January 8, 2017
On May 8th of last year, Michael Smith gave an inspirational teaching that actively incorporated his love of music and his commitment to use it to support our worship. He spoke from his heart about what was very important to him.
A month later, Kayla McClurg said that we should avoid the usual and mundane in our teachings and speak from what is our own uniqueness and interest.
Having been inspired by these two teachings, this morning I would like to share with you something that is important to me. That is some of my understanding of the birth and early beginnings of our Christian faith. What do I believe actually happened?
Now I realize that there are probably as many different understandings of our faith here as there are people in this room and I do not want to imply that my view is the definitively correct one. After all, unlike some of you, I have had absolutely no formal seminary education, but I do read a lot. If anyone finds that any of my sharing is wrong or even offensive, I think we can both agree that it is all Michael and Kayla’s fault.
On or about the year 28 of the first century, CE, a young, male, Mediterranean Jewish peasant by the Aramaic name of Jeshua began to impress his fellow Jews by his wisdom teachings both in local synagogues and in open air gatherings. Unlike many of the rabbis and other educated speakers of his time, he used parables and aphorisms, short one liners, to promote thought and challenge his listeners to think about how they were living their lives. He encouraged them to use their abilities and resources to be part of what he called God’s Kingdom here on earth, to show their love for one another, particularly for those on the margins of society. He was able to attract hundreds, if not thousands, to listen to his teachings.
This was particularly remarkable since like 96% of the population at that time, Jeshua probably could neither read nor write. He had no formal education. He probably did say that he was born and raised in Nazareth which is like saying today that you were born and raised in West Baltimore. It was not a good place to grow up.
Unfortunately, his itinerant ministry only lasted about one year before he was crucified by the Romans. Well before the beginning of the first century, Rome had dominated the Jewish territories of Galilee, Samaria and Judea. Pontius Pilate, the Governor of Judea at that time is reported to have crucified 10,000 Jews during his thirty-year reign as Governor or an incredible average of six crucifixions per week. Pilate was once admonished by Rome for being too cruel. If Rome admonishes you for being too cruel, you are really demonic. Pilate eliminated any Jew who caused trouble or even had the potential to cause trouble. This clearly included anyone who could attract hundreds of followers.
The first documents that were written and circulated about Jeshua after his death were two “sayings gospels” called Q and the Gospel of Thomas. Both are compilations of what Jeshua taught. Since they were written in Greek, Jeshua’s name was translated to the name of Jesus. Every line of each gospel begins “Jesus said” … and then goes on. I find it very significant that the first written record of Jesus is about what he said and taught.
I understand that up to about the year 50 of the first century, 20 years after Jesus died, there was not yet any other writing about Jesus that survived. There was no narrative of his life. No record of his family. No record of any miracles that he performed and no narrative of his crucifixion. There were certainly oral traditions handed down from generation to generation at that time, but they either had not yet been written or did not survive.
The four canonical gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, written at a later date in the first century, were written from a Jewish orientation. They were writings of praise and admiration of Jesus. This writing style is called Midrash in Judaism and is how one honors someone whom one admires. I understand that no one at that time thought the gospels were history or were meant to be history. These stories of admiration were concerned with praise and not with facts.
For example, both Matthew and Luke strongly believed that Jesus was the promised Jewish Messiah. That is why their birth stories, the only birth stories of Jesus in the New Testament, said that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the city of David, because that is where the Hebrew Bible said the Messiah was to be born. These stories honor Jesus but contradict each other in many places. In Matthew, for example, King Herod seeks to kill Jesus when he learns that Jesus is predicted to be King of the Jews. Joseph learns of this and flees with his family to Egypt. In Luke, by contrast, Joseph sticks around for a week after Jesus’ birth and King Herod is never mentioned.
A statement, circulated extensively on Facebook, from John Dominic Crossan, whom some consider to be the best New Testament scholar alive today was quite blunt. Crossan said “My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are now dumb enough to take them literally.”
I believe that Jesus spent his life as a practicing Jew. He taught in the Synagogue. He was recognized as a teacher of wisdom. After his death, many Jews came to believe that Jesus was the promised Messiah or the greater Moses and this sect of Judaism grew within in the Jewish religion. In the year 88 of the first century, the Orthodox Jews and the Jesus-following Jews split, and the Jesus following Jews were banned from the Synagogue.
These Jesus-following Jews formed their own group and began to attract gentiles who were attracted to the teachings of Jesus. Many scholars say that by the middle of the second century or even earlier, the combined Christian churches, and there were quite a variety of them, were primarily gentile.
According to Rodney Stark, a sociologist who studies religion, by the year 250, over two centuries after Jesus, the percentage of Christians in the population of the Roman Empire was only about 2%. Constantine became emperor in 312 and promoted Christianity as the state religion. By 350, 38 years later, according to Stark, Christians were 56% or the majority of the people in the Roman Empire.
So, what is the point of all this data? Over the years, Christianity has been expressed in a wide variety of ways. To me, Christianity means, as our covenant says, following Jesus, which means how do we live our lives today to enhance the lives of others? How do we share our resources to help support those who have not been given the support or the opportunities or the education or the privilege that we have been given? I feel we do provide a lot of this support in Eighth Day, which is why I am here. But I sometimes feel that we focus more on the messenger than we do on the message. Acting on the example and teaching of Jesus is, for me, the essence of Christianity.
Thank you for listening.