Sermon Hebrews 9:24-28

There is a controversy brewing in the United Church. There has not been much said about it in BC papers, but if you listened to the CBC you might have heard about it. But, I suspect that many in the United Church have not yet heard about it.

The controversy started when our new Moderator, Bill Phipps, in a discussion with the Ottawa Citizen made comments about his understandings of Jesus. Many were concerned about his response. He not only upset the conservative and mainline United Church folks, but many others as well. I've put a copy of the interview on the back bulletin board for those who would like to read more this interview later.

In the interview and in later comments, Bill Phipps says a lot of good things, but there was one thing that is cause for discussion and for concern. When asked about who Jesus was Bill Phipps said,

"Christ is that person who reveals to us the most about the nature of God, what God want of us, who God is, of any human being. {No problem here} No, I do not believe that Christ was God." {Bzzzztttt .... big problem}

When pressed furthur on whether Jesus was part of the Trinity and whether he was the Son of God, he began to respond but then said, "I'm no theologian."

After a number of churches expressed concern, in a subsequent press statement he said,

"I believe that in Jesus we know as much of God as is possible in a human being, but he did not reveal nor represent all of God. The God of the Bible is never completely known nor understood, yet is as intimate and compassionate as the most loving parent. I have experienced the presence of God at my mother's death bed and in the streets of New York city. In response to "what does God require of us?" (Micah 6:8) Jesus continues to call his followers to "do justice, love tenderly, and walk humbly with God". "

But what do all these comments have to do with us? So what that a moderator of the United Church is making comments about Jesus which say that he was not God? What does this have to do with us. The moderator is not like a Pope? We are not required to agree with him. Why concern ourselves about the theological "error of Bill Phipps ways"? We're not theologians? Are we?

Theology means ... "Theo" ... the Greek for God ... and "ology" ... the study of ... in this case God. Theologian ... one who studies about God.

Whether we know it or not, we all are studiers of God. We all ask the fundamental questions ... "Is there a God?" And when we come to face the reality of human existence, and the reality of human evil in the world and in ourselves, we come to ask; What is God doing about these things? What does it mean that one day I will die? That my loved ones will die. How could I have done such foolish and wrong things? What does it mean that 6 million people were killed just for being Jews? Why is their war?

From a very young age we start to ask good questions. As adults we all ponder these things within ourselves, or we attend Bible studies, read books, come to Church on Sunday, or take classes to learn more about God. We feeding that questing part of ourselves that asks "What or who is God?" To be a human is to ask is there a God? We can not help but be theologians. We are all theologians. We all are studiers of God.

And as Christian theologians, we ask special questions. Who is Jesus? In this mornings scripture reading there is one attempt to answer this question of who Jesus is. We see Jesus being referred to as the ultimate high priest. Like the priests of the old testament who would kill animals as sacrifices to atone for the sins of the people, Jesus is seen as offering himself as the ultimate sacrifice for the sins of all of humanity. Through Jesus, salvation has come to the world.

Now, all this priestly sacrifice language is pretty foreign to most of us. But what we have this morning is one of many attempts to explain the uniqueness of Jesus Christ. To explain in terms that made sense to the Hebrews. And in their explanation one point stands out. That Jesus Christ did something unique that was unrepeatable. Jesus was more than just a prophet, more than just a priest, more than just a teacher, more than just a human being. Jesus was the messiah, Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus was fully human, but also fully God.

You see, it is not good enough to say that Jesus was just a great human being. I think C.S. Lewis, the writer, says it best;

[In response to the statement,] I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.' [C.S. LEWIS said]- That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic - on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg - or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to." -C.S. Lewis "Mere Christianity".

It is not good enough to say that Jesus was just a human being. Even if it is to say that Jesus best reflected the nature of God. Most Christians affirm that Jesus was fully God, but also that Jesus was fully human. Now if this sound confusing, it is because it is indeed confusing. So confusing that in many ways who and what Jesus was is a mystery to us. But a mystery that we live with and explore. A mystery that invites good questions. An important mystery that changes everything.

You see, Christians seek an answer to our questions and conerns in Jesus. This is why we gather each Sunday and worship in the name of Jesus. We see something pivotal in him. We even changed our calendars to reflect the importance of Jesus. It is because we see more than just a human being in Jesus ... we see Jesus as God with us in our lives. God is with us, we are not alone. God came as a little child to share our suffering and to make it clear that death, evil and destruction are not our ends. That despite our failings, both personal and collective, God still loves us. God will not abandone us. It is because of Jesus that we know this.

We also have confidence in God's future because, we saw Jesus die on the cross and three days later Jesus rose from the dead and appeared to us. He then ascended into heaven. This is what we saw happen. And, this is what we share. Death is not the end. We know that through Jesus God promises us eternal life. What ever it is ... there is a Heaven.

So the question of who Jesus is to us has a big impact on how we see the future, but he also has an impact on who we are today. For we are called the body of Christ. We are called to act on Jesus behalf until he comes again ... we are called share the Good News, but we are also called to work for justice. And this is where I agree with Bill Phipps. Everything he said in his interview was not wrong.

Bill Phipps is concerned about how Christianity has become a private religion. He is right, We are not a private religion. We can not be Christians on Sunday and secular the rest of the week. We can not be Christians in private. During the great Christian persecutions of the early church when we were told that we could no longer worship in a public place, one Christian leader said, "If we can not worship publicly, we can not exist. When we were told that we could not publicly declare ourselves Christian ... many chose to die rather than hide their faith."

To be a Christian, is to be "Out" about one's faith. At church, at home, at the office, and in our politics. To be a closet Christian, is not enough. To be a Christian and not seek justice for those who are suffering, is not enough.

Although our moderate, Bill Phipps is quite passionate about how Christian's should seek justice, I would not go as far as Bill Phipps in saying that, "Your soul is lost unless you care about the poor." I would agree, inthat, if you have no concern for the poor, then you might take a long and deep look at the state of your soul. "How is it with your soul", the great Methodist preacher, John Wesley would say. If we look at our selves and can't find any concern for the poor, then friends something is wrong with our souls. And there are many Christians in Canada that have little or no concern for the poor. We Christians need some good Gospel medicine for our justice sick souls.

When our moderator says, "It clearly to me is unjust in a wealthy place like Canada that there are any poor people at all. Biblically it's a total abomination." Here too he is correct. It is an abomination. If you took out all the references in the Bible that refer to God's concern for the poor, it indeed would be a "holey" bible.

So, even amid the concerns about Bill Phipp's weak ideas about Jesus, he does give us good food for thought, and much to ponder about our souls. What he says is important because one day we will meet Jesus, who died so that we might have eternal life, and we will be asked what we did for the least of his people. What will our answer be? For those who choose to seek justice, what a blessing it will be to share with Jesus our attempts to help the least of his people? If we have not yet chosen to seek justice for others, let us ask Jesus to help us to seek justice.

And Let us hold onto our understanding of Jesus as the word made flesh, as the son of God, as the Holy one who lives amongst us. It is Jesus full humanity that shows us that God is indeed concerned about our suffering. And it is in Jesus fully divinity, that Jesus was God, that we know that in the end God's way of love, justice and peace will be the final word. For ourselves and for all of Creation.

God bless us and keep us in God's holy wisdom, and on the holy road of peace, justice and solidarity. Let us seek justice, love kindness and walk humbly with our God ... who came to us as a child born in a small town in Bethelehem, some two thousand years ago. AMEN.