Crossroads In The Bronx

Why? Isn’t one altar call enough? If an altar call is what you really want. Nicodemus didn’t want an altar call. He wanted to "see the kingdom of God.” Jesus knew this through divine discernment and could cut to the chase. “Except you be born again.” But Nicodemus suffers from “Viejitis,” a debilitating disorder that can strike at any age. Pastor Joe explains this condition that resists the mysterious and miraculous ways of God.

The Scribes and the Pharisees were pretty good at the law. But good was not good enough. They somehow lost the radical demand for the absolute holiness required by the law. Jesus WAS good enough and He teaches us, through the Sermon on the Mount, what that inward holiness looks like. This is a roller coaster ride through anger, murder, sex, testimonies under oath, church fights and being taken to court. But in the end, the Gospel of hope is unveiled.

It’s one thing to hear Jesus speaking to a crowd, letting them know that people are “blessed" when they do this or do that. But truth be told, till that point, the only one who's really been living the Beatitudes is Jesus. But when His eyes lock with yours, and He tells you directly to your face, “You are the salt of the earth!”...Ho Chi Minh! Listen in.

Sermons take texts and expound on it. None of that here. This is a portrait of Jesus himself, his Father in heaven and of the man-to-be. The end result is not just a code for living but the character of a person. Jesus is the face of the Sermon on the Mount. Pastor Joe invites us to look deep into that face, lest we run the risk of reducing the passage to an echo of scattered sayings out of the past. Ain’t nobody got time for that. 

Years of gloom can serve as a  a bittersweet backdrop to the story of the redemptive light. No matter how dark the night can get we can still hold fast to Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation— so why should I be afraid?”.  Let God use darkness to expose us and His light to redeem us!

It is not a small thing that the Lord is close to hear, see and rescue us from inherent and impending peril. It is too great a thing to not share in word and deed.

Most Christians are afraid or would not dare to explore, honestly, the Incarnation or engage in the wonder of it. We dare to at Crossroads because if we don’t, Christianity will dwindle to a type of cartoon or movie and the enemy of wonder, boredom, will take over. Pastor Joe contemplates God becoming so utterly human that he could be overlooked or ignored…on a bus in the Bronx.

If we are to take seriously Christ’s teaching at the end of Matthew, that whatsoever is done to them is done to Him…then we must conclude that the risen Christ is still a refugee. But don’t despair. It simply means that you and I can still meet Jesus and help Him in his need.

Jesus was not the kind of Messiah anyone had expected…including John. John could not understand why nothing Messianic and grand was happening. He could not understand why Jesus wasn’t doing anything revolutionary or cataclysmic. He didn’t understand why God was not inaugurating his powerful kingdom with apocalyptic splendor then and there. Jesus was offending his own cousin. Pastor Joe takes a daring and re-imagined look into the exchange between the the Word (Jesus) and the prophetic word (John The Baptist).

It’s hard to say which is more offensive to our ideas of getting ready for the holidays: Advent or John the Baptist. They both ruin the Western Christmas spirit. But even if your manger scene at home has the baby Jesus lying with hands raised up towards you, with a smile, there is no way to get rid of the insubordinate figure of John the Baptist announcing the coming wrath with the arrival of this beautiful baby. What are we going to do with this embarrassing guy? Pastor Joe has some ideas.