Living Hope
“Blessed be Abba, God of our Savior, Jesus, the Christ, who with great mercy gave us a new birth: a birth into a living hope which draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, from the dead;...” — 1 Peter 1:3.
Many of you know I was drafted into the armed forces and served in Vietnam. At the time I was drafted I was, in civilian life, a computer operator. The army, therefore, decided the job for which I was qualified was that of a cook.
Or as I have always said, the Army way of thinking went something like this: computer operator— that starts with a “C.” Let’s make him a cook.
And you know what the motto of the army is? There are three ways of doing things: the right way, the wrong way and the army way.
In any case, one mess hall I worked at was on the fifth floor of a building. And a new stove was delivered to the mess hall. Now, there was an elevator in the building. But you could barely fit three people into it, never mind a mess hall sized stove.
So, the C.O. took command of the situation and told the Mess Sargent: “get this monstrosity up to the kitchen on the fifth floor. And it’s your problem. Do it. The C.O. also made it plain failure on this mission was not an option.
Well, how did it get done? My memory is it took about 10 or 12 G.I.s to get that stove up those five flights of stairs. And at some floors we had to go around bends in the staircase. But we got it up there.
Once we had made the 5th floor landing, we all just collapsed from heat and from exhaustion. But we now had it all the way up the stairs so getting it into the position staked out for it was easy. One of the guys had collapsed right next to the back of the stove. He looked up and he realized he was staring at what military folks call the nomenclature plate.
For those of you unfamiliar with military jargon, nomenclature is simply a description. Most pieces of equipment used in the services have some kind of plate or tag with a description of the item— weight, measurements, use— hidden somewhere on it. This G.I., laying on the floor at the back of the stove, noticed the nomenclature plate because it was right at his eye level {the pastor twists down and looks up}— right down there— all the way at the bottom.
“Hey, guys!” he called out, still laying on the floor. “How much do you think this sucker weighs?” (I’ve cleaned that up.) A couple of soldiers offered a guess. They all guessed too low.
“Two thousand pounds. (Slight pause.) We just moved a ton of dead weight metal up five stories, five flights of stairs!” (Slight pause.)
And these words are from the work known as First Peter: “Blessed be Abba, God of our Savior, Jesus, the Christ, who with great mercy gave us a new birth: a birth into a living hope which draws its life from the resurrection of Jesus, the Christ, from the dead;...” (Slight pause.)
First Peter (as the name of the work implies) is not written by Paul. But, when it comes to Epistles of Paul, there is no question Paul’s works are the first, the earliest writings recorded in the New Testament Scriptures. The last Epistle Paul wrote was composed no later than the year 64 of the Common Era.
On the other hand, Mark is the earliest Gospel and it is written no earlier than the year 65 and probably not at least until the year 70. John is the last Gospel and many scholars date it from the year 90. Some say it dates even later.
Now, if you’ve read the New Testament, this should be clear: for the most part, Epistles concentrate on theology and on life in the Early church. Epistles do not tell us much about the story of Jesus.
All of which is to say the theology, an explanation of who Jesus is, something about the meaning of Jesus, is recorded in the early Epistles. All of which is to say understandings of what this new Christian movement thinks about the relationship of Jesus and God and the Spirit is recorded in the early Epistles.
All this is recorded in early Epistles before the stories about Jesus ever get recorded, before the Gospels are written. Indeed, sometimes I wonder why those who compiled the New Testament did not organize it chronologically, did not place the books in the sequence in which they were written.
Now, as to the dating of First Peter, many scholars think it may have been composed as early as 70 of the Common Era but 75 is a more likely date. Even so, if we assign this 75 date, First Peter qualifies as an early work, written at least before the Gospels of Matthew, Luke and John are written.
As such, this passage is concerned with theology, with an explanation of who Jesus is. In short, this is nomenclature— a description.
And, in fact, this explanation is pretty straightforward. God has sent Jesus to be the promised Messiah. Why? God sent Jesus to renew our understandings of the covenant and of hope.
The theology of the Hebrew Scriptures makes it plain that the promise of God all along has been the world is in need of constant restoration. The world is in need of constantly being resorted. The presence of Jesus is both a reminder and a symbol that this hope, this restoration, that which is promised and ongoing both— this hope and restoration is real.
These words explain that Jesus, in some way, has a special relationship with God and the Spirit. Hundreds of years later, the church describes this relationship with the word ‘Trinity.’ (Slight pause.)
Again, many Epistles are nothing more than nomenclature plates. In that they are nomenclature plates, they might as well say this about the theology of the relationship between God, Jesus and the Spirit: “Warning! This weighs two thousand pounds!”
You see, nomenclature is not always easy to understand. But it is good information to have. It helps us when we understand the details. (Slight pause.)
Now, I am sure no scholar would say this, but I think that’s one reason the Gospels, the stories about Jesus, which are not the earliest writings, come first in the Christian Scriptures. You see, if those G.I.s had seen the nomenclature plate first, there is no way we would have even tried to get the stove up the stairs. They would have said, “If that weighs one ton, we cannot get it up those stairs.”
Equally, I think if, as we read the New Testament, and we were first confronted with the Epistles, the nomenclature, instead of the stories about Jesus, we would not have bothered with Jesus or with God or even with the church. We would have said, “That’s way too hard.” So the stories do come before the explanation.
However, are the stories all we need to know? I want to suggest— not— they are not all we need to know. To be clear: I am not saying that simply knowing or failing to know the story or knowing or failing to know the nomenclature, the theology, will or will not help anyone be a Christian.
The New Testament is a testimony, not a test. I am saying it is helpful for all of us to know both ends of the spectrum, the theology and the story.
(Sotto voce.) Suppose you had a child or a grandchild in the fifth grade who came to you and said, “This work we’re doing is too hard. I’m going to stop. Wouldn’t work for you, would it? What would you do to that child?
But the Gospels and the Epistles are presented in such a way so, yes, they get harder and harder and harder. But we need to keep at it. You see, knowing both sides can only help us better understand what God is doing in our lives and what God is doing in Jesus.
And what is God doing in our lives and in Jesus? This is pretty easy. God is trying to help us understand hope. The resurrected Christ is a sign to us that the love of God prevails.
The resurrected Christ is a sign to us that hope does not die. The resurrected Christ is a sign to us that Jesus is with is today and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow. And that nomenclature is pretty easy to understand, isn’t it? Amen.
05/01/2011
United Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is an précis of what was said: “Sometimes people think, given the world in which we live, logic suggests that hope makes no sense. And they are right. There are tragedies which happen every day from violent storms to floods to personal tragedies. Therefore, hope is not logical. Hope is, however, theological— hope has God logic. And God logic says something which makes absolutely no logical sense. Christ is risen. The Spirit of Christ lives among us. God is with us always.”
No comments:
Post a Comment