Keeping Awake: The Candle of Hope

A sermon given at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on Sunday, Nov 27, 1st Sunday of Advent

Is. 64:1-9.

Ps. 80:1-7,17-19.

1 Cor. 1:3-9.

Mark 13:24-37.

Today we light the candle of hope. Candles have always been used as lights in dark places. And Jesus said, “You are the light of the world.”

We don’t live in a world where hope makes much sense. Rather we live in a world where the two main responses to news we hear are despair and denial.

Either we are paralyzed by news of violence and injustice or we hear about it – consider it to be elsewhere – and ignore it, live as if it doesn’t exist.

But the truth is that this world is full of hatred, of violence, of greed, of oppression. Darkness is all around us but also within us.

Today we light a candle in the midst of it. The candle of hope.

Those who follow Jesus live as lights in a dark world just as Christ has shown the light of his grace in our hearts, forgiving our sins and assuring us of God’s love. The source of our light is the hope in God that we grasp with faith giving us the courage to love.

Candles also remind us of staying awake.

I suppose a more modern equivalent might be the light of a television screen, a computer screen, or a bedside lamp.

The candle is lit and by it we continue to see, continue to watch. By it we keep awake.

We keep awake. The refrain from today’s gospel reading.

Jesus our Emmanuel, which means God with us, came and inaugurated a new time, a new reign of God, but peace on earth is far from the reality that we see around us.

And so we exist in hope of the full realization of God’s shalom on earth as in heaven – 'the Son of Man coming in clouds' – and that hope is the candle which gives us sight in dark places.

The hope keeps us awake.

Jesus says, “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.”

We have been given good news in Christ and entrusted with the care of God’s kingdom on earth, “to bring good news to the poor…to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.’

We have a job to do: keep awake. Let not the master find us asleep when he comes.

Keep awake!

So much in this world works to extinguish the candle of our hope.

But we return to God’s promise – God’s hope of peace, of justice, of salvation – and we find our strength in the remembrance of God’s great love for us, God’s great grace and we are spurred on again to be that love, to be that grace to others – to manifest a new kind of life, a new kind of politics, a new kind exchange – not based on selfishness, but based on love, not based on dominance, but based on service.

And this way of Jesus is the kingdom which is already/not yet – it is coming to be now but will be fully manifest in that day when 'the Son of Man comes in clouds'.

And so we hold a candle of hope in a world of sin, of violence, of loneliness, of despair, of oppression – and we hear the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 13:11:

“you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near.”

Let us then press on with our candle of hope – keeping awake even when others around us give up and fall asleep–

Let us hear and embrace the gospel of God’s love within our hearts – rejoicing in the liberty of God’s forgiveness and the wonder of God’s generosity!

and let us therefore go out into God’s world – to the people that God loves: the poor, the oppressed, the blind, the least of these our brothers and sisters – and proclaim the gospel of love in word AND deed – the salvation which is already… but not yet – but nearer now than when we first believed.

For what Christ said to his disciples then, he says to us now: Keep awake! Amen.

Thanksgiving

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have

done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole

creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,

and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for

the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best

efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy

and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures

that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the

truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast

obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,

through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life

again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and

make him known; and through him, at all times and in all

places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

From Book of Common Prayer, 1979

On the Beatitudes (Part 2)

A sermon given on the twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost, November 13, 2011 at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH.

Judg. 4:1-7.

Ps. 123.

1 Thes. 5:1-11.

Matt. 25:14-30. (Matt. 5:1-10 used for sermon)

We can think of God’s kingdom as a reality which can only be brought into existence as we respond to God’s call to us.

God’s kingdom is a way of being towards God, towards one another, towards the earth around us that only ever comes into existence when people become reconciled with God and embrace the way of faith in God’s love for the world and seek to embody that love in their lives.

All over the scripture we see God’s desire for humanity.

The perfect society has been called heaven.

So has the perfect chocolate dessert. I had that chocolate lava cake – it was heaven.

Heaven is a perfection -- a place of utter bliss.

The picture of heaven in the Bible is a little different than eating a slice of chocolate dessert.

Heaven is God’s lasting way which outlasts humanity’s way.

Heaven is our true citizenship (Phil. 3:20).

Heaven is God’s building, the house not made by hands, unseen, and eternal (2 Cor 5:20).

Heaven is a great mystery – a future reality in which we put our hope but a reality which is so foreign to our present experience that we are forced by our skeptical and cynical training to concede: “too good to be true”

Karl Barth wrote that whereas earth is the creation that is conceivable to human beings; heaven is the creation that is inconceivable. (McClendon 1994, 87)

Heaven is not yet. We are promised a life everlasting after this one. The promise is of God’s rule and humanity’s enjoyment of peace, justice, and blessedness in fellowship with one another and with God – where there are no longer divisions of race and class and there is no longer shame from sin or fear from death or loneliness from brokenness in our relationships. Heaven is the not yet reality of Christian hope – where, resurrected, we will live as citizens of one King in the only society where peace and justice are possible.

Heaven is therefore unseen, invisible – nowhere on earth do we find this reality. But we find it in the pictures of scripture. God has given us the hope of a reality, a not yet reality, where we will live in God’s shalom, in God’s love and grace and death and sorrow and fear will be no more.

Heaven is not yet. It is held out as our hope. The hope of those who believe God’s grace is the final word. God’s love triumphs over humanity’s hate. That nothing can separate us from God’s love. “What is mortal will be swallowed up by life.” (2 Cor 5:4)

But heaven is a picture which floods the imagination of the one who loves God. Heaven is the reality which the Christian grasps onto by faith. Heaven is the land toward which we make our journey.

This eternal place floods our hearts with a vision of what is true and good.

We delight in the vision of God’s way of life and pray, “Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven.”

We look with great hope toward heaven, but we realize that we are here on earth and we long for the not yet to be present in our midst.

And this longing is the Holy Spirit among us and in us filling our hearts with love for God and our neighbor and filling us with a desire for light to be manifest in the darkness of human brokenness, of love to be realized in systems of violence and abuse.

And so the Christian existence and the Christian imagination is shaped by the words of our Lord: “the kingdom of God is near.” (Mark 4:17).

The kingdom of heaven’s nearness shapes our living now.

‘God’s future is God’s call to the present, and the present is the time of decision in the light of God’s future’ (Bornkamm in Howell 2011, 130)

And so we hear the African American spiritual when it sings:

“I got a robe, you got a robe, All God’s chillun got a robe, When I get to Heav’n, goin’ put on my robe, Goin’ to shout all over God’s heav’n.”

And clearly this is a community which hopes in the promises of a better life – but this vision shapes the what community seeks here and now.

Liberation in America and Apartheid South Africa was sought by those who had not submitted to the reality of the present system in which they lived but hoped in a land that was not yet. A place where people of all races were equally created by God and equally loved by God. The heaven of the spiritual was a place where these black South Africans would be able to shout “all over” and not just in the officially designated boundaries of the apartheid government.

Heaven gave them a sense that they truly were equal and that God’s justice was not the justice of the present government. Their not yet shaped their living in the now. (McClendon 1994, 90).

Jesus brings us into the project of God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. We ARE citizens of that other land and therefore “strangers and foreigners” on this earth (Heb 11:13).

But this does not mean that we are “so heavenly minded that we are of no earthly good.”

Precisely because our imagination is so shaped by God’s reality of peace and justice in the not-yet heaven we live it into existence now in our relationships with one another.

Christians protested unjust government, Christians protested injustices like slavery because they had a vision of a community where there is no longer divisions of race and class – no longer violence and abuse of some against others but all exist in loving communion with God and other human beings.

So the kingdom is near but not yet. It is already becoming, but not yet become.

And we in the inbetween are blessed because we have been claimed by a reality which is greater and higher than the realities which exist in the world. Precisely because we believe in heaven we can see through the injustices and lies of this present age and live in defiance of it – speaking out against instances of hatred and abuse, of deceit or inequality.

I think this is what the beatitudes speak to. We are blessed – not in the common understanding of blessing – but blessed because we are participating in the journey of those who hope in a better land, a land characterized by reconciliation and love, justice and peace.

Jesus’ hearers believed in that hope too. That promise was their pursuit just as it is ours. And so Jesus called them blessed because the Roman empire certainly wasn’t giving them that message. The Romans all around Jesus’ hearers were seeking their version of blessedness which was a blessedness at the expense of the exploited lower classes, a blessedness dependent on injustice, a peace dependent on violence.

Jesus called blessed those who are poor in spirit – because theirs is the kingdom of heaven – that higher reality –that truer goal, that unseen and eternal vision. They are poor in spirit because they do not delight in the present experience but put their hope in God’s future – God’s way breaking into their present.

Jesus called blessed those who mourn – because they will be comforted. The comfort is already here in the promise of God’s comfort, but it is a not yet reality that we look to in our mourning. Death and loss is not the final reality – God’s life, God’s restoration in our future is the last word.

Jesus called blessed those who are meek – because they will inherit the land. They don’t seek to dominate their life circumstances, the ones around them, because they trust in God’s provision for them, they are secure in their identity as loved by God and can love the neighbor who makes himself the enemy– meekness is the strength of love in the face of hate. They will inherit the land – they are co-inheritors of the kingdom, of God’s heaven in which they place their hope.

Jesus called blessed those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, because they will be filled. The Greek word for righteousness also means justice. Both senses are implied. Those who long for justice in this world, in the nation, and in their community and who long for their own soul to be changed by grace and love and result in a life of love for neighbor and devotion to God. Those are blessed because the will be filled in the ESCHATON. They will be filled now in part and THEN in full.

Jesus called blessed those who are merciful, because they will receive mercy. Those who are merciful are those who are shaped by the vision of God’s great mercy – God’s heaven where mercy triumphs over judgment. They are blessed in the reality of God’s great love for them – the love that they receive in faith and shapes their life and turns into love for others.

Jesus called blessed those who are pure in heart because they will see God. Those who love God more than money, those who love God more than success or power, they are blessed because of their sight is not clouded by darkness of selfish ambition but are able to clearly see the God who is love in the person of Jesus Christ and because they will see God in the not yet heavenly reality which shapes their life in the present world.

Jesus called blessed those who make peace because they will be called God’s children. They will be called this in the not yet of God’s heaven but they will also manifest that life in the now of their present existence. Those who pursue peace are those who have been changed by their acceptance into God’s family by God’s reconciling initiative, forgiving them of their sins and violence. They now forgive others’ sins and violence and seek peace living out the reality of their relationship as child of God on earth as it is in heaven.

Those who are blessed by their participation in the unseen, eternal kingdom will be those who will meet resistance from those who find their blessing in the visible kingdoms of this earth and who depend for their livelihood and contentment on unjust or violent or deceitful systems. They will defend their injustice against the one who testifies to God’s reality of justice and they will defend their lies against the one who testifies to God’s truth. And so the ones who find their citizenship in heaven will meet persecution because darkness cannot stand light. And the response of the insecure to the exposing of their insecurity is to seek by any violent means possible to regain their false perception of their security.

And so we see in the Beatitudes our blessedness as a people called out of the world’s systems to a promised land of God’s design. Our blessedness is not the blessedness promised in advertisements and Hollywood films. It is a blessedness of God’s love which changes our lives and redirects the gaze of our souls.

It is a blessedness shaped by God’s future – breaking into our present. And this is the Christian existence of hope. A hope which refuses the limiting hopes of the society and seeks the hope of God on earth as it is in heaven.

On the Beatitudes (Part 1)

A sermon given on All Saints Sunday at the United Church of Acworth, Acworth, NH on November 6, 2011.

Rev. 7:9-17.

Ps. 34:1-10,22.

1 John 3:1-3.

Matt. 5:1-12

Eschatology – From the Greek word eschaton, meaning “last things”

As some have put it, eschatology is “the discussion of what LASTS and what COMES LAST” (McClendon 1994, 75)

The Bible does not give us a detailed point by point, calculated description of exactly what happens at the end of time. Though many have tried to make it say that kind of thing for various agendas with good and bad intentions. Most recently our friend Harold Camping and his calculation in May 2011.

What the Bible DOES give us are pictures that shape our imagination – pictures that sustain our hope. Pictures that give us a new frame for our lives.

The picture of Christ’s one day reigning as ruler over heaven and earth is the ultimate Christian hope (so beautifully sung in Handel’s Messiah). It is then that Christians believe true peace and true justice will become a reality.

What ruler in this world has not been at least in part corrupt? What ruler or government has established justice and peace for ALL? But the Christian hopes in the picture of Christ as king, humble, merciful, and just – the perfect recipe for peace and wholeness in a land.

The view of the eschaton as a final time of peace and justice IS the background picture of hope of not only much of Jewish scriptures (our Old Testament), but of the teaching of Jesus and Paul (our NT).

This is the picture that gives us hope, this is the picture that drives us to act.

A recent Baptist theologian, James McClendon writes,

“For the believer in the [the Christian hope], ‘Whenever he does anything [that picture] is before his mind”…such a picture, once it is grasped, is ‘enough to make me change my whole life’”

The Christian imagination becomes so captivated by the picture of Christ’s rule of truth, of peace, and justice – that it is enough to make us change our whole life.

So when Jesus preaches that the kingdom of God is near: repent!

We can understand this as saying – remember that God’s rule is the ultimate reality and stop living as if other things, success, substances, self are the ultimate reality. Repent – turn around, reshape your thinking, let your imagination be molded by God’s reality.

Our present activity as a church, our present actions as individuals are actions of purpose – we are all working towards certain purposes.

All of those purposes have good aspects to them. We want to take care of our family, we want to do well in our work to be able to provide for ourselves and others, to stay warm and well fed.

What Jesus’ call to the kingdom does is call us to place our purposes in the bigger purpose of God’s plan for the universe.

Repenting then means that allow our purposes to be shaped, broadened, changed by the greater purpose we find in Jesus.

So Jesus says, the kingdom of God has come near. (Matt 4)

The kingdom of God is not here. But the kingdom of God IS here.

The Christian lives in the time in between Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom’s nearness and the fulfillment of God’s kingdom – when Jesus will reign on earth with justice and peace.

This inbetween existence is fuelled by the picture of the hope of God’s kingdom’s nearness – that one day we will participate in its fulfillment when we are resurrected in the ESCHATON.

And so we understand that the kingdom of God is already begun, but not yet fulfilled.

The kingdom of God is an ALREADY/NOT YET phenomenon.

This is what it means to be a saint.

None of us would go about saying that we are saints – but neither would any of us go about saying that the kingdom of God has come here on earth.

Both are ALREADY/NOT YET realities.

When we think of saints we think of people like Francis of Assisi or Mother Teresa, who gave themselves completely for others, living lives of complete poverty, rich only in love and hope.

And yes, in the categories of the Roman Catholic church, these are saints on account of their meeting the requirements for canonization as saints.

But the biblical understanding is that all those who follow Jesus’ way, all who repent and turn their lives in trust over to Jesus are saints. (scripture cite)

So today is ALL SAINTS day. We could spend our Sunday talking about all the different people who we consider saints (as opposed to ourselves, who are pitiful wannabes in comparison). But I’d rather think of Saint as an already/not yet reality just as the kingdom of God is an already/not yet reality.

So when we read the beatitudes in Matthew 5, we must not think of all of those who are not us who do make peace, all of those who are not us who are poor in spirit, meek, merciful, all of those who are not us who hunger and thirst after righteousness, after justice. We must rather realize that we are those saints – those who are blessed – because we are the disciples that God has called through Jesus. We have become partakers of the hope of God’s eschaton and we are therefore saints.

We are saints by the very fact that we have followed Jesus.

The Beatitudes describe the reality of those who have begun to follow Jesus and who seek the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness (Matt 6:33). All those who follow Jesus follow him in this ALREADY/NOT YET existence between the creation and the ESCHATON. The Beatitudes describe the blessedness that is a different blessedness than what many in the world think. The Beatitudes do not describe the blessedness of a successful life of wealth and power – they describe the blessedness that is an ALREADY/NOT YET blessedness. This blessedness is that of hope in the TRUE blessedness of fulfilled peace and justice. This is why someone poor in spirit, someone persecuted can be said to be blessed – because they are blessed by their participation in God’s ALREADY/NOT YET kingdom – the blessedness of hope, of faith, and love.

When the saints go marching, they march to different beat because they hope for a different hope than so many in the world – the promise of God of peace, reconciliation and justice – on earth as it is in heaven.

In the next two Sundays we’ll look at the beatitudes as teaching about the ALREADY/NOT YET kingdom and as describing those who are ALREADY/NOT YET saints – looking to make known in a real way the kingdom of God which will be fulfilled in the ESCHATON.

This following of Jesus is an inbetween experience – it is an already/not yet reality which gives us a pictured hope of the kingdom of God while calling us to be a part of its coming to be now.

We are ALREADY/NOT YET saints by virtue of our participation in the ALREADY/NOT YET kingdom.

And this is made possible by our conversion to Christ’s hope, Christ’s truth, Christ’s life through our repentance and belief.