I hope I will not shock
you too much if I am a bit critical
of Amos and John the Baptist.
I don’t mean to disrespect
the Bible.
But apart from Jesus, God
only makes
cameo appearances in Scripture.
He shows up, says a few
things, then exits the stage for several centuries.
Most of the Bible is
various people holding forth
on what they believed God thought about this or that.
The problem is these
various people had so many different opinions.
Thankfully, we do not
worship a book but the Risen Lord.
So whatever anyone says
or does in the Bible
we measure against the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now Amos had some strong
feelings about social justice.
He was pretty angry at
the good church-going folks who,
in his words, “trampled the poor.”
Amos said was definitely
right,
but the ferocious way he said it wasn’t very effective.
It didn’t change
anything.
More importantly, his
tone did not bespeak the gospel.
There was a lot of
justice in it, but not much love.
John the Baptist was a
passionate guy too.
Every second Sunday of
Advent we hear him calling
his congregation “a brood of vipers.”
One of our priests once
called his vestry “a brood of vipers”
in the Advent II sermon.
It wasn’t very effective.
John the Baptist was
dogmatically certain that Herod’s marriage
to his half-brother’s ex-wife was immoral and
illegal.
But both the network of
family relationships and the law
were pretty tangled up and confusing.
So what John said may or
may not have been right,
but the hostile, dogmatic spirit in which he said it
did not bespeak the gospel.
The spirit in which we
speak Is more important
than
whether we are right or wrong.
One day I was in the
sauna at my gym with two men
who had
both been forced into early retirement.
They were ranting
bitterly against those who had cut off their careers.
One of them was blaming
business management wishing he had a union
to defend his rights.
The other was blaming the
union for selling him out.
They were substantively
taking opposite positions.
But they didn’t’ notice
it.
They thought they were
agreeing
because they were united in their bitterness.
That is a dark side of the
spirit trumping the substance of what we say.
There is another side,
the gospel side.
St. Paul described the
gospel spirit this way to the Philippians:
“If
there is . . . any incentive in love, any participation in the Spirit,
. . . . have the same mind, … the
same love, being in full accord. . . .
Do nothing from selfishness or
conceit, but in humility
count others better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to your
own interests
but also the interests of others.
Have the same mind . . . that was in
Christ Jesus
who, . . . emptied
himself taking the form of a servant . . . “
Paul says again and
again, being right doesn’t matter.
Love matters. “Knowledge
puffs up. Love builds up.” 1 Corinthians 8: 1.
Jesus had one simple
theme -- the Kingdom of God.
“Seek ye first the
Kingdom of God,” he said. Matthew 6: 33.
He was not talking about
going to heaven when we die.
The Kingdom of God is a
spiritual state
that guides us as
we speak and act here and now.
Paul called that
spiritual state “being in Christ.”
And that meant love,
humility, even sacrifice.
We enter the Kingdom, we
live in Christ,
first by laying down our pride, selfishness,
cockiness, aggression, and self-will.
That’s what Paul meant by
crucifying the ego. He said,
“I have
been crucified with Christ and yet I live.
No. Not I. It is Christ who lives in me. . . .
I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me.”
To enter the Kingdom, to
be in Christ, is to lay down our egos
and live as Paul describes:
“Do nothing from selfishness or
conceit, but in humility
count others better than yourselves.
Let each of you look not only to your
own interests
but also the interests of others.
Have the same mind . . . that was in
Christ Jesus”
The Kingdom is not the way
of this world.
It isn’t what we learned
in school.
It certainly isn’t what
we learned in our workplaces
that operated by Darwinian completion.
The Kingdom is God’s way
– not the world’s way.
Because it isn’t the
world’s way,
we don’t see it very often.
But the Kingdom does
happen.
It breaks in at the most
unexpected times and places.
The last place I would
ever expect to see the Kingdom
is a legislative session of the General Convention.
Our Convention isn’t
designed for the Kingdom.
It’s designed to look
like Congress – opposing factions
fighting to get their way.
But last week I saw the
Kingdom make a surprise appearance.
The bishops who favored
gay marriage had the votes to win.
We did not need to make
any concessions to the other side.
Concessions would not get
us a singe vote.
Besides we did not need a
single vote from them.
But we worked long and
hard to revise the canon to make sure
that dissenters would not be forced
to do anything contrary to their
conscience.
After the canon, passed
the minority,
who call
themselves “the Communion Partners,”
told us they would have to, as a matter of
conscience,
make a
public statement criticizing and
disavowing our action.
But they said it gently,
courteously, assuring us of their respect
and that they had no intention of leaving our Church.
The Bishops responded by
passing a unanimous resolution, saying:
“We . . . . wish to express our love and appreciation
for (the) Communion Partners . . . . . We value and rely on
their commitment to the Episcopal Church . . . .
Our church needs their witness . . . .The equanimity,
generosity, and graciousness with which (they) have shared their views . . .
and remain in relationship is a model for us to follow.”
I dream of
parishes in which we all treat each other respectfully,
graciously, and compassionately.
I dream of a
diocese in which parishes are eager to help one another
and support our common mission, the Kingdom Mission.
Once in
awhile my dream comes true .
Whenever the
Kingdom breaks into the church,
we are all blessed
because we have, for that moment,
been in Christ.
We have
emptied ourselves of our Selves and known the peace of God.
If the
Kingdom of God can break in at Church
it could happen anywhere.
If we catch
a glimpse of the Kingdom here,
we get a feel for what it’s like to
live
by God’s way instead of the world’s
way.
That holy
way of being can spread out into our homes,
our workplaces and the whole of our
life.
When that
happens we catch a glimpse of a new and better day.
As blessed
Paul, said,
“If anyone is in Christ, there is a
new creation.”
