Sermon: Jesus Is Lord, But I Have Others

Exodus 1:8-2:10

Jesus is Lord, But I Have Others

James Sledge                                                                                       August 27, 2017

In one of his letters to the church in Corinth, the Apostle Paul tries to straighten out some confusion there. The Corinthians were enamored with being spiritual and saw speaking in tongues as the proof that a person had the Holy Spirit. But Paul flatly rejects that idea. Writes Paul, No one can say, “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

I’m not so sure. Anyone can speak those words. All manner of people do while acting completely contrary to Jesus’ teachings. White supremacists profess him. Jesus knew this sort of thing would happen and said, “Not everyone who says to me ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father I heaven.”

But Paul isn’t talking about mouthing the words. He’s talking about a risky, subversive statement, one counter to another statement of Paul’s day, “Caesar is Lord.” Roman emperors were called “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Augustus, emperor when Jesus was born, was called “savior of the world, son of God, bringer of peace.”

To say “Jesus is Lord,” to call him Savior, Son of God, Prince of Peace, and lots of other things early Christians called Jesus, was to say “Not Caesar, but Jesus.” We might be able to say “Jesus is Lord” with little thought as to what it means or requires of us, but not so when Paul wrote, No one can say, Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

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You’ve noticed the banner I hung I hung behind me, one of many in the back of our sanctuary representing the faith statements of our denomination. This one goes with the Theological Declaration of Barmen, written by Lutheran and Reformed Christians in 1930s Germany who said “Jesus is Lord of all,” and our ultimate loyalty and allegiance is to him, not the nation, not the Nazis, not Adolf Hitler. It was a dangerous, subversive statement, not unlike when the first Christians said “Jesus is Lord.”

Every person who joins a Presbyterian Church, and many other denominations, proclaims “Jesus is Lord,” in their profession of faith. Jesus, not the nation, not my political party, not my family, not any economic system, and so on.

America has tried to make this seem less subversive by saying we are a Christian nation, that allegiance to Jesus and the nation are pretty much the same. But listen to what Jesus says, “Love your enemy… turn the other cheek… Blessed are the poor… Woe to you who are rich… You cannot serve God and wealth… If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross… whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.” Sounds pretty subversive to me.

The subversive nature of faith shows up in our Old Testament reading. Like Roman emperors who came after him, Pharaoh imagines that he is Lord. He has the power of life and death. He is viewed as a god. His command is law, and people must do as he says.

The story of Moses, of Israel’s escape from Egypt and Pharaoh, is a story about who actually is Lord, Pharaoh or Yahweh. The plagues, Passover, and the escape through the waters of the sea are the story tellers’ way of answering this question with absolute clarity.

The story begins with a forgetting. Now a new king arose over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. Pharaoh forgot how Yahweh had saved Egypt from famine through Joseph, forgot that he was lord only in the most relative sense, that for all his power, he was hardly lord of all. Such forgetting has consequences, often tragic. That is no less true for us when we imagine ourselves autonomous masters of our own fates.

Pharaoh imagines himself Lord of all, but the story knows better. The more Pharaoh oppresses the Israelites, the more they multiplied and spread. Pharaoh’s power cannot stop God’s blessing. And so Pharaoh takes more drastic steps. He orders the death of all male, Hebrew babies but is thwarted by a few women. 

No doubt the writers chuckle as two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah (two of my favorite biblical names) undermine Pharaoh’s pretensions. The story says, But the midwives feared God; they did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them. In other words, they knew Yahweh was Lord, not Pharaoh.

Then Pharaoh’s own daughter gets in on the act. Presumably she does not know that, “Yahweh is Lord,” but still she chooses the way of love and life. It is a risky choice. Pharaohs were not above killing their own children to maintain power. She does not know the right words about who is Lord, but she lives as though she did. The Holy Spirit, perhaps?

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For Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor, theologian and a leader in the Confessing Church movement that wrote the Barmen Declaration, the lordship of Jesus required him, like Shiphrah and Puah and Pharaoh’s daughter, to resist the false lord, Adolf Hitler,  resistance that eventually cost him his life. Bonhoeffer was terribly disappointed by how few of his colleagues would join him. They embraced Hitler because he was making Germany strong and vital again. They were even willing to take loyalty oaths to the Fuhrer and the Third Reich.[1] They and church members were willing to look the other way when Jews and others were persecuted and killed. They said, “Jesus is Lord,” but Hitler was their lord, too. And unlike Shiphrah and Puah, they were more in awe of Hitler than of God.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was also disappointed in many colleagues and fellow Christians, especially moderates and progressives. In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail he wrote:

(O)ver the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;” …Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.[2]

If I had been a pastor when Dr. King wrote these words, I fear that I would have been among those who bewildered him. I likely would have been sympathetic to him, but I wonder if I would have really done anything to help.

Things have certainly changed since the 1960s, but race still divides America. Sometimes it’s blatant, often it’s more subtle, but white privilege is built into our society’s structures and institutions, which means disadvantage to people of color is built in. White supremacy, notions that white culture is better, racial inequality in the job market, bias from law enforcement and the legal system persist, I feel bad about it, but I scarcely lift a finger to help.

I live a good life, serving a good church that sits squarely in the middle of white, American culture. I feel bad that others don’t enjoy the advantages I do, and because Jesus is Lord, I know they are the neighbor I should help. But Jesus is not my only lord. I want to be comfortable. I’d like a nice retirement. I don’t want to be too controversial, and I can follow Jesus only so far before these other lords get in the way.

But sometimes, something gnaws at me inside. Perhaps it is the Holy Spirit stirring me to remember who is Lord of all. And I remember that the story of goodness and life and hope, the story of God and God’s people, runs not through Caesar or Pharaoh or oppressive systems. It runs through people like Shiphrah and Puah and Bonhoeffer and Dr. King. And I realize, that’s the story I want to be part of, too.

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[1] An example of such a loyalty oath from Eric Metaxas, Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2010) 307-308.  In the recognition that only those may hold office in the church who are unswervingly loyal to the Fuhrer, the people and the Reich, it is hereby decreed:  Anyone who is called to a spiritual office is to affirm his loyal duty with the following oath: “I swear that I will be faithful and obedient to Adolf Hitler, the Fuhrer of the German Reich and people, that I will conscientiously observe the laws and carry out the duties of my office, so help me God” … Anyone who refuses to take the oath of allegiance is to be dismissed.

[2] Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” in Why We Can’t Wait (New York: Penguin Books, 1963-4) 84-85.