08.13.2023: Re-discovering Jesus as Lord

Do you remember the scene in Charlie Brown’s Christmas when Linus starts to tell the story of Jesus’ birth from the Gospel of Luke? For many of us it was the first time we heard Jesus referred to as ‘Savior’, ‘Messiah’, and ‘Lord.’ It was also the first time Linus let go of his security blanket. Yes, that too. Later as we grew up, we would hear these words, these titles, in prayers and hymns. I suspect that most of us have not spent much time thinking about which title to use or when. Confirmation classes often asked confirmands to affirm, “I believe in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.” I suspect not too many teachers or Pastors asked how or why is he your Lord?

             So, let’s take a moment this morning to pause and think about this, the sovereignty of Jesus. Please take out your bulletins and a writing utensil. I have a question I would like you to answer---to reflect on and then share with your neighbors. Here is the question: Do you believe Jesus is Lord or do you address Jesus as Lord? This is a yes or no answer. Why? When? Or Why Not?

            Please turn to your neighbor and share. We will have only five minutes. Is there a brave soul who would like to share why they do refer to Jesus as Lord? Or why you don’t? We are singing some hymns today proclaiming Jesus as Lord in a variety of ways. I invite you to pay attention to the images that are invoked and then compare them to your own.

            Let’s go back in time, to the time of Jesus’ birth and life under Roman occupation with Jewish client kings. Where do you see Lordship in this world? In the power and wealth of Herod? or Caesar? Is Lordship always connected to power, domination?

            When the early followers called Jesus Lord, they were saying that Caesar was not. When they brought gifts to the newborn king, they were saying Herod was not their king. When the people recognized Jesus was Lord and not Caesar, there was only one ending for all of them---persecution and death. Claiming Christ as Lord was dangerous. Still is or should be.

            In our own historic context, people who commit civil disobedience to protest unjust laws or policies by the state, who are heeding a higher law are not unlike Jesus. They are following a higher authority where equality and justice rule not manmade civilian laws. This was true during the Civil Rights Movement especially and any Movement that goes up against the systems of domination. Dear Ones, does your Lord lead you to make difficult decisions? To stand up for those being persecuted. Oppressed? Have you felt the rub or challenge in declaring Jesus as Lord yet?

            This issue of Jesus’ sovereignty has always been challenging. Even our United Church of Christ has wrestled with this issue. Look at our logo; it shows a cross with a crown standing on top of the world. Is this not a symbol of imperial domination? For many in the UCC, the answer was yes which is why they added the comma with the God is Still Speaking campaign---a focus on our theology and not on our belief in Christ’s kingship.

            So, what kind of image or language can we use to describe our relationship with Jesus? Do we have to give up the word ‘Lord’ altogether? I think not. I think we have to separate it from the language of domination and reflect on the stories we know of Jesus’ healing, passion, and love. Yes, let’s follow this lord, the lord of Compassion; the one that leads us to radical love, mercy, and kindness.  

            And finally, there is Jesus the Lord of the Dance. We will be singing a wonderful closing hymn today that follows Jesus from the time of Creation; to Bethlehem, to Good Friday, and finally to the Resurrection. It’s a hymn written in 1963 but to an old Shaker tune. The lyrics and story are in your bulletin.

            The idea of Jesus as Lord of the Dance, however, goes back even further to the 4^th century to St. Gregory of Nysa who saw all of creation as a dance.

            “Once there was a time when the whole rational creation formed a single dancing           chorus looking upward to the one leader of this dance. And the harmony of motion that          they learned from his law found its way into their dancing.”

             In Eden, according to St. Gregory, God established a fundamental unity between himself and people, and between people and their environment. God beat out a rhythm, and all of creation—sun, moon, stars, trees, water, people, beast, and bug—danced to it, in sync with their Creator and with each other. But then people got out of step. They listened to and followed the calls of a different leader. They started making up their own rhythms, so that this universal dance that God had set in motion at Creation could no longer be said to be harmonious. Dear Ones, Jesus came to restore the harmony that was once there, to bring all of creation back into sync. Jesus is the Lord of God’s dance. I invite you to reconsider Jesus as Lord, the Lord of the Dance who invites us to see the image of God in all---not only Christians but in all of creation. Dear Ones, this is a partner dance so please rise in body, mind or spirit and link to the person near you, “Let us dance then, wherever we may be” and let us let Jesus Lead. Amen.