1 Advent Cycle b December 3, 2017
Is. 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-7
1 Cor.1:1-9 Mark 13:24-37
Lectionary Link
My primary goal as a preacher is to convince people that the Bible is relevant to our lives in our postmodern world. This has become increasingly difficult because more people believe that modern science is the preferred truth over the way in which biblical truths are presented. Also, it has become more difficult for people to believe in biblical truths because of the way in which Christians have defended and presented biblical truth.
This is nowhere more obvious than in the presentation of the utopian and apocalyptic portions of biblical writings. We have apocalyptic words attributed to Jesus in the appointed Gospel with the assertion that the very generation that lived during the time of Jesus would not pass away before these things occurred.
The buzzer goes off like the one on a quiz show when someone gives the wrong answer. We are still here now and the Apocalyptic end of time has not happened so the Bible and the words of Jesus are false, therefore we are not obliged to believe and follow teachings which are patently false?
All religions and Christians too have had their sects even cult-like groups of apocalyptic literalists. They read the Bible like a tea leaves and make predictions about the end of life as we know it. Lots of apocalyptic prophets have tried to predict the exact dates even though the words of Jesus remind us we need to be agnostic about when life as we know it will end. No one knows the time or the hour.
Many people deny the relevance of the Bible because of the way in which the apocalyptic and utopian vision of the Bible has been presented.
How can I stand before you today and say that the apocalyptic and utopian portions of the Bible are anthropologically sound, that is, honest to human nature?
I think that answer lies near and close to each of us. How so? You and I are always attended by personal parallel universes. In simple terms, the parallel universe for each of us is called "day-dreaming" when we are a awake. Whether we admit or not, we are always attended by our "day-dreams" as an alternate and parallel inner reality.
Children and people who act out without sufficient blocking controls, merge the alternate day-dream universe with their actual lives and the adults who do that too often are called narcissistic, megalomaniacs, or Don Quixotes, Dreamers, divorced from truth or reality.
For you and I to appreciate a right relationship with the apocalyptic and utopian portions of the Bible we need to learn how to be in right relationship with our own life of day-dreams.
It is very human, all too human, and normal and naturally human to have the parallel state of day-dreaming. Day-dreaming is the great complement to our real and actual lives.
What kept the Cubbie fans hopeful for so many years? What keeps every sports fan hopeful about the team they support even when there has been no such recent championship performances?
What keeps us old people looking in the mirror without sheer terror of the visible effects of aging? If we're lucky, we have day-dream material to always give us glamorous make-overs in how we see ourselves. Day-dream space is like the perfect accompanying placebo to make us feel, look and act better than we actually are. It functions that way, if we are not inwardly sick and afflicted by the rot of impaired self-esteem. People with mental health problems have them revealed in how their day dream space is working. Is it working for them or against? Is it giving best case scenarios and utopian outcomes or is it giving them worst care scenarios inspiring neurosis, worry, anxiety and deep Angst, even depression.
I would submit that it is very important to have a right relationship with our day dream parallel universe, for our own mental health.
If this is true for each person, it is true for the corporate day-dream parallel universe for society. Our Declaration of Independence is a corporate day-dream parallel universe. All created equal. All have the right to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. These utopic ideals have never been fully realized in actual life even as they remain the corporate day dream of American society.
If we understand the importance of day dream space, we can turn to the biblical utopia and apocalyptic with a new understanding and appreciation of how they are true, true to the ways in which human being complement the actual woes of this world with a parallel language world of the ideals of the day dream space. If this is a universal habit of the human psychology, why deny it, and why disparage the manifestation of it in the biblical writings? Utopia and apocalyptic are totally honest to human nature, and therefore true. And if it is true, we still must have a right relationship to how it is true.
All of us live in the probable conditions of freedom in this world. Good things and bad things and indifferent things can happen to each of us and to our families, clubs, parishes, cities, countries and societies. We live under the probable conditions of freedom.
People who are rightly related to their day dream space have better ability to adjust and live with whatever happens to them.
Biblical people had some really bad things happen to them. There are people who have had some really bad things happen to them, things like genocide, invasions and wars. The actual probability of bad things happening can sicken our day dream space and when sickened, our day dream space can malfunction. Day dream space that malfunctions cannot be a natural analgesic for the pain of the world. Day dream space that malfunctions becomes the fear of fear, the fear of worry, the fear of anxiety, the fear of Angst, the fear of depression. Day dream space needs to be cleansed and purified so that it can function as the appropriate analgesic creative space to deal with the actual conditions of the world.
When unlucky societies have lots of strings of bad luck, the corporate day dream of societies can become sicken, unhopeful and even despairing. The role of leaders, artists, preachers, prophets and priests is to cure the corporate day dream of society. And this is precisely what has been expressed in the utopian and apocalyptic discourses of the Bible.
People who were under the heavy thumb of invasion, exile and oppression were given an inward cosmetic make over. They were given an inward cosmological make over with utopian and apocalyptic artistic discourses. The day dream space is healed of dystopia and depression by the affirming proclamation of utopia, heaven, and apocalyptic superheroes of justice.
Today, you and I are invited to be in a right relationship with biblical utopia and biblical apocalyptic. You and I are invited to be in right relationship with both our personal and corporate day dream space.
And how do we do that? First by being truthful about having a day dream space. Own up to it; it is essence of the endless child aspect of personality. It has the natural capacity for joy no matter what is happening in our lives and so it is the perfect natural analgesic, if we know how to access it and if we can keep it healthy.
How can we tell when the day dream space is unhealthy. When we become paranoid, narcissistic and when the lies of dream space are presented as outer world reality. Our day dream space is unhealthy when it creates only worst case scenarios inspiring fear, worry, anxiety and depression. Our corporate day dream space is unhealthy when large groups of people give up on the ideals of all being created equal, with liberty and justice and the pursuit of happiness of all. It is really sick when people become the death cults of jihidis and the genocidal terrorists.
And how is that you and I can be honest and truthful about the utopian and apocalyptic of the Bible? First, we must confess that we have allowed these expression to move outside of the Bible into our art and cinema, even while we have been embarrassed by the biblical utopian and the biblical apocalyptic. Be honest to the utopian and apocalyptic day dream space in the Bible and outside of the Bible.
And be honest about the effect of how the day dream space works. When we see something that is horrendous and unjust, our day dream space reacts by presenting an immediate intervening superhero or interdiction. Day dream space can create in a rage for immediate justice to fix and punish right now. Day dream space can be police, the judge, jury and executioner all in one fell swoop. This impulse satisfies our sense of justice and self protection, even while we know that we cannot act out on such impulses. The apocalyptic writing of the Bible is the immediate witness to a correcting justice that the people of the Bible needed to survive the times of severe injustice. Every generation has the experience of the immediate witness to correcting justice.
Let us also be honest to biblical utopian as well. It is frightening to see violence between human beings and between creatures. The utopian vision presents a healing harmony which enables us to live with the incredible competition of actual life. The utopian vision is a healing vision to complement the stress of the conflicts of life. Utopia is a vision of harmony of differences, where differences complement and do not destroy.
Have I convinced you about how truthful and natural the utopian and the apocalyptic discourses of the Bible are? If you have ever enjoyed the work of Walt Disney or Tolkien, the Star Wars Series, or Superhero Comic genre, you have because you have accessed the day dream space of your lives to complement the ambiguities involved in the probable conditions of freedom.
Come to the altar today and seek healing for your day dream space, so that you can believe that justice will ultimately prevail and that peaceful harmony is the most important vision of life.
The Risen Christ will heal your day dream space and my day dream space so that the apocalyptic and the utopian will function to enhance our living today. Amen.
Is. 64:1-9 Psalm 80:1-7
1 Cor.1:1-9 Mark 13:24-37
Lectionary Link
My primary goal as a preacher is to convince people that the Bible is relevant to our lives in our postmodern world. This has become increasingly difficult because more people believe that modern science is the preferred truth over the way in which biblical truths are presented. Also, it has become more difficult for people to believe in biblical truths because of the way in which Christians have defended and presented biblical truth.
This is nowhere more obvious than in the presentation of the utopian and apocalyptic portions of biblical writings. We have apocalyptic words attributed to Jesus in the appointed Gospel with the assertion that the very generation that lived during the time of Jesus would not pass away before these things occurred.
The buzzer goes off like the one on a quiz show when someone gives the wrong answer. We are still here now and the Apocalyptic end of time has not happened so the Bible and the words of Jesus are false, therefore we are not obliged to believe and follow teachings which are patently false?
All religions and Christians too have had their sects even cult-like groups of apocalyptic literalists. They read the Bible like a tea leaves and make predictions about the end of life as we know it. Lots of apocalyptic prophets have tried to predict the exact dates even though the words of Jesus remind us we need to be agnostic about when life as we know it will end. No one knows the time or the hour.
Many people deny the relevance of the Bible because of the way in which the apocalyptic and utopian vision of the Bible has been presented.
How can I stand before you today and say that the apocalyptic and utopian portions of the Bible are anthropologically sound, that is, honest to human nature?
I think that answer lies near and close to each of us. How so? You and I are always attended by personal parallel universes. In simple terms, the parallel universe for each of us is called "day-dreaming" when we are a awake. Whether we admit or not, we are always attended by our "day-dreams" as an alternate and parallel inner reality.
Children and people who act out without sufficient blocking controls, merge the alternate day-dream universe with their actual lives and the adults who do that too often are called narcissistic, megalomaniacs, or Don Quixotes, Dreamers, divorced from truth or reality.
For you and I to appreciate a right relationship with the apocalyptic and utopian portions of the Bible we need to learn how to be in right relationship with our own life of day-dreams.
It is very human, all too human, and normal and naturally human to have the parallel state of day-dreaming. Day-dreaming is the great complement to our real and actual lives.
What kept the Cubbie fans hopeful for so many years? What keeps every sports fan hopeful about the team they support even when there has been no such recent championship performances?
What keeps us old people looking in the mirror without sheer terror of the visible effects of aging? If we're lucky, we have day-dream material to always give us glamorous make-overs in how we see ourselves. Day-dream space is like the perfect accompanying placebo to make us feel, look and act better than we actually are. It functions that way, if we are not inwardly sick and afflicted by the rot of impaired self-esteem. People with mental health problems have them revealed in how their day dream space is working. Is it working for them or against? Is it giving best case scenarios and utopian outcomes or is it giving them worst care scenarios inspiring neurosis, worry, anxiety and deep Angst, even depression.
I would submit that it is very important to have a right relationship with our day dream parallel universe, for our own mental health.
If this is true for each person, it is true for the corporate day-dream parallel universe for society. Our Declaration of Independence is a corporate day-dream parallel universe. All created equal. All have the right to liberty, justice and the pursuit of happiness. These utopic ideals have never been fully realized in actual life even as they remain the corporate day dream of American society.
If we understand the importance of day dream space, we can turn to the biblical utopia and apocalyptic with a new understanding and appreciation of how they are true, true to the ways in which human being complement the actual woes of this world with a parallel language world of the ideals of the day dream space. If this is a universal habit of the human psychology, why deny it, and why disparage the manifestation of it in the biblical writings? Utopia and apocalyptic are totally honest to human nature, and therefore true. And if it is true, we still must have a right relationship to how it is true.
All of us live in the probable conditions of freedom in this world. Good things and bad things and indifferent things can happen to each of us and to our families, clubs, parishes, cities, countries and societies. We live under the probable conditions of freedom.
People who are rightly related to their day dream space have better ability to adjust and live with whatever happens to them.
Biblical people had some really bad things happen to them. There are people who have had some really bad things happen to them, things like genocide, invasions and wars. The actual probability of bad things happening can sicken our day dream space and when sickened, our day dream space can malfunction. Day dream space that malfunctions cannot be a natural analgesic for the pain of the world. Day dream space that malfunctions becomes the fear of fear, the fear of worry, the fear of anxiety, the fear of Angst, the fear of depression. Day dream space needs to be cleansed and purified so that it can function as the appropriate analgesic creative space to deal with the actual conditions of the world.
When unlucky societies have lots of strings of bad luck, the corporate day dream of societies can become sicken, unhopeful and even despairing. The role of leaders, artists, preachers, prophets and priests is to cure the corporate day dream of society. And this is precisely what has been expressed in the utopian and apocalyptic discourses of the Bible.
People who were under the heavy thumb of invasion, exile and oppression were given an inward cosmetic make over. They were given an inward cosmological make over with utopian and apocalyptic artistic discourses. The day dream space is healed of dystopia and depression by the affirming proclamation of utopia, heaven, and apocalyptic superheroes of justice.
Today, you and I are invited to be in a right relationship with biblical utopia and biblical apocalyptic. You and I are invited to be in right relationship with both our personal and corporate day dream space.
And how do we do that? First by being truthful about having a day dream space. Own up to it; it is essence of the endless child aspect of personality. It has the natural capacity for joy no matter what is happening in our lives and so it is the perfect natural analgesic, if we know how to access it and if we can keep it healthy.
How can we tell when the day dream space is unhealthy. When we become paranoid, narcissistic and when the lies of dream space are presented as outer world reality. Our day dream space is unhealthy when it creates only worst case scenarios inspiring fear, worry, anxiety and depression. Our corporate day dream space is unhealthy when large groups of people give up on the ideals of all being created equal, with liberty and justice and the pursuit of happiness of all. It is really sick when people become the death cults of jihidis and the genocidal terrorists.
And how is that you and I can be honest and truthful about the utopian and apocalyptic of the Bible? First, we must confess that we have allowed these expression to move outside of the Bible into our art and cinema, even while we have been embarrassed by the biblical utopian and the biblical apocalyptic. Be honest to the utopian and apocalyptic day dream space in the Bible and outside of the Bible.
And be honest about the effect of how the day dream space works. When we see something that is horrendous and unjust, our day dream space reacts by presenting an immediate intervening superhero or interdiction. Day dream space can create in a rage for immediate justice to fix and punish right now. Day dream space can be police, the judge, jury and executioner all in one fell swoop. This impulse satisfies our sense of justice and self protection, even while we know that we cannot act out on such impulses. The apocalyptic writing of the Bible is the immediate witness to a correcting justice that the people of the Bible needed to survive the times of severe injustice. Every generation has the experience of the immediate witness to correcting justice.
Let us also be honest to biblical utopian as well. It is frightening to see violence between human beings and between creatures. The utopian vision presents a healing harmony which enables us to live with the incredible competition of actual life. The utopian vision is a healing vision to complement the stress of the conflicts of life. Utopia is a vision of harmony of differences, where differences complement and do not destroy.
Have I convinced you about how truthful and natural the utopian and the apocalyptic discourses of the Bible are? If you have ever enjoyed the work of Walt Disney or Tolkien, the Star Wars Series, or Superhero Comic genre, you have because you have accessed the day dream space of your lives to complement the ambiguities involved in the probable conditions of freedom.
Come to the altar today and seek healing for your day dream space, so that you can believe that justice will ultimately prevail and that peaceful harmony is the most important vision of life.
The Risen Christ will heal your day dream space and my day dream space so that the apocalyptic and the utopian will function to enhance our living today. Amen.
