United in God's Kingdom

Brad Sullivan
Pentecost, Year C
Sunday, May 12, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Acts 2:1-21
Psalm 104: 25-35, 37
Romans 8:14-17
John 14:8-17 (25-27)

 

Happy Pentecost, y’all.  Happy birth of the church.  On the first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection, Jesus’ disciples, as well as those who became Jesus’ disciples were united in many ways.  The Holy Spirit came upon them with a rush of wind and tongues of fire.  They were united in their language such that, rather than speak one language, they spoke the language of those who heard them.  There was no barrier that was going to stop the church, no lack of spirit that would still its birth.

Jesus was victorious once again.  As he had been in his death, resurrection, and ascension, Jesus was now victorious in the Holy Spirit and the disciples continuing the work he had done, continuing to spread the good news of God’s kingdom, continuing to give to others the faith, hope, and love that Jesus had given them.

Jesus had united his followers before his death and then reunited them after his resurrection.  That was Jesus’ prayer which we have been hearing for weeks, that his disciples would be one.  “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:20-21)

In our story from Acts today, we see God’s enormous “yes” to Jesus’ prayer for his disciples.  We see God’s Holy Spirit uniting Jesus’ disciples, and we see God uniting them in a reversal of the way in which God separated humanity in the Genesis story of the Tower of Babel.  In Genesis 11, we are told that all people had one language and that they decided to make a tower to the heaven’s, literally to God’s realm, so that they could make a name for themselves and prove how mighty they were.  Knowing that there would be no end to the peoples’ ambition and selfish glory, God confused their languages so that they would be limited in what they could accomplish, so that their selfish and harmful schemes would be more difficult.

On the day of Pentecost we see a reversal of what happened at the Tower of Babel.  God took the confusion that had entered in to the languages of the people and brought them back together.  He also helped his disciples to see that there was nothing that could stop his message in the world.  He gave them an assurance that if they worked for him he would give them the words to speak and would open the ears of those around them to hear and understand his word.  he as preparing the church for an explosion of growth even before the disciples had set out on their mission.

Unity in the church was essential.  The disciples needed to believe that what Jesus had asked them to accomplish could be done.  They had to believe that they could take the good news of the resurrected Christ out into the world.  If they didn’t believe that God would be with them, that the Holy Spirit would be guiding them all along the way they would have failed.

Unity in the church is essential today as well in the work and mission that we do.  We are still continuing Jesus’ mission in the world, to live and invite others to live in the Kingdom of God.  The Holy Spirit unites us if we allow it to.  The Holy Spirit draws us together in Jesus.  The Holy Spirit is the wind that flows through each of us and inhabits our homes, our churches and everywhere that we move in this world that God has created. 

United by God’s Holy Spirit we have a mission to take God’s message out into the world, and as confusing, or hard , or impossible that may seem, God has promised that he will be with us wherever we go and that he will give us the words to speak.  We are a people who are gathered under God’s spirit and we have to remain a people united if we are to spread his message of peace, hope and love.  

The unity the Holy Spirit gives is essential for us, and without it we cannot stand against the things in this world  that pull us away from God.  I thought of this while reading a children’s book to my son, Noah.  We’ve been reading the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, and in the fourth book, the great enemy returns, and the leader of the good guys gives the following speech:

In the light of [our enemy’s] return, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.  [Our enemy’s] gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great.  We can fight it only by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust.  [Our differences] are nothing at all if our aims are identical and our hearts are open.” (J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Chapter 33, p. 723)

People think they don’t need Jesus.  They think other things will fill them more fully than Jesus.  They think the kingdoms of money, time, power, amusement, etc. are better kingdoms than the kingdom of God.  I say this not to look contemptuously at anyone, but to realize that for many, church, and even Jesus have become irrelevant.  Jesus has no place in many peoples’ lives.  They have filled the holes in their hearts with other things:  with stuff, with high stress jobs, with fun activities which they think will bring fulfillment to their lives.  None of these things are bad, but as St. Augustine said, “our hearts are restless until they rest in God.” 

We are a people who were made to rest in God--to put all of our trust in him and to fill the deep longings of our heart with his.  But our society increasingly presents us with other things to fill the holes in our lives.  We have to resist the temptation to fill in the empty places in our hearts with more things or more activities or more work.  We need to fill in those empty places with God.

This is the message that the world is craving to hear.  So many people are spinning their wheels trying to figure out why their lives don’t seem to be what they imagined they would be, trying to figure out why something always seems missing.  So they constantly strive for the next activity or thing which will finally make them complete and whole, and they fill themselves up with things.  People fill their lives with fear, and vengeance rather than with faith and love.  People live out various kingdoms of men rather than the kingdom of God, the kingdom of peace, hope, faith, forgiveness, charity, and love.  As a church we need to live that kingdom of God and bring the message that we as a people are meant to fill ourselves with God and live lives of his kingdom.

In light of the challenges facing the church, people’s indifference to Jesus and the competing kingdoms out there, we are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.  There are many competing narratives, whose gift for spreading discord and enmity is very great.  We can help guide people away from those competing narratives and to the narrative and life of Jesus best by showing an equally strong bond of friendship and trust among ourselves, by living God’s kingdom, by allowing God’s Holy Spirit to unite us in Jesus, and by inviting others to that same unity in Jesus.  Like the disciples on the morning of the birth of the church, God has given us the ability to sort out the broken languages, the misplaced desires and the misguided understandings of who Jesus is.  We know that Jesus lives and that his Spirit is within us.  Now go out into the world and live and preach his Gospel.  Amen.

Flying Upside Down

Brad Sullivan
7 Easter, Year C
Sunday, May 12, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26

Our reading from Revelation seems particularly appropriate this morning, having had two funerals this week for Janie McCormack and Jean Wales, one funeral two weeks before for Becky Hill, as well as many family members of St. Markans who have died in the last several weeks.  The end of our Easter season has been a season in which we have been surrounded by death.    

Then, this morning, we hear from Revelation, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’  And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’  And let everyone who is thirsty come.  Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:16-17)  Thank God for these words.  Thank God for the stories of faith, the stories about Jesus which have been passed on to us for generations.  Thank God for Jesus’ prayer for  his disciples, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” (John 17:20)  Thank God that we have hope amidst despair, belief in life lived in unity with God, even after death.  Thank God that we have Jesus to be the Way, the Truth, and the Life for us.  Thank God that we have Jesus to grant us peace, and hope, and union with God.  Thank God that we have heard Jesus’ invitation to life with him.

Life is really about union with God and God’s kingdom here and now as well as after this life.  The importance of God’s kingdom among us here and now really began to crystallize for me when I read Dallas Willard’s book, The Divine Conspiracy.  In it, he wrote:

Recently a pilot was practicing high--speed maneuvers in a jet fighter. She turned the controls for what she thought was a steep ascent--and flew straight into the ground. She was unaware that she had been flying upside down.

This is a parable of human existence in our times--not exactly that everyone is crashing, though there is enough of that--but most of us as individuals, and world society as a whole, live at high-speed, and often with no clue to whether we are flying upside down or right-side up. Indeed, we are haunted by a strong suspicion that there may be no difference--or at least that it is unknown or irrelevant.

Mr. Willard asks questions like, is Jesus even relevant for this life, or does he only allow me to ‘make the cut’ for heaven?  We latch on to cute phrases or sayings and hold them up as wisdom, but when real wisdom strikes us, like the words of Jesus, we brush them aside as not relevant for this life.  Symbols and slogans surround us.  “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty.”  As he points out, that phrase is flying upside down.  You can’t practice it if it is random, and what in the world is senseless about beauty.  Rather, he would say, “practice routinely purposeful kindness and intelligent acts of beauty.”

He points out a caricature of God as being an elderly man inhabiting a tiny bit of space in a universe that is otherwise devoid of his presence.  One day after we die, we get to go be with this tiny God.  Many people view God this way.  Many people are flying upside down, but they don’t have to be.   God is everywhere, and God has invited us to enter the eternal life now.

I found out yesterday that Dallas Willard passed away this week.  I’ve never met him, and yet I am saddened by his death and feel some loss as of a mentor…Yet I hold to Revelation.  “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’  And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’  And let everyone who is thirsty come.  Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:16-17)     

Jesus gave us that invitation, to take the water of life as a gift and to enter the eternal life now, and Jesus told us to extend that invitation to others.  We’ve got a hopeful and beautiful faith to share with people, just as Jesus prayed we would. 

We may not ask someone we’ve just met if they know Jesus to be the way and the truth and the life.  I think I’d call that sharing our faith upside down.  We used to say politics and religion are not to be discussed with people.  While I don’t entirely agree, I understand why we would say that.

There was a man in seminary who I came to know and like a lot.  About seven or eight months down the line, we were having a discussion about some hot button issue of the time, and we came to realize we could hardly have been more diametrically opposed in our beliefs on this subject. 

So we might not talk about religion and politics with total strangers.  We don’t tell strangers, “well, you’re flying upside down!”  Wait to hear the differences you  have until you love each other.  We could do with even more love in the church and invitation of others to believe or to join through that love.  In our relationship, with people we know, we have been told by Jesus to invite people into the with-God life. 

Jesus was praying for them too, for those who would come to believe through our words.  So they too can receive tragedy and death with hope and faith.  So they can believe the words of Revelation as we do.  When we think of those whom we love but see no longer, we can fly right side up.:  “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’  And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’  And let everyone who is thirsty come.  Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:16-17)  Amen.

And God Will Make His Home With You...

Brad Sullivan
6 Easter, Year C
Sunday, May 5, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Acts 16:9-15
Psalm 67
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5
John 14:23-29
   

“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).  That’s really what salvation is all about, isn’t it, being one with God, God making his home with us?  God’s home was with us in the Garden of Eden, at the beginning of creation, before we turned away and separated ourselves from God.  That’s what we’re constantly striving to get back, our unity with God, for God to make his home with us. 

So, Jesus taught his disciples “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).  That means loving Jesus and keeping his word is, in itself, salvific.  Love Jesus and keep his word, and God will dwell with you.

What, then, does it mean to keep Jesus’ word?  Well, Jesus said he is the way, the truth, and the life.  So I’ll try to paint a picture of what that looks like, for Jesus to be the way, the truth, and the life.

Jesus taught us that if someone offends against us, we are not to write that person off, waiting for an apology.  Rather, Jesus taught us to go up to that person, and let him know that what he did or said hurt us. The idea is not to reprimand the person, but to go, heart in hand, seeking to restore the relationship.  Jesus’ way is to tell someone when they have hurt us as much for that person’s sake as for our own.  Jesus taught us to forgive as we have been forgiven.  Pursue peace, love, and restoration.  Open yourself up to be hurt again, and let go of the hurt someone has caused even though that person does not deserve your forgiveness. 

If you’ve ever seen this in action, it can be a beautiful thing.  I’m thinking of family and friends who have an argument or fight and then become estranged.  One of them finally bends and decides the love they share is more important than the hurt that was caused, recognizing that the other was likely hurting as well.  Forgiveness and reconciliation follow, and the relationship is reborn.  If you have ever experienced that, then you have experienced what it means to keep Jesus’ word and to have God make his home in people. 

Another way we would keep Jesus’ word, following him as the way, the truth, and the life.  Jesus taught his disciples not to store up for themselves treasures on earth, but to store up for themselves treasures in Heaven.  Where your treasure is, Jesus said, there your heart will be also.  If you have ever seen someone who is not well off financially, or someone who is well off financially, but who is full of the love of friends and family, then you have seen God’s heavenly treasures.  Keeping Jesus’ word, we measure wealth not by how much stuff we acquire, but by how great our love is for others and how great others’ love is for us.  Following Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, we  measure success not by how well we do in our careers, but by how well we do in our relationships.  If you’ve experienced wealth and success in your relationships, then you’ve know what it means to keep Jesus’ word and to have God make his home in people.

Jesus taught us to serve others, to serve both their physical needs and to tell them about his kingdom, our faith in him as the way, the truth, and the life.  These actions are again, done out of love.  Believing that we truly have something wonderful to offer others in our belief in Jesus, we would share our faith, offering it as something we have found to be beautiful and life-giving. 

Bishop Doyle addresses this work of proclaiming the Gospel in his book, Unabashedly Episcopalian.  He writes that as Episcopalians, we often “don’t ask total strangers if they have accepted Jesus as their personal lord and savior…Who are we to assume we could form another person’s relationship with God?  On God can do that, [we may say] so let’s leave it between that person and God.”  We may pray for that person, but public proclamation of the Gospel?

While there is some truth to that, Bishop Doyle points out that both personal prayer and public proclamation and mission are our way of life as Jesus’ disciples.  We are called to share our faith with people, to offer to others what we have found to be beautiful and life-giving.  We serve people’s physical needs along with sharing our faith.  We incarnate God’s healing presence, serving as temples for God to those around us.  We give more than lip service to this.  We live it out, daily.  As Christian ethicist Stanley Hauerwas wrote, we don’t want to fall into the trap of drafting radical statements as a substitute for being a radical people pledged to witness to the world that God’s peace is not just some ideal but a present responsibility for us.” 

By following Jesus’ teachings, by living and believing Jesus to be the way, the truth, and the life, we enact God’s kingdom here on earth, and God makes his home with us.  Now, there have been times in the church’s history when we have tried to bring about God’s kingdom by forced conversions, by making people believe in Jesus. This is contrary to how Jesus lived.  Keeping Jesus’ word and having God dwell with us is not a violent act.

Jesus said, blessed are the meek.  Rather than force people to believe in him, Jesus let people not believe in him.  Rather than committing acts of violence against those who did not believe in him, Jesus allowed himself to be killed.  Jesus’ kingdom is a kingdom of peace, forgiveness, faith, hope, and love.  We keep Jesus’ word, by telling people about his kingdom, but by showing them his kingdom in our daily lives.  We keep Jesus’ words by talking about him as the way, the truth, and the life, and by living him as the way, the truth, and the life. 

Keeping Jesus’ word, and following him as the way, the truth, and the life comes from a life lived studying him, studying his words and teachings, and following in the way he taught.  As we do so, we become his kingdom, his presence in the world around us.  We won’t always know exactly what to do, but with daily prayer and study of Jesus’ way, we will be guided.

When we are calm and at peace, to what action do you think Jesus’ teachings lead.  Following Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, in what direction is Jesus leading?  Which directions leaves you feeling as though you are following him and at peace within yourself? 

Jesus’ was is the way of peace, of reconciliation, of forgiveness and love.  Keeping Jesus’ word, we fins salvation.  We find unity with God and with each other.  Keeping Jesus word, we God making his home with us.  Amen.