A Sermon After An Election
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Luke wrote these words, recording them for a time and a
place beyond his time and place, to people who were scared. They were scared of
the empire. They were scared of persecution. They were scared that the world
would never change.
And, they wanted better.
They longed for the inbreaking of God, and the overturning of those
structures they knew, through their experience, were oppressive. For them, the coming of the messiah was not
about heaven, it was about the here and the now.
It was about finding a new way forward because the present
way had ceased to serve.
This Sunday, is the Sunday in our lectionary that precedes
what we call “Christ the King”. And, so
the text we here is setting us up for a political transformation—from a flawed
human governance to the governance of the sovereign Christ.
This text is meant to affirm the hope that this is not all
we have and that more and better will come to pass.
More and better will come to pass. This is what the Gospel
offers us as truth. And, in this truth, Luke’s listeners would have found hope.
They would have found hope, because they knew that the 1st
Temple in Jerusalem had fallen, and yet they continued. They found hope,
because their story is one of exile but but also of liberation. They found hope
in knowing that they were not passive victims but active participants in what
would come next. They found hope because they knew that death would become life
and the cross the empire used to inspire fear would become a symbol that would
proclaim God’s love.
Again and again and again they found hope.
And, our tradition has set us within the story of hope.
When we gather here, we proclaim in word and deed that what has been broken can
and will be made whole.
In showing up for this hope, for God’s hope that we might
become the creation that God had first envisioned, we make known that we will
not sit in idleness but proclaim the way of Christ, the way of dignity and
justice and love, to a world that so often seems to have lost its way.
So, in hearing these words of Luke we are being asked to
remember that hope is our story and the abiding presence of God is our truth.
And, moreso, that if it’s not okay, then it’s not the
end.
And, my faithful people, we all know that right now is not
okay.
It’s not okay when children are afraid that they will be
deported. It’s not okay, when women are
objectified and assaulted. It’s not okay when calls for unity are dismissed and
fear of the other takes its place. Bigotry, hatred, racism, misogyny are
real.
And, it’s not okay.
And, out of this place of knowing, out of that deep place
where our souls are burdened by the pain of knowing that it’s not okay. That is
the place from which we are called to pray and having prayed, to trust.
Trust in God’s abiding presence. Trust in the in-breaking
of God’s love. Trust that since it’s not okay, it’s not the end.
And then, out of that trust, we are called to act.
To act for love. To act for peace. To act for new life.
Act out of our baptismal covenant in all we say and all we
do.
Act, knowing that our story is God’s story and that in
abiding in God we abide in that place where death becomes life.
The Isaiah passage for today offsets apocalypse with
tangible hope, and this text has been of great comfort to me of late,
“17For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former
things shall not be remembered or come to mind. 18But be glad and
rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create Jerusalem as a
joy, and its people as a delight. 19I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and
delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the
cry of distress…21They shall build houses and inhabit them; they
shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They shall not build
and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of
a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work
of their hands. 23They shall not labor in vain, or bear children for
calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord— and their
descendants as well. 24Before they call I will answer, while they
are yet speaking I will hear. 25The wolf and the lamb shall feed
together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall
be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.”
The temple may fall, but from the ruins will come a new
heaven and a new earth.
We will delight. We will plant. We will work and we will
build.
But, we won’t do these things for ourselves alone, we will
do them for all. Because God’s vision is for all of us, and to assist in the in-breaking
of God’s love is to life a life in which God’s mercy is extended through our
own efforts. And, in faith and in trust, I stand certain that our efforts will
not be in vain. Because our efforts are the manifestation of our faith in a God
whose mercy is without bound. Our efforts will aid in the in-breaking of that
new Heaven and Earth.
That holy mountain where none shall hurt or destroy any of
God’s beloved children. God’s vision for us is one of joy and peace, blessing
and prosperity. And so long as that vision is unfulfilled for any one on this
earth, then our work as participants in God’s dream for the world is
undone.
There is a hymn that has come to mind this week, and I
wish to close by inviting us to sing this hymn together…
Come Labor On...it’s in your hymnal, number 541*
Let
the people say,
AMEN!
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