First Sunday of Advent:
"O Come, Infinite One, and lift me to a place of awakening. I am ready for more."
(Kaji Dousa)
"O Come, Infinite One, and lift me to a place of awakening. I am ready for more."
(Kaji Dousa)
Today is the last day of the liturgical year. Next Sunday we will start a new year by beginning our Advent preparations for the coming birth of the child Jesus, but this week we close the old year out by celebrating the Lordship and authority of Jesus. This day has been known, down through the centuries as Christ the King day but for many of us today the whole idea of monarchies is pretty irrelevant – really, what do modern-day kings do? They are largely, it seems, powerless figureheads – most decidedly not how we wish to see Jesus. Instead, some modern Christians have taken to referring to today as Reign of Christ day – a name that still leaves Christ firmly in charge but without all the historical baggage that come with “kings”. I like this name. You can call it whatever you like. Marcus Borg and others use the term “Cosmic Christ” and compare the language to the Prologue to John’s Gospel – In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God… The language of today’s reading expresses this same “from the beginning” idea in an earlier version: He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. Colossians is one of the letters that is attributed to Paul, but that is often disputed. Again, since this is one of those things that we are unlikely ever to know with any certainty, I’m going to go with Paul or a near disciple of Paul. The occasion for the letter is the usual one – Paul had originated the church at Colossae, and now false teachers have come along behind him, diluting and warping his teachings. Specifically, the Colossians have incorporated some pagan themes into their worship – including a belief in elemental spirits. Paul’s teachings were about creating a place for belief in Jesus in a world already heavily populated by gods and spirits and powers – not a “one among many” space but the place of The One – the One who has always been in charge. This letter is an insistence that these “spirits” don’t belong in Christian worship because even if they did exist, God has already made Jesus Lord over everything. We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God’s original purpose in everything created. For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels--everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him. He was there before any of it came into existence and holds it all together right up to this moment. And when it comes to the church, he organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. In Paul’s day, the spirits and powers were believed to be real – actual gods or demons that had power over the lives of people and had to be placated. We look back on this and think it’s kind of funny, archaic thinking – and yet, we ourselves deal with much the same right here and now, battling against spirits that would tear us apart. We see this every day lately as spirits of hatred, and racism, misogyny and xenophobia, genderphobia and classism all rage through all levels of our society – each seeking to brand itself as normal, and necessary and most importantly, ordinary. The proponents of these demi-gods today all labeling themselves as good people – ordinary people – just as the members of the church at Colossae, I’m sure, saw themselves as “normal” yet allowed false teachers in to turn them away from the teachings of the One who came to “get us out of the pit,” as today’s reading says. Just as Paul exhorted the Colossians to stand up and reject those false teachings, so we too should be moved by Paul's teaching. This isn’t “politics,” this is deciding if we are indeed prepared to stand against those who would peddle false truths. Are we prepared to speak and act in the leading of the One who came to gather us all in together? I especially love the last part of this reading: From beginning to end he’s there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is he, so roomy, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross. This is the leader I choose to follow - one who is so spacious and roomy, so open, that everything finds its proper place within him. This is a teaching well worth fighting for, and if fighting becomes what is necessary here today, then I’m in.
I’ll fight back with prayer; and I’ll fight back with love; but I’ll also fight back with resistance, if necessary. I’ll fight back with my vote; I’ll fight back with warm coats and clean socks; and I’ll fight back with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, if that is what it takes. I’m pretty sure Jesus expects all of us who carry his name to be in on this one -- with all the rest of the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe. We will love, and we will care – and they can’t stop us -- for the Lord of the universe leads us on. Amen. May it be so. Haggai 1:15, 2:1-9 We don’t often read from the book of Haggai. You may not even remember ever having heard of Haggai before. Haggai is one of the Minor Prophets and this book is one of the Old Testament’s shortest, at only two chapters long. The historical setting is Jerusalem, somewhere around the close of the 6th century BCE, just before the time of the beginning of the rebuilding and restoration of the Temple. Haggai’s two chapters are basically one long harangue against the people telling them that nothing will go right for them until the Temple – God’s home on earth -- is rebuilt. In today’s reading, God – speaking through Haggai – reminds the people of their Glory Days – the days before invasion and exile – the days when Israel was a rich and powerful nation, and contrasts that memory with the present reality: Who is left among you that saw this house in its former glory? How does it look to you now? Is it not in your sight as nothing? Haggai goes on to assure the people that if they will just buck-up and start rebuilding the Temple God will restore them to those past levels of glory and riches: “Remember when we had a powerful king with dozens of wives and a strong army and everybody wanted to trade with us and our goods sold for the highest prices and we always had meat on the table and …?” Yes, but was it really that good? And was it like that for everyone? I wonder if the slaves there thought it was such a great time? All too often the Glory Days look so much better in retrospect than they actually felt at the time.
There is a slogan right now in our political discussions – Make America Great Again – that has a whole lot of people asking, which America is that? Maybe the America that in one year, 1919, saw 237 black sharecroppers lynched in Arkansas, for no other crime than having dark skin and wanting to be paid for their labor? (And by the way, not a single person has ever been held responsible or punished in any way for those crimes.) Or maybe the America of the 30’ and 40’s when gay men were imprisoned for their crime of loving another man. Or maybe the 50’s when no woman could possess a line of credit without having a man sign for her. Or have a tubal ligation without her husband’s signature. Or maybe just last week when I was attacked on-line and called a name that no one has ever called me, at least not to my face – I’m not going to say it in my sermon, but it’s ugly -- by a total stranger who somehow got into an online conversation among friends and decided that I, as a woman, had no right to speak an opinion that disagreed with his. My friends and I finally had to leave that conversation because this person would not shut up or go away. He just kept on calling us disgusting names because he was so very sure that he had the right to do that. Now, I’m not trying to take political sides here. I only used the Trump slogan because it is so apropos to my point – which is that when we look back longingly to the Glory Days, in any collective sense, they are always – always -- highly subjective. What was glory to me may have been hell to others. We in the church often look back to the 50’s as the glory days of the church – and, yes, the churches were full, but how many of those people were in church because of a belief in God and a desire to learn and serve and how many were there because it was the center of their social life, a place to meet up with friends? How many were there because it was good for business to be seen in church? How many people of color were there? As with most “Glory Days” it was a different world back then and simply does not transplant to the present day. What were your personal glory days? Do you ever look backwards in your life and long to return to something that is in the past? I’ve known people whose glory days occurred when they were in high school. Nothing in their lives has ever been as good as those days. I’ve always found that sad -- to have peaked so long ago. To never expect things to be that good again. Is that what God promises us? You had your good time – it’s all downhill from here. I don’t think so. When the people heard the promises of Haggai, the promises of Nehemiah, the promises of Isaiah – what they heard was: You’re going back to what once was. But I believe that what God said to them was: I will give you something great, I will restore you – it may be like what you had before or it may be something so much better that you haven’t even imagined it yet. But it will be good. God reminds the people through Haggai that everything belongs to God: The silver is mine and the gold is mine, it says in our reading. The blessings to come will not come from the world or from our expectations of the world, but from God. It all belongs to God to give to us as and when and if God chooses. If we read the scripture carefully what God says at the end is NOT, I will give you what you lost. It is: The latter splendor of this house shall be greater than the former, says the Lord of hosts; and in this place I will give prosperity, says the Lord of hosts. What God promises us is greater than what we have yet known. We have had moments of greatness in the past, this is true, but I am looking forward to a future that is greater by far than anything we have seen in the past. I am looking forward to helping to build that better time to come. A time when we actually live in peace together and respect each other and don't feel a need to scrabble to 'get ahead of' each other. A time when the poor and the lost and the mentally and emotionally ill among us are as valued as anyone else. A time when the hungry are fed and the naked are clothed and we see each other as brothers and sisters. It isn't just a pipe dream. This is what the God within each of us calls us to be part of - to build and grow together. God seems to think we can do it. I don’t need to know yet how it will be. I just need to trust God’s promise. And I do. |
Rev. Cherie MarckxArchives
January 2025
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