SERMON

SERMON January 29, 2006

Mark 1: 21-28; Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8

Does Jesus Know You?

In the early 1700s, an English poet named Alexander Pope wrote a long poem entitled “An Essay on Criticism.” Several students, over the years, have informed me that it is terrifically boring, but I like it—and I especially like its most famous line: “A little learning is a dangerous thing.”

I wonder how many students have used that line as an excuse for not learning at all?! “But Mom, ‘a little learning is a dangerous thing’.” So was Pope saying that since a little learning is a dangerous thing, a lot of learning would be really, really, really dangerous? So we should stop learning?

No, Alexander Pope wasn’t writing about that. He wasn’t writing for or against people who learn things. He was writing about someone like the evil spirit in our passage from Mark. Someone who knows just enough not to realize that he doesn’t know at all. That’s the kind of learning that’s dangerous.

You just heard me read that example of it: The evil spirit knew who Jesus was—either by sight or sound or some kind of spiritual sensation. He called him “Jesus of Nazareth.” In fact, the spirit knew more than that. He knew that Jesus was “the Holy One of God.” But that was all he knew. He knew about Jesus.

But as Alexander Pope says, that “little learning” is dangerous. It’s dangerous to know all the right words, to know how to “talk the talk,” to name drop, to know just enough to mask your ignorance.

It’s especially dangerous in relation to Jesus. When all we learn of Jesus is “about” him—He was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried…,” if we’re not careful, we’ll yield to the temptation to believe that knowing “about” Jesus is the same thing as knowing Jesus. And that’s absolutely untrue—knowing “who” Jesus is, is not the same as knowing Jesus.

In the Scriptures chosen for today, God speaks about the difference between “learning about” and “living in relationship with.” A verse from our 1 Corinthians reading says this: “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” You and I can be the most faithful practitioners of religion in the world, but religion isn’t the same as relationship. We come to church every Sunday (or most of the time), we listen to the sermons, maybe we get confirmed, we go to Sunday school, we participate in Bible studies, we learn to look up Bible verses really fast, we learn to pray out loud with the best of them…” But, as Paul, the writer of 1 Corinthians, says, “[I]f I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.” The demon knew about Jesus, but he didn’t know Jesus.

That’s how an omniscient—literally, an “all-knowing”—God could say to those who have not had a relationship with him, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” God is not saying there is something he doesn’t know. He is saying that there was no relational knowledge between him and those who want to call him “Lord” only after it’s too late.

Old translations of the Bible use the verb “to know” as a polite way of referring to intimate relations— Abraham knew Sarah, and she conceived a son, Isaac; Joseph knew Mary not until the child Jesus was born. In those contexts, “knowing” means having a physically intimate relationship. Jesus wants us to know him in an intimate relationship; not a physical one, of course, but one in which we keep no secrets. One in which we open our lives, our hearts, our spirits completely to him completely. That’s the difference between knowing “about” and knowing, as Jesus would have us know.

I once heard a professor at Trinity Lutheran Seminary—Mark Powell, you may have heard of him—say that nothing in his life made sense until he began his “love affair with Jesus.” Does that strike you as a strange thing to say?

You may have heard people sometimes talk about having “a personal relationship with Jesus.” That can be a confusing expression. If you were baptized as an infant and have been in the church all your life, you have learned a lot about Jesus. So, how do you know whether you have a personal relationship with him?

How can you have a relationship with someone you can’t see or touch?

Think of it like this:

You see a guy, a girl, someone across the cafeteria, down the hall, in the next block, across a crowded room

You think, “Wow, she’s cute.” “Nice eyes.” “Great hair.” “Sultry voice.” “I’d like to get to know him.”

So you stand next to her in the elevator; you know that she smells nice.

You watch him on the football field; you know he looks cute in his uniform

And on and on it goes.

You’re attracted, but will you ever get up the nerve to say “hi”?

And then, one day, you do. And that one word bridges the gap between you. You have begun a relationship. How does it grow?

You know…you’ve done it yourself before:

Talk to her—tell her things you don’t tell everyone else

Listen to him—see what he says especially to you

Spend time together—Plan dates and keep them.

That’s how a relationship works. And that’s how a relationship with Jesus works, too.

Don’t you just long for someone who knows everything about you and just keeps on loving you—even when you mess up, even when you wipe out, even when you don’t have one loving or loveable fiber in your being?

Don’t you just long for someone who will never leave you—no matter where you go, how high or low you get, how in or out you are? Who will never get sick and die? Who will never get tired of you and walk out?

Don’t you just long for a friend who would be closer than a brother?

That’s who our Lord God is.

And here’s the best part. God has already made the first move. He has already spoken the Word—the Word that brought you (and all the worlds) into being, the Word that gave you life (and wants to give you eternal life). He has already extended His arms to you. God says more than “hello”; he says “I love you.”

Wouldn’t you like to move from knowing that to knowing Him?

I’m going to be quiet now and give you a minute or two to say whatever you want to Jesus:

Introduce yourself.

Thank Him for loving and dying for you

Ask Jesus to come into your life

Whatever you want to say…And I’ll say “amen” to close.

Whereas Psalm 111 says, “The fear of the Lord (which can be translated also to say reverence of the Lord) is the beginning of wisdom.” When we come into a right relationship with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, all that we have learned comes into right order. It all makes sense.

The consequence of that truth is not that we should stop studying but rather that we should ground our study in “right” worship—worship that demonstrates our reverence for God, our healthy fear of His power and our awe at His majesty and His holy “otherness.” The more you know, the more you know you don’t know. That is not a concept for us to think about but rather a practice for us to participate in. Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness!

WHAT IS RIGHT WORSHIP?

1. Faithfully and frequently presenting yourself to God—body, mind, and soul—in a place that has been established and set aside for the purpose of worship (can you worship “anywhere”—no, but you can worship in places other than a church; the question is, “Why would you abandon the assembling of yourselves together?” Hebrews 10:25; Christ saves you into His Church, not into solitary worship in front of a t.v. or on a mountain top somewhere.

2. Humbly acknowledge before God and your fellow worshipers your true condition—needy, sinful, inattentive, imperfect, self-centered, impatient, etc.—as opposed to “whatever!”

Consider prostrate worship (St. Joe’s, Good Friday)

How would you worship God if no one were looking?

Would you worship God if no one were looking?

3. Gratefully accept God’s mercy and forgiveness, given not because of who we are but because of Whose we are—we are the adopted children of the Almighty God through the grace of His Son Jesus Christ—and expressing your thanks to Him

4. Carefully listen for His Word—through the Scripture, sermon, music and words of others

5. Wholeheartedly offer to God the best you have—after the manner of the spotless animal sacrifices of OT (Jewish law)—the best singing, speaking, listening, attention, posture, dress, behavior, the best monetary offering, etc.—God loves a cheerful giver—as opposed to grudgingly and thoughtlessly mouthing the words of hymns and songs written under the inspiration of God and dedicated to his praise and glory, and mindlessly repeating the words of the liturgy, which are, in fact, most often the words of Holy Scripture.

Objections to worship styles: I heard a parent say once that his/her (I don’t remember who it was) child didn’t like to come to worship because the prayers were too long. How could a PRAYER go on TOO LONG!???

Japanese students: “This is not worship of God.”

French fries, when you force people to practice a religion, they come to despise it.

Flood of white mice—funny, but not funny

It is not the place that is sacred; it is the Lord God Almighty and Ever-living who sanctifies the place and the people

6. Then go forth from the place of worship to continue worshiping God through the way you use your time, your energy, your interests, your influence, etc.

“A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring: there shallow draughts intoxicate the brain, and drinking largely sobers us again.” Alexander Pope (1688-1744)