No Creed but Christ (Matthew 16:13-20)

 OK everyone. The kids are back in school, and I know the rest of you are feeling left out. So: Listen up! Class is in session! Spit your gum out! Eyes on me! And get ready for today’s lesson, which is about our Disciples of Christ history and beliefs.

Because Peter’s declaration—You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God—is a central (perhaps the central) affirmation for we who are a part of the denomination known as the CC(DoC).

Over 200 years ago, the founders of our movement decided that all who wish to join our movement should affirm this one statement.

Which is why, when people come forward to join our church, they are asked: “Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, Lord and Savior of the world?”

BTW, “Christ” and “messiah” are interchangeable words. “Christ” is the Greek version, and “messiah” is the Hebrew version.

“Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ [or, messiah], the Son of the living God, Lord and Savior of the world?”

It’s an echo of the statement of faith Peter made when Jesus asked: “Who do you say I am?”

We don’t ask you anything else! There is no other list of beliefs that we require you to agree with or abide by. We don’t even have a formal list of beliefs on our church website.

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If you go to our church website, and click where it says “Beliefs,” you’ll get some general statements about what “most Christians believe,” and a list of a few “beliefs and practices,” but there aren’t a whole lot of specifics, and most of the statements that do appear are just rephrasing Peter’s confession, often with a caveat that each person has freedom, and that not all Disciples agree with or practice things the same way.

Many other churches, if you go to their website, you’ll find a section titled “What we believe.” And it will have a much more formal list of specific beliefs. There will likely be subsections under that… “What we believe about God… What we believe about Jesus… What we believe about the Holy Spirit… What we believe about the Bible… What we believe about salvation… 

We don’t have that.

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What we do have, from the early days of our movement, are mottos. And some of these mottos explain why we don’t have a more formal list of beliefs that all members are expected to adhere to…

One of those early mottos is “No creed but Christ.” 

Ancient Christians developed creeds: statements of faith that define the beliefs of a “true believer.” You may have heard of the Apostles' Creed, or the Nicene Creed…

[If you’re a visual person and you want to see these creeds, grab a hymnal and open it up to pages 358 & 359, and you’ll find them printed there…  although the editors who put the hymnal together titled them “affirmations of faith” rather than creeds. Perhaps by the end of this sermon you’ll know why.]

So, early Christian leaders developed these creeds in ancient times; and they usually did so in response to ideas that they considered heretical.

For example, one thing early Christians argued about was the nature of Jesus. Some said that he was in a sort-of second place to God, while others said no, he was equal to God. 

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And so the Nicene Creed spends a lot of time explaining how Jesus was and is

“Eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father…”

And yes, this was written specifically to exclude those who didn’t agree, who had other ideas about Jesus’ nature. It was written to keep those who thought differently—those who had the “wrong ideas”—out of the church.

Well, the founders of our movement didn’t like how creeds had been used in this way, to exclude people. So they decided that, for us, there would be no creeds. No creed but Christ. Creeds, they felt, only divided Christians from one another… and their goal was to unite Christians.

“Unity is our polar star.” (That’s another one of our early mottos.)

So they said that we Disciples won’t recite creeds in worship the way other Christian movements do, and we won’t use creeds as a test of fellowship.

No; the only test of fellowship for us would be whether or not one confesses that Jesus is the messiah, the Son of the living God… (... and “Lord and Savior,” we did add that part.)

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One of our early founders, Alexander Campbell, was once asked who he considered to be a true Christian. How could you tell a true Christian, if you didn’t have a creed or list of beliefs they had to agree to?

Campbell’s response can be found at #338 in your hymnal. 

“Who is a Christian? I answer, every one that believes in one’s heart that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God; repents of one’s sins, and obeys him in all things according to one’s measure of knowledge of his will.”

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But what about when there are differences of opinions? What if, for example, we don’t agree on what exactly it means to call Jesus “messiah” or “Christ?” 

In this, our early leaders encouraged believers to study the scriptures, and to engage in conversation with one another, respecting each other’s differences, yet working together for a greater understanding.

And believe me, those early leaders had lots of conversations… and debates… which often took place on the pages of different journals they published. There, they would often debate various theological points with each other, making points and counterpoints and rebuttals, arguing passionately for one theological interpretation or another…

Yet, generally speaking, they remained in fellowship with one another, defending each other’s right to be a part of the church…

After all, they all agreed on one thing: that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Every couple of years, our denomination gets together for a General Assembly, where resolutions are presented, debated, and voted on. I remember one year, arguments for and against a certain resolution were made passionately, until the time for debate was up, and we voted. 

And what I remember most—what I will never forget—is that, afterward, as people were leaving, I saw just outside the door to the main hall, two people who had spoken during the debate. One had spoken passionately in favor, and one had spoken passionately against. 

Yet there they were, shaking hands, with smiles of friendship on their faces, thanking each other for their passionate contributions to the debate, and assuring each other of their common commitment to the church…and when they were done, before they parted, they embraced each other with a hug.

And I think that, more than anything, shows who we are as Disciples.

We are united in our belief that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. 

We are committed to following and obeying Jesus in all things according to the measure of our knowledge of his will…

And we are committed to each other, to engaging in conversation and even debate, trusting in God to use such experiences to move us forward in understanding, and not letting our differences divide us or deny anyone a place at Christ’s table.

Some years back, I remember a Catholic bishop made news when he announced that he would not serve communion to a certain politician because of that politician’s views on a certain issue.

To a Disciple like me, that was shocking. Because we don’t believe that any person has any right to say to someone: “You aren’t welcome at Christ’s table.” 

It doesn’t matter if we disagree on certain issues. This isn’t our table. It doesn’t belong to me or anyone else. It belongs to Jesus. And all those who look to Jesus as the Christ, the son of the living God, are welcome here.

And I’ve seen this here at First Christian Church. 

I remember a conversation I had with one member who is now deceased, who told me that he didn’t agree with a decision that the congregation had made, and that he still didn’t agree with that decision, but (he said), that’s who we are as Disciples. We don’t always agree. Yet we do gather for worship and gather at the Lord’s Table and work together for the ministry of the church, because we DO agree that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, and we are committed to learning what that means and engaging in conversation, and even debate, with one another and being the best followers of Christ we can be. Together.

Which is why, when I preach, I don’t expect you to blindly agree with everything I say. Some pastors do have that attitude, but not me, and not most of the Disciples pastors I know. 

My word is not the final word on anything. Rather, I think of my preaching as the first word, a word meant to inspire your own thinking, and perhaps start a conversation. 

I remember one time in California, I attended an event sponsored by Chapman University, which is a Disciples-related school just like Eureka College. The speaker was Amy-Jill Levine, who is a practicing Jew, but who is also a biblical scholar focused on the New Testament. This gives her the unique ability to remind us Christians of the Jewish background of Jesus and the early church.

Anyway, the evening of the event, she was guest preaching at a local Jewish place of worship, and all of us who heard her speak during the day were invited.

So there we were that evening, a bunch of Christians attending the Jewish shabbat service. And while Amy-Jill Levine was preaching, several of the Christians—hearing something they liked—would shout “Amen!”

This made Amy-Jill Levine laugh. She said: “I love hearing all the ‘amens’ from the Christians. But I gotta tell you, Jews don’t usually shout ‘amen’ during the sermon. What Jews do is that they will come up to the preacher afterward and say, ‘So that’s how you see things, huh? Well, let me tell you how I see things…”

And a conversation would begin.

I like that. The sermon is the first word. Not the last word. It starts the conversation or moves the conversation along. It doesn’t end the conversation.

Getting back to my main point, and today’s scripture: We Disciples are united in our belief that Jesus is the Christ (the messiah), the Son of the living God, Lord and Savior of the world. 

And we work together to understand what that means, and to follow and obey Jesus in our lives. 

And even though we aren’t always successful, we do try to stay united despite our differences of theological understanding.

And since creeds have historically been used to divide and exclude people from the church, we do not recite creeds in worship.

So why are they in our hymnal?

Well, many churches who recite creeds today do not do so with the intention of dividing or excluding.

And many see in the creeds statements of faith that are still beautiful and inspiring.

But because of how creeds have been used, the editors of the hymnal chose to call them affirmations of faith rather than creeds. They wanted to make sure that if any congregation did use these creeds, that they didn’t use them in a way that would divide or exclude.

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And we Disciples have our own affirmation of faith. A statement that isn’t meant to exclude anyone, but provides a summary of what most Disciples believe.

And you’ll find our Disciples statement in the hymnal on page 355.

Every once in a while you will find a Disciples congregation that recites this statement during worship, perhaps on a special occasion, though most are reluctant to include in worship anything that even looks like or resembles a creed.

I’d like for us to recite it today. The first sentence of the affirmation should sound very familiar to you.

As for the rest…

Well, think of it not as a final word on anything, but as a first word. These are things most Disciples believe or practice, but let’s talk about what it all means, and how well we do follow what it says. 

Our General Minister and President Terri Hord Owens keeps reminding us to be the church we say we are. 

This affirmation is a statement of who we say we are as a denomination. It is a document meant to unite, not divide, and to encourage conversation and reflection.

So with that in mind, let’s recite it together…

As members of the Christian Church,

We confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and proclaim him Lord and Savior of the world.

In Christ’s name and by his grace we accept our mission of witness and service to all people.

We rejoice in God, maker of heaven and earth, and in God’s covenant of love which binds us to God and to one another.

Who Is Jesus to You? (Matthew 16:13-20)

 This past week Ginger and I spent a few days at my uncle’s mountain cabin. 

Whenever we go there, just as we start the climb up into the mountains, we pass by a place called Arrowhead Springs, a historic resort hotel that is, as far as I can tell, closed to the public now. 

It was built in the 1930s, next to a natural hot spring, just below a massive natural formation on the mountain shaped like an arrowhead. In fact, that giant arrowhead points straight down, as if marking the spot where the water comes bubbling up out of the ground. 

In its heyday, many famous movie stars spent time at Arrowhead Springs. People like Charlie Chaplin, Judy Garland, Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart. Esther Williams filmed some of her famous scenes at the Arrowhead Springs swimming pool.

I swam in that pool once, when I was a college student. By then, the resort was owned by Campus Crusade, a Christian ministry focused on bringing college students to Christ. Campus Crusade used the resort as their headquarters, and as a place to hold retreats.

I enjoyed my weekend there. The pool was beautiful. The building was amazing. The worship services, as best as I can remember, were full of wonderful music. And the preaching and keynotes we heard… 

Well…

Let me tell you how I got involved with Campus Crusade.

I was a college student at Chapman University looking for ways to grow in faith, and in my knowledge and understanding of the Bible.

There was a campus ministry group, and I was involved in that, but not many of the other students involved in it were that interested in Bible study. A very nice Catholic nun who helped out did lead a weekly Bible study for students, and I attended, but it wasn't very popular, and sometimes I was the only student who showed up.

There was a Disciples on Campus group, but it was small and much less organized than it is today, and didn't really do much. 

And that was about it. Until one day, I heard about a new lunchtime Bible study that had started up.

So I went, with my sack lunch, and was happy to find other college students who were eager to read and study the Bible together.

We were assisted by two… advisors? I’m not sure what their actual title was, but they worked with Campus Crusade. And they guided us along as we not only met weekly for Bible study, but also as we became an official campus club. Becoming a campus club meant that we had officers, and that we could participate in inter-club activities.

And I enjoyed hanging out with these people, these friends, reading the Bible, praying together, and taking part in fun activities.

They talked a lot about Jesus. And they talked a lot about “getting saved.” And when they talked about Jesus and about getting saved, it was almost - but not quite - the way I learned to talk about Jesus growing up. 

On one occasion, they talked about the false theory of evolution. Another time, they talked about how homosexuality was a sin. Neither of these ideas of theirs seemed to me to be consistent with the idea of a loving God… but they sounded so sure.

Needless to say, I was confused. It didn’t make sense to me that God would consider it a sin to be just the way God made you, or that God would want us to ignore the knowledge that comes from the observations of science.

And they talked about the importance of making sure other people were saved… Getting other people “saved” was so important that, one day, one of our advisors invited me to walk around campus with him and “witness” to other students. 

It was weird.

The way he did it made me think he had a little notebook somewhere, perhaps in his back pocket, and everytime he got someone to repeat a short prayer,  he would pull out that notebook and make another tally mark.

 He'd walk up to someone, with me beside him, and he'd try to get that person to recite that short sinner's prayer, and if they did, then it would be, "Yes! Another check mark for me!"

I'm exaggerating. But not much.

That’s what it was all about for him… adding tally marks to that imaginary notebook. And I thought: shouldn’t we try to “witness” to others by loving them? Isn't that what Jesus taught us to do?...And maybe not worry so much about all those tally marks?

So by the time I went on the retreat to Arrowhead Springs, I was already starting to wonder if the Jesus these Campus Crusade folks talked about was even the same Jesus I knew. The lectures and sermons I heard at Arrowhead Springs only reinforced this impression, that - even though we were reading the same Bible - we were following two different Jesuses.

Not long after that retreat at Arrowhead Springs, our club advisor came to me and said, “Hey, our club president is graduating at the end of the year. To remain a club on campus, we need some other student to become the club president, and we think it should be you.”

It was tempting to say yes. Because then I would probably get to go to more retreats at Arrowhead Springs. 

But I had to tell him no. Because by then I knew that the Jesus Campus Crusade preached about wasn’t the Jesus I knew. We had different ideas about who Jesus was, and different ideas about what it means to be a Christian.

And no other student was willing to be president, either. I guess I'm not the only one who had been having these thoughts. The following year, there was no Campus Crusade club at Chapman.

I probably would have figured all this out sooner, except that I had never really been pressed to define who Jesus was to me. I had never been challenged to put into words just who Jesus was, and what Jesus called his followers to do. My experience with Campus Crusade, and the weekend I spent at Arrowhead Springs, helped me define just who, exactly, I believed Jesus to be. 

Many years before, when I was baptized, I made my confession of faith that all good Disciples make, the same confession of faith that the apostle Peter made. I confessed that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God.

And then I added, as we tended to do in those days, that Jesus was my personal Lord and Savior.

And I thought I knew what all those words meant, and perhaps my understanding was pretty good for the young person I was then, but I have come to learn so much more in the years since.

Who is Jesus? Who is Jesus to you?

At first Jesus asked his disciples, “What do other people say about me?” And they replied, “Oh, some say this, some say that…”

And then Jesus asked, “But who do you say I am?”

And that - that’s the question we all have to answer. Not just once. But over and over.

A few years ago, when I got together with several other pastors to lead a baptism class, one of the other pastors - Mandye Yates from First Christian Fullerton - introduced an activity in which the young people wrote a personal “I believe” statement. In that activity, they wrote a paragraph or so describing who they believe Jesus to be.

And when Adam, Rahail, and David were baptized, They shared their statements with the congregation.

I think that’s probably a good activity for all of us to do. Perhaps we should do it once a year: write an “I believe” statement.  

Because it's important for us to have some idea of just who it is that we claim to follow. Our understanding of who Jesus is, is the basis for how we live our lives. 

The Jesus I know and the Jesus you know - the Jesus witnessed to by scripture - is one on whom the Spirit of the Lord God anointed, to preach good news to the poor and freedom to the oppressed.

I didn’t hear much about freedom to the oppressed in those lunchtime Bible studies. And a lot of people today who say they are Christian preach no good news to the poor. They say they follow Jesus, but I don't recognize that Jesus they follow. 

The Jesus I know and the Jesus you know - the Jesus witnessed to by scripture - is one who welcomed outcasts and those labelled sinners.

I didn’t hear much about welcoming outcasts and sinners in those lunchtime Bible studies. And a lot of people today who say they are Christian would believe it's more important to draw lines that keep people out, than it is to welcome them in.

The Jesus I know and the Jesus you know - the Jesus witnessed to by scripture - is one who “brings down the powerful from their thrones, and lifts up the lowly; and fills the hungry with good things, and sends the rich away empty,” as it says in Luke chapter 1. 

I didn’t hear much about any of that in those lunchtime Bible studies. And a lot of people today who say they are Christian support policies that consolidate power in those who are already at the top, and they support taking from the hungry what little they have.

We have a very different idea of who Jesus is.

I’m not saying my idea of who Jesus is is 100% right. That’s why I continue to read my Bible, and study, and pray, and learn, and grow. And that’s why I continue to be challenged by the question: “Who is Jesus to you?”

And I challenge you to also wrestle with that question. Because everything - how we live, how we pray, how we treat others - derives from our understanding of who Jesus is.

Sermon: "Carrying Only Love” (Matthew 16: 21-28)

We see it all the time in movies: someone is about to die. We know death approaches. The character knows it to.

He (or she) says to those gathered around, “I’m dying.” And his loved ones protest. “No. You’ll be okay. Everything will be okay…”

They are words of love. Of hope. Of desperation.

But the one dying only has a few breaths left. So he smiles weakly, grateful to have people around who care so much. He says a few final words.

And then it is over.

In our Bible passage from Matthew, Jesus is very much alive, but death is coming.  Jesus is walking toward death. He knows that this is true, he knows what’s coming, and he says so. And Peter responds, much like one would expect a dear friend to respond:

“No, you won’t die. God forbid that you die! Everything will be okay.” It’s very heartfelt.

But then Jesus responds, and his response here always catches me off guard. It’s never what I expect, no matter how many times I read this scripture.

Jesus doesn’t smile. His heart is not warmly touched by Peter’s sentiment. He certainly doesn’t show any gratitude for kind words from a dear friend.

Instead, he lashes out at Peter! He looks at Peter with the same glaring eyes that, before, he reserved only for demons he was casting out.

And he casts out Peter - or at least this one aspect of Peter - and shouts: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stone” - Peter means stone, or rock; “You are a stone which will make me stumble!”

What? Because Peter simply and lovingly expressed his desire that Jesus would live? Calm down, Jesus!

But then I remember: there is a lot that is implied in Peter’s statement; there is a lot more there than just the words that we hear. There is a background that gives context to what he says.

So let’s back up a bit, and see what’s really going on.

Just before this little episode, Jesus had asked Peter and the other disciples who they thought he was. And Peter responded, “You are the messiah, the son of the living God.” And Jesus praised and commended Peter for that answer.

“You are the messiah, the son of the living God.”

But what did it mean to be the messiah? The word messiah is a Hebrew word; in Greek, the word is Christ; and it means “the anointed one.” In this case, the one anointed by God.

And one thing that all who follow Jesus agree upon is that Jesus is the anointed one. He is the messiah. He is the Christ.

Here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, that’s the one thing we all agree on. We have many different opinions, but we all agree that Jesus is the messiah. The Christ. The anointed one.

However, people have different ideas of what that means. Many in Jesus’ time believed that the messiah would be one who was anointed by God to once and for all overthrow the Roman Empire and establish a new kingdom in its place.

And, of course, the only way to overthrow the Roman Empire would be by force. An army would have to be gathered, a revolution would have to be declared, and the Promised Land would be taken out of Roman hands and placed into the hands of a leader who would follow the ways of God.

Many of the disciples shared this point of view. They had their swords ready. Later, when the authorities came to arrest Jesus, Peter drew a sword and began to attack those who came for Jesus. He believed it was time to fight! But Jesus immediately stopped Peter.

Violence was not his way. Armed revolution was not his way…

Now, you may have noticed that when Jesus told the disciples that he was going to die, he was very specific about how he was going to die. It wasn’t going to be a death by an accident or by an illness. The authorities were going to come for him. He would be arrested, tortured, and killed.

But for the disciples, whose minds were set on revolution and on overthrowing the authorities and defeating Rome, this just made no sense. They believed that Jesus was going to be their new ruler, in place of Caesar. Jesus couldn’t die. Jesus had to live.

So when Peter protested and said, “God forbid it! This isn’t going to happen!”, he was exposing his firm belief in a violent revolution, a revolution led by Jesus.  

“They’re not going to kill you Jesus; God forbid it! You’re going to fight - we’re all going to fight - and we will kill them!”

That’s what Peter was saying. Revolution, by any means necessary! ‘Tis better to kill, than it is to be killed.

But Jesus would not give in to that temptation.

When Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “lead us not into temptation,” he was thinking specifically of the temptation to do violence. The temptation to use swords. The temptation to beat the crap out of the bad guys.

Violence is the greatest of all temptations. How many times, do you think, did Jesus pray about this? How many times do you think he himself prayed to God, “lead me not into temptation; deliver me from this evil”?

It would be so easy to use violence. He certainly had the power to overcome Rome by force, right? All the angels of God - and God himself - would come to his rescue and defend him if he but asked.

But violence was not his way.

So when Peter responded the way he did, it’s no wonder Jesus lashed out at him. Violence is the greatest of all temptations, and Peter was presenting that possibility, that temptation, to Jesus on a platter. “God forbid that you should die this way. God forbid it! We’ll fight! We can win!”

Oh, how tempting that is!

Being fully human, Jesus did desire this. But being fully God, he knew this was not his way. Fighting was not his way. He had to resist this temptation.

Violence is the easy answer in a sinful world. We can’t stay away from violence for very long. The history of humanity is a history of one war after another.

We even like violence in our entertainment. When the Superman movie Man of Steel came out, a lot of people commented on how it presented Superman as a sort of messianic, Christ-like figure, who is sent to earth from a far-off place to save humanity. The messianic imagery in the movie was put there on purpose by the filmmakers.

At one point in the movie, Superman turns himself in, and says, “I'm not surrendering myself to Zod. I'm surrendering myself to mankind.” That does sound very messiah-like.

But then Superman goes on to use his superpowers to conquer evil; and those powers enable him to do some incredibly violent things.

In other words, Superman gives in to the temptation to act violently - and at that point, the similarities between Superman and Jesus disappear.

He goes into battle against his enemy, General Zod.  The battle devastates Metropolis as the two knock each other back and forth. Entire buildings collapse, huge skyscrapers, leaving untold thousands of people dead. Worse yet, those deaths are never mourned or reckoned with. It’s so violent that one critic even called the film, “disaster porn.”

Jackson Cuidon, writing in Christianity Today, said: “Superman … is there mostly to satiate that part of the American psyche that wants their messiahs to punch things, too.”

Peter wanted a messiah who could punch things. That is the type of messiah that Peter was looking for.

And it’s the messiah that many people today are looking for. A messiah who can punch things. And it’s become quite common for people to present Jesus as that messiah, the messiah who can punch things, the messiah who uses violence to accomplish his will, the messiah who carries a sword, the messiah who rides a warhorse, the messiah who casts evil people into hell.

But when you read the gospels, you see that that is so clearly NOT the messiah that Jesus is.

Which means those who say this is the type of messiah he is have not only given in to the temptation of violence, they also are guilty of breaking one of the ten commandments, the one about bearing false witness against another. And the person against whom they are bearing false witness is Jesus himself. They say all these things about Jesus that are just not true.

Read the Bible. Read the gospels. Jesus was a messiah who preached good news to the poor, sight to the blind, release to the captives and freedom to the oppressed. His way was the way of love. The way of kindness. The way of compassion.

After Jesus rebuked Peter, he said to his disciples: “All who want to come after me must say no to themselves, take up their cross, and follow me.  All who want to save their lives will lose them. All who hold on to life, and use violence to protect life, will lose life. But all who follow in my way, and who lose their lives because of me will find new life.”

In other words, if you want to follow the way of Jesus, you have to be willing to let go.

You have to be willing to let go of your life for something greater.

You have to be willing to let go of the temptation to use violence to overcome or destroy your enemy.

Evil will not be destroyed by more evil. Violence will not be destroyed by violence. You can’t end death and destruction by killing and destroying!

Let go of all that, and give yourself to the way of love.

I can think of some movies with better messiah-figures than Man of Steel. Perhaps you can, too.

During Vacation Bible School, when I was helping the children to understand these things, I mentioned to the kids three different movies that came to my mind.

The Harry Potter movies end with a big battle at Hogwarts, yet Harry knows that the only way to end all the fighting and end evil in his world is to walk straight toward Voldemort, without fighting or resisting, knowing that Voldemort will kill him. It’s an act of sacrificial love that saves his friends, which makes Harry Potter a better messiah figure than Superman.

In Kubo and the Two Strings (you know I love that movie!), Kubo spends most of the movie searching for three things: the Sword Unbreakable, the Armor Impenetrable and the Helmet Invulnerable. He believes that these three things will help him fight and defeat the Moon King. But when he does meet the Moon King, he realizes he needs to toss those three things to the side, so that he can face his adversary unarmed, with no violence in his heart - only love.

In Moana, the title character does pretty much the same thing as Kubo. Moana sails across the ocean and encounters a terrible lava monster… then walks toward the lava monster willingly, purposefully, with no weapons - only love.

These three movies present much better messiah figures than Man of Steel does.

They demonstrate what Jesus means when he says that those who want to follow him must say no to themselves, must deny themselves, and take up their cross. It means we walk toward the cross, we walk toward whatever evil there is in our lives threatening us, our loved ones, our neighbors, and we do so without weapons of any kind. We don’t even bring with us harsh words or thoughts. All weapons, all violence, we leave behind.

The only thing we carry as we walk that walk is love.

Love is often the harder way. Violence is the easy way.

We can act violently. We can speak violently. We can tear people apart online with one simple tweet - it’s so easy! We can gossip about someone, we can incite others to think negatively of them.

All that is the way of violence. And it is easy.

The way of love is much more difficult. It can be dangerous. The way of love means casting your armor and weapons to the side. The way of love means walking toward the lava monster unarmed. The way of love means walking toward the cross unarmed.

It takes great courage to love.

THAT is what Jesus demands of us. Love. Courageous love. Love that is bold and daring. Love that  does what is right, even when it is dangerous.

Love like that is powerful. Love like that can change the world.