Something New Is Happening Here!

Advent 1b, Isaiah 64:1-9; Mark 13:24 – 37 (November 27, 2011)

 

Happy New Year! Here we are at a brand New Year, at least in the Church. But so much in the reality of our world seems to be , THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD. Topping the list from time immemorial is suffering, pain, injustice. Nine days ago I sat with my mother in an Emergency Room. Her one arm was broken. Both her hands were swelling. Such swelling dumbfounded her physicians. All the while they attempted to ease her pain. They literally pumped demerol, morphine and significant amounts of anti –inflammatory drugs into her system. But her pain not only persisted, it raged. She turned at me to speak. "Son, pray". She wanted, she yearned for an easing of her pain, perhaps even the end of her pain. Couldn't God just come down and do something RIGHT NOW?

 

It's the same sentiment, brutally honest, very real, that the people of Israel recently returned from Exile, exhibit in today's first lesson. Perhaps they had thought that once they arrived home, back to Jerusalem, that "things" would somehow fall into place. Like the "good old days" – which may have been truly good only in memory, or retrospect. But once they did arrive  things didn't proceed quite the way they had hoped. Now with frustration, nearing despair, they recall the old stories, the recited remembrance of their forefathers and foremothers.  Hadn't God delivered their ancestors from slavery, given all of them food and drink in the desert? So they cry out now, "Tear open the heavens and come down God." Come, RIGHT NOW God!

 

I must confess – even if it pushes religion or more importantly faith closer to magic – I am with those people sometimes and my mother too. Please God, come, show yourself in some unmistakeable way! End the Aids epidemic – where people old and young are ravished, where thousands of children through no fault of their own are left orphaned, to fend for themselves in a world where almost all of the "cards" are stacked against them. Come God into this word, give us a cure for cancer, or Lou Gehrig's disease or MS. Come God into this world and show the people who don't believe in you, just how wrong they are! Do something fantastic that will make Justin Bieber, Tom Cruise, Sidney Crosby or Travis Lulay or any other famous or hero like figure, appear to be the very mortals that they are. Come on God, tear open the heavens and come down, or up – but come here!

 

But very often God doesn't do anything like that. Some of us, maybe all of us at one point or another, lose hope, lose faith, give into despair or seek to escape into denial. Was Scrooge throughout most of his life right, "Bah, Humbug?

 

It is important for us to note that even the writer of Isaiah 64 demands God to come right now. And even though that same write attempts to blame God for his or her own people's sin,  near the end of our passage, this same writer works to remind God of who God is and his or her people as to who they are. This is very important! Did you hear the writer's assertion? "Yet, O Lord, you are our Father, we are the clay, and you are our potter, we are all the work of your hand. Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity, sin forever. Now consider, we are all your people."

 

What/whom do we consider this Advent 1, 2011? Yes,  it's only 28 days until Christmas. Yes, all the demands on our time are ramping up? But in all of this, do we consider, are we fully aware that God is our Father/our Mother? Do we realize that we are both literally and figuratively clay? It's only been 17 days since my cousin's husband, Bernie, one whom I knew and loved for 43 years, went out to walk his beloved dog and collapsed, dying on the ground of a massive heart attack. I must not forget. Clay – we all are clay.

 

But that's not all we are! No sirree bob. We are also God's children – all of us. God is to be not just the potter, but our potter, shaping and moulding us, with love and skill,  whatever may be happening. Do we see that? Are we open to such shaping – especially in those moments when we just want God to come in some way so that our struggles, our pain, our uncertainty, our insecurity can be over?

 

In this new year we are allowed to eavesdrop on Mark's Gospel. Mark yields interesting observations, some profound and powerful realities for those with ears to hear, eyes to see, hearts to be set on fire.  As Jesus is baptized (in mark's Gospel), just as He is coming up out of the water, what does he see? Jesus sees the heavens torn (yes, that's the word, literally translated as torn) and the Holy Spirit descending like a dove upon him. Then Jesus hears a voice from heaven saying of him and to him, "You are my Son, the beloved. With you I am well pleased." You see in Jesus God tears the heavens open – maybe not in the ways we would have – but in God's own unique way. Through those torn heavens God does come among us!

 

Fast forward through Mark's entire Gospel to see more. Behold Jesus hanging on the cross. He is dying, suffering horribly. We want to turn our eyes, our minds, our ears, our noses off. It's so horrible, too ugly, not nice, certainly not Christmasy. At the cross there aren't any white Christmases or bells a-ringing or snow glistening. But don't do that. Don't turn away from Jesus on the cross. Seek to watch Him. As he gives a loud cry and breathes his last something amazing happens. The curtain of the temple is torn in two, from top to bottom. That curtain was symbolic of so many things. There was a system where things were offered in order to bring about reconciliation between God and people. On the cross God offers his Son in a particular way – that shows us new ways of reconciliation. Jesus' suffering an death on our behalf  opens us up to being reconciled and reconciling. In addition that temple curtain being torn in two also reveals that the gulf between we people – often rebellious, hurtful, vengeful, selfish, denying people and God is very real and hugely immense. And yet as Jesus dies, Jesus bridges the gulf between humanity and God. Father forgive them, Jesus cries. In Jesus and his cross, God draws near to us – to bring about new life even in the face of all suffering and death.

 

To be sure, it's not the way we would have done it: in destroying our enemies or dancing in the end zone, or singing "nah – nah, nah, nah,  – nah, nah, nah, nah. But to cross, Jesus vulnerable on that cross is God's way: to come to us – to be with us and for us, to destroy hatred and death.

 

Do we see this God,  in the bedsides of our lives, in our pain, suffering and brokenness? Do we even now, 28 days before Christmas 2011, hear God's call to reflect the light of Christ, to depend on Him at all times, but especially when we just have to cry out, "God do something"?

 

Can't we see? God is doing something! The heavens are being torn in God's way in Jesus. Are we part of it?

 

Come Lord Jesus Come! Even to and through us. Amen. 

           

           

Breaking In? (The Kingdom)

Christ the King Sunday, Matthew 25:31-46 (November 20, 2011)

Do you ever wonder about just how crazy the world is? I mean really wonder. Wonder sometimes if you can go on – or if you do go on, can you continue to be a sane, caring person?

 

The world is SO CRAZY. There are people who have so much: name it, they have it. They are surrounded by things, sometimes even power. And with that they do reckless, heartless, horrific things. Do the names Ghadaffi or Hitler ring a bell? Then millions of people and their descendants suffer. The world CAN BE CRAZY.

 

Ourselves, we have so much. Still, sometimes we feel compelled to get more, or we may not or do not have "enough". Anxiety seeps into the crannies and cracks of our minds and hearts. Then we can't sleep. Then we can't stop worrying.  The world is crazy.

 

Meanwhile seemingly innocent children are starving, both far away and at home. Wander down to the East Side and see who comes in for the LUMS lunch. Go over to the Richmond Food bank and see who the "clients" are. Attend a local school. Observe first- hand the need for hot meal programs. Visit Gilmore Park's Dream Auction. Hear the stories of  people in need in this the most expensive city to live in Canada. Yes, there are Huge houses, expensive land. But there are also many people who are hungry, who don't have a warm or safe place to sleep. Craziness.

 

Toss in the sad and depressing stories of children and very young teenagers being abused by seemingly reputable coaches – whether it's in hockey, football, gymnastics, or even by pastors or other church leaders and you get the drift.  The world can be very crazy, hurtful  even insane place. Add the literal fragile nature of life:  of children and people oh so young, contracting terminal illnesses, being struck down as they stand on the side of the road and there's no doubt about it. Sometimes the world is a crazy, nonsensical place. Some then feel that it's also a hopeless place.

 

Our temptation and inclination then may be to hunker down. To try to live with a faith that is other worldly, that understands salvation as only something that can happen in the future – in an out of body experience that has little or nothing to do with the here and now, the beauty and the craziness of this moment. Or, our inclination, our very real temptation is to give into fear. Out of fear we try to secure enough stuff, enough favors, enough power or status or material goods to guarantee the best care, the best protection for those we love and those most like us.

 

But then either religion and "faith" become merely an opiate of the masses dulling us to the vast experience of present reality. Or religion and faith are pushed to the outer edges of our daily life. We desperately attempt to construct some container called "spirituality" to contain our "faith" and or "God".  Such containers and "gods" have little or nothing to do with the everyday experiences and relationships of our lives.

 

Today  marks the last Sunday of the church year. Next Sunday begins Advent, the new coming church year. But today, this last Sunday of the old year, has long been titled Christ the King Sunday.

 

Now the title, king, is not only cumbersome but for most of us, also meaningless. We don't know any kings. Many of us couldn't even name the governor general of Canada (the King/Queen's representative). In my own life, now spanning nearly 6 decades, I have never experienced a king's reign even in this country.

 

Nevertheless, sometimes the traditions that we have been inherited have value. In ancient times THE KING was one upon whom each person was literally dependent.  And if (a huge IF) one's king was benevolent, that is did his very best to care for those subjects entrusted to his care – well then the entire kingdom was blessed. It was from that hope, that the subjects literally swore allegiance to their king. He would war for them – in the best case scenario's, sometimes even dying for them. Of course there are also many, many examples of horrible kings. The world being crazy is not a new reality.    

 

Our forebears spoke and wrote of their experience and relationship with God and others by employing images and words which had great meaning for them. We need to do the same. In order to do that we need to find ways to translate "old" even ancient images into words and images that reflect our realities.

 

So, on this Christ the King Sunday 2011, living in this crazy but also amazing world, whom are we looking to for guidance, strength, direction and hope? Be careful how we answer.

 

I suspect that the answer is not revealed so much in what we say – although words can be important tools to help, to care, even to express love. But our words must be accompanied by action – or our words are hollow, like mirages of water on a hot summer's day, that when one draws nearer dissipate into nothingness.

 

Into the craziness of our world comes today's Gospel. Now this isn't my favourite Gospel text. It rings of judgment. I am not sure it is about the final judgment or even the judgment of all people – although it has often been read that way. But judgment is real! Whether it's regarding what we eat and how we do or don't exercise – or whether it's how we employ the earth resources or don't – there are consequences to our actions and inaction. Within the realm of Christian tradition we often confess that Jesus is the judge. Note: it is Jesus not any human being who is the judge. Also remember: Jesus is not only King in some amazing, yet fully to be determined sense, but also the One suffering, dying on s cross. Jesus does not absent himself from vulnerability or oppression.

 

Therefore, there is also a wonderful part to this Gospel text. Did you notice that regardless of whether it is the "sheep", those who care for the vulnerable, the oppressed, the hungry, the naked, the "imprisoned" or whether it is those who refuse to care for the people in need, no one in either group realizes that in so doing, or not doing so, that they were caring for or refusing to care for Jesus?

 

Why is that?

 

Jesus says something here that fills me with both hope and fear. Do we hear him? "Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these you did it to me!" The reverse is also true: "Truly I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me."

 

These sayings give me hope because they underline that God in the flesh does not remove Him/Herself from those in need, those most vulnerable regardless of their age, ethnicity, socioeconomic status or gender. In fact the opposite is true. Jesus is in and among all these people – perhaps all such creatures. This is hopeful!

 

But His saying also causes me to be fearful. I realize that I have not always seen Jesus in such people. I have not always visited, clothed or nurtured such people. At times I have been too tired, too exhausted, too broken myself to make the effort required. Sometimes I have just thought of myself first and then given into fear and apathy. How about you?

 

There is judgment. God forgive us. God help us to do better. May our actions speak honestly of our trust in you. May you help us to trust in you as we see you through Jesus and those He so deeply loves.

 

In the midst of your judgment, oh God, may we also experience your grace, not just for ourselves but in order that we may be so gracious to others. May we feed as we are being fed, clothe as we are being clothed, hospitably visit as even now you visit us in Word and Sacrament. May we love even a little bit  as God loves us in Christ. For then, not only is God's kingdom ultimately coming, but it comes here and now in bits and pieces even through us. In such moments there is great rejoicing not only in the future but right now. Thanks be to God! May we be so, for Christ's sake, Amen.