Would Jesus Be a Christian?, with Rev. Barry Heath.

Would Jesus Be a Christian?, with Rev. Barry Heath. A Spacious Christianity, First Presbyterian Church of Bend, Oregon. Scripture: Matthew 5.1-20.

Join us this Sunday as we explore the question, “Would Jesus be a Christian?”. Rev. Barry Heath will examine Jesus’ teachings, particularly the Beatitudes, to understand how they should guide our faith and actions today. Rather than aligning Christianity with political or religious agendas, we’ll look at what Jesus himself taught and consider how we can live as his true followers. Join us this Sunday to hear this message and be inspired to be the “salt and light” Jesus calls us to be.

Join us each Sunday, 10AM at bendfp.org, or 11AM KTVZ-CW Channel 612/12 in Bend.  Subscribe/Follow, and click the bell for alerts.

At First Presbyterian, you will meet people at many different places theologically and spiritually. And we love it that way. We want to be a place where our diversity brings us together and where conversation takes us all deeper in our understanding of God.

We call this kind of faith “Spacious Christianity.” We don’t ask anyone to sign creeds or statements of belief. The life of faith is about a way of being in the world and a faith that shows itself in love.

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Keywords:

jesus, teachings, beatitudes, kingdom, love, followers, god, jewish faith, live, sermon, life, christian faith, blessed, hear, creeds, practiced, pure heart, world, centuries, political, presbyterian, church, online worship, bend, oregon

Featuring:

Rev. Dr. Steven Koski, Rev. Kally Elliott, Tyler McQuilkin, Becca Ellis, Brave of Heart, Guests

Transcript

Whitney Higdon: 0:20

You. Welcome to worship at First Presbyterian. We, at First Presbyterian, practice a spacious Christianity, which means no matter where you are in your faith journey, you belong, and there is space for you at the table, there is space for your doubts and questions. We believe doubts and questions are a gift that invite us into deeper conversations and a more authentic faith. We believe diversity is a strength. Every story is sacred and everybody matters. We do our best to live the spacious and radical love of Jesus so that all might have a chance to flourish in this world. We are so glad to connect with you in this way. We would also love to worship with you in person if you're ever in the neighborhood on Sunday mornings at 830 or 10am and never hesitate to reach out to us to learn more about us or how we might support You. I hope you enjoy this worship service. Welcome you.

Kally Elliot: 3:38

God, we have known your love. We have experienced your care and your provision. Some days we are able to rest in your love. Other days we find ourselves anxious, restless, sometimes even hopeless, but even on those days, even when we doubt, your love for us is steadfast and true, holding us close Help us to recognize that love to know it intimately and to share it with the world around us, help us to care for others as deeply as we care for ourselves, or sometimes help us to care for ourselves as deeply as we care. For others, we bring to you the needs of our world, and in your mercy, we ask that you hear our prayer. We pray for those who do not have what they need in order to survive, those without enough food to eat or shelter to keep them warm, those without employment or enough money to pay their bills, those without access to medical care or medicine to keep them healthy. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. We pray for those who have more than enough to meet their needs, but who continue to feel empty inside, those who struggle to find meaning and purpose in life, who turn to alcohol, drugs or other destructive behaviors to try to hide their pain. Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer. We pray for those who are struggling physically, who are battling life threatening disease or injury, who are living with chronic pain, who are coping with dementia or facing death. Lord in your mercy. Hear our prayer, and we pray for those who are caring for loved ones who are sick, be it physically or mentally, give them strength and friends to lean on in your mercy, hear our prayer. We pray all of this in the confidence of your great love for us and for all of your creation, and we trust you hear us as we pray, as your son taught, saying Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom. Come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen,

Barry: 7:17

the question of this sermon, would Jesus be a Christian? Has been on my mind for a lot lately, actually, for a long time, if I'm honest, every time I preach a sermon, I have to deal with this question, because you see, in today's American society, Christianity continues to be used by political parties and many churches to advocate and put forward their own agendas. There is Christian nationalism on the right and some forms of prophetic activism on the left, as well as many variations of these. And it seems to me to support their views. They all start with their own outlook and opinions and then bring Jesus into their arguments to support those views. Frankly, this is the wrong approach, even if it's not a new one. It has been a problem for expressions of Christian faith since at least the second century after Jesus' death. I'll explain that in a minute. What I want to do in this sermon when we think about what our Christian faith guides us to believe and how we are to act in the political as well as the private areas of our lives, is to urge us to start not with agendas of some group, but with the teachings of Jesus. That is why the sermon title it is because I'm not sure that if Jesus were to come and examine the political platforms and some church creeds and teachings today, that he would say these are in line with my teachings. Rather, Jesus might say these are not coming from the life I lived and the teachings I taught to my followers. If the name of Jesus' followers today is Christian, then I want to ask, would Jesus be called Christian? To begin, we need a bit of history. First, Jesus was a Jew. His teachings are in the framework of Jewish faith and law. He was a faithful practitioner of many Jewish traditions like Passover, where he observed his last supper with His followers, his teachings, though were often a critique of how Jewish faith was being practiced and taught in his sermon that began his public ministry, popularly known as the Sermon on the Mountain, Jesus laid out a different way of practicing Jewish faith and law. He tore apart the way Jewish laws, the main rules of being a faithful Jew, were being practiced in his sermon, he said, for example. People. You have heard it said to those in ancient times, you shall not murder. But I say to you, if you are angry with your brother or sister, you are liable to judgment. You have heard it said An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer, but if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also. And lastly, you have heard it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Well, you get the idea Jesus was a faithful Jew, but his teaching said that the contemporary Jewish faith and teachings in many respects, had it wrong. According to Jesus' teaching, there was too much attention in the teachings of the Pharisees and other leaders of Jewish faith on the external practices and obeying the religious authorities, and not enough on the faith of the heart and spirit, out of which comes the actions of faith. So when I am critical of some forms of Christian faith today and some of the politics that claim the title of Christian, I'm standing in Jesus' tradition as long as I am faithful to Jesus' teachings. When I do so, well, we need one more bit of history. The term Christian used to refer to Jesus' followers and the system of beliefs and creeds his followers believed in did not come about until the end of the second century after Jesus' death, when they began to distinguish themselves from the Jewish faith. For the first two centuries after Jesus' death, his followers were mostly Jews who were often referred to as followers of the Anointed One. The term the Anointed One was a way of putting Jesus in the Jewish tradition of teachers. But to distinguish Jesus from all other Jewish teachers, to say Jesus was the anointed one of God. But it was also a political statement, because for centuries before Jesus' birth and centuries after his death, the leaders of Rome were referred to as anointed leaders and were given the title of divine emperor. So for the followers of Jesus to say they were the followers of the Anointed One, they were saying the true Anointed One in both the religious and political realms. So it's not surprising then to find out that in those first two centuries after Jesus' death, that the followers were persecuted by both religious and secular authorities. It wasn't until the time of Constantine, after Constantine, converted to a faith in Jesus, in 312 that followers of Jesus began to be known as Christians, and there began to be written creeds of belief, such as the Nicene Creed, which was written in 325 in the centuries to follow, as the Christian church spread into lands both near and far to the Roman Empire, new cultures and societies influenced the beliefs of the faith and teachings of Jesus. With this diversity of people, cultures and beliefs, the followers of Jesus began to look very different from one another as they tried to understand Jesus' teachings in the light of their culture and times, their beliefs and practices of Christian faith began to be different from other groups of Christians in other cultures and societies, and as the Christian church in Rome, after Constantine became more popular and powerful, Christianity as a religion, increasingly took on a posture of A political institution as well as a religious one. So I come back to our original question, would Jesus be a Christian? And we might also ask, if the answer is yes, then what part of the people who call themselves Christian, both in histories, past and today, would Jesus be a part of would Jesus be a Christian nationalist? Today? I don't think so. That phrase really is an oxymoron. Jesus separated his faith teachings from the political realm, saying the coins with. Caesar's image are the national part of life. My Teachings are about faithfulness to God, who is over all of life and all nations, and not uniquely part of any one nation. Would Jesus be part of the prophetic voice of the church? Well, maybe if the church's prophetic voice comes first from God and not first from a political or social strategy. So how do we know if or what expression of Christian faith Jesus might be a part of today? To answer that question and be true to the teachings of Jesus, we must examine Jesus' teachings themselves. To do that, a good starting place is to go back to that first sermon Jesus preached, in which he laid out the basics of his teachings and on which he based not only his teachings, but his actions as well. To examine Jesus' sermon would take a whole series of sermon but we can get the basics if we just look at the first 16 verses of Matthew five. These verses contain what are called the Beatitudes first let me say these verses that are called the Beatitudes, our blessings are not a prescription for how to behave. They are often looked at in this way, as if we could only live up to them, then we would gain the kingdom of God and get into heaven. But the Beatitudes are every bit as hard to live up to as the Jewish law contained in the 10 Commandments, and Jesus wasn't replacing one law with another. He said he came to fulfill the law to teach not the do's and don'ts of external actions, but the way of a new heart, a new spirit that will be the foundation of a life lived in the kingdom of God. Well, there are eight beatitudes. The first four beatitudes are a description of the people in the crowd in front of Jesus when He preached, the common everyday citizens of Galilee who have followed him to this mountain Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. And blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. These are the people who follow Jesus to this mountain, those who are poor in spirit, those who mourn the meek, and those who are hungering and thirsting for righteousness. These are not the powerful of society. These are everyday folks trying to get by, and Jesus promises them they are a part of the Kingdom of God on earth, they will be comforted. They will inherit the earth, and their hunger and thirst will be satisfied. The next three beatitudes describe those who will be the servants of this kingdom Jesus brings. They describe the character of the heart of those in the community of Jesus followers. When Jesus says, Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God, the character of those who follow Jesus. Are the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers, and Jesus says they will be shown mercy. They will see God because of their pure heart, and they will be called the children of God. Well, again, we don't have time to examine all of these Beatitudes in detail, but I want to look at just two of them, one from the first group, and one, the one that describes the followers of that we're listening to Jesus teaching, and one from the second group, where he describes the nature of those who are part of the New Kingdom of God and who are called children of God. Let's look at verse three, Blessed are the poor in spirit. First, this describes the opposite of the powerful people of Jesus' day, who brag about their greatness and lord it over their enemies and to the crowd hearing Jesus, they can easily understand that they're not the powerful they are. The poor in spirit, they really are the broken ones who know they are broken and in need of healing. They are not the great ones who think they're powerful enough to control their own lives and the lives of others, and who need no one other than themselves and those who would agree with them. No, the ones who LISTEN to Jesus this day are those who follow him to the mountain because they know their needs. They know they are the poor in spirit who hunger and thirst for a place in this life, for a power that they can hold on to that is greater than their own. And Jesus says, You the broken people. You are the ones who inherit the kingdom, not the kingdom of this world that's for the powerful and is fleeting, but the kingdom of heaven that is both now and eternal. So now, let me ask us, all of us, you and me, both, can we see ourselves in the broken ones, the poor in spirit? Jesus says we are part of the kingdom he brings. Our identity is not with some small group, political or, I daresay, even religious, we are followers of Jesus, the group of community and community of broken ones who make up the kingdom of God. Each of the first beatitudes describes us in this way, those who mourn, those who feel meek, and those who are hungry and thirst for the way of life that Jesus calls us to. That's us. This is who we are, and Jesus blesses us. Now let's take a look at one of the last four Beatitudes, the Beatitudes that describe the heart of those who were part of this kingdom, and thus the children of God, look at verse eight, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God a pure heart. What is that? Exactly? A pure heart is not an achievement, but a gift, an answer to a humble prayer. The psalmist says, Create in me a clean heart. It is the internal light that guides those in the kingdom of God. Is not a character valued in the kingdom of the world where a big ego covers the darkness of the light of the pure heart. A pure heart is the vision of unclothed is unclouded by selfish desires and a self centered life. A pure heart can see God because it knows the God within a pure heart's focus is living the unmerited love received from Jesus, and because of that, is able to see the reality of God's love, even in the reality of our world. So Jesus teaches, blessed are those with a poor heart, for they shall see God. There's one final beatitude in verse nine. The last beatitude was Jesus being prophetic about when he says, Blessed are those who are persecuted because of their righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This final beatitude Jesus was telling of his own persecution and death to come and the reality that follows him in this counter cultural way they will bring and that will bring results that no earthly power, not even death, can stop. Jesus closes this part of his sermon with the admonition he has told them who they are and what is in their heart as his followers. And then he says, Live who you are. You are the salt of the earth. Don't lose your taste. Go spice up the world you live in. You are, the light of the world. Don't hide the light, the teaching, the way of living that Jesus taught us. Let your light shine. Be a beacon, a lighthouse in the darkness of this world. And if we can accept that this is who we are and live this way, then yes, I would say, if Jesus looked at us and His Church made up of us folks, Jesus would say, Yes, I'm a Christian. Amen. as we close worship today, I want to tell you you are the blessed that Jesus is talking about. Know the seeds of kingdom are within you, and then go and be the blessing for all of those that you meet this day and throughout your lives. May it be so Amen.

Whitney Higdon: 28:43

Thank you so much for joining us, and we hope you enjoyed this worship service. If you would like to make a donation helping make these podcasts possible or support them many ways. First, Presbyterian seeks to serve our community. You can make a financial gift online at bend fp.org, every week, we hear from someone thanking us for the gift of these broadcasts, and what a difference they make. Your support makes that possible. Our church is committed to reach beyond our walls, bringing hope where there is despair and love where it is needed the most. Your generous support helps us to be generous in love. Go to our website, bend fp.org, and click on the link. Give online. Your support is really appreciated and makes a difference in people's lives. Thanks again. I hope to see you next week. You