Crazy

Jesus said,

            “This is my commandment, that you love one another.

            Just as I have love you, so you love one another.”

 

That commandment was not just for those disciples there with him at the time,

            but it quickly became the distinguishing mark of all followers of Jesus                                                                                                                                    after that.

We are called to love – 

            that New Commandment that Jesus gave his disciples             

                        on the night of violence when he was then betrayed 

                        and taken and tortured and handed over for execution. 

 

If that is what he asked of us 

                        at that incredibly tense and challenging moment in his own life, how can we not take his words without absolute seriousness?

 

So how are we doing with that?

            Looking at the Church as a whole, 

                        not just this congregation 

                        or this denomination of the Episcopal Church, 

                        but the whole enterprise, the whole institution,

it looks like we’re dying.

 

A recent Gallup poll now indicates that U.S. church membership 

            has fallen below the majority of the population for the first time – 47%.

That was their published findings on March 29 of this year.

 

In the eyes of the general society we are becoming irrelevant.

As you know our Presiding Bishop for the Episcopal Church, Michael Curry,

            has been calling us to a renewal in what he calls the Jesus Movement.

That is important for bringing us back to the realization 

            that Jesus has to be at the center of the life and ministry of the Church.

Because if it’s all just our own efforts 

                        to carry out that mission to love one another in truth and action, 

            we can’t put the world right 

just by the way we humans ordinarily do things.

 

It is not by a political answer, or by making the best deals, or by wielding power

            that the world can be put right.

Our society lives in that space

            and people suffer as a result: 

                        especially the weak, the powerless, the alien, the marginalized,

                        women and children,

            who all get exploited, taken advantage of,

while those at the top, the ones with the power,

                                    secure their power and wealth for themselves.

 

Jesus was not about that,

            even though some have addressed him as a king, ( that is, a power leader)

            even though our opening hymn says, “Crown him with many crowns,”

            and even though some have gone so far 

                        as to use their faith beliefs as a rationale 

                                    for judgment and moral exclusiveness.

A king is so different from 

            the liberating, healing power of Love

                        that a Crucified Savior brings.

 

No, Jesus is out of his mind.  

That’s what they said about him in the Gospel reading for today.

                                    “He has gone out of his mind.”

            He’s crazy.  

            That’s how this society, this culture would have characterize him also.

Say he’s crazy and you can discredit that whole love one another thing.

That’s a familiar tactic used over the ages.

            Call your opponent a liar, discredit their work.

And the culture we live in today has such a pervasive effect on us

            that we unconsciously start to accept those lies.

So I say to you today that here is what our problem as the faith community is:

It is our lack of yielding to the intimacy and awareness of the Presence of Jesus

            that is killing us off.

 

If we were to let down our guard 

and our tight grip on that pervasive belief in a merit based morality,

            and instead take our suffering in all its many forms to Jesus

there would be a huge break through in the spiritual potency of the Church.

We would experience the stunning intimacy of Love in the Presence of Jesus

            and we would discover how to love one another

                        with authenticity and genuine intention.

And that would rock the world.

 

Crazy – The Cross of Jesus is a mass pardon. 

                                                a mass pardon for all our sins – Crazy.

            The Cross stands between us and the condition of suffering in the world.

 

One might think Jesus was out of his mind to attempt that 

                                    – you know, saving the whole world – 

            but then he went farther and in one huge Resurrection appearance,

there is then the Holy Spirit, 

            the Resurrection Spirit and Presence of Jesus put on us,

                        into which we were baptized

            which provides in us a continuous source and process of sanctification

                                    provided in that space of the Cross, which we call salvation.

 

This is the experience accessible to all in the Church,

            accessible through our spiritual practices of 

                        prayer, meditation, 

                        the liturgy and sacraments, 

                        reading and hearing and reflecting on the scriptures, 

                        breaking bread together, forgiving one another.

That being in the Presence of Jesus style Love

            is what liberates us to freely love one another.

 

This is not the way of a king or any other type of political leader.

They called Jesus crazy, out of his mind.

And he didn’t do a thing to deny that.

They said to him, “Your family is here to collect you,

            your mother and brothers and sisters.”

And he looked around at those sitting there with him and said,

            “These are my mother and my brothers and sisters.”

Those doing the will of God, 

            those yielding to experiencing that Divine Presence 

                        as it was coming to them through Jesus at that moment.

Brothers and sisters in the same craziness as Jesus.

 

And mother also, in whom the divine seed is planted and grows

            and is born and comes forth into the world.            Crazy.

 

Matthew chapter 25, the story Jesus told 

about when the king would come and separate the sheep and the goats,

            you know the one: 

“Lord, when was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, 

            or thirsty and gave you something to drink? 

And when was it that we saw you a stranger and welcomed you, 

            or naked and gave you clothing? 

And when was it that we saw you sick or in prison and visited you?” 

 

And the answer, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least 

            of these who are brothers and sisters, you did it to me.”

 

Jesus tells us in this story that these are the people he identifies with,

                                                                                                not the power brokers.

            Crazy the world would say.            

                                                Those people?!            Those losers?!

Just look at how our society treats the homeless poor, 

            the aliens seeking refuge and asylum at our borders, 

            those needing to access health care 

            and the incarcerated.

But I have seen that those people, the ones in need, 

            are those who get it about Love.  That’s where Jesus really is.

Crazy.

 

Our presiding bishop, Michael Curry, has referred to the followers of Jesus

            as crazy Christians.  He even wrote a book with that as the title.

This way of Love in the heart of Jesus is craziness to the world

            that will call it names 

            and call what is good evil and of the devil

                        and seek to discount, discredit, ignore and push it aside.

But when you experience being loved by Jesus 

            then you can get crazy too

                        in that life-giving, liberating way for others.

 

So at the heart of it all, this is all that I want to say.

            Don’t be afraid to get close to that Love, 

                                                                                    to get close to Jesus.

Give up resisting, give up the merit based theology  

            and accept the fact that you are just as much in need of a free gift of Love                         as anyone else.

Let yourself be loved by Jesus, 

                                                and go crazy in that good way with him.

 Give yourself to Love.