Books

For Unto Us: Lessons from the Life of Jesus

Preface


Across the span of two millennia, the life of Jesus continues to speak of uncommon love and transforming acceptance. No other figure in human history has attracted so much interest, summoned so much devotion, or created so much controversy. The mere mention of the name “Jesus” stirs the pot of public and private opinion to the point of a fevered boil. Scholars and preachers, theologians and film makers, the faithful and the fretful all find common cause invoking his name to endorse an idea, season a movement, or pacify a conscience. Jesus is the one person in history around whom the human family still finds hope, inspiration, courage, and joy. His life, death, and resurrection stand as the singular moment around which our calendar revolves and, for Christians, our lives turn.

For many in the Christian family, the Christian year begins with the season of Advent and continues through the seasons of Christmastide, Epiphany, Lent, Easter, and Pentecost. Five of the six seasons focus on our Lord’s life: his coming in history and in glory, his life, death, and resurrection. In these five seasons, from late fall to spring, Christian believers hear the invitation once again to follow our Lord. He is the one who goes before us in life, in death, and in life after death.

This collection of twenty-five sermons I have called Unto Us is an attempt, albeit halting and incomplete, to journey through these five seasons using the Scriptures as our trusted guide. Every one of these sermons was preached in the First Baptist Church of Augusta, Georgia, where I had the privilege and rare joy of being pastor for thirteen years. There, the gracious and engaged people of God encouraged me week after week to find the new in the good news. There, without any agenda or compulsion, the people gathered to listen prayerfully as I led them in worship through the preaching of the gospel. There, young and old, black, white, and Asian, rich and poor, the seasoned of faith and those just starting the journey called me to be my best self. There, much grace was given and much love exchanged as pastor and people listened with expectancy to what God was saying through Scripture, prayer, music, and that still, small voice of the Spirit.

The twenty-five sermons that follow are grouped into four categories. The first section, “Beginnings,” takes us from those first announcements of the coming Messiah in Advent through the birth of our Lord in Bethlehem. These are the moments from the text when we first hear heaven’s rumblings about the coming of One who topples kings from their thrones while gently finding his way into the sacred spaces of the human heart. In this section, I have taken great liberty to focus on Mary, the mother of our Lord. Long neglected in Protestant preaching, Mary is still the first witness to Jesus. Her naïve courage, her tender openness, and her gracious “Yes” speak across the ages to those of us who let fear cripple us rather than call us. The characters who precede the birth of the Messiah like the prophets, Mary, Joseph, John the Baptist, Elizabeth, and Zechariah show us the best way toward the stable in Bethlehem.

A collection of five sermons titled “Teach Us to Pray” comprise section two of this volume. The Model Prayer has long held a revered and trusted place in our hearts and liturgy. My Christian experience has been nourished by simply praying this prayer and finding in it a trusted guide in my journey with the Holy One. In this section, I have included five pastoral prayers from my ministry at Augusta’s First Baptist Church.

The third section contains sermons from our Lord’s teaching ministry. Often, Jesus would say, “those who have ears, listen.” So I have called this section “Ears That Hear.” Too often, we read the biblical text but either do not hear or refuse to hear what God is saying to us. In my judgment, our problem with Jesus’ teaching is not that we fail to understand him. To the contrary, having understood well what he has taught, we refuse to follow his teaching or live by his word. I have included sermons here from texts in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus’ public ministry of healing and mighty works, and the parables.

The final section is “Journey Into Life,” inviting us to walk those last days of our Lord’s ministry to Jerusalem, the cross, and the empty tomb. God’s good news in Jesus Christ is a journey into life from all that is death and death dealing. Whether we are crippled by prejudice, wounded by failure, hurt by another’s insensitivity, or angered by injustice, Jesus calls us from all that destroys and kills us to all that is in him that gives us life. His death, burial, and resurrection reveal to us the full measure of God’s unrequited, amazing love. No tomb can contain it, no creed control it, no belligerence stop it. “O the deep, deep love of Jesus, vast, unmeasured, boundless free! Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me; underneath me, all around me is the current of Thy love; leading onward, leading homeward, to my glorious rest above.”

To those who wonder if Jesus’ life, teaching, passion, and resurrection still have meaning today, I can only point to lives changed week by week in congregations and communities around the world who follow and worship God as revealed in Jesus Christ. The witness of the church universal is still that simple confession of faith: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Come to us who still long for the new in the good news, and lead us from everything that is dark and dying into that light is life eternal.