming, but not beyond our experience.

Like all parables the Jesus story is many layered and at it’s heart it is the story of being – of the power of love to transform hearts and lives, leading us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds; a story which teaches us to open our hearts minds and spirits to Holy Mystery’s amazing grace.

Amen

June 28, 2009