God Desires to Build, Not Destroy

 

(Based on a Sermon Preached in Christ Episcopal Church, Albertville, AL, January 25, 2015) 

The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time, saying, "Get up, go to Nineveh, that great city, and proclaim to it the message that I tell you.”. . Jonah began to go into the city. . . And he cried out, "Forty days more, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!" And the people of Nineveh believed God; they proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth. 

When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity that he had said he would bring upon them; and he did not do it. (Jonah 3:1-5, 10) 

God gives Jonah a second chance to carry out his mission, to bring the Ninevites back into a right relationship with God, and when they repent and commit to lead a new life, God forgives them as well.  This new beginning is the basis of our faith in a God whose primary command is “to love the lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength, and your neighbor as yourself.” (Matthew  22: 32ff)

This prophetic work is a good foundation for the beginning of Jesus’ mission of repentance as we see in Mark 1:14-20: “Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news."

Like Jonah proclaimed to the Ninevites, Jesus proclaimed that “God has a better plan about how we treat one another and I can show you what it is, and when you repent and believe the good news, the Kingdom of God will truly come near.”  Then we see  as we continue reading in Mark 1:14-20 that Jesus calls some helpers to build on the foundation established by Jonah, John the Baptist and others, to help he build this kingdom.

“As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea--for they were fishermen. And Jesus said to them, "Follow me and I will make you fish for people." And immediately they left their nets and followed him. As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.”

Among other things Jesus was an eschatological preacher and teacher, proclaiming that the Kingdom of God would come into the world.  In fact, proclaiming that He was one of the primary ways that God’s Kingdom was coming into the world and would be recognized.  He also proclaimed that through the disciples and those who follow them, including those of us who follow Him today, that God’s Kingdom would become just as real on Earth as it is in heaven.  I will go so far as to say that making the Kingdom a reality on Earth was, in fact, his primary purpose in coming into the world.

Jesus’ commands found in this portion of Mark, “The Kingdom of God is at hand, believe in the Gospel,” changed forever the way we look at God and the world.  To repent is not just to be sorry for our sins, but to change our minds, to change directions, to turn around as the Ninevites did.  It is to reorient our whole attitude toward God in the face of God’s coming Kingdom.  It is to hear and see the Gospel as being about all of Jesus’ life and work: not just His death and resurrection, but the whole journey, up to and beyond the death and resurrection. 

In the call of the disciples that follows Jesus’ proclamation, we see what it means to repent and believe in the Gospel.  It does not mean to accept certain “timeless truths,” but to be attached to the person of Jesus.  It means to go along with Jesus on his way—a way that will lead both to the cross and the Kingdom.  This repentance, this turning around and reorienting our whole attitude toward God results in a personal attachment to Jesus.  Like the disciples we will follow him through the cross to his resurrection in a way that we will live and share the Gospel and help bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth as in Heaven.

For some of us this may mean leaving our worldly vocations as the disciples did and serve God and the Kingdom on Earth as priests, pastors, missionaries, youth workers or other full time ways.  For most of us it will mean remaining in the world and its structures, but living in and into the spirit of the Kingdom, using our worldly resources to bring about the Kingdom of God on Earth.

This is where the Kingdom begins, not in Heaven!  This is why God sent Jesus into the world.  This is why He called the disciples to help him.  This is why we too have been called to be disciples.

 

 

 

 

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day: A Day for All Americans to Celebrate Equality, Peace and Justice

The Martin Luther King Holiday is set aside to celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his work for equality, peace and justice.  One of the many things he said in is short life is that “until all of us are free, none of us is free.”  I believe this day is an important reminder that the human race can grow and evolve in our understanding of relationships.  I believe that it is a reminder that just because things “have always been this way,” that they do not always have to be this way.  I also believe that it is an opportunity for those in the generations who have come of age since the Civil Rights movement and the death of Dr. King to learn about this important part of the history of our country: the good, the bad and the ugly, for it is only in knowing our history that we can learn to repeat the good and eliminate the bad. 

Dr. King believed that justice and our faith in God required us to treat all human beings as equals, even if it meant breaking the laws of our land in order to do so.  He was willing to break those laws as well as suffer the consequences of breaking those laws by going to jail.  He also believed that human beings could be better than they were. 

I sense that this day has often been considered by some people, white and black, to be a “Black Holiday,” and I believe that when and where this is the case, we all lose both the benefit and the blessings of the day.  I would go so far as to say it is a lost opportunity: an opportunity to help all Americans recognize that the killing of police officers and of unarmed black people are both unacceptable in our nation; an opportunity to continually tear down the walls of fear between the races and to build bridges of understanding.  It is not an easy thing, but it just may change how we see other people, and maybe even how we see ourselves. 

This is why I am so proud of my current home town of Wetumpka, Alabama, where on Sunday and Monday of the Holiday Weekend the city celebrated what my Presbyterian friend, Jonathan Yarboro calls the “beloved community.”  On Sunday, January 18, “a fellowship of local lay and clergy leaders joined with the City of Wetumpka and the Porch Band of Creek Indians to host a celebration and remembrance of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.” (from a column in the Wetumpka Herald by the Rev. Jonathan Yarboro).  Over three hundred citizens joined together to celebrate the life and legacy of a man who proclaimed the beloved community to the world.  This beloved community is, of course, a gift of God, and we all have the possibility of living within this precious gift.  Speakers on that day were both black and white, and as mentioned earlier one of the groups which sponsored the event was the Porch Band of Creek Indians.   

Monday’s national holiday was for many in Wetumpka the opportunity to do more than just a day off from work and School. It was an opportunity for many to “celebrate the life of a prophetic figure whose witness calls us to recognize the intentions of the creator of everything.”(The Wetumpka Herald, Jan. 21. from a column by the Rev. Jonathan Yarboro). 

If we can refocus our attention on days which celebrate the lives of people like Martin Luther King, Jr., who preached love and commitment and not fear, if we can see the commitment to endure whatever must be endured in order to bring about healing of relationships, then we can find ways to replace fear with love, with hope, and with the respect that will allow each of us to see all people as children of God.   

Then we might just be able to sing with honesty the song so many of us learned in Sunday School:

 

“Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world: red and yellow, black and white, they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”

 

 

 

 

“A Generous Pastoral Response”

 

“A Generous Pastoral Response”

The Blessing of Same-Sex Relationships in the Episcopal Diocese of Alabama 

Last evening I had the privilege of meeting with the Bishops of the Diocese of Alabama, The Rt. Rev. Kee Sloan and The Rt. Rev. Santosh Marray, the clergy and the people of the Mountain Convocation of the Diocese of Alabama.  The Nave of the Church of the Resurrection in Gadsden Alabama was full of Episcopal Christians gathered to hear the plan put together by the bishops’ special committee to find “a way forward.”  The commission was made up of clergy and lay people on all sides of this issue, an issue which has been talked about and argued about and fought about for close to forty-five years. 

We began our time together with Evening Prayer and the renewal of our baptismal covenant, including our promise “to strive for justice and peace among all people, and to respect the dignity of every human being.” 

After our time of prayer together Bp. Sloan stated that our purpose was not to fight, that we had done enough of that already over the years with hurtful and harmful results to the church and many individuals within the church.  He shared that his purpose was not to change anyone’s mind, but to share with us a plan that would allow those parishes and priests who believed that this was a way to reach out to people in the name of a loving and holy God to do so, while at the same time allowing those parishes and priests who believe this is wrong for the church the right not to do so. Bishop Sloan was a wonderful role model for the church and for the vestry, rector conversations that will follow in our own parishes. 

 The context of prayer and loving acceptance made it possible for all to share their feelings, confident that we were all in a safe place.  All feelings and opinions were respected, even by those who disagreed with one speaker or another.  As Bishop Sloan said in the beginning, the time to fight is over, the time to open ourselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to trust our fellow travelers is here.  All of us took to heart the evening’s reading from Paul’s first Letter to the Corinthians, “for now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face.  Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.  And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.” 

The highlight of the evening came when a young woman told of her marriage to another woman this past summer and of the Blessing of their union in an Episcopal Church a few months later.  Suddenly we all saw the human face of same-sex relationships in a young woman who grew up in the Episcopal Church, who loves her church and who is loved back by that church.  

Life is not easy, life is not simple and we do often see through a mirror dimly.  But, the same Holy Spirit who inspired the human authors of the Bible to share their experience of God for future generations will lead us “to see face to face. . .to know fully even as we have been fully known.”   

With last evening’s gathering as an example, and Bishop Sloan as a Role Model, I look forward to the conversation with Rector and Vestry at Christ Church, Albertville, as we seek God’s will for our part of God’s Glorious Kingdom.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Civil Disobedience and the Wise Men

I read a blog post this morning by Craig Greenfield in which he suggested that the Wise Men from the East performed the first act of Civil Disobedience recorded in the Gospels.  I have always believed that Jesus often lived his faith in acts of Civil Disobedience, but as often as I have read the story of the Wise Men not going back to Herod but “returning to their country by another route,” I was always lost in the manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles and did not think much about their ignoring an unjust law from the Earthly Ruler of Israel of that day.  Disobeying the order of a king in cases like this is a major offense and could have resulted in the death of the Magi, in which case we would have a very different story than we do today.  

 The Magi chose to obey the law of God received in their dream rather than the human law given to them by the king.  In breaking the king’s law, they saved the life of the infant Jesus.  Depending on how historically true this story is, he King may have killed hundreds of other infants, an important issue, but another discussion.  This aspect of the Magi’s visit adds to the importance and power of this story.

In Jesus’ day the selling of animals in the temple and the exchanging of money was legal and it was unlawful for a Jewish man to talk to a Samaritan woman.  Jesus broke both of these laws and more. The point is that as God’s people, the law is not our ultimate moral guide.  As Saint Augustine said, “an unjust law is no law at all.” Just a few examples of unjust laws: slavery was legal as was segregation, and homosexual relations were illegal.   

When we practice Civil Disobedience there are consequences and we must be willing to face them.  Martin Luther King, Jr. spent a great deal of time in jail; Rosa Parks was removed from the Montgomery, Alabama bus.  Clergy Persons and others have lost their jobs for standing up for the rights of Gay people and for protesting Wars considered by many to be unjust and immoral,  even if legal. 

I do not believe Jesus calls us to break laws just to break them, but I do believe He calls us to live as the prophet Micah preaches, by “loving mercy, doing justice and walking humbly with our God.”  This life style may well lead us into conflict with “the powers that be.” 

As Greenfield states, “simply put, the law does not dictate our ethics. God does.  So it should not surprise us that the one we follow was executed as a criminal and that there will be times we are called to break unjust laws.”   

We who follow Jesus Christ cannot do so without coming into conflict with the powers and principalities of this world.

The Epiphany: The Manifestation of Christ

When we think of the Epiphany, if we think of it at all, most of us think of the Wise Men from the East following the star in search of the “King of the Jews.”  In Matthew’s story of the birth of Jesus, this visit serves the same purpose as Luke’s visit to the stable by the shepherds: it reveals Jesus to the world as “the holy one, the Son of God.”  These two stories give our faith a foundation, the beginning of an understanding of the importance of Jesus in the world.  They are epiphanies, manifestations or as one writer calls them, “startling appearances” of God in the world.  There are, however, other epiphanies in the scriptures:  the Samaritan woman at the well, the Baptism of Jesus and the Wedding Feast in Cana of Galilee.  These too are manifestations, startling appearances of Jesus the Messiah in the world.  Together they provide a vision of “God with us,” of what the world might look like if we give our allegiance to God rather than to the rulers of this world. 

Thomas Long, one of the great preachers of our time, suggests that “the exotic details of the magi invite us to imagine the unimaginable: that the God of Israel in generosity turned God’s face of mercy toward all nations, and that the magi from the East and people from Alabama, Chicago and all the nations of the world can stream to Mount Zion and learn God’s ways.  In other words, the story of the Magi, and the woman at the well, and the wedding at Cana of Galilee crack open the story of Jesus Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham, to let us see that there is a place for all people, those who are near and even those who are far off.”  This hints at a God who is larger than we can imagine, and for some of us, much larger than we want God to be.  It opens for us a wider and even more gracious kingdom. 

The Franciscan Priest and spiritual leader, Father Richard Rohr sees and experiences epiphanies of God in many, many places.  He experiences God in the creation of the world, in what God has made.  He experiences God in the Hebrew Scriptures, particularly the Prophets who call us to be self-critical and inclusive, and in the radical challenge of Jesus’ teaching and life which push

us even further to see a connection between all people. 

The correct practices of many religions, including Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Judaism, of loving our neighbor as ourselves and caring for the “least of these my brothers and sisters, opens us up to God’s presence in the world and in our own lives as well as in the lives of some of the worlds people who we neither know well nor understand.  This then opens the door for us to experience epiphanies in the lives of non-violent teachers and social activists such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day and the Episcopal Peace Fellowship.   

Epiphanies of God do not take place when and where and how we want them, they take place in the places in which and through the people in whom God acts.  These epiphanies help us not only to see but also to experience God’s truth from different angles.  As Richard Rohr says, “unity is not the same as uniformity, there are different paths to this God, different Epiphanies for different peoples, but it is the one Holy Spirit of God  who is manifest in all of them.