Atlanta Westside Presbyterian Church
Pick Up Your Bed
Tune Your Heart
Celebrate in Sorrow
God Bless the Cows
Come and See
Outwit Temptation
The Physical Body of Christ
Mary, Mother of Jesus
Leah, Mother of Jesus
di Walter Henegar
Jesus’ healing of the paralytic demonstrates that our greatest need is for forgiveness from our sins. By forgiving a paralytic – someone whose was clearly a sufferer with no obvious sin in his life – reminds us that every human being sins, rebelling against God’s loving rule in big and small ways. The Pharisees and teachers of the law also illustrate the pernicious nature of self- righteousness that blinds us to our own sin. Most of us identify more with the paralytic, defining our lives based on our suffering, but really we are more like the Pharisees, delighting to judge others and position ourselves as wiser, better, smarter, or more righteous than others. Jesus’ death and resurrection not only heals every kind of sufferer but forgives every kind of sinner, liberating us to “pick up our beds” and live honestly as evidence of his grace.
In the face of impossible demands, Jesus needed to withdraw regularly to find strength and guidance from his Father. This practice was all the more essential in light of the power he possessed and the mission he was committed to fulfill: to preach the good news of the kingdom of God and then inaugurate it through is death and resurrection. Because Jesus was faithful to that mission, we can now follow his example without the pressure to do everything perfectly. Through faith in Jesus’ finished work, we can find refuge as beloved sons and daughters, already accepted and delighted in by the Father. We can say no to some of the expectations of others (and even our own!), knowing that his judgment of us is all that matters. And by practicing the discipline of solitary prayer, we can learn to discern God’s particular priorities for our lives, trusting that whatever he asks us to do, he will provide the time, energy and resources to do it.
John’s sparse account of Jesus’ first miraculous sign raises all sorts of fascinating questions: How did he really feel about marriage? What was his relationship with his mother? Why did she care about the wine supply? Why did he create enough wine that could make people drunk – and why put it in ceremonial purification jars? All answers revolve around v. 11. Consistent with the purpose of John’s Gospel (20:31), Jesus performed the miracle so that people would “believe in him” – that is, dynamically trust him. In order for us to trust him today, we must understand that he cares about the smallest details of our lives, yet he always acts according to his mission (his “hour,” v. 4). This mission was a way of suffering and death that would replace the old ways of purification with the extravagant “new wine” of the kingdom. Until Jesus returns for the final wedding feast, we who trust him must learn to celebrate every foretaste of his abundant kingdom now, even in the midst of sorrow.
There is so much to Jonah’s story following the great fish incident. The Bible shows us this incredible picture of the Gospel in Jonah 3 where God chooses to bless and save sinners who, though their sin was great, called out to Him in humility. However, Jonah resents God’s grace to his enemies. But God remains patient and reveals to Jonah his own hypocrisy and God’s massive and glorious plan of redemption. Similarly, as Christians today, we are often frustrated and angry at our circumstances and the world we live in. That’s when we need to remember who we are in humility, what abundant grace we have been shown in Jesus, and how many more glorious things lie ahead for us as God builds His kingdom and calls us home.
Jesus comes and sees us so that we will come and see him. “Come and see” are not so much two different actions as a whole-person, hands-on engagement with another person. Jesus models this come-and-see practice by drawing them out with questions (Andrew & John), renaming them (Peter), calling them (Philip), praising their honesty, revealing his supernatural watchfulness and intriguing them with promises of even greater seeing (Nathanel). The disciples, likewise, come-and-see Jesus by following the clues offered by John the Baptist (“The Lamb of God”) and each other (“The Messiah,” “The one whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote”), watching Jesus, and testing his promises. The more we recognize Jesus coming-and-seeing us, the more actively we come-and-see him, building a real and ever-transforming relationship with him.
Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness helps us fight temptation in our own lives. Behind each of them is a question tempting him to doubt his relationship to God:1. Turn Stones to bread: Will God take care of me?2. Get authority & glory in exchange for worship: Does God know what he’s doing?3. Throw himself down & be rescued: Does God care when I’m hurting?The same kinds of questions lie behind our own temptations today. What’s at stake is not primarily our moral purity but our ongoing, dynamic trust in the Lord. Until Jesus returns, we will continue to face temptations and sometimes fail. Thankfully, Jesus perfectly passed the test that Adam failed, Israel failed, and we fail today. He continued perfectly trusting God the Fatherthroughout his life, all the way through his death and resurrection. As a result, the same Spirit who empowered Jesus now dwells in everyone who trusts in Jesus by faith. This Spirit is first of all the Spirit of Sonship, who reminds us that God is well pleased with us because of Jesus. He is also a spirit of power, love, and self-control (2 Tim 1:7). Because Jesus’ temptation was fully human in every respect, his Spirit is able to help us when we are being tempted (Heb 4:15). And because his Spirit indwells the whole church, we are not alone in our struggle.
Our church’s purpose is to embody and preview the Kingdom of God from Buckhead to Bankhead, which includes the work of racial reconciliation. Actually doing it depends on how well we believe and practice the metaphor of the body of Christ. The unity that we already have in the body motivates us to work hard to love each other and our neighbor. Diversity in the body puts us in uncomfortable positions, but it grows us to be able to love people different from us – which helps us better love our neighbors who are different from us. We do all of this through interdependent relationships, with a real feeling that we need each other to experience the fullness of Christ and to live missionally on the westside of Atlanta.
Mary is an extraordinary model of dynamic faith in God. While her distinct role as the physical mother of Jesus was utterly unique, the way she responded to God’s providence helps us understand how we can exercise faith today. The angel Gabriel declares her “favored” by God, and she responds by welcoming God’s undeserved grace. He informs her that she will bear the Son of God, and she responds by thoughtfully interrogating God’s promises. Without understanding everything that will happen to her, she embraces wonder with her famous response, “Let it be to me as you have said.” And while struggling to understand what it all means, she engages God’s people in the form of her older cousin Elizabeth, who may have been a spiritual mentor, and who helps confirm and extend her unique calling. And for the rest of her life, through many more hard and confusing situations, Mary continues to exercise humble, thinking faith.
Leah is known for the bitter competition with her sister Rachel for the affections of their husband Jacob. Though the New Testament does not highlight her place in the genealogy of Jesus, her story echoes many of his other “mothers.” Most distinctively, she illustrates a universal human experience: We all want to be loved, faithfully and securely – and yet human love inevitably disappoints us. In the midst of this reality, God keeps showing compassion toward Leah in order to reorient her primary attachment to himself. Ultimately, Jesus most fully reveals God’s grace-given, person-specific, perfectly secure delight in us. Apart from Jesus, we starve ourselves and smother others. But when we receive the love of Jesus by faith, we smother people less and love people more, even becoming strong channels of God’s love toward them.NOTE: Since we had to use a borrowed sound system this week, the sermon audio was recorded with an iPhone on the front row. We'll have much better audio quality next week, Lord willing!
Tamar is one of the “mothers” of Jesus listed in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. She was the twice-widowed daughter-in-law of Judah, the leader of the twelve sons of Jacob. When Judah refused to provide for her future by giving his third son to marry her, Tamar took matters into her own hands. She disguised herself as a prostitute, and Judah took the bait. When she was found to be pregnant, Judah initially ordered her killed, but when she produced evidence that he was the father, he declared her “more righteous than I.” And she was more righteous than him, but only in a relative sense. Both were attempting to rewrite the story of their lives apart from the Lord – Judah by trying to cover up his shame, and Tamar by trying to level up her injustices. But it didn’t work, only further isolating and dividing. Thankfully, God was writing their lives into a better story. Centuries later, their descendant Jesus would show a better way: We can be honest about our failures, trusting his blood to cover our shame, and we can petition him about our injustices, trusting him to vindicate and redeem in his timing.