"You Say That I Am" - March 11, 2018 at First Presbyterian Church, Brooklyn
Scripture:John 18:28-40
In our Gospel reading today, Jesus refuses to play by the rules.
He reminds me of the activists who, back in 2016, cut through iron padlocks and chains, in 4 different locations across the country, to turn off the valves in oil pipelines, in protest of the environmental destruction caused by the fossil fuel industry, and to raise awareness of climate change. They didn’t try to hide their actions- they actually called the oil companies to let them know, and posted videos online to spread awareness of what they did.
Of course, this was a criminal act according to the laws of the United States, and the activists now face possible prison time. Like Jesus, they refused to play by the rules.
Just a few weeks ago, dozens of protestors, including Catholic nuns and priests, were arrested inside the US Capitol building in protest of Congress’s refusal to act on DACA and protect the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who could be deported. These protesters refused to play by the rules.
As Jesus will tell you, sometimes there are more important things than following the rules.
Jesus’s ministry occurred at a time of great pain for the Jewish people. Judea, Galilee, and Samaria were provinces under occupation by the Roman army. We know from ancient writings, that Rome understood itself as an Empire fulfilling a glorious and divine destiny, bringing justice and civilization to all corners of the earth.
But we also know that the reality of life in a Roman province was far from glorious. The people were taxed into poverty and starvation, to support a violent Imperial power. The Roman soldiers presented a constant threat of abuse, imprisonment, or execution, and unless you were a Roman citizen you had little hope of justice under Roman law.
In our reading today, the Jewish chief priests, who were not only religious leaders, but also political leaders, are trying to keep peace with the Romans. Meanwhile Jesus, this charismatic teacher and healer has appeared out of nowhere, and refuses to play by the rules-- he turns over tables in the temple, he argues with the priests and religious experts, he even raises the dead to life. This Jesus has inspired devotion and love among the poor, and the chief priests fear that might unite the people against the Romans, which would result in violence-- retribution-- and a total upheaval of the societal order. I imagine they saw themselves as protecting their people, but to do so, they were forced to compromise, and be allies with Rome.
“If everyone believes in him,” they say, “the Romans will destroy our holy place, and our nation.” Better to keep a painful peace.
Pontius Pilate, for his part, also wants to maintain peace. And that means eliminating anyone with claims to power, outside what the Empire permits. Certainly anyone who claims to be a king must be executed. In the Roman Empire, there is no king but Caesar, the Emperor Tiberius.
Pilate is an educated man, from the wealthy upper classes of Roman society. He probably knows the history of the Jewish people, that they were once a mighty power, ruled by proud kings: David, Solomon. He certainly knows that many of the Jewish people are waiting for a Messiah, an anointed savior from the line of King David, to restore a Jewish King to the throne, and cast out these Roman armies that terrorize them.
When Pilate interrogates Jesus, he wants to know if this man a threat to Roman power. Pilate wants a clear answer, on terms he can understand, so he can make a sensible decision. If this man is claiming to be a Jewish king, even if he is just poor carpenter from the Galilean countryside, then of course he is guilty of treason against the Empire, and must be executed. This is what Pilate wants to find out.
When the Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pilate for a trial, Pilate asks them, “what accusation do you bring against this man?”
In the Greek, the word for a criminal accusation is κατηγορια. It’s the origin of our English word “category.”
When Pilate asks for the accusation against Jesus, he is asking, “into what category do you put this man?”
When I put someone in a category, it is a kind of accusation. I put another person in a category because I assume something about them-- I accuse that person of being a certain way. And it’s so easy to shape my expectations and beliefs about that person, around the category I imposed. I stop seeing who the person actually is, and I only see the category of which I accused them.
That’s what’s happening to Jesus here. The temple leaders have categories about what righteousness looks like, and they assume that the will of God means maintaining the status quo, and Jesus is messing up those categories. Pontius Pilate has categories about what power and authority looks like, and he’s trying to fit Jesus into those categories. As a result, neither of them are able to see who Jesus really is.
And we’ve been seeing this theme also in our other readings from John over the past month, that Pastor Adriene has preached on. Nicodemus, the educated religious leader, had assumptions about the work of God, but he could not accept the words of Jesus. Whereas those who came to Jesus without assumptions: the Samaritan woman at the well, or the man born blind, were able to recognize him. They answered Jesus’s invitation to “come and see.”
We work with plenty of categories in our world today. And we have a lot of assumptions about those categories, and whether we are aware of it or not, we make decisions based on those assumptions.
At least, I know I do. Republican. Democrat. Immigrant. American. Teenager. Elderly. Educated. Uneducated. Muslim. Jewish. Christian. I could keep going.
Now, I don’t mean to suggest that our identities are problems. I believe God calls us to honor and celebrate the parts of our identity that make us unique, and make us who we are. Our cultures, languages, histories, families, and traditions, have shaped who we are, and are gifts for communication and expression. Our bodies, minds, and hearts, are all different and beautiful, and are all created uniquely by God, and they allow us to connect with one another, and learn from one another. What a miracle that we are all different people, and we come together in one community.
But when a categories are placed upon human beings, by someone who doesn’t truly understand and love them, and when assumptions and decisions are made about human beings, based on those categories, we don’t have to look far to see the violence and pain that can come about. This is not just an abstract problem. In schools across the country, African American children are disciplined at rates higher than their white peers, and we know that racial profiling extends far beyond the classroom. There is extensive research that the expectations that a teacher has about a student, and the assumptions a teacher makes about a student, can have a tremendous impact on the student’s achievement and outcomes.
And our categories have huge impacts on our nation and world. Our current presidential administration, by targeting immigrants for deportation without any concern for their individual circumstances, reduces millions of human beings to a single category, and makes a judgment against them. Categories are often an excuse for assuming and judging other people, instead of loving and serving other people, as Jesus calls us to do.
This is what we see happening in Jesus’s trial before Pilate. He has been categorized as a criminal, a troublemaker, a sinner, someone who disrupts the status quo, and the people in power want to be rid of him.
Now Pilate is interrogating Jesus and is trying to categorize him on Imperial terms. “Are you a King?” he asks. “Are you a threat to me, and my power? What box can I put you into?”
And we see how Jesus responds. He refuses to play by the rules. He doesn’t answer on Pilate’s terms.
Jesus answers, “Do you ask this on your own, Do you truly want to learn who I am?
Or did others tell you about me? Are you planning to stick with human categories?
Are you a king? Pilate asks.
Jesus answers, My Kingdom is not of this world.
Your categories, your human understandings, in terms of violence and threat and fear, cannot contain me! My world and my love is bigger than you can even imagine.
Are you a king? Pilate asks.
Jesus answers, You say that I am.
You continue to put your categories on me, you continue to talk about me as if you know everything. But I am here to testify to the truth. My truth will always be breaking out of your understanding. If you want, you can use the word “king,” to describe me. You say that I am a king. But your word “king,” does not limit me. You can crucify me, and kill me. But your category of “death,” cannot contain me. I will always be breaking out of the box you try to keep me in.
The thing is, I often put Jesus on trial in the same way.
Just like Pontius Pilate, I want to get a straight answer from Jesus. Wouldn’t that be nice, to get a straight answer from Jesus, once in a while?
It sure would settle a lot of the arguments we are having today.
Jesus, did you vote for Clinton or Trump?
And like the Jewish leaders, I want to follow God and be faithful, but also I want to maintain a sense of security in my life. I’m not always ready to let Jesus come in and shake up my assumptions about other people, my beliefs about how things are supposed to be. Wait a second Jesus, you’re telling me, I don’t get to judge that other person? I don’t get to feel superior to them? Wait-- you actually want me to serve them, and love them?
And Jesus shows us, the way we treat other people, the way we treat God, and the way we treat ourselves, are all connected. Jesus shows the presence of God, in washing his disciples’ feet, in serving others, in laying down his life for those who don’t understand. And Jesus tells us, as he has washed our feet, so we also should wash one another’s feet. The love and service we show to one another, is one and the same, as the love and service we give to God, and it is also love and service to ourselves.
But the same goes for our judgments and resentments: if we put others on trial, if we restrict other people with categories and judgments, I think we will find that we are using those same judgments, on ourselves, and on God.
What would our lives and communities look like, if we could let go of the categories we place on each other?
Many of you already know this-- I’m gay. And in the community I grew up in, boys and girls were expected to act in very specific ways. And from a young age I experienced the struggle and hurt, of not fitting into the categories I was supposed to. I remember being told, “you laugh like a girl. You talk like a girl. Boys don’t stand that way. Boys are supposed to play sports, not play with dolls.”
Looking back now, I wish I could say, “Why not? Why can’t any child play with dolls, who wants to? When did God come down and tell you how a certain child is supposed to talk, or who that child is supposed to be?”
Categories can hurt.
If you’re feeling up for it, congregation, I invite you to close your eyes, and follow along with me on a little exercise. Only if you want to.
Take a deep breath.
I want you to remember a time when someone made an assumption about you, or put you into a category, that bothered you, or hurt you. Or think of a category you put yourself into!
And together with Jesus, say, to that person, or to yourself-- “You say that I am--”
“But I came here to testify to the truth.”
So I invite you, congregation, in the days and weeks to come.
To be aware of the categories that you use, the assumptions you make about another person, and about God.
Remember that our God was put on trial, and accused, and boxed into a category. “Are you a king? Are you a criminal?” they asked. And God said, “You say that I am.”
Perhaps that is God’s answer to us, when we want to pin God down, and box God in. “You say that I am.”
But this is also an invitation, from God, to be the person she created you to be.
And if you find yourself accused, boxed into a category, you don’t have to play by the rules.
You can follow Christ and say, “You say that I am. But I came here to testify to the truth.”
Remember that you have been created uniquely by God, to be you, and to testify to the truth and love of God.
Jesus did not limit truth and love to any one category. He said, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the true vine. I am the resurrection and the life.
Amen.
He reminds me of the activists who, back in 2016, cut through iron padlocks and chains, in 4 different locations across the country, to turn off the valves in oil pipelines, in protest of the environmental destruction caused by the fossil fuel industry, and to raise awareness of climate change. They didn’t try to hide their actions- they actually called the oil companies to let them know, and posted videos online to spread awareness of what they did.
Of course, this was a criminal act according to the laws of the United States, and the activists now face possible prison time. Like Jesus, they refused to play by the rules.
Just a few weeks ago, dozens of protestors, including Catholic nuns and priests, were arrested inside the US Capitol building in protest of Congress’s refusal to act on DACA and protect the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who could be deported. These protesters refused to play by the rules.
As Jesus will tell you, sometimes there are more important things than following the rules.
Jesus’s ministry occurred at a time of great pain for the Jewish people. Judea, Galilee, and Samaria were provinces under occupation by the Roman army. We know from ancient writings, that Rome understood itself as an Empire fulfilling a glorious and divine destiny, bringing justice and civilization to all corners of the earth.
But we also know that the reality of life in a Roman province was far from glorious. The people were taxed into poverty and starvation, to support a violent Imperial power. The Roman soldiers presented a constant threat of abuse, imprisonment, or execution, and unless you were a Roman citizen you had little hope of justice under Roman law.
In our reading today, the Jewish chief priests, who were not only religious leaders, but also political leaders, are trying to keep peace with the Romans. Meanwhile Jesus, this charismatic teacher and healer has appeared out of nowhere, and refuses to play by the rules-- he turns over tables in the temple, he argues with the priests and religious experts, he even raises the dead to life. This Jesus has inspired devotion and love among the poor, and the chief priests fear that might unite the people against the Romans, which would result in violence-- retribution-- and a total upheaval of the societal order. I imagine they saw themselves as protecting their people, but to do so, they were forced to compromise, and be allies with Rome.
“If everyone believes in him,” they say, “the Romans will destroy our holy place, and our nation.” Better to keep a painful peace.
Pontius Pilate, for his part, also wants to maintain peace. And that means eliminating anyone with claims to power, outside what the Empire permits. Certainly anyone who claims to be a king must be executed. In the Roman Empire, there is no king but Caesar, the Emperor Tiberius.
Pilate is an educated man, from the wealthy upper classes of Roman society. He probably knows the history of the Jewish people, that they were once a mighty power, ruled by proud kings: David, Solomon. He certainly knows that many of the Jewish people are waiting for a Messiah, an anointed savior from the line of King David, to restore a Jewish King to the throne, and cast out these Roman armies that terrorize them.
When Pilate interrogates Jesus, he wants to know if this man a threat to Roman power. Pilate wants a clear answer, on terms he can understand, so he can make a sensible decision. If this man is claiming to be a Jewish king, even if he is just poor carpenter from the Galilean countryside, then of course he is guilty of treason against the Empire, and must be executed. This is what Pilate wants to find out.
When the Jewish leaders bring Jesus to Pilate for a trial, Pilate asks them, “what accusation do you bring against this man?”
In the Greek, the word for a criminal accusation is κατηγορια. It’s the origin of our English word “category.”
When Pilate asks for the accusation against Jesus, he is asking, “into what category do you put this man?”
When I put someone in a category, it is a kind of accusation. I put another person in a category because I assume something about them-- I accuse that person of being a certain way. And it’s so easy to shape my expectations and beliefs about that person, around the category I imposed. I stop seeing who the person actually is, and I only see the category of which I accused them.
That’s what’s happening to Jesus here. The temple leaders have categories about what righteousness looks like, and they assume that the will of God means maintaining the status quo, and Jesus is messing up those categories. Pontius Pilate has categories about what power and authority looks like, and he’s trying to fit Jesus into those categories. As a result, neither of them are able to see who Jesus really is.
And we’ve been seeing this theme also in our other readings from John over the past month, that Pastor Adriene has preached on. Nicodemus, the educated religious leader, had assumptions about the work of God, but he could not accept the words of Jesus. Whereas those who came to Jesus without assumptions: the Samaritan woman at the well, or the man born blind, were able to recognize him. They answered Jesus’s invitation to “come and see.”
We work with plenty of categories in our world today. And we have a lot of assumptions about those categories, and whether we are aware of it or not, we make decisions based on those assumptions.
At least, I know I do. Republican. Democrat. Immigrant. American. Teenager. Elderly. Educated. Uneducated. Muslim. Jewish. Christian. I could keep going.
Now, I don’t mean to suggest that our identities are problems. I believe God calls us to honor and celebrate the parts of our identity that make us unique, and make us who we are. Our cultures, languages, histories, families, and traditions, have shaped who we are, and are gifts for communication and expression. Our bodies, minds, and hearts, are all different and beautiful, and are all created uniquely by God, and they allow us to connect with one another, and learn from one another. What a miracle that we are all different people, and we come together in one community.
But when a categories are placed upon human beings, by someone who doesn’t truly understand and love them, and when assumptions and decisions are made about human beings, based on those categories, we don’t have to look far to see the violence and pain that can come about. This is not just an abstract problem. In schools across the country, African American children are disciplined at rates higher than their white peers, and we know that racial profiling extends far beyond the classroom. There is extensive research that the expectations that a teacher has about a student, and the assumptions a teacher makes about a student, can have a tremendous impact on the student’s achievement and outcomes.
And our categories have huge impacts on our nation and world. Our current presidential administration, by targeting immigrants for deportation without any concern for their individual circumstances, reduces millions of human beings to a single category, and makes a judgment against them. Categories are often an excuse for assuming and judging other people, instead of loving and serving other people, as Jesus calls us to do.
This is what we see happening in Jesus’s trial before Pilate. He has been categorized as a criminal, a troublemaker, a sinner, someone who disrupts the status quo, and the people in power want to be rid of him.
Now Pilate is interrogating Jesus and is trying to categorize him on Imperial terms. “Are you a King?” he asks. “Are you a threat to me, and my power? What box can I put you into?”
And we see how Jesus responds. He refuses to play by the rules. He doesn’t answer on Pilate’s terms.
Jesus answers, “Do you ask this on your own, Do you truly want to learn who I am?
Or did others tell you about me? Are you planning to stick with human categories?
Are you a king? Pilate asks.
Jesus answers, My Kingdom is not of this world.
Your categories, your human understandings, in terms of violence and threat and fear, cannot contain me! My world and my love is bigger than you can even imagine.
Are you a king? Pilate asks.
Jesus answers, You say that I am.
You continue to put your categories on me, you continue to talk about me as if you know everything. But I am here to testify to the truth. My truth will always be breaking out of your understanding. If you want, you can use the word “king,” to describe me. You say that I am a king. But your word “king,” does not limit me. You can crucify me, and kill me. But your category of “death,” cannot contain me. I will always be breaking out of the box you try to keep me in.
The thing is, I often put Jesus on trial in the same way.
Just like Pontius Pilate, I want to get a straight answer from Jesus. Wouldn’t that be nice, to get a straight answer from Jesus, once in a while?
It sure would settle a lot of the arguments we are having today.
Jesus, did you vote for Clinton or Trump?
And like the Jewish leaders, I want to follow God and be faithful, but also I want to maintain a sense of security in my life. I’m not always ready to let Jesus come in and shake up my assumptions about other people, my beliefs about how things are supposed to be. Wait a second Jesus, you’re telling me, I don’t get to judge that other person? I don’t get to feel superior to them? Wait-- you actually want me to serve them, and love them?
And Jesus shows us, the way we treat other people, the way we treat God, and the way we treat ourselves, are all connected. Jesus shows the presence of God, in washing his disciples’ feet, in serving others, in laying down his life for those who don’t understand. And Jesus tells us, as he has washed our feet, so we also should wash one another’s feet. The love and service we show to one another, is one and the same, as the love and service we give to God, and it is also love and service to ourselves.
But the same goes for our judgments and resentments: if we put others on trial, if we restrict other people with categories and judgments, I think we will find that we are using those same judgments, on ourselves, and on God.
What would our lives and communities look like, if we could let go of the categories we place on each other?
Many of you already know this-- I’m gay. And in the community I grew up in, boys and girls were expected to act in very specific ways. And from a young age I experienced the struggle and hurt, of not fitting into the categories I was supposed to. I remember being told, “you laugh like a girl. You talk like a girl. Boys don’t stand that way. Boys are supposed to play sports, not play with dolls.”
Looking back now, I wish I could say, “Why not? Why can’t any child play with dolls, who wants to? When did God come down and tell you how a certain child is supposed to talk, or who that child is supposed to be?”
Categories can hurt.
If you’re feeling up for it, congregation, I invite you to close your eyes, and follow along with me on a little exercise. Only if you want to.
Take a deep breath.
I want you to remember a time when someone made an assumption about you, or put you into a category, that bothered you, or hurt you. Or think of a category you put yourself into!
And together with Jesus, say, to that person, or to yourself-- “You say that I am--”
“But I came here to testify to the truth.”
So I invite you, congregation, in the days and weeks to come.
To be aware of the categories that you use, the assumptions you make about another person, and about God.
Remember that our God was put on trial, and accused, and boxed into a category. “Are you a king? Are you a criminal?” they asked. And God said, “You say that I am.”
Perhaps that is God’s answer to us, when we want to pin God down, and box God in. “You say that I am.”
But this is also an invitation, from God, to be the person she created you to be.
And if you find yourself accused, boxed into a category, you don’t have to play by the rules.
You can follow Christ and say, “You say that I am. But I came here to testify to the truth.”
Remember that you have been created uniquely by God, to be you, and to testify to the truth and love of God.
Jesus did not limit truth and love to any one category. He said, I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the true vine. I am the resurrection and the life.
Amen.
Very much enjoyed this sermon.
ReplyDeleteThanks Goliath, I appreciate that.
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