Jesus is a dangerous religious figure. His message has been distorted so often into something that he would not recognize or he would be horrified that those in his name would claim as the inspiration of violence. We have Mennonites a Christian sec who have rejected violence of all sorts, and on the other hand, we have violent fundamentalist Christians who believe in the wholesale slaughter of non-Christians such as Muslims or the wrong kind of Christians such as ourselves. There is a Orange County lawyer trying to place a measure on the California ballot the execution of anyone who marries another person of the same-gender. This position, he claims, is biblically based on the Leviticus verse: “If a man sleeps with a man like a woman, it is abomination, and they should be put to death. In Terrence McNally’s play Corpus Christi, when Bartholomew and Matthew tell Jesus/Joshua that the priests will not marry them citing the Leviticus verse, Jesus/ Joshua says to them with some appropriate humor, “Why would memorize such a horrible verse?”

Jesus was dangerous man to the Romans. A second century theologian and clergy, Origen wrote extensively a number of works. He quoted a saying of Jesus that came down outside of the gospels. Listen to the saying: “Who is close to me is close to the fire, who is far from me is far from the kingdom.” It is dangerous to be with Jesus and to follow Jesus—to risk catching fire. One of favorite theologian Johan Baptist Metz describes following Jesus and living his message as the “dangerous memories of Jesus.”

Jesus rejected disciples who wanted to steer his movement towards violence. His priority was the love of God but he yoked this love of God to unconditional love for fellow human beings. We Christian call this the “Golden Rule” because it is the core of Jesus’ ministry. In his sermon on the mount, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Mt. 5:9) Later he preaches,

You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would sue you and take your coat, let him have your cloak as well; and if any one forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to him who begs from you, and do not refuse him who would borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Mt. 5:38-44).

Jesus remained an example of non-violence to his disciples and future disciples. I will name a few who followed Jesus the peacemaker in early Christianity and later a few contemporary followers of peace-making. Jesus was dangerous because he modeled the non-violence of God to the fullest. He live, taught, and died non-violence. He demonstrates to us what it means to be non-violent even to death on the cross. To the Romans, Jesus’ rejection of war and violence were threatening because Roman authority was based on the threat of military force, terror, and crucifixion. Jesus was building a movement based on love and non-violent resistance to coercive and military authority. He was considered a trouble-maker, a religious fanatic. The Romans cruelly tortured him, humiliated him, mocked him, paraded him a sign of masculine weakness before Roman power, and then crucified him on the cross. This was to break Jesus kingdom movement, dishearten and break the spirit of following Jesus in this dangerous movement.

John Yoder, a Mennonite theologians writes.

The cross of Jesus is the extreme demonstration that agape seeks neither effectiveness nor justice, and is willing to suffer any loss or seeming defeat for the sake of obedience. In short, Christians are to live and love like Jesus, (and) know that in spite of the way things appear, God’s purposes will prevail with the coming of God’s kingdom: the resurrection of Jesus is proof that love cannot be conquered even if evil does its worst. With this assurance, Christians do not need to seek control, to make things come out right.

Yoder believed in radical love and forgiveness that Jesus lived, preached, and died for. He was one of the great Christian activist for non-violence in the 20th century.

Jesus’ disciples and later generations of Christians did not use the cross as a symbol of their faith; it was a symbol of Roman violence and the horrible death of Jesus the Christ. They adopted the symbol of the fish, the memory of his multiplying the fish for people to eat together and his meals that celebrated forgiveness, unconditional love, and non-violence.

The followers of Christ in the first three hundred years renounced war and violence in all their forms. Origen, a 2nd century Christian theologian wrote, “We Christians do not become fellow soldiers with the Emperor, even if he presses for this.” Christians were menace to the Roman state. Tertullian, a Roman centurion in North Africa, converted to Christianity and publicly promoted the conversion of Roman legionnaires to Christians so that they would not fight.

Another Christian theologian and clergy, Hippolytus of Rome promoted a subversive Christian discipleship of non-violence, “A soldier of the civil authority must be taught not to kill men and to refuse to do so if he is commanded, and to refuse to take an oath. If he is unwilling to comply, he must be rejected for baptism. A military commander or civic magistrate must resign or be rejected. If a believer seeks to become a soldier, he must be rejected, for he has despised God.”

The Roman Empire was maintained by the force and threat of its military. Christians in their pacifism threatened the very power and existence of the Empire whose Pax Romana or peace was based on constant war and cruel violence, enslaving women and children and crucifying the men. Christian provided a subversive theology that threatened the strength of the Roman Empire. In 274 CE, there was a Roman soldier in Numidia, present day Algeria, who had a son Maximilianus and who was drafted into the military. He told the pro-consul Cassius Dion, that he was a follower of Christ: “I cannot serve as a soldier. I cannot do evil. I am a Christian.” He refused his father’s pleas to serve in the Roman legion and the pro-consul, and Maximilianus is the first conscientious objector martyred in history. (Kurlansky) He was turned into saint by the Church.

The emperor Constantine converted as he was going into battle, and he a vision of Christ’s cross with the words in hoc signo vinces or “in this sign, conquer.” The cross was painted on the shields of Constantine’s troops and they won the battle of the Milvian Bridge, leaving Constantine as the sole Emperor of the Empire. Constantine’s mother St. Helena conveniently found the true cross on which Jesus was crucified buried in the hills where Jesus was supposedly was executed. It was believed to be made of wood from the Garden of Eden. Constantine was later made a saint, and in the Greek Orthodox Church, he is considered a saint equivalent to the apostles. This marks a watershed moment when Christianity moved from a pacifist religion to a violent religion. The lethal instrument of the cross used by Romans to terrified and intimidate conquered populations, used to crucify Jesus, now once again became a symbol of violence.

After Constantine made Christianity the state religion, the Roman Empire changed Christianity from a non-violent religion to religion of violence and using violence and warfare to promote itself. Jesus’ teachings of non-violence, forgiveness, unconditional love, and peace-making were dismantled. Christianity lost its non-violent edge and became violent. Later it would promote crusades, bishops and popes engaged in conquest and persecution. It became the Church waving and carrying the cross, the instrument of death of its founder and God’ child Jesus Christ.

But towards the end of Constantine’s reign, there were others who clung to Jesus’ message of non-violence. There is a story of Martin who served in the Roman legions for two years and converted to Christianity. He refused to take up arms in an impending battle. He said, “I am a soldier of Christ, I cannot fight.” (Kurlansky) Martin was accused of being a coward. He offered to go ahead unarmed of the legion into the battlefield. But the Gauls negotiated a peace.

Two more groups I want to mention because it unmasks the violence on institutional Christianity, both Catholic and Protestant. The first is the Cathars in Southern France in the 12th century. They were an alternative form of Christianity whose members took a vow dedicated to the non-violence of Jesus. They were often vegetarians, because they did not believe in the killing of animals; they refused and did not believe in warfare and capital punishment. Catholic Christianity mounted a crusade to exterminate whole villages of Cathars in Southern France then followed by the Inquisition who tortured and murdered Cathars. You might ask what was their crime? They were exterminated mercilessly because of their commitment to live the non-violence of Christ.

Other Protestant groups such as the Amish, the Quakers, the Mennonites, and the Church of the Brethren who was the Famous Renaissance writer Erasmus were persecuted mainline Protestant denominations in the 17th century, and many of those churches fled to America seeking shelter from persecution and death. There were a number of Christian churches that took up Jesus’ practice of non-violence, and the violent Protestant and Catholic churches attempt to persecute and exterminate them. Their witness to the non-violent Christ became a danger to these churches and still do.

I want to suggest a bold statement: Peacemakers point to the peacemaking ministry of Jesus. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Dorothy Day, Daniel Berrigan, John Dear, the Buddhst monk Thich Nhat Hanh, Dalai Lama, and Wang Weilen. The last Wang Weilin, the press called him “tank man” and the “unknown rebel.” To this day, the world does not know the name of this Chinese student in Tiananmen Square during 1989 non-violent uprising and protest. He stood in before a column of tanks and refused to meet the Chinese soldiers with non-violence. Every time the lead tank tried to drive around him, he stepped in front of the tank. He brought the column of Chinese tanks to halt, and this was filmed and broadcast all over the world. Two weeks later, the nineteen year old student was arrested and executed. He modeled the non-violent Christ, and he was crucified because his non-violence threatened to topple authority based on military force and violence.

Peace-making and non-violence are dangerous. Jesus embodied the non-violence of God in this world. He was dangerous because his gospel revealed that God “….loves enemies, the ungrateful, and he selfish, the good and the evil, the just and unjust, in all inclusive embrace.” (Walter Wink) God reveals to us an alternative way to violence and war, tried by the God’s incarnation Jesus Christ, disciples in history, non-violent Christian movements and churches only to follow the way of cross, crucified and killed.

I leave with you the most profound depth of our God who exemplifies a community of self-giving and unconditional love, gracious inclusion of us, and models for us a non-violent communion focused on sharing its divine nature of non-violence. I repeat the saying of Jesus preserved by Origen: “Who is close to me is close to the fire, who is far from me is far from the kingdom.” How can Christians be non-violent disciples of the non-violent Jesus Christ within a violent Christianity claiming to follow a violent Christ? This has been a long distortion of the gospel message of Jesus, and those who preserved Jesus’ message of making-making have come to the fire of Jesus and have suffered for their faithfulness to the vision of no-violent love, enemy love, and peace-making.
As we move closer to Easter Sunday, I want to end off with a meaningful idea of Christian peace activist John Dear,

If the God peace raised the revolutionary, peace-making Jesus from the dead, after Jesus had been executed by the state as a criminal, then the God of peace affirmed Jesus’ way of active non-violence and peaceful resistance to systemic injustice. We his followers, then, are called to embark on that same path of non-violence. The gift that the risen Christ gives to his community is the gift of his peace.
The peace of Christ be with you!

Jesus in the gospel reading is accused to be a “friend of sinners,” along with the charges of “a drunkard” and “a glutton.” Jesus also receives criticism of his feasting and not fasting like John the Baptist. A number of his parables describe banquets, weddings, parties, and celebrations, and it seems that he considered meals to be special occasions to enact the celebration of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. The gospels, in particular Luke, portray Jesus going to meals or coming from them. His eating with sinners is mentioned frequently, and they form an important part of his ministry. Jesus scolds scribes and Pharisees for their table manners by taking the best seats. It is interesting that Jesus, who has no house of his own, enters another’s home and immediately takes over the household as the host of the meal.

The gospels associate him with disreputable people, tax collectors, sinners, and prostitutes. The scribes, connected to the Pharisees and the Temple priests, ask, “For what reason does he eat with tax collectors and sinners.” (Mk. 2:16) How do we answer the question?

Jesus first deliberately seeks out disreputable sinners and people; they are colorful folks. I understand that too well; overly religious people can be boring and snobbish. Disreputable people have colorful lives, they are interesting sinners. .
Secondly, have you ever noticed how righteous religious folks are always concerned about sin and sinners? This is true in Jesus’ time and our own. They are obsessed with sins of the flesh and ignore the sinful conditions that lead people into poverty and homelessness, the desperation of prostitution especially in patriarchal societies when women have little opportunity to earn a living. Or in our own time, the victims of war and disease, people denied basic human rights, undocumented workers, environmental degradation and racism, the exploitation of the planetary resources and consuming fossil fuels and releasing vast amounts of carbon and other toxic chemicals resulting in global warming.

I have a theory why self-righteous religious folks are concerned about sinners: First, it separates the pious from the sinner. Remember Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable:   “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’

“But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” (Lk. 18:9-14)

You can just here the sneer in his voice as he looks down with despise at the tax collector. By putting someone down and separating yourself from them, you have made yourself better than those people.

The religious self-righteous always excuse themselves from the need for repentance when they compare themselves with what they consider as sinners, the wicked, or the impure outsider. The tax collector, however, never repents or reforms his life; he humbly acknowledges himself a sinner and asks God for mercy. Jesus commends the tax collector who is a sinner.

Jesus ate and drank with sinners; he was proud of the title—“friend of sinners.” Jesus says, “Truly, I say to you that tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you.” ( Mt, 21:31) Jesus claimed that sinners were closer to the reign of God than the righteous religious people. But I want you to pay attention to the fact that Jesus seldom tells individual sinners to repent or reform their lives. He never concentrates on sexual sinners of prostitutes nor does the expected extortion and corruption of tax collectors.

There is only one story where Jesus says to the women caught in adultery. He defends the woman from her male accusers whose hearts are hardened against he. Jesus writes in the sand, indicating the law is written in sand and not hardened in stone. He tells the accusers, “Let anyone among you without sin throw the first stone.” The self-righteous accusers fade away, and Jesus comments,

“Has anyone condemned you?” She says, “No one sir.” Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.” (Jn 8:10-11)

The earliest manuscripts of John’s gospel does not have this story, and it was added as a floating story that made second or third generation followers of Jesus uncomfortable at his compassion with sexual sins. I suspect “from now on do not sin again” was added by a scribe in John’s community. Why do I say this? It does not fit in portrait of Jesus and his relationship with sinners in the other three gospels. It seems a third generation Christian addition when Christians were trying to prove that they were very moral to fit in the Roman Empire.

The other three gospels portray Jesus as befriending sinners with requiring repentance. Jesus generally does not single out common sinners, and his call to repentance is a generalized call to repentance to society in the opening of Mark’s gospel: “The time is fulfilled and the reign of God has drawn near. Repent and believe in the good news.” (Mk. 1:15)

Jesus frequently directed his message of repentance at the scribes, Pharisees, Sabbath fundamentalists, and or Temple priests or religious folks of high status. He engages actively in conflict with them, criticizing hypocrisy, religious abuse, oppression of the poor and the elderly, and the rich. He condemns such behaviors that abuse power or exploits the poor and the vulnerable. He challenges Sabbath fundamentalists who are upset with his violation of the Sabbath law to heal the afflicted or those lacking compassion for the sick and the poor. Jesus affirms that common sinners will enter God’s reign before them.

There is no question that Jesus upset the religious self-righteous and powerful because he did not require sinners to repent in the traditional manner of sin offering sacrifices. Jesus tells his holy critics, “Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’” (Mt. 9:11) On one level, Jesus is criticizing his accusers for their lack of compassion, and on another, he challenges their exclusionary practices and requirements for sin offerings. God’s forgiveness is already there in his meals celebrating God’s unconditional love.

Sinners and self-righteous both called Jesus “friend of sinners.” A closer look at the term helps to understand what is really going on when he does not require repentance of common sinners. He invited sinners into fellowship with himself to celebrate God’s forgiveness of sins. I want to share a quotation from the book Sinners by Greg Carey:

Jesus’ companionship with sinners opened the path for people to challenge his uprightness. Some people, perhaps many people, believed that a respectable religious leader like Jesus had no business cavorting with sinners. Yet Jesus identified himself with sinners. And some sinners joined his movement. That is how the Gospels tell it, perhaps, because early generations of Christians identified with the sinners of the stories.

So “friend of sinners” not only a title given to Jesus and his ministry, it also was his method of reaching out to sinners and bringing the good news of God’s unconditional acceptance and forgiveness of them.

I have left discussion of centering prayer reading from Sinners until last. The boy Brian imitates his father’s violence and threats of his mother by pulling a gun out of the gun cabinet and placing the barrel his mother’s chin, saying “If you say another word, I’ll blow your fucking head off.” Brian imitates his father’s violence with his sister over eating the last of the cereal and takes a gun and shoots his sister dead. His action is horrific, and he is sent to a youth home for his crime. A counselor tells him one day that he is a neat kid. Brian replied, “you wouldn’t say that if you knew why I am here!” And the counsellor said, “Of course, I do; we all do.” And Brian breaks down sobbing confronted with unconditional love and acceptance.

Jesus chose the method of companioning with sinners; he did not have to require them to repent. He proclaimed that God had forgiven them. They were beloved children of God, and God accepted them unconditionally, forgave them unconditionally, and love them without any string attached.

For Jesus’ critics, his companioning with sinners was offensive because it violated the purity laws with which they wrapped up their religious self-righteousness. Sin is after all very contagious; it will spread like a disease unless we guard against it. He proclaimed God’s forgiveness to them without requiring them to reform their lives with the traditional means of paying for a sin offering at the Temple. In fact, Jesus celebrated with sinners God’s forgiveness and unconditional acceptance in his meals; they celebrated God’s presence and forgiveness dining together.

Does the method of becoming a friend of sinners without repentance work? Many of his disciples were sinners—Levi the tax collector, Simon the Zealot, and Mary Magdalene. They changed the directions of their lives and became disciples as they experienced the blessing of God’s unconditional love and forgiveness. They changed their lives because they encountered God as love.

We companion with people who are hurt, oppressed, different, undocumented, and considered outcasts because our mission as disciples to become vehicles of God’s unconditional love to others. Often people change their lives by the radical unconditional love from God, and we become disciples to make the mission of Jesus as friend of sinners alive today. But we also are very conscious that we too miss the mark often and that we too are sinners but live with the climate of God’s extravagant love and grace. Many sinners, including myself, became followers of Christ as we felt God’s tender mercies and unconditional love for us.

As we read in the First Letter of John 4:7-11,
Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. God’s love is was revealed among us in this way: God sent God’s only Child into the world, so that we might live through hi. In this love, not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent God’s Child…. Beloved since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another.
Jesus gave us an example of loving our enemies with unconditional love despite their hostility to us. God send us into places where are considered sinful because there we can be companions to the one Christ who was a friend of sinners.

Go and companion with sinners. Be friends and exude the unconditional love of God has for all sorts of sinners.

The 2nd century North African Christian writer, Tertullian, wrote, “Christ is never without water.” Of course, you can say that Jesus’ body contained 60-65% water as an adult. I believe that it is significant that we as adults all contain water averaging between 55-65% of our bodies. New born infants contain about 75% water. Water is as important as blood in our bodies. And all life is connected with water.

In fact, the entire Bible is full of water images, for water plays a vital role from creation to the crossing of the Jordan River to the baptism of Jesus. There is a vital interconnection between water and all life for flourishing and survival. Water and its relationship to God in the Bible suggest the care of the Creator for creation, and water becomes the potential site of engagement with God’s Spirit. We frequently encounter God in or near water.

Today’s gospel reading narrates the story when Jesus is baptized in the waters of the Jordan River by John the Baptism Let me look at the baptism of Jesus. Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist has made Christians uncomfortable, for John baptized folks for the forgiveness of sins. Christians have been uncomfortable that Jesus was baptized for the forgiveness of his sins. They have had to rationalize Jesus’ baptism. For example, the 4th century bishop of Alexandria Athanasius declares: “When the Lord, as man, was washed in the Jordan, it was we who were washed in him and by him.” Athanasius shifts the focus of the baptism to Jesus representing humanity in the waters of baptism. That may be a good theological after thought.

However, if we look carefully at the baptism of Jesus, it is more than John’s baptism for forgiveness of personal sins. When Jesus merges from being immersed in the waters and as he grasps for breath, he experiences an epiphany of God. It is a revelation whereby God in the form of dove or the Spirit descends upon Jesus in the Jordan waters with these words: “You are my beloved child with whom I am well pleased.”

Jesus is born from the cosmic waters of the Jordan as the Spirit hovered over the waters of creation in Genesis. Jesus is born as the beloved child from heaven and earth. His baptism inaugurated his ministry of the reign of God. The Spirit’s descent upon Jesus as he emerged from the water dripping down his forehead, beard, and his hair wet transforms him into the beloved child of God. It was the Spirit who overshadowed the womb of Mary as Jesus was conceived. It is now the Spirit who transforms Jesus with God’s grace into the beloved child of God, commissioned to preach God’s kingdom in our midst. And Jesus’ baptism gives a new content to the baptism for forgiveness of John the Baptist.

There seems to be a very strong correlation between the water of baptism and water for daily use. The water of baptism represents life, the grace of God, renewal and hope. What better natural symbol for God’s life-giving grace! The yearning of Christians for baptismal water at whatever cost reflects an equally deep yearning in us for water for ordinary use. Our thirst for water is great metaphor for our thirst for the Spirit.

Jesus—as God’s incarnation—unites heaven and earth in himself. He is interconnected with the waters of creation and all life, and this is made clear in a theological insight by Edward Echlin:

When Jesus enter the Jordan, the waters and creatures dependent upon water, re sanctified by the presence of God’s word made flesh. All waters are connected—water is like the blood of the earth. All waters are cosmic. Sanctified, recreated, when the Spirit again moves of the waters at the Jordan at Jesus’ baptism.

If all waters are connected through the baptism of the beloved child of the earth and heaven, I like to repeat Tertullian’s observation: ‘Christ is never without water.” Christ’s grace—like living water– reaches every pore of our bodies, the bodies of creatures and plant-life, into the soils of the earth, with the rains from heaven falling on to the soil, in the wells and oasis streams, in bubbling springs and rivers, lakes, and the oceans that comprised much of our planet. The orthodox Syrian bishop Jacob of Serugh claims that “our Lord went down to the Jordan, and the whole of nature of water stirred with joy.” Many Christian writers have comprehended the baptism of Jesus as the beginning of the new creation. They understood water as an ever present symbol of God’s grace in Christ.

God’s grace is there in our baptism whether the waters are sprinkled on your forehead or you are immersed in the waters. You are immersed in the grace life of God. You become part of the body of Christ—connected by the Spirit to the Earth and all life and adopted as beloved children of Abba God. We and all life become virtual baptismal waters of Christ. We are Christ’s virtual water. The Holy Spirit is always about change, new life and transformations through grace, union with Christ and all creation.

Echlin again writes,

The faith of the church, with which baptized Christians are entrusted includes appreciation of the world’s waters, and the virtual water of the soil, because, in Jesus, God descended into the living Jordan, setting the waters afire. (Echlin)
All the waters of the Earth were set afire by the Spirit, the Spirit connected Christ to all waters.

Let me take your through a tour of the gospels of Jesus and water. It tells us much about Jesus’ baptismal ministry and our water discipleship.
But I think of all those places in the gospels where Jesus and water interact. I want to do a quick water tour of the gospel to understand the ministry of Jesus and its connection to water.

First there is Jesus walking on the waters of Sea of Galilee and invites Peter to join him, and of course, Peter sinks like a rock. Or there is Jesus, who awakes from a sleep in the boat with his disciples during a storm and calms the storm. Jesus is connected to the water ways of Galilee, its wells and streams, and beyond: the Jordan River and Sea of Galilee. By the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus feeds five thousand plus folks with the multiplication of the loaves and the fish.

In John’s gospel, Jesus and water are connected more than any other gospel. There is Jesus first miracle at the Wedding of Cana, where he turns large barrels of water into wine. Water is transformed into wine for the merriment and joy of a wedding banquet. Weddings are fertile.

With the secret visit of Nicodemus at night, Jesus tells him: “No one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit.” (Jn. 3:5) He connects water and Spirit together in a spiritual rebirth for the closeted disciple Nicodemus. The primal waters of creation are connected to the hovering of the Spirit, and ever since the symbolism of water for Spirit has been part of the Jewish and Christian traditions. The Spirit is the midwife of creation bringing life and renewed energy.

And in the next chapter, there is the marvelous scene between Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, telling the woman if she knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (Jn. 4:10) Jesus goes on to say: “Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” (Jn. 4:14)

In the discourse between Jesus and the Samaritan woman (John 4:7-15), we see the Samaritan woman asking for the living waters. Yes, she needed the water from Jacob’s well, but she also needed the living water even more. God gives Jesus to the world as the water of life, and Jesus offers himself to the world as the living water. This living water figuratively represents a blessing that reproduces itself, and like a spring, it is never exhausted. Through those suffering from water poverty, Christ in person of the poor is still begging for something to drink, for water, for the living water. Are we willing to share a cup of living water. In the upcoming season of Lent, as we deny ourselves comforts in order to feel the pain of others, may we come up with practical ways of standing in solidarity with the many who are still crying, give us water … the living waters! We might practice a little further personal restraint in our over consumption of water. The average American uses 100 gallons per day while the Navajo uses 7 gallons.

Water was scarce in Jesus’ day, yet water was as much a necessity for life then as it is today. Half of the world’s population today lives in arid regions where is not readily available nor clean water accessible. Just as the physical body needs water to continue living so does humanity and all life needs the water of the Spirit.

Jesus at the Festival of Booths in Jerusalem proclaims: “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink. As the scripture has said, ”Out of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.” (Jn. 7:37-38) The heart is the place of faith, for when we place our hearts in God, we connect to God, heart to heart. Jesus’ prophecy comes true, for when he dies on the cross and the centurion stabs Jesus in the chest with his lance, water and blood flow from the open wound on the dead body of Jesus. Water and Spirit are identified earlier in the gospel, and the gospel takes the flow of water with blood as a fulfillment of Jesus’ earlier prophecy that rivers of living water will flow from his heart. Jesus’ glorification by Abba God has begun with death, for he handed over his Spirit. Jesus says earlier in John, “When you lift of the Child of Humanity, then you will realize that I AM.” (Jn. 8:28 f) And the water represents the beginning of his pouring out his Spirit.

There is a Homeric legend in the Iliad that the gods did not have blood in their veins but a type of blood mixed with water. In epic poem, Aphrodite– in combat before the city of Troy–is wounded, and she bleeds a mixture of water and blood. And this signifies the divinity of Aphrodite. This is how Gentile converts would understand the stabbing the side of Jesus.

At the Last Supper, Jesus strips off his cloak, and like a slave or woman, he washes the feet of his disciples. This act of foot washing has often been connected to baptism and the death of Jesus. Jesus performed this servile action to prophesy that he would be humiliated in death. He has acted out a parable of humble service for his disciples which they must be prepared to imitate. He is reminding them “no servant is more important than his master.” Christians have connected baptism to the death of Jesus, his resurrection, and his gift of the Spirit. If we die with Christ in the waters of baptism, we are baptized into the risen Christ.In Mark’s gospel, Jesus is asked by his disciples where he wants to celebrate the Passover. He gives this very strange instruction:

Go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you, follow him, and wherever he enters, say to the owner of the house. “The Teacher asks, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?” (Mk. 14:13-14)

It would have been socially improper for a man to do this type of women’s work of drawing water and carrying it back to his master. Some commentators have said this is the equivalent in our times of Jesus instructing the disciples to look for the gender bending man—cross-dressing, wearing a wig and with make-up. While it would be anachronistic to suggest this man may have been queer-identified in our modern sense, he was certainly transgressing a strict gendered boundary in his behavior. Jesus seems to be aware of this gender variant man. It is interesting to speculate about his relationship with the man carrying the water jar.

My inclusive imagination goes wild over these couple of lines in Mark’s gospel. Was there a location in Jerusalem where one met gender variant males? Jesus was certainly comfortable with eunuchs when identifies with eunuchs in his statement: “For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.”(Mt. 19:12)

If so, it points to Jesus’ inclusive experience of these gender variant males and eunuchs, and more importantly, his inclusion of gender variant folks into his ministry is wider than we could even imagine. Did Jesus and his disciples eat his Last Supper in a location that would scare many religiously conservative and purity conscious Pharisees would cringe at the thought?

Jesus preached while sharing a cup of water; he fed 5000 near the waters of the Sea of Galilee, he described himself as the living water. He healed the blind at pool of Siloam and instructed him to wash his eyes from the waters of the pool.
Water symbolizes the transformation born of us as children of God into a new creation—an inclusive community connected to the waters within the cosmic Christ. Next time you take a drink of water, understand that you drink the waters of Christ. It is a form of communion, and you have born like Christ as child of heaven and earth. And the water you drink connects you to all water and life.
Finally, when we were baptized, we understand that we were baptized with Christ and into the mystical body of Christ. We become beloved children of heaven and earth, and we have a responsibility for the waters of the Earth and all the life containers carrying virtual water of Christ. Our water discipleship is born of our baptism. And we honor the Christ in all waters have a responsibility to water justice around–to make sure all have access to water and clean water.   Water justice starts with us and our conservation here in Southern California even on a rainy weekend!

(As I surveyed scripture readings for this sermon on MCC United Church of Christ’s 42nd anniversary, I was reminded that I asked all who preached on our anniversaries to imitate the last lecture series popularized several years ago. I just made it the criteria: imagine and preach your last sermon—the sermon and message that you would want to pass on to folks with your last words.)
I would like to describe myself as a heart specialist: not in any medical definition, nor in one of the match making or dating services online. A heart specialist functions to bring healing to the world or to channel to others what has been abundantly and excessive given to me. I do actions for others. Why do I try to be compassionate and loving?

Each Sunday as I take communion, I practice a meditation from the Tibetan Buddhist tradition—called tonglen. It means “taking and sending” or “receiving and giving away.” I take on the burdens and sufferings of others, and I send out what graces I have received from God for others. These are the words you hear as I take the host—Christ’s body and God grace to us. “I take this communion and offer the grace for those who are hungry, for the homeless living on the streets, those suffering from war and oppression, and for the Earth which has been oppressed and ravaged by humanity. I offer this grace for healing.” I vary my words occasionally.

My tonglen communion practice is a meditation to connect myself and yourselves with suffering —our own and the suffering of the world that we livein. It is a heart practice that dissolves the tightness in our hearts and opens our hearts to the suffering around us. It unites the suffering and death of Christ whose words at the last supper form the core practice and in fact spiritual participation in his own death and resurrection. “This is my body broken and given for you. And this is cup of my blood, shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me.” Whenever we remember the words and Christ’s inclusive hospitality at table, we are connected to the suffering and death of Christ and more.
My communion practice of tonglen connects the suffering and death of Christ with the suffering of people, other live, and the Earth. It is meant to awaken our compassion that we experience with God, who experiences the death of Christ and experiences the suffering of the world. It is the flow of God’s grace offered to us through Christ but that flow does not stop within our hearts or within us. What we receive we send to the suffering in the world. We never keep any gifting from God for our own but pass it on to those in greater need.

I chose Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. It most exemplifies my opening words about tonglen communion practice. The story incarnates Jesus words in his sermon on the plain in Luke’s gospel: “Be compassionate as your Abba God is compassionate.” The context of the parable is the question to Jesus: “who is my neighbor?”

Jesus’ parable is an example that answers the question of neighbor. There ia man who travels from Jerusalem to Jericho but is mugged by robbers—who strip him, beat him, and leave him for dead. A priest is traveling the same direction sees the stripped body and deliberately goes out of his way to avoid the body. He does not even approach to see whether the man on the ground is still alive. Similarly, a Levite passes by the unconscious body as well; he disregards the body as well.

A Levite is a religious functionary who serves the priests in the Temple with their religious duties. They are like deacons, assisting the priests in their purifying hand washings and sacrificial role of killing and offering a portion of that animal to God.

Both priest and Levite are required by religious regulations to avoid occasions of impurity or defilement. Coming into contact with a dead corpse or nearly dead body would generate defilement so that they could not perform their religious duties in the Temple.

The third traveler–a Samaritan—despised by the Jews ethnically and religiously—sees the beaten body. He is moved to compassion, he treats the beaten man’s wounds with oil and bandages his wounds, places him on his own mount and brings him to an inn.

And the next day the Samaritan took out two denarii and the gave them to the innkeeper and said: “Take care of that man and whatever more you spend, when I return will give back to you.”

The details of the story have more depth when we look closely at the story. When I ask which character in the story I most identity with? I hope first for the Samaritan, but certainly not the priest and Levite, and perhaps most with the innkeeper. I will explain why momentarily.

The Australian poet, Henry Lawson, wrote a poem about the Samaritan. Listen to the third stanza:

He’s been a fool, perhaps, and would
Have prospered had he tried,
But he was one who never could
Pass by the other side.
An honest man whom men called soft,
While laughing in their sleeves —
No doubt in business ways he oft
Had fallen amongst thieves.

Lawson describes the Samaritan’s giving a foolish type exchange. From a business perspective, the exchange is not even an investment, it is a squandering of monies spent on someone already half dead and probably a sinner. How often is charitable giving is enclosed in businesss language of investment? Donations are given with strings attached. Or it is considered throwing the investment away unless it brings a return to the giver. Here Lawson characterizes the gifting of the wounded man by the Samaritan from a sense of compassionate care as an act of foolishness. From a business perspective, it is foolish giving with no return, squandering valuable capital on a poor investment.

On one level, the Samaritan in the parable is the Abba God of Jesus who attempts to compassionately love us. The Samaritan represents the God, who reaches out compassionately to the wounded man and relates to us as the good Samaritan. God compassionately offers extravagant life-giving care and hospitality to the wounded man left half dead.

When I reflect upon my experience of God’s love for myself, for you, and all life, I come up with: “extravagant hospitality” as the Father in the prodigal son parable rushing out to greet his returning son, “abundant love and unconditional love, and excessive compassion.” All these phases describe Hod’s giving to myself and yourselves.

What God gives us is excessive—more than we need or can use. We have life, the givenness of the world, friends, a community, companion animals, and more even if we think we have less.

God’s giving is not random—that is, a hit or miss display of love. It is prolific and wanton and directed at each of us. Its excessiveness generates our own giving. In the parable of the prodigal son, the son asks for inheritance and his father bestows upon himself. He goes away and squanders it on himself. The father gives the prodigal son his share of capital and property even knowing that his son will squander it. When he has lost everything, he returns home. And his father runs to meet him throwing his arms around him to welcome him. What the father has still is his son’s. The son not only learns about profound forgiveness and compassion from his father, but also learns that the joy of his father’s giving and giving again..

Excessive acts of kindness encourage more giving away. God’s giving always precedes us giving. God is love, and God’s love directed at us occurs before we are even aware of that divine gifting. But God’s giving always means that we who receive God’s excessive compassion and extravagant hospitality need to pass the gift on. When we pray in Lord’s prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread.” It is not merely prayer for daily bread for ourselves, for it is a prayer to receive bread to share with others. Whatever God gives to us, God gives for us to share and pass on.

Let’s go back to my identification with the innkeeper. The Samaritan gives the innkeeper a small subsidy or down payment in advance. The Samaritan entices the innkeeper to give more and provide generous care for the wounded man. The innkeeper gives again because he has received a gift. Is that not what God does with us? God call us to be innkeepers. God gives excessively and abundantly, and we as innkeepers are shaped by Good’s bountiful and over generous giving. In passing on God’s giving to us, we participate in God’s gifting by passing it onto others. God’s excessive acts of kindness are encouraged by a promise of repayment provides the opportunity to the innkeeper to pass the gift along to the wounded man.

Jesus holds up the Samaritan as a model of surprising generosity as Samaritan. It startles and shocks his Jewish audience. What Jesus intends to teach us is that God’s gifting creates a community of givers who empower others to give and in their cultivation of generosity and in gratitude to give again.

Stephen Webb, in his book, The Gifting God, writes:

Passing the gift along transforms the static and ambiguous obligation of gratitude into a joyous participation in the life of that gift. What we most give to others is to help them discover, develop, and deploy what they have to give, and sometimes this means that we must give up our own gifts, as did Jesus Christ, and learn how to receive.
For learning to receive God’s excessive gifts, God’s extravagant welcome and hospitality, God’s unconditional love is to learn not to hold onto the gifting but to pass the gifting away. We become channels of God’s gifting and, in turn, that gifting is passed on to others.
It stretches our imagination, for giving as God extravagantly gives to us becomes a goal and ideal for Christians. Religious sociologist Robert Wuthnow writes, “Helping others may not lead to a better society, but it allows us envision a better society.” We understand what Jesus’ parable presupposes: a new world where not only the barriers between us and them are dissolved, but that we realize that a stranger or even a supposed enemy can come to aid of one of us.
I believe with my whole heart and being in that dream of God for a better world shaped by God’s extravagant giving. Such actions in serving others, living and fighting for justice of people, other life, and the Earth

I am like everyone else I hate paying taxes for a number of reasons but I am realist that many of our services, that I expect, would be curtailed or non-existence. Taxes are a necessary part of living in the US. I do dislike the fact that taxes are unfair, especially on the poor and the middle class, when the very wealthy can pay at a lesser tax rate than many of us. The billionaire Warren Buffet has called attention to the fact his secretary pays a higher rate of taxes than he does as a billionaire because of the tax loopholes and deductions that are available to him but not to his secretary. I dislike how corporations shift monies overseas to pay reduced taxes and pay rates less than any of us.

Today’s gospel appears to be about taxes, but I want to suggest that the issue is more than taxes. The first clue is that the Pharisees joined the Herodians to entrap Jesus. You see the Pharisees and the Herodians are enemies, they are political parties frequently in conflict over their goals. In this case, they unite against Jesus. They become convenient friends to go after Jesus.
The Herodians developed their power from the Roman occupation. They were named after Herod the Great—the king who tried to kill Jesus in Bethlehem. His son Herod Antipater killed John the Baptist. Herod made life difficult for Jesus, and we can safely assume that Jesus was itinerant, constantly moving around Galilee and in and out Galilee, escaping the troops of Herod. They were the landed gentry who practiced their Jewish religion with explicit allegiance to Rome. They were Hellenized Jews who practiced the religious cult to the Emperor. The Roman Empire kept them in power as they oppressed Galilean peasants.
The Pharisees represented the purity party that supported the Temple and chief priests. They built a fence around the Torah regulations with a series of oral traditions to keep as pure as the Temple priests. Yet the Pharisees collected the Temple tithes and reinforced a boycott of those who did not pay there Temple dues. Out of necessity, they deferred to Roman authority because the Temple cooperated with the Romans.

The Herodians represented the interests of the Roman Empire and its system of control while the Pharisees represented the Temple interests. The Herodians felt Judaism’s future belonged to Rome and the Herods installed as rulers by Rome. They supported the Roman system of taxation that was burdensome and kept the Jewish peasants poorer. The Herodians became money launderers for the Roman tribute, and they profited from the money exchange of Jewish coinage into Roman coinage.

The Herodians stood by Herod Antipas in Galilee. Herod had killed John the Baptist, and here was another popular charismatic prophet causing trouble. In fact, people from the circle of Herod Antipas found their way to this charismatic prophet. Joanna, the wife of an administration official in Herod’s court, became a disciple of Jesus.

The Romans levied a grain tax, taxes on all produce, sales taxes, occupational taxes on certain trades and guilds, custom taxes, temple taxes, transit taxes. These revenues from conquered peoples supported Roma and its citizens. The Pharisees represented the alternative religious tax system that took 10% of all that the peasants produced plus the requirements for sacrifices for forgiveness, annual feasts and festivals in Jerusalem. 95% of the Jews who lived in Palestine suffered from the burdensome taxes.

These two groups come together in their opposition to Jesus. Jesus disturbs the religious and political powers with his message of God’s reign. We have seen where religious and political groups align themselves together against an opponent. In 2008, the Mormons, the Catholics, and the Evangelicals came to support Prop 8 because of their opposition to same-sex marriage while despising each other.

They intend to ensnare Jesus on the question of taxes. Will he deny the taxation system of the Roman Empire or the Temple? In the coinage collected by Roman officials and their proxies, they collected denarri with the image of the Emperor Tiberius, son of the divine Augustus Caesar. The Pharisees would objected to the denarii or foreign currency. For the Temple taxes and offering had to be exchanged for coins without the image of Caesar or acknowledging any national god outside of the Jewish God. The Jewish God was the only God. The Pharisees advanced the view that any payment to the emperor with denarii coins was idolatry. The Pharisees rejected foreign currency because it violated the first commandment against graven images. In Judea, the Temple authorities minted coins in Hebrew creating an alternative religious currency. Jewish coinage or coinage without any image of Caesar or god was acceptable.
Payment of Roman taxes meant paying tribute to Rome and its divine ruler and gods. The Pharisees did not want to accommodate with the Greco-Roman culture nor with paying tribute. But they were forced since ending the tribute would have brought dire consequences of the Roman military, further enslavements and punishments.

So the question posed to Jesus by the Herodians and Pharisees: “Teacher, we know you are sincere, and teach the way of God in accordance with truth, and show deference to no one, for you do not regard people with partiality. Tell us what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor or not?”

When Jesus asked for the coin, he realized his challengers asked him to make a choice between two taxation systems, fraught with political consequences. Did he publicly side with the Herodians or the Pharisees? Or, did Jesus side with the accommodating Herodians who saw relations with Rome as the future? If he agreed with the Pharisees, the Herodians could charge him with rebellion against Rome. If Jesus agreed with the Herodians, the Pharisees could charge him with idolatry. And this would end the week-long challenges of Jesus in Jerusalem and discredit him in the eyes of the people.

Jesus asked for a coin. When Jesus asked for the image and the title on the coin, he made the Pharisees and the Herodians face up to the choice they gave him. Rome or the Temple? Jesus cleverly sidetracked the political trap.

Jesus renders his verdict as they produce a coin. He says to them, “whose head is this and whose title is this?” They concede, “The emperor’s.” Then Jesus says, “Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When two options are presented in Aramaic language, it is always the second that holds importance. In this case, he says pay the taxes to Caesar but recognize that ultimately the greater allegiance belongs to God. Jesus probably remembered the prayer in the Psalm:
The earth belongs to the Lord, and all that is in it,
The world and those who live in it.

Jesus prohibits unquestioning loyalty to Rome, and a few days later in his demonstration in the Temple, in his prophetic action of overturning the table of the money-changers, he pronounces his verdict, “My father’s house has become a den of thieves.”

Loyalty and allegiance to the Roman Empire or to the Jewish Temple are secondary to the reign of God. Unquestioning loyalty to the state or to the church are dangerous at any time. Jesus message about God’s reign takes precedence over all claims. The guards at the Nazi concentration camps considered themselves loyal Germans and good Christians. And look at the atrocities they did in crucifying Christ in the concentration camps

(Youtube Clip from Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GtEzV9jTpvI

Dietrich Bonhoeffer and his writings are studied in many mainline seminaries and universities. In the early 1930s, he studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York City with the famous theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, a member of of one of the earlier churches that formed into the United Church of Christ in 1957, and Bonhoeffer participated in the Abyssinian American Baptist Church in Harlem and enjoyed African-American Spirituals. He was on collision course with the Nazi politics of his native Germany. He joined the resistance. Next week after service we watch the movie—Bonhoeffer: Agent of Grace. But today I want to show you a clip from the movie when the Gestapo come into church, informing Bonhoeffer that he can no longer teach, preach, or lead worship. The Gestapo intimate the congregation to profess the Nuremberg Confession:

The pastor/theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote,

Let’s not delude ourselves that if we take the loyalty oath to Hitler it means they’ll let us worship in peace. The Nuremberg laws are an attack on Christianity itself. Adolf Hitler demands nothing less than total commitment. He’s the elected chancellor, yes. But more than that, he considers himself de Fuhrer, and as “the leader,” he craves to be the conscience of every living German. But his claim upon us is a claim that a Christian can only accept from Christ Himself.

There are times that our conscience informed by the Gospel of Christ and our God may lead us to realize that there is a higher allegiance than Caesar or Hitler or corporate greed. I tried to think of one, and my thought is on the Tar Sands pipeline from Canada. Should it be approved, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people who love and care for the Earth, will stand and obstruct the construction of the pipeline which will cross the largest aquifer in the heartland of the US. A major spill could effect the water supplies of millions of Americans and American farming. It is folly to construct this for greed for fossil fuel. I will stand with Sierra Club and peoples of faith in civil disobedience to such a construction project. It will harm the Earth and life. Here is a more contemporary example of rendering to God.