Monday, November 22, 2010

Love, Forgiveness, & Invitation Woven Into Creation

Brad Sullivan

Proper 29, Year C
Christ the King
Sunday, November 21st, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Canticle 16
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43

We’re celebrating today Christ the King Sunday, thinking about the Kingdom of God and Jesus as king over everyone and everything. So, I could talk today about Jesus being king of the Jews as the inscription read above his cross. I could talk about him fulfilling the passage from Jeremiah, being the king of David’s line who is also the righteousness of God. I could proof text those passages to make the case that Jesus really is the king of us, and the Jews, and everyone else, but I’m not gonna do that. It would be boring, it would be legalistic, it would be informative, but I don’t think anyone woke up this morning hoping to get a lecture on Jesus’ royal credentials.

Thinking of the kingdom of God makes me think of first grade, walking under the breezeway awning on the way to gym class. It was around this time of year, maybe a little earlier, and being Houston, it hadn’t exactly gotten cold yet. I always looked forward the cold weather. It meant time to snuggle up with mom and dad by the fire place (sometimes we had to turn the A.C. down to do it), but snuggle up to mom and dad nonetheless, and winter-time meant Thanksgiving and Christmas-time, and a break from school. Everything about winter seemed fresh and new and exciting and loving, and my wife, growing up in Philadelphia might disagree; winter probably just meant really, really cold, but for me winter was kind of a magic time of year.

So on a particular day in first grade, I as walking towards gym class, and the first winter breeze of the year came by. I don’t know that winter had actually happened yet. I don’t think it even got any colder with that breeze. It was probably about 65 or 70 degrees, but there was a crispness to the air. It sounded like cold air blowing through cold trees, and that crisp sounding first winter breeze carried with it me the reminder and the promise of all of the beauty and newness and love of winter.

I’d love to say that every year since that year I’ve waited with anticipation for the first winter breeze of the year. But honestly, I sometimes forget, and yet every year, without fail, I have heard the fist winter breeze of the year, and every year, without faith, that breeze has brought with it the promise of renewal and love and the deep knowledge that all is well and all is right in the world.

Now, I realize that not all is right with the world. There’s a lot that’s wrong with the world, but for the few moments of that first winter breeze, all is right, and all is well. That first winter breeze is for me the Kingdom of God breaking through and inviting me in to share in the kingdom life, and it’s inviting me to share in the kingdom life right then in that moment and in every other moment of my life.

Paul wrote in his letter to the Colossians that “[God] has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son…” Notice we’re not waiting to be transferred into God’s kingdom at some future date after our Jesus bond matures. We’re in the kingdom of God right here and now. Jesus told his disciples “the kingdom of God is among and within you.”

Sometimes we know it doesn’t feel that way. Life’s not perfect…yet. There is still darkness in the world and in our lives. Paul didn’t say the darkness is completely eradicated, but that God has rescued us from the power of darkness. We don’t have to be held captive by darkness. When we’re caught up in dark thoughts or dark actions, we don’t have to remain bound by the darkness. When we have enmity towards others and are at odds with one another, we don’t have to stay that way. When we feel weighed down our lives or the world, we don’t have to remain weighed down, because God is with us to dwell with us to strengthen us so that we might, as Paul says, “endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father who has enabled us [or invited us] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” God has rescued us from the power of darkness and continually invites us to live lives of love and joy in the kingdom of God.

So what is this kingdom of God? What is it like? In short, the kingdom of God is like its king. Paul says that “in [Jesus], all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible…all things have been created through him and for him. If all things were created in and through and for Jesus, then the character and qualities and nature of Jesus were woven into the fabric of creation.

What Gospel do I live?

Brad Sullivan

Proper 26, Year C
Sunday, October 31st, 2010
Emmanuel, Houston
Isaiah 1:10-18
Psalm 32:1-8
Romans 16
Luke 19:1-10


Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. Come now, let us argue it out, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.
I love this passage from Isaiah, and the many similar passages throughout scripture. “Y’all are being really, really religious,” God says, “but you’re also being pretty rotten to one another; if you really my blessing in your life, then you need to go out and bless others.” Isaiah’s message sounds both harsh and full of hope and promise. God was angry with the people’s missdeeds, and he deeply wanted them to turn around and was more than ready to bless them once they did. Through Isaiah, God was seeking to save the lost.

That sounds a lot like what Jesus said about Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was basically the passage of Isaiah lived out in story form in one person’s life. To be fair, there’s a lot we don’t know about Zacchaeus. We don’t know if he did follow any of the religious practices of Israel, but we do know he was cheating people out of their money. As a chief tax collector, of a corrupt tax system, he was collecting more than he was supposed to and pocketing the extra. He was doing evil, was unjust, taking from the oppressed, the orphan, and the widow, and everyone else. Then, somehow he heard about Jesus. We don’t know how, but he went into the crowd that day and climbed the tree in order to see who Jesus was, so he had apparently heard something about him.

So then he meets Jesus, and here again, we don’t really know what happened. It’s not entirely clear if they went on to Zacchaeus’ house and had a little chat about the words of Isaiah or if this encounter took place right there before Jesus said much of anything. What is clear, however, is that Zacchaeus met Jesus and was transformed by him.

Zacchaeus had previously defrauded people…perhaps he was caught up in “me, me”, thinking that the way to be secure and well in life was to get lots of money, building up security for himself at the expense of others. When he encountered Jesus, however, he found that his money was not what he really wanted. He gave over half of it away immediately. He had found something far greater in which to put his trust, his security, and his faith, than himself and his money.