Yes or No

Matthew 11:2-11

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”

As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces. What then did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is the one about whom it is written, ‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’ Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

When my dad asked a “yes or no” question, there were only two acceptable answers.  You guessed it… “yes” or “no”.  “Did you leave the door open?” could NOT be answered with, “I had my hands full” or “I was just putting something out there for a second.”  “Yes” or “No”... that was it!  So even now whenever I hear a “yes or no” question NOT being answered with either a “yes” or a “no” I start to sweat!

John the Baptist asked Jesus a very clear “yes or no” question… “Are you the one we have been waiting for or are we supposed to keep on waiting” but Jesus did NOT give a “yes or no” answer.  Instead Jesus said, “Tell John that the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the poor have good news brought to them.”  Frankly, Jesus would have been crucified MUCH earlier if he had tried that with my dad, but for whatever reason, Jesus’ strange and roundabout answer seemed to work for John.

My guess is that it worked for John, because Jesus answered, not with words but with his ACTIONS, and out in the desert, John had been calling people to do exactly THAT.  Not to simply answer John with their words but with ACTION.  The word “repent,” literally means to turn around and go another way.  For John, thoughts, ideas, and words were fine, but ACTION… THAT’S what he was really looking for.  So when Jesus responded to John’s question by telling him the ACTIONS he had been doing, that, I think spoke louder to John than any words ever could.

On top of that it was an impressive list!  People were given sight.  Not just eyeball sight, but healed of their inability to see God at work in their lives and in the world.  The lame walk.  Not just legs working again, but people healed of their fear of living in the world God’s Way.  Lepers were made clean.  Not just the skin condition healed, but anything that labeled a person as unclean, unfit, unwelcome, and unwanted for any reason; race, gender, nationality, ability, who they loved, how they saw themselves, their class.  ANYONE the world had made into an outcast, the forgotten, or the lost were now welcomed, included, valued, honored, and made to feel worthy.  The deaf hear.  Not just ears working again, but people able to finally hear and embody the truth that God was at work, that God loved all of creation, and that God was making sure that all of creation would be whole again.  The dead were raised.  Not just literally like the woman’s son or Lazarus would be.  But people who had been called garbage and treated as unworthy or undeserving of life were being lifted up, included, and given life in abundance… a life of meaning, purpose, dignity, respect and love that flowed freely from the Divine… a life meant to begin now and never, ever end!

THEN… at the end of this list (which, by the way, is where people in Jesus’ day put the most important item when they made lists) THE POOR HAVE GOOD NEWS BROUGHT TO THEM.  That Good News is God’s vision for how the world is supposed to work and God’s vision for the world is that it would be a place where those who struggle to feed their families, find a place to live, find belonging, and live unafraid will have all they need, not just to get by, but to thrive! 

The GOOD NEWS of this lesson is that the coming Messiah is a Messiah who brings God’s vision to life by bringing God’s love and compassion to the darkest parts of every human life and into every corner of creation.  As disciples of that Messiah, you and I are called to keep those same ACTIONS that Jesus brought to John, moving throughout the world through us.   

That may sound like an overwhelming ask, but we can do it because Jesus has first healed OUR blindness, and now we can SEE those who have been forgotten.  Jesus healed our lameness, now we can bring God’s love out into the world.  Jesus healed our separation, so now we can re-member the people we encounter and show them they too belong.  Jesus healed our deafness so that now we can hear the voices of those in crisis, do what we can to meet the needs of that particular crisis and then work to change the world so that people’s lives are no longer just one crisis after another. 

John the Baptist wasn’t really interested in the words people brought out to him in the wilderness.  John the Baptist was not impressed by those who just threw “thoughts and prayers” at the world’s injustices or in the direction of people in pain.  What John the Baptist was interested in were people turning away from their lifelong walk into selfishness, arrogance, self importance, cruelty, brutality, and a false sense of superiority and beginning to walk in a new direction.  A walk in the direction of compassion, kindness, self sacrifice, humility, healing, generosity, grace, and love for the other.  

The answer that Jesus gave to John was neither a “yes” nor a “no” but to John the answer Jesus gave him was crystal clear.  Jesus was indeed the Messiah because John could see that Jesus walked the Way the Messiah walked.  May we too, walk that Way… toward the Truth… and into a Life of abundance for all people.  Amen.   

Give 'em the Axe

Isaiah 11:1-10

A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,

  and a branch shall grow out of his roots.

 The spirit of the Lord shall rest on him,

  the spirit of wisdom and understanding,

  the spirit of counsel and might,

  the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

  His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.

He shall not judge by what his eyes see

  or decide by what his ears hear,

  but with righteousness he shall judge for the poor

  and decide with equity for the oppressed of the earth;

 he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,

  and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked.

  Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist

  and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

The wolf shall live with the lamb;

  the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

 the calf and the lion will feed together,

  and a little child shall lead them.

  The cow and the bear shall graze;

  their young shall lie down together;

  and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

  The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

  and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy

  on all my holy mountain,

 for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

  as the waters cover the sea.

On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples; the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.

I want us to look at that lesson from Isaiah BUT (here’s the hard part) I want you to resist connecting Isaiah’s words to Jesus right off the bat.  I know that’s hard and Handel’s little ear worm called “The Messiah” (you might have heard of it) makes that even harder.  But Isaiah had something important to stay to HIS people in THEIR time, 700 years before Jesus was even a gleam in Mary’s eye.  I think looking at what Isaiah said to THEM might be something we shouldn’t miss.  

In Isaiah’s day, the political leadership was only in it for their own gain… for their own enrichment… for their own power.  In Isaiah’s day, government officials manipulated the legal process so much that the innocent poor were slaughtered while the guilty rich were pardoned.  In Isaiah’s day, the obscenely wealthy held all the positions of power and shamelessly wrote oppression into the law itself to gain more wealth and power. 

It was into that sort of obscene and seemingly unchangeable political reality that Isaiah spoke to his people.  What he told them was that God still… has a preference.  A very clear, very focused, very consistent, very long standing preference… for those in authority to lead their people with justice.  And not just any kind of justice, but a justice that was biased toward the poor… a justice that brought equity to the oppressed.  This wasn’t just a “spiritual” sort of justice or an equity only to be realized in the “sweet by and by” either.  God, Isaiah told his people, had a preference for justice and equity for all people… NOW and in EVERY part of life! 

God’s desire was for leaders to use their power to make sure that everyone… EVE-RY-ONE had enough… enough to eat, enough shelter, enough dignity, enough respect, enough purpose, enough security.  AND, Isaiah told them, if the current administration doesn’t care for everyone, but instead cares only for themselves… for their own gain… for their own enrichment… for their own power… if those in office fail to do justice FOR the poor and instead exploit the poor for their own gain… God notices that… God gets angry about that… and God will change that!    

What God wants and what God will have, Isaiah told his people, are leaders who pay attention to and follow the direction of the Spirit of the Lord… the same wind that blew over creation… the same breath of God that brought about life.  What God wants, and what God will have, are leaders who honor that breath… who allow themselves to be led by the Spirit with wisdom and understanding.  What God wants and what God will have, are leaders who move their nations toward God’s preference of justice for the poor and relief for the oppressed.  What God wants and what God will have, are leaders with a humility sized appropriately for someone who has been given the humbling responsibility of caring for an entire nation!  

Isaiah also made it clear in the passages leading up to today’s lesson that any leader who falls SHORT of that Divine standard will get the ax, be left a lifeless stump, and that God will bring about something new.  But seeing the injustice, the corruption, the unbelievably brazen, unrepentant, and uncaring ugliness of their leaders go on seemingly unchecked… I imagine that Isaiah’s people really had begun to wonder… DOES God still care?  Will God still act?  Will things change?  Isaiah told them that even though it may seem beyond fantastical given their current reality, God would, in God’s time, and in God’s way bring about change.  It may feel, Isaiah told them, as likely to happen as a leopard snuggling in for a snooze with a baby goat.  As easy to imagine as lions and bears going vegan, and as believable in the moment as poisonous snakes becoming this year’s number one Christmas toy… but God’s will… will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.   

I’m sure Isaiah’s people would have rather had a magical and immediate fix for the horror in which they were living.  I get that.  But that wasn’t what Isaiah gave them, mostly because that simply wasn’t Isaiah’s to give.  All Isaiah could give them was the assurance that they, and their situation, had been genuinely and fully SEEN by God, that God still cared, and that God would act.  

Like Isaiah, I too wish I had a magical and immediate fix for the the injustice, the corruption, the unbelievably brazen, unrepentant, and uncaring ugliness in which WE are living.  I can’t give that to you any more than Isaiah could give that to his people.  All that is mine to give you is the same assurance Isaiah gave to his people… that we too have been genuinely and fully SEEN by God, that God still deeply cares, and that God will bring about change.  

I know it’s not the immediate fix we all would prefer, but my hope is that being reminded that we have been SEEN by GOD… by GOD, no less… will give us all the courage to live out God’s preference for justice, kindness, and humility in the few square feet in which we stand in any particular moment of the day.  Then… standing together in justice… in kindness… in humility we might realize that together we have the power to continue to fend off the broods of vipers and begin to understand that through our standing together in justice, kindness, and humility, God is already changing the world… for good.  Amen.

This is Fine

Matthew 24:36-44

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

I KNOW that none of you would ever do this, but I worry.  Even while I know that God has the whole world in those infinitely capable Divine hands, I still tend to take on all of the world’s, the church’s, and life’s worries and carry them around with me, being crushed all the while into a depressed pulpy mess.  In the churchy world, doing that is called… SIN… because it’s not trusting God to be God.  In the secular world, trying to carry around all of the world’s, the church’s, and life’s worries is called… well, DUMB… because worrying about things beyond our control is a waste of time and energy. 

It appears, however, that I’m not alone in my IN-ability to resist doing this.  A lot earlier in Matthew’s Gospel Jesus tells us we shouldn’t worry any more than the wildflowers worry.  Then, here in today’s Gospel, Jesus tells us that NO ONE, not even Jesus, can know about Jesus’ return.  Jesus reminds his disciples and you and me that when it comes to the universe and all of creation, God really is in control… and that God, believe it or not, can, AND DOES take care of ALL things AND because of that, we really don’t have to worry.  

God really does, like the old Sunday School song says, have the whole world in those divine hands.  So us trying to do God’s job and carry the weight of the world isn’t a faithful way to live.  BUT… there’s alway a “but” isn’t there… us completely checking out from the needs of those around us and sticking our fingers in our ears and shouting lalalalalalala while our neighbors are in pain… that isn’t a faithful way to live either.  

There is, it turns out, a faithful middle way between pointless worry and irresponsible escapism.  Working toward that balance is actually one of the goals of the season of Advent.  It’s a time to focus and practice living in a way that holds the pains of the world around us in one hand, but balances all of that by holding the infinite power of God’s promise to make all things new, firmly in the other.  

THAT’S what it means to KEEP AWAKE.  Being AWAKE, is walking that middle path between worrying so much you are crushed into inaction by the weight of the world’s troubles and pretending the world is completely trouble free.  Being AWAKE is BOTH being honestly aware of the world around you… aware that there are things like injustice, systemic racism, misogyny, and hate AND ALSO not allowing that reality to crush you to a point where you can no longer allow Christ’s light to shine through you and make a difference in places where you can actually make a difference… in the lives of people you encounter each day.  

Advent is a time in the church year set aside to focus on and practice that balance.  On this early end of Advent we hear stories that make us AWAKE again to the realities that life is unpredictable, often unfair, and much too often, painful as well.  On this end of Advent we are made AWAKE to the realities that you can be at work one day with your friend and in the blink of an eye that friend has died and your everyday reality has been instantly changed forever.  But then, on the other end of Advent, we hear stories of Immanuel… God with Us.  Stories that remind us that God's Light shines in the darkness and there is NO sort of darkness that can ever overcome it!  Advent reminds us that you and I… we are called to live in that balance.  

So, each week in Advent we receive the Light of the World in, with and under the bread and the wine.  Then each week we are called to bring the light we have received here, out into the world and let it shine through the cracks of our imperfect lives, and into the lives of those who cross our paths.  We practice not allowing ourselves to be crushed by the weight of the world’s troubles by not trying to do life alone and resisting the temptation to just pull the covers up over our heads and hide away... both of which make it equally difficult for the light we’ve received to shine out into the world.  

So in Advent we practice being AWAKE… by taking intentional time to pause, notice and discern if the pain and difficulties and randomness of life we are encountering in each moment of our day is something we can address with love and generosity OR if it is of a size and shape that just needs to be turned over to God who is always present and always at work.  By intentionally deciding to practice the art of being AWAKE in these four weeks, we can hone our skills at seeing where we can genuinely make a difference in the world around us AND where we just need to let go of things that are beyond our control. 

Like any other skill, being AWAKE, becomes easier with practice.  The more we practice, the more second nature being AWAKE becomes and the more we will find we are living in that sort of peace which passing all understanding.  This Advent, practice being AWAKE because honestly, even pros still practice, and really, who couldn’t use just a little more peace in their lives these days?  I know I sure could!  Amen. 

Christ the King - The Antifa Feast

Luke 23:33-43

When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. [[ Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’]] And they cast lots to divide his clothing. And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ There was also an inscription over him, ‘This is the King of the Jews.’

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ But the other rebuked him, saying, ‘Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong.’ Then he said, ‘Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.’ He replied, ‘Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.’

In 1922 Benito Mussolini Marched on Rome and was appointed Prime Minister by King Victor Emmanuel III.  In 1923 The Acerbo Law was passed which manipulated election results to favor the Fascist Party.  In 1924 the Fascists, unsurprisingly, won the general election.  In January of 1925, Mussolini declared himself dictator and then, in December of that same year, Pope Pious XI published the encyclical Quas Primas which is Latin for “In the First” which introduced the Feast of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe.  Also known by it’s nickname… Christ the King Sunday.  

Coincidence?  No way!  Check out what Pope Pious wrote, “as long as individuals and states refuse to submit to the rule of our Savior, there would be no really hopeful prospect of a lasting peace among nations.”  He argued that “we must look for the peace of Christ in the Kingdom of Christ” if the world was to have real peace.

Now at this point we could get really irritated with Pope Pious’ Christian exclusivism.  We could roll our eyes at the irony of a Pope who sits on a throne attempting to lead a 1920’s version of a No King’s Rally.  We could also be irritated by the very “male” baggage that comes with the word “king” and the fact that many still justify their rabid misogyny by pointing to “Christ the King”. 

However, since the primary thing Pope Pious XI saw and reacted to in his day looks FRIGHTENINGLY like what we’re seeing in our country a century later, I’m inclined instead to note that Pope Pious XI was firmly rooted in his particular time and culture and not exactly the Interfaith minded Feminist I would have liked him to be, AND… and… he also wrote in this encyclical that, “bitter enmities and rivalries… hinder the cause of peace” and that “insatiable greed” hides under the “pretense of public spirit and patriotism.”  That patriotism, a thing he said was of “noble virtues and so many acts of heroism” could be perverted into an “extreme nationalism” and lead us to forget that we are all part of “one human family” and that nationalism could lead us to dismiss the idea that “all people have the right to life and prosperity.”

Which is why I'm not in favor of just throwing this Pope, his encyclical, and this Feast Day out with the century old bathwater.  Because, as I look out the front window of the Rectory I see dozens of American flags planted in the park across the street and grow increasingly concerned that our American Patriotism which was indeed “of noble virtue and acts of heroism” has turned into malignant nationalism.  I see our country’s own secret police sowing fear and terror and am forced to conclude, as Pope Pious did in his time, that our extreme and growing nationalism has led this country to forget that all other human beings are our siblings.  I see the bitter enmities and rivalries hindering peace in our congress and in our communities.  I can’t help but see an insatiable greed among the obscenely wealthy and their political enablers hiding under a pretense of patriotism.  

Pope Pious, 100 years ago, was not where I find myself today when it comes to Ecumenism, Interfaith-ism, or Feminism and, I imagine, we'd likely disagree on a number of other “isms” as well!  In spite of that, he had some real wisdom we would do well to hear today.  He taught that it is not our loyalty to earthly kings, emperors, kaisers, presidents, political parties or doctrines that will lead the world to peace, but it is walking a path of sacrificial love as Jesus did from the seemingly power-less position of hanging on a cross that will guide the world to a genuine and lasting peace.  

While I suspect Pope Pious would have said that WAY of walking was a “Jesus exclusive” and must include the confession that “Jesus is Lord” I would argue that it is the DOING of what Jesus did and the LIVING as Jesus lived that makes the actual, world changing difference, regardless of how it gets labeled!  So, if confessing “Christ is King and Jesus is Lord” helps you stand up against fascists and tyrants and search out the lost, feed the hungry, embrace the foreigner, lift up the maligned and shelter the demonized, then by all means confess it!  If you search out the lost, feed the hungry, embrace the foreigner, lift up the maligned and shelter the demonized but don’t want to make that confession… Okay!  Because whatever it is that you need to say or not say, confess or not confess that leads you to speak truth to power, put a candle on a candle stand in defiance of the stormy darkness, advocate for justice, lift up the trampled, heal the sick, reunite the estranged and raise the dead… I say… YES PLEASE!  DO THAT!

For me, proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Christ as King helps me push back on the pressures of a nation that demands that I succumb to living in bitter rivalry, embrace a malignant nationalism, abandon civility and honor, and forget that all of humanity is my neighbor.  At it’s core, I believe THAT is what Pope Pious meant for the Feast of The Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe to do for us.  SO, may we take the parts of this Feast that help us resist Fascism’s siren song and embrace radical love and justice… and then… just let the rest of the language that doesn't work for you go.  Because in the end, it will not be the words we use, but the lives we live in love for our neighbor that will ultimately change the world.  Amen. 

Holy Heavenly Air Fryer of Justice

Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.” They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them. “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. “But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

What do you WANT these lessons to be about?  Here’s what I WANT them to be about.  I WANT them to be about God showing up like Rowdy Roddy Piper did in the 1988 film “They Live” and I want God to live out the famous line from that movie: “I’m here to chew bubblegum and kick ass, and I’m all out of bubblegum.”  I WANT these lessons to be signaling God’s coming with the Holy Heavenly Air Fryer of Justice to crisp-ify the arrogant and the evildoers!  THAT is what I WANT these lessons to be about!  

There’s only one problem with that.  That is absolutely NOT what these lessons are about!  I know… Dang it!  It turns out what they ARE actually trying to tell us is that when we inevitably encounter arrogant evildoers (who happen along in every generation) and when, throughout history, we see people creating famine, and when natural disasters invariable happen, and when the powerful in every age perpetuate war just to stay in power… What these lessons are REALLY telling us is that NONE OF THAT is signaling God’s Coming with a Cosmic Toaster Oven or any other sort of Divine Kitchen Appliance of Smite, to broil, bake, blend, julienne, or fry anybody.  

But wait… it gets worse!  Because what these lessons ARE telling us, is that the way to deal with all of that horror… is to wait with endurance.  I know!  Not at ALL as satisfying as God sending “arrogant evildoers” for a spin in the Cosmic Cuisinart!Less satisfying.  But honest.  Now, the danger in hearing that we are called every day to wait, even while the world around us is falling apart or worse, being torn apart, is that we will make the mistake of confusing “waiting” with “inaction.”  That’s the mistake that some of the people in the second lesson were making.  You see, Paul believed that Jesus would return… and Paul believed it would happen before dinner THAT day!  Every day he woke up and HONESTLY expected Jesus to be standing there with a cup of coffee and a smile!  So, Paul passed that “its gonna happen literally any minute” expectation on to the people in Thessaloniki and some of those people took that so much to heart that they stopped EVERYTHING they were doing… they stopped working, stopped caring for their families, stopped caring for their neighbors… they stopped LIVING!  All they did was lay on the church lawn, look up at the sky, and wait for Jesus.  They honestly thought, THAT was faithful waiting.   

The second lesson was Paul’s correction of that particular misunderstanding and instructions on how we ARE supposed to wait.  We are called to wait in a way that gets you called before governors and kings.  You don’t get called before governors or kings for just lying on the lawn, dreaming about Jesus returning.  You get called before governors and kings because you’ve been waiting for Jesus by ACTIVELY and insistently living the Jesus Way out in the world!  It’s the ACTIVE loving of God… It’s the ACTIVE insisting on the dignity of the least, lost and last in our community… It’s the ACTIVE loving of our neighbors, feeding the hungry and giving the cold a warm place to stay… It’s THAT kind of ACTIVE waiting that gives governors and kings fits.  

Waiting as Jesus and Paul have called us to wait means living as Jesus lived, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, housing the homeless, caring for the widow and orphan and it is doing that work with endurance… doing what we can in a way that we will be able to do it today, and tomorrow, and the next day and the next… making what often feels like only a tiny, and often almost imperceptible difference, with an endurance that spans a lifetime.  It means working on justice like the Colorado River works on the Grand Canyon.  The Jesus Way is not a sprint.  It’s a relay race of back to back marathons, run by a multitude of runners over decades, centuries, even millennia…  each handing the baton off to the next one running the race.  

Nobody knows what’s going to happen next.  If someone tells you they do, they’re trying to sell you something you don’t need!  All we CAN know is that our hunger and thirst for justice is God’s own desire, and we are to wait for that justice by living the Jesus Way… actively doing what we can to share God’s love with the folks we run into each day right here in our everyday lives.  We are called to wait the Jesus Way… seeing Christ in our neighbors when others see our neighbors as “foreigners” or “enemies” “threats” or “terrorists”.  We are called to wait the Jesus Way, not sprinting a marathon but as Bishop Tutu said, “Doing our little bits of good where we are; because it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.”

Malachi did not say God would swoop down and chuck all the arrogant and evildoers in an oven.  Malachi said the day is coming, burning like an oven, when the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble.  The way we get to that promised day is by waiting the Jesus Way, doing the little bits of justice and kindness we can wherever we find our feet walking humbly on each particular day… DOING THAT, we have been promised, will do nothing less than change the world into the world God desires, and THAT is what we are called to do.  Amen.