Rancho Bernardo Community Presbyterian Church

Psalm 8 and 1 Corinthians 12:1-3

It is good to be back from our mission trip to Nepal. Of all the mission trips we’ve taken over recent years, this was clearly the most foreign experience. While most of the students and faculty at the Jesus Bible College speak fairly good English, we spent lots of time sitting in the midst of Nepalese conversations without any translation. We quickly learned that some conversations were intended to include us and others excluded us. I sat in one meeting where the entire meeting was done in English to include me. Most of the discussions, however, left me sitting politely as an outsider.

Perhaps the best example of insider versus outsider language is how the Christians greet each other in the church as opposed to how they greet each other on the street. The common greeting in Nepal is “Namaste.” It comes from the Hindu religion of the country and basically means, “I greet the divine in you.” Out on the streets Christians greet each other, “Namaste.”

Inside the church, however, there is a different greeting used between brothers and sisters in Christ. “Jai Mashi” means “Glory to the Messiah.” We learned that we use this greeting only inside the church not out on the streets. In a culture where Christians are not allowed to convert others, this is not an appropriate greeting outside the church. Christians can get arrested for trying to evangelize their neighbors. Thus, this greeting must be used cautiously.

The Nepalese Christians are facing hard times. But then we all face hard times in our lives. How many times have I listened to people struggling with tough times and wondering where God was in the situation? Her husband lost his job and it feels like their family is unraveling. He is broken-hearted that she no longer wants to date him. He was ready to propose but after years together she has called it off. Their child has spiraled out of control and they don’t know what to do. The list goes on and on.

There is a phrase that followers of Jesus have used over the years when they find themselves in tough times. It goes like this, “Jesus is Lord.” Let’s review what we mean when we say, “Jesus is Lord.”

Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says “Let Jesus be cursed!” and no one can say “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit.

1 Corinthians 12:1-3

Thirteen years ago Kate and I arrived in a northern community in Arizona to interview with the Pastor Nominating Committee. We learned that there was a way that locals said the name of the community and a way that most outsiders said its name. As we were driving out of the city, I commented to Kate, “Isn’t it interesting that the locals say Prescott so that it rhymes with apricot, but the outsiders say Prescott so that it rhymes with biscuit.” Kate corrected me. “No, you have it reversed. The locals say ‘Pres-kitt’ and the outsiders say ‘Pres-cott’.” We began to debate as we pulled into a fast food drive through. I asked the girl at the window, “Could you pronounce the name of this place slowly so that we can get it right?” She leaned out the window and said slowly, “D-a-i-r-y Q-u-e-e-n.”

If we are not careful, our language in the church can easily become exclusive to those outside the church. Inside the church we use words like “doxology” and “sanctification.” Such words and phrases do not communicate anything to people who are unfamiliar with our church traditions. If we want to avoid being exclusive, we must either change the words or define them in down-to-earth vocabulary for neighbors. When we explain what we mean, it helps us clarify our beliefs as well as reach out to others.

There are some words and phrases so precious that we must continually work to define and explain them not only inside but also outside the church. The Apostle Paul said the phrase “Jesus is Lord” is so important that we can use it as a litmus test to determine whether someone genuinely has experienced the Holy Spirit. This simple phrase became the church’s first creed. If it is too valuable to lose, then let’s clarify what we mean when we say it.

What do we mean when we say, “Jesus is Lord”? For the first Christians the image of Lord was multi-layered. There was a personal, a political, and a cosmic meaning.

First, the personal meaning of the statement that “Jesus is Lord” referred to the master-slave relationship. The ancients often held slaves. They referred to the owner of a slave as their Lord. Slavery was the result of losing a battle to your enemies. At the end of the war between tribes or nations, those who had been captured were forced to kneel before their new king. In some instances the ceremony of surrender included having the defeated soldiers kneel one at a time before the throne so that the conquering king could place his foot on the back of their necks. The symbolism was clear. He was the Lord who now owned them as his slaves.

When the first Christians said, “Jesus is Lord” they meant they were called to a life of obedience. They were giving up the right to do whatever they felt like doing in order to follow the command-ments of Jesus. When Jesus said to love our neighbor as ourselves, it was not considered optional. When Jesus told us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for those in need, we take these words as commands from our new king. Becoming a follower of Jesus means we have bowed before him and let him place his foot on our necks, claiming us. As the writer of Corinthians said it, “we have been bought with a price.”

A second way the early Christians interpreted “Jesus is Lord” was in the political sense. Lords were rulers in ancient days. They governed their people and protected them. They made treaties and sent armies. When the early church used the phrase “Jesus is Lord,” it carried an automatically implied second phrase with it: If Jesus is Lord, then Caesar is not.

Like the early Christians, while we are encouraged to support the government and practice loyalty to our government, there are times of divided loyalties. If the government asks Christians to do something that is against God, then followers of Jesus remain loyal to Jesus even when it means disobeying their own government. Christians through the ages have been martyred rather than deny their faith.

In the 1930s, a group of Christians in Germany gathered to speak to the rise of Hitler to power. They became concerned when the Nazis began to dictate who could preach in the pulpits of the churches and what they could or could not say. These Christians developed a statement which has become known as the Theological Declaration of Barmen. If one were to summarize the essence of this statement, it would come down to one sentence: Jesus is Lord and Hitler is not.

In the sixties, black Christians and white Christians joined hands and marched in civil disobedience across the south. They prayed and sang hymns. When the officials arrested these Christians, sent out the police dogs and sprayed them with fire-hoses, they refused to back down. They understood that God has created us all equal. They were making an important statement. If Jesus is Lord, then Governor Wallace is not.

The third way that the early church understood the phrase “Jesus is Lord” was as a statement that God is in control over the universe. The phrase “King of Kings and Lord of Lords” in Revelation took on cosmic significance. No matter what life hands us, God is still in control.

I am thinking of a conversation with someone caught in the midst of a personal crisis. He was unusually logical and articulate as he sat in my office and explored his options. “So, if life is this hard it seems to me I have three choices.” He wipes a tear from his cheek. “I can either believe that God is angry at me for walking away a few years ago. If all this has happened because God is punishing me, then what kind of God is that? If that is the way God is, then I don’t want a relationship with God!” There is some genuine anger. I nod that I appreciate his pain and can see how he would feel angry. He continues, “A second option is to believe that there is no God and stuff just happens randomly. It turns out life has no purpose. I have no hope or destiny. So why even try?” He pauses to see if I am tracking with him and whether I am offended by his articulate expression of doubt. I comment that I can appreciate how his pain could cause him to doubt everything. He nods and continues. Then he considers his third option. “Or maybe there really is a God, and this God has a purpose that I am not seeing yet. Maybe someday, years from now, I’ll look back on this situation and realize that it was all worth it because God is really using this time to guide me in a new direction.”

As I listen to his options, I explain that I believe the third explanation is correct. I compare a couple of my own painful experiences with his. I explain that I can look back now and see the hand of the Lord working in my life through those hard times. As we are finishing our conversation I hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit in my ear. “Jesus is Lord.” I am tempted to say it out loud. But I am not sure whether he is ready to hear it yet. So I pray and ask the Holy Spirit to whisper those comforting words to his heart.

When life knocks us down, the Holy Spirit whispers “Jesus is Lord” meaning God is still in control. Do we believe that God has everything under control?

The Lakota Indian tribe has a story about the end of the world. According to their traditional story Wakan Tanka created the world from a ball of mud taken from the swirling waters. The land was created and then covered with four-leggeds and two-leggeds. But Wakan Tanka knew that one day the waters would try to flood the earth. So he chose one of the four-leggeds to protect the earth from the destruction of the flood. Tatanka, the buffalo, was selected for his strength and stamina.

However, even as powerful a beast as Tatanka grows weary with age. A buffalo begins to turn gray and then loses his hair. Thus, to the Lakotas, the buffalo represents four ages of the earth. Each leg represents an age. At the end of the first age, Tatanka lost one leg in his vigilance to keep away the floodwaters. After more time passed, Tatanka lost his second leg, which was the second age. Then the old buffalo, weary with age, lost his third leg, completing the third age. So, when the Lakota people see the world getting worse, with families disintegrating and drug problems and society crumbling, they have a phrase for the approaching end of the world. Their phrase is this: “He’s on his last leg.” [1]

In other words, Tatanka will one day lose the battle against the waters and the world will be overcome by chaos. In contrast to this view, followers of Jesus have a phrase that describes our hope. We believe the world is moving in God’s plan toward the ultimate victory of Jesus. There is a purpose and destiny for our world and our lives. The phrase we use to describe the end of the world is this: Jesus is Lord!

[1] Walter Wangerin, The Crying for a Vision (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994) 198-200.