Sermon for the Last Sunday in Epiphany
So, here’s the question. Raise your hands.
Is the world getting better?
Worse?
Can’t tell?
That’s kind of what I thought. More of us in the middle. Some days it is not that hard to believe that things are getting better. Like novocain. Any time I m getting dental work, I am thankful that I don’t live in the days before novocain. Surely the world is getting better. When I hear about the amazing work being done around the world by people like Bill Gates, I have hope for humanity. We live in a time of easy and instant communication, so we know about situations and people no one had heard of just a hundred years ago. We are able to care about those situations and respond in ways never possible before. But, that same communication sometimes brings us an overwhelming volume of hard news that can leave us thinking humanity must be coming apart. Wars, famine, disease, displaced populations. No wonder we are not all of one mind about whether the world is getting better.
Now you know me, and the one overarching theme I come back to again and again, about how you don’t have to believe all the Church’s stories in order to participate in the faith community. If you want to be here, then you belong. I believe that and say it all the time. I’ve told people they don’t have to believe anything if they are having trouble with belief. Just show up. Well I think I’ve changed my mind on that. I think there is one thing we do need to believe. Christians don’t have to believe Jesus walked on water, but we had better believe the world in which we live can be improved, can more clearly reflect the kingdom of God.
I’ve come to this understanding, in part, because of a little passage I ran across recently in John Crossan’s latest book on the parables of Jesus. In one chapter, he compares Jesus’ method and agenda with those of John the baptist. Crossan says Jesus refined his message in response to what he saw John doing. He says John told the people who came out to see him that the kingdom of God would arrive soon, that it’s coming would be violent, as in “who told you to flee from the wrath to come?” and it would be brought about by God alone. Jesus, on the other hand, said the kingdom of God is here now, it is non-violent, and making the kingdom known and visible in the world is a collaborative effort. It was that last part, about the collaborative effort that made me take a new look at the two Moses-up-the-mountain stories we have today. Yes, two Moses stories. The first one, of course, is from Exodus, and the second one is the transfiguration story as told by Matthew who certainly wants us to know that Jesus is the new Moses, come to lead the people to a new promised land.
In the Exodus story, what you need to know is that a few verses before what we read today, God tells Moses to come up the mountain to see him, but to come into his presence alone. All by himself. You may remember that while Moses is up the mountain, Aaron and the others get impatient and end up building that golden calf. God dealt harshly with those people. It was one of the low points in Israel’s story. John the baptist knew this part of the story. He imagined God returning in anger to straighten out an unfaithful people.
Jesus has a different approach. When Jesus goes up the mountain, he takes Peter, James and John. They don’t stand at a distance, but are right there with Jesus where he can reassure them and help them process what they are experiencing. Jesus answers our calf-building tendencies, not by whipping us into submission, as John expected, but by making us partners in the whole enterprise of making the Kingdom real.
If the kingdom is just about getting into heaven later, then we can give up on much in this life. But, if the kingdom is here and now as Jesus says it is, and if we are to be a part of making the kingdom real to the world around us, then we have an outline, a purpose for our lives. Everything matters. Crossan, in his discussion of this collaborative effort, quotes Desmond Tutu who says, “without us God will not, as we without God cannot.”
The reason I like to tell people they don’t have to believe everything the Church says is that I don’t know how anyone can change their belief. I still think that is true about most of our stories, but I think there may be a way to change our beliefs about whether the world is getting better, about whether the kingdom is coming into view. What would happen if we each found some piece of the world we would like to see improved and invested ourselves in that area. We might find a group that’s doing good work and engaging in worthwhile discussions and follow them on line. Maybe find some way to plug in and participate in their work. Even a skeptic can look for signs of something good happening and decide to focus there for a little while. Maybe that’s how we become believers in the Kingdom Jesus announced, the one that is all around us. I’ve never met anyone passionate about making the world better who didn’t believe in their heart it was possible.
Is the world getting better? Can the world get better? Looking around from this vantage point, on this hill top with Jesus, what do you see?
John B
