2 Kings 4:42-44

A man came from Baal-shalishah bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord: They shall eat and have some left.” He set it before them; they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.

Sermon Text

There are themes that repeat again and again in scripture and once you start to learn them, you can’t help but see them in readings across the canon and even in our own lives. One of the reasons I encourage people to read their Bible’s is that the more you know about this book, the more you will see that it does actually have something in it relevant for most every aspect of life. Stories that teach us something about what it is to be human, and what it means to know God. Teachings that tell us what we should be doing and what we should be avoiding. In this book are all things needful, and the more of it we consume the more of it will consume us.

Of all the themes in scripture, there is a near constant refrain regarding the need to feed the hungry. In Genesis, it was setting a table for strangers that allowed Abraham to receive a blessing from God. The Exodus sees God feeding God’s people with bread from Heaven, and instills in them lessons about what it means to share their excess rather than hoard it. Prophet after prophet tell the same tale – “You would be blessed by God! But you forgot to love your neighbor and feed them when they were hungry…”

In this constant refrain to join one another around a table, to share our food, we are given a variety of other clues about what it means to be a person of faith and live into this prophetic identity we have all been called to. On one hand it seems overly simple to have food and share it with other people – if there’s a problem then we need to be part of the solution – but sharing food is such a common theme because we do so much more when we eat together than just share food. To sit down with someone, to pass plates and bowls between each other, to sit and talk and share life, this is all so much more than just providing calories – this is sharing the very essence of life – connection and community that allows us to become more than we ever were before. In meeting each other over a table, we become vulnerable, and in that vulnerability find strength.

We read in our scripture today an episode where the Prophet Elisha receives an offering and turns that offering into a blessing for the people. Two things are interesting about this gift. Firstly, the offering was from the First Fruits of the Harvest, an offering usually reserved for feeding the attendants in the tabernacle or temple. Yet, when the prophet receives this food he does not save it for himself, as would be all that was required of him, but asks that the people around him be fed with what was brought forward. The few pieces of bread, the collection of grain, it suddenly multiplies miraculously, but this multiplication is a consequence of a far simple action – sharing the abundance God has given for the good of others.

The entirety of this chapter captures other actions that Elisha took for the good of others. He miraculously made oil to save a woman’s children from slavery, he gave a woman her child twice, he made inedible food edible with just a sprinkle of flour… Mundane creatures of oil and wheat were used again and again to care for people. The prophetic life is shown, just across the span of a few pages, not to be found only in dramatic declarations or in fire falling from Heaven, but in the simple act of caring for others and showing love to those who need it most.

If we fast forward to Christ’s ministry we find him acting in much the same way. Famously, scripture records two instances where Christ multiplies bread and fish to feed thousands of people – showing him as a greater miracle worker than anyone before him. Yet, Christ’s ministry was not just in the multitude, but the individual. People would come to Jesus to be healed of all kinds of trouble, and Jesus would address them each in turn. Christ cared for the crowd and for the individual, for the ninety-nine and for the one. This care, the ministry poured out for the good of all people, is the example we all have to follow if we are to call ourselves followers of Christ.

I see, with some regularity, a constant need for people to define the reason for why Jesus would sit and eat with people who were marginalized by society. The sinners and the tax collectors were those Jesus chose to eat with, and people feel the need, and it is a well-intended impulse, to explain why he did this. The problem is that in explaining it, we often miss the point. Jesus tells us point blank that “Those who are well do not need doctors,” telling us this is a redemptive work.[1] The argument usually goes forward then that any work we do in the Church to expand the table and let more people in, must be to “fix,” them and we should always have food in one hand and a reprimand in the other.

As we talked about last week however, the only way anything really flourishes in the life of faith is if God is the goal of our work. For Christ, the reason he ate with sinners was indeed to bring them to a place they could be healed, but that was accomplished through a far simpler method than inviting them in and then imposing change upon them. Christ was changing their lives by making access to God available for them. The “righteous,” those who knew what the word of God was, who read their scripture and claimed to live by it, would not condescend to be with those unlike themselves. They would criticize people for not knowing God and then use every excuse for why those “godless,” people shouldn’t be allowed in their “sacred” spaces.

In opening up the table, in joining the outcast in their homes, Jesus was not sitting there eating with them and waving a finger the whole time. Instead, Christ was moving what was defined as a sacred space away from those with money, means, and access to those who had nothing at all. Christ, the focus of our life and our ministry, moved away from the Church folk and went out to the World, and when Christ did that the entire focus of our lives should have moved with him. Christ did not sit with sinners for any other reason than to allow them to sit, and eat, with God almighty, and we ought to work toward the same goal.

If we want to be a vibrant church, if we want to be Christians in the truest sense of the word, we should work to spend real time with the people in our community. It can be hard in a world where we are so often fixated on our own troubles, locked up in our homes with all the things we could ever need, trapped in bastions of privilege that make us believe the lie that we do not need one another. The work of a prophet, of bringing Christ’s words into the world, requires us to be centered in Christ, to give a message different than what the world offers, to establish something much bigger and long-lived than ourselves… The work of a prophet, grandiose as it is simple, is summarized in simply opening the doors and letting people in.

What are we doing to love other people? What are we doing to get to know them? To pray for their needs and to do what we can to see that those same needs are met? Prophets are not just people who say things, they do not just proclaim, they do! The Church is one source of prophetic work, but through faith we have become a “nation of priests,” and if we are all prophets than we all ought to be doing something. How have you loved your neighbor this week? How have you shown kindness to those who have not had any kindness for some time? How are you opening the doors of faith for others to step in, and centering Christ in all things?

We are here today because someone said to us that we could eat at their table. Let us do the same for others. Open wide the gates, break every lock, remove every barrier! God is here among us and God is here to stay! Let nothing keep people from coming and feasting at God’s table! Let your heart be lit with love and care, let that flame burn bright and let it light this darkened world! – Amen.

[1] Matthew 5:31-32

Ephesians 2:11-22

So then, remember that at one time you gentiles by birth, called “the uncircumcision” by those who are called “the circumcision”—a circumcision made in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace; in his flesh he has made both into one and has broken down the dividing wall, that is, the hostility between us, abolishing the law with its commandments and ordinances, that he might create in himself one new humanity in place of the two, thus making peace, and might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, thus putting to death that hostility through it.

So he came and proclaimed peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near, for through him both of us have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone; in him the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are built together spiritually into a dwelling place for God.

Sermon Text

            We’ve been looking this month at a general view of what it means to be a prophet. Did you know that? If you’ve been paying attention you might have seen that from Ezekiel, to John, to Paul, we have seen various aspects of the Prophetic life. I talked the week of July 4th about our need to provide a witness that is different from what the world gives. Last week we looked at why we need to build up our work and ministries in such a way that we leave legacies behind us – all prophets must end their time on earth after all. Today, we look at a different sort of “end,” for the prophets, we look at their purpose, their τελος (telos,) their reason for existing.

            As I continue on in ministry, I find that there is a need for the Church to be more focused in its proclamation of the Gospel and more sure about what it means to be a participant in God’s economy of Grace. We are all people who have been saved by the blood and redeemed through the work of Christ. We’ve entered into the household of God, we’ve tasted and seen what God is all about, now we need to find a way to show that to others! What are we proclaiming, and why do we bother to proclaim it? We offer something the world cannot compete with, but are we offering that because we want something out of the deal or are we doing it because we want people to benefit from participating in what we’ve got going on?

            Let me put it another way. When I go outside and water the garden we have below the Church, why am I watering it? Is it so that the plants can grow? Yes, necessarily. Is it so that people see them grow and know I have not abandoned my responsibility to them? Less so, but I would not want to earn the ire of anyone involved with building the beds either. Do I think, and this is the most important question I think, that there is something inherently good about growing these plants? Do I see beyond the consequences of them growing – food for the pantry, living things in flower beds – and see something quintessential to the nature of preserving life?

            Paul tells us in his letter to the Ephesians that there is no longer any separation between God’s people and those who were once considered “outsiders,” within the Kingdom. Christ, we are told, has eliminated the categories of race and nationality we defined ourselves with, erased the human traditions and precepts that formed a wedge between Jew and Gentile. Christ through all that Christ did, was a great unifier, and in establishing Unity, Christ built up a new kind of existence for us. We are all no longer this kind of person or that kind of person, but by being built up into the Church we all share the same dignity, worth, and purpose.

            In this room are people of various backgrounds. In same way that we could go from person to person and find all kinds of different skills and character traits, so we could step outside and examine the brickwork of this church and quickly find that none of the bricks making up this building are alike. Sure, they can be quite similar, but the individual grooves and weathering are all different. Each one in themselves only gives a slight glimpse of their intent, but all together their purpose is clear – they build up to be a building where God’s people gather, where God’s word is preached, the Sacraments are duly administered, and best of all the work of God done for the good of all people.

            As a prophetic voice in the world, we are involved in a lot of different things. We are responsible for helping to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, care for the sick. We proclaim the truth that Christ died and rose again, and that we too can join in that resurrection. Yet, in this proclamation, and in this service, we are not fully completing our purpose. We are not completing our purpose in these two categories unless we root ourselves in something beyond the work itself. Our work, our life, our entire identity, is ultimately centered in and working toward the person of Jesus Christ. No other focal point exists because on this fulcrum all the world must turn.

Returning to that Garden down the hill. The care I give it cannot be out of an obligation to the end product, because I cannot know if any substantial fruit will grow on any branch of it. I cannot depend upon watering it because I want people to know it was I who watered it, because I don’t always remember to do it at the right time, it rains as often as I have to do it, and sometimes other people do it anyway! I have to want the plants to grow because I think it is good for them to grow, regardless of any other outcome, or else I simply will not invest the energy I need to into their life. The thing in itself, the growth of the plant, must supersede all other considerations I have in this venture.

In the same way, if Christ is removed from the center of our mindset, we will lose track of our own work and our lives. If Christ is not the center of what I do, I will have to become a far greater source of motivation. Even in the most disciplined person cannot be completely inwardly motivated, I must believe I am working toward something outside myself. If I do not, every success will only prop up my ego and every failure will only make me feel like a wreck not worthy of anything. Our center must be on Christ, because outside of that center will we prioritize and exalt just about anything and everything we touch.

Paul was working against two large competing identities in the Church. There were the “Circumcised,” and the “Uncircumcised,” the Gentiles and the Jews in other words. Each group had worked to claim themselves, in some places and at some times, to be the superior stock from which Christians could be made. Gentiles were born into the Church by God’s grace, and knew only Jesus – therefore they might argue they had a purer Gospel. The Jewish believers, meanwhile, would lean upon the long history they had with God, upon Moses and the Prophets, and show their clear advantage as proof they were superior. To pull either off their pedestal would not be easy, and so Paul pointed up to a far taller pillar in their lives.

To the Gentile, Paul offered the truth that though they were once far from God, they were now brought close to God. “You do know of God only through Christ! You are brought into the faith by his works!” Paul this says to the Gentile, and to the Jew he affirms their antiquity. “We are God’s people! We have the benefit of the Law and the Prophets, and we always been close to God because of this!” Yet, Paul is clear, neither group really had the fullness of God without one thing. Faith. Moreso their faith would not mean anything if it did not have a strong center – God in Jesus Christ.

Christ, and not any work of the Law or of its absence, is what had made God’s people into who they are. The household of the faith was built off of a single cornerstone, not two. There is nothing that can separate God from God’s people, because God is the one who made them who they are. In the verse immediately before what we read, Paul makes this all the clearer, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— not the result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them”

As I was driving around Clarksburg recently I thought of what a shame it is that, especially in America, there is no single idea of what it means to be a Christian. I don’t mean styles of worship or types of people, even specific practices can be very different – after all, we aren’t saved by any of those things. No, I mean there is no concept of a unified belief in most anything. When the Ministerial Association tried to reform in Harrison County, I was one of the first people to say we should get a group together to state what we all, as Christians, can agree on and base our work on the firm foundation our shared faith in Christ gave us… We did not have those kinds of meetings, and so we floundered trying to identify what our purpose would be.

That is the problem in most things that the Church does. We are no longer centered on Christ in a way that can produce fruitful work. In our own congregations we are willing to fight and bicker until we inevitably splinter and perish. If we have a firm foundation in Christ, in the need to have faith, and in the striving together toward God’s righteousness, centering everything in Christ’s example – the Church could change the world. The problem is, as we talked about in week one – we are all trying to make a Christ who agrees completely with us, and are unwilling to accept a Christ that challenges us.

When we are told that Christ has destroyed the dividing walls, we should feel something within us quake. When we hear that Christ has abolished distinctions as important as “circumcision,” and “uncircumcision,” we should feel something deep within ourselves. The sign of God’s presence with God’s people is no longer the defining mark of God’s promise? It’s an emblem of suffering and death turned into the ultimate source of life for all people! We are called to love, to a commitment to Christ that means we do not categorize ourselves a million times over, just so we can say who is allowed into the Kingdom and who is not.

The Hope of every prophet is that God’s word, planted in the world, will bear fruit as God’s kingdom. That Hope has always been expansive and outward focused. The day is coming, and is already here, where all flesh will know the Goodness of God! If only we are willing to share it, to live it, to be it! We can only do that if we see beyond any worldly goals. More money in a plate, more seats in /our/ pews, more of a say in the world stage – if we see beyond this and see the one goal that matters, the one focus that amounts to anything. Jesus, and Jesus alone, we will thrive. Christ with us, Christ clearing the path for us. Our life is found in beholding God, let us behold God with all our heart and soul and mind, that our work may be unclouded and our hearts pure. – Amen.

Mark 6: 14-29

King Herod heard of it, for Jesus’s name had become known. Some were saying, “John the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.” But others said, “It is Elijah.” And others said, “It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.”

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Herod had married her. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to kill him. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him. But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officers and for the leaders of Galilee.

When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.” And he swore to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, even half of my kingdom.” She went out and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?” She replied, “The head of John the baptizer.” Immediately she rushed back to the king and requested, “I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.” The king was deeply grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.

Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl. Then the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Sermon Text

One of the most difficult aspects of life is the nature of our legacies. We have no control over what happens to something once we no longer have our hands on it. When you work for years in the same place, and then move to a new job or retire, you do not know if the person who follows after you will keep anything you started going. Will they respect it, grow it, revamp it? Or will they squander your hard work and leave you feeling like it was all for nothing.

Scripture gives an entire book for us to consider the frustration of life’s cycles. When we open up Ecclesiastes, a personal favorite of mine, we see page after page of reflection on how hard it is to see life go on beyond us. Whether it is our industry, our community, or our Church – the fact that at some point we have to hand off what we’re doing to another person can be difficult. The period of transition itself can be one of the worst aspects of these changes. When one era of our life ends and another begins it can be hard to accept. Whether that is a natural change in our life – kids leaving home (or being born,) a death of a loved one – or more social changes – a change in jobs, the end of a friendship, a move from one place to another – change is just no fun.

The reality persists, all the same, that the work we did is seldom completely abandoned or forgotten. It matters that we participate in the world around us and that we do good wherever we are. Maybe the organizational system we put in place in the office was changed once we left – but the need to be organized was likely imprinted on someone’s heart and mind. Maybe it seems that a friendship ended at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons, but the time spent with that friend and the lessons learned from this ending will carry on in both your hearts. Especially in the Church, in the work of God, it is only in extreme cases of actual harm that we see people’s work for the good of the Kingdom fall on fallow ground.

There is, however, a way that the work we do can be limited in its potential. When we are not thinking forward to what will happen after us, we inevitably begin to fall short of our goals. When we take up the mantle of a ministry worker and then hold onto it tightly, we risk smothering a fire that could be better fanned by multiple people working on it. We need to always be training up other people to take part in our work and ensuring that whatever we have begun will not be halted when we are no longer able to do it for one reason or another.

We are blessed sometimes that God provides a clear succession of help and leadership through the Spirit’s work in our lives. The scripture we read today reports, almost as an afterthought, the death of John the Baptist. Why is it that this central figure in the Gospels killed off screen? Because there was already a successor in his prophetic ministry, and more than that the end goal of that prophetic ministry. Christ was baptized by John, beginning his public ministry, and in that baptism the focal point of God’s work shifted and expanded in a way that none but God could have ever dreamed.

John was lucky that this transition would happen with our without his input, you were not about to limit what God was doing in something this major. Yet, all the same, we see in John’s reaction to Christ’s ministry certain hallmarks that are indicative of our own approaches to transitions. Reactions, neither good nor bad, but that all the same demonstrate how difficult it can be to hand over our roles from one person to another.

Christ’s public ministry was met with John making a clear statement, “He must increase, and I must decrease,” in other words he saw that the Messiah had come and the need to proclaim his work was no longer the most important thing he could do. He had to step aside so that Christ could be unimpeded in his ascent in ministry. Yet, John quickly grew anxious. This new prophet was not acting like he expected. For a Messiah and a prophet greater than even Moses, Jesus was not taking down Rome or establishing a new, vibrant kingdom within Judah. John’s anxiety bubbled up until he finally asked point-blank, “Are you the Messiah, or should we wait for another?” John was confident in handing off his work, until Jesus started doing it differently than he would have.

Jesus would reassure John that the work of the Gospel was being done, that he need not worry. Though we do not have John’s response written down, it is fair to say that John was content with this answer. He continued to preach a return to righteousness, and he continued to point the finger toward Jesus as the one who not only succeeded his ministry, but exceeded it. John was able to go confidently to the headsman because he had seen that he had handed off his work and trusted that God would do something with it. John secured an eternal legacy by acknowledging his role as a forerunner.

I do my best to model my ministry off of John the Baptist. While I am with a congregation we work hard to do the work of God, but I know that there is always another minister down the line who will take up the work when I am gone. I pray that they will always be better than me and pave a new and exciting way for any Church that I am involved in. If my ministry is not lived with the next minister in mind, then I will only ever fail the churches I serve. Once I’m gone, hopefully a while from now, things will change, but I want to be able to hand over more things than I have to end. Legacy matters in the impact that is left, not in the name attached to the work done.

In our own ministries, we should not have one person who does anything, there should always be at least two. One person can lead, but another needs to be supporting them and learning from them. Like Elijah and Elisha, mantles need to be passed on if we want the work we do to really flourish. We need to conduct our business so nothing is ever dependent on individuals – the whole Church must be accountable to its own ministry.

I ask that we all be in prayer, whether we are thinking about our personal lives, our work in the Church, or any aspect of life. Are we preparing the way for the people who will come after us? Are we teaching others to do what we can? Have we included the next generation of workers in our lives, in our work, so they can continue on what we have begun? If we cannot answer yes to these simple questions, we must repent of it quickly. There is much to be done, more than we could ever do in our lifetime. We must cherish the time we have now to get it done, we must pass on what we know to others that they may continue the work after we are gone, and we must rejoice in the transitions life sends our way.

There is great fear to be found in transition, in change, but there is also untold opportunity. Let God lead you to joy, that like John we might be able to find the time when we can say aloud, “I must decrease, that you may increase.” Lord, let us build our legacies so they may be fully enjoyed by those after us, and let us do so now and not wait until it is too late.

Ezekiel 2:1-5

He said to me: “O mortal, stand up on your feet, and I will speak with you.” And when he spoke to me, a spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard him speaking to me. He said to me, “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me; they and their ancestors have transgressed against me to this very day. The descendants are impudent and stubborn. I am sending you to them, and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord God.’ Whether they hear or refuse to hear (for they are a rebellious house), they shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

Sermon Text

When I first took a Church, I was planning out the year ahead of me and saw that I would have the opportunity to preach on this passage one July 4^th weekend. Being a new minister, I decided better of it. Now, with some years behind me and a lot more grace in my heart, I think it is time for the serendipity of secular holidays and ecclesial text lists lining up just so, and see in it an opportunity for us to learn a bit about what we as Christians owe to our nation. How do we balance our identity as people born into the world, and therefore as residents of a singular location, and out identity as people born into Christ’s new world, into the Kingdom of Heaven which transcends any regional boundaries.

Many of us grew up, I think, in churches that did not really make a distinction between Christian identity and American identity. “Aren’t they the same thing?” We seem to have asked ourselves. Yet, I think we cannot deny that there is a difference between being a Christian – someone washed in the blood and born by the Spirit – and being a member of any one people group. To be in Christ is not to erase who we are, but it is to find ourselves defined by new terms. We are Americans, yes, but we are Christians first, and as Christians we have a calling far higher than what our zip codes dictate.

The first people to be called to follow God, scripture tells us, were native to a specific land. What land was that? Unless you answer “Chaldea,” or “Babylon,” you have the cart ahead of the horse. Abraham, the recipient of God’s covenant, was a Babylonian from the ancient city of Ur. He and his family left Ur, settled in Charan, and then eventually he and his descendants came to Canaan. Canaan was their home until they came to Egypt, then out of Egypt they returned to their ancestral home and established a Kingdom – Israel.

From the beginning the identity of the people of God was not based in who they were or where they were nearly so much as what they did. Abraham was promised his lineage would succeed, but his following that call to Canaan secured it for him. God’s call to Israel that he would continue that lineage was solidified only after he fought tooth and nail with God, learning his place in the process. Again and again, the promise of God was met with the faithfulness of God’s people and something came out of it that never was there before. A kind of righteousness born only out of knowing God, truly and personally.

Fast forward in the story and we eventually see Christ open the door of God’s family and covenant to all people who believe – not just those of any one family. Though Jeremiah had shown this was God’s intent centuries before, only after Christ entered the world did this movement really take off.[1] Christ’s mission from beginning to end was an expansion of God’s kingdom to all who believed, to all who earnestly repented of their sin, who sought to live together in a kingdom without end.

The scripture we read today is a lesson for this new kingdom, born out of an older one. Ezekiel, having just seen an incredible vision of all God’s glory, is told he must prophecy to his people in exile – and that the people he is speaking too are stubborn and cruel and intentionally ignorant. Yet, they are his people and he must preach to them – because then no one can deny the word of God is among them, whether they agree with it or not.

The presence of a prophet in the world… Don’t we need that? Someone to interpret the world in the words of God? Not to cast a vision of doom based on their own politics like so many supposed prophets are now. No, a prophet who looks out at the world and says, “People of God! Turn now and see yourselves thrive!” A prophet that cares more about what God seeks in the world than what is convenient or politically expedient. Lord, do we need such a presence.

            [As Christians, we profess that Christ established a kingdom for all people from all places on earth. There is no one who does not have a place in God’s kingdom and no people who cannot find a home within that kingdom. This is not a kingdom like other worldly kingdoms – dependent on successions of kings and military might. It is a kingdom with one eternal ruler, a nation who takes up tools to help rather than tools of war. It is an empire of spirit rather than matter. 

            We are coming closer and closer to a general election in this country, and I do not anticipate that it will be a smooth election year. The lead up to our primary was nasty enough, I can only imagine how things will heat up as we approach the general. The political stakes are high in this election as in any. We all face a dichotomy between the reality that our vote matters – our view on what comes next in the country and in democracy – matters… and the reality that, regardless of what happens we will all have to wake up the next day and keep living life. There is always work to be done, there is always life to live, and in the face of any potential future – we must figure out how we as the people of God are going to live out our calling.

            We in the United States are poisoned by a concept of the political. Advocacy, voting, civic participation are all important and we must be active in these things to ensure democracy thrives. However, we taken the worst lessons of politicking and applied that to our faith and to our kingdom work. We campaign for one thing or another in our churches, we try to sway people to vote this way or that way, and we even try and blame leadership for the way things are… Instead of focusing on our own participation in the broken systems we choose again and again to take part in.

            On one hand, this is endemic to the specific systems we in the Methodist Church have – after all we are a democracy. On the other hand, it is more than Methodists who try to make the Kingdom of God come into being through political rather than spiritual thinking.

            Faith impacts the way we act in the world, and so there are politics that align with and that work against a Christian view of the world. Any policy that advocates for cruelty rather than compassion, that does harm to the least of these, that seeks to criminalize the marginalized, and that generally sets out to hurt others is obviously, should obviously be, anti-Christian in our minds. Yet the methods of this world and its power struggles are a matter separate from these concerns. While we as worldly people tend to group the world into enemies and friends, scripture asks us to blur those categories, and in so doing, create a kingdom where all people can find shelter.

            This does not make us opinionless or uselessly moderate, it simply means that we do not make our decisions based upon categories or assumptions, but upon people and their welfare. People often criticized Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. because he took sides in political struggles. He was called a socialist, a communist plant, a Marxist seeking to destroy democracy. However, his stance was a Christian one – that all people were worthy of human dignity. His methods were likewise Christian – he called people to look upon the suffering of those who were hurt by the Jim Crow South and the ignorant North. He called people to nonviolently face atrocity, so that their cause would be obvious in the eyes of world. You cannot hurt unarmed people and not reveal your own depravity in doing so. 

            He called upon the White, Moderate Church to free itself of the idea that it was wrong to be political. He asked them to take on a Kingdom Perspective that would impact their politics rather than the other way around. Silence in the face of oppression is complicity after all. Yet, the kind of reconciliation he was seeking was Biblical and it was powerful. He did not advocate for cheap grace that would pretend injustice never happened, but an honest reckoning to the harm that white folk had caused to black folk since 1619 and beyond. It looked forward to a future where reconciliation was possible, it acknowledged a present where the evils of hatred still reigned, and it did not deny the past where even worse was perpetrated.

            Regardless of what happens in November, we as the Church will be called to a witness that we have always held. We will be called to advocate for those in need, to acknowledge the harm that our current systems cause, and to work for a future where all people can live in abundance, peace, and harmony. We do this by seeking to live with people, not writing off others as our enemies. We do this through serious reflection and repentance on our own part. We do this through engaging with the world around us as members of a political system, but in the manner of people of God. We do so not to win, but to see that God’s will is done. We do so not to triumph over those we disagree with, but to see that all people are given their God given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.][2]

            If we wish to truly celebrate the nation we are a part of, I pray that we will be willing to speak up about the need for us to live a life different from the world around us. Do you love the Lord? Then love your neighbor! Do you seek to live at peace with one another? Then you better advocate for you neighbor in the face of those who would disenfranchise them! Do you earnestly repent of your sins? Then stop doing the same tired things we’ve been doing for decades!

            We have an opportunity to be a prophetic voice in this world, to proclaim that there is a prophet in this world, and it is Christ speaking through his Church. America must repent, and rather than basing our criteria of repentance on whether someone is a Democrat or a Republican, I invite us all to reflect on our contribution to this world’s problems. Let us not be the sort of nation God can call, “impudent and stubborn,” but one that embodies all God has called us to be. Blessed as we are to be in this nation, let us make it better tomorrow than it is today, tear down the walls of oppression and injustice we have let rise up between us. Let us see God’s kingdom made real today! Let us do the work! Let us preach the word! Let us walk the life! Glory to God! Amen!

[1] Jeremiah 29: 5-7

[2] This portion is actually from an earlier sermon I wrote but did not preach. Frequent readers may notice this. Sometimes the words we write are not meant for the Sunday we wrote them for, their true time is only revealed later.