The Talk

Luke 21:25-36

“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.”

The Season of Advent has a bit of a split personality.  The first half of the season is focused, not on the baby Jesus, but on Jesus’ apocalyptic return sometime in the future!  After a few Sundays though, even Advent gives in to the pressure and looks back to the Baby Jesus.  But for this first Sunday, Advent goes full on Apocalypse!  Now, if you’ve gotten your information about the Apocalypse off the street, it’s likely to be just as good and accurate as what you got off the street in Middle School about sex.  

Because of that, I think it’s probably time for Father Erik to sit you all down and have… THE TALK… about Apocalypse.  In spite of what you learned from the kid in Middle School or a TV preacher (both of whom are more concerned about what they are wearing than passing on good information).  An apocalypse is just a word that means God breaking into our world.  There’s not a set way God HAS to break into the world.  God can do what God wants after all!  So Jesus being born?  That was an apocalypse!  That was God breaking into our world in Jesus.  Was that a violent event with supernatural multi headed beasts, horsemen with flaming skull heads, and fully automatic gun battles?  Nope.  Just some angels singing and a baby being born in a barn.  In spite of what you might hear on the street, an apocalypse does not HAVE to come with a violent dystopian hell scape.  It can come… and it actually HAS come… quietly, peacefully, wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger.    

For Mary and Joseph and the Shepherds, that apocalypse wasn't at all dystopian.  It was really hopeful!  Here’s what Mary had to say about that apocalypse:  “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior… he has scattered the proud, brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly; he has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.”  However, a few miles away, that very same Apocalypse WAS seen as dystopian by someone.  King Herod.  He heard ‘scatter the proud, bring down the powerful, and send the rich away empty’ and to HIM, that sounded VERY dystopian.   

And THAT is the real truth of this and every apocalypse.  EVERY TIME God breaks into the world, the people who insist on keeping their own power and ordering the world in a way that builds them up by tearing others down, WILL indeed experience that in-breaking of God as unwelcome and disastrous.  HOWEVER, for the people on the bottom, the people who have been used and abused by those on the top, every apocalypse, whether the ones in the past or the ones coming in the future, will look like HOPE!  Same apocalypse.  Two VERY different points of view. 

The second lesson in our little “TALK” is about the futility of predicting the time, place, and character of the next apocalypse.  Jesus says in this lesson that we can do that just as accurately as we can predict the exact moment the first bud will break out next Spring.  The people who tell you they KNOW when it will be, know as much about that as they knew about girls in Middle School.  In other words… THEY DON'T KNOW NOTHIN’! 

So that’s it.  I’m glad we’ve had “THE TALK,” and I hope you are now better informed now about the mysteries of the coming apocalypse.  From now on you can be “On Guard” as Jesus says, so you don’t get sucked into an ever deepening vortex of despair and fear and hopelessness, thinking that God breaking into our world will be some horrible and frightening thing!  And now that we’ve had “THE TALK” you can also be “ALERT” as Jesus says, looking out for economic, social, political, and every other kind of injustice happening in our world and doing all you can to shift that balance… understanding, of course, that only God breaking into the world will complete that work, but encouraging each another to keep at it none the less.  

And maybe that’s the right way to end our talk... letting you know that waiting for the next Apocalypse really is better done together than all alone.  When Jesus prays that “you” may have the strength to escape all these things, the “YOU” in that passage is “Y’ALL” plural not “you” singular.  Jesus was telling us that we shouldn’t try to do “On Guard” alone and we shouldn’t try to do “Alert” alone either.  It is in this community that we do the work of justice.  It’s in this community that we take turns keeping watch.  It’s in this community that we remind one another to be hopeful when one of us inevitably starts swirling down that news-cycle-vortex of dissipation.  It is in this community that we together celebrate God’s past Apocalypse… the one that happened with a child being born in a manger… and it is in this community that we look together hopefully for the Apocalypse that will bring God's Kingdom, on earth as it is in Heaven.  An Apocalypse is nothing to fear... it's something we HOPE for!  Amen.  

Who is this Jesus Guy Anyway?

John 18:33-37 

Then Pilate entered the headquarters again, summoned Jesus, and asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered, “Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?” Pilate replied, “I am not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?” Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here.” Pilate asked him, “So you are a king?” Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”

What sort of King is this Jesus guy anyway?  Pilate wanted to know if Jesus was the “overthrow the Roman government” kind of King… or maybe he had just been labeled a “King” by local enemies hoping Pilate would do their dirty work for them… or maybe this Jesus was just a “King” up there in his loony-tune noggin?  What sort of King is he?

If he was an “overthrow the Empire” kind of King, that was easy.  Crucify him as a warning to others!  Boom. Done.  But if he was one of the other sorts, that needed a little more investigation.  Not to do what was right, or just, or fair… Pilate didn’t care about that… but to find out what solution would give Pilate the least amount of hassle. 

So once Pilate decided Jesus was no threat to the Roman Empire he just looked to the crowd to see what would give him the least grief.  At first he thought letting Jesus go would make his life easier.  But for whatever reason (he could not begin to care why) the crowd wanted Jesus crucified and giving the crowd what it wanted would give Pilate the least hassle, so Pilate put Jesus on the cross.

Pilate simply used Jesus in whatever way would make his life easier that day.  That sounds pretty cold… and it is.  But don’t we do the same thing all too often?  Pull Jesus close when it suits us… Push Jesus away when he’s not convenient?  It’s like a movie where the actor turns over the picture of Jesus on the wall before he does something bad, so Jesus won’t see.  I think we all do that to one degree or another.  I know I do it.  I’m happy to lean into Jesus when I’m wearing this shirt and playing my role where other expect some Jesus.  But in other situations, maybe where I know my idea of Jesus will clash with someone else’s, I often choose to turn Jesus’s picture so he’s facing the wall, avoid the conflict, and in effect, do with Jesus what will give me the least hassle.  

Pilate decided he could do with “King Jesus” whatever would give him the least hassle, because, Pilate did not see Jesus as HIS king.  You can bet that if Caesar was the one standing there before Pilate things would have been VERY different!  Pilate would NOT have done what was most convenient in THAT case!  Pilate would have treated him as…well as his King!  I admire that in Pilate.  He had the wrong King in my opinion, sure, but what I admire is that he wasn’t wishy washy about his King.  His loyalties didn’t ebb and flow out of convienience.  There was no hypocrisy, even when his King was all the way back in Rome!  Pilate was clear.  Caesar was his full time, full on KING.  Who is your King?  Is your King one of convenience or a full time, full on King?  It may not seem like it makes a difference in how we live day to day… but I think it really does.  

There’s a story about an Abbott of a monastery.  He had a problem.  His monks treated Christ as a King of convenience.  Acting outside the monestary like Christ was their King, but inside, where they thought no one would notice, they did not act as if Christ were their real, full time, full on King.  The  Abbott knew this was causing the monastery to rot from the inside out.  The Abbott went on a journey to seek out the advise of a renowned mystical Rabbi who people of all faiths regarded as a prophet.  The Abbott told the Rabbi about his monastery and asked for his advice.  

The Rabbi told the Abbott that he sadly did not have a solution for him, BUT the Rabbi did have something the Abbott should know before he returned.  He told the Abbott that one of his monks was Christ, returned from heaven.  The Rabbi did not know which one, but he was absolutely certain that one of them was the Christ.

The Abbot returned to the monastery and told his brothers what the Rabbi had said.  Over time each brother began to treat the others better, always wondering if the other was the Christ.  The monastery grew in faith, love, service and even in numbers and no matter who came to the monastery everyone was treated as if they were the Christ.

Is Christ your King?  Is Christ your King only when it’s convenient or is Christ your full time, full on King?  If we began treating everyone we met, all the time, as if they might just be the Christ, returned from heaven, what would that do to us?  What would that do to the world, if Christ really was our full time, full on King?  It’s something to think about for sure.  Amen.  

Wow Jesus... Um, Thanks?

Mark 13: 1-8

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!” Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?” Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birthpangs.

Sometimes life feels like the world is in such a state that only God breaking into it in person could put things right.  That’s the real meaning of an apocalypse… God breaking into the world.  Mark’s gospel was written to a people who felt that only God breaking into their world could put things… and you know what?  I sorta get it!  A never ending pandemic.  Only a miracle will do.  A climate crisis, way past being JUST a crisis.  Only a miracle will do.  The poor and hungry demonized.  Immigrants made to be scapegoats.  Only a miracle will do.  But Jesus told the disciples and is telling us, “All of this is just the birth pangs!”  Which makes me want to say, “Um, wow Jesus.  Thanks?”

The disciples wanted to know, how long, and to be honest I wouldn’t mind an answer to that one either!  But the disciples then didn’t get an answer to that one, and we don’t get one either.  What Jesus gives, both to them and us, is an invitation to begin living RIGHT NOW… right where we are… right in the middle of it… right in the midst of a time where it feels like only a Miracle will do.

A quote attributed to Martin Luther says, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.”  And one attributed to Winston Churchill says, “If you are going through hell, keep going!”  Those too, are invitations to REALLY LIVE even in the midst of darkness… even in the depths of worry and fear. 

But HOW?  HOW do you do that!?  People always do that, don’t they?  They say “be happy now” or “start living now” but they never tell you HOW!  And it’s not just a matter of an attitude adjustment either.  God literally created us to react automatically and unconsciously in a certain way when we feel threatened!  We’re hard wired and it’s a really good thing!  God gave us that reaction so we didn’t just walk off the edge of a cliff in blissful ignorance!  God created our bodies so that they would tell us, by relocating our stomachs up into our throats as we got close to the edge, don't take another step!  It’s a beautiful gift!  Without it our ancestors' bones would be piled up at the bottom of some chasm and humanity would be extinct!  It’s a really good gift!  But still… HOW?  How are we to really live in times of fear and darkness when God has prewired us to unconsciously react to fear in this particular way?

The HOW is in realizing... THAT gift... is not the ONLY gift that God has given us!  God ALSO created us with the ability to regroup after we've back up a little, and imagine other ways to deal with a frightening cliff... to see other options beyond just running up to the edge and then running away.  To see the possibility of a life that is more than that sort of endless cycle, with the only option being to wait for an apocalypse to come.  God don't make us for that sort of senseless life!  God created us for an ABUNDANT life!  

But Pastor Erik, you say.  You still haven’t told us HOW we get from here to there?  HOW do we move beyond just lashing out or running away... Only a Miracle will do!  Yes, only a miracle will do, but the miracle we need isn’t a “HOW.”  The miracle we need is a “WHO” and the miracle we need is even now inviting us, poking us, prodding us, and provoking us to follow His Way toward abundant life!  The miracle we need... the miracle we HAVE is Jesus.  In his life, death, and resurrection, Jesus literally lived out HOW to do it!  Jesus’ whole life was literally a lived-out instruction manual for HOW to keep going through hell and into abundant life! 

You want an example?  Alright.  One from then and one from now.  Both by being generous.  Back then at the Feeding of the 5000 Jesus told the disciples, “YOU give them something to eat.”  The disciples (eventually) just started doing it and then there was ABUNDANT fish, ABUNDANT bread and ABUNDANT life!  Right then!  Right there!  Even in the midst of the darkness.  And now, we dared to imagine beyond just hunkering down through a pandemic lockdown in fear?  We just started Feeding Sheffield, which grew into Feeding Friends, which now feeds folks all over South County with ABUNDANT Chicken Pot Pie, ABUNDANT Food Boxes, and ABUNDANT life!  It didn’t end the pandemic, but it did deliver ABUNDANT LIFE, right into the middle of pandemic darkness!  

Jesus didn’t lie to the disciples and I’m not going to lie to you either.  It’s dark out there and I’m as certain as Jesus was then, that it’s going to stay dark longer than any of us would like.  So the take home today… is to not put off living, waiting around for some distant apocalypse to fix it all!  Instead, LIVE RIGHT NOW!  Live the Way God showed us how to live during the last apocalypse when God broke into the world with Jesus, the Christ!  Live the Way Jesus showed us to live… through generosity, compassion, grace, love, justice, and peace.  Walk the Jesus Way through pandemic darkness, through climate darkness, through racial, xenophobic, and political darkness... walk until we’re all in the light… or as St. Paul and Winston Churchill might have said together; “Walk in love, as Christ loved us and when the world feels like hell, for God’s sake, keep walking!  Amen.

Photo:  This is "Two Crows" by Peter Ralston.  It sprang to mind when I thought about really living this life we've been given, even when we are not quite fully in the light.  Peter is one of the most incredible photographers of our time.  But more than that, Peter is a friend and one of the rare people you meet in life who really seems to "get it" in a way I long to "get it".  Visit his gallery, Ralson Gallery or visit in person in Rockport, ME.  

Sing Into the Tomb

John 11:32-44

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

Lazarus died but the disciples wanted to soften it and say “no, Jesus, Lazarus is only asleep!”  But Jesus wasn’t having it.  He said straight out.  He died.  When Jesus got to Mary and Martha, they weren’t having any of the disciples’ denial either.  Why weren’t you here Jesus!  If you had been here he would not have died!  Our culture so often wants to soften or deny the reality of death.  People don’t even want to say the word… death.  Instead we say, he passed, she’s gone home, and the most recent… he has transitioned.  For that one I was very glad that I read the comments before sending congratulations on their gender reassignment surgery!  

But denying the reality of death was not what Jesus modeled for us.  Jesus, Mary, and Martha all knew that facing death head on was a hard, but healthy part of the process.  Covering it up only pushes the pain down and then inevitably, the pain leaks out somewhere else in an even more terrible way.  I don’t want to encourage others to deny the reality of death, so I’ve picked the first hymn for my funeral in the hopes it will give them permission to reject the cultural denial of death and face it head on.  Have you picked your first hymn yet?  For me, it’s this one:

I want Jesus to Walk with Me 

Our stoic Lutheran and proper Episcopalian ancestors didn’t do us any favors in this area.  Jesus, Mary, and Martha are better role models for us to follow.  It’s hard, but it really is better for us to go ahead and honestly feel and proclaim our trials and troubles.  And not just at the funeral but also when those trials inevitably circle back and push you down in the days, weeks, months and years ahead as well.  So go ahead and be honest with world!  TELL the world when your heart is almost breaking.  Be sad, be angry, be heart broken, be relieved, be whatever you really feel in each and every moment of your grief.  God gave you all of those emotions to use right when you feel them.  It helps absolutely no one, to push them down or away.  

Facing death head on is ONE of the things we learn about grief from Jesus, Mary, and Martha today.  Another is that gathering with your family and community in deep and honest prayer has the power to change everything.  In deep and honest thankfulness and sorrow, Jesus prayed his longing prayer.  He prayed right into the mouth of the forever-darkness of Lazarus’ tomb.  He prayed right into the reality of death, but he also dared to pray for the impossible as well, that Lazarus would “come out.”  That prayer opened up just the smallest crack of hope for everyone.  The song for my funeral that pries open a crack of hope is this one:

Children of the Heavenly Father

  

Through that tiny crack of hope you find tenderness and safety… safety in God’s arms enveloping you just as you are.  That’s the truth this song dares to sing into the darkness of the tomb.  It’s a song for the time between when Jesus said “Lazarus come out” and when Lazarus actually came out!  In the passage, those two follow one another instantly, but you know for Mary, Martha and the people gathered there, that moment took forever.  This is my song to sing while we emotionally teeter between complete hopelessness and that first, tiny daring of hope.

Then after what must have felt like forever and at the same time as quick as a blink of an eye.  Lazarus was there.  Ready to be unwrapped and live again!  Can you imagine the faces of Mary and Martha?  Mouths hanging open.  First in disbelief. Then in growing belief and finally it shouts of impossible joy!  THAT mouth-hanging-open-confusion-turned to wonder-turning to joy is what I want for the sending hymn at my funeral and for me this is the song for that!

When the Saints Go Marching In

So sing to face death head on.  Sing when you gather with friends and family.  Sing, while leaning on one another in prayer.  Sing and reclaim the promise, that death is not the end!  Sing out the Promise that death does not have the last word!  Sing like you fully believe it (even when it’s impossible to believe)  Sing until that Promise comes out fully into the light.  Sing until we all unwrap it together with ALL the Saints… and every last one of us has Marched on in!  Amen.