Sun Kwak, “The Air We Breathe”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKu9qZZeHW8

TEXT: Mark 11:12-33

[12] On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. [13] And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. [14] And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it.

[15] And they came to Jerusalem. And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and he overturned the tables of the money-changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. [16] And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. [17] And he was teaching them and saying to them, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of robbers.” [18] And the chief priests and the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. [19] And when evening came they went out of the city.

[20] As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. [21] And Peter remembered and said to him, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree that you cursed has withered.” [22] And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. [23] Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. [24] Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. [25] And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

[27] And they came again to Jerusalem. And as he was walking in the temple, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders came to him, [28] and they said to him, “By what authority are you doing these things, or who gave you this authority to do them?” [29] Jesus said to them, “I will ask you one question; answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things. [30] Was the baptism of John from heaven or from man? Answer me.” [31] And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ [32] But shall we say, ‘From man’?”—they were afraid of the people, for they all held that John really was a prophet. [33] So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”

SERMON: “The Air We Breathe”

I’m a child of the 90’s, and like everyone else who grew up in the 90’s who collected Wheaties boxes and Sports Illustrated magazines and watched Gatorade commercials, it was my dream to Be like Mike. I had completely forgotten about this, but my mom told Kalen when Kalen had asked her if I grew up doing anything odd. And she told her granddaughter that there was a period of time in my life where I decided rename myself Michael. That I suddenly went to school reporting as and filling out my name on homework pages as Michael Jeffrey Kwak. I mean the influence of Michael Jordan was widespread. I told Judy something that made her a little upset as a Beatles fan some moons ago. That in the documentary The Last Dance, which documents the last of the six championship seasons for the 90’s Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan claimed that these Bulls were more famous than the Beatles. Because if you recall those 90’s Chicago Bulls, they were known not just locally or nationally but followed globally. This is when basketball was, for the most part, just an American sport. But these 90’s Bulls and the fame of Michael Jordan brought basketball to countries that had never been exposed to basketball before. And this fame is actually why Jordan retired while he was still in the tail end of his prime. It was exhausting being Michael Jordan and being followed by the public eye, and it was exhausting having to deal with all of the politics involved with being the Chicago Bulls. And it was exhausting being the one that everyone around the league targeted to take down. That was 1998. But at the very beginning of their reign, the Bulls weren’t quite the Bulls yet, but of course, they were going to be. In the beginning of their becoming the 90’s Bulls, after just their second championship, Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were placed on the US Olympic basketball team, known as the 1992 Dream Team — largely recognized as the best basketball team ever assembled. And what was interesting about this team was that there was a bit of tension as to who was in charge. You had Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, who had dominated the NBA throughout the 80’s. So, they were the assumed Alphas of the team. But then, you had this young and prime Michael Jordan, who at that point, had just become the best basketball player in the world. But then, there was this one scrimmage. And here, as Magic Johnson notes, there was a turning point. On this particular scrimmage, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird were on one team, and Michael Jordan was on the other team. And Magic decided to trash talk MJ, saying that if Jordan didn’t become Superman, they were about to lose the game. And sure enough, Michael Jordan became Superman. He was making shots he wasn’t supposed to and just imposing his willpower to overwhelm and dominate the scrimmage. And after the scrimmage was over, the team settles into the locker room. And as narrated by Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan just comes looking for both Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. He spots them, and he looks them in the eyes and tells them — There’s a new sheriff in town. And until he decided to call it quits, nobody had the authority to take the reins from him.

We were in the earlier set of verses this past week. But today, we’re looking at these verses in conjunction with verses 27-33. Because what happened in the Temple and representatively to the fig tree lays out everything to set the scene for us to understand this dialogue between Jesus and the religious rulers. Because you look at verse 27-33, and the key word there is authority. It appears four times in those set of verses. And it’s actually one of the first questions we ask in our membership classes — Where is our authority? And considering where the setting is, this is about where the authority lies for God’s Temple — his Temple being, as we’ll see, not about a location or even a physical structurebut where his presence is. James Edwards says that the most offensive thing about Jesus was his claim to authority. Because here was the Temple, where there were patterns to how things were done. And so, there were things people were used to. And at this point in time, everyone knew who was in charge in the Temple. It was the religious rulers of Judaism. And with these scribes and Pharisees, there was a way things were done. We noted last week of how historian Josephus estimated something around 255,000 lambs being brought into Jerusalem on this week. So, it’s not like these authorities were alone — people bought into what was happening. And yet, here’s Jesus challenging them and all who are around. And so, you could perhaps feel the tension here in the Temple, after Jesus has flipped over tables and has cursed the Temple, calling out these Pharisees and scribes. Because there’s a new authority. And it’s not just the new sheriff in town. He’s the one who’s always been who’s now come into their midst, to tell them that their system is broken and dead. And this morning, I want to issue us a challenge. Because I think we can be like those looking at Jesus with skepticism. And some of us may even have the same perspective of the Pharisees, looking at Jesus and his claims while wondering — By what authority? That when Jesus comes to tell us how things are supposed to be with our worship, with our financial stewardship, with our marriage, with our sacrifices, with our heart’s posture. And we might be thinking — By what authority? This morning, Jesus comes to flip over tables, in the words of Flannery O’Connor, to rearrange furniture in our hearts in order to claim that space in our hearts as his. That if we belong to him, then there is a certain culture we are to embody as a church, as a collection of people who belong to his upside down kingdom.

I just want us to picture what’s happening here. The disciples have witnessed everything, the crowds have witnessed some of everything. So, consider what’s happening as one who’s seeing it unravel before you. Here is a man who’s just rode into town on a donkey, claiming to be king. And he goes to a fig tree and curses it. And then, he’s yelling at these religious authorities who are seemingly doing everything they’ve always done in the past. And these are all things that you abide by and agree with, for the most part. And there haven’t been problems with the way things were. But then, all of a sudden, here comes this Nazarene, who’s done something similar three years ago. And he just starts flipping over tables and calls this Temple a den of robbers. And mind you, at this point, you might also be offended, alongside these Pharisees. Because this trip that you’ve made was a once a year thing. Because this mountain that Jesus is talking about represents a literal climb, an ascent for many outside of Jerusalem and coming into Jerusalem. People who ascend singing songs, what we know as the Psalms of Ascent. And you’re now at this high point, which may have been the high point of your year — what you’ve been looking forward to for months. And this guy just ruins everything. And he starts calling this high point you’ve come to as something that he’s going to throw into the sea. And as we’ve belabored many times over, the sea was not the vacation image we get in our modern context. Especially for religious folks, the sea was where evil dwelt and roamed. And to call this Temple something that belonged to the realm of evilwould have been not just offensive to the Pharisees and scribes but to you, who’s made this commitment to come all this way to be with God’s people.

And yet, that’s what he does. Because from Jesus’ vantage point, this was a lifeless institution now. Much like he cursed the fig tree for bearing the semblance of fruitfulness but not actually bearing any fruit, here was the Temple that bore the semblance of life, with all the hustle and bustle that was there. But in actuality, they left the people there starving. They were being provided something fake, something hypocritical, something deceiving. They were being tricked into thinking that if they followed these rituals and engaged in these manmade systems, they were going to be made right with God. And here is Jesus calling this out. And so, he’s committed to hurling this false kingdom into the depths of the sea, into the realm of darkness. For these will sink, according to Jesus, because there is no gospel buoyancy to what’s been set up and established as these lifeless patterns around the Temple. Because when Jesuscurses the tree back in verse 14, by saying — May no one ever eat fruit from you again. This is him saying, in essence — My Father has left this place. There was to be no more spiritual blessing that comes forth from this place. And it’s matched with this prayer-less attitude that reflects this vacancy. Because the Temple was largely thought to be the place that connected heaven to earth, as this portal of sorts. But here, Jesus is saying that that strand is broken, that connection is lost. Because there is no genuine prayer going on here.

Tish Harrison Warren talks about in her Liturgy of the Ordinary the practice of making her bed. It originally began as a Lenten practice, as she honestly confesses of how she wanted to give up looking at her phone incessantly and first thing in the morning. And because she wanted to undo the liturgy of her phone, she picked up the liturgy of making her bed. Starting each morning by making the bed, by entering into sacred space through praying, through separating, through organizing, through realigning. Because what this did was not just develop a new practice in making her bed each morning, it also unformed the habit of her looking at her phone first thing in the morning. And for something to come, another has to go. You can’t make your bed and scroll through Instagram at the same time. And you can’t have the old authority of legalism, of Pharisaism and the new authority of the new order of the Kingdom of God in the same place. When the new comes, the old must go. And you look toward the end of our passage today, and there is this mentioning of John the Baptist, which may seem like an odd inclusion. But what was John the Baptist coming to proclaim? What was his culture that he was seeking to instill in the people who followed his teachings? It was repentance — this turning away from and this turning toward. It was about the adjustment of something old to orienting one’s life to something new. As Tim Keller teaches, repentance is not so much a change in behavior but a change in orientation. And I think we actually get a hint of what this thing is, not just through the connection we get through John the Baptist.

But if you look at your Bibles, you’ll notice that verse 26 is missing. And the reason it’s missing is that it was a scribal addition, most likely. The earliest manuscripts don’t have verse 26. But verse 26 was most likely the earliest commentary, if you will, on what was happening in the story. And what was that was added as this form of commentary? But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your trespasses. It’s this way of forgiveness that’s mentioned. That the new and true authority in the place of God is repentance and forgiveness. It’s not about performance or ritualistic upkeep. But it’s about repentance and forgiveness. And that goes for the church too. When we come together heralding anything else, we have no power. But when we herald and come together for the forgiveness of sins and embody this culture of repentance, then things happen. There is power there, there is authority there. Because we asked earlier — By what authority? By what authority does Jesus have to talk about our marriages, our financial stewardship, our worship and sacrifice, our heart’s posture? But let’s flip the script here. Because the Pharisees and the scribes demanded that you keep these upright. That was their authority — keep these, or else. But what does Jesus do? He speaks into our failures — into our failed marriages, into our failed financial stewardship, into our false worship and sacrifices, into our inwardly caved and selfish hearts. And he speaks into these areas to pronounce to us something deeply binding. That if we come trusting in who he says he is, then we trust not in ours but his covenant faithfulness, in his fullest payment on the cross, in his sacrifice, in his heart’s position toward Jerusalem — toward the cross, toward dying for our sins, toward our forgiveness so we can reorient in repentance. That in repenting, we see not us but him — his faithfulness and his authority. That nothing in this world has the authority to undo anything he has done for us and on our behalf — and that includes our sin. And so, to the incessant need to prove ourselves, to the tiring story of performance, to the bullying narrative of failure and shame. To these we say — There’s a new sheriff in town. And his Word gets the last word, once and for all.

And so, here’s how I want to begin slowly closing our time. Every church has a culture — and this is not just about what we herald but how we behave. James Nestor has a book titled Breath. And just like the title suggests, it’s about the importance of breathing. That what we breathe in affects how we breathe, and how we breathe affects every facet of our lives — how much rest we get, how stressed we are, how happy we are, and even how big certain facial featuresbecome along with how they’re shaped. And it’s been said by those studying the church in our age — that culture is the air we breathe in. And what we breathe in and how we breathe it in will shape how we think, how we behave, and how we’re shaped and formed as a church community. That regardless of how we’re coming in individually, what we’ve done this past week from our separate places, when we get together as a church, we together create an atmosphere, an environment, an ecosystem. And we get the opportunity to inhale and exhale the air. And the cue that I want to take from John the Baptist is his central — to repent. That, once again, according to Tim Keller, repentance is not about a change in behavior but about a change of orientation. It’s about where the heart of our eyes are directed. That we all come in here with our history of sin, with our present and ongoing patterns of darkness, with our habits of isolation. We’ve all hurt others and have been hurt by others. We all have less than proud moments for how we’ve behaved, how we’ve spoken to one another, and how we’ve made others feel. And we create the same atmosphere of toxicity here, if we’re not intentional, if we’re not careful. But if we call upon a higher authority, we can inhale, we can breathe in something different. Not the culture of legalism or performance or judgmental looks or ostracizing comments or external semblances. But the culture of acceptance and belonging and forgiveness, where we’re seen, known, and loved for who we are because of the one who ultimately sees and hears us. And by what authority? By the authority of the one who has ultimate authority and dominion and power. And how? Because it’s this authority that he gave up and relinquished when leaving his throne to be born in a manger. When leaving the comforts of his Father in heaven to be questioned of the legitimacy of his birth. When leaving his throne in heaven to hang on the cross for the sins. Where he would exhale and breathe his last. And as he breathed upon his disciples after the resurrection, it’s this breath that forms and shapes us as a church. By the authority of his Word, and by the power of his grace. Because of him, we can extend forgiveness and kindness to one another. Because of him, we can see what’s less than desirable in one another, and yet, choose to love, to commit to friendship and community with one another. By the authority of the gospel and by the power of his grace. Look to Jesus, and I hope and pray that when we look at one another and how we behave here in our community, we can know for certain that Jesus is here by the Spirit that empowers us to look upon his works and words above ours.