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I want to start with some familiar general questions:
1. That story about George Washington chopping down the cherry tree – you know the one – is that true? Was he honest about chopping down the cherry tree with his hacket?

2. William Randolph Hurst started the Spanish/ American War in order to sell newspapers – is that true? Or did Hearst exploit the tragedies of public unrest to sell more papers? Which is true?

3. Were all the stories about American legends – Davy Crockett, Jessie James, Bonnie & Clyde – were those stories legends, myths, or truth?

Any time a great person lives, there are at least three ways to remember them:

* things which really happened in their lives,

* stories made up about them,

* accounts of others’ experiences with that person

Which brings me to the topic of the day... Jesus. Well, perhaps Marcus Borg and Jesus. Over the next few weeks, we will be exploring some of the major contributors to theology in the last twenty years. These are men and women who have influenced my own thinking and who are writing some of the best contemporary and progressive scholarship of our time.

Today I want to share with you some foundational work done by Marcus Borg. Borg has written a number of books such as… read titles of the books I own. Marcus was a prolific writer in the later 1990’s until his death in 2015. In his book “Meeting Jesus Again for the First Time”, Borg asks what we can know about the historical person of Jesus… that is, the human being who was named Jesus of Nazareth. Marcus Borg tells the story of preparing for a TV interview. The topic was the life of Jesus. He took into account that about 10 of the 30 minute interview would be commercial; 5 more minutes would be used up for introduction. That left him 15 minutes to talk about Jesus. However, when he arrived, he was told that the segment had been reduced to 5 minutes. And when he went on live, he was actually allotted 90 seconds! This is what he said in his 90 seconds about Jesus:

Jesus was a peasant–which tells us about his social class. Clearly, he was brilliant. His use of language was remarkable and poetic, filled with images and stories. He had a metaphoric mind.

He was not an ascetic but world-affirming, with a zest for life.

There was a sociopolitical passion to him; like a Gandhi or a Martin Luther King Jr., he challenged the domination system of his day.

He was a religious ecstatic–a Jewish mystic, if you will–for whom God was an experiential reality. As such, he was also a healer. And there seems to have been a spiritual presence around him, like that reported of Saint Francis or the Dalai Lama.

And I suggest that as a figure of history, he was an ambiguous figure–you could experience him and conclude that he was insane, as his family did, or that he was simply eccentric, or that he was a dangerous threat–or you could conclude that he was filled with the Spirit of God.

Yet, there is so much more about him that has been written and said since his death and resurrection. These are claims made about him by those who testified to his life and ministry. Borg calls this part of what we know about Jesus as the post-Easter figure. Let me illustrate:

While the pre-Easter Jesus was born around 4 BCE and was executed around 30 CE; the post-Easter Jesus is Jesus from the year 30 to the present day. This is Jesus as he has become known by centuries of Christian witness. It’s a natural human tendency to tell stories about a person after they die and as time goes on, the stories become bigger than life.

The pre-Easter Jesus is a figure of the past, dead and gone; the post-Easter Jesus is a figure of the present; a spiritual relationship beyond the man and with the divine.

The pre-Easter Jesus was a flesh and blood human being; the post-Easter Jesus is a spiritual reality, actual but non-material. Think of how we regularly do this to significant historical people… The Bishop of Myra became St. Nicholas; George Washington & the cherry tree; Davy Crockett...

The pre-Easter Jesus was finite and mortal, and he died. The post-Easter Jesus is infinite and eternal and has the qualities of God. This post-Easter Jesus is what has been called God incarnate – the God-spark in each of us.

The pre-Easter Jesus was a Jewish peasant; the post-Easter Jesus became King of Kings and Lord of lords. The Prince of Peace, the Lover of our souls.

Do you see the difference? Where did this transition take place? When did Jesus of Nazareth become the Alpha and Omega, the Prince of Peace, the Savior of our souls?

Borg says that the transformation from Jesus as a Galilean Jew to Jesus as the face of God and the second person of the Trinity was Easter. By Easter, he does not mean a particular day or an experience confined to a few weeks after the death of Jesus. By Easter, he means that the followers of Jesus continued to experience him as a living reality after his death, and in a radically new way. They experienced him as being a spiritual, non material reality, and increasingly in the years and decades after his death, as having the qualities of God. So the transformation of Jesus continues even today. Although we do not know the man Jesus of Nazareth personally, we can testify to the life and work of Jesus as a spiritual being and as God’s own life in us.

This brings us to the traditional text from Acts 2:32-36. Listen as I read this text and see if you recognize the post-Easter language:

“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses. Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from God the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you both see and hear. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says,

‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand,
until I make your enemies your footstool.’

Therefore, let the entire house of Israel know with certainty that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified.”

When did Jesus become the “Son of God”, asks Borg. According to Jewish traditions near the time of Jesus, the metaphor “Son of God” was used to speak of a king on the day of his coronation and it also was used to refer to Israel as a whole. According to Jewish tradition, the metaphor “Son of God” was used to refer to a number of Jewish Spirit persons. What all of these have in common – the king, Israel, a Spirit person – is a relationship of intimacy with God.

That means that initially, when people spoke of Jesus as the Son of God, they were using a relationship metaphor to explain that there was an intimacy in the relationship between Jesus and God. Later, that relationship metaphor developed into a biological metaphor as the birth stories in Luke and Matthew were written. In these stories, Jesus is conceived by the Spirit and, if the texts are read literally, is Son of God by virtue of having a divine father rather than a human father. Eventually, this relationship metaphor turned into a biological metaphor and later into Christian doctrine.

So, what does this mean for a modern Christian? I think there are implications galore. But the one I want to single out for your consideration today is this: have you gotten to know the historical person Jesus of Nazareth? And is Jesus’ life and story compelling for you in a way that leads to study, emulation or worship? That, my friends, is when Easter happened for you.

Pastoral Prayer

Spirit of God, our prayers often ask You to be present in our lives and in our world.  But we confess that we are terrified that You might actually show up.

We remember the stories of You appearing as a burning bush, and then Moses and Sarah leaving everything familiar behind.

We remember the stories of You kindling the imagination of the prophets, and then each putting their lives on the line.

We remember the stories of You igniting courage within Shiphrah and Puah, Deborah and Esther, Elizabeth and Mary, and then each challenging the status quo.

We remember the stories of You sparking action within the early Church, compelling them all to embrace something completely foreign and new. We confess, Dear Spirit, we are afraid You will call us to move outside our comfort zones. We are afraid You will kindle a passion within us we will be unable to ignore. We are afraid that You will rearrange our lives beyond recognition.  Forgive us for the fears that have been holding us back from inviting You truly into our live Silence.

Beloved people of God, find comfort in the news that the Spirit of God may be a formidable force, but She moves alongside people. And equips those who are open to the work ahead. Peter, known more for his denial and disbelief than his bravery, suddenly had courage with the Spirit alongside him. The disciples, not known for being gifted communicators, suddenly broke down barriers with the Spirit alongside them.

Beloveds, do not be afraid. Remain curious. Be open to the surprise. Celebrate that God is indeed about to do a new thing with all of us!