This is a sermon I preached back in November of 2007 at my home church in Fort Wayne. In lieu of new, orginal content, I will post this. It is long, so don't feel obligated to see it through, although the end is my favorite part...
(Based on the texts Malachi 4:1-2a, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13, Luke 21:5-19)
When I first read the texts that I would be preaching on this week I was more than a little distressed. At first, and maybe second and third glance, they are very intimidating texts for my first sermon as a “seminary student.”
One of my fellow students had the helpful suggestion that I should just get up here and after reading the gospel lesson, close the Bible and say, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in you presence,” and sit back down. I however, decided to take a slightly different approach.
So what are we to make of scriptures that say things like “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10) and “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.” (Luke 21:16)
Not exactly the words to say or preach on the Sunday before all of us gather around tables of bounty with family for Thanksgiving! And yet here we are and here I stand. So what is going on in these readings? And what are we to take away?
One of the things I have come to learn over this past year is that when I am reading the Bible, if there is nothing that challenges me in the conduct of my life and faith, I’ve surely missed something, and I need to try to go back with new eyes. There are many parts of the Bible that we don’t like to read for this very reason. They challenge our comfortable lives and, like our Thessalonians text today, call us out of idleness.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to the Thessalonians the issue Paul was addressing was the “idle people” within the church body. There were some in the Thessalonian Church who were thinking Christ was coming back any day, so they weren’t going to bother with the work of the church, instead becoming idle and complacent. They were simply waiting for the end, or the “day of the Lord.”
Our Old Testament reading today is also about “the Day of the Lord.” Malachi, prophesying about the “Day of the Lord” says in chapter 3 verse 5 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment: I will be swift to bear witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice.”
Again after today's verses in Malachi the prophet relays God’s promise to send Elijah the prophet to “turn the hearts of the people” before the “Day of the Lord.” We as Christians believe this promise to be fulfilled in John the Baptist, who was considered by Jesus himself to be the new Elijah, saying in Mark 9 that John had “come first to restore all things.” So what is with this “Day of the Lord?”
All three of our texts this morning have something to do with this idea of “the Day of the Lord.” This is actually an Old Testament concept that is carried throughout the whole Bible. To the Israelites the Day of the Lord meant the day when God was going to carry out justice for God’s people (specifically them!) and destroy all of their enemies, all those other countries that beat up on them all the time like Egypt and the Assyrians and the Babylonians just to name a few. The prophets in the Old Testament had to repeatedly remind the people of Israel that the Day of the Lord was not about revenge, but justice, specifically justice for the poor, the oppressed, the alien and the broken. Israel, with all its unfaithfulness, spiritual complacency and injustice was going to be judged right along with all the rest of the world, and it wasn’t going to feel too good. This is why the prophets were constantly calling the people to repent and be faithful followers of God.
One concept I have come to really appreciate and hold onto in Seminary is the idea of the “now and not yet.” This is the idea that when Christ came it was the coming of the Day of the Lord.” or “the Kingdom of Heaven” as it is often referred to by Jesus in the Gospels. Christ came to bring justice and the ultimate solution to our problem with sin by becoming one of us and showing us the right way to live, even unto death. That is the “now” part of “now and not yet.” “The Day of the Lord” is now...it has come!
However we also live in the time of the “not-yet.” This is one of the many tensions that exist in the Christian faith walk. We wait for Christ’s second coming when God will finally put all things right. And, as it says in Romans 8, all of creation waits with us, groaning in labor pains for redemption. This is the hope for which the whole world waits for, what we actually focus on and celebrate in the season coming up next for the church, Advent.
In fact, this is what ties all of our readings today together. All three readings deal with what we are supposed to do in the “not-yet” while we wait for Jesus to come again, for the Day of the Lord to arrive. Are we supposed to just sit around and wait? No, not if we take our faith life seriously. The church is not meant to be a place of escape from the rest of the world, where we sit twiddling our thumbs for Jesus to come and take us to heaven. The apostle Paul says instead that the church is meant to be the body of Christ. If we are the body of Christ, that means we are Christ’s presence in the world, the vessel through which God has chosen to work. As Christians we are called to care about what God cares about. But how do we know what God cares about?
Lucky for us, the “now” part of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Day of the Lord, has come. In Jesus we have the perfect picture of what we are called to be, how we can be his body in the world. Jesus was a very radical and subversive guy. He refused to be hemmed in by what society’s rules told him it was ok to do. Jesus hung out with the poor, the sinners, the social outcasts. Jesus cared for the downtrodden in a way few have dared to follow since. Funny thing, the same things Jesus cared about seems to be the things that God cares about too. Justice for the poor, the oppressed, the alien, the broken.
If we identify ourselves as citizens of the Kingdom of heaven that is here now, but not yet...if we call ourselves Christ’s body, then our work is clear. We are to, in the words of Isaiah 61 “bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners.” All this and more is the work of the church. All this and more is the work God calls me to do. All this and more is what God calls each one of you to do, in loving response to what Jesus first did for us.
Does this mean that we are all supposed to go off and do grand dramatic works of Justice like Martin Luther King Jr. or Mother Theresa? NO! Not necessarily... But it does mean that we are called to be faithful with what God has given us- our time, our talents, our possessions. God delighted in making each of you a unique child of God, putting you in a particular place, time and life situation.
God is calling each of us to examine our lives and who God has made us to be, and ask, “what is it that God is calling me to do?” How is God calling me out of the comfort zone of my faith into activities of God’s radical world-subversive love? These don’t have to be large leaps of faith, God honors the baby steps too, God just cares that we are moving.
In my own life many of these steps have most certainly been baby steps. For me it has been as mundane as learning not to be as picky an eater, so that I can be a more gracious guest in people’s homes. Or approaching a homeless person with a fast food gift card on the streets of Chicago, instead of walking by, like I normally do. Or even going to seminary, which depending on how you look at it may be a little more of a leap of faith!
For you it might mean very different things. It might mean helping out with Interfaith Hospitality Network, or picking up trash off the sidewalk. It could be that God is calling you to stand up for someone who is being bullied, or simply install energy-saving light bulbs in your house. Or it could be that God is calling you to humanitarian aid work in Africa or to eat more local foods or be an informed voter. Who knows. For God is calling each of us out of lives of complacency into the very heart and work of God. For what does the Lord require of us, but to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment