Sermon: October 8, 2006

Sermon: Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22)

Richard Church

October 8, 2006

Genesis 2:18-24
Hebrews 2:(1-8)9-18
Mark 10:2-9
Psalm 8 or 128

Tough Texts & History

Good morning. If you have ever been asked to come up here and preach, you have to admit this is a tough set of texts. I could take on the relationship of men and women, which I already told Sledd Thomas last week when I first saw the texts I had no intention of doing. I find more than enough ways to get into trouble at home to take this one on from the pulpit. I could talk on the relationship of humans to animals, which is a topic I am trying to think and write about at the moment, but I already said a good bit of that in a sermon already. Or I could take on a very difficult text from Hebrews. I choose option C, so I propose to consider today history, for it seems to me that in this remarkable text from Hebrews is a key insight to understanding our location as Christians in the world and in history. To do this, I want to focus on just one line from that text, although the surrounding context will be important. That one line is as follows: “As it is, we do not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus.” “As it is,” in other words, as it is now in the world today … “we do not yet see everything in subjection to them,” in this text referring to the right relationship of humans and animals, … “but we do see Jesus,” as it is now all is not right, but we do see Jesus.

History as an Idea

Now, I take it that history is at stake in this passage. And what I mean by that, is that the Bible and this one line are telling us about how to understand where we are located in the history of the world. And history is crucial for us as the church, because in many ways Christianity itself founded the idea of history, which is to say that Christianity founded the idea that the world’s story was linear, that there was a beginning, and a middle, and end to that story. And this idea of history was in contrast to much of Greek thought, particularly Stoic, that was cyclical in nature; history was not moving along a timeline, but was spinning again again around an axis. The only problem with crediting Christianity in this way is that it is fails to give due credit to the fact that Christian’s adopted the story or the history of the Jews. So for us to be the people of God, we must care about history and where we are in history.

God’s Dreams

But let me step back for a minute, and say more about the particular movement of history as understood in Christianity, by telling you more about some good conversation that happened in our parish hall this week. I had the great privilege this week of coming together with others in the parish to try to finalize our “Parish Profile,” which is our self-description of who we are for the purpose of beginning our a search for a full-time rector. Shockingly, and probably largely by my fault, in the middle of this good work, we descended into a theological conversation on whether it was appropriate to say that God dreams, which I learned from Sam Hudson, is something our bishop does say. This is how Bishop Curry uses this language on the diocese’s website

Our vision as a diocese is to be a community of disciples committed to following Jesus Christ into the dream of God for us and for all creation. The dream of God is a way of talking about God's original purpose and intention for creation, the full expression of loving communion and community between God, human beings and all creation. It is a way of talking about the biblical vision of God's promised blessing for all (Genesis 12:1-3), of God's Shalom or peace (Isaiah 11:1-9), and of the kingdom or reign of God's love (Mark 12:28-34).

Now, I take it that the Bishop is locating us in history in this statement and in a way that connects to today’s text. So what we need to say more about is where we are in history, for in concluding I want to suggest that learning where we are in history teaches us much about where we can look for God’s work in history and what our work in the world is today.

The History of the World: the Garden & the Fall

So in a bold move, I propose that we tell the history of the world. Thus, we begin again with today’s first reading with a man and woman and rib and a good place called the Garden of Eden. The world is well in that Garden, for the world is as God intended it to be, as God created to be, in the Bishop’s use, as God dreamed to be. But in the crucial moment in the Garden narrative, humanity sins. Sin names much, but in our story it names more than something to feel bad about it. It names the destruction of God’s good intentions for the world. It is sin that destroys the communion of God with humanity, that sets Adam and Eve at odds with one other, and sets them at odds with creation, with soil that is now cursed and difficult to work for human’s sin. Sin is the destruction of the Garden or the kingdom of God.Failed Attempts at Returning to the GardenThe story of Noah and the Great Flood is then the first in a long series of attempts by God to restore his good world and the peace within it and with Himself. That is why the story of the Flood is really the third creation narrative. If you read the Flood narrative, you will see exact parallels in the drafting of that story with the creation narrative. But, of course, we are no more out of the ark, then Noah is drunk and his son’s see his nakedness, and for whatever that sin is, the point is: the Flood did not work. Sin remains in God’s world. The story of God and the Jews is then a series of these failed attempts for God to live in communion with humanity.

The Kingdom of God or Personal Salvation

So as we approach Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, it is the return to the Garden, the very kingdom of God on earth, that is at stake. Now, you might be wondering what does this have to do with forgiveness of my sins. I want to acknowledge that even today’s reading from Hebrews uses the language of atonement for sin, and certainly this language is there in the Bible and the early church. But in modern Christianity this manner of talking exclusively about sin, as merely a personal problem between me and God, is unique to Christianity after the Enlightenment. When I used to teach on these issues, it was so difficult to convince good Baptist students that Jesus death and resurrection was about the very kingdom of God that at one point, I became so frustrated with a group of really, smart talented students that I finally said to them, “Jesus does not care about your stupid sins.” This of course is wrong, but to reduce the Gospel to just personal atonement is to fail to see that the very history of the world is at stake. So even as the author of Hebrew’s uses this language, it is placed in context of a cosmic battle for humanity and creation. Sin has marred the creation, and the author of Hebrews tells us it is the power by which the devil holds humanity in bondage to that first failing and holds God’s intentions for the world in bondage.

Jesus as the Key to History

But then, in the turning point of the history of the world, we do see Jesus. And in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, we as Christians claim that the creation was set right. The bondage of humanity and creation to the powers and principalities that would control and destroy us and God’s intention for the world have been broken. In the words of Hebrews, the power of death, that is the power of the devil, was destroyed. Fundamentally, what we learn in Christ’s resurrection is that the end of history is secure. The world will turn out right; God’s will will be done on heaven and on earth. God’s dreams will be fulfilled for creation. History was at stake in the cross, and history was secured in the resurrection.

The In Between Times

Now I wish that we could end there, with Christ’s reign beginning on Easter morning. But we are not a naïve people. And it is clear that we do not see the lordship of Christ manifest through the world. One need only watch the news one night to see that the reconciliation of the Garden has not yet been fully realized. The world continues to be a broken and fragmented place after the resurrection. Again said with Bishop Currie’s image, the dream has not yet fully realized. Thus, theologians in trying to talk about the lordship of Christ, use the language of the “in between times.” This is our location in history, which is a way of saying that the reign of Christ is “now but not yet.”

Now, in Christ’s resurrection, the hope for the world is clear ;

now, in Christ’s resurrection, the resolution of the world’s fate is clear ;

now, in Christ’s resurrection, the power of God is available in the world and moving in history.

But yet, we are still waiting for Christ’s full reign to be realized,

but yet, we still see a broken world;

but yet, we live in world where all is not as it is intended to be.

With this moment in mind then, here again the word’s of Hebrews, “As it is we do not see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus.”

The Cross as Model for God’s Action in the World

In seeing Christ we see a vision of the end of history, and in doing so we know how God moves in history. Christ is our paradigm for God’s mode of acting in the world. And thus, while we get a glimpse of God’s dream or kingdom in those Garden narratives and in the visions of the end time of history set forth in Isaiah and Revelation, we get the clearest picture of God’s intentions in the life of God himself made present in our world in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. We do see Jesus. And as we see Jesus our passage today reminds us that we see a man suffering and dying on a cross. As our passage today reminds us, a man “crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.” And so we must come to see that Christ’s cross, his non-violent sacrifice of his life, is the paradigm for how God moves in history.

The Church as the People of the Now

And so, as we attempt in this place to live in these in between times, the “now but not yet” moment of history, we see in Jesus the foundation of our call to be witnesses to God’s kingdom on earth. We are the people of the now, for we are called to be a living foretaste in our lives together here of the shape of God’s kingdom. We are the people of the now, by being the connecting point after Christ’s ascension by which the world can know it is the world, which is to say that it is not yet all that God intends it to be. Ultimately, we are the people of the now, only with God’s grace … and as we fail over and over again … as we attempt in this space, in this community, literally to remake the body of Christ. We who are many bodies and many flesh in the image of marriage that we see repeated as well in this week’s texts attempt to become one body, one flesh, to see Jesus and make Jesus seen in our reconciliation to God and one another here.

Christians, the Cross & Non-Violence

This is why it seems to me that we simply do not as Christians get a choice on whether we must love our enemies even to the point of being willing to die, and more importantly and of much greater difficulty, to let our enemies kill those whom we love. We, as the people of the now, are the people who are called to bear patiently a world of brokenness and violence. Knowing the reality of sin, not because we naively think that humans can ultimately learn to live at peace with one another absent the full establishment of Christ kingdom on earth, but because our work now is to be that foretaste of the kingdom. We do see Jesus, and this is this Jesus we see and must make known.

Living Out of Control

There is no question that this is a scary way to live, because it requires a people trained to live out of control, and as humans we desire control. But, on the other hand, we are the people of the now, and we do see Jesus. The now of Christ’s reign is the very grounds of our patience, for we know that in the midst of our suffering and death, that the good end of history is already secure on Easter morn. We are the people of the now; we know that we are working with God’s mode of moving history as we work in the manner of the cross. And thus, we are given the story that makes possible our patience in a world of violence.

The War and Christianity

This, it seems to me is what is at stake in our current situation. We have wrought violence and we reaped violence in this country. Our fear names our having learned that we are out of control, that all of our wealth and the power still can not stop those who might desire to hurt us and those whom we love. To make the world safe, if the Gospel is not true, requires more prisons, and more government, and more armies, and more violence. And this is what we have done. I do not begrudge people who do that, for if Christ really was not resurrected, if we do not see Jesus, it is surely what we must do. But I do begrudge those who would do it in God’s name, because as the people of God we do see Jesus.

Conclusion

We are the people of the now, called to be patient and courageous, in living lives now that only make sense if we see Jesus. May God grant us the grace to be that people of the now for the world in this place.