Come, Rule the Universe!

Brad Sullivan
Christmas Eve, Year C
Monday, December 24, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Isaiah 9:2-7
Psalm 96
Titus 2:11-14
Luke 2:1-20

“…Renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age [live] lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly…” (Titus 2).  Merry Christmas, everybody.  That was from our reading from Titus, and I thought couldn’t we get one night without exhortation to live a better life?  On Christmas Eve, can’t we just enjoy the coming of God, living among us as one of us?  The joy of Christmas is actually awesome for me (not the overused, mediocre meaning of awesome, but the actual awe inspiring, great meaning of awesome).

The God of the universe wanted us to know and love him more, so he became one of us that we might better know and love him.  I think of parents, or mentors, or teachers going to the level of the child or the student to help that one understand and build that relationship.  My kids are four and two, and I don’t tell them, come write this sermon and anoint the sick that you may better know me.  I’m guessing folks who work at the nuclear plant or do people’s taxes don’t have their kids spend a day doing their jobs for them in order for their kids to get to know them better either.

We tend to spend time playing with kids, talking to them and reaching out to them on their level in order to form loving relationships with them.  I can’t help but feel like that’s what God did in becoming human.  Rather than say, “come, humans rule the sky and the seas, and keep the planets moving about in their courses, and govern all the universe…”, God said, “hey, humans, I’ll become one of you, that you might know me and love me more.”

God is with us and knows intimately what we go through on a daily basis.  “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:  to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  God is with you, Gabriel was saying, and you need not be afraid. 

So we have the joy of Jesus’ birth, of God born as a human among us, and then we have Titus.  “…Renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age [live] lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly…” (Titus 2).  That doesn’t sound too dissimilar from what a parent or teach might tell a child.  We play with kids to help form great relationships with kids, but not just so they can play for the rest of their lives.  We have important lessons to teach them, one of which is to play, and also how to care for oneself, and to care for others, and to learn right from wrong.  Kids are going to trust those important lessons from us a lot more if we’ve spent time building relationships of love with them. 

God has important lessons to teach us, how to care for ourselves and others, how to love deeply, how not to do harm, but to do good, how to live a life of love and peace.  I find those lessons from God trustworthy because they came from God not only as the God of the universe, but also as a human being.  We can trust those lessons from God because, having become human, God showed us his love for us, that the lessons he gives and the way of life he gives is out of that same love that thought it would be a good idea to live among us as a human being, trusting us enough to be born as a little baby.

The words of exhortation from Titus are words of love from God who cares for us and teaches us to love deeply.  “…Renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age [live] lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly…”   Those words are really very similar to Isaiah’s words.  “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shined…for a child has been born for us, a son given to us…and he is named Wonderful Counselor, Might God, Everlasting Rather, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9)  “Do not be afraid;” Gabriel said, “for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people:  to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord.”  Amen.

 

...And They Were Wrong

Brad Sullivan
4 Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 23, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Micah 5:2-5a
Canticle 15
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45

I was struck at today’s Gospel by how excited Mary and Elizabeth were at their pregnancies, especially Mary’s pregnancy.  Being excited about the coming birth of a child is not unusual, but, “blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb;” “my soul magnifies the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my savior.”  They were pretty darn excited over the coming births of Jesus and John.  More than excitement about being moms, Mary and Elizabeth were excited because the messiah was coming, and the one who was to prepare the way for the messiah was coming. 

            It had been hard times for Israel for a long time.  Rome was in control.  They were free to worship God, but they were looked down upon for it.  They were not their own masters.  Another nation was in control of Israel, and that meant God was still displeased with Israel.  God had turned his face from Israel and allowed Rome to take control.  How long would it be until the time of their penalty had been paid and God restored the fortunes of Israel?  When would God raise up the one whose origin is from old, from ancient of days, to stand and feed Israel in the strength of the Lord?  When would the one of peace come so that they would live securely?  (Micah 5)

            These were likely the questions on the hearts and minds of the Israelites under Roman occupation.  They longed for the messiah to deliver them, and finally, amidst their longing and waiting, the coming of the messiah was proclaimed to Mary, the coming of the Lord proclaimed to Elizabeth.

            Mary and Elizabeth were overjoyed over the coming restoration of Israel, the return of the Lord’s favor to Israel.  The prophet like Elijah was coming to prepare Israel for God’s return among them, and then the Lord was coming.  All of their hopes and dreams were about to be fulfilled...and they were wrong.

            Rome was not kicked out of Israel by God’s almighty hand.  Peace for Israel did not come.  They did not live securely to the ends of the earth.  A mighty king like David did not come to reestablish his earthly throne.  All of their joy and excitement, and they were almost totally wrong about what was coming.

            I find good news in this.  They were expecting God’s return to Israel meaning that God would turn his face towards them again, that God would drive out the nations that were oppressing them.  God instead returned to Israel as a human being; that was not expected. 

They were expecting God to fulfill his covenant with Israel, that he would be their God, and would watch over and protect them as they were faithful to him.  In Jesus, however, God fulfilled the human side of the covenant with Israel as well as the divine side of the covenant; that was not expected. 

They were expecting God to establish David’s kingdom forever; through Jesus, God inserted himself into David’s bloodline, fulfilling his promise to David and reestablishing himself as king over Israel forever; that was not expected.

They were expecting Israel to be a light to the nations, that all nations would flock to Israel and become a part of them.  Through Jesus, God opened his covenantal relationship to the gentiles through Jesus allowing all into relationship with God through Jesus; that was not expected. 

Things greater and even more miraculous happened than was expected in the coming of Jesus.  God’s salvation was sent out to the whole world in a way Israel had not excepted.  The hopes and dreams of Mary and Elizabeth happened, and yet Mary and Elizabeth were almost totally wrong about how their hopes and dreams were to happen.

They were almost totally wrong, except that they laid their hopes and dreams squarely at God’s feet.  Their hope rested on God alone.  They had in their minds ways in which they thought God would fulfill that hope, but ultimately, their hope was in God.  Their trust was in God.

This is why I find the fact that they were wrong about how their hopes and dreams would be fulfilled to be such good news.  Their hope was ultimately in God, and God gave something even great than that for which they hoped.

When we consider Jesus’ second coming, our hope is ultimately in God, and God just might have something even greater in store than that for which we are hoping.  The specifics of our hopes and dreams just might be wrong, just like Mary and Elizabeth’s were, and that’s ok.

God didn’t tell Mary, “Yeah, your messianic hopes are a little bit off so you’re not really good enough to be Jesus’ mom.”  God said to Mary, “you trust in me, and right now you see in a mirror dimly, but you trust in me and so I will trust in you to bear my son and care for him when he is born among you as a human being.” 

In this, I hear God saying to us, “now you see in a mirror dimly, and right now, you just don’t really get what’s gonna happen when I come again among you to restore all things, but you’re placing your trust in me, and I will not disappoint you, for I have in store greater things even than you can imagine.”

The one whose origin is from of old, from ancient days, is coming to rule in Israel…and he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God.  And [we] shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth; and he shall be the one of peace. (Micah 5)

            When it comes right down to it, I don’t really have a clue what exactly that means.  We believe Jesus is that one whose origin is from of old, from ancient days, and we believe that one day we will all live in peace.  How exactly that happens, I haven’t a clue.  Are wicked people destroyed?  Is wickedness within people destroyed?  Are we no longer allowed to do bad things, or do we just no longer have a desire to do bad things?  All of those scenarios might bring peace, but they all seem problematic to me at best.  My guess is, God’s got something even greater in store than we can imagine. 

            Our hope rests not in the specifics of how we think salvation works.  Different Christian denominations and even people within denominations have different understandings of exactly how salvation works.  We see in a mirror dimly.  Our trust and hope is not in the specifics of how we think salvation works.  Our hope and our trust is in God and in God’s salvation.  Our hope for the future is the coming of Jesus, whenever, wherever, however, and as often as that happens.

            Our hope is the hope of Mary and Elizabeth.  Our joy is the joy of Mary and Elizabeth.  Our souls leap for joy at the coming of Jesus, just like John did in Elizabeth’s womb.   Like Mary, our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord, and our spirits rejoice in God our savior, for he has looked with favor on his lowly servants.  Amen.

 

I want vengeance...and peace.

Brad Sullivan
3 Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 16, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Zephaniah 3:14-20
Canticle 9
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

“How long, O Lord?  How long? Will you forget me for ever?  How long will you hide your face from me?"  "How long, O Lord, will you look on?" (Psalms 13:1 and 35:17)   Before Friday, I was looking ahead with joy at the thought of God’s kingdom coming fully.  I was excited about God’s final restoration of creation, and realizing I’ll likely have to wait for it, I was ok with waiting. 

Then I heard about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and part of me was no longer ok with waiting.  Rather than looking ahead with joy at the coming of God’s kingdom, part of me now I struggles with frustration that it hasn’t already come…blaming God for humanity’s faults, maybe? 

We are still waiting.  We’re waiting for violence to end.  We’re waiting for the restoration of creation for the end of all sin, all unrighteousness, all harm, suffering, and death.  How long, O Lord?  John the Baptist said the coming of God’s kingdom involves wrath, and at times like these we can see why.  At times like these, I think, come on, God, bring on your wrath.  Bring on the judgment, and get your kingdom going already.  Just end the suffering and the heartache. 

That’s an ok way to feel for now.  Right now we are in pain, in shock.  We mourn with those who mourn and weep with those who weep, and we wonder, “how long?”  Jesus may even wonder, “how long?” as he mourns and weeps with us, as he mourns and weeps with the families of the victims. 

Over the weekend, Rabbi Shaul Praver of Temple Adath Israel in Newtown, Connecticut was interviewed about being there with families of the victims on Friday.  The interviewer asked how he responds when people inevitably ask why these things happen.  Rabbi Praver responded:

Yeah, I don’t know the answer to that.  I never try to present a theological answer to that.  I think that it’s more important just to have compassion and humanity and hold someone’s hand and hug them and cry with them.  I never liked answers, theological answers for things like that, personally, when I lost people that I love as well.  So, I don’t try to solve it like some kind of a math equation or anything like that.  (http://www.npr.org/2012/12/15/167321212/difficult-days-ahead-for-for-town-in-wake-of-shooting)

I suppose God could answer our question and give us a date so we would know how it will be until his kingdom comes, but rather than simply give us calendar updates, God chose to be with us as we wait.  Rather than simple answers, God has given us compassion and love.

What, then, are we supposed to do in the mean time?  That was the question people asked John the Baptist after his exhortation and call to repentance.  “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?  Even Now, the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” (Luke 3:7, 9).  The people then asked, “What should we do?”  The answer, one might think would be to perform herculean feats of generosity and kindness with wrath to come and the ax lying at the root of the trees, but that’s not what John told the people.

Our feats needn’t be herculean.  Go, be kind, honest, and generous was basically John’s answer.  “If you have two coats,” John said, “give one of them away.”  He didn’t say give both of them away and go live in a gutter somewhere.  You get to keep one of your coats.  Share your food with people who don’t have enough to eat.  Don’t starve yourself, still eat, just share what you’ve got.  Be satisfied with what you’ve got and don’t cheat people what they have in order to get more.  

Go, be kind, honest, and generous.  Maybe unsurprisingly, the answer to the question, “what should we do?” is the same for us as it was for John’s listeners.  Go, be kind, honest, and generous.  Love deeply.  Share what you have with others.  Keep your hearts full of compassion, mercy, and love.  Mourn with those who mourn.  Weep with those who weep.  “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21)

Pray.  Pray daily, multiple times a day for the families of the children who were killed.  Pray for the children, for God to hold them in his arms.  Pray even for the man who did this.  Right now, I don’t even like saying that, much less doing it.  I’m sad, and I’m angry, and not even knowing anyone involved, I want vengeance on the man responsible.  Regardless of the fact that he’s dead, I want vengeance. 

Even so, over time, I have to let that go, lest it consume me and the darkness overtake me.  Let the anger and sadness happen.  Let any desires for vengeance happen.  Let them happen, and then let them go. 

What are we to do in the face of such evil as the killing of innocent children?  As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans:

Let love be genuine; hate what is evil, hold fast to what is good; love one another with mutual affection; outdo one another in showing honor.  Do not lag in zeal, be ardent in spirit, serve the Lord.  Rejoice in hope, be patient in suffering, persevere in prayer.  Contribute to the needs of the saints; extend hospitality to strangers.  Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them.  (Romans 12:9-14)

We cry until we laugh.  We cry how long, O Lord, until we can laugh, rejoicing in hope.  Then, we remember the command of Jesus to his disciples.  "Love one another, as I have loved you."  The greatest command we have been given is to love each other.  The greatest way to combat evil is to love.  Light casts out darkness.  Love overcomes despair, hatred, and evil.  So love deeply.  Go, be kind, honest, and generous.  Mourn with those who mourn, weep with those who weep.  Cry till we laugh.  Pray.  Constantly pray.  Pray for those who are suffering.  Pray that love among us may increase.  Pray that God will create in us clean hearts, that we may be light bearers, casting out darkness and bringing his love to others.  Amen.

Selves, Souls, & Bodies

Brad Sullivan
2 Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 9, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Malachi 3:1-4
Canticle 4 / 16
Philippians 1:3-11
Luke 3:1-6
         

 “Will you by your prayers and witness help this child to grow into the full stature of Christ?”  I’m about to ask that question to the parents and godparents of Holly Davant who is being baptized today.  “Will you by your prayers and witness help this child grow into the full stature of Christ?”  As I was thinking about the readings for this week, that question kept popping into my head, and looked in the prayer book so I could get the exact quote for the sermon, and I couldn’t find it.  That’s because I was looking in the ordination service rather than the baptismal service.

It seemed to me like a priestly kind of question, and I realized that is really is.  “Will you by your prayers and witness help this child grow into the full stature of Christ?”  That’s what priests do isn’t it?  We pray for folks and on behalf of folks, and we try to be a witness to people through our life and ministry to help folks grow into the full stature of Christ, to help folks become disciples of Jesus.  So in the baptismal promises, we make a priestly promise. 

In his first letter, St. Peter calls all of us priests: “like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 2:5)  What does Peter mean that we are to offer spiritual sacrifices to God as a holy priesthood?

In ancient Israel, the priests literally offered sacrifices to God on behalf of the people of Israel, offering burnt offerings of animals and grain on the altar.  This was the way priests interceded for people.  If you needed to give thanks to God or say you’re sorry to God, you would pray on your own, but you would also bring sacrifices for the priests to offer on your behalf.  Before they could offer these sacrifices, the priests had to be made holy, to be set apart from the people and have various ritual cleansings.

This brings us to our first reading today from Malachi.  God was sending his messenger to prepare the way before him, and he was going to purify the priests so they could present offerings to the Lord on behalf of the people.  Israel had been in captivity and was returning to God, becoming his people again, and they needed to be reformed as his people.  So, God was sending his messenger and purifying the priests in order to prepare his way into the midst of the people of Israel.

Then, centuries later, John the Baptist came, who was also preparing the way of the Lord, except John wasn’t purifying priests.  He was purifying anyone and everyone.  John proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.  If you want to be forgiven, change your ways, wash, and be made clean.  John wasn’t purifying the priests so that they would make Israel holy.  John was purifying the people of Israel so that they would, by how they lived their lives, be made holy.

How is it, then, that we are considered a holy priesthood?  Through Baptism and amendment of life, God makes us holy, but what sacrifices do we offer a holy priesthood?  In the beginning of Isaiah, the prophet is speaking for God, telling Israel exactly what kind of sacrifices he wants.

What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?  Says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts…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. (Isaiah 1:11, 16-17)

That sounds a lot like what John was saying.  Wash yourselves and amend your lives, because what are the sacrifices God wants from us?  Our lives, well lived.  Our lives themselves are our sacrifices to God.  Our deeds, the way we treat ourselves and each other are our sacrifices to God.  As we state in the Eucharistic prayers in Rite One, “and here we offer unto thee, O Lord, our selves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee”.  We all serve God as priests, offering our daily lives to him, our lives well lived.  We serve as priests by praying for and on behalf of others, and we serve God as priests by helping others to be disciples of Jesus, to grow into the full stature of Christ.

So then, how do we prepare for this priestly ministry?  How do we prepare the way of the Lord and make his paths straight?  I’d say we prepare ourselves in about the same way we prepare for a party.  There are a lot of parties going on this time of year:  church Christmas parties, work Christmas parties, school Christmas parties, and when we prepare for a party, we often start by cleaning up a bit. 

At least with two small boys, that’s what we do in my house.  Things get a bit messy, so we need to clean up a bit.  In our lives as well, we tend to get messy.  We live in ways we know aren’t quite how God intends for us to live.  We do things that, in the long run, make life harder on us but that seem like a good idea at the time.  So our lives get messy, and we tend to get comfortable with a certain amount of mess.  When God is coming, however, we might want to clean up some of that mess so that we might enjoy his company even more when the party starts. 

Does this mean we’re trying to hide our mess from God or be fake with God?  Not at all.  It’s not as though we’re trying to clean up the mess so God doesn’t know there ever was a mess.  God already knows.  God knows better that we do what kind of messes we make.  So, when we’re preparing our lives for God to be with us, step one is to ask God to help us clean up our mess.    

We ask God to help us align our lives with the way of live he has given us.  We ask God to help us align our lives with God’s life of love.  We ask God to help us follow his commandments and his way, that we might love others more fully and do less harm that we would not following in God’s way. 

We’re wanting to get our paths to line up with God’s path, to be in sync with God, smoothing out the paths of our lives so we’re not constantly bumping up against each other, but walking in step together.  When we do that, when we’re walking in step and in sync with God, then living our lives as priests is easy.  When we’re in sync with God, our prayers and witness will certainly help others grow into the full stature of Christ as disciples of Jesus. 

So now in our season of preparation, and really throughout our lives, we’re reminded to clean up some of the mess of our lives.  We’re reminded to ask God to help us to clean up the mess in our lives, so that we may walk in step with God, making his paths straight, and living as a holy priesthood, helping each other, by our prayers and witness grow into the full stature of Christ.  Amen.

We've Got Some Storytelling to Do

Brad Sullivan
1 Advent, Year C
Sunday, December 2, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Jeremiah 33:14-16
Psalm 25:1-9
1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Luke 21:25-36

Today, we heard Jesus talking about the coming of the Son of Man, what the signs will be, and the fear and foreboding that will accompany these signs.  There has been an interminable amount of speculation as to what these signs will be or when Jesus will be returning.  Some really bad movies have been made either about the coming of Jesus or about the end of the world, books have been written, the History channel has put out some shows on it, and zealots have convinced their followers that they knew the exact date when the end would come.  Some have used math, some have used world affairs, and some have just taken crazy pills all in order to try to determine when Jesus will be returning. 

There seems to be a tremendous amount of anxiety over the second coming of Jesus.  People have shouted for centuries “the end is near” and “repent, for the end is upon us”.  I was a part of a Bible study in which the participants each discussed our understanding of the second coming.  I presented the idea of looking forward to Jesus’ second coming and the final restoration of creation, and there was some surprise at taking a hopeful view of Jesus’ coming.

There’s some fear and trembling with the coming of Jesus, no question.  When the God of all creation comes to redeem his creation from sin and death, one can’t help but tremble.  In our story, however, Jesus’ coming is a good thing.  What did Jesus say?  “When these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” (Luke 21).  In our story, Jesus’ coming is a good thing.  The frantic terror and anxiety, which is often included in talking about Jesus’ coming is not a part of our story.    

This is our story.  Jesus’ second coming, the redemption of the world and restoration of creation, the final victory of God over death, the banishment of sin and unrighteousness, all of these are our story.  Too often, these things have been other people’s stories, and too often other people have not told these stories very well. 

Thanks to the doomsday predictions of Harold Camping and others like him, people who believe in and anticipate the second coming of Jesus are seen as more than a little bit kooky.  They’ve been the ones telling our story for too long.  To be fair, they are faithful followers of Jesus, and it’s their story too.  I just don’t think they tell the story very well.  They know the stories.  They just don’t tell them very well.

We, on the other hand, could tell these stories great, if we just knew them.  I bet most of us know the story of the prodigal son which Jesus told, but are we especially familiar with the Gospel story we heard today about the Son of Man coming on the clouds?

We know “The Lord is my shepherd…”, but do we know Daniel 7:13-14,

As I watched in the night visions, I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven.  And he came to the Ancient One …To him was given dominion and glory and kingship, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him.  His dominion is an everlasting dominion that shall not pass away, and his kingship is one that shall never be destroyed.

            We may think we know about end times prophecy.  From Isaiah 13:9-10,

See, the day of the Lord comes, cruel, with wrath and fierce anger…For the stars of the heavens and their constellations will not give their light; the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light.

That’s the stuff.  That’s the kind of end times terror we’re used to hearing, but are we also familiar with Isaiah 40:1-2, “Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.  Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”   

The stories of the prophets, the stories of judgment and of restoration, the stories of the end and of a new beginning are all our stories.  Maybe they’re foreign to us.  Maybe they’re well known, but they need to be told and re-told among us, and they need to be told to others by us.  We need to reclaim our narrative as a message of hope and do some good storytelling.

We do this kind of thing all the time.  When we gather with family and friends, we tell stories of our lives together.  We tell stories of good times we’ve had together.  We tell stories of our loved ones who have died or moved away.  We tell stories of the good times and the bad times, stories of our life together.  That’s what these stories from scripture are, our stories of our family. 

There are good times and there are bad times.  There are stories we love to remember and stories we’d probably rather forget, but overall, ours is a story of hope.  Stories of the second coming of Jesus are stories of hope.

There’s judgment to be sure, but why would that bother us?  We tend not to like it when we see children spoiled by their parents and never disciplined.  Why would we want anything different from God?  There’s plenty of bad stuff in the world, and if we’re honest, there’s plenty of bad stuff within each of us.  Why would we not want God to deal with that?  Jesus is coming again to complete his work, to destroy sin, to destroy unrighteousness, to swallow up death forever.  Jesus is coming again to restore all things, to make all things new.  “…stand up and raise your heads,” Jesus said, “because your redemption is drawing near.”

That’s our story.  That’s the story we need to tell to a world hungry for hope.  That’s the story we need to tell to people who are hungry and thirsty for God.  That’s the story we need to tell this Advent, as we prepare for Christmas and as we prepare for Jesus’ return.

Now, we don’t believe that Jesus is necessarily returning right away or even anytime soon.  Advent is our annual season of preparation, our annual reminder that we should always be preparing for Jesus’ return, but how do we prepare?  Well, what did Jesus say about preparing for his coming? 

“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap.”  Ok, so don’t be drunk all the time.  Don’t be hopeless, and despondent, and worried about life.  In other words, live in hope.  Live joyfully.  Don’t worry.       

The end may come in a billion years.  The end may come in a second and a half.  In the mean time, there’s a whole lot of living to do.  We sing “Joy to the Word” when we remember Jesus’ first coming among us.  Wouldn’t we sing the same song when considering his second coming?  The Jesus who came among us the first time is the same Jesus who will come among us the second time.

We prepare for Jesus’ second coming by living our lives.  We prepare during this season of Advent by living joyfully and peacefully, with prayer, hope, service to others, and hearts full of love, and by telling our story over and over again, with hope and excitement, and joy.  Amen.

Making Music - Christ The King

Brad Sullivan
Proper 29, Year B
Sunday, November 25, 2012
St. Mark’s, Bay City
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-13 [14-19]
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37

I used to hate playing guitar.  I liked the idea of it, and I wanted to be a great guitar player.  Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good and so I didn’t like playing.  My desire was simply to be great, and since I wasn’t great, I was a constant failure.  I couldn’t mess up or make mistakes if I was going to be great, and I couldn’t enjoy playing because I couldn’t do what I wanted to do…didn’t even have a clue how to get there.  So, I stopped playing.  Finally, after years of hardly playing, I realized what I truly wanted was to make music.  I didn’t have to be great to make music. 

I could mess up a lot and still make music.  No one else might have wanted to hear it, but I enjoyed it.  Mediocre and halting as it may have been, I began playing almost every day simply out of a desire to play and make music.  I loved it.  I wasn’t great.  I’m still not great, and it doesn’t matter.  Playing and practice isn’t drudgery.  It’s joyous because whenever I play, I get to make music.  When I mess up or get to something I don’t know how to do, I can take a lesson or ask someone for some help and try again.  Perfection is not important.  The beauty of making music is.

The perfection of Jesus’ kingdom is rather unattainable.  Jesus told Pilate that his kingdom is not of this world.  In Jesus’ kingdom, there is no unrighteousness, no evil, bitterness, wrath, anger, wrangling, slander, or malice. (Ephesians 4:31)  Considering that there is a lot of those things in this world, the thought of Jesus’ kingdom can be somewhat threatening. 

Even during Jesus’ days on earth, people were threatened by him.  Feeling that Jesus was trying to be king of Israel, the religious and governing rulers of Israel were threatened by him.  Rome was threatened by him.  To be fair, they didn’t much care if he was king or not, but he did mean insecurity and unrest in Israel and therefore he was a threat to the Pax Romana.  Rulers of this world thought Jesus was a threat to them and so they crucified him.  They just couldn’t handle him being around.

Of course, Jesus is also a threat to us in as much as we want to rule our own lives.  Jesus can be a threat to us when we want to rule our own lives in our own way, so much so even that at times, we might want to crucify him too…or at least get him to stop bothering us with his truth to which he wants us to listen.  Jesus’ way is hard, and he can be such a killjoy at times with all his, live righteously talk.  Jesus’ and his kingdom can feel threatening, but only when we see living in his kingdom as some call to perfection to which we cannot measure up.

In Jesus’ kingdom, there is no unrighteousness, no sin, no evil, no malice, or bitterness, etc, but Jesus’ kingdom isn’t fully here yet. 

Jesus’ kingdom coming – “…the heart of the earth’s inhabitants shall be changed and converted to a different spirit.  For evil shall be blotted out, and deceit shall be quenched; faithfulness shall flourish, and corruption shall be overcome, and the truth, which has been so long without fruit, shall be revealed.” (Esdras 6:26-28)  Esdras speaks of God making two worlds, the world that is and the world that is to come.  Jesus is king of the world to come.  In the mean time, Jesus is still king for us, and we’re asked to be his followers…more than that, his stewards.

We’re stewards of Jesus’ kingdom until it arrives.  As such, we needn’t wait for him to arrive to live righteously.  We know we’re not going to be perfectly righteous, but we’re not going it alone.  We act with God’s help, and God gives us the ability to live righteously and to seek forgiveness and amendment of life when we don’t.  As it is written in Ecclesiasticus, “If you choose, you can keep the commandments, and to act faithfully is a matter of your own choice.  [God] has placed before you fire and water; stretch out your hand for whichever you choose.” (Sirach 15:15-16)  With God’s help, we can choose life.  We can follow the commandments of God, living God’s life of love.

As stewards of Jesus’ kingdom until he comes again, we are called to live God’s life of love.  Imagine life without hatred, without fear, without anger, jealousy, malice, bitterness, etc.  Imagine such a life, and then live as though it were true.  I don’t think any of us, in our heart of hearts wants to hold on to bitterness, anger, fear, unrighteousness, etc.  It’s just hard to believe we can live without those things.

Yet Jesus tells us that to live in his kingdom, we should cut of our hands and pluck out our eyes if they cause us to sin.  Once again, I’m going with metaphor and hyperbole on that teaching and would say, “If you want to be who you want to be, you have to give up who you are.” 

There is no unrighteousness, in Jesus’ kingdom, so to live in Jesus’ kingdom, we would need to rid ourselves of those things.  Remove the anger, slander, envy, fear, bitterness, malice, etc, from you, Jesus is saying, and live as though my kingdom were already here, with my help. 

We’re not going to be perfect in this endeavor, but so what.  We don’t have to be perfect.  Perfection is not our goal.  Life in God’s kingdom is our goal.  I hated practicing guitar so long as my goal was to be great.  I wasn’t great, therefore I hated playing.  Finally my goal became making music.  Now I love playing guitar. 

If goal is to be sinless, to be perfect, then living as stewards of God’s kingdom is burdensome, because we will never be good enough and will always berate ourselves.  If, on the other hand, our goal is to live beautifully, live well a life as a steward of God’s kingdom, then we can find beauty in such a life, because we do have the ability to do so.  We can choose life.  We can follow God’s way.  We can live with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22)  We won’t be perfect, we’ll play some wrong notes along the way, but then we’ll seek God’s help, we’ll take some more lessons, and we’ll seek to play better next time.

  Even though Jesus kingdom is not of this world but of the world to come, we can still live into his kingdom if we want to.  Jesus’ kingdom is the kingdom of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, forgiveness and self-control.  We belong to his kingdom anytime we listen to his truth and live according to the way of his kingdom.  Jesus’ kingdom is not from this world but of the world to come, and yet but Jesus came to this world to testify to the truth, and everyone who belongs to the truth listens to [his] voice. (John 18)  We don’t listen to his voice in order to be great or perfect, but in order to enjoy making music, to live beautifully with peace and love.  Amen.