27C, Now

Readings can be found at this link, http://lectionarypage.net/YearC_RCL/Pentecost/CProp27_RCL.html
Audio of the sermon can be found here

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Halley’s Comet and the Second Coming

In 1986, when I was eight years old, I began to understand the finitude of human life when it is juxtaposed with the universe--heady stuff for a third grader.  It was late at night, much later than I was usually allowed to stay up, and my entire family had gathered at the summit of Mount Haleakala to observe the passing of Halley’s comet. 

It was cold at the 10,000-foot elevation and we were crammed with a great many other people in the observatory perched above the cinder filled caldera.  I huddled next to my grandmother and craned my neck in order to see. 

Eventually, a bright star traced across the sky. Awestruck, I was silent with the magnitude of the night. The cold air, my grandmother’s arm around my shoulders, and this star. This star that moved across the heavens, causing the usual rules to be suspended.  It was a surreal moment, a mystical one where the rules of heavens and earth seemed to shift and bend. But, puncturing the night came my grandmother’s words.

“I won’t see this again. The next time Halley’s comet shows up, I’ll be dead.”

She was a loving and pragmatic woman.

Her matter of fact approach—she was simply stating a FACT—meant that I wasn’t scared or saddened by her words. Instead, I was impressed. Impressed by the span of time before and ahead. Impressed at the notion that this event was so rare, that it fell outside of the scope of the human lifetime. Impressed by the possibility that someday I would stand in the same place, watching the same sky, and see the comet again—but, this time at the end of all my days.

Now, I don’t know if I will see the comet again, July 28^th, 2061 is a LONG way off. But, I remember that night, I remember that star, and I can hope within the certainty that the comet will come again.

Will come again…

The Talmud details the first recorded sighting of Halley’s comet—an observation dated to 66AD.  This is roughly the same time period in which the Gospels themselves were also recorded. And, the comet still courses, the Word is still proclaimed, and we are still here. Still here, waiting in hope, for what has already happened but not yet been fulfilled.

Already, but not yet. This is our reality as Christians—we proclaim it each week in the words of the memorial acclamation, “Christ has died, Christ is Risen, Christ will come again.” Has, is, and will. Jesus has, Jesus is, Jesus will.

And so, we wait. We wait for the second coming even tho’ Jesus already is. What a funny thing to think of, is and will. Present and yet to be.

And, the now is now and it is where we are.

So, what then? What now?

As we sit here waiting for Christ, while simultaneously taking our place in the midst of Christ’s body, how shall we live?

It is not uncommon for people, to focus on the mystery of the life that is to come. Think of the Sadducees and their logic puzzle of a question. Theirs is an intellectual question—do the laws that govern us now hold true in death? If, as you teach, there is new life…what about human laws that would make that new life an absurdity?

Logic puzzles are not theology…and solving their puzzle is clearly not Jesus’ concern. Jesus’ concern is our relationship with God—a relationship that is grounded in God’s concern for us as God’s children. We are God’s beloved children…and that is true for both the living and the dead.

So get over yourself, and get busy!

When you look at this passage in context, the Sadducees question is an interruption. It is flanked by two passages, one about taxes and the other about giving, which address our economic lives and our obligations and our choices.  The question of who is married to whom in the life that is to come is a distraction—a distraction from the hard work of choosing how we shall live and what we will do with all that we’ve been given.

It’s fair to say that the early Christians found themselves distracted as well…by false teachings, external pressures, and conflict within their own communities.

The 2^nd Letter to the Christian community in Thessalonica directly addresses a false teaching that was making the rounds—that Jesus’ second coming had already happened. “As to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we beg you, brothers and sisters, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as though from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord is already here.”

I can’t help but think it would be a little like having someone tell you that you’ve missed the bus, only to then go home and really miss the bus!

To miss the opportunity to take our part in the life that is, because of our fixation on the life that is to come…

Okay, so, if these texts aren’t about death, what are they about?

Well, in a deliberate twist, I’m going to enter into this question by sharing with you what I hope death will be like…

Heaven will have coffee shops and libraries, grassy yards and blue skies. Everyone I’ve ever loved will live in my neighborhood. I won’t have anyone to grieve because everyone will be with me. And, because I believe in redemption and forgiveness, everyone who ever messed up, no matter how big, lives there too—but now they are awesome and we are all friends. Amen.

Feel free to laugh. But, this is my land of milk and honey, thank you very much! And, doesn’t it sound pretty awesome. Wouldn’t we all like a neighborhood like that?

Which brings me to my point. When we wax rhapsodic about the life that is to come, we are talking about our hopes for the life that is RIGHT NOW.

I want peace and reconciliation. I want to be surrounded by those I love. I want to be surrounded by beauty. I want comfortable public spaces. I want everyone to have a home.

I want to forgive and be forgiven. I want those I’ve lost to time and space to be brought close once more.

I want the Kingdom of God, and I want it now!

So, how do I do that? How do WE do that? How do we live a life, in word and deed, that reflects the abiding love of God, the promise of the resurrection, and our belovedness as children of God?

Ponder this in your hearts and then, get busy.

Amen.