Make Friends with the Judge

Youth Dialogue Sermon                          1 Advent C      November 29, 2015

Jer. 33: 14-16     Psalm 50:1-   1 Thes. 3:9-13   Luke 21:25-31

Chike: In the name of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.  You may be seated.   Let me be the first to wish all of you a very Happy New Year!

Arinze:  What chew talkin’ about, Chike?   It is only November 29^th.

Chike: Sorry, Bro….but I guess you are not keeping up with the church calendar.  Today is the first Sunday of Advent and it is the first day of the new Christian Year.  I gotcha!

Caroline:  I hate to interrupt your sibling rivalry guys, but we have a sermon to preach.

Arinze: Well, maybe I’d like to avoid preaching today.

Caroline:  Why do want to avoid preaching today?

Arinze:  Well Father Phil is breathing a sigh of relief because we have to preach on the Gospel; we have to preach about gloom and doom.

Chike: What do you mean “gloom and doom?”

Arinze: Jesus said, “There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

Caroline:  That sounds pretty threatening.  And we might be really discouraged if these were the only words of Jesus in the Gospels.

Chike: What might be some of some of the positive words of Jesus in the Gospels?

Caroline:  Jesus promised us eternal life, he promised us a new birth, he promised us the gift of the Holy Spirit and much, much more.

Arinze:  Why don’t we just have positive words of Jesus in the Gospels?  Why do we have to words of warning from Jesus?

Caroline:  As people we need lot of different kinds of motivational strategies.

Chike:  What do you mean?

Caroline:  Well, your Mom might say, “I will bake you a cake if you clean your bedroom.”  Or your Dad might say, “If you don’t clean your room, you will not get your allowance.”  Which would be the best strategy to get you to clean your room?

Chike:  I guess they both might work.

Arinze:  Or neither of them work and you end up poor without an allowance and without any cake.

Caroline:  Advent is often a season of warnings.  And we do not like warnings, even though I hate to admit that sometimes we won’t do so necessary things if we don’t fear bad consequences.

Chike:  So we can study hard to get A’s or we can study hard to keep from failing. 

Arinze:  Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could always do good and right things without any threats, fear of punishment or warnings?

Caroline:  I guess it is called positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.

Chike:  Mice in a maze can be trained to do things by offering them cheese or by giving them mild shocks.  Both can be training methods.  They learn by anticipating reward or punishment.

Arinze:  It is the same in sports as well.  What if the soccer coach just threw some soccer balls on the field and said “Okay, go out and learn how to play and I’ll be back in a couple of hours.”

Chike:  You might have fun but you probably wouldn’t be ready to play a game.

Caroline:  Well, you know that they say, “No pain, no gain.”  Sometimes we have to have teachers, parents, and coaches train us so that we can be prepared to achieve good things in life.

Arinze:  So, my soccer coach will warn us if we don’t work hard, he will make us run extra laps around the field.  He threatens us with something that we don’t want to do to inspire us to practice our hardest.

Caroline:  So that is why the Gospel words of Jesus include a good balance of positive things but also some negative warnings.

Chike:  I guess we just have to admit that as people we need both positive affirmation and negative warnings.

Arinze:  We can learn good behavior by being afraid of what could go wrong; and we can learn good behavior by knowing what rewards we can gain.

Caroline: Personally, I like to be motivated by chocolate cake, but sometimes I need to be frighten by the bad things that might happen if I do not do my best.

Chike:  I guess we just have to learn to be wise because if we are wise we might make better decisions.

Arinze:  Jesus told his friends that they need to learn how to read signs in life.  If you see smoke, then you know there is fire.  By reading the sign then you know how to respond to danger.

Caroline:  So if we are wise we can learn how to prevent and avoid bad things. 

Chike:  I think that Jesus was saying that there are lots of bad things that can happen in life.   And we should observe these bad things.  And we should make decisions to avoid bad things.

Arinze:  But don’t you think that the big threat of Jesus was when he said that we would have stand someday before the Son of Man.  Why do we have to live in fear about some final judgment?

Caroline:  That is one way to look at it but remember Jesus was talking to his friends.  So if you know the Judge and if the Judge is your friend, do you fear that your friend would judge you harshly?

Chike:  Yes, if your friend is the Judge, your friend might also compliment you on the good things that you have done.   So we only have to fear the Judge if we have not been friends with the Judge.

Arinze:  So Advent does not have to be a season of gloom and doom.

Caroline:  No, we should use Advent and every season as time to get to know Christ as both our friend and Judge.  As our friend and Judge, Jesus is one who wants us to get better and he will help us get better and he will also forgive us when we are not perfect.

Chike:  So this is the secret to happy Advent.

Arinze:  And what is that?

Chike:  Get to know Jesus Christ as your friend and judge in this life and then you will not have to fear the Son of Man as your judge at the end of your life.

Caroline: That’s a great way to have a good Advent season in preparation for Christmas.

Arinze:  So, people of St. John’s; get to know Jesus Christ as your friend now and then you will not fear him as the Son of Man and your Judge.  Sounds like good advice.

Caroline: Let us all spend extra time with Jesus as our friend during this season of Advent.  Amen.

Archaeology of the Apocalyptic

Advent C      November 29, 2015

Jer. 33: 14-16     Psalm 50:1-6
1 Thes. 3:9-13   Luke 21:25-31

Lectionary Link
  Let us use for the evocation of meaning the practice of archaeology to delve into the interpretation of biblical meanings in their origins, development and continued use within the various practices of Christian tradition particularly the various expressions of the apocalyptic which have come to language.
  Let us say that one has done archaeological excavation upon an early American site and discovered arrowheads.  Obviously those arrowheads had functional use in their original setting when they were made and used.  Arrowheads have had continuous use sharing a similar functions in different settings.  They have been made out of different materials; the ones found function now under the classification as ancient cultural artifact or antique.  If one is put on a chain and worn around the neck it could function as jewelry or it could even function as art.
  During the season of Advent,  we use the season to reflect upon "Coming."  It is a season of dealing with "Arrivals."  The language of an end of day figure is a language which is often called "apocalyptic." The ancient Hebrew Scriptures include language of aspiration for oppressed people wanting an idealized future figure to come.  Oppressed people have the right to be very selfish about their own oppression.  They have the right to dream for the conditions of freedom and health and safety.  But it often proves to be the case that oppressed people do not have immediate rescue in sight and they are left to their last option: they are forced to merely cope.  Anger, denial, depression, bargaining, are coping responses, but certainly not accepting their oppression would be part of their process of corporate grief and loss.  The situations which govern oppression have deliberate human causality; it is different than the acceptance of something like an earthquake or cancer.  The coping process of the oppressed was the grist mill for the production of apocalyptic literature. 
  Apocalyptic  literature is a literature written by people who profess that the conditions of oppression in one situation has universal implications.  If people are oppressed and suffering here in this place, the entire universe needs to take notice.  The God of the universe needs to be invoked as a intervening judge not only to stop the oppressor but also to turn the tables upon the oppressors and give them an eye for an eye of their own misdeeds.  A visualized retaliatory higher Judge is written into apocalyptic literature.
  So the readings on the Apocalyptic during Advent provide for us the occasion to do a literary critical archaeology upon the artifact of the apocalyptic.
  Apocalyptic writings have historical origins in real settings of oppression and they have been collected and  they have been variously used throughout the history of religious communities.  What we can say about apocalyptic writing is that it has come to be used differently by people who have different circumstances.  How do the apocalyptic writings get used when the Empire gets converted to Christianity and when the Empire has the power to oppress and persecute?  The apocalyptic writing then can be suddenly switched to be a legitimization of the triumph of the "Christian Empire."  Members of the Christian Empire avoid the conditions of oppression and at the same time use the final judge of history as one who will validate the final rights of this "Christian Empire."  So ironically, the apocalyptic writings are used for exactly the opposite purpose for which they originally derived.  Somehow when a Christian Empire oppresses the members of the colonies, they do not permit the use of the Christian apocalyptic as a literature of comfort for the oppressed colonies.  Certainly one could cite this as an inconsistent or even hypocritical use of the apocalyptic writings.  In the history of Christianity, we often have over-identified Christ with earthly kings and their kingdoms and then in turn we made Jesus to be like a heavenly monarch based upon the models of conquering earthly kings.  And then we've made this heavenly monarch to be the one who will come again in power and glory; and yes apparently he comes on behalf of whichever community makes a claim about the returning purpose of such a heavenly monarch.
  Today, we must confess our confusion in the various understandings and practices of the apocalyptic.
  Today in our post-modern world with completely different cosmologies than the ancient world, the apocalyptic is bound to evoke different meanings.  It is impossible for us to believe in a heaven on top of the domed sky where there is a physical abode of a king who will re-enter the physical realm with angels and armies.
  In our time the apocalyptic has been expressed most often in morality plays of futurism in genres of superheroes and science fiction.  These are presentations of future judgment and justice and they function for us to witness to an enduring belief in justice, judgments and accountability.
  Our post-modern era includes the results of lots of scholarship which lets us know that Christians are not the only people who have apocalyptic traditions or visionary traditions about the future, the end of life as we know it and apocalyptic heroes.
  We also can characterize as a variety of the "apocalyptic" the death cults of our time.  There are people who have come to be labeled as terrorists because they resort to the practice of violence against innocent populace as a way to make symbolic attacks of terror against the greater forces who are trying to end their death cult ways.  The practice of death cults is a megalomania; it involves the glorification of their immediate cause to universal proportions.  Their symbolic strikes are both an indication of their weakness in the grand scheme of things but also their desire to say that if they cannot be in control, then they want to take down as many people as they can with them.  If they can't be in control, then no one else should have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.  This death cult apocalypticism is one of the darkest expression in humanity.   It is a mystery of evil in how people get into this state of being in the socio-pathology of death cults.
  As we engage in our current archaeology of the apocalyptic today, we look for its current function and relevance in our lives.  Apocalyptic phrases have been a part of our Creeds and our liturgy even though they are general enough so that we can't presume to be so precise in knowing how they might apply to our lives today.  There are many Christian groups who see the apocalyptic writings as precisely predictive of events today in our world.  One of the abuses of the apocalyptic writings is when people who think they know exactly what they mean use them to justify their own particular views.  They use the second coming of Christ as a personal threat against everyone who disagree with their beliefs.
  We should allow the apocalyptic writings today to function again as coping visualization for all oppressed people.  We should understand that judgment and accountability follow from a belief in the normalcy of justice.   Everyone deserves the experience of justice.  Everyone deserves intervention when justice does not occur.  Everyone deserves the functions of law in the provision of justice.  Therefore the apocalyptic writings of the Bible have to be regarded as a literature of universal justice whose most relevant application function for those who are in the conditions of oppression.
  The Son of Man functioned within the Gospel community as the figure of a future judge.  The identity of the Risen Christ as the Son of Man and as the judge of our lives, means that we should spend our time in this life making friends with Christ as our judge who is always asking us to be better in our practice of justice.  If we are knowing the Risen Christ as our judge and friend now, then in the days of our judgment we will welcome more advice for even more improvement.
  May God give us the wisdom to let the apocalyptic writings be in the service of universal justice today.  And may you and I look to the Risen Christ as our judge and friend in our lives now and let us not delay our practice of justice.  Amen. 

Sunday School, November 29, 2015 1 Advent C

Sunday School, November 29, 2015      1 Advent C

Learning to Read Signs

Discuss the signs which occur in natural because of anticipating regular cycles.  When one puts a seed into the ground one waits and looks for a little leaf to poke out of the ground.  When one see blossoms then one can expect to see fruit.  There are other sign which we read like when it is cloudy, and when the clouds are dark, it is more likely for rain to follow.  We know that when we see smoke we just assume that it comes from some kind of fire.

Jesus asked his friends to learn to read what was happening in their lives so that they could be prepared to make the right response. 

Some times we need to have special signs, signs given by our laws to keep us from hurting ourselves.  For example, a Stop sign is not a natural sign; it has been invented by people and we use Stop signs to keep people from running into each other in their cars.

The Bible is a book of signs.  It gives us lots of “Stop,”  lots of “Don’t do this”  signs, and lots of “Please do this” signs.  Why?  Because the Bible is a book to help prepare us to live our very best.  It is a book that gives us the signs of how we are to treat each other.  It is a book of warning about what can happen to us if we don’t follow the signs for living a good life.

When we go to school we often have to face Judges.  The Judges at school are the tests that we have to take.  The tests show us how much we learn or did not learn.

Jesus said that we will all have to face a Judge in our lives.  He called that Judge the Son of Man but his friends knew that Jesus was also the Son of Man.  If we have a good relationship with Jesus as our Judge and are always learning from him, then we will not have to fear Jesus because we know that he will be a loving Judge who will only want us to work at getting better.

Let us begin the season of Advent by learning to read the signs for how we can live better lives.  And let us know that we are always getting ourselves ready to meet the very best Judge of life, Jesus as the Son of Man who we know and love and who we are delighted to perform the deeds of our lives for.

A Sermon

  Jesus said, "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near.” 

  Jesus told his friends that they needed to learn how to read signs.

  There are natural signs and there are signs that we make.

  What is the red sign that has 8 sides on the road?  What does that sign mean?

  There are natural signs too.  What do dark clouds and wind mean?  What does smoke rising in the air mean?  What does the changing of the color of leaves mean?  What does it mean when leaves have fallen off the tree?

  How do you learn to read signs?  You look and watch and when you see it happen over and over again, you learn.  You also learn from your teachers and parents how to read signs.

  There are also signs that we have to learn to read when we are with each other.  For example, what might happen if we say something that is not nice to someone?  It might hurt their feeling.  It might make them cry.  What happens if you push or hit someone?  It might hurt them.

What happens if you eat twenty candy bars all at once?  You will get a sick tummy.

  So we have to learn to read the signs of how to live good lives.  We have to learn the signs of living bad lives, so we can learn to live better.

  God gave us the 10 commandments as a sign of how to live a good life.  And if we don’t follow these signs, we can get into lots of trouble.

  We are in the season of Advent, the first season of the Christian year.  The season of Advent is season of preparation.  It a season of learning how to read the signs of God in our lives.

  Jesus Christ is the greatest sign of God to us.  He was given to us to show us how to live.  During the season of Advent, we prepare to celebrate the birth of Christ and to look forward to future coming again. When we see love and kindness, we can be sure that we are reading the sign of the presence of Christ in this world.  Let us learn to read the signs of God’s presence in our world, so that we can avoid making some serious mistake.  If we learn to read the sign of God in our lives, we can avoid making some serious mistake.  Let us during the season of Advent learn to read the signs of God in our lives.  Amen.

St. John the Divine Episcopal Church

17740 Peak Avenue, Morgan Hill, CA 95037

Family Service with Holy Eucharist

November 29, 2015: The First Sunday of Advent

Gathering Songs: Light a Candle; Prepare the Way of the Lord; Eat this Bread, Wait for the Lord; Soon and Very Soon

Lighting of the Advent Candle: 

Song: Light a Candle

            Light a candle for hope today, Light a candle for hope today, light a candle for hope today.              Advent time is here.

            (Sing twice)

Liturgist: Blessed be God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

People: And blessed be God’s kingdom, now and for ever.  Amen.

Liturgist:  Oh God, Our hearts are open to you.

And you know us and we can hide nothing from you.

Prepare our hearts and our minds to love you and worship you.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

Song: Prepare the Way of the Lord (Renew! # 92)

Prepare the way of the Lord.  Prepare the way of the Lord, and all people will see the salvation of our God. (sung as a canon)

Liturgist:         The Lord be with you.

People: And also with you.

Liturgist:  Let us pray

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Litany Phrase: Alleluia (chanted)

O God, you are Great!  Alleluia

O God, you have made us! Alleluia

O God, you have made yourself known to us!  Alleluia

O God, you have provided us with us a Savior!  Alleluia

O God, you have given us a Christian family!  Alleluia

O God, you have forgiven our sins!  Alleluia

O God, you brought your Son Jesus back from the dead!  Alleluia

A reading from the First Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians

Now may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you. And may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we abound in love for you. And may he so strengthen your hearts in holiness that you may be blameless before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

Liturgist: The Word of the Lord

People: Thanks be to God

 

Liturgist: Let us read together from Psalm 25

Show me your ways, O LORD, * and teach me your paths.

Lead me in your truth and teach me, * for you are the God of my salvation;

in you have I trusted all the day long.

Remember, O LORD, your compassion and love, * for they are from everlasting.

Litany Phrase: Thanks be to God! (chanted)

Litanist:

For the good earth, for our food and clothing. Thanks be to God!

For our families and friends. Thanks be to God!

For the talents and gifts that you have given to us. Thanks be to God!

For this day of worship. Thanks be to God!

For health and for a good night’s sleep. Thanks be to God!

For work and for play. Thanks be to God!

For teaching and for learning. Thanks be to God!

For the happy events of our lives. Thanks be to God!

For the celebration of the birthdays and anniversaries of our friends and parish family.

Thanks be to God!

Liturgist:         The Holy Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Luke

People: Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said, "There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see 'the Son of Man coming in a cloud' with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near." Then he told them a parable: "Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."

Liturgist:         The Gospel of the Lord.

People: Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Sermon:  Fr. Phil

Children’s Creed

We did not make ourselves, so we believe that God the Father is the maker of the world.

Since God is so great and we are so small,

We believe God came into our world and was born as Jesus, son of the Virgin Mary.

We need God’s help and we believe that God saved us by the life, death and

     resurrection of Jesus Christ.

We believe that God is present with us now as the Holy Spirit.

We believe that we are baptized into God’s family the Church where everyone is

     welcome.

We believe that Christ is kind and fair.

We believe that we have a future in knowing Jesus Christ.

And since we all must die, we believe that God will preserve us forever.  Amen.

Litany Phrase: Christ, have mercy. (chanted)

For fighting and war to cease in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For peace on earth and good will towards all. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety of all who travel. Christ, have mercy.

For jobs for all who need them. Christ, have mercy.

For care of those who are growing old. Christ, have mercy.

For the safety, health and nutrition of all the children in our world. Christ, have mercy.

For the well-being of our families and friends. Christ, have mercy.

For the good health of those we know to be ill. Christ, have mercy.

For the remembrance of those who have died. Christ, have mercy.

For the forgiveness of all of our sins. Christ, have mercy.

Liturgist:         The Peace of the Lord be always with you.

People:            And also with you.

Song during the preparation of the Altar and the receiving of an offering.

Song: Wait for the Lord, (Renew # 278)

Wait for the Lord, his day is near.  Wait for the Lord, be strong, take heart.

 Doxology

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise Him, all creatures here below.

Praise Him above, ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.

Prologue to the Eucharist

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, for to them belong the kingdom of heaven.”

All become members of a family by birth or adoption.

Baptism is a celebration of birth into the family of God.

A family meal gathers and sustains each human family.

The Holy Eucharist is the special meal that Jesus gave to his friends to keep us together as the family of Christ.

The Lord be with you

And also with you.

Lift up your hearts

We lift them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

It is very good and right to give thanks, because God made us, Jesus redeemed us and the Holy Spirit dwells in our hearts.  Therefore with Angels and Archangels and all of the world that we see and don’t see, we forever sing this hymn of praise:

Holy, Holy, Holy (Intoned)

Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Power and Might.  Heav’n and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.  Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. 

Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the Highest.

All may gather around the altar

Our grateful praise we offer to you God, our Creator;

You have made us in your image

And you gave us many men and women of faith to help us to live by faith:

Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachael.

And then you gave us your Son, Jesus, born of Mary, nurtured by Joseph

And he called us to be sons and daughters of God.

Your Son called us to live better lives and he gave us this Holy Meal so that when we eat

  the bread and drink the wine, we can  know that the Presence of Christ is as near to us as  

  this food and drink  that becomes a part of us.

The Prayer continues with these words

And so, Father, we bring you these gifts of bread and wine. Bless and sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.  Sanctify us by your Holy Spirit so that might love God and our neighbor.

On the night when Jesus was betrayed he took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, "Take, eat: This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me."

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks, and said, "Drink this, all of you. This is my Blood of the new Covenant, which is shed for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me."

Father, we now celebrate the memorial of your Son. When we eat this holy Meal of Bread and Wine, we are telling the entire world about the life, death and resurrection of Christ and that his presence will be with us in our future.

Let this holy meal keep us together as friends who share a special relationship because of your Son Jesus Christ.  May we forever live with praise to God to whom we belong as sons and daughters.

By Christ, and with Christ, and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory

 is yours, Almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ has taught us, we now sing,

(Children rejoin their parents and take up their instruments)

Our Father: (Renew # 180, West Indian Lord’s Prayer)

Our Father who art in heaven:  Hallowed be thy name.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done: Hallowed be thy name.

Done on earth as it is in heaven: Hallowed be thy name.

Give us this day our daily bread: Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive us all our debts: Hallowed be thy name.

As we forgive our debtors: Hallowed be thy name.

Lead us not into temptation: Hallowed be thy name.

But deliver us from evil: Hallowed be thy name.

Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory: Hallowed be thy name.

Forever and ever: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Amen, amen, amen, amen: Hallowed be thy name.

Breaking of the Bread

Celebrant:        Alleluia! Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

People:            Therefore let us keep the feast.  Alleluia!

Words of Administration

Communion Song: Eat This Bread , (Renew # 228)

            Eat this bread, drink this cup.  Come to me and never be hungry.  Eat this bread, drink this cup,

            come to me and you will not thirst.

Post-Communion Prayer

Everlasting God, we have gathered for the meal that Jesus asked us to keep;

We have remembered his words of blessing on the bread and the wine.

And His Presence has been known to us.

We have remembered that we are sons and daughters of God and brothers

    and sisters in Christ.

Send us forth now into our everyday lives remembering that the blessing in the

     bread and wine spreads into each time, place and person in our lives,

As we are ever blessed by you, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Closing Song: Soon and Very Soon, (Renew # 276)

Soon and very soon, we are going to see the king; soon and very soon, we are going to see the king; soon and very soon we are going to see the king.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, we’re going to see the king.

No more crying there, we are going to see the king; no more crying there, we are going to see the king; no more crying there, we are going to see the king.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, we’re going to see the king.

No more dying there, we are going to see the king; no more dying there, we are going to see the king; no more dying there, we are going to see the king.  Hallelujah, hallelujah, we’re going to see the king.

Dismissal:   

Liturgist: Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. 

People: Thanks be to God! 

An Advent One Sermon That Will Not Be Preached

1 Advent C      December 2, 2012

Jeremiah 33: 14-16     Psalm 25: 1-9

1 Thessalonians  3:9-13   Luke 21:25-31

Lectionary Link

  Did you ever ponder the diversity of areas of interest that a person of modest income and education can have in our time and place?  We can be substantial cluttered multi-taskers.  About four PIP…picture in picture venues on the screen.   Ballgame, googling, reading a book, updating two blogs, three facebook pages, writing a sermon, and listening to music, and a news commentator on the TV in the next room, checking text message on a smart phone, doing research in multiple areas of interest at one time and writing stuff for children, teenagers, for spiritual direction, for counseling sessions, lyrics for songs, involved in political discussions, and following Curiosity on Mars and much, much more.  And as a news and information junkie who is disillusioned with anyone who thinks that they have found a final answer, I think this is a pretty exciting time to live in.  And you might think this is a cluttered shame.

  But ponder the amount of world knowledge accessible to the ordinary person in biblical times with the amount of world knowledge and variety of experience available to us today.  You see where it might be difficult for us to be impressed with the details of the Bible because it has to compete with so many more kinds of text and cyber textual experiences.  We as the church have forced ourselves to read this book in public even while for the stuff of our modern life we resort to the entire panoply of “self-help” gurus to fine-tune our life performance.  And what do the Bible and Jesus have to do with us?

  The people in biblical times had a comparatively minute body of world knowledge compared to what we have today.  With so little world information their lives could be more easily unified and entertained.  And their religious life was also their political life and their entertainment.  They could network by sitting with their wise people who could spin tales from their reading, travels, and knowledge acquired beyond the border of the village or neighborhood.  They could in hushed tones speculate about their political affairs, that is, their state of oppression by the Empire, the one that struck back again and again and took out the Temple and Jerusalem.

  There was a political figure in their time known as the Son of Man.  In the prophet Daniel such a Son of Man was to be one who was to come in the clouds.  That expression was vague enough to be able to bear the projections of many who speculated about the fate of God’s people since their actual conditions did not always seem to be what could be called providential favor and blessing.  So, writers in apocalyptic books such as the book of Enoch speculated about such a Son of Man.  This writing did not make it into official Bibles but it was influential enough to show up in the street conversations with populist rabbis in Palestine.

  Biblical Scholars are not really sure about this figure in the Gospel called the Son of the Man.  They are not sure as whether Jesus at times is referring to this Son of Man as someone who is not himself or to a future role that he himself would assume.  The Gospels are first of all, literature; they are written and as writing their teaching function prevails over their being mirrors of historical events.   This is most evident when Jesus often speaks of the Son of Man or Messiah in the third person and that kind of speech betrays the fact that the Gospels are in fact teaching literature and liturgy.  The Gospels also integrated the actual street language, the political speech that Jesus and his counter-culture gang used as they traveled.

  The Son of Man was important just as the resurrection was important because the world of God’s people woefully lacked justice.  The Empire and Empires had stuck again and again and God’s people were often those who bore the brunt of those strikes by the Empires: Persian, Assyrian, Greek and Roman.

  Religious talk in the alley on the hush hush was also political but it was also partly their entertainment since politics has a largely theatrical aspect about it in how it comes to the people.  Religious talk was also entertainment; Son of Man and resurrection talk was very entertaining.  Such talk was imaginative and engaged the imaginations.  We today have so many compartments that derive from genres and specializations as compared to the time of Jesus when world knowledge was so minimal that the religion, politics and entertainment all came together.  And I am not trivializing or diminishing it by making such a suggestion.  They in their time, like we are in ours, need to deal with the issue of justice.  Theodicy?  How can God be believed to be just in the face of innocent suffering in this world?

   In their day and in ours when we sense the severe impoverishment of justice, our stomachs are sickened.  We need catharsis.  In our day of Hollywood, we have the visualizations of vigilante saviors who in the duration of a two hour movie bring the “bad guys” to justice and rescue the good guys and the weak and the poor.  But vigilantism is not justice because once vigilantism becomes codified into the law of the land, it becomes the law of those who “have” oppressing those who “do not have.”

  And so in the time of Jesus, the Son of Man was an ultimate figure of the future representing the projection from the hearts crying the eternal need for justice.  The Son of Man was a future judge and the severity of the oppression intensified expectancy for the imminent arrival of that judge.

  Why do you need resurrection and a judge as a narrative for future life?  What if the oppressors die and leave this world in the lap of luxury?  What if the oppressed who believed that the Lord loves the poor, the widow and the orphans, die and leave this world in the state of oppression?  How can a just God be proclaimed to anyone now?  Resurrection is an imagination on how retroactive justice can be exacted.  If everyone has to face a future judge then accounts and scores can be settled and in the end we can hold out that our faith and hope in a just God has been validated.

  So do not disparage the Son of Man language or the eternal return of the desire for the realization of justice.  Let us be thankful if our laws in some significant way approximate justice and dignity and spread this fairness to as many as we can in our life time.

  We will seek catharsis from our anger at injustice in “quick fix” wars and vigilantism and perhaps achieve temporary fixes in ridding the world of the violence and terror.  And some of our anger for justice will be merely the catharsis of an Action film but even that  cinematic vigilante justice is a faint artistic liturgy of repugnance in the face of injustice.

  The resurrection, the Son of Man, the judge and Jesus as a future judge are very profound and inspired narrative bearing our quest for justice and more importantly, expressing our own need to be just.

  The season of Advent is about what is coming.  The future is what is coming.  And what is coming?  A judge and justice and if we are living in fear about it we should simply switch our focus and see the Son of Man as the judge who invites us to be Just now and to practice mercy and kindness.  Advent is about being invited to Justice.  And justice is a lifelong quest and Jesus invites us to the Son of Man who is our judge and who offers us the Gospel of justice.  Amen.