Sunday of Christ the King ---- 25 November 2018

John 18:33-37

33 Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" 35 Pilate replied, "I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." 37 Pilate asked him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice."

But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.

·       Okay, if your kingdom is not from this world, where is it from?

·       Okay, if your kingdom is not from this world, what sort of king are you?

·       Pilate expected that the man he was questioning might call himself a king, as some of his follower had been saying. He also expected that such a king could command those he reigned over to rescue him. Jesus acknowledges that, but goes on to say he is not that sort of king. He is not what Pilate or all the other authorities expected.

·       Jesus is a different kind of king. To say my kingdom is not from here tells us that much. We call him king because we lack the language to call him anything else, even if we know who and what he is. We use terms that make sense to our way of living. Even if we’ve never met a king, we have an image of what a king is. The image of a king in crown, robe, and sceptre comes to our mind and we see Jesus through that lens.

·       The Roman soldiers who mocked him used that same lens when they crowned him with thorns, placed a reed in his hand as a sceptre, and put a rough soldier’s cloak over his shoulders. In an ironic way, John’s Gospel has the soldiers acknowledge Jesus as king in a reversal of the intended mockery. They called him a king, thinking they would humiliate him and they honoured the sort of king he is.

·       Jesus is a servant-king whose kingdom is not from here. He is the unexpected king everyone was waiting for. He was not blinded by the lure of power or honour as so many are, even in our day. He came to serve and not to be served, unlike so many who seek high office for what they can take from it.

·       Let’s lay all this history and doctrine aside for a moment. What Pilate or the authorities or the disciples expected makes for an interesting discussion and a powerful teaching. It helps us know who Jesus is and who he is not.

·       What is important for us is how we live out our discipleship today. We could consider who Jesus is for us… and that would be most effective if we actually do something about it. It would be most important if who Jesus to us actually make a difference in our lives.

·       As a servant-king, a king in poverty and humility, a king who eats with tax-collectors and sinners, Jesus places himself with those most in need. Many were poor in the most brutal sense, living in hopeless poverty and without the respect of the so-called Righteous. Some of the needy were not poor in the earthly sense; a tax-collector could make a good living for himself and some of the others rejected by the “Righteous” and the “Perfect” had done well, but because they were rejected and called sinners, they expected to be rejected by the all-righteous God as well. Jesus showed them the compassionate and loving face of God and treated them with acceptance, something they may never have expected.

·       This is the good news today. Our king accepts us as we are right now and wants to serve as our healer, our saviour, and our gracious way to the Father. He proclaims forgiveness and a new way of life and he calls us to do the same.

·       We all know the Christmas carol, “O Come, All Ye Faithful.” Well, I found a new verse – one that doesn’t call on the Faithful, the Joyful, or the Triumphant. It calls and invites those who really need a walk to Bethlehem. It’s not an ‘official’ verse and it’s a bit early in the season, but it’s well worth hearing:

Oh, come, ye unfaithful

Broken and polluted!

Oh, come ye, Oh, come ye,

To Bethlehem.

Come and behold Him,

Born the Friend of Sinners.

·       I need to hear that unofficial verse in every season. It helps me to live a life of service. It helps me to wish to live a life of testimony to the truth of God – namely that Jesus came into the world to bring love and forgiveness. That’s the kingdom we are all citizens of and the kingdom in which we serve one another.

W

The Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost ---- 18 November 2018

Mark 13:1-8

As {Jesus} came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, "Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!" Then Jesus asked him, "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down."  

  When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?" Then Jesus began to say to them, "Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, "I am he!' and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

·       What Jesus says sounds terrifying: "Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down." The shock to the disciples is something we might feel to this very day. The Temple in Jerusalem was the centre of Jewish religious and cultural life. In fact, it was the place where the presence of God was strongest. It and Jerusalem were sometimes called “God’s footstool.” If it was going to be destroyed, what would become of everything?

·       Jesus explains further in private to Peter, Andrew, James, and John. What he says to them is not altogether comfortable… except for the last sentence: This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. And even that could be seen as not all that comforting.

·       I’ve never experienced giving birth. I was present when both of my children were born and I’ll always remember those times. I have no idea what birth pangs are like. All I know is that the pains of childbirth lead to a child being born. I’m sure the baby was quite happy to be where he or she was, but that is not a place with a real future for them.

·       Birth pangs mean that something is coming. More to the point, that something is imminent. A new story is being written and a new beginning is starting.

·       If all this would be the beginning of the birth pangs, and should the Temple be thrown down and destroyed, what would be next? What was coming to birth?

·       We need to think of the Temple. The walls and the stones that made up the walls were impressive and huge. It was still in the process of being finished, since this was not the original Temple of Solomon, but the Temple of Herod. Imagining the destruction of this place would be horrifying. It would tear at the soul of an Jewish person of the time.

·       Yet it would be a new beginning, although a painful one. Walls that serve to keep something out also serve to keep something in. Our homes’ walls keep warmth in and cold out. If the Temple was the place of God’s most intense presence, the walls kept that in and the walls kept the undesirables out. If the walls fell, something new would be happening. If the walls fell, would the presence disappear or would it be loose in the world? Would the ones considered unworthy or unclean be able to receive the presence of the Almighty?

·       The same thing has been said of Jesus’ resurrection. The stone closed in the body and when the stone was rolled away, everything changed! Sorrow became joy. Despair became hope. Death became life. And the world is changed. It wasn’t easy; it wasn’t simple, but it was sure and it was grace.

·       We know what Jesus is telling Simon, Andrew, James, and John. Wars and rumours of wars, natural disasters and earthquakes are the stuff of daily new reports. They are nothing to take joy in and yet, they continue to be the “birth pangs”, heralding what is to come. They remind us that the world is not the way God wishes it to be. They can also distract us from the reality that God and God’s grace are at work behind what we can see.

·       This is but the beginning of the birth pangs. The story is not over; there are chapters still to written and a final page to be read. None of us know the exact path of the story, except where it ultimately leads… to nothing less than the reign of God.

·       I’ve been told that the pangs of birth are forgotten in the face of the birth they herald. (Maybe I need correction on that.) In any case, the pain does lead to something better, greater, and full of promise. And something new is now entering our world. The presence of God has always been there; perhaps soon that presence will no longer be ignored or mistaken. After all, it is what we are all waiting for.

For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.

W

Sunday of All Saints ---- 4 November 2018

Revelation 21:1-6a

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; 4 he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away." 5 And the one who was seated on the throne said, "See, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true." 6 Then he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.

Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away.

·       The Book of Revelation is an odd one. I’d recommend you read it but if you do, have a book called a “Bible commentary” nearby. It is hard to understand and it can be terribly confusing. It is full of symbols and signs and monsters. I’ve always felt the book reads like a fever dream nightmare for the middle of the book. The beginning is written to a number of Christian communities in the Roman Imperial province of Asia (now western Turkey) and the ending chapters are written to the universal church. The central chapters are written to the church in general as well, but those are the hard ones to read.

·       In our times and for many centuries before us, the emphasis has been on the middle of the book. Many readers saw it as a roadmap of history-to-come, a prediction of the troubles the church and all humanity would endure. That is not why the book was written.

·       The book was written to give hope to a church suffering persecution. It was a dark time for the church with the regime of the emperor Nero pushing against the church and with many Christians falling away from the church. Hope was in short supply and the writer – often thought to be John the Evangelist in exile on the island of Patmos – delivered a message of hope to the suffering Church.

·       Our passage today is a hopeful ones. All creation is made new, both heaven and earth. The sea, a place of terror, chaos, and mystery to the Jewish people, a symbol of all that is like the formless chaos before God’s creation, is done away with. A “new Jerusalem” descends to earth from God, and the writer uses the image of the beauty of a bride on her wedding day. The voice of a heavenly herald proclaims that God will dwell with the people, not in some distant heaven. All tears will be wiped away, because death and mourning and pain will be no more and the first things have passed away.

·       Then we hear the one who was seated on the throne say "See, I am making all things new." The broken world would be made right, not demolished and started over, not repaired, but renewed. To the persecuted church of John’s time, this was hopeful news.

·       And what about us? Our custom for All Saints Sunday is to remember those who have recently died and even more, to remember any of our family, friends, and all the people in our lives who are held in love. Their lives are celebrated and remembered with candles, church bells, and Scripture. This reading from Revelation is quite appropriate for we look forward to a renewal of creation. Not an existence on some cloud we might call heaven, but a true resurrection, following where Jesus led.

·       We hope for and wait for something else, something hinted at in the Revelation of John: See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them… How that will be remains to be seen; That it will be is promised to us. Who knows? There might be challenges, but we are assured that he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more…

·       So we live in hope, not in despair. We live in hope for a future, a real future of life and not futility and loss. We look forward and believe in a life with God among us.

·       The greatest mystery of all of this is simply that the life with God among us begins now. Our baptism brought us into the life of God and that life will not be taken from us by death.

·       Today we heard Isaiah speak of God’s kingdom as a banquet. We heard John tell of a new Jerusalem where God would life with all of God’s people. In the Gospel, John gives us the word of Jesus to the once-dead Lazarus: "Lazarus, come out!" and then "Unbind him, and let him go."

·       All of God’s creation will be unbound and called to new life. And are not we and our loved ones part of God’s creation?

"See, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them; they will be his peoples, and God himself will be with them; he will wipe every tear from their eyes. Death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more, for the first things have passed away."

W