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FROM THE ABSTRACT TO THE SPECIFIC John McCormick Buchanan
Comminion Meditation Broad Street Presbyterian Church
Luke 4:14-30 Columbus, Ohio

February 16, 1975

William Muehl, Professor at Yale Divinity School, tells a story
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about visiting a very old Colonial house near New Haven,| The feel of Ss
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history was in every room, and the experience was enhanced by the fact
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that he was guided by the last surviving decendant of the original

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owner, an elderly lady,

ft) ors As he walked through the house he could imagine those gallant
“\, people who lived and ate and slept there in BM.\ He noticed a
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aos particularly striking musket hanging above the fireplace, and as he
aise reached to take it down, the old woman stopped nin "Please don't

touch tt, [ters loaded and might go ore. He raised a quigzical eyebrow
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and she explained that her great, great, great grandfather had loaded
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the gun and placed it there for the day he would use it in the cause
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of freedom,

as
ats ene Muehl voiced the logical assumption that the man had died
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war le before the revolution, | vom, she said, "he lived to a ripe old age
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ve and died in 1817". | She added,/"He just never seemed able to gengrate
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much enthusiasm for General Washington's revolt."
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Muehl speculates about the old gentleman:|how he imagined
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himself a brave and romantic revolutionary, fighting shoulder to
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shoulder with his compatriots in the cause of liberty. | He imagines
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him sitting before the fire, gazing up at the loaded weapon, dreaning

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about reyolution in the abstract.

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But when it happened: | when the abstract became specific, it did not
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resemble his lofty expectations. | One April morning his neighbors probably

gathered in the road in front of his house, dressed in the rough garb of
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farming, carryring an odd assortment of none too effecient weapons \ And
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the call was not at all what he had dreamed.\ Rather it probably sounded

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like this: (‘cet your gun, neighbor. \mere's been a scrap over at
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Concord, \ Let's go!"

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And so the gun remained on the wall - because the abstract had
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become specific, and in the transition had lost a lot of what had seemed
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cdear and compelling and inspiring. (All the Damned Angels, p 52-53)
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That is true about a lot of 1ise.) In the abstract we conceive
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brilliantly: |and ammse often @mmmge our abstractions fail to live up be
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to our expectations when they become specific# a is “true also~of*words
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we use commonly, | Peace", "Brotherhood", "Freedon" \ wo ones opposed
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to the concepts, but the actuality, the persons, and movenients the
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abstract notions become are not nearly as universall dopeating A epeera |
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televisio phon aa last week ew» Abraham Lincoln illustrated the

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contrast. \ have almost made an abstraction gut of Lincoln, a saint,

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a deity in our tional gods. | phe excellence of the program
that he was fori tee Ligelc

Was ignemplaineolbiieammeke, a specific man who was not nearly as attractive
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at — weeclebcated
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as our portraits and who.deep and — wisdom was not nearly as obvious

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to his peers as was his pro\pensity/for telling crude stories at very
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. yf
_ oe proper parties, ye
wi open ws ‘ There is safety in the” abstract; BRS lead editorial in the New York

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Voy Times last Sunday warped against the danger of thinking about_categories

ral : of people rather than persons. | probably nowhere in life are we so
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inclined to be abstract as we are in our religion,/W\It seems that we
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I can remember the first time E saw New York oity.| My parents had
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told me about the skyscrapers, and in my imagination I saw them reaching to
the sky - so high the tops could barely be seen, \ but when IT actually saw
them - I was disappointed and I learned that hard lesson that the abstraction
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often fails to Live up to its billing when we get down to specifics,
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There are plenty of itjustrations, \ one of the greatest problems in

marriage, for instance, is that the specific is different - at least - from
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the abstraction, \ If we use magazines, television, bocks and movies as our
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model we will come up with a mental picture of marital bliss - roses - sweetness -
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neat homes - pleasant people, untroubled and always affectiond But the

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specific is not Like that, | And into every minister's office come people a

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yetr or two after the ceremony saying -(v wasn't ready for tris!" )
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The same prinicple applies to words we use comonty. | "Regge ~ brotherhood -
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freedom,” [| No one is opposed to them - everyone is for them, \ But eace - as a
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concept ~ an idea is one thing, \ the actuality ~ living in peace with other
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mations - is often aigeicutt, \ so it is with brotherhood - we're all for it -

in the abstract,\ But when it comes at us in the form of that person - that group -
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And freedom - who isn’t
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that race - some of us back away, as fast as we can,
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for it - in the abstract? | The going gets a little sticky, however, in the specific -
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when one man's freedom, for instance, Limits the freedom of another man,
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Particularly when we are dealing with people, this inclination to remain
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abstract surtaces.\ Te's safer, for instance, to discuss the "poor - as an
abstraction, than to come to grips with that man - or that onan. \ tn fact, that is
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exactly the way most of us respond - making blanket statements about an abstraction -
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bal on
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"They're Lazy - they're no good" 4} because it's a whole lot easier than seeing

people as specific individuals,

But probably no where in life ara we as inclined to be abstract as we are
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. - CT
in our religion,
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“ye seems frat we

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have a need to keep God at arm's length; }to disguise him in dogma and

wordy doctrine; }to be as abatract as possible and to become most un-
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comfortable when safe theological abstractions begin to get personal
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and specific, peony pet bt

That is precisely what happened one day in Nazareth. \:me abstract
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messianic expectations of Israel became very specific in the form of a
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man by the name of Jesus. \ It was at the beginning of His public ministry.

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He had been teaching throughout Galilee and finally came to the town of
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Nazareth where He‘had lived as a boy. Tt was the Sabbeth and He joined
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Wis old friends and relatives in the Synagogyt-

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He was invited to read from the prophets and to comment on the
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passage, Tt was the custom to extend such an invitation to visiting
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yabbies or teachers \ And He chose a very significagt passage - Isiah 61 ~

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"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has annointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives
and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those that are

oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable Year of the Lord.”

That was a very important passage of scripture in 30 A, D.\ It had
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been a century since Roman occupation and oppression had begun and
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aecanhe fem i t a high pitch.) Th pi 1il
me twas running at a high pite \ the peg e of Galilee

saw themselves in the words of the prophet: \ eney were the poor, the
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captives, the oppressed \ And they were very fond of the abstract generalities

regarding their hepes for the future.
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And so an electric shock went through the congregation as he rolled up

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the scroll, sat down and said,|"Today this scripture has been fulfilled

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in your hearing". | Slowly, it became clear that the (ostiy saggiagldens,

the centuries-old abstraction was being claimed by this very specific man
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sitting in front of them. | »sosepn's son - Jesus, the carpenter!" \

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The gentle people of Nazareth became a lynch nob. They threw Him ee
unceremoniously out of the city and would have killed Him on the spot. he, we Dawid

The messiah must be high and holy -He must be a mighty warrior - he must ee Moses

look and act like Elijah - he cannot look like this.

This story, occuring at the beginning of Jesus' ministry is a
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preface to all that follows | 48 the story unfolds Jesus keeps getting
more and more specific and the people keep getting more and more angry.

At the end, as he is stretched out on a cross before their very eyes, the

people who were thrilled by prophetic abstractions about the suffering

servant spat on the specific man who was suffering for them.
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Abstractions inspire: |but the incarnation disturbed people.
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The concept of a Messiah was very popular, but Jesus Christ infuriated them,

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And so Lent - the season of the year in which we are forced by the
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details of our Lord's passion to be uncomfortabla specific. | I invite you
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to begin that journey toaay:|t0 confront the implications of a God who

refuses to remain an abstraction) a God who will not be a safe i hic
not IA Theory - bok as we are, ke wa Art.
concept: \a God who loves us” i Wiinvite you x
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to begin today to refine whatever theological constructions you call your yf

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own. - and contemplate a man who Lived your life and gh death,

We, begin, together, at a specifid\place >is table. \ There are no

abstractions here: \ just bread and wine, standing for a specific body

that was broken and blood sued ~ pot%at all for hn iden, but for_you and

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for me. Amen
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That is the message of Lent,| There are times to contemplate the
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birth of Jesus:/ times to think about his teachings.\ But Lent is the time to
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move from the @la@immaet idea of a God up there somewhere - to the man Jesus -
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the specific man who lived life as we do:|who suffered and died for us - a
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very specific death, | And, may I suggest, Lent is the time to become specific
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about that in your life, &&)

He died for you - not an abstraction - but you, with all your
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failings, and eccentricities - all your struggles and weakness. \ He cares
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about you - your family - your life - your work, | anc he wants you to follow
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him - just where you are,
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In one of his last acts - he sat with his disciples around a table,
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And he took two specific things - bread _and wine - and shared them, \ There were
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no abstractions that night: [just bread and wine, standing for a specific body

that was broken and blood shed - not at all for an idea, a philosophy ~ but

for you and for me. \ PLewew lace Aw Andean - As ov FEU
des weer werk = Za yov fevers COWLUAMM -

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adbovy fairy deles. | Cinckvella ~ Serer au
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Gt you cw ch Hoe woth te Seapel
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of te pened few le
Py are na Gods low Mw \.C. 4b *
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Our Father, it is easier to discuss what we believe about you
than it is to confront what you have done for us. In this Lenten season,
as we turn our thoughts to the passion of our Lord, help us ~ once again -
to know the mystery of your love for us; through Jesus Christ our Lord,

Amen

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