First United Methodist Church - Fort Collins, CO

The implications of this are less clear than they might be, and I have tried to take a scan of some of the ways in which Jesus and Mary’s lives intersect. The temptation is to make Mary a saint to the point we don’t deal with her seriously. I want to avoid that.

There seem to be three times in Jesus’ life when he and Mary’s lives were united and determinative and influential to each other.

a. When the Madonna thought about the Messiah. It is probably true (I wouldn’t know, of course) that every mother thinks her child is the solution to the problems in the world. Mary heard voices. She thought Jesus would do wonderful things for his people. Did she knew where it would lead for him? I doubt she knew it would lead to the cross.

b. When he was thirty-years-old they went to a wedding at Cana, and they ran out of wine. Jesus really hadn’t taken off with his life at this point. Mary was a “mother” and Jesus was “the master”, and Mary without hesitation began ordering her son around, and you could tell from the dialogue he was annoyed with her. She wanted him to get on with the purpose of his life.

c. The final scene was one that was stark and sad. Mary stood at the foot of the cross. Jesus had made his witness in Jerusalem; he was the martyr. Jesus was the “martyr” and Mary was the “mourner”. I have been surprise that, as vocal and bossy as she was at Cana when she told Jesus to turn water into wine, Mary was silent when Jesus made the decision to go into Jerusalem and she said nothing while she stood at the foot of the cross.

Some writers have thought Mary had come to see she could do nothing about the crucifixion, but she could do something about the factors that led to it. Some have imagined Mary spent the remainder of her life trying to confront hatred, anger, jealousy, meanness, prejudice, and dispair.

Maybe that’s why we are inclined to make Mary a saint. She spent her life trying to make certain Jesus was the last person ever crucified.

What do you think?

If you have a response to this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net.

If the email address doesn’t appear just click on the blank space and it will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.

The other thing about this text that seems to fit for me is the idea that Jesus was pointing to his mother. At the time of his death on the cross he was pointing to his mother. He seemed to be saying, “Look, there is my mother.” I think he was not saying to John Mark, “Take care of my mother.” I think he was saying, “Thank you mother for being with me.”

This is one of the most tender and moving statements in the Bible. It calls for us to think about the people in our lives who have been with us in our darkest hour, and in our brightest hour. Mary was present to Jesus. She was important to him. This is one of the few places in the Bible where Jesus is reported to have claimed family. He says for any to hear, that he is the son of Mary. That is important.

There is a sense of pride and appreciation in these words.

What do these words evoke? Do they bring  forward the tenderness of relationship between Jesus and his mother, and does that cause us to think about those kinds of relationships with the important people in our lives? If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and the email address will appear.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I intend to explore the words cross with this sermon when Jesus pointed to Mary and said to John Mark, “Behold, Your Mother”.

Fleming Rutledge wrote this: “Virtually everyone who is reading these words has probably heard this saying from the Cross interpreted in the following way:
* Jesus cared deeply for his mother.
* Jesus was worried about his mother’s future.
* The saying therefore illustrates Jesus’ love for his mother and his dying concern for her welfare.
* We are thereby instructed to take care of our own mothers.

Indeed, this interpretation goes as far back as Saint Augustine in the fourth century. However, this way of understanding the saying has long been considered insufficient by many other interpreters. It does not seem to fit the theology of John’s Gospel at all, nor does it seem to suit the concerns of John’s Passion narrative.

Good Friday is not the first Mother’s Day. In giving his mother to the disciple, Jesus is causing a new relationship to come into existence that did not exist before. The disciple and the woman are not individual people here. They are symbolic: they represent the way that family ties are transcended in the church by the ties of the Spirit.”

This sermon will look at what relationship Jesus had with his mother and what is implied by the way the church understood this relationhip.

It is important for us to grasp what the text is saying as we strive to get a handle on what it might be saying to us.

Is this text about Mary, Jesus’ mother or is this text about the forming of a new family; the church?

Is the church like a family?

What ties us together?
What pulls us apart?

If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank spot and the email address will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.

I have come to the following conclusions:

1. If Jesus is God’s son we can see it in the choices he made. He chose to allow John to Baptize him. He really didn’t need to be baptized, but he chose to let John baptize him and, in giving authority over to John he showed us that life calls for us to consider what we are doing and why we are doing. The authority he gave John authorizes us to make choices for the good of the whole. It’s not just about us.

2. If Jesus is God’s son we can see it in the cross he carried. He put his choices into action and he courageously faced his fears and his death by doing what he did for countless people who felt excluded from God. He found a cause and he lived it. He picked up his cross and he carried it. The Roman Centurion, at the foot of the cross said, “This man is a son of God.” There are crosses/causes we must carry. It’s not just about us.

3. If Jesus is God’s son we can see it in the community he established. He took the bread and the cup and he said, “I will be alive in you. Take the cup and the bread that is broken. I will be alive in you as you gather in my name.” There is a community we are invited to join. It is called the ‘body of Christ’ and we reconnect with that community at the table when we receive the sacrament. It’s not just about us.

It is not just about us, and it’s not just about the kind of person Jesus was. If Jesus is the Son of God, and as we are followers of the Son of God we are compelled to do as he did. We must make good choices, we must find a cross to carry, and we must be part of a community of faith. It’s not just about us, and it’s not just about Jesus, it’s primarily about the God we worship who is present with us in our community, in the crosses we carry and in the choices we make.

This is where the sermon has taken me. If you have thoughts about this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and the email address will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Charles Schuster

When was he thought of as the “Son of God”

Paul thought Jesus was the “Son of God” at the resurrection.

Mark thought Jesus was the “Son of God” at the time of his baptism

Matthew and Luke thought Jesus was the “Son of God” happened at his conception.

John believed Jesus was the “Son of God” before the beginning of the world. Jesus, John thought, was the Word and the Word was before the world was.

In the order in which these scriptures were written it looks like a trend has developed. The earlier the writer the later the writer thought Jesus was the “Son of God”. Paul wrote first, before all the Gospels and Jesus was the “Son of God” at the time of Jesus’ death. John wrote the latest and John thought Jesus was the “Son of God” before the beginning of time.

The Jesus title got larger the further away from the actual historical event.

I think that is interesting and it leads me to think the title “Son of God” wasn’t so important at first. In the sermon I am trying to determine what the title “Son of God” means to us, and I am coming up with some surprising information as I research this topic. I’ll add to this on Friday after I check a few things out.

If you have ideas write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and my email address will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.

“Jesus God’s Son”

He will explain one of the most difficult and most misunderstood concept in the whole of Christian tradition.

I will be in the Samaritan Class in the parlor at 9:15 and in the Open Hearts Class on the second floor of the education wing at 10:45 trying to go over the petitions to be considered at General Conference at the end of April in Fort Worth, Texas.

You can reach Joel at his email address which is jkershaw@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and his address will pop up.

Have a great week.

I, personally, did not have I healthy relationship with my father. He was an alcoholic who beat my mother, threatened me, and killed himself by attaching a hose to the exhause of his car when I was 9 and my sister was 14. He was a sad and pathetic human being, but I understand what Jesus was saying when he called God ‘Abba’.

When I was a seminary student in North Carolina I worked in the Pembroke area of North Carolina with the Lumbee Indians. I can tell you that was one community where the idea of God as ‘abba’ was not meaningful.

How do we talk about God as “father” with people who have not had a good relationship with their father?

If you have thoughts about this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and the address will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.

His interpretion of God as Abba had more to do with confronting a concept of God that was distant and austere. Jesus changed the theological landscape in his understanding of God by bringing God close and by helping people look beyond the idea of God as severe judge and punishing power. God was like a loving parent; a loving father, but Joseph was not God.

Taking the concept of God as having been influence by Joseph, Jesus’ father-figure, we will want to look at two aspects of God:

1. The initiating, propelling impetus of God who enters into our lives and influences us to take a step forward. There is that in God that is moves us off the mark and pushes us to try what we are afraid to try, and urges us to live up to the greatness we have the potential to achieve.

2. The comforting, loving, supportive understanding of God that provides ballast when we tend to list to the point of sinking. There is that presence that grants us a sense of well-being and helps us when we fail or falter.

Do you experience these two attributes of God; one more than the other? Does ‘abba’ provide a context for those attributes. It seems clear to me that Jesus was influenced by his father, Joseph, to define God in ways that we can understand as he understood. What do you think? Write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. Click on the blank space and the address will pop up.

I look forward to hearing from you.