Kingship Redefined

November 25 was Reign of Christ Sunday (sometimes called Christ the King Sunday). As the last Sunday in the church year, it anticipates the time when Christ will truly rule over everything. But what does that mean? What kind of king are we anticipating? This sermon uses John's vision of heaven from the book of Revelation to examine what the kingship of Christ really means. I hope that it both stirs your imagination and helps to deepen your faith!

I love a good story with a twist at the end, a twist that you never expected! The stories of O. Henry are like that. The Gift of the Magi is a great example. The story is about two young newlyweds who love one another deeply! Christmas is approaching, and neither one has enough money to buy the other a nice gift. So (spoiler alert!) the wife sells her long, beautiful hair so that she can buy an expensive watch fob for her husband’s heirloom watch; only to find that her husband has sold his watch to buy her an expensive set of combs for her hair. That twist holds a punch the first time that you read it. But after you reading it 6 or 7 times, you know it so well that the story loses its punch. This morning’s text from Revelation is a story like that (Revelation 5:1-14). It contains a twist that’s meant to hit us between the eyes and make us reconsider everything that we thought we knew. The only trouble is that we all know this text so well that it has lost its punch.

Let me set the scene. John, the author of Revelation, is in the midst of a vision of God’s heavenly throne. He has seen angels and archangels, 24 elders in white robes, and four fantastic creatures who praise God day and night. Just when we think the vision can’t get any better, John sees the scroll! Now, he doesn’t tell us exactly what the scroll contains, but it may well contain everything that we’ve ever wanted to know: interpretation of the past, understanding of the present, and knowledge of the future. We all want to get a look at that, don’t we? The only trouble is that it is sealed up tighter than a bank vault. Nobody can get it open; and that scroll is no use to anybody if we can’t see what it says! John cries like a three-year-old who has just dropped his chocolate ice cream cone on the sidewalk. He wants to get a glimpse into that scroll more than anything else in the world; but it doesn’t look like he’s going to get to do it.

And then, he feels a tap on his shoulder. One of the elders who is sitting next to God’s throne says, “Don’t cry! It’s all right. The Lion of Judah can open the scroll.” The Lion of Judah! That’s another name for the Messiah! When the elder points to the throne, John expects to see a mighty warrior with a flaming sword; a king crowned in gold, dressed for battle; maybe even a real lion, jaws dripping with blood. But that’s not what John sees at all! Instead, he sees a lamb, a little lamb, a lamb smeared with its own blood: a lamb that has been sacrificed. That’s the twist in this text that’s meant to carry a punch. That sacrificed lamb is the fearsome Lion of Judah. And just to make sure that we get the point, the chorus of praise to God swells to include the Lamb, as every creature in heaven and on earth joins in the song.

The Lion of Judah is a Lamb. That’s a real twist to the story of the Messiah; and it would have carried a punch to those folks who were expecting the Messiah to kick butt! I expect that it knocked the socks off the first Christians who heard it. That’s because this story completely redefines the Messiah! Everybody knew that the Messiah would be a King who would rule over Israel. Some people had even figured out that the Messiah would one day rule over not only Israel, but over everyone else as well. But nobody expected that the Messiah would be a King who didn’t behave like a king! Earthly kings behave like lions: they bluster and threaten and go to war. But Jesus behaves more like a lamb! He wants our allegiance. But if we don’t give it to him, he doesn’t execute us for treason. He follows us like a shepherd, trying to win us back through love instead of coercing us with violence. He brings peace to his kingdom. But that peace is not bought by denying us our freedom and dictating what we can do. No, he allows us to make our own decisions; decisions that are sometimes very foolish. The peace that our king offers is one that surrounds us despite the many tragic events that we bring on ourselves. And this king loves us – all of us. Every king loves his friends. Our king even loves his enemies! And here’s the critical difference between Jesus and every other ruler who ever lived. Jesus died for us. In the movie Patton, the title character says in the opening sequence, “No one has ever won a war by dying for his country. You win a war by making the other poor devil die for his country.” But Jesus won the war against sin and evil by doing exactly that: by offering himself up as a sacrifice and dying on a cross. What General Patton said may be true for earthly rulers; but it’s not true for Jesus. He’s a different kind of king. The Lion of Judah is the Lamb who was died for all of us sinners. Wow! Now that’s a twist to the story that even O. Henry never imagined!

Today is the Sunday when we celebrate the ultimate Reign of Christ. (Sometimes it is called Christ the King Sunday.) So what will his kingdom look like when it finally comes completely? What kind of kingdom is ruled by a king who never punishes, never dictates, and never makes war? The prophets give us glimpses of it. Isaiah tells us that the wolf will live with the lamb, the cow will feed with the bear, and the calf will live with the lion. (Isaiah 11:6-7) He tells us that not only will everyone have enough to eat, the food and drink will be the very finest! (Isaiah 25:6) And the very best thing about this kingdom is that there will be no more death (Isaiah 25:7-8); and all the weeping and mourning that goes with it will be gone, too. There won’t be any more mass shootings because the hate that causes them will have dissolved. There won’t be any more hurricanes or wildfires or earthquakes because all nature will work in harmony. And everyone will have enough, because the greed that causes some to have much more than others will have vanished!

Now, we can’t begin to imagine how all that could be possible! In the end, even the author of the book of Revelation can’t describe it. He simply says that everything will be new: both the heavens and the earth. The old way that things are done will be completely gone! (Revelation 21:1-4) Through Jesus, the world was made; and through Jesus, the world will be remade; because Jesus is the first and last, the Alpha and the Omega. In the end, on this Reign of Christ Sunday, all we can really do is to give thanks for the Christ who gave himself for us; to anticipate the peace and beauty of the kingdom that will someday be a reality; and to live as though that kingdom is already here. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what Jesus asks us to do every day of our lives. If we all really did live like his kingdom were already here… well, then that kingdom would be a reality! And what a wonderful day that would be!

Thanksgiving in the Weeds

What do we do with the problems in our lives when the time comes to give thanks? Do we let them take away our appreciation of all the good things that we have? This sermon addresses that question, taking a cue from a parable that Jesus told.

Aren’t weeds a nuisance? They creep into our gardens, spring up in our fields, and cause us no end of inconvenience. Gardeners know that it often takes longer to control the weeds in our gardens than it does to plant those gardens in the first place! Jesus’ disciples knew about weeds, too; so when he told them this parable (Matthew 13:24-30), they were all on the same page. The field of the landowner in this story is full of weeds. Those weeds had sprung up everywhere; and it turns out that they had been planted intentionally by someone who was out to ruin the harvest.

Jesus’ parables are meant remind us of situations that we face in our own lives. What did Jesus mean by the wheat and the weeds? We can’t know that answer for sure. Some biblical scholars think that readers in the early church might have thought that both the wheat and the weeds represented people. The church at that time was made up of a very mixed bag of Christians. Some were certainly devoted followers of Jesus – they were the wheat – but others – the weeds – might have been there simply to get a handout. Christians had a reputation of taking care of their own, so that no one in their community went hungry; and that might have attracted people who were more concerned with their stomachs than with their spiritual lives. Other church members might have been spies, sent there by the Roman authorities who wanted to find a reason to arrest members of this new religion. There were all kinds of weeds in the early church, all mixed together with the wheat.

Today, we aren’t worried about Roman spies sitting in our church pews; and the only people who want a handout are the ones who wander into the food pantry. No, the weeds in the wheat field have other meanings to us. For many people, the weeds represent the troubles that pop up in our lives without any warning. You’re driving along minding your own business, for example, when the water pump suddenly goes out on the car; and you have to dip into your savings to fix it. That’s certainly a weed; but other weeds are far worse. A family member becomes seriously ill, and we must suddenly learn how to be a caregiver; or we become ill ourselves, and must learn to cope with continuing medical treatments. Those weeds are very difficult to live with. Some of the most frustrating weeds are those that throw their shadow over all of us who live in this country: mass shootings; natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes; and national leadership that isn’t able to lead. Oh, yes, there are plenty of weeds in our lives; and they come in all shapes and sizes. And this week, we celebrate Thanksgiving. What do we do with those weeds on Thanksgiving, anyway? We can’t get rid of them. Jesus even hints that trying to pull them up might not be the best idea in the long run. So what do we do? Do we curse them? Do we try to ignore them? Do we make the best of them? Maybe we should look at those who lived before us and try to discover their answer to those questions.

The Pilgrims – our ancestors who first celebrated Thanksgiving on these shores – lived with plenty of weeds. Those early settlers arrived on our shores late in the year, just as winter was setting in. The supplies that they had brought from Europe weren’t adequate to get them through that year’s harsh winter. Many were already ill with scurvy after the long overseas voyage. Others became ill from cold and hunger. Some starved to death. Of the 102 passengers on the Mayflower, over half died during that first terrible winter. Their weeds were very tall, indeed! And over 250 years later when Abraham Lincoln established an official Thanksgiving Day in 1863, things were no less difficult. Our country was split apart by civil war. The Battle of Gettysburg had stopped the advance of General Lee’s troops into the north the previous summer, but at a terrible cost – almost 50,000 troops killed or wounded in just three days of battle. During the days of the Civil War, just like the days of the first Thanksgiving that the Pilgrims celebrated, the weeds threatened to overshadow everything else. But even in the middle of all those weeds, the Pilgrims and President Lincoln gave thanks. They couldn’t ignore their weeds; they chose not to curse them; and it was very difficult to make the best of them. So they decided to give thanks for what they did have instead of focusing on what they didn’t have! They gave thanks for loved ones who survived cold, hunger, illnesses, and battle. They gave thanks for friends who supported them when they were certain that they could not get through another day. They gave thanks to God whose presence went with them whether their days were good or bad. They gave us a good example to follow as we struggle to live among our own weeds!

We can do that now, too. Some years ago, several people who are Facebook friends of mine posted daily what they were thankful for during the month of November. Now, I know these folks; and I know that they all have weeds in their lives: some small, and some very large, indeed. You might be interested in what they were thankful for. (I have changed some of the posts so that my friends can remain anonymous.)

·         I am thankful for co-workers who care enough about me to phone me when they hear there's a huge accident that would keep me from getting home safely.

·         I am thankful for the songbirds in our yard.

·         I am thankful for my spouse. It’s not always easy, but it is completely worth it.

·         I am thankful for warm jammies.

·         I am thankful for books, because I love to read!

·         I am thankful for conveniences – a washer, a dryer, and a dishwasher.

·         I am thankful to spend time with my family.

·         I am thankful for the opportunity to learn. Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to get a good education.

·         I am thankful for laughter.

·         I am thankful for life.

Are you thankful for some of those things? I know that you are, and for many others that I didn’t mention. So this year, I invite you to give thanks despite the weeds in your life, no matter how many of them there are and how big they are. I invite you to hang on to God’s promise that those weeds won’t last forever, and that one day, they will all be thrown into the fire! I invite you to join the Pilgrims, Abraham Lincoln, and all the saints throughout the ages in giving thanks to God for all the good things in our lives. May you all have a blessed Thanksgiving, even in the midst of the weeds!

The Uncomfortable Overlap

What is the relationship between faith and politics? We know that there is not supposed to be an overlap between church and politics -- at least, not in this country -- but if our faith isn't involved in politics, then politics is the worse for it! Why? This sermon will tell you.

Be careful what you pray for, because you just might get it. I’ll bet that you’ve heard that before; and you might even have lived it! You yearned for something that you didn’t have, and you asked God for it over and over and over again. Then you got what you were praying for; only to find out that the reality was very different than you imagined it would be. Maybe the scenario went something like this: When the realtor phoned one night and announced that the house that you have been negotiating to buy was finally yours, you thanked God for answering your prayers. But when you moved in, you discovered raccoons in the attic, a faulty sump pump in the cellar, and wiring that was installed during the administration of Calvin Coolidge – none of which the seller told you about. Yes, what we get often comes with complications that we never expected when we asked for it.

The Israelites had that experience when they got a king. If we peer into the book of Judges and investigate their history, we can understand why they wanted one. When the Israelites lived in tribal communities, there was no common bond among them except their religion; and there was very little coordination between the tribal leaders. There were no universal laws, for example, and no standing army. When the Philistines threatened the tribes in the central region of Israel, they had to go begging the other tribes for help. When they looked around at the surrounding nations, they noticed that a king seemed to be the solution to all those problems; so they went to Samuel and told him that they wanted a king, too. “We want to be like all the other nations!” they said. Having a king looked so good! And even though Samuel tried to tell them that a king would bring a whole slew of complications for their lives, they wouldn’t listen. So God told Samuel to give them what they wanted; and Samuel did just that. (I Samuel 8:4-22)

Now, here’s what the Israelites didn’t anticipate when they asked Samuel for a king. Sure, a king would lead them. Sure, having a king would take care of some of their problems. But once they had a king, they had to deal with politics! When the Israelites lived in tribes, they only had to worry about their faith. But after they crowned a king, they became a nation. That opened the door to all kinds of sticky political questions. Would they stick to tribal laws, or enact new ones that applied to everybody? With which countries should they make political alliances? When should they go to war? And the most difficult of all: how could they continue to worship God faithfully when politics was constantly urging them to make compromises with that faith?

One of the biggest problems for the Israelites was that political alliances with other nations meant allowing the gods of those nations into Israel, something that God has always forbidden. Prophets like Amos and Hosea and Jeremiah hollered about that all the time. They stood on street corners and condemned it. They stood outside the Temple and preached about it to folks who were on their way to worship. Some of them even confronted the king about it! But the Israelites were always ready to compromise their faith if it meant that they got richer, safer, and more powerful as a nation. After all, that’s the goal of politics: more wealth, more security, and more power.

The Israelites bought into politics hook, line, and sinker; and they never understood that faith has very different goals than politics does. We who follow Jesus Christ need to understand that, too! We should care less about wealth, safety, and power than about compassion, love, and peace. We should care about not only our own security, but about the security of others, too. We should share our wealth when we see other people in need. And that power thing… Jesus rejected it! He showed us that the way to real power is in humility; even in death. “God’s power is made complete in weakness” is the way that Paul explained it. That’s why the overlap of faith and politics is always so uncomfortable. Our Christian goals are different from the goals of politicians, and the methods that we use to achieve those goals are very different. And yet, we have to live with both faith and politics all the time. One of the biggest problems for those of us who live in this country is how to be both a good citizen and a faithful Christian.

Now, we can try to separate faith and politics; and we frequently refuse to take part in politics because of it. But while it’s true that the separation of church and state is written into our Constitution, that only means that our government is forbidden to set up a national church. We can’t be forced to be Baptist or Episcopal or Catholic. We can’t be forced to be Christian or Buddhist or Muslim. All faiths are equal under the law of our country; but it doesn’t mean that faith and politics are completely separate, because they aren’t. That uncomfortable overlap is always present in our national life. We have to deal with both politics and faith.

As we struggle to respond to do that with integrity, we need to remember that, even though politics and faith overlap, they ask very different questions. Politics asks “why” questions; questions such as “Why should we secure our national borders?” Those questions really don’t have anything to do with our faith. But the question of how we secure those borders extends into the realm of faith. When non-citizens enter our country without authorization, we can treat them with respect (and dare I suggest compassion); or we can tear their children away from them and force those children to live in isolated camps. Politics may deal with the “why” of government actions; but our faith responds to the “how.” I could give you a million more examples, but you already know what they are. How to use tax dollars, how to protect the dignity of every person, how to maintain civil order, how to engage with our international neighbors, even how to run an ethical political campaign – those are all conversations in which our Christian faith needs to have a part!

Now, let me reassure you that I’m never going to tell you how you should vote. I’m never even going to tell you how you should feel on political issues. That’s not my job (and it’s why I saved this sermon until after last Tuesday’s election). But it is my job to show you how our Christian faith informs our response to the political questions that face us. The prophets did it long ago; and it’s my job to do it now. Most of all, it’s my job to remind you that, as important as political issues are, the foundation on which we stand isn’t Republican or Democratic or Libertarian or Socialist. Our only foundation as Christians is Jesus Christ; and he shows us the “how” to every single “why.” Compassion, generosity, inclusion, and peace are the ways that we are called to live as Christians, regardless of our political persuasions. My prayer today is that we are never afraid to stand by those ideals as we struggle to follow Jesus in this political world.