May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Advent 1
PROPER: B
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 28, 1999
TEXT: Mark 13:24-37 - The Little Apocalypse
"Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch. Therefore, keep awake - "
ISSUE: The passage from Mark is referred to as "The Little Apocalypse." It addresses a time of fear, anxiety, and uncertainty about the future in a time of great oppression. But the message is to stay alert, be watchful, for Christ Jesus comes again, at a time we do not know. We all know times when it seems as if the world, our world, is ending. The message is to carry on faithfully as servants of God making the ready for his renewed coming into our lives. The fig tree begins to sprout when the spring is coming, when new hope is just around the corner.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today marks the new millennium so far as the church is concerned. This is the First Sunday of Advent, and the beginning of the church's new year. Admittedly it comes with not quite all the excitement of anticipated new millennial beginning of January 1st. In fact Advent as we celebrate it in the church is a bit somber and sober. Already the malls and shopping centers are playing the carols and encourage spending and jubilation in anticipation of the coming Holidays or Winter Festival. But the church approaches the Christmas season in a more deliberate and spiritually preparatory way. We look forward to and anticipate a deepening of the renewed and renewing presence of God in our lives.
The reading today is from the Gospel account of St. Mark, which will be the Gospel that is emphasized and studied in our Lectionary over the next year. The particular section read today is from what is called in Mark, "The Little Apocalypse." Similar to the Book of Revelation, and some of the writings in the Hebrew Scriptures, like Daniel, it refers to a period of great tribulation. The early disciples are urged to be prepared, alert, and awake, ready for the renewed coming of God in some unique way.
The world's approach to the Apocalyptic writings in the Scriptures seem to go from one extreme to another. Some people, churches, and denominations take them very seriously and very literally. There has been over the years many attempts to predict when the end of time will come. Every earthquake, fire, flood, and plane crash is seen as signs of the end of time. The time of great tribulation is looked forward with some pleasure when all evil and evil people, that is, people we don't like or get along with will all be swept away. The rest of us, the good guys will just get caught-up in the rapture. With this year being the millennium, there has been an outbreak for some folk of a kind of millennial madness, and anticipation that this is it! I might point out here that according to the Scripture, "But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heave, nor the Son, but only the Father."
On the otherside, there are those who just say that the Apocalypse is just irrelevant. It has little or no meaning for the modern world. Enough prophets of doom who have predicted the end have all proved to be quite wrong. We're still here, and are expected to be here for a long time to come.
What is important is that we try to appreciate these scriptural passages within the context that they were written. Apocalyptic literature, like the Book of Daniel, some of Ezekiel, Isaiah, Revelations, and parts of the Gospel writings like the one we heard today are written in and address times of great tribulation. Incidentally, a significant part of what Mark has written in this reading today is copied from Isaiah and Daniel. These were written at a time when God's people, the Judeans, were conquered by the Babylonians and taken into exile. Their lands, the temple, their culture was nearly completely devastated. Often they interpreted the cause to be the fact that they had abandoned God. They had become unfaithful. Notice in the writing from the Isaiah lesson, the impassioned plea and call of the prophet to God, "O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, . . . to make your name known to your adversaries., so that the nations might tremble at your presence." It is a cry for help and redemption at a time of great desolation. It is an appeal that God is the Father, and "we are the clay, andyou are our potter" to reshape, remake, and renew us.
Mark's Gospel was written either just before or just after there had been a Jewish revolt against the Romans. It was either anticipated by Jesus and the early church, or they were just coming through and were witnessing once again the destruction of the Temple and the whole city of Jerusalem. Many of the people were starved to death. It was a time so dreadful that it was "as if" the sun was darkend, the moon gave no light, and the very stars had fallen from heaven, and the powers of heaven itself had been shaken. It was clear that many people did and would see this terrible ordeal. These were the signs of an extraordinarily difficult time. But the Gospel message is that all should hold on. Be alert, stay awake. God will come to the help and aid of his faithful people.
Jesus uses the parable of the fig tree. When the branches begin to turn tender, you know the spring is coming. Though there are very difficult times, there is hope beyond the hard and difficult winter of our lives.
Jesus uses still another parable. It is like the Master going away for a time and he leaves his slaves in charge of things. They are to carry on, and keep the home fires burning, and be ready for the Master's return. Slaves in Jesus' time were like family members. The Jewish people saw themselves as God's slaves. The early Christians saw themselves as the slaves of Christ. They were to be faithful, committed, serving and honoring their Master. They were to be alert, awake, and ready. The message of passage was that beyond the difficult times, God will not abandon his people inspite of themselves, he will come and be among them. He will be their renewal and their hope. Because this had always been their experience. They lived beyond the difficult times.
What does the apcalytic writings mean for us in our age? At very times in our lives both as individuals and as a country we have endured times of tribulation. Some will look back at WWII and remember the terrible disruption to human life. Families were broken up, many men died. In the Jewish community it was a terrible holocaust. It was a time of great tribulation, a time of darkness when meany families who lost loved ones thought and felt they would never see the light of day again. The same is true of some of the other terrible conflicts, especially during the Vietnam War era. It was a very difficult period for this country in so many ways. Peoples lives were lost, and there was great dissention over the morality of the conflict. Yet by the grace of God, in time, healing and hope came again.
In our personal lives there are often very difficult times when we lose someone we love, when go through the pain of a divorce, when we face difficult problems that so disrupt our lives that there seems to be little hope. Today many people battle cancer and deal with all the feelings that come with being a victim of the disease, or a friend or lover to the afflicted. We recognize that we need help, hope, and strength, a savior. No one ever escapes the feeling of having the foundations of their lives shaken and rattled as if they were in the middle of an horrendous spiritual earthquake. What do you grasp for, what do you hold on to? We need God. We need that spiritual presence that gives sustenance and hope to lives that otherwise feel drained and empty.
Presently for many in our country it seems like good times. It is. Fact of the matter is that there has never been in the history of the world a time of such affluence and overall well-being, especially in this country. We must be careful that we are not lulled into complacency and an empty satisfaction. Times and circumstances change, sometimes abruptly. The Gospel calls us to readiness, preparedness, alertness, faithful awareness of our need to be open to the presence of God.
What we prepare for this season is being aware of our need for the savior. We look for Christ's renewed coming into our lives as the savior, the helper, the hope that sees us through the difficult moments of our lives. It can be a very busy season. We can be so distracted by all the excitement of the season. Thomas Merton, a monk and theologian expressed it so well when he wrote that we are often busy climbing the ladders of our lives, but they are sometimes against the wrong wall. We can become so caught up in the materialism of the season that we forget the spiritual meaning of the season. We live in a world that needs God, redemption, and that needs a savior. We live in a world that needs to know the real meaning of sacrificial love, of forgiveness, of being and becoming servants with Christ. Keep awake; alert, aware of what we are about, and to what God is calling us. Be open to receiving the grace of God revealed and given in Jesus Christ. Be alert to his renewed coming.
Sunday, November 28, 1999
Sunday, November 21, 1999
Last Pentecost - Christ the King
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Last Pentecost - Christ the King
PROPER: 29A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 21, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 25:31-46 - Vision of the Last Judgement
'Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' . . . . 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
ISSUE: This passage is Matthew's apocalyptic vision opf the final judgment. From one point of view it appears to be a judgment on those who persecute early Christians, "the least of these who are members of my family." In this sense it is good news for the discipleship of Jesus. But from another perspective the passage is a call to compassion for all of God's people, and the whole world is under God's judgment to serve one another as if Christ were in all. It is not in being religious and of privilege that counts, but in how much we love one another in Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today is the last Sunday of the Church Year, the Last Sunday after Pentecost, or Christ the King Sunday. On two of the last Sundays, the Scripture reading deals with Jesus's ordeal at his crucifixion. Pilate questions Jesus as to whether or not he is a King in the Johannine account, and in a Lukan account Jesus is dared to save himself if he is truly the King of the Jews. In these accounts it becomes quite obvious that the Kingship of Jesus is different from what the world sees as royalty. He is truly the suffering servant whose demise makes the world look hard at what is right and wrong, what is truth, and what is the meaning of life.
On this Sunday in Cycle A, we have the a vision of the Last Judgment from Matthew's perspective. All of the miracles, parable, and sayings of Jesus are now set aside so to speak, and Matthew is setting the scene which raises the issue as to what does the meaning of Christ's ministry and teaching come down to.
There are essentially two interpretations of this vision wherein Jesus is seen as the Son of Man seated in Judgment at the final age. Some see the passage as God's judgement upon those who do not accept the proclamations of the first early disciples and Christians. Anyone who has received, fed, clothed and visited the "least of these my brethren and members of my family, have supported Christ himself. Those who do not respond compassionately to the "community of the little ones" which was a name for Christians in Matthew's community, will enter into harsh eternal punishment. For the early disciples in difficult times this was a passage of hope.
But what also is very much a part of this passage today is the understanding that the Judgement of God is a univeral thing. All the nations are gathered and everyone comes under the inescapable judgement of God. Please keep in mind that this portrayal here is not to be taken literally, but is a vision, a perception of the fact that our faith is to be taken seriously, and we are all accountable for our lives and how we live them.
In this vision Jesus is the Son of Man for Matthew, and he is the King who stands in judgment over his subjects in the world. He, the King, separates them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. God in Jesus separates the truly honorable folk from the shameful. Goats you see were dishonorable or shameful animals. Women cared for them. Also, the male goats were known for allowing other male goats to have access to their females, which was considered at the time to be quite shameful. Sheep on the other hand were honorable in that they were a symbol of virility and strength. Sheep suffered silently. Honorable men suffered in silence. Remember that Jesus is portrayed in the gospels as "the lamb of God." Quoting from Isaiah's suffering servant passage (53:7f), "He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a work. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheered, he never said a word. He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate." At the final judgment the truly honorable ones will sit at the King's right hand.
The sheep the honorable ones will hear and receive the great invitation: Come, you that are blessed (honored) by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." They are invited to step into the Kingdom of God. Now what makes these sheep-like people honorable is their compassion. In this period in history your honor was thought to be something that you inherited by birth. Your great attention to the law and religious observance, piety, your maintained status. You avoided associations with outcasts and people of lesser status. Jesus is, however, pointing out here that there is another honor that is more truly honorable in the sight of God:
"I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me,
I was in prison and you visited me."
This is the honor of compassion, of hospitality, and of great concern for others. What is of special interest here is that the honorable ones, the rightesous say to him, "When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty . . . or a stranger . . . or naked . . . or sick . . . or in prison . . . etc?" They are unaware as to when then they did these things. And the king replies that "Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." True honor in the Kingdom of God is not something you seek, it is a matter of attitude. It is a matter of who you are. It is an engrained attribute that comes from a proximity with Christ so close that you aren't even aware of it. The truly honorable folk are those who are hospitable to the whole family of God. They are the ones who are the servants of and with Jesus the Christ, and are at one with God, and in loving relationship with the way of God, espressed in Christ.
The accursed, the damned are those who had no sensitivity to the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, the stranger, the sick. They are caught in their own concerns and complacency. They neglect the great need of and for hospitality in a harsh cruel world. They are simply not servants of and with Christ. The Christ-like way is not in their lives. They are lacking in hospitality, sensitivity, compassion, love, forgiveness. Not to possess these attributes is not to be human so far as Jesus was concerned. They are not needed; they have no place in the Kingdom of God. They are those cast out into eternal punishment of having no quality of life.
As we try to interpret a piece of Scripture like this one we have to understand that we do live in a different age. We have to be careful how we interpret it to others and to ourselves. There is the inclination for ourselves to become judgemental. The parson looks over his congregation and thinks to himself, "Well now there's Mr. Jones, and he's a goat, because he's not very regular in his church attendance and doesn't make a very big pledge. And then, there's Mrs. Brown, and she's a sheep, as she worships and teaches in Sunday School." We can be very judgmental, and since we see these persons for such a small fraction of their entire lives, our judgments can be very very wrong. Way off base. This Scripture today is not about setting ourselves up as judges of one another as to who is or is not going to hell.
We can also use such a passage to say well, the Jews or the Moslems, or the pagans for that matter are the goats. They don't serve Christ in the way we Christians do, so they must be among the cursed and the damned. Again that is not by any stretch of the imagination ours to judge. The righteous in this passage didn't even know they were serving Christ when they were, inspite of themselve. "When did we see you hungry?" . . . "When you folk - Jews, Gentiles, Moslems, . . . you nations of the world . . . .when you did it to the least of these my brothers and members of my family you did it to me." Let's be very careful not to make ourselves the judges. The King is the judge, not the sheep or the goats.
Another thing to be careful about is that we may chide ourselves for not being hospitable enough. We may think badly of ourselves, because we don't shell out some change to a pan-handler. Or we feel guilty about not picking up a hitch-hiker along the side of the road. We have to be so careful about taking passages such as this one too literally. One dear soul I know told me how terribly upset her family was over her picking up a hitch-hiker. She felt real anxiety over wanting to help the poor and being sensitive to human need. Common sense makes sense. I doubt God opposes it. We are not expected to put ourselves at risk. Picking up hitch-hikers can be very dangerous in our world. Giving hand-outs to panhandlers can only perpetuate and enable a person with bad habits to persist in them. Panhandling is proved more often than not to be the work of scam artists. Responding to these scams is not helpful to most communities. Being overly patient and subservient with people who are troublesome may be more destructive than helpful.
More sensible constructive and safe response to human need is through institutions and organizations. Giving and responding to charitable causes is the way to be more helpful and often gets you more for your buck anyway. Realizing that sometimes our church and our government needs to set up programs for single women with children is imperitive. We may resent the taxes and the demands for donations, but there is human need that can better be supported through professional persons and organizations. There is a need for welfare, for care homes for both children, the retarded, the physically and mentally challenged. And sometimes they have to be and maybe even should be encouraged and welcomed in our own neighborhood. It is in this sense that we can welcome and express hospitality to the sick, the hungry, the poor, the least, the last, and the lost.
The passage from Matthew today is important in that it helps us to understand that we are all under judgement. Having spent a year studying together the scriptures each Sunday, and worshiping together, how do we fare? Have we grown in our journey to a deeper and profounder understanding of what it means to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Has the grace of Christ sunk in, and are our attitudes and outlooks changed to serve him better? Have we found new ways to have a 'specific' ministry of giving, sharing, and being hospitable with others? Has there been some growth in our lives. Has there been growth in what we do as a Christian community here at St. John's? I mean are we still struggling to simply maintain the status-quo, and living fearfully that we'll not make ends meet, or do we move ahead in mission and prayerfull ask God to help us to discern our mission in his world in this day. Chances are we have had moments of change and renewal. It may be that we still as both a church and as individuals have a ways to go. That, of course, is what Advent is about as we begin again to let Christ come and renew us. But today, we are under the judgment. And the judgment is not bad news to condemn us. The judgment is the call to examine our lives and to see where it is we stand, and with whom we stand. We can live without care and concern for others, failing in our mission as Christians and persisting in a world that is cruel, insensitive, or we can cry out for mercy and with the responsive longing to be truly honorable and serve Christ with new vitality and initiative. There is a time of reckoning; we are accountable. Whether the hungry are fed, the thirsty assuaged, the sick visited really matters, doesn't it? The time is now.
SEASON: Last Pentecost - Christ the King
PROPER: 29A
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 21, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 25:31-46 - Vision of the Last Judgement
'Come you that are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing. I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.' . . . . 'Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.'
ISSUE: This passage is Matthew's apocalyptic vision opf the final judgment. From one point of view it appears to be a judgment on those who persecute early Christians, "the least of these who are members of my family." In this sense it is good news for the discipleship of Jesus. But from another perspective the passage is a call to compassion for all of God's people, and the whole world is under God's judgment to serve one another as if Christ were in all. It is not in being religious and of privilege that counts, but in how much we love one another in Christ.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Today is the last Sunday of the Church Year, the Last Sunday after Pentecost, or Christ the King Sunday. On two of the last Sundays, the Scripture reading deals with Jesus's ordeal at his crucifixion. Pilate questions Jesus as to whether or not he is a King in the Johannine account, and in a Lukan account Jesus is dared to save himself if he is truly the King of the Jews. In these accounts it becomes quite obvious that the Kingship of Jesus is different from what the world sees as royalty. He is truly the suffering servant whose demise makes the world look hard at what is right and wrong, what is truth, and what is the meaning of life.
On this Sunday in Cycle A, we have the a vision of the Last Judgment from Matthew's perspective. All of the miracles, parable, and sayings of Jesus are now set aside so to speak, and Matthew is setting the scene which raises the issue as to what does the meaning of Christ's ministry and teaching come down to.
There are essentially two interpretations of this vision wherein Jesus is seen as the Son of Man seated in Judgment at the final age. Some see the passage as God's judgement upon those who do not accept the proclamations of the first early disciples and Christians. Anyone who has received, fed, clothed and visited the "least of these my brethren and members of my family, have supported Christ himself. Those who do not respond compassionately to the "community of the little ones" which was a name for Christians in Matthew's community, will enter into harsh eternal punishment. For the early disciples in difficult times this was a passage of hope.
But what also is very much a part of this passage today is the understanding that the Judgement of God is a univeral thing. All the nations are gathered and everyone comes under the inescapable judgement of God. Please keep in mind that this portrayal here is not to be taken literally, but is a vision, a perception of the fact that our faith is to be taken seriously, and we are all accountable for our lives and how we live them.
In this vision Jesus is the Son of Man for Matthew, and he is the King who stands in judgment over his subjects in the world. He, the King, separates them as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. God in Jesus separates the truly honorable folk from the shameful. Goats you see were dishonorable or shameful animals. Women cared for them. Also, the male goats were known for allowing other male goats to have access to their females, which was considered at the time to be quite shameful. Sheep on the other hand were honorable in that they were a symbol of virility and strength. Sheep suffered silently. Honorable men suffered in silence. Remember that Jesus is portrayed in the gospels as "the lamb of God." Quoting from Isaiah's suffering servant passage (53:7f), "He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly; he never said a work. Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, like a sheep about to be sheered, he never said a word. He was arrested and sentenced and led off to die, and no one cared about his fate." At the final judgment the truly honorable ones will sit at the King's right hand.
The sheep the honorable ones will hear and receive the great invitation: Come, you that are blessed (honored) by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." They are invited to step into the Kingdom of God. Now what makes these sheep-like people honorable is their compassion. In this period in history your honor was thought to be something that you inherited by birth. Your great attention to the law and religious observance, piety, your maintained status. You avoided associations with outcasts and people of lesser status. Jesus is, however, pointing out here that there is another honor that is more truly honorable in the sight of God:
"I was hungry and you gave me food,
I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,
I was a stranger and you welcomed me,
I was naked and you gave me clothing,
I was sick and you took care of me,
I was in prison and you visited me."
This is the honor of compassion, of hospitality, and of great concern for others. What is of special interest here is that the honorable ones, the rightesous say to him, "When was it that we saw you hungry and gave you food, or thirsty . . . or a stranger . . . or naked . . . or sick . . . or in prison . . . etc?" They are unaware as to when then they did these things. And the king replies that "Truly, I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me." True honor in the Kingdom of God is not something you seek, it is a matter of attitude. It is a matter of who you are. It is an engrained attribute that comes from a proximity with Christ so close that you aren't even aware of it. The truly honorable folk are those who are hospitable to the whole family of God. They are the ones who are the servants of and with Jesus the Christ, and are at one with God, and in loving relationship with the way of God, espressed in Christ.
The accursed, the damned are those who had no sensitivity to the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the imprisoned, the stranger, the sick. They are caught in their own concerns and complacency. They neglect the great need of and for hospitality in a harsh cruel world. They are simply not servants of and with Christ. The Christ-like way is not in their lives. They are lacking in hospitality, sensitivity, compassion, love, forgiveness. Not to possess these attributes is not to be human so far as Jesus was concerned. They are not needed; they have no place in the Kingdom of God. They are those cast out into eternal punishment of having no quality of life.
As we try to interpret a piece of Scripture like this one we have to understand that we do live in a different age. We have to be careful how we interpret it to others and to ourselves. There is the inclination for ourselves to become judgemental. The parson looks over his congregation and thinks to himself, "Well now there's Mr. Jones, and he's a goat, because he's not very regular in his church attendance and doesn't make a very big pledge. And then, there's Mrs. Brown, and she's a sheep, as she worships and teaches in Sunday School." We can be very judgmental, and since we see these persons for such a small fraction of their entire lives, our judgments can be very very wrong. Way off base. This Scripture today is not about setting ourselves up as judges of one another as to who is or is not going to hell.
We can also use such a passage to say well, the Jews or the Moslems, or the pagans for that matter are the goats. They don't serve Christ in the way we Christians do, so they must be among the cursed and the damned. Again that is not by any stretch of the imagination ours to judge. The righteous in this passage didn't even know they were serving Christ when they were, inspite of themselve. "When did we see you hungry?" . . . "When you folk - Jews, Gentiles, Moslems, . . . you nations of the world . . . .when you did it to the least of these my brothers and members of my family you did it to me." Let's be very careful not to make ourselves the judges. The King is the judge, not the sheep or the goats.
Another thing to be careful about is that we may chide ourselves for not being hospitable enough. We may think badly of ourselves, because we don't shell out some change to a pan-handler. Or we feel guilty about not picking up a hitch-hiker along the side of the road. We have to be so careful about taking passages such as this one too literally. One dear soul I know told me how terribly upset her family was over her picking up a hitch-hiker. She felt real anxiety over wanting to help the poor and being sensitive to human need. Common sense makes sense. I doubt God opposes it. We are not expected to put ourselves at risk. Picking up hitch-hikers can be very dangerous in our world. Giving hand-outs to panhandlers can only perpetuate and enable a person with bad habits to persist in them. Panhandling is proved more often than not to be the work of scam artists. Responding to these scams is not helpful to most communities. Being overly patient and subservient with people who are troublesome may be more destructive than helpful.
More sensible constructive and safe response to human need is through institutions and organizations. Giving and responding to charitable causes is the way to be more helpful and often gets you more for your buck anyway. Realizing that sometimes our church and our government needs to set up programs for single women with children is imperitive. We may resent the taxes and the demands for donations, but there is human need that can better be supported through professional persons and organizations. There is a need for welfare, for care homes for both children, the retarded, the physically and mentally challenged. And sometimes they have to be and maybe even should be encouraged and welcomed in our own neighborhood. It is in this sense that we can welcome and express hospitality to the sick, the hungry, the poor, the least, the last, and the lost.
The passage from Matthew today is important in that it helps us to understand that we are all under judgement. Having spent a year studying together the scriptures each Sunday, and worshiping together, how do we fare? Have we grown in our journey to a deeper and profounder understanding of what it means to love God and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. Has the grace of Christ sunk in, and are our attitudes and outlooks changed to serve him better? Have we found new ways to have a 'specific' ministry of giving, sharing, and being hospitable with others? Has there been some growth in our lives. Has there been growth in what we do as a Christian community here at St. John's? I mean are we still struggling to simply maintain the status-quo, and living fearfully that we'll not make ends meet, or do we move ahead in mission and prayerfull ask God to help us to discern our mission in his world in this day. Chances are we have had moments of change and renewal. It may be that we still as both a church and as individuals have a ways to go. That, of course, is what Advent is about as we begin again to let Christ come and renew us. But today, we are under the judgment. And the judgment is not bad news to condemn us. The judgment is the call to examine our lives and to see where it is we stand, and with whom we stand. We can live without care and concern for others, failing in our mission as Christians and persisting in a world that is cruel, insensitive, or we can cry out for mercy and with the responsive longing to be truly honorable and serve Christ with new vitality and initiative. There is a time of reckoning; we are accountable. Whether the hungry are fed, the thirsty assuaged, the sick visited really matters, doesn't it? The time is now.
Sunday, November 7, 1999
Sunday after All Saints'
May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)
SEASON: Sunday after All Saints'
PROPER: All Saints' - Holy Baptism
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 7, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 5:1-12
The Beatitudes from The Sermon on the Mount
"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak and taught them . . . . . ."
ISSUE: Jesus calls together his 'in-group' disciples to train them in what true honor is in the sight of God. He teaches them about the Empire of God as opposed to the power hungry empire of the world. It is not the power hungry and the elite who find honor, but those who are the poor, the beggars, the prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors, the poorly treated. These are the ones whom God honors and holds in high esteem. It is a shocking sermon. In our world of pious religion, greed, and fondness of wealth, we must continue to keep in mind who it is that God really honors. The mission of Christ makes us mindful of our need to be reliant on God, and to claim a life of servanthood with him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Around the season of All Saints' there is the real temptation to re-inforce the teachings of Jesus with an element of piety. We recall the works of the great saints. and how devoted and pious they were, and indeed many were. But oin doing so our religious faith takes on something to which we may come to feel that we cannot attain, and that it often comes across both to ourselves and the world as a kind of pious, boring, righteousness, lacking in power and vitality. Turning the faith of Jesus into a pious religion reveals how little we really understand it. The more I study Christian scripture the more I become aware of how startling and shoking, and non-pious that Jesus himself must have been. He called for great reversals in thinking and understanding that surely shocked the people of his time.
Consider the reading from Matthew today, which we refer to as The Beatitudes or the passages of blessedness. We can approach it from a very pious point of view as a description of saintliness as being humble and righteous, and kind of wallowing in what seems to be an enjoyment in being victimized or persecuted. We can miss the passion and the vitality, if we are not careful. Let's look at the passage closely.
Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd of people. Jesus had to be doing something extraordinary, beyond piety because there were many rabbis to fill that role. He removes himself from the crowd, and gathers around him his own 'in-group' twelve disciples. He himself sits down, the customary postion of a teacher in those days. He begins to address them with a list of beatitudes relagted to what the Kingdom of God, or better still The Empire of God.
In the world the Empire was the very powerful Roman Empire. To be blessed was to have and to share in the power. Among Jesus own Jewish people to be blessed was to have honor, status. standing in the community that was recognized by the community. That status or honor came from birth, according to whose family you happened to be born into. You might gain some honor through special piety, and through being somehow astute with some wisdom. People both lied alot to maintain their position, and the feuded among one another to keep status as well.
You could lose status by losing your property or inheritance to greedy people. Being poor was not a matter of how much money you had. It had to do with your position in life. If you were a widow without a man, you were poor and powerless, regardless of how much land you owned. Many people were deeply in debt. If you were maimed, blind, deaf, diseased, a leper (and that is merely skin diseased) you lost standing and had no place in the community. If you were orphaned - and the death rate being what it was there were many - you had lost status and community standing. Hopefully to survive someone would take you in as a household servant. Tax collectors and prostitutes resorted to these professions for survival. All these people were the so called poor. They were not needed, considered to be cursed, and alienated. They had no esteem, worth, or value to the society. They were the cursed, the outcasts and the disenfranchised. Such was the world's Roman Empire.
(1) So, Jesus gathers a few disciples to follow him up the mountain side. He seems to be telling them that if they're going to follow him in this new ministry and way, they had best get it straight from the very begiinning as to what the Empire of God is like. (The Empire of God is also what we usually refer to as the Kingdom of God.) Let me tell you says Jesus what the Empire of God is like. Let me tell you, he seems to be saying, who are the highly esteemed and worthy in The Empire of God. The blessed, that is, the honorable and the highly esteemed in the Empire of God are the poor! God honors and holds in highest esteem, the very people that the world eschews, hates, disregards. It the prostitutes, the sick, the tax collectors, and all those that the world curses, they are the ones God honors in the Empire of God. "Don't you know that the tax collectors and the prostitues are going in the Kingdom of God ahead of you." (Matt.21:31b) Isn't this rather shocking for the time?
(2) Blessed, Jesus goes on to say, honorable, in high esteem are those who mourn, who cry out in great pain and suffering. The world thinks the happy folk, those that have it all made are the good, great, and powerful ones. Those whom God hold in high esteem and who will be comforted are those who mourn and fast and weep. These are the ones God loves and seeks to heal and redeem. The world sees those folk as the cursed, but God's Empire they will be the ones who laugh and sing.
(3) Blessed and honorable are the meek. The meek were those who had lost their land in unscruplous deals and cheating. They will inherit a place in the Kingdom or the Empire of God.
(4) Held in high esteem, says Jesus are those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, because they've been cheated. They will inherit what God has to give them.The honorable says Jesus are those who know they need and rely upon the compassion of God.
(5) Held in high esteem are the merciful, those who see that all who have lost or given receive a fair return. In an economy of limited supplies, caring, sharing, and restoring is an essential ingredient of living a good life.
(6) Held in high esteem were the pure in heart. In Jesus' time is was extremely difficult to keep all the purity rules and be considered a rightously pure upstanding person. the marginalized people had no time for all that, and little incentive. But Jesus taught that it was not what went into a person's mouth that was important, it was rather what came out. (Matt.15:11) God values and honors honesty and straight forwardness.
(7) Honorable in high esteem are those who are peacemakers and stop the vengeance, the eye for and eye, and tooth for a tooth, and the challenging of one another's honor all the time. In the Kingdom of God, in the Empire of God, peacemakers are the sons and daughters of a healing God.
(8) Honorable are those who have been ostracized, and disenfranchised, and marginalized by the world in God's Empire. God is love and God will accept warmly all those who have been hated and offended, persectued, cheated, and victimize by others.
So Jesus is say as well to his 'in-group' of discipes that they too, if they step with him into the Empire of God, if they join him as faithful disciples, they are going to be laughed at persecuted, victimized themselves by the world, the world's power structure. Rejoice and be glad because they will be in good company, because everyone who has every served God in the world has had to deal with not being taken seriously, and will be challenged by the world's values. But what really counts? Who we are in the sight of the world, or who we are as the people of God in the Kingdom of God?
The Way of Blessedness, or the Way of True Honor for Jesus as he teaches his disciples was a matter of being different from the world, and recognizing our honor is found in being reliant upon God. The poor, the lost, the least, the last need God as the world betrays them. The honorable way of God is to be a servant of others to be honest makers of peace respecting the diginity of others, and by being forgiving, compassionate, understanding, and enduringly faithful in the face of persecution and difficulty.
All of us gathered here today, especially for the adults to be baptized, and to the parents and Godparents of the children, we are called upon to be close to Christ Jesus, and part of the inner circle. We are called to pay attention to this shocking teaching of Jesus. To be Jesus' disciples is not about being sentimentally pious. It is about understanding what it means to be in the Kingdom of God. All of us are sinners to some degree, and yet we are honored and loved: Honorable are those poor sinners. They and we are cherished by God. We need God, and we too are called upon to be his servants with Christ in the world.
What is honored by many in our world is being healthy, wealthy, and wise. We like to accumulate possessions, big houses and cars, big bank accounts, and security (which sometimes results in miserliness). We value achievement, health, good looks, being self-reliant, self sustaining, self-made, independent, and highly individualistic. We respect education, and that it's purpose is for getting a good job to sustain an extravagant life style. The world is enamored and honors those who rise to positions of power. We honor doing our own thing, and avoiding pain and suffering at all costs. We enjoy and succumb to fads. Some flirt with alcohol and drugs as means to avoid reality, or to be hep and sophisticated. The world even honors pious religion, volunteerism, and good works.
In the Empire of God, the contrast is sharp. God honors, loves,and forgives the poor, the lost, the least, the lonely, the last, the humbled. God loves those who passionately love one another, who serve one another, who die for one another, or care about and for one another, who hunger and thirst, who seek purity and become peacemakers. In the Empire of God, the contrast to the Empire of the world is sharp.
SEASON: Sunday after All Saints'
PROPER: All Saints' - Holy Baptism
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 7, 1999
TEXT: Matthew 5:1-12
The Beatitudes from The Sermon on the Mount
"When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain; and after he sat down, his disciples came to him. Then he began to speak and taught them . . . . . ."
ISSUE: Jesus calls together his 'in-group' disciples to train them in what true honor is in the sight of God. He teaches them about the Empire of God as opposed to the power hungry empire of the world. It is not the power hungry and the elite who find honor, but those who are the poor, the beggars, the prostitutes, sinners, tax collectors, the poorly treated. These are the ones whom God honors and holds in high esteem. It is a shocking sermon. In our world of pious religion, greed, and fondness of wealth, we must continue to keep in mind who it is that God really honors. The mission of Christ makes us mindful of our need to be reliant on God, and to claim a life of servanthood with him.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Around the season of All Saints' there is the real temptation to re-inforce the teachings of Jesus with an element of piety. We recall the works of the great saints. and how devoted and pious they were, and indeed many were. But oin doing so our religious faith takes on something to which we may come to feel that we cannot attain, and that it often comes across both to ourselves and the world as a kind of pious, boring, righteousness, lacking in power and vitality. Turning the faith of Jesus into a pious religion reveals how little we really understand it. The more I study Christian scripture the more I become aware of how startling and shoking, and non-pious that Jesus himself must have been. He called for great reversals in thinking and understanding that surely shocked the people of his time.
Consider the reading from Matthew today, which we refer to as The Beatitudes or the passages of blessedness. We can approach it from a very pious point of view as a description of saintliness as being humble and righteous, and kind of wallowing in what seems to be an enjoyment in being victimized or persecuted. We can miss the passion and the vitality, if we are not careful. Let's look at the passage closely.
Jesus is surrounded by a large crowd of people. Jesus had to be doing something extraordinary, beyond piety because there were many rabbis to fill that role. He removes himself from the crowd, and gathers around him his own 'in-group' twelve disciples. He himself sits down, the customary postion of a teacher in those days. He begins to address them with a list of beatitudes relagted to what the Kingdom of God, or better still The Empire of God.
In the world the Empire was the very powerful Roman Empire. To be blessed was to have and to share in the power. Among Jesus own Jewish people to be blessed was to have honor, status. standing in the community that was recognized by the community. That status or honor came from birth, according to whose family you happened to be born into. You might gain some honor through special piety, and through being somehow astute with some wisdom. People both lied alot to maintain their position, and the feuded among one another to keep status as well.
You could lose status by losing your property or inheritance to greedy people. Being poor was not a matter of how much money you had. It had to do with your position in life. If you were a widow without a man, you were poor and powerless, regardless of how much land you owned. Many people were deeply in debt. If you were maimed, blind, deaf, diseased, a leper (and that is merely skin diseased) you lost standing and had no place in the community. If you were orphaned - and the death rate being what it was there were many - you had lost status and community standing. Hopefully to survive someone would take you in as a household servant. Tax collectors and prostitutes resorted to these professions for survival. All these people were the so called poor. They were not needed, considered to be cursed, and alienated. They had no esteem, worth, or value to the society. They were the cursed, the outcasts and the disenfranchised. Such was the world's Roman Empire.
(1) So, Jesus gathers a few disciples to follow him up the mountain side. He seems to be telling them that if they're going to follow him in this new ministry and way, they had best get it straight from the very begiinning as to what the Empire of God is like. (The Empire of God is also what we usually refer to as the Kingdom of God.) Let me tell you says Jesus what the Empire of God is like. Let me tell you, he seems to be saying, who are the highly esteemed and worthy in The Empire of God. The blessed, that is, the honorable and the highly esteemed in the Empire of God are the poor! God honors and holds in highest esteem, the very people that the world eschews, hates, disregards. It the prostitutes, the sick, the tax collectors, and all those that the world curses, they are the ones God honors in the Empire of God. "Don't you know that the tax collectors and the prostitues are going in the Kingdom of God ahead of you." (Matt.21:31b) Isn't this rather shocking for the time?
(2) Blessed, Jesus goes on to say, honorable, in high esteem are those who mourn, who cry out in great pain and suffering. The world thinks the happy folk, those that have it all made are the good, great, and powerful ones. Those whom God hold in high esteem and who will be comforted are those who mourn and fast and weep. These are the ones God loves and seeks to heal and redeem. The world sees those folk as the cursed, but God's Empire they will be the ones who laugh and sing.
(3) Blessed and honorable are the meek. The meek were those who had lost their land in unscruplous deals and cheating. They will inherit a place in the Kingdom or the Empire of God.
(4) Held in high esteem, says Jesus are those who are hungry and thirsty for justice, because they've been cheated. They will inherit what God has to give them.The honorable says Jesus are those who know they need and rely upon the compassion of God.
(5) Held in high esteem are the merciful, those who see that all who have lost or given receive a fair return. In an economy of limited supplies, caring, sharing, and restoring is an essential ingredient of living a good life.
(6) Held in high esteem were the pure in heart. In Jesus' time is was extremely difficult to keep all the purity rules and be considered a rightously pure upstanding person. the marginalized people had no time for all that, and little incentive. But Jesus taught that it was not what went into a person's mouth that was important, it was rather what came out. (Matt.15:11) God values and honors honesty and straight forwardness.
(7) Honorable in high esteem are those who are peacemakers and stop the vengeance, the eye for and eye, and tooth for a tooth, and the challenging of one another's honor all the time. In the Kingdom of God, in the Empire of God, peacemakers are the sons and daughters of a healing God.
(8) Honorable are those who have been ostracized, and disenfranchised, and marginalized by the world in God's Empire. God is love and God will accept warmly all those who have been hated and offended, persectued, cheated, and victimize by others.
So Jesus is say as well to his 'in-group' of discipes that they too, if they step with him into the Empire of God, if they join him as faithful disciples, they are going to be laughed at persecuted, victimized themselves by the world, the world's power structure. Rejoice and be glad because they will be in good company, because everyone who has every served God in the world has had to deal with not being taken seriously, and will be challenged by the world's values. But what really counts? Who we are in the sight of the world, or who we are as the people of God in the Kingdom of God?
The Way of Blessedness, or the Way of True Honor for Jesus as he teaches his disciples was a matter of being different from the world, and recognizing our honor is found in being reliant upon God. The poor, the lost, the least, the last need God as the world betrays them. The honorable way of God is to be a servant of others to be honest makers of peace respecting the diginity of others, and by being forgiving, compassionate, understanding, and enduringly faithful in the face of persecution and difficulty.
All of us gathered here today, especially for the adults to be baptized, and to the parents and Godparents of the children, we are called upon to be close to Christ Jesus, and part of the inner circle. We are called to pay attention to this shocking teaching of Jesus. To be Jesus' disciples is not about being sentimentally pious. It is about understanding what it means to be in the Kingdom of God. All of us are sinners to some degree, and yet we are honored and loved: Honorable are those poor sinners. They and we are cherished by God. We need God, and we too are called upon to be his servants with Christ in the world.
What is honored by many in our world is being healthy, wealthy, and wise. We like to accumulate possessions, big houses and cars, big bank accounts, and security (which sometimes results in miserliness). We value achievement, health, good looks, being self-reliant, self sustaining, self-made, independent, and highly individualistic. We respect education, and that it's purpose is for getting a good job to sustain an extravagant life style. The world is enamored and honors those who rise to positions of power. We honor doing our own thing, and avoiding pain and suffering at all costs. We enjoy and succumb to fads. Some flirt with alcohol and drugs as means to avoid reality, or to be hep and sophisticated. The world even honors pious religion, volunteerism, and good works.
In the Empire of God, the contrast is sharp. God honors, loves,and forgives the poor, the lost, the least, the lonely, the last, the humbled. God loves those who passionately love one another, who serve one another, who die for one another, or care about and for one another, who hunger and thirst, who seek purity and become peacemakers. In the Empire of God, the contrast to the Empire of the world is sharp.
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