Introduction

We have now come to the final part of a sermon series in which I have explored with you a statement of Christian beliefs and experience written by Brian McLaren called The Jesus Creed.

It is, and always has been, my conviction that it is a best practice for us, as a community of faith, to identify our theological starting-points. I believe that this is important because those to whom we will attempt to share the gospel, and invite into our community, will want to know what are our beliefs. While the post-modern tendency is to argue that everything is relative — in other words, intellectually negotiable — in actual fact, we each implicitly assume foundational certainties from which we proceed to engage our world.

For example, you would be unable to step out of the house each morning unless you were certain there was enough oxygen to breath, sunshine for warmth, food for sustenance, and basic social rules to which everyone adhered. If you were not certain of such foundations for your life, then each moment of each day would be a futile exercise in adapting to changing conditions. This is not intellectual word-play, but a practical fact of reality!

Quite possibly the most important foundation for our life relates to our beliefs regarding the existence of God. Our Ministry Team has adopted The Jesus Creed in order to make public our community's starting-points for this foundation. Thus, this statement represents our answer to the question of God's existence and our responses to that answer. This statement is not meant to dictate what we as a congregation believe specifically, but to indicate the types of beliefs we hold generally.

We refer to "starting-points" because we accept that there is so much more to discover about God than what we presently know, but this statement is a pretty good reflection of where we have chosen to start. It thus becomes a tool to use for explaining our faith in Jesus and a way to invite others to explore with us what Jesus means to us and can mean to them.

We have, thus far, identified the importance of Jesus' miracles for demonstrating his power — a man with such power must know things worth knowing. We have also identified the importance of Jesus' teaching — it turns out that what Jesus knows and teaches makes possible a full and abundant life. We have also discovered that belonging to a community of faith is the most appropriate vehicle for maturing in our faith. Let us today, finally, consider what it means to know Jesus.

The Jesus Creed

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who healed the sick, the blind, and the paralyzed.

And even raised the dead.

He cast out evil powers and

Confronted corrupt leaders.

He cleansed the temple.

He favoured the poor.

He turned water into wine,

Walked on water, calmed storms.

He died for the sins of the world,

Rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father,

Sent the Holy Spirit.

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who taught in word and example,

Sign and wonder.

He preached parables of the kingdom of God

On hillsides, from boats, in the temple, in homes,

At banquets and parties, along the road, on beaches, in towns,

By day and by night.

He taught the way of love for God and neighbour,

For stranger and enemy, for outcast and alien.

We have confidence in Jesus,

Who called disciples, led them,

Gave them new names and new purpose

And sent them out to preach good news.

He washed their feet as a servant.

He walked with them, ate with them,

Called them friends,

Rebuked them, encouraged them,

Promised to leave and then return,

And promised to be with them always.

He taught them to pray.

He rose early to pray, stole away to desolate places,

Fasted and faced agonizing temptations,

Wept in a garden,

And prayed, "Not my will but your will be done".

He rejoiced, he sang, he feasted, he wept.

We have confidence in Jesus,

So we follow him, learn his ways,

Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.

We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,

As a branch in a vine.

We have not seen him, but we love him.

His words are to us words of life eternal,

And to know him is to know the true and living God.

We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Amen.

Getting To Know Jesus

Before we discuss the meaning of the final section of this creed, let us look at a conversation between Jesus and his disciples which will introduce some of the ideas to be discussed this morning. Let us read together from John 14:1-14.

Read passage aloud from Bible at hand.

All that this creed has discussed so far reminds us, as does verse 1, that the one who believes in the God revealled by Jesus has had their eyes opened to perceive the reality of the world in which we live — and let me tell you, 'it's not a pretty picture'! Such knowledge may trouble our hearts, as we begin to perceive the consequences of our sin and the sin of others. The fact is that this world is in a fallen state, cut-off from its Creator, and heading for destruction. However, as Jesus reminds his disciples in this passage from The Gospel of John — and through them, reminds us — believing in God brings peace into our lives, despite the chaos around us (John 14:27).

This peace comes from knowing that we are headed for an eternal paradise; enjoyed partially now, but soon to be realised fully (:2-3). Everything that happens to us now is for our eternal good (Romans 8:28): "Brothers, what we do in life, echoes in eternity" (spoken by the character General Maximus in the 2000 Ridley Scott file Gladiator).

We might balk at the idea of an eternal paradise (Acts 17:32), but the fact that Jesus died and came back to life proves that, in fact, a supernatural and spiritual reality exists all around us. If Jesus wants to talk as if there is a life after death, then he is the one person who would actually know of its eternal existence since he went there and came back to describe it to us!

Jesus reminded his disciples that, "you know the way to the place where I am going" (John 14:4), meaning that they knew the spiritual reality of which he spoke. They, however, stated that they didn't really understand what he meant (:5). It is odd that he believed they did know the way, but they didn't feel as if they did. How often we feel as if we really don't know the way, when in fact the answer has always been plain to us (Romans 1:18-20)!

To explain to them, Jesus declared that he is the way into that reality, the way to enter into a relationship with God: "No one comes to the Father except through me" (:6). This answer reveals a tension inherent to the Christian faith, as his answer highlighted that it's not just an issue of whether or not we can get to heaven, but of how we can also live that eternal life right now. In order to have a relationship with God, whether in the future or right now, Jesus is the way.

Jesus is the way to the Father because he and the Father are one and the same being: one being, three persons. For the disciples, then, everything they needed to know about God could be seen in Jesus (:7, 9-11). They had first-hand experience of his miracles, his teaching, and were nurtured by him in community. But where does that leave us?

The Meaning of the Creed

Perhaps the answer to that question can be found by looking at the first paragraph of the fourth and final section of The Jesus Creed:

We have confidence in Jesus,

So we follow him, learn his ways,

Seek to obey his teaching and live by his example.

We walk with him, walk in him, abide in him,

As a branch in a vine.

As we read the biblical passages which describe Jesus' life and teaching, we are intrigued and inspired to take him and his teachings seriously. We seek to learn as much about him as we can, to emulate his lifestyle, and even to promote his cause.

However, this remains at the level of intellectual assent. If this level were sufficient, then people around us would no longer smoke, take drugs, or drive while tired. The news reports give us all the information that we need to curb these behaviours and the television commercials graphically depict the consequences of such behaviours, but still we have people in our society who persist in these behaviours because information and intellectual assent is never enough. We can never have confidence in information alone!

We have confidence in direct experience: Once, when I was a young teen, I was allowed by my mum to drink six bottles of beer. I was so sick afterwards that I have never drunk to such excess again (well, maybe once or twice more, but only once or twice). The disturbing memory of my experience with extreme drunkenness has been enough to keep me from indulging to that degree again. The information of how drunkenness would feel was not enough.

We have confidence in people that we know and trust. Somehow — and this is a great mystery — we can "walk with [Jesus], walk in him, abide in him". This is to say that the experience of the Christian is "as a branch in a vine". What does this mean? How can I, or you, explain this to someone who hasn't had such an experience?

Taking my cue from The Jesus Creed, I think that it's alot like being in the garden: the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:4-24; 3:8-9). When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they enjoyed a direct relationship with God — they walked with him. I believe that I can also add that knowing God had created the garden for them would have given Adam and Eve a great sense of satisfaction, a warmth of protection, so they obeyed his commandments — they walked in him. However, I don't believe that we can say they abided in him because, when the serpent tempted them with an alternative, they too quickly turned away from God.

Consider the other garden: the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46). There's no doubt that Jesus walked with and in God. Even despite the grief and agitation he felt, we can recognise that Jesus abided in God because he trusted God enough to step willingly into the suffering of the cross.

Now, which experience would you prefer? The joy and comfort of the Garden of Eden, that dulled the moral sense of Adam and Eve to the point of falling into sin, or the quiet confidence of Jesus in the midst of terrible trial? Adam and Eve had an enviable relationship with God, but they blew it! Jesus had a far more mature relationship with God, and he overcame the world (John 16:33)!

What this tells us is that we can know with certainty that we experience a relationship with God, through Jesus, directly. Thus, let me tell you that the act of being intrigued by what we read of Jesus signifies a spiritual moment of openness to God, a moment in which the Holy Spirit is helping us to go beyond the words to actually encounter Jesus. This is not simply an intellectual act, but a spiritual one signifying connection with God, if we allow our 'eyes to be opened'.

This experience remains a mystery and difficult to describe, as paragraph 2 indicates:

We have not seen him, but we love him.

His words are to us words of life eternal,

And to know him is to know the true and living God.

We do not see him now, but we have confidence in Jesus.

Our experience of Jesus will always be less than that of his disciples, who saw him in real-time. We do not have their experience of him right now, but we can know Jesus. Faith, then, fills in the gap between not being able to sit down with Jesus over a coffee, in a garden, and having "the assurance of things hoped for" (Hebrews 11:1, emphasis added). And this faith is just enough to convince us to place our confidence in Jesus, such that we will seek to learn as much about him as we can, to emulate his lifestyle, and even to promote his cause, believing that do so is the only way to full and abundant life right now (John 10:10).

Conclusion

Through the disciples, we are witnesses to the power, teaching, and community of Jesus. The Spirit takes us beyond the text into the situations described. The words spoken to the disciples become transparent, as if they are spoken directly to us, even now.

Thus, when Jesus leaves the earth, following his resurrection, he gives the command to his disciples to "go and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:18). That command becomes ours. Like the disciples before us, we are baptised into faith and taught the ways of Jesus, and then proceed to invite others into the same faith (:19).

Yet our faith does not remain a mere intellectual assent because Jesus declared "I am with you always, to the end of the age" (:20). By faith we enter into a real relationship with Jesus, not that we will "see" him perhaps, but we will certainly see the effects of his coming and going in our life (John 3:8) and be assured enough to be able to declare that we too "have confidence in Jesus". Do you have confidence in Jesus?