Sweet Dude! Fire From Heaven!

Brad Sullivan
Proper 8, Year C
Sunday, June 30, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
2 Kings 2:1-2, 6-14
Psalm 77:1-2, 11-20
Galatians 5:1, 13-25
Luke 9:51-62

The people did not accept Jesus, and Jesus didn’t want fire to be brought down upon him.  Rather, he wanted to continue with his ministry.  Jesus didn’t get caught up in pining for what he desired would happen.  He had hoped they would accept him; they didn’t.  He went on to continue his task of proclaiming the Gospel and going to Jerusalem to complete his ministry on the cross.

I’m guessing we’re rather fond of that part of our Gospel story, no fire from Heaven for not accepting Jesus, but then we come to the next part of our Gospel story.  Jesus invites a man to follow him, and when the man asks to bury his father, Jesus replies, "Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Ok, so I don’t think Jesus is intending to say, “funerals bad; leave the dead to rot.”  Rather, I think he’s saying something along the lines of, “if you wait until everything is perfect in order to follow me, then you’re never gonna follow me.  The world is not always going to be the way we want the world to be, and even so, follow me,” Jesus is saying.

I’m about to sing a song which I wrote called The Wild Hunt (words and music by Brad Sullivan, BMI).  It’s based on a Norse folk legend of Odin’s Wild Hunt which was this fearful time when Odin rode out to collect the souls of the dead.  This was during winter, the season of darkness and death, and people would hunker down, afraid of being swept away in the chaos of The Wild Hunt, this fearful season.  Then, the winter solstice, the longest night of the year came, after which the nights got shorter, the days got longer, and people celebrated the return of light in the world. 

So, I wrote this rather dark song about The Wild Hunt which I’m going to sing for you now, and then I’ll explain what in the world this has to do with the Gospel.

The Wild Hunt

words and music by Brad Sullivan, BMI

Winter’s come like lightning with Autumn’s setting sun,

The harvest stored preparing for the cold and dark to come.
The chilly wind a portent, death is stirring in the earth
Across the Texas plains as they wait for the Sun’s rebirth.
You hold your wife; you bless and kiss your daughter and your son,
And huddle close together.  The Wild Hunt’s begun.
 
The howling of the hounds is borne to you upon the wind,
And you wonder if tonight is the beginning or the end.
Chaos bleeds as thund’rous steeds advance across the night.
You peer into the darkness, but there’s nothing there to fight.
So you light a candle, praying, knowing there’s nowhere to run,
And huddle close together.  The Wild Hunt’s begun.

He comes with death surrounding him, his servants heed his call,

Drawn out from the shadows where they lay but did not fall.
Six more weeks to go until you reach the darkest night,
With the sacred promise that the world will be put right.
Knowing this, you also know the madness never ends,
For every day we walk the earth The Wild Hunt begins.
 

So there’s darkness and this fearful time and the song ends by acknowledging that even when the light comes back into the world at the winter solstice, the Wild Hunt never really end.  Every day we walk the earth, the Wild Hunt begins.  That being the case, it is also true that the return of the light happens every day.  There is darkness and chaos in the world every day, and there is the light of Jesus in the world every day.  We’re not just going to hunker down in fear of the chaos every day for the rest of our lives.  As disciples of Jesus, we step out into the darkness with the light of Jesus, facing into the chaos and continuing to live and proclaim the good news of God’s love and God’s kingdom in the Gospel of Jesus.

We’ve had some big changes in our world recently with the Supreme Court decisions over the last several weeks, overturning parts of DOMA and declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional.  Now the Texas senate is considering a bill about abortion, and other changes in our laws may be taking place.  For some of us, these changes are darkness.  For some of us these changes are light.  For all of us, these are substantial changes, adding to the chaos of the world, and as disciples of Jesus, we’re called not to hunker down in fear of the chaos or to ask fire to come down on those we think are wrong. 

As disciples of Jesus, we keep our faces set toward Jerusalem, as Jesus did, meaning we keep on in mission and ministry, serving as the light of Jesus in the world.  It’s a crazy world with new things happening all the time.  Sometimes we’re fans of the change, sometimes we’re not.  We can look back to the past, wishing the world was the way it used to be, but we don’t live in the past, we live in the here and now.  We put our hand to the plow and we don’t look back because our constant is Jesus.  Every day we walk the earth, the light of Jesus is with us.  Every day we walk the earth, we step out into the chaos of the world proclaiming by how we live and by what we say that the light of Jesus is here in the world.  Every day we walk the earth, the Gospel life begins.  Amen.

Jesus Didn't Force the Man to Be Healed

Brad Sullivan
Proper 7, Year C
Sunday, June 23, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
1 Kings 19:1-4, 5-7), 8-15a
Psalm 43
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39

 In our Kings reading today, Elijah was fleeing for his life from Ahab and Jezebel, and God met him on the mountain where he was hiding.  Before meeting with Elijah, God send a destructive wind, then an earthquake, then fire, three things with which God could destroy Ahab and Jezebel and all those who were seeking to kill Elijah.  God’s power was far greater than anything Ahab and Jezebel had, and yet we are told that God was not in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire.

Rather, after all three of these had passed, there was a sound of sheer silence, and God was in the silence.  Out of the silence, God spoke to Elijah, asked him what he was doing, and told him what to do and where to go next.  Elijah was lost, in need of reassurance and direction, and out of the silence, God gave him the reassurance and direction he needed.

We are shown through this story to seek God in the silence.  When troubles are at our door and life seems overwhelming, silence is often the last thing we want, better to distract and anesthetize ourselves with all kinds of noisy activity, and yet the silence is where we meet God.  Silence is also where we have to face the parts of ourselves which we may not want to face.

Looking at the story of the Gerasene demoniac, the gentile man who had many demons inside him, we see a story of Jesus healing a man who was afraid of being healed.  The man was living in a graveyard because the demons had forced him out there.  He could not be bound even by chains because the demons were so strong.  You’d think the man would want the demons gone, and yet, when Jesus ordered the demons to leave him, he begged Jesus not to torment him. 

Being healed is often a painful process so much so that we sometimes want to go on as we are rather than face the pain of being healed.  I’m guessing the demons were hurting the man as they were being cast out, clawing at him to stay inside of him because, as they said to Jesus, they did not want to be returned to the abyss, likely the depths of the sea, the dark place where the souls of the dead were thought to dwell.

Now, Jesus could have and by all accounts should have told the demons, I don’t negotiate with demon scum like you.  Leave the man now and return to the abyss.  Jesus could have said that and the man would have been healed, and the demons would have the punishment they deserved.  Instead, Jesus had compassion on the demons and allowed them to enter the swine. 

With that, the demons seem to have gone peacefully, Jesus’ compassion saving the man from greater torment as well.  After this, the man was healed.  Still, Jesus had compassion on the demons.  Why should he have done that?  It may have saved the man some pain, but shouldn’t the demons have been punished? 

Well, yes, they should have been, but remember we’re talking about the same Jesus who taught us to pray for and bless our enemies.  Jesus was doing exactly what he taught us to do. 

Looking again at the man in the story, he had been totally controlled by the demons, having no will of his own.  Then, Jesus comes to heal him, by offering that same force of will on the demons.  Perhaps even the man didn’t want Jesus to force and control the demons as he had been forced and controlled.  Perhaps the man didn’t want Jesus to remove the demons because he saw Jesus as one even more powerful than the demons, and he was afraid of Jesus was going to force him to do once the demons were gone.  The devils he knew were better, he thought, than this even more powerful man whom he didn’t know.  Jesus, then, allows the demons to enter the swine as they had asked, and they leave the man peacefully. 

At this point, the man understands that Jesus is one whom he can truly trust.  He healed the man, and he did it in a way totally opposite of the way the demons had harmed him.  Having been asked to stop, Jesus didn’t force the healing on the man.  Having been begged to show mercy, Jesus showed mercy even on the demons.  The man then saw Jesus as one whom he would gladly follow, wherever he led, and Jesus then showed compassion once more, this time by saying “no”. 

Rather than taking this man away from everything and everyone he knew, rather than bring the man with him back to Israel where he would be hated as a gentile, Jesus tells the man to return to his home and declare there all that God had done for him.  Return to the place that you have been driven from, return to your life, and be truly and fully healed.  Return and declare all that God has done for you, and so the man went away, joyfully telling all that Jesus had done for him.

Jesus had compassion on the man by healing him, by giving him a choice rather than forcing him, by having him return to his home to be restored to his life.  Jesus even had compassion on the demons who had been tormenting the man, and Jesus is the one whom we meet in the silence.

Are we at times afraid to meet God in the silence?  Are we afraid of facing the demons within us?  Are we afraid of what new direction God might have for us?  Do we seek God in the silence?  Do we distract ourselves from the silence with noise?  Can we face the demons within us?  Will we allow God to heal us when we do?  Healing seems painful, and yet perhaps it won’t be as painful as we imagine.  Jesus is mighty.  He is one with God who showed his power in the wind, the earthquake, and the fire.  Meeting with Jesus in the silence can be rather daunting, and yet Jesus had compassion on a legion of demons.  Will he not have compassion on us, even as we face the demons within ourselves?

In the silence, we can meet the Jesus of healing, the Jesus of compassion, the Jesus who gives us new direction in our lives, direction that leads to even greater healing.  Meeting with Jesus in the silence, we also find peace enough that we can perhaps pray for our enemies, and have compassion on those who hate us.  Meeting Jesus in the silence, we may also find peace enough to have compassion on and forgive ourselves as well. 

I’ve been told by many people here of their practice of seeking Jesus in the silence, seeking Jesus in prayer.  Can we also find peace enough in the silence to take the next step?  Can we tell others about the peace we find in meeting Jesus in the silence?  Can we declare, like the healed demoniac, all that God has done for us? 

We needn’t go to some far away land.  We needn’t go to a random street corner or to strangers.  Jesus told the man “return to your home, and declare all that God has done for you.”  Following his example, we would declare all that Jesus has done for us in our homes, among our family and friends. 

There are, after all, many among our family and friends who do not meet Jesus in the silence.  There are many who used to, but have stopped for one reason or another.  We can declare to them, with the same compassion and love which Jesus showed the Gerasene demoniac, all that Jesus has done for us.  We can help remind them of the peace which comes from meeting Jesus in the silence, of the compassion and healing which Jesus offers.  So, if you trust in Jesus’ compassion and love, if you have met Jesus in the silence, then go, return to your homes, and declare all that God has done for you.  Amen.

This is Too Important to Get Right

Brad Sullivan
Proper 6, Year C
Sunday, June 16, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
1 Kings 21:1-10, (11-14), 15-21a
Psalm 5:1-8
Galatians 2:15-21
Luke 7:36-8:3

In thinking about our Gospel story this week, one thing occurred to me which had never really occurred to me before.  The Pharisee was right.  That woman had no business being in his house.  He was having a dinner party, and this woman whom he hadn’t invited showed up and began harassing one of his guests, all of that, in addition to the fact that she was a sinner.  We don’t know how bad she was or exactly what she did, but it was enough to have been well known, such that she was notoriously sinful.

So the Pharisee was right.  She didn’t have any business being there, and the Pharisee was committed to upholding what was right.  The woman needed to change her ways, and possibly make some big time changes to her ways before she showed up at the Pharisee’s house. 

The Pharisee was holding this woman accountable for her actions, saying “that’s not who we are.  We don’t behave the way you’ve been behaving.  God has given us a way of life in which the harm you’ve been causing yourself and others just doesn’t fit.”  The Pharisee wanted her to change her ways, to live as a Jew before he would have her in his house.

Jesus, you’ll notice didn’t disagree.  The woman was a sinner, Jesus even said she had many sins, and yet rather than hold her to task for her sins, rather than be concerned with what was right, he decided to forgive her.  The way of Jesus is the way of love and forgiveness.  Jesus knew she wanted to repent, to change her ways, so he had no problem forgiving her.  He wasn’t concerned with justifying himself in his actions.  He wasn’t concerned with being right like the Pharisee was.  Jesus was only concerned about doing what was right for the woman. 

Now the Pharisee might have said, “but wait, Jesus, that woman doesn’t deserve to be forgiven.”  Jesus would have said, “You got it.  You’re right.  That’s the point.”  We don’t forgive people because they deserve it.  We forgive people out of love. 

If we wait to forgive until a person deserves it, until that person has paid whatever penalty is owed, then we aren’t practicing forgiveness.  We’re just burning the note after a debt is paid.  Forgiveness means forgiving the debt, not collecting, burning the note before the debt is paid.  That means giving up our pride, giving up our sense of justice, and giving up our sense of what is right.

Being comfortable with who we are, is essential if we are going to be forgiving people who love God.  I’ve found it easy to forgive when I am at peace with myself.  When I feel threatened or wronged or feel somehow less than I should be (don’t feel great about my life or myself), then I find it difficult to forgive.  I want to uphold justice and a sense of what is right and part of that is to soothe my own sense of being wronged or hurt somehow. 

I think the Pharisee felt this way.  Like most of us, I’m guessing he had varying degrees of self doubt and hurt inside of him.  Carrying those burdens, the Pharisee had a hard time forgiving.  Carrying the burdens of self doubt and hurt, he had a strong need to uphold justice and to uphold what was right.  To be more complete himself, he felt he had to do what was “right”, he had to hold the woman accountable for her sins. 

Jesus, on the other hand, was totally ok with who he was.  He was not burdened with self doubt or hurt, and so he could forgive the woman.  Unconcerned with making her pay her penalty before she could be forgiven, Jesus saw a woman who was hurting.  Jesus saw a woman who was in pain, probably from others and from her own poor choices, and he decided to ease her pain and forgive her sins.

When we, like Jesus are content with life as it is, we can more readily forgive. When we have no need to feel strong, we can forgive.  Forgiveness is an act of weakness so to speak.  If we hold something over someone’s head, not forgiving them, then there is a feeling of power over that person.  Forgiving that person is giving up that power. 

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, “The Lord said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.’  So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  Therefore I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ; for whenever I am weak, then I am strong.” 

Content with our own weaknesses, we can more readily forgive others out of love for others.  Giving up our power, giving up our strength and forgiving others is the way of God, the way of Jesus, to forgive out of love, rather than to hold onto the wrong out of being right.  The forgiveness someone’s wrong may not be deserved, but that’s God’s way, to forgive.

Notice also the result of forgiveness.  She loved Jesus greatly, having been forgiven much.  “Therefore, I tell you,” Jesus said, “her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.”  When someone acknowledges their sins, and that person’s sins are forgiven, the result is love.  We love because of the kindness shown and want to then give that same kindness to others.

Must we, then, build up a huge store of bad deeds so that we can be forgiven much in order to love God?  Do we have to sin a lot in order to love God more?  If we live a wholesome life, honoring God and honoring each other in our actions, will we then love God less because we feel we have been forgiven less?  By not feeling as strongly the gratitude from having been forgiven much, would we necessarily love less? 

Well, possibly, but I don’t believe necessarily.  Otherwise, the lesson would be, “Go, sin a whole big darn lot, that way, when you’re done, you can repent and really love God, and be that much better off.”  We can also love God purely for the beauty of who God is.  We don’t have to hate ourselves in order to love God.

We do, however, need to be able to look at ourselves honestly.  We do need to be able to acknowledge our faults.  In doing to, we can become comfortable with who we are.  We may not like all of who we are, but by acknowledging our faults, we can accept God’s forgiveness, love God more, and be content with who we are, scars and all.  Accepting our own weakness, we can trust more in God’s strength, accept God’s forgiveness, and love more fully.  For “‘[God’s] grace is sufficient for [us], for power is made perfect in weakness.’ So, [we] will boast all the more gladly of [our] weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in [us]... for whenever [we are] weak, then [we are] strong.”  Amen.

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.

Through the Fire & the Flames

Brad Sullivan
4 Easter, Year C
Sunday, April 21, 2013
St. Mark’s, Bay City
Acts 9:36-43
Psalm 23
Revelation 7:9-17
John 10:22-30
   

I’ve been talking in several classes and conversations lately about the lens through which we read scripture.  We could read scripture as a something of a manual for how we’re supposed to live, basic rules or guidelines for moral living.  That’s not bad, but it misses out entirely on God and has no mention of Jesus.  Looking at the overall story, I see the Gospel narrative, the narrative of scripture to be a story in five acts:  Creation, Fall, Judgment, Redemption, and Re-Creation.  The overall lesion that I see taught throughout this story is “Love God, and Love your Neighbor.”  That’s the lens through which I believe we would read scripture.  The overall narrative is creation, fall, judgment, redemption, and re-creation, and the lens through which we read this story, the purpose of our lives would be “love God, and love your neighbor.” 

So then, within that narrative and lens, we heard today this beautiful image from Revelation chapter 7.  “For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."  (Revelation 7:17)  This feels like pure Easter joy:  resurrection, and Jesus’ victory over death.  In our Revelation reading, we have this beautiful image of a vast multitude of people gathering before God singing their love and praise for him.  “They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:16-17)

We see in this vision that John was given, the re-creation, the last act of the story.  We see “love God and love your neighbor” lived without sin, harm, and death.  We see a restored creation where there is no suffering, no harm inflicted upon us by each other, and no harm inflicted by creation.  There will be no Bay City summers, just a nice cool and breezy 78°.  This is where we believe all of life is headed, to a restored creation.

Now, in this vision that John was given, he was told that this vast multitude are those who have come out of the great ordeal which of course makes me wonder, what is the great ordeal?  Is it simply death?  Is it some persecution of the church?  Well, in the overall narrative of the Gospel, we would call the great ordeal judgment and part of redemption. 

If you look on either side of this story in Revelation, you find rather terrifying images of judgment and destruction, much of it divine destruction.  Angels bring plague and destruction down upon the earth.  Millions die.  The face of the earth itself is largely destroyed.  That definitely seems to fit the judgment piece of the story, but how do we view that aspect of the story through the lens of “Love God and love your neighbor”?

Well, in Unabashedly Episcopalian, Bishop Andy Doyle writes about the fire of God, the fire of Jesus about which Jesus speaks in Luke chapter 12.  “I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49)  Bishop Doyle uses the image of a forest fire.  He writes:

Fire, we understand today, renews the forest.  It builds diversity within the trees, recycles nutrients that lie barren on the forest floor and decreases diseases in plants. It destroy, creates, regenerates, recycles; and in fact, some species depend on the fire to grow new seeds into trees.  This is one of the many places where we see God’s creative hand at work, and we still have much to learn from this process.  What is there to learn?  That we need not be wholly afraid of fire.  That we must respect its power.  (The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Unabashedly Episcopalian, Chapter Four)

The judgment and calamity we see in Revelation must be read in the context of the full Gospel narrative and with the lens of “Love God and Love your neighbor.  The judgment and calamity of Revelation can be understood like a forest fire which destroys in order to renew.  The purpose is not destruction, but to bring about re-creation. 

Even so, we may wonder, what is the great ordeal?  When will it come?  What will it be like?  Is it every day life or is it some ultimate cataclysmic event that God will bring?  Why don’t we have all the answers?  We don’t tend to continue striving once we have all the answers.  We tend to need some mystery to keep our interest.  Mystery novels are fun to read, trying to figure out what’s going to happen next.  Once we’re finished, though, once we have all the answers, we put the book back on the shelf and move on to something else.  I can’t help but think we’d do the same with scripture with the Gospel story.  If it was totally clear and we had all the answers, we’d move on, eventually forgetting the story.

So we wrestle with the unknowing, looking forward with hope and peace and joy to the final re-creation when God will wipe every tear from our eyes.  In the mean time, if we’re totally honest, the fire is still kinda frightening.  Even if the fire is cleansing, even if the fire brings about new creation, we’re not particularly fond of fire.  Bishop Doyle goes on to write that our natural response is to stand back from fire.  How are we to live then, when, as he writes, our lives are on fire.  There are blazes which can burn us daily.  The world is itself on fire.  There are fires of individual calamity, political unrest, economic woes.  There are fires of terrorist bombs in Boston, fires of explosions in west Texas, fires of murder and anger.  The world is burning, Bishop Doyle writes, and he writes amidst all of this fire:

Jesus walked into the flames to heal the blind man.  He walked into the flames to save the adulterous woman.  He walked into the flames to feed a crowd of people who were hungry and thirsty, to still the stormy waters, to face down death on Good Friday.  Can we follow him?  

Soaked in the waters of baptism, [Bishop Doyle writes] we become impervious to the fire…We know that every child of God will encounter the fires of life:  disappointment, heartache, injustice, sickness.  But we also know Jesus Christ has promised to be with them, always…when we pray for those to be baptized, we are together proclaiming, “No harm will come to you.  The fire of Christ will not burn you but will burn within you.”  Jesus and his church are gathered around us to hold our hands, as we stand together in this all-consuming fire of Christ.  (The Rt. Rev. C. Andrew Doyle, Unabashedly Episcopalian, Chapter Four)

Our hope in Jesus is for how we will choose to live in this life as disciples of Jesus.  Clothed in the waters of baptism, will we walk through the world with the fire of Christ burning within us, bringing peace and healing where we go?  Will we walk through this life, unafraid of the fires which blaze all around us, trusting in God to carry us through the great ordeal to the waters of life?

Will we let the lens through which we view life be “Love God and love your neighbor,” trusting in the story of creation, fall, judgment, redemption, and re-creation?  Will we trust in the vision God gave to John, believing in the beauty of the image we heard today from Revelation?

These are they who have come out of the great ordeal; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  For this reason, they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.  They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:14b-17)

Amen.