Monday, 10 May 2010 06:13
“Urban planning for God’s kingdom”
Revelation 21:10, 22-22:5 / John 14:23-29
6 Easter C
9 May 2010
Last year for our council retreat I used as a guide a book by the late Rabbi Ed Friedman, titled “A Failure of Nerve.” You may not be familiar with Rabbi Friedman, or this book, but many of you do know of his work … for Nativity went through some of the “Healthy Congregations” material during your interim with Pastor Barden … and Healthy Congregations is largely based on Rabbi Friedman’s better-known book on family systems entitled “Generation to Generation.”
“Failure of Nerve” is Friedman’s final work … actually, it was not completely finished when he died … but it could well serve as his memorial … for in it, he laments the “failure of nerve” apparent in much of late 20th and early 21st century America … a “detached majority” allowing small, destructive groups of people to hold the larger population hostage to their whims; settling for ‘just getting along’ rather than challenging the wrongs and evils in the world; and, avoiding conflict at all costs, even when silence means people will be hurt, or killed.
For example … one of Friedman’s chief illustrations was how the world - and in particular, the US - did virtually nothing to prevent or end the greatest act of genocide since Nazi Germany … the murder of over a million people in Rwanda in 1994. While life generally went on as normal here, in Rwanda whole villages were wiped out – families destroyed – a nation lost 20% of its population, 10,000 people a day, 400 an hour, 7 every minute. Yet we did nothing.
Part of what makes “Failure of Nerve” so important to me is that it makes clear the result of people, organizations, communities or whole nations, when they lose sight of or, worse, never having a goal or goals for the future, “reasons for being,” something, a larger goal for the greater good, to aspire to, to set as a standard by which progress is to be measured. “Without vision the people perish” Proverbs 29:28 reads in the King James Version … and that old saying certainly holds true, be it for individuals, groups, nations, or worshipping communities.
You and I must have to have something to look forward to … “our eyes on the prize” … the loss of hope, I would argue, is the end of our humanity, who we are created to be.
Here in these Sundays after Easter it can be particularly easy to lose sight of our “prize” … as I said a couple of weeks ago, summer feels like it’s finally coming on, school and other activities are winding down for the year … and we’re tired from all the busy-ness of Advent and Christmas and Epiphany and Lent and Holy Week. Worship, church life, faith in community can feel like a let-down, a tired obligation, a going through the motions without any life in, with or behind it.
Ah … but that’s a failure of nerve. As my Buddhist friend says, “if you’re bored … you’re just not paying attention.”
And so as we pay attention we see that, right before us, these Sundays after Easter are not just afterthoughts … our liturgy and even the names of the days serve to remind us that Easter is not simply a one-shot deal after which “it’s all downhill until fall” … no, these are all the Sundays OF Easter … each Sunday, each worship service, is an opportunity once again to celebrate, to mark in Scripture and Song and Sacrament that Christ Is Risen … risen to save sinners, you and me … risen to bring forgiveness, and life, to the world.
Through the story of Thomas, we hear the Word that faith in the risen Christ comes through being part of a community of gathered believers.
The story of Peter and Jesus, fishing, then ashore, reminds us of Christ’s call to us, to show forth our love for him through serving others.
The word about the Lamb who is the Shepherd helps us recall that the risen Lord Jesus reigns as a suffering Savior who delivers the Good News that God Loves Sinners through his death on the cross.
And last week’s Gospel text, Jesus’ command for us to Love One Another … coming as it does at the intersection of betrayal and denial … reminds us of the sacrificial nature of Jesus’ love for us, and his call for us to follow in the same sacrificial, self-giving love … in Luther’s words, “putting on our neighbor” … through conversation, in community, finding out the needs of our neighbor, those around us, and serving them, without thought of gain or reward, giving of ourselves as Christ has given of himself for us.
But what stands at the heart of all those words? What vision, given by God, guides us into living real, authentic lives … so that others can, will see Christ through us, our words, our actions?
There are some who would say, well, it’s just a vision, the promise of heaven itself. Earth and everything about it is sinful and awful, and so there’s not much sense in wasting our time and efforts on this life, here and now. We should just concentrate on making sure that others are saved … that they would hear, and know, the Word that God Loves Sinners, and accept it as a Word that Saves from sin, death and the devil, for eternity … in other words, it’s all about heaven, where you go after you die. They cite passages like our reading from Revelation today, about the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, as proof that our focus should just be “up” rather than “out” … that being part of the Kingdom of God is a Word about eternity … not about working for justice, peace, “God’s kingdom” stuff in the here and now of this world.
There are some political –radio – TV commentators who would even go so far as to say, Christian work for justice and peace – working toward an end to poverty, hopelessness and hatred in the here and now -- is just dead wrong, and any preacher who tells you that is worthless and not to be trusted.
Well, call me worthless, then.
But not on my own account. On Jesus’.
“Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.”
Keeping Jesus’ word, here in these words from John’s gospel, most certainly means keeping all the Words that we’ve heard over the past few weeks of this Easter season … but more. It includes those tough words about loving one’s enemies … loving people at our life intersections of betrayal and denial … loving the poor, the powerless, the downtrodden at the expense of our own comfort and peace.
This is far greater than a legalistic-sounding “obey.” It’s more the sense of “hold dear” … one could even re-state this sentence by saying “those who love me will love my Word.”
And that keeping, that loving of Jesus’ word, it’s not just for a heavenly vision of glory one day … it is, indeed, living and praying into that phrase in the Lord’s Prayer which we recite all the time … “your kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven.”
Yes, that’s right … our vision, our guiding light, is that we are called to work for God’s kingdom, here on earth, here and now, here and in all the places where we work and live and serve, every day of our lives.
That is our focus, our vision, what guides us, what gives us nerve and motivation to be who we are called to be in Christ’s name, to live and serve using the gifts God has given to each of us, to and for our neighbor in their want and need, every day of this life.
We are not a people without vision. We have the clearest, most distinct of visions, to lead and guide us, and more than enough for each day of our lives. No time to be bored. No reason for a failure of nerve.
We have before us a clear plan, “urban planning for God’s kingdom.” A guide, a hope for what could be here on earth, as it is in heaven.
Now, yes, of course, perfection won’t be attainable this side of the heavenly kingdom, and for us to set our vision there is not only foolish … leading us to disillusionment and disappointment when what we do, and what we see others doing in Jesus’ name, falls far short of the mark he calls us to … but it’s also idolatrous. We’re not God.
But God does send us one, an Advocate, a guide, a helper, to remind us of that fact … to call us to repentance when we overstep our bounds … and to encourage us to “keep on keeping on” in faith, in love, in service … keeping our eyes on the vision, not losing our Christ-given-and-led nerve or will to serve and love in Jesus’ name. We’ll hear more about the gift of the Advocate – the Holy Spirit – in a couple of weeks, on Pentecost Sunday, when this Gospel text will come around again – but for now, just know and be assured that we do not have to “try to keep Jesus’ word” all on our own. We have help – sent by God – through this community, through the Word we hear and the meal we share – to keep our eyes on that vision and our hands steady in working for it “on earth as it is in heaven.”
And of that vision … we have a good Word from Barbara Rossing, professor at our ELCA seminary in Chicago and one-time pastor at Holden Village … she writes:
I like to ask people to say the name of their own town or city out loud. Then I invite them to re-phrase the vision of the New Jerusalem (from Revelation) in terms of their own city’s renewal … “I saw the holy city, God’s new Seattle … Renton … Kent … Auburn … coming down out of heaven …” What would your ‘new’ city look like, envisioned in light of God’s vision of hope? This is an exercise in “borrowing the eyes of God.” We see our world as God sees it.
How does God see our world?
God Loves Sinners.
God wants the best for us.
God calls us to repentance, and forgives us, when we lose sight of that vision.
And God keeps calling us to that heavenly vision of justice, and kindness, mercy and peace, “on earth as it is in heaven.”
As long as we have life and breath in us … we are called to serve, to work, to proclaim that vision … not just “by and by,” but here and now, in Jesus’ name.
Authentically, honestly, in the ways we are gifted to speak and serve … because we may be the only ones others see or hear Jesus through, in their lives.
May it be so among us, people of Nativity. May it be so among us.
Amen.
