Don't Give up on Hope

 

We're starting a new church year with a Gospel focus on Luke. And as always the first Gospel reading is one that sets a scene of a people living with uncertainty and things falling apart around them. 

What timing for us as we face a world that is turning toward authoritarianism and anti-democratic "norms." 

Thankfully, the Gospel...as dire as it sounds...also is a story of Hope and of Love that overcomes all attempts to kill it. May that be the thing that we look to in these upcoming years.

Text: Luke 21: 25-36

+++ 

Happy Church New Year!

And welcome to Advent…a season of waiting and preparing for the coming of birth of Jesus.

We’re moving on from hearing stories from the Gospel of Mark…and turning our focus to the Gospel of Luke…with the usual smatterings of lessons from John as well.

Luke’s account of the life and ministry of Jesus is very orderly…and directed mostly to the newly arrived Gentiles into the faith in ancient times.

Luke also is a Gospel for the underdogs: caring for women, children, the sick and the poor are important to Luke…and they are the central characters in Jesus’s healings as told in this Gospel.

And since caring for widows and orphans and the downtrodden and destitute were commands made of Jews…once again…we must remember that Jesus is giving us a perfect demonstration of how to live as a faithful Jew.

His chief mission was not to start a church…but as Bishop Michael Curry says…Jesus was about starting a movement…to recapture the imagination of the Jewish population.

Unlike Mark…the writer of Luke’s Gospel was not a first-hand witness to Jesus. 

Luke follows most of Mark’s story…and adds some color and gives more examples of Jesus’s teachings in the form of parables.

As I like to say…Luke is a little bit like the Rogers and Hammerstein of the Gospels.

There are moments where something big happens in the story… so big that the characters must burst into song.

Now …that didn’t happen in today’s Gospel.

And if it did…I imagine it would not be a sweet and uplifting tune like the Magnificat.

Today’s Gospel would more likely be set to some screaming death metal guitars or a punk rock anthem.

“Signs in the sun…moon…stars…nations confused…roaring seas…powers of heaven shaken.”

If we’re having some déjà vu…it’s because this is the same “Little Apocalypse” language we heard two weeks ago as we were finishing Mark’s Gospel.

And for the original hearers of this message back in the First Century…they were a people who were feeling and reeling from cataclysmic events that had left them shaken. The attempted uprising against the Roman Empire had resulted in the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem for a second time…and the people had scattered in fear. To them…their world was crashing all-around them…and the promised return of Jesus…the Messiah…hadn’t happened as predicted.

We may not be able to relate to that sort of worldview…sitting here in 20-24 America. 

Or maybe we can understand it…in our own context.

Think of what it was like when Hurricane Idalia swept through the area.

Large branches and whole trees came down on homes and cars.

Power was out for a period of time.

All of it causing the headaches of finding roofers…and tree removal companies…and adjusters.

And then…just as things were coming back to something more normal…there was the overnight hours of Hurricane Helene this September…a storm that was initially forecast to be much further east of Valdosta.

More trees crashing into homes…blocking streets…the whole landscape of Valdosta State’s main entrance off North Patterson Street showed that nature had decided to clear cut the campus forest.

Power poles all around the area were snapped in two.

So many were without electricity for days and weeks.

Even the people in the higher elevations in the Carolinas were not spared as Helene’s rains wiped out whole areas with mudslides.

And all this coming after living through the COVID pandemic which seems to have left everyone more irritable and impatient than they were before 2020.

With wars overseas…and our anger-fueled politics in this country causing us to become the Divided States of America…maybe we can tap into those fears that our biblical ancestors were experiencing when the Roman Empire was trampling them down.

And that’s where it becomes important to hear again Jesus saying…”raise up your heads…your redemption is near…because even when heaven and earth pass away…my words will not pass away.”

Just as the prophet Isaiah offered comfort to the exiles returning from Babylon…Jesus is saying to the disciples of then…AND now… if we experience feeling as if the tectonic plates of our lives are shifting… hang on to my words… my love… my peace… my hope.

That’s what we need to always keep in front of our eyes.

It’s no mistake then…that on this First Sunday of Advent… as we hear disquieting words of people fainting from fear and foreboding of what is coming…we are lighting a candle for hope.   

This hope is the promise that nothing…not death…not rulers…not things present or things to come…or any powers…will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38-39).

It’s this hope burning like the flame on that candle that represents a light so powerful that no darkness can overcome it (John 1:5).

People will try.

There are always going to be those who push fear and attempt to snuff out that powerful fire of Love by cutting people down…and telling them the lies that they don’t matter…that our lives aren’t worth anything.

But hope is always there to remind us that if God loved the birds and the bees and the lilies in the field…then guess what: God loves you and me even more!

This is same hope that the 20^th century theologian Howard Thurman found as the source of encouragement in the face of the racism and white supremacy in the country during his days.

Thurman understood that it was the hope found in the life of Jesus…who stood up to the hypocrisy and cruelty of the systems that existed in the First Century…that pointed the way for all those who have ever felt like their backs were against the wall.

By drawing upon that hope…anyone who has ever felt like one of the left behinds or forgotten could keep their light shining within their heart.

Because ordering one’s inner life around the teachings of Jesus provided that outer shell of protection from the furious fearful winds kicked up by those committed to darkness.

And that’s the key here to hope…

We must pay attention and order our inner lives…and focus on that sixth sense that tells us God is with us…God is living and breathing through us. And God is never far from us or leaving us to fend for ourselves.

Stick close to that source of light and hope…and make room in your hearts for the mercy and love of God to be your guide through this season and beyond.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.

 

 

 

 

 

"My Kingdom Is Not From This World" A Sermon for the Last Sunday After Pentecost

 If you have been following this blog with the texts of my sermons, I would hope that you have figured out that while I am a Christian, I do not support the Christian Nationalist agenda that is mobilizing to take control of our government. I do not support the posting of the Ten Commandments in classrooms. I do not support mandate that teachers trained in math or science take on the additional role of being a pastor. I do not want public schools to take the place of the church in any way, shape, or form.  If you want your child to learn about Jesus and to become familiar with the Holy Trinity of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit...please...PLEASE...bring them and yourself to church. We would LOVE to see you on Sunday morning! 

This sermon for "Christ the King" Sunday was my anti-Christian Nationalist sermon in its most explicit sense. There is simply no basis for anyone to ever claim the Jesus of the Bible as one who ever wanted to have a 'nation'; hence all these efforts to use the power of the state to indoctrinate children into the Christian faith run totally counter to what should be our practice as Christians. Our role is not to dominate, but to serve. And through our service, we show the love of God as manifest in Jesus. 

When I preached this sermon at St. Barnabas, not a single person said "Amen." How about you? 

Text: John 18:33-37

+++

All hail the power of Jesus’s name…O King Divine!

Crown him with many crowns!

Because… on this last Sunday of the eternally long season of  “After Pentecost”…we celebrate Jesus Christ as the King of kings…the Lord of Lords…the most mighty of the mighty….

He’s the top dog!

The big Kahuna!

But…

….he never lifted a weapon.

….never called for bloodshed.

….never proclaimed himself “mighty” or a “king” in that strong man sort of way.

Jesus was never into that type of power.

So as kings go…he’s a really strange one!

That’s why he completely confounds Pontius Pilate.

The brutal and pompous Roman Governor had just arrived in Jerusalem.

He and his army were there for the Passover celebration to make sure those uppity Jews didn’t get any strange ideas about challenging the Empire.

In this Gospel exchange…Pilate is suspicious of Jesus.

 

He seems to have heard a rumor that there was this

Interloper…some weird itinerant rabbi doing amazing deeds among the people.

Some were saying this new guy was a “king.”

Kings…in the minds of the ancient world…weren’t like a King Charles in England…who is just a constitutional figurehead.

A king in the days of the Roman Empire would have much more authority.

They could amass armies and invade territories and pillage and plunder.

Given that there was a lot of discontent among the Jews…and the Zealots were looking for a means to overthrow the Roman Empire…anyone claiming to be a “king” was seen as an insurrectionist.

Pilate was probably expecting this “King of the Jews” to be a more brash and brazen character.

But the Jesus who appears before Pilate doesn’t come in fighting or shouting.

He’s in a simple tunic …not even carrying a stick let alone a sword.

His only weapon is his words. And his words were love.

We might hear the scoffing and incredulous tone in Pilate’s voice:

“Are you…hmmmm….(air quotes) the King of the…ugh…Jews?”

Unphased…and unwavering…Jesus does what a good rabbi does. He responds with a question.

“Do you yourself know this about me or did you get it from somebody else?”

Now Pilate is not only puzzled…but Jesus has just insulted his prejudice.

You see: Pilate despises the Jews…and Jesus just suggested that by asking if he’s the King of the Jews…Pilate must be a Jew himself…looking to address his king.

Pilate angrily dismisses this ridiculous idea that HE is a Jew.

But he’s still operating out of this mindset that a “king” must be some kind of a strong man.

And yet…here’s this non-combative guy playing mind games with him.

He demands to know what’s this really all about?

Why have the Roman sycophants of Judaism turned Jesus over to him?

And that’s when Jesus really messes with Pilate.

“My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over…”

“My kingdom is not from this world.

I am not the leader of any nation.

I am not an authority riding on horseback…or wrapping myself in any flag of any kind.

I do not need nor do I seek power over anyone.”

This is the revolutionary vision of Jesus…the totally countercultural way in which Jesus asserts his kingship.

It’s what we’ve been hearing every week from Mark…which then gets picked up by Matthew and Luke…and each one of them adding a little more to the story here…fleshing out this scene over there.

It’s the Jesus of John’s Gospel…the Jesus who is the Word made into mortal flesh to live…teach…heal…and die as one of us.

Every time the people tried to make Jesus a king in the way it was understood in the First Century…Jesus would somehow manage to dodge the crowd and make his escape.

When he was famished and out in the wilderness and Satan kept whispering in his ear that if he would just give up on God and worship this Tempter of his soul instead…he could be king.

Not just of one country.

He could have the whole world be a single Jesus Nation!

And Jesus said no to it all.

“My kingdom. Is not. From. This. World.”

It’s one of the most curious things about the Christian faith.

Those of us who follow Jesus…have met and come to know God through the life…ministry…death…and resurrection of Jesus…are aligning ourselves not with dominance…and some bullying political power source.

We are following a compassionate man.

A king who rules not from a throne…but from the cross.

We see in this one we call our Savior:  a man who sits down with those who others see as the expendables…and the unimportant of society.

This king was born on the road…in a stable full of animals… to human parents living under an occupation.

From the very start of his earthly life…Jesus’s kingship was to live and move and have a kinship with the vulnerable of creation.

This is not very king-like…even by our standards here in the 21^st Century.

Conventional wisdom of the rest of the world counts the life of this Jesus as weak.

So then what do we make of this idea of the poor and weak…and the willing-to-suffer Jesus being our “king of kings”?

Why is our king not a warrior?

It’s a really tough and sobering question for the church…which was only made more difficult when the Emperor Constantine in the 4^th Century had his big “a-ha” moment…and converted to Christianity and decided that the worldly kingdom of the Roman Empire was now also the kingdom of God.

The Church has gone through ups and downs and schisms and break ups…as generations upon generations call for it to remember as the old hymn says that it’s true “one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.” (Hymn #525)

And the kingdom of Jesus is not of this world.

The citizenship we hold in this kingdom as ones aligned with Jesus calls us to a different land…and bigger understanding.

We are ask to see beyond borders and barriers.

It’s not about any one nation;

it’s about being called into a relationship that lifts our hearts and minds…our bodies and souls…to a place where there is no longer “us” and “them.”

The kingdom of Jesus is a spiritual and mental shift to put aside all our earthly aspirations to dominate another.

Our citizenship in this kingdom is about transformation…and learning once and for all that we are all siblings…adopted children of God…created for the purposes of helping each other…caring for the disenfranchised among us…rejoicing with one another in good times…while holding space and being present to each other in our moments of pain and doubt.

In African culture…this is called Ubuntu…a recognition of the humanity of another person.

The late Nelson Mandela used Ubuntu as the philosophical practice to help move South Africa beyond its sinful past of apartheid.

It speaks to the idea of human kindness…mutual caring…and connection that builds up a community.

That takes an intentional effort to make it happen.

It takes each person having the willingness to do the work of living and growing into our faith by seeking “peace and justice for all people and respecting the dignity of every human being.” (BCP, 305)

Being at someone’s hospital bedside…taking food and clothing donations to the shelter…preparing meals for people: all of these are examples of the way we put our faith into action…and build and strengthen ourselves and each other. Demonstrate what it means to follow a king of Love.

Growing up into the people of God…standing taller on the side of Love…even in the face of those bullies who call our compassion “foolish” or “weak” in fact makes us stronger…and better citizens of the kingdom of Jesus.

Because to those who are the marginalized…our weakness looks bold and bright and amazing against a backdrop of anger…fear and hatred.

The more visible we are as the followers of a Jesus who served rather than sought to be served…the more we conform our lives to his ways…the more we will be a helper to those seeking love and acceptance.

Earth will become just a little bit more like heaven.

And there will be much rejoicing in the kingdom of Jesus.

In the name of our One Holy and Undivided Trinity.