Love Is Our Religion

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Emmanuel Episcopal Church

July 19, 2020

Proper 11, A

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

“Love Is Our Religion”

I spent last week at Camp Allen for Jr. High camp, and it was a great week.  There was lots of physical distancing, masks worn by all, and activities done outside which had previously been inside.  They did a great job of safety while still making it feel like camp; it was really wonderful, and kids who had spent years away from or largely ignoring their faith were brought back to their faith in powerful ways.

Our theme for the week was The Way of Love, which is Presiding Bishop Curry’s way of talking about they way of Jesus.  Our teachings at camp were about turning back to the way of Jesus when we realize we’ve been living in a way that isn’t really about love.  We talked about how we can continue to earn together the ways of Jesus, and how we can bless others and share with others the healing we have found through the way of Jesus, the Way of Love.

I taught on how we can be a blessing to others, and noted that the first thing we need to do is to recognize our own blessings.  In order to be a blessing to others, we can ask ourselves every day, for what am I grateful?  These daily gratitudes can be grand in scale or very small and simple, and if we write them down and then make a practice of sharing these gratitudes with others we begin each day by blessing others and being blessed by them.  

Then we also get to work daily on what we’re wrestling with.  What’s got us upset, angry, anxious, resentful, afraid?  Then, rather than focusing on some other person or situation that’s got us upset, we look inward to understand “What’s going on inside of me that I’m so bothered by whatever it is.”  We work on healing ourselves so that we can then bless others with peace in our hearts.  Otherwise, acting out of our anger and our hurt, we tend to fight against someone or something and bring more harm and hurt into the world.  In the Way of Love, we’re called to recognize our blessings, find peace within ourselves, and then be a blessing to others.  

The campers seemed to really dig that idea and seeking to be healed within oneself before trying to be a blessing to others, and one night, one of the boys cabins asked me to do “priest on a hot seat,” where they asked me any questions they wanted so they could learn more about the faith and hear some thoughts on issues they were wrestling with.  

What do I think about Christians who are against various groups of people?  I said, “I believe they are faithful in their beliefs, faithful to what they’ve been taught, faithful to their understanding of scripture.  I may disagree with them and often do, but I am not going to condemn them or declare them not to be Christian.  I will say that while I think they are wrong, they are also striving to be faithful.”  Now, that response goes against my initial instincts which are to fight against them and start a ruckus over how wrong they are. 

It is easy to feel righteous and even to feel like we’re doing good by fighting and speaking against those whom we feel are wrong and those we perceive as being hateful to others.  Speaking against those others and spending all our time fighting against them however, is not the way of Jesus, the way of love.  

If I’m spending all my time fighting folks who are against people that I claim to love, then I’m not spending that time loving those whom I claim to be defending.  

So, back to the question I was asked at Camp, rather than spend my time condemning the groups of Christians whom I felt were wrong, I spoke out for those people who were condemned by other Christians.  That was a loving response which may have helped some of the campers themselves realize they belonged to Jesus and weren’t condemned or cast out.

Let the weeds grow along with the wheat, Jesus said, so that we don’t all get damaged by pulling the weeds out.  Imagine if everyone who wanted to pull the weeds out of society or out of the church was able to do so.  There wouldn’t be any wheat left.  Everyone would be pulled up and cast out because everyone is a weed in someone’s eyes.  So, Jesus said to let them grow together, and leave the weeding to God at the end of the age.

We’re God’s garden after all, and rather than leave the weeding to us who are tossed about by our emotions and our brokenness, we leave the weeding to God who is not only loving, but who is love itself.  I can trust love to do the weeding.  There are parts in me that need to be weeded out.  There are parts in all of us that need weeding.  There are certainly parts of society that need weeding, so we leave the weeding to God who is love, and we follow in the way of Love, focusing on loving and blessing, rather than constantly fighting against others.  

So, in that vein, one final story from camp.  For one of our prayer activities, we taught the campers about and had them walk a labyrinth.  Now, many of the campers walked the labyrinth in a slow, fairly contemplative way, traditional of a labyrinth walk.  Some of the Jr. High boys, however, kind of skipped through it, walked backwards, shuffled, and goofed their way through it.  

My initial reaction was, “Well, they’re doing it wrong; they’re not taking it seriously, and I should correct that.”  Thankfully, I didn’t.  Rather than see them as weeds in the Labyrinth walk, I pointed out that for some of them, goofing and enjoying their was through the labyrinth was prayer.  I realized that the traditional ways and structures of prayer in the church don’t work for everybody.  Some of these kids needed to have fun, and that fun with their friends was prayer.  What those kids then heard was not, “we’re weeds and doing it wrong.”  Instead, they heard that they are wheat, and they belong just as much as their friends who could walk more contemplatively.  

Later that night, one of the boys talked with his counselor, his cabin mates, and me about how he had felt God walking along side him during the Labyrinth walk.  His full group of cabin mates all got to be there with him in that.  They all got to be wheat together with him.  If I had declared some of them as weeds?  How much would have been missed, how broken would that cabin had been with some of them feeling like they didn’t belong when their friend told that he had walked with God?  

We’ve all got weeds within us.  We are also all wheat.  God, who is loving and who is love itself will sort that all out.  We are not weed pullers; that is not our religion.  As disciples of Jesus, (and quoting Ziggy Marley), “love is [our] religion.”  Our place is to love one another, both the weeds and the wheat, and to grow together in the Way of Jesus, the Way of Love.

Come On, Jesus! You’re Supposed to Be the Prince of Peace!

Brad Sullivan

Proper 7, Year A

June 25, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Genesis 21:8-21

Romans 6:1b-11

Matthew 10:24-39

Come On, Jesus!  You’re Supposed to Be the Prince of Peace!

Several times last week, someone would ask me what the Gospel reading is for this Sunday, and every time I told them, their reaction was, “Oh, yuck, I hate that passage.”  Honestly, that was my reaction too.  “I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother,

and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”  Come on, Jesus, you’re supposed to be the Prince of Peace, not the Prince of Jerry Springer.

I could say that Jesus’ talking about family members being against each other harkens back to Micah 7:6 - “For the son treats the father with contempt, the daughter rises up against her mother, the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”  Obviously that passage was in Jesus’ mind, but the context was that things had gotten so bad in Israel, that Micah was describing how things were, families were against each other, and children were treating their parents with contempt.  It would be a little disingenuous, therefore, to say, Jesus was just trying to remind people of scripture.  He didn’t say children were treating their parents badly.  He was saying that because of him, because of people believing in him and following his teachings, parents and children were going to turn against each other.  Those who didn’t follow him were going to turn against those who did.

This really isn’t all that surprising to those who have read the Gospel.  Jesus was a polarizing figure.  On the one hand he healed people and was a champion of the outcast and downtrodden.  He had a lot of wonderful teachings which we love to hear like “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  On the other hand, Jesus wasn’t just the easy listening station.  There was a lot of metal in him too, a good bit of raging against the machine of religious moral superiority coupled with economic and social injustice. 

Jesus did not mince words when denouncing religious leaders who demanded  religious perfection from others and yet did not care for the vulnerable and needy.  “Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you devour widow’s houses and for the sake of appearances, say long prayers.”  (Matthew 23:14)   Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, because y’all are supposed to be using the money given to you by faithful Jews to help the vulnerable.  You’re supposed to be helping widows and helping others who have a hard time getting by.  Instead, you’re demanding that they do their religious duty and pay up in order to beautify the Temple.  Do you really think God will be pleased with a pretty building when his people are suffering? 

If you really want to please God, Jesus taught, then love God and love people.  Love people.  Care for them.  Help them mightily in their hours of need.  Take up your cross daily, and follow me.  Sacrifice your own safety and security in order to help people who are vulnerable, needy, down and out, rejected, and downtrodden.  Love God and love people…and don’t even pretend that you love God if you don’t love people.  There’s no way we can love God through our religion, if we don’t love people through our daily lives and actions. 

Folks like the Scribes and Pharisees, who dotted the “I”s and crossed the “T”s of their religious duties, didn’t like hearing that they actually had to care about people.  They didn’t like hearing that they would actually have to sacrifice some of their own comfort and security in order to help those less fortunate and (according to their theology) less deserving people.  “I have what I have because I’m a good, God-fearing person, and I earned it,” they thought.  “Those others would be better off than they are if they feared God like I do and worked harder.” 

That was pretty well what folks thought of the poor and the down and out back then, and Jesus was having none of it.  “No guys, the kingdom of God belongs to them too, and the kingdom of God is actualized in this world when you who have enough and more than enough, do all in your power to make sure that those who don’t have enough are cared for as well.”  Folks didn’t like hearing that.  In fact, folks killed Jesus for saying things like that.

Jesus was a polarizing figure.  Folks who really engaged with Jesus either loved him or were pretty turned off and scandalized by him.  He claimed to be God.  He claimed to be the way and the truth and the life.  He upset people’s comfortable focus on themselves, and forced them to take a hard look at others and their needs, and he taught folks to take a hard look at their own lives and see how their lives might be harming others.  Truly taking Jesus seriously today, he is still a polarizing figure.  You can love him, you can be pretty turned off by him, or you can assume he really didn’t mean or say much of what he said. 

When we do take seriously living as he taught, believing in Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life, then some people are going to turn against us.  Heck, even grace is going to turn people against us.  Grace is great for those whom we feel deserve it, but what about when we follow in Jesus’ way and offer grace for those who don’t really deserve it?  That’s going to anger some people, and Jesus would have us do so anyway, rather than take the easy road and get on the bandwagon of self-righteousness and condemnation. 

“Take up your cross daily,” Jesus said, “and follow me.”  Let parts of you die, daily, in order to offer grace to others.  Let some of your needs die in order to help provide for the needs of others.  Be willing to accept the deaths of relationships that will come when people turn against you for truly taking Jesus seriously. 

A friend and colleague of Kristin’s was at a fundraiser and raffle to support a girls’ softball team in his community.  One of the raffle items was an AR-15, and this man really doesn’t like guns.  So, he spent thousands of dollars on raffle tickets, won the rifle, and had a friend help him turn it into gardening tools.  Swords into plowshares.  He took an instrument of death, and turned it into instruments of life, and he has received death threats for having done so.  He’s lost friends, received thousands of hateful messages, and he’d do it again, seeking life, rather than the possibility of death.

Jesus’ teaching that he has come to set family members against each other is still not my favorite passage to hear.  It’s not exactly the feel good film of the summer.  The reality of suffering ridicule, of straining and even losing relationships over taking Jesus seriously is, however, the way of Jesus.  What Jesus taught in our Gospel passage today is the way of him who is the truth and the life.  Do we dare take Jesus seriously?  Imagine the world if we do.  Imagine the changes in the world when we and other Christians acknowledge and share our faith in Jesus not through religious moral superiority while ignoring the problems of others, but rather through living and sharing our faith in Jesus by daily sacrificing greatly for the sake of others. That’s life following the way of Jesus, life in the Jesus movement. 

Thinking only about myself, hearing today’s passage leaves me not wanting to hear Jesus’ words.  Thinking about others, however, I want to hear more of today’s passage.  Thinking about others, I find hope and joy in today’s passage.  We get to be part of the Jesus movement in which we sacrifice some of our own safety and security for the sake of others, to provide safety and security to those who don’t have enough.  We get to accept grace for all those times when we don’t follow Jesus all that well, and we get to offer grace to those who don’t deserve it.  We get to offer grace even to those who would turn against us for taking Jesus seriously and following him as the way, the truth, and the life.  We get to be part of the Jesus movement, knowing that there will be consequences, and choosing for the love of others, to follow Jesus.

Setting the Bar Kinda Low

Brad Sullivan

6 Epiphany, Year A

February 12, 2017

Emmanuel, Houston

Sirach 15:15-20

Matthew 5:21-37

Setting the Bar Kinda Low

“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”  That’s where we left off last week in Jesus’ sermon in Matthew chapter 5.  At a first hearing, it sounds like Jesus is giving a major, “you’ve got to be good enough for God” kind of statement.  “You’ve got to be righteous enough in God’s eyes in order to be good enough for God.”  That’s certainly where my teenage brain took this passage when I read it back in high school.  “Man, I’ve got to be even better that the religious leaders in order to be good enough for God?”  Yikes!

Well, I’ve got a few critiques to that particular understanding of Jesus and the Gospel.  The first is, let’s face it, if Jesus wants us to be better people than the scribes and the Pharisees, he’s setting the bar kinda low.  Just about any time Jesus mentions the scribes and the Pharisees, he’s saying not to be like them, calling them hypocrites.  So, not too much of a high standard of perfection there.  The second critique of the “You’ve got to be good enough for God” understanding of Jesus’ sermon is this:  “You don’t have to be good enough for God.”  Striving to be good enough for God, striving to be righteous for one’s own sake is missing the point of Jesus entirely.  Jesus is much more concerned with people’s well being than he is with people’s righteousness.  That’s the lesson I get from our story in Matthew’s Gospel today, not reward and punishment, but Jesus’ genuine concern and care for the well-being of people. 

Several years ago, I was gently pushing our then three year old son, Rhys, on a tire swing in the front yard of our house.  We were having a lovely time, and then our neighbor’s granddaughter came over.  She was about six, and she asked if she could push Rhys.  To be honest, I had some trepidation about the prudence of allowing such a young girl to push my son, but not wanting to be an overly protective helicopter parent, I decided to just let them play.  That worked really well for a about 20 seconds, after which time, she spun the tire swing too hard, and Rhys fell off the swing, breaking his collar bone.  Way to go, Dad.

Amidst Rhys’ crying and my checking to see if he was as hurt as I feared, the little girl began apologizing profusely, the fear in her voice and face communicating two things:  “I’m sad I hurt Rhys,” eclipsed almost totally by “It was an accident; I’m so afraid that I’m in serious trouble.”  For my part, I had almost forgotten that our neighbor’s granddaughter was still even there, focused exclusively on Rhys and what appeared even by looking at it to be a broken collar bone.  I was certainly not interested at all in my neighbor’s granddaughter being in trouble.  I knew it was an accident, and my only concern was for my son’s well being, not the girl’s being in trouble or not.  Assuring her that it was ok, I quickly scooped Rhys up and took him to the hospital. 

What strikes me about that story is or neighbor’s granddaughter’s concern about being in trouble eclipsing her concern for Rhys’ well-being.  Now, to be fair, she was a little kid.  Of course that’s how she felt.  She didn’t know what else to do or how else to deal with the situation, so no chastisement of her intended in any way.

But, now imagine that the little girl was an adult who had just accidentally hurt someone, and imagine this adult is more concerned with being in trouble or even worse, being righteous in God’s eyes, than this person is concerned with the well-being of the other person.  That is the situation I find when we hear Jesus critiquing the religion and way of life of the scribes, Pharisees, and other religious leaders of his day.  Be it the parable of the Good Samaritan, where the religious leaders pass by on the other side of the road when they see someone hurt, or be it the actual practices of the religious leaders in which they are shown to take money from poor widows in order to pay a temple tax, or pray about how wonderful they are compared to those around them, we see a group of religious leaders concerned with their own righteousness before God, worrying about being in trouble, while having almost no concern for the well-being of the people around them.

Jesus, in his constant healing of people; in his care for the orphan, the widow, the downtrodden, and the outcast; and in his preaching, including the sermon of his that we hear today, Jesus showed how much he cared for people’s well being, and how interested he wasn’t in people being righteous before God for their own sake.  Our being righteous before God, being good enough to please God, Jesus took care of that on the cross.  Jesus’ desire for us was then not that we would continue to be worried about being righteous or good enough before God, but rather that we would love God and love people.  From a place of fear about our own righteousness before God, Jesus sent us on a quest to love God and love people without fear.  That quest of love is what we hear Jesus teaching about in his words that we heard today, a far more complicated, rewarding, and beautiful understanding of life than simple reward and punishment.

In the teaching that we heard today, Jesus was basically going through the 10 Commandments, saying that on the quest of love, a basic rule based keeping of the 10 Commandments is not sufficient.  Some probably hear his words and are rather disheartened.  “Not only can we not kill people, we’re not even supposed to hate them?  No fair, that’s way too hard!  Not only can we not cheat on our wives and our husbands, we’re not even supposed to fantasize about it?”  From a trying to be good enough standpoint, no we can’t live up to that.  We’re not perfect.  We’re not going to be.  Jesus is teaching that the point of the commandments is not to be perfect, not to be righteous before God for one’s own sake.  Rather, the point of the 10 Commandments is to live in such a way that your life is a quest of love, a quest of loving God and loving people without fear. 

See, the 10 Commandments are a pretty good start to things, but you can keep all 10 of them and still be a pretty terrible person.  Imagine talking to someone who makes sure to keep the Commandments.  This person worships God, has no idols, goes to church on Sunday and does no other work, has never committed perjury or lied about someone to get them in trouble; he doesn’t talk back to his parents; and he’s basically content with what he’s got and doesn’t steal from others.  He sounds like a pretty good guy.  Now let’s say he then starts talking about how righteous he is, and you call him on it because you’ve noticed some rather less than wonderful habits of this person. 

“So, I hear you saying how righteous you are, but you’re also kind of a bully.  You routinely beat people up when they anger you, and are constantly insulting and verbally abusing others.”

“Well, yeah, that’s true, but hey, at least I haven’t killed anybody!”  Check, commandment kept. 

“Uh huh.  Ok, well how can you be so righteous, considering how terribly you treat your wife?”

“Hey, I don’t have to treat her well, I just have to not commit adultery.  I haven’t.”  Check, commandment kept.

See, there are all kinds of ways we can be really terrible to each other and still keep the Commandments.  Even in following Jesus’ more stringent code, we can find ways to hurt each other.  “Ok, Jesus, I got it.  No adultery, no ogling other women, and no divorce.  Beyond that, I can be as big of a prat to my wife as I want.”  Far from giving us a more stringent set of rules for us to follow in order to be righteous before God for our own sake, Jesus is showing us that the whole point of the commandments, is to care about the well being of others as God does. 

Now, there’s still this part where Jesus says that if we treat people terribly, we should be thrown into the hell of fire.  He’s saying we should be thrown into Gehenna, the burning garbage dump outside of Jerusalem.  Have you ever known someone who was such a horrible louse that they seemed like human garbage?  That’s what Jesus is talking about.  People matter so much to Jesus, and so he taught that if you treat people terribly, you’ve turned yourself into human garbage, good for nothing but the burning garbage dump, metaphorically speaking.  Far from actually wanting us to cut off our hands and pluck out our eyes, Jesus is teaching that even small practices of treating others terribly can lead to an entire life of treating others terribly, so stop with the seemingly insignificant practices in which you treat others without love so that you don’t end up living your entire life treating others without love.

Jesus is showing us the heart of God, a heart not interested in keeping rules for one’s own sake, a heart not interested in fear and  punishment, but a heart interested in using the rules to show us how better to love people and to care for their well being.  Jesus really is far more concerned with people’s well being, fare more concerned with love than he is with people’s self-serving righteousness. 

Jesus is inviting us to follow him in a life that is a quest of love, a quest to give and receive love.  In this quest, we have our eyes and our hearts open to check in with ourselves and ask, “am I really living as a loving person?  Am I full of anger and resentment?  Maybe I’m generally ok, but need some help with loving right now.  Maybe I should seek that help.”  In this quest of love that Jesus has given us, we don’t go it alone.  Love cannot be a solitary venture. 

We’re on this quest with each other, we have our eyes and our hearts open to the people around us.  Are they doing ok?  Do they have enough?  Do I have enough?  Do I have more than I need?  Is the path that my life is on serving only myself, or is the path that my life is on also being a light of love for others?  Is the path that our lives are on serving as a light of love for others.  That is the path of the quest Jesus has set us on, a quest in which we care not about our own righteousness before God for our own sake, a quest not of reward and punishment.  Jesus has set us on the quest of genuine concern for the care and well-being of others, the quest in which we love God and love and serve people without fear, the quest of love. 

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Life After The Apocalypse

Brad Sullivan

Proper 28, Year C

November 13, 2016

Emmanuel, Houston

Isaiah 65:17-25

Luke 21:5-19

Life After The Apocalypse

Your worst fears are coming true, but fear not.  That’s basically part of what Jesus was saying in the discourse to his disciples that we heard today.  “Guys, you’re about to be living in Diaspora again.  You are about to be scattered among the nations, living in places that don’t really support your faith.  The Temple that you love so much…it’s gonna be gone in 40 years, and in about 100 years, Israel is going to be gone too.”  Jesus didn’t get that specific with the timeline, but he was telling them about the future destruction of the temple and of the nation of Israel itself. 

“Continuing to live out your faith is not going to be easy, guys,”  Jesus was saying.  “You won’t be able to depend on the beauty or even the existence of the Temple.  You will have no state, no Jewish government to allow you to keep in the ways of your faith.  Also, y’all who are following in my way, before the total destruction of Israel, you’re even going to be persecuted within Israel.  So here then, is how y’all will need to live post apocalypse.” 

“Be steadfast in your faith, more than ever. Trust in God and in the ways of his Gospel, because you will have no temple, nor any government to turn to.  You will have no great community around you making it easy for you to live out your faith.  So be steadfast, live out your faith with intentionality.  Live out your faith with each other, and continue to follow in my ways, even when the culture around you says and does otherwise.”

As disciples of Jesus in the 21st century, we find ourselves in a much less dire but similar situation to what Jesus was preparing his disciples for.  In America, we’re not exactly persecuted for our faith, but we do live in a culture that often says and does things counter to the Gospel.  Truth be told, we often end up taking that culture as our own, and not following in the ways of Jesus ourselves all that well.

Some of Jesus’ teachings are rather difficult and don’t exactly jive with our mainstream culture or even our natural inclinations.  “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it,” Jesus said. (Matthew 16:25)  ‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew 5:43-44)  ‘You have heard that it was said, “An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also;’ (Matthew 5:38-39)

Not easy, right.  If someone were to punch me, I would really want to punch them back.  Instead, I’m supposed to not lose my temper, not give into my anger and my hurt, and instead take a breath and say, “ok, do you need to hit me again, because if you do, here I am, you can.”  I believe that way of Jesus will bring about more peace and love in the world; I think it might actually resolve the situation, but it’s not exactly easy, and it’s not exactly the American way.  “Speak softly but carry a big stick” is a far cry from “turn the other cheek.” 

As Christians, we are somewhat a people in diaspora.  We don’t live in a Christian nation.  We don’t live in a Christian theocracy like the first century nation of Israel.  We don’t have some overarching governmental authority to help guide us and keep us in our faith.  As Wendy Claire Barrie wrote in her book, Faith at Home, the way of Jesus is “counter-cultural, revolutionary, and not quite what mainstream culture would have us believe.”  So, she writes about many ways we can live out our faith at home or at any time, when we’re not surrounded and supported by our church buildings, by the sanctuary that our church community makes for us.

Make the dinner table the altar in your house.  Prepare your meals and then eat together in such a way that the whole meal is a prayer, in which you share your stories of faith, you share where Jesus has been working in your life.  Offer up that meal to God in remembrance of Jesus, like we do here on Sunday morning.

Turn your bedtime into a time of reflection like Jesus took when he went away to a lonely place so often to pray and offer up his life to God, take that time at bedtime to God the day that is past:  the good, the bad.  “How have I turned away from Jesus?  Where have I seen Jesus in my life?”  Offer that time of reflection to God as you end your day, and as you rise in the morning, dedicate the day to come to God.  Look for all those times and places where you may see him.  You will have turned your bedroom into a sanctuary, into a sacred space for God.

Rather than seeking retribution when wronged, seek peace and forgiveness, following after the ways of Jesus. 

“Follow my way anywhere and everywhere,” Jesus said.  That’s another part of what Jesus was teaching his disciples when he told them that the temple would be torn down.  Jesus revealed to his disciples that when the temple was gone, they would need to and also be able to find him and follow in his ways anywhere in the world.  That was an apocalypse for them, apocalypse meaning a revealing, a revelation.  “God’s not just here in the Temple, or just here in Israel,” Jesus was saying.  “God is everywhere and we can live out our faith anywhere.”  So too do we get to find God anywhere in the world, anywhere in our lives.  That’s life after the apocalypse, life after the revealing.  “Your worst fears are coming true,” Jesus was saying, “but fear not, for you can find God anywhere.”

For many folks, people’s worst fears came true when Donald Trump was elected president.  To be fair, I think a lot of people’s worst fears came true when Barak Obama was elected president…and before that, and before that.  People’s worst fears often come true when we elect a new president (or when darn near anything happens that people don’t like). 

In both cases, with both our president-elect and our current president, I think some of people’s fears were probably well-founded.  Presidents make bad decisions, we see who is coming, and we expect those bad decisions.  I think also that some of those fears are not well founded, but largely emotional reactions that get so worked up that we’re afraid it’s all coming to an end, but I don’t think that particular apocalypse is going to happen because of who’s sitting in office.  The real apocalypse for me, the real revelation has been to see how much hope or despair we place in one person. 

I’ve seen it written and heard it said many times that “We need to bring God back to our country.”  When did he leave?  Perhaps we at least thought he left when anyone started thinking that it is up to our president or anyone in our government to allow us to believe in God, follow in the ways of Jesus, or teach us how to follow in the ways of Jesus.  I don’t want the government teaching us how to follow in Jesus’ ways.  They suck at it.  Sorry, but they do.

Whether we’re talking about the president or congress or any government official, whoever it is, is not Jesus.  That one person, whoever it is, is not in charge of us following in the ways of Jesus.  Regardless of who is president, regardless of if we like that person or not, we are still a people in diaspora.  We are still disciples of Jesus living among a nation, within a culture that does not seek first and foremost to follow in Jesus’ way, and it is not up to any president to teach people to follow in Jesus’ way. 

It is not up to a president or anyone else to teach our children to follow in Jesus’ way.  It is not up to a president or anyone else to show people the light of the Gospel, the love of Jesus, and the peace of his way. 

It is rather, up to us, Jesus’ disciples, to show people the light of the Gospel.  It is up to us, Jesus’ disciples, to show people the love of Jesus.  It is up to us, Jesus’ disciples, to show people to peace of Jesus’ way.  It is also up to us to notice all of the times, and places, and ways that we see Jesus in the world.

That is life after the apocalypse.  God still the creator, ruler, and redeemer of all creation.  God is still anywhere and everywhere in the world, and as disciples of Jesus in this house or in our own houses, or anywhere in the world, we get to see God’s presence and point it out.

Regardless of what anything in the culture or world around us may say, regardless of whether our worst fears have come true or our prayers have been answered, the question we ask ourselves is:  “What do we give our hearts to?”  That’s what belief really is, not just what we think is true, but what do we live and follow?  What do we give our hearts to?

Living in diaspora, it is easy to give our hearts to all kinds of ways that are not the way of Jesus, and we usually do so for really good reasons, like being connected with other people or seeking solace from the storms of life.  At the same time, living in Diaspora, we can find Jesus and find people following in his ways in all sorts of places and situations that on the surface don’t seem particularly Jesusy. 

Jesus is alive and well in all kinds of ways and places, in our religious culture and even in the culture around us.  In giving our hearts to Jesus, we don’t need to rail against and point out all the places, and people, and situations that are “bad and evil” and say, “Jesus isn’t there.”  Jesus might argue that point with us.  Giving our hearts to Jesus and living in disapora, living in a culture that is not particularly Christian, we get to point out all the ways and places that Jesus is there, all of the ways and places where we see Jesus in the culture and the lives of people all around us.  Even in the places where people think, “I shouldn’t tell the priest that I’m going here tonight...it’s Saturday night, I’ll pray on Sunday morning.”  No.  If you’re somewhere on Saturday night, Jesus is there too, and you get to point it out.  You get to notice, and see, and show where all the blessing are in this world.  That’s life after the apocalypse.

Wherever we see grace, we see the way of Jesus.  Wherever we see forgiveness and love, we see the way of Jesus.  Wherever we see people doing their best to make the right choice, we see the way of Jesus.  Even living in disapora, even living in times when our worst fears have come true, fear not, Jesus says.  Fear not, and give your hearts to me.  Do not fight against each other or the culture around you, but follow in my ways, practice your faith even if it is counter-cultural, and then open your eyes to see me everywhere in the world around you.  Amen.