All People Are of Infinite Value to God. Nations, Not So Much.

The Rev. Brad Sullivan

Lord of the Streets
July 21, 2024
Proper 11, B
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 23
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

 

When Jesus saw a great crowd, hungry for his teaching, he taught them because he had compassion on them. When people heard that Jesus was near, they brought to him those who were sick and in need so that he would heal them. Jesus spent a huge amount of his time healing people, teaching people, sometimes in crowds like we heard today, and sometimes with individuals, like we also heard today.

The Jesus revolution, the world-healing movement of Jesus was lived through healing and teaching people. He taught people to came to him and wanted to hear what he had to say, and he healed people who came to him and wanted to be healed.

Jesus didn’t topple King Herod’s corrupt government. Jesus didn’t raise armies to destroy the oppressive nation of Rome. Jesus changed the world through the lives of people. Jesus truly loved and cared for people, and his desire for us, his teaching to us, was that we would do the same.

This is in stark contrast to King Herod whom we heard about last week and the ancient kings of Israel who had led them so poorly. The ancient kings amassed great wealth for themselves, partly to show power and strength to other nations. The ancient kings dealt unjustly with the people. They cared for those with wealth, power, and influence to increase their own wealth, power, and influence, and at the same time they ignored and worsened the plights of those with less, those who seemed unimportant in their eyes.

Herod did the same. As king of an occupied nation, semi-autonomous, kinda, he was supposed to be leading his people according to the ways of God, but he was trying to keep Rome happy and keep the people from rising up against Rome. He of course, then had his courtiers and officials to placate, his influence to maintain, so, John peacefully spoke out against the crown, he had him beheaded on the whim of a young alluring girl and her mom. Amidst so many powerful forces and the pressure of everything weighing on him, Herod led his people further down the path of destruction, dealing in the same injustice and oppression of the kings before him. Herod cared for those with wealth, power, and influence and ignored and worsened the plights of those with less, those who seemed unimportant in his eyes.

I’d say there’s still plenty of that going on today in plenty of places, with plenty of rulers and leaders. Now, I’d guess that folks all along the political spectrum could hear my words and think I’m preaching against the particular politicians or candidates they don’t like.

I’m not.

I’m not preaching for or against governmental powers. They all have their place in seeking justice and wellbeing for all, but when I look for how to truly love and care for people, I don’t look to our government because Jesus didn’t set up our government to live out God’s mission in the world. For Jesus, shepherding the people wasn’t about setting up his new dynasty on the throne. Jesus shepherding the people was about caring for all people, poor and rich, exalted and lowly. Jesus’ way was to love and care for others, not to increase his power to impose his will in the world.

Jesus saw Rome as an occupying nation over Israel. He knew Rome was going to overtake and destroy Israel, and he let it happen. Jesus didn’t lead his people into an armed revolt against Rome. He didn’t sacrifice others’ lives to make the nation secure. Jesus cared for the lives of those who were there. Whether Israel was its own nation, or whether they were oppressed by Rome, or even if they were destroyed by Rome with the people of Israel scattered, Jesus cared for the people in the same way.

Rather than bring about some greater good for “the nation” by sacrificing the lives of the people, Jesus let destruction happen to the nation, choosing instead to love and care for people, not treat them as tools for his purposes.

Amidst Rome rising up and threatening to destroy Israel, Jesus’ way of healing and teaching folks may seem a bit small and unimportant. Shouldn’t he have made the nation great? Well, trying to make the nation great was certainly the way of the previous kings, but that wasn’t the way of God. Nation will rise against nation, God taught, and in the midst of nations rising and falling, God’s way for us is to love and care for one another. It may seem insignificant, but the key is that all people, each person, are of infinite value to God. Nations, not so much.

Great tumultuous upheavals are going to happen. We’re not going to prevent such things. God hasn’t taught us to. In the midst of great upheaval, God has taught us to love one another.

Late Archbishop of Canterbury Arthur Michael Ramsey wrote,  

Amidst the vast scene of the world’s problems and tragedies you may feel that your own ministry seems so small, so insignificant, so concerned with the trivial. What a tiny difference it can make to the world that you should run a youth club, or preach to a few people in a church, or visit families with seemingly small result. But consider: the glory of Christianity is its claim that small things really matter and that the small company, the very few, the one man, the one woman, the one child are of infinite worth to God. Consider our Lord himself. Amidst a vast world with its vast empires and vast events and tragedies our Lord devoted himself to individual men and women, often giving hours and time to the very few or to the one man or woman.

Loving one another is how we can bring about change in the world. If we set our minds on bringing about some greater good, but sacrifice loving and caring for individuals to bring those greater goods about, then we’re following the ways of Herod and the kings of old. Preaching, teaching, forcing change without genuine love for the people involved is to scatter God’s flock, to drive them away. The way of Jesus is to love and care for others. No good that we’re trying to achieve can come at the expense of people. Jesus showed us that in the infinite value he placed on each person whom he taught, the infinite value he placed on each person he healed, the infinite value he placed on each person he just had a conversation or a meal with.

No act of love or caring that we give to another is every too small to matter. Even the smallest act of love that we give can be the greatest thing in the world.

Unity In the Midst of the Gods

The Rev. Brad Sullivan
Emmanuel Episcopal Church

May 23, 2021

Pentecost, B

Acts 2:1-21

John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Unity In the Midst of the Gods

About 12 or 13 years ago, I was meeting with Rabbi Annie from Temple Sinai to learn from her about Judaism and especially about first-century Judaism. While I was able to read about first-century Judaism in biblical commentaries and my Bible’s footnotes, those were all written by Christian authors, and I figured, “What do they know?”  So I called Rabbi Annie, and the two of us began to have monthly coffees to learn about each others’ faiths.  That began a great friendship which continued and strengthened when we were worshipping in Temple Sinai for over two years after Harvey flooded our previous building.  

In one of Rabbi Annie’s and my early coffees, Annie was talking about Jewish holy days, one of which was Shavuot, the holy day from which Pentecost came.  Now, Pentecost is the Greek word used for the Jewish Festival of Weeks, the harvest festival described in Leviticus 23 and Deuteronomy 16, as all of us know, being good Episcopalians who read our Bibles. The idea was that the people of Israel would bring the first of their harvest to God to give thanks and dedicate the harvest to God. I know we all know that.

So, when Rabbi Annie started talking about Shavuot, the festival of weeks, as the time when they remembered God giving the Law at Mount Sinai, I was utterly confused, saying, “Wait, no, that’s the harvest festival, the first fruits deal, right?  From Leviticus.  What does God revealing the Law have to do with it?” I was so cute showing off my biblical knowledge.

Rabbi Annie explained that after the destruction of the Temple and of the nation of Israel, the people of Israel were left without a place to bring their harvest offerings, and since much of the society was no longer agrarian, a harvest festival didn’t make an over abundance of sense anymore.  So, the rabbis discussed the idea that as the Festival of Weeks came seven weeks after the Passover feast, so did the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai come about seven weeks later.  The Festival of Weeks made sense to be the time to celebrate the giving of the Law.  

The festival of Shavuot changed from the harvest festival to a time of celebrating the revelation of God given to Moses and the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.  Both harvest and revelation.  

For us in the church, the Festival of Weeks, Pentecost, changed as well.  On that first Pentecost after Jesus’ resurrection, Jews had come from all over, both within and beyond Israel, to Jerusalem to celebrate the Festival of Weeks.  Peter and the other apostles were also planning on celebrating the Festival of Weeks, the harvest festival, as they had so many years before, but then, something strange happened.  The Holy Spirit was revealed to them and to those gathered near them as tongues of fire, resting upon them, and those Jews who had come from all over heard the apostles speaking to them in their native languages, not just in the Hebrew language. God was connecting these people from disparate parts of the region into one people, through the Holy Spirit. Both harvest and revelation.  

The harvest was the church.  The revelation was that God was not just the god of one people, but that God truly was the God of the whole earth, indeed of the whole cosmos.  See, as Israel was being formed as a nation, there were near constant struggles with other nations.  Who was going to win?  As they would fight, God would win the victory over other nations' gods.  

So, the God of Israel was the supreme God over all others.   We read in Psalm 82:1, “God has taken his place in the divine council; in the midst of the gods he holds judgment.”  Whether considered gods or lesser heavenly beings, they were all subservient to the God of Israel, the God of all creation.  Even so, God was often understood as a tribal god.  As with all the other tribal gods, God was seen as the God of Israel, not of all the peoples.  He was God above all, but favored that one nation.  A tribal God.  

Then, the birth of the church at Pentecost, the harvest, and the revelation that God was not the God only of one people, but the God of all peoples, as each heard in their own language the proclamation of the apostles.  Pentecost is both the harvest of the church and a revelation that God desires one people throughout the earth, unity, rather than tribalism.  

This idea had been spoken of through prophets many timed before, and Paul wrote of this idea in his letter to the Ephesians, that God is the God of all peoples and that God’s desire is for all of humanity to be united.  In Ephesians chapters 1-3, Paul writes of the mystery of God that has been revealed, namely that God would gather up all things in Jesus, all things in heaven and on earth.  Paul wrote of Jesus as sitting at the right hand of God in the heavenly places (where these other gods dwelt), and Paul wrote the church as the body of Christ, dwelling as Christ’s body with God in the heavenly places right now, so that we are both here on earth living out our mortal lives and at the same time we are in the heavenly places joined together as Jesus’ body.  

Paul went on to say that we are joined together with Jesus as part of God’s revelation, that we are in the heavenly places revealing even to the gods or heavenly beings, the the unity that God has in mind for all of humanity.  No more tribalism and no more tribal gods.  One people living in unity.  

Now, that does not mean that we are meant to convert all people to Christianity.  We’ve tried doing that for a couple millennia, sometimes even forcing conversions on others.  That’s led to lots of conflict, war, and disunity.  Forcing, coercing, and shaming conversion has not been a quest for unity, but the Church turning God into one more tribal god.  We don’t find unity through tribalism and conflict.  We find unity through love and belief that there is one God over all humanity.  Many of us call God by different names, and that’ ok.  God is big enough for all our names.  

That’s what we found when we worshipped for over two years at Temple Sinai.  While both congregations believe in the God of Israel, we believe such different things about that God, that as far as religion goes, they are very distinct.  As much as our beliefs area different, however, we also get to believe that we worship not two different tribal gods, but the same High God who is God of all the tribes, of all the nations.  Being at Temple Sinai, we found that we don't need to be right in our beliefs or for the other religion to be wrong.  We have unity and love with Temple Sinai while still worshipping with two very different faiths.   

The same is true throughout the earth.  We call God by different names, and God is big enough to answer to all of them.  God’s mission for the church is to strive for unity among the peoples of the earth.  God’s mission for the church is to live and to share God’s great love for all humanity.  God’s mission for the church is for us to be united, both here and in the heavenly places among the gods, the heavenly beings.  Our mission, our way of life, is unity with all people through love and forgiveness, and to share that unity with all of humanity both here and in the heavenly places as God gathers up all things in him, both in heaven and on earth.