Being a Bridge to a Better Future

2 Lent B      February 25, 2018
Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25  Mark 8:31-38
Lectionary Link

I would like to organize my words today around some verses from the appointed Psalm of the day: "My soul shall live for him; my descendants shall serve him; they shall be known as the Lord's for ever.  They shall come and make known to a people yet unborn the saving deeds that he has done.

How would I characterize this words of poetry from the Psalms?  I would say that they are "forward looking."  They express a hope for the future of people yet unborn, that these people will know and understand the saving deeds of God in the past.

This means that the present as a bridge between the past and the not yet future.  If we are the bridge between the past the future, what kind of traffic do we want to allow on this bridge?

According to Psalmist, what needs to be transported into the future are the saving deeds of God.  What this means is that we are to bring the very best of the past as the model for a better future.

I think that the Apostle Paul and the Gospel communities believed that bridge of Judaism of their day was not bringing the salvation of God to enough people.

St. Paul and the followers of Jesus came to understand that Jesus of Nazareth was the bridge person to bring the glad tiding of God from the ancient past to the future in the a fuller and more complete way.

St. Paul believed that Jesus was the bridge to the future of belief in the One God among the Gentile peoples of the world.

And St. Paul made reference to how the saving deeds of God came to Abraham, this pre-Israelite figure who had a covenant with God, and how Abraham understood that God was going to make him the father of a great number of people.  Yes, this included his great-grand children, the sons of Jacob who became the patriarchs for the tribes of Israel; but Paul understood that Abraham was the father of faith for people who were not Israelites.  He believe that God's saving deeds could be known by God-fearing people who lived by faith, even without the benefits of the traditions of the Israelites.

St. Paul and the followers of Jesus understood Jesus to be a bridge from Abraham to the Gentile people.  Jesus was the bridge to bring the message of salvation to a much wider audience than was happening in the Judaism of his time.   And the early church understood that Jesus qualified to be the Messiah.

To confess Jesus as the Messiah required a change in thinking about the life and ministry of much speculated about figure of the  Messiah.  It also involved being real about the political realities of the first century.

Was the Messiah going to be like David, a king hero, who with military prowess would be able to re-establish the borders of Israel for God's people?  Would such a Messiah re-gather all of the Jews who lived outside of Israel in the Diaspora?  Was it realistic to think that this kind of Messiah would appear?

The reason Jesus rebuked Peter is that even though Peter confessed Jesus to be the Messiah, he did not understand what kind of Messiah Jesus would be.  Peter, in his ignorance, represented everyone who did not understand what kind of Messiah that Jesus was.

Jesus was a Suffering servant Messiah.  He was going to suffer, die, but then manifest the Messianic power by coming back to life in the world and inhabit the interior lives of everyone in the world who wanted to know this inner conquest by a Holy Spirit power.

This is how Jesus would be the bridge from Abraham to the nations with a Gospel of grace, faith and mercy to all.  This was the message God's saving deeds to people yet unborn being fulfilled.

Jesus would be the Messiah manifested as an inward Risen Christ, available to all people in the world.  And how did this happen?

It was happening through the mystical program of coming into an identity with the Risen Christ. It was understanding the death and resurrection of Christ as a directed higher power to die to one selfish tendencies and allow a new life of love to be so profound that one would form the practice of a new community. And this new community was a community of welcome for everyone.

The catch phrases of the Jesus Movement for the continual renewal of one's life, were to "take up one's cross," and "to lose one's life," that is one's soul life to find renewed mind and spirit.

Jesus was the way in which the faith of Abraham became the faith and salvation of the yet unborn people of the future. You and I today, remain as a bridge to the future. We want to leave a better place to the people yet unborn. We want people of the future to know that we cared for this world and that we did our part to leave a witness to the love and justice which befits the life of Jesus Christ.

Let us today accept our role as being bridge people to a better future as we bring the very best practice of the love and justice of Jesus Christ into the future. Amen.