A Revelation of Jesus Christ

Sermon for Proper 5 C RCL 6/6/2010, Offered by Nathan Ferrell for Trinity Episcopal Shared Ministry

Texts: 1 Kings 17:8-16; Psalm 146; Galatians 1:11-24; Luke 7:11-17

Title: A Revelation of Jesus Christ

Have any of you had a conversation about God with someone in the last few months? I mean, with someone who is not a member of your household. Have you had a conversation recently where God was brought up and in which you discussed matters of spiritual importance?

I had one of these conversations last Sunday afternoon, at a block party cookout on our street. Out of the blue, the grandmother of Fiona’s friend said to me: “Don’t you think the world would be a much better place if there weren’t any religions at all? Because it always seems that religion is in the middle of all the world’s problems.”

Obviously, I couldn’t leave that statement alone. I had to come back and say, No, in fact, I do not believe at all that religion is the problem in the world, but rather the pursuit of power and greed and prejudice and fear. People simply use religion for these ends, because religion is such a powerful force in human lives. And actually, I suggested, this suggestion is quite naïve. Human beings always have, and always will, worship something. The important thing is what we worship, and who we follow. It is crucial that we get this right, otherwise horrible consequences can follow.

So this got me thinking about what all of you might experience this summer. There’s a good chance that, at a cookout or a picnic, or at the shore, on vacation – that somewhere this summer, if you are open to it, you may have a good conversation with someone about God and about your faith.

I thought about this possibility while digging into today’s reading from St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In this letter, Paul has to defend his preaching of the Gospel against new missionaries who have come from Jerusalem and who are attempting to persuade the Greek Galatian Christians that they need something more. What Paul taught is good, these missionaries said, but it is not enough. They also need to learn about the traditions of Judaism and, in fact, to become Jews. In this way, they can enter fully into the covenant.

This summer, as we travel and talk with different folks about life, we need to know the reason for the hope that is in us. We need to have a way to talk with people about who Jesus is, and why it is so important for us to trust in Him.

On the back of your bulletin, I have included two quotes from the writings of C.S. Lewis, the great Anglican apologist of the last century. These two sections both distill the same argument that he makes about the central reality of who Jesus is, though in different contexts.

You may remember the context of the story at the bottom, taken from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Chapter 5). It goes like this:

“Logic!” said the Professor half to himself. “Why don’t they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities. Either your sister [Lucy] is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth. You know she doesn’t tell lies and it is obvious that she is not mad. For the moment, and unless any further evidence turns up, we must assume that she is telling the truth. “


Susan looked at him very hard and was quite sure from the expression on his face that he was not making fun of them.
“But how could it be true, sir?” said Peter.
“Why do you say that?” asked the Professor.


“Well, for one thing,” said Peter, “if it was real, why doesn’t everyone find this country [of Narnia] every time they go to the wardrobe? I mean, there was nothing there when we looked; even Lucy didn’t pretend there was.”


“What has that to do with it?” said the Professor.
“Well, sir, if things are real, they’re there all the time.”
“Are they?” said the Professor; and Peter did not know quite what to say.

At this point, Peter and Susan, the older siblings, are at their wits end with Lucy’s story about Narnia, since they have not yet experienced it themselves. They became really worried about Lucy and so they went to get advice from the Professor, in whose house they were living.

This is the same argument that C.S. Lewis makes in his book, Mere Christianity (Chapter 8) about how we are to understand Jesus:

“I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Jesus: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' 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 a 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 patronising nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

Jesus comes to us, telling us a crazy story, like the one that Lucy told Peter and Susan, a story about another reality. He comes healing the sick, and raising dead people back to life again. He comes forgiving sins and claiming to be God. Once we have heard this claim, we are left with these three choices: either Jesus was insane, a lunatic who somehow was able to be convince a lot of people in his day, and still does today, to lay down their lives for him; or much worse, he was a malicious liar who intentionally misled people. Or else, we have to accept his claims of divinity for what they are, and pay him the worship that is his due.

But what we can never do is say, “O, I believe is a great moral teacher.” That is absolute nonsense. No great moral teacher would claim to be God and accept the worship of his followers. That would be blasphemy, and then what kind of good teacher would that be? To lead his people astray about the very nature of God?

No, if Jesus is not a lunatic; if he is not a sadistic liar, some kind of megalomaniac; then he must be God. There are no other options left to us. My brothers and sisters, go into this summer-time prepared with this simple and straightforward line of discussion. When God or your Christian faith comes up in conversation, help those with whom you talk to see that to look at Jesus as a great moral teacher is a smoke-screen, a diversion tactic. To take that approach means that they are afraid to look at the truth.

It is possible to think clearly, rationaly, deliberately about Jesus Christ and come to a very sane decision about his divinity: he is God, along with Father and the Holy Spirit. And as such, he deserves our full homage and worship. That, my friends, is the truth.

Thanks be to God. Amen.