Jesus the Sociologist

Jer 2: 4-13
Luke 14:1, 7-14

In the last couple weeks, I have been noticing how different people's reactions are too stressful situations. When I was a sociology student at Lock Haven University, the students were told to observe different people in different settings and to write down how each one reacted to certain things and try to figure out why that might be, and to a 22 year old it was much less disturbing to observe people in crisis than to actual be in the midst of the crisis with them. Jesus might have felt the same way sometimes as he waited to begin his ministry.

Jesus could have been considered a sociologist. He knew people. He'd studied them. He'd become a human to understand why they react the way they do and why they have such varying degrees of faith throughout their life. God became flesh not only to save us from ourselves, but to better understand us when we are hurting and lacking in faith. Understanding breeds compassion and compassion breeds patience and patience allows a person to wait to judge the person they are trying to help.

In this text today there was a lot of watching and listening and judging going on. The very first sentence of the text says that on the Sabbath Jesus went to eat with a prominent Pharisee and he was being watched closely. It doesn't say why he was being watched, but if we look back in Luke we can see that Jesus has done things on the Sabbath that others have taken offense to. We might conclude that Jesus was being watched closely in order that these offended people could have more ammunition against him. He also could have been watched closely because despite how he sometimes ignores the Sabbath laws, the person knows there is more to Jesus than the simple man in a robe and sandals.

What we also know is that Jesus is doing some observing of his own. Jesus is always paying attention to people. He is always trying to help them figure out why they do what they do, and why God does what God does. It's one of the reasons we call Jesus our Mediator. He helps to make God understandable to us and make us understandable to God. Because Jesus is completely human and also completely God he is able to understand each side and help us. I've heard some of you say that you don't like the Old Testament because it is too violent and God seems angry all the time.

In Jeremiah, we find out a reason why God is angry all the time. God asks Jeremiah, "What fault did your ancestors find in me that they strayed so far from me?" God is hurting here. God does not understand us and our lack of faith and commitment to God. All God wants to do is love us and give us a great life and the ability to be with God forever, and the people keep turning their backs in favor of wooden and clay statues that have no power at all! God is offended and becomes angry after the repeated betrayals. That is why God seems so different in the Old Testament.

Without Jesus, God sees us with kindness, but without true understanding of how hard it is to live life day by day with the challenges that face us and the hurts and pains that plague us. God needed to become human to understand us completely and we needed God to become human so we could understand God better.

When I was around 14, my sister Ashley became very ill. She was throwing up a lot and I felt so bad for her. However, my sister sometimes becomes a little dramatic and her constant moans and cries began to slowly irritate me and even though I was running around getting her Ginger Ale and crackers and helping hold her hair I felt completely unappreciated. I knew she was in pain, I could tell that easily enough, but the total understanding of what she was going through was not there because I was not the one experiencing it. Two days later, I got what she had and suddenly, as I was whining and complaining much louder than she ever had - I knew that Ash had had a legitimate complaint. I shouldn't have been so quick to dismiss her pain as dramatics.

This is why we needed Jesus to come to us. We needed God to understand us better, we needed Jesus to take on our humanity and our sins and die for us to wipe out all the past hurts and misunderstandings. Jesus came and observed us and offered us wise advice on how to live our lives and how to better understand a God that often seemed hostile and unwelcoming when God was angry at our faithlessness.

Now, we know that God is pure love and compassion. Now God knows that being human isn't easy even with all the promises God makes to us. We have trials and we are constantly being tested in our lives and sometimes God seems far away as the stars from the muck and mud we are walking through. Jesus brings God to us. Jesus brings us to God.

And that brings me to the final thing I want to mention today. I've been asked before why we do Communion monthly and why some churches do it quarterly and others do it weekly. I've also been asked why we have a hymn before Communion and these are great questions that tie right into why we needed Jesus to become human.

First, we must understand what we are trying to do with Communion. Communion is sacred and special. It should never be taken lightly. This is the moment when Jesus offers the disciples and us a way of communing directly with God. Jesus tells us that the bread becomes his broken body, the body he sacrifices for our sins on the cross. The juice becomes his blood, the blood that cleanses those sins and heals us of our doubts. In those precious moments that we take Communion, we are no longer 75 people sitting in pews, but we are at the banquet table in heaven. We are accepting God's grace and forgiveness as we eat the bread and drink the juice. God is accepting us as God's children.

Therefore, we have a Communion hymn to help us let go of today's worries and burdens. We are to try to open our hearts and minds to what we are about to experience and receive. The words are to remind us of this sacred moment and give us reverence for the beautiful gift Jesus has brought to us with his presence in our lives. It's also why a pastor always blesses the meal and asks the Holy Spirit to come upon the bread and juice. This is when it becomes a true communion between God and God's people.

When we truly understand the gift of Jesus Christ, we should be feeling an almost desperate need to share this gift with everyone around us. Every person is God's child. Every person deserves the chance to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. My hope is that our church can bring more people to Christ and by doing so we will become closer to God as well. May God bless each of you and the path you have taken in your life. May your faith be strengthened and your commitment to Jesus renewed each time you take Communion. May your heart be compassionate and your mind willing to forgive others as you begin to understand the angry God of the Old Testament is the very same loving God of the New Testament. The difference is Jesus and now we understand God better because Jesus has helped to create a connection that was not there before.

Amen.