The Test and the Tutor

This sermon was heard in Rossville, Indiana on Sunday February 28, 2016, the 3rd Sunday in Lent.

Isaiah 55:1-9
1Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

About twenty years ago, my wife Marie and I were involved with a Presbyterian Revival organization that went to local churches. We were blessed to visit churches in La Junta, Colorado and Papillion, Nebraska. On our first trip with this organization to La Junta we were making a planned stop at a nursing home visit to a woman who had lost nearly all of her hearing. Her daughter was there with her and explained that her mother would not be able to hear us, but she would tell her mother what was going on because they could still understand each other.

As we were getting ready to leave, Marie looked at me and said, “Well Paul, do you have a word of scripture before we go?” and frankly I didn’t. Instead of saying “Nope, what do you say we pray…” I silently prayed “Lord, I don’t have a word and I need your help here. Bless me with your word to share with your child.” So I opened my bible blindly. I opened a little more than three-quarters into my bible, knowing I would be in the New Testament, hopefully in the Gospels. Well, close, but no cigar. I ended up opening my bible to our reading from 1Corinthians. The heading at the top of the page, the one that gives the highlight of what’s happening on that page, read “Sexual Immorality.”

I’m sitting bedside of an 85 year old woman, in a nursing home, with her daughter, I pray for scripture, and I get “Sexual Immorality.” Thanks God, so glad to know you have such a wonderful sense of humor.

When I read the passages for this week’s sermon, that was my feeling. These are glorious pieces of scripture. All scripture, even the difficult and weird stuff is glorious. Our reading ends with God is faithful, and he will not let you be tested beyond your strength,” but who’s going to remember that when you begin with “Sexual Immorality?”The heat is on, when I’m preparing to share the Word of God in a place I hardly know, the lectionary gives me Sexual Immorality and the death of hundreds and thousands of people. It’s not what I wanted to see.

At least I know better than to ask, “O Lord, what am I going to do with this?” That’s the wrong question. The better question is “O Lord, how are you going to shape me, how are you going to shape your people for your word?” Those questions I asked, again and again.

As I already read, our gospel passage gives us not once but twice, “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others…? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” This is the equivalent to reading “Sexual Immorality to an 85 year old woman. Yeah, sure, there is something there, there is wisdom in the passage, but you have to pray and work to find something.

One of the issues that all pastors face when interpreting scripture is how it is to be read, not only reading silently but aloud. Our bibles have all of this wonderful punctuation that didn’t exist in the original manuscripts. All of the commas and semicolons and periods are later additions. With translation and interpretation we often end up losing nuance too. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, “even the funniest joke translated into King James English is destined to sound like Charlton Heston.”

In this case it is easy to read that Jesus is telling the people that unless they repent they will die the same miserable, horrible, tragic deaths that the people of Galilee and Jerusalem faced, not to mention those folks in 1Corinthians. When we read that we will die “just as they did” we might read that “we will die in a similar manner.” Do we fear this means our remains will be desecrated like Pilate desecrated the Galileans? Do we fear this means we will be crushed in the falling of a great tower, like what happened in New York City not fifteen years ago? If you read it this way you have achieved a faithful reading in English, but I don’t think that’s what the original text meant. I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant.

A better reading is that as they died, we too will die. It’s Ecclesiastes, “To everything there is a season/A time to live and a time to die.” It is a statement of fact more than it is a bold theological assertion. But that assertion comes with its own bold declaration.

In Christ’s baptism he identified with humanity. Even without sin he identified with the human condition. Being fully human and fully divine he embraced the words of the John Donne poem “No Man Is an Island:”

Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee.

I suggest this is what Jesus meant when he said “we too will die.” When we die, when anyone dies, a little bit of all humanity dies too. As humanity dies, the humanity of Christ suffers. The deity of Christ grieves.

So if this is what our death means to the Christ, what does it mean when Jesus says “unless we repent, as they died, we too will die.” If it doesn’t mean we will die facing the same earthly fate from Pilate or architecture, then what?

Repentance is an easy word, and a difficult concept. It means turn around. We have placed a lot of theological and cultural baggage on this word, but in its simplest form, all it means is turn around.
Yes, this turning means that we are to turn from our old ways, the ways of sin and death and toward the ways of new life. This is where we get to the “easier said than done” part of our program, isn’t it? I’ve always found it to be that way.

The parable of the man and the gardener gives us a wonderful example of moving on, changing, growing, or to use the image from John’s gospel, bearing good fruit. The parable reads: A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. For three years he came looking for fruit on it and found none. So he said to his gardener, ‘See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still nothing! Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?’ The gardener replied, ‘Sir, let it alone for one more year. Let me dig around it and put manure on it. If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

There was the landowner, like a judge, like Pilate condemning the fig tree for not doing what fig trees are supposed to do. But the gardener knew better. He knew that if the tree received nurturing it would stand a better chance of reaping a harvest next season. He was prepared to tend the roots and the soil. He was ready to fertilize and water. He was ready to bring in the harvest the tree should be ready to produce. He was there to help. He couldn’t bear the fruit, but he could help in as many ways as possible.

This is something I read on the Internet, so you know it must be true. It’s attributed to a graduate of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, a PC (USA) seminary:

When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news and my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” To this day, especially in times of “disaster,” I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.

This Presbyterian Minister was the Rev. Fred Rogers, yes, that Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers, and he’s in accord with our parable’s gardener. When the fig tree, which often stood for Israel and Judah in Isaiah’s prophecy, when the fig tree faced sudden annihilation, the gardener was there to help. The tree has to bear the fruit, and the gardener does all he can to help it along.

This is the lesson of Mr. Rodgers too, when someone says he wants to rip you out of the soil, pray there is someone else nearby to help you grow into the tree you are meant to be. When it comes time to change behaviors in your life that need change, pray there is a helper there for you. Who are these helpers?

The first and most important helpers are parents. Believe it or not they have seen what you are seeing. It looked different when they saw it, I know, but they saw it. They want to help. You may have a big brother or big sister who is willing to help too. Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, coworkers, all of these people can be helpers too. Of course your Pastor and Sunday School teachers want to help you too. There is nothing that any of us wants more than to see you grow into the best fig tree you can be.
In the case of the fig tree, to repent means to turn from a leafy tree and become a tree that bears good fruit.

Of course, the one who helps you and all of the helpers is our Lord Jesus Christ. We are all tested every day. There are little tests and there are big tests. There are tests that are pretty obvious and tests that are far more subtle. Tests that are overt and tests that are covert. Tests that are hidden like blood in wine and tests that fall literally like a ton of bricks. Praise God we have a tutor. Jesus who came as one of us. Jesus who is fully human. Jesus who is less when we fail because as John Donne says:

Any man’s death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind

So sitting in a nursing home in La Junta, Colorado, opening my bible to “Sexual Immorality” and giving thanks to the Lord (more like “Gee, thanks God…”) I wondered “what next?” Next was on the facing page. That page was 1Corinthians 11:1, “Be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” I reminded her that to the glory of God, she taught her children to be imitators of Christ for the glory of God. Her daughter agreed and was preparing to tell this to her mother.

Hooray, something worth sharing! God is great! No sexual immorality and I don’t look like a complete fool saying “Nope, sorry honey, no scripture, let’s just pray this out and get going before the shadow of shame covers me completely.”

And then something amazing happened… This 85 year old deaf woman looked at me and said, “I always made sure we were in church so that they could learn what’s right.” By the grace of God, she heard what I said. It wasn’t because of my big voice, my fog cutter pipes. I had spoken earlier and she didn’t hear me. But when I read and God’s word was interpreted for her, she heard me. You should have seen the look of shock in her daughter’s eyes too, “Mom heard.” Praise God, we were all taken aback.

Lent is a time of reflection and repentance. It is a time to take stock and inventory. It is a time to see where we have come from and where we are going. It is a time to stop and if need be, it is a time to turn around.

For this woman in the nursing home in La Junta, her kids had many teachers, including the First Presbyterian Church of La Junta. They all had one tutor, the Lord himself. Many lessons were learned, and yes, I am quite sure the roots needed some tending and the tree needed some pruning; and good fruit was borne. There were figs aplenty. She was passing her test. Death would come; death, like life, in the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe that was the difference Jesus was talking about all along.

This Lenten season, let us reflect on that; stop, reflect, and ask what do I need to repent? What do we need to repent? And thank God we have a tutor to help us with the test to come.

Amen.

And

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Marshall, Texas on Sunday February 26, 2012, the 1st Sunday in Lent.

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Genesis 9:8-17

Psalm 25:1-10

1 Peter 3:18-22

Mark 1:9-15

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.  Amen

One of the unexpected benefits of the Internet is the new toys that utilize its data processing, visual, and interactive technologies. One of my favorites is something called a “word cloud.” Like many other Internet toys, the word cloud has a useful purpose. Word clouds are the visual representations of the relative frequency of specific words in a set of text. Some of the images that come to mind when we think of graphics are the graphs we learned about in school. Images of bar graphs and pie graphs would show this relative frequency in familiar ways. Word clouds display their results differently.

According to their homepage, “Wordle is a toy for generating ‘word clouds’ from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.”[1] So the larger the word in a word cloud, the more often it appears in the text. Unless you can eyeball exact proportions, it’s difficult to discern hard data using a word cloud, but that is not its purpose. Looking at a word cloud gives the viewer a quick look at each word and the bigger the word the more often it appears.

Let’s remember, the Wordle website calls its own technology a toy, so you can play with the image the data spits out. Choosing different fonts, layouts, and color schemes makes each word cloud a little different. The relative font size doesn’t change, but manipulating the other elements changes the images into new and interesting pictures.

Wordle word cloud of Mark 1:9-15
Click to see larger image

Inside your bulletin (or just on the right) is a Wordle word cloud of our reading from Mark. As you can easily see, the biggest word in the cloud is Jesus. Thus, the word most frequently found in this passage is Jesus. In my opinion, when looking at the Gospels having Jesus as the biggest word in the cloud is a good thing. There is another thing you might have noticed about this cloud, there are some words missing.

Wordle automatically omits the most common words, the words that are peppered everywhere in language. It omits the definite and indefinite articles “a,” “an,” and “the.” Pronouns are also left out of the Wordle so “I,” “you” and “them” are missing. It leaves out being verbs like “is,” “was,” and “were.” It also leaves out connecting words like “if,” “and,” and “but.” If these words were left in the image they would overtake the cloud dwarfing even Jesus. There is one of those words, those ever-present words that caught my attention, the conjunction “and.”

Looking at our reading, in seven verses of scripture, the word “and” appears ten times. There is a lot of this-and-that going on in this passage. That’s what I want us to examine.

If our reading looks familiar it’s because we saw these first three verses together on Baptism of the Lord Sunday. It is where Jesus came from Nazareth and was baptized by John in the Jordan. Two distinct actions are coupled together. Jesus came from his home to where John was living into his vocation and then he was baptized. The word “and” combines these two actions into one package.

The connection between the two is that Jesus joins the community. Jesus comes, physically moves himself to be with the people who await his arrival. Jesus comes to be with the people bodily. We can’t say this too many times: Jesus came to be with the people; God comes to be with us in person. Not only does he come, he comes identifying himself with the community in their baptism.

The people confessed their sins to John before they were baptized; and it would have been a lie if Jesus had confessed his sin. Still, with no sin to confess, he comes and accepts John’s watery baptism. The one who came to baptize with the Holy Spirit is baptized in the water of the Jordan. In the waters of his baptism he identifies with us in the waters of ours. In the waters of the Jordan he joins with us so that we may be with him.

The next set of and’s is a triple whammy, coming from the water Jesus saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending upon him and he heard the voice of the Father. Such wonder and glory in a moment frozen in time in Holy Writ. People with too many academic degrees and too much time on their hands call this a “theophany,” an appearance of God. This is the first time in all of scripture that all three persons of the Trinity; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, appear together. In concert they come together marking a new chapter not in their life together, but of our life with God; and according to Mark’s gospel the folks who were there couldn’t even see it.

The next incident has Jesus immediately being sent into the wilderness forty days and there he was tempted by Satan. Sent from the Jordan, Jesus is tempted. Believe it or not, there’s nothing special here. Being tempted by Satan is an everyday occurrence in the life of every human being. Neither Jesus nor we can stay at the Jordan for the rest of our lives, we go into our own wildernesses and we are tempted by Satan. So if it’s nothing special for either of us we need to know this, Jesus entered a world where he faced the same temptations we do everyday. Jesus is tempted just like we are; the only difference is that he doesn’t succumb to the world’s temptations.

In the meantime, he was with the wild animals and the angels attended him. It takes a hard look at the Greek grammar to see this, but these are two specific wilderness experiences. First is that Jesus was with the wild animals and also the angels attended him.

Mark’s gospel doesn’t say what the animals were doing, it’s logical to think the wild animals, or in other translations wild beasts, were doing what wild beasts do. Lions and tigers and bears, oh my; Jesus seemed to have been in great peril. What our text doesn’t exclude is that this was a “Daniel in the Lion’s Den” experience. The beasts that surround him might have been at bay. It just doesn’t say.

As for how the angels waited on Jesus, again it doesn’t say. Where Matthew’s gospel delays the angels until after forty days of fasting and Satan’s temptations, in Mark’s it seems like they might have been there all along. Perhaps he was being protected from the wild beasts by the angels. Then again, this could have been an “Elijah and the widow moment” from 1Kings 17 where there the Lord provided flour and oil for bread when all else seemed lost. While Matthew gospel says more on the subject, Mark’s doesn’t.

Regardless, we do know that Jesus was in the desert for a good long time, there were wild beasts, and there were angels attending. We don’t have to know how all of this worked; instead we can have faith and rejoice that it did.

Something missing from the New International Version is in the New American Standard and the New Revised Standard Versions are two more “and’s.” In the original texts verse fifteen begins with “and.” Then between the two parts of Jesus’ original proclamation is another. Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Good News of God and saying “The time has come and the kingdom of God is near.” Jesus left one place, a place that wasn’t very hospitable, and left for the city to share the Good News saying specifically “The time has come and the kingdom of God is near.”

Jesus leaves the dangers of the wilderness for a more familiar place. Jesus was from a backwater town, but selling the wares of his trade, he would have known and been known in the city. This time though, he’s coming with a different message. Instead of selling his skills he proclaims the Good News of God. He seems like the same guy to everyone who knows him, but now there’s something different. Jesus declares that simple difference in the first thing he says, “The time has come and the kingdom of God is near.”

Jesus tells them, Jesus tells us, Jesus tells all creation that everything the world has awaited for such a long time is now at hand. Friends, it’s done. Jesus is here, the Good News of God walks among us.

Of course only a fool would believe that even with the Good News of God present and the time fulfilled that sin has been banished from the world. And it takes a different kind of fool to think that nothing has changed because the time has come and the kingdom of God has come near. It’s a brand new world that still has the rampages of the same old sin. It is up to us to know that where there is God there is hope. In Christ we aren’t optimistic. Optimism is about what we can do. In Christ we are hopeful, based on what God has already done.

The last connection made is “repent and believe.” In the ancient world to repent meant to change your mind. It could also to feel remorse and be converted. To repent eventually became the subject of the disciples’ proclamation.[2] What’s missing from this repenting is an action. That’s just what the way it was in the ancient days. In the ancient world believing carried the action element that we associate with repenting. Go figure, language takes turns that we can neither anticipate nor expect. Words change but God doesn’t. The truth is regardless of the words and what they mean, in this combination we are expected to change our minds and our habits.

This whole concept of Jesus and the “and” led me to examine some of the things I do when creating a sermon, rules of thumb I try to follow. When writing, there are a couple of words I don’t like using, the first of those words is “but.”

There are a couple of reasons that I tend to avoid the word “but.” One reason is that both the Greek and Hebrew have words that can be translated as either “and” or “but.” Using one over the other is a translator’s interpretation of what these documents really mean. Of course the folks who create those translations do it as their Christian vocation so we can expect a certain level of expertise. Sometimes though, it’s kind of fun to replace the exclusionary word “but” with the inclusive word “and” to see where it leads.

This is the second reason I work to avoid the word “but.” The word “but” makes us lean toward excluding things and people. The Good News of Jesus Christ is a story of redemption of all humanity and all creation. There isn’t a whole lot of exclusion to be found in the gospels themselves. So I find it more fruitful to consider the “and’s” over the “but’s.”

There is another word I avoid in sermons, “you.” There are two simple reasons for this. The first is if I say “you need to do this,” or “you need to change,” or “you need to” whatever; I set myself above you. As soon as I separate myself from you I have quit serving the Lord and this congregation. Telling you what you have to do puts me above you, a place I do not belong. Like the word “but,” it excludes, it separates me from you. This is not a good place for any pastor to be.

The other reason is that pointing the crooked finger of judgment is the act that puts the preacher in the place of God above the people and puts me in a place that belongs to God alone. I may bring the word of God, but I am not the Word of God.

If I preach “at you” rather than worship the Lord “with you” I fail you and God. It is this failure I work to avoid. This is why you will rarely hear me address you, instead I talk about us.

This is what I have to say about us, Jesus was one of us. Because of his humanity he experienced everything we will experience. He was tempted. He kept his sinless nature in tact forty days in the wilderness, in the synagogues and temple, before Pilate, and on the cross.

In him, all that we need has come. In him all that we could ever want is near. Everything we ever needed or wanted is with us because Jesus embraced the “and” of his fully human and fully divine existence. Jesus embraces the “and,” and he wants us to join him in that loving embrace.

---

[1] Wordle.net homepage, http://www.wordle.net/, retrieved February 23, 2012.

[2] metanoe,w, Bauer Danker Greek English Lexicon

re-Turn

This sermon was heard on Sunday March 7, 2010, the 3rd Sunday in Lent.

Isaiah 55:1-9
Psalm 63:1-8
1 Corinthians 10:1-13
Luke 13:1-9

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

A good friend of mine strongly believes that whenever we study scripture, new things open to us that had escaped us in the past. He never speculates why, I figure there are many reasons. Maybe sometimes there is something else in the passage that caught our eye in the past, so there is still a morsel on the bone waiting to be devoured when we read it again. Maybe we think we understand it, but then something happens which makes us reconsider our earlier reading. Maybe it’s something that just seemed so obvious in the past that there is new meaning in the present.

Well, I had one of those epiphanies over our gospel reading.

Verse five reads, “Unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.” Suddenly I’m reading this and wondering just what in the world that means, “Just as they did.” In reading other translations, this distinction isn’t as obvious. It’s tempting to go with a simpler translation, treating the issue like an ostrich with its head in the sand, and ignoring it; but that’s not what we’re called to do. So what does it mean?

Let’s begin with looking at the Galileans and the eighteen killed at Siloam and see what’s so special about them. We come to this question at a disadvantage; because these stories don’t exist anywhere else in scripture. These events in Luke’s narrative are described nowhere else. The only things we know about these events is what we can gauge from Luke’s description and a little background knowledge.

The Galileans were killed with their sacrifices. While Luke’s gospel is silent on this issue, the others speak of Jesus cleansing the temple, toppling the tables of the money changers, and scattering the livestock. The reason for the money changers and the livestock at the temple was to provide animals for sacrifice and a way to purchase them. It would have been very difficult for anyone to bring livestock flawless and worthy of sacrifice from home to the temple, so enterprising entrepreneurs set up a market so that sacrifices could be purchased once people reached the temple.

This knowledge allows us to be quite certain that the blood of the Galileans that was spilled and mingled with their sacrifices did not take place in Jerusalem’s countryside; it took place at the temple. So the Galileans are more than simple victims of Pilate’s brutality. They are martyrs to the petty anger of a despot in the courtyard of the temple, in the front of the holiest place in Judaism.

So who were the eighteen killed at Siloam? The tower of Siloam was most probably at a corner of the great wall of Jerusalem by the pool of Siloam. It is to this pool that Jesus will send the blind man of John 9 to wash after the Lord restores his sight.

There is nothing particularly special about this pool. There is nothing particularly special about a tower falling. There is something particularly horrible about the death of eighteen people at this pool when the tower falls, but it certainly isn’t the same sort of death faced by the martyrs from Galilee. Perhaps they were doing their ritual cleansing; preparing to enter the temple, but that would be speculation.

On one hand we have the victims of a brutal dictator and on the other victims of a construction accident. What in the world is the connection between these two? Why is Jesus using these two examples warning us that we may perish “just as they did”?

Surely the greatest truth is that these victims are all sinful people, exactly like us. They were taking care of business. They were going to church, taking a bath, cleaning the house, dropping off the kids at practice. They were doing what made their lives not so different from ours. One group died while approaching the temple to worship the Lord becoming religious and political martyrs. The others were victims of an engineering failure as horrid as the I-35 bridge collapse in the twin cities a few years ago. It seems that the only thing that connects them is their humanity, their status as the Children of Adam.

This is one thing that makes us different from them. We too are the Children of Adam, and we are the Children of Christ. We have an opportunity these victims did not have, we can share in a life in Christ, a life in the resurrection that they could not.

Christ calls us to participate in His holy work, the work of reconciliation of all creation. We are called to prepare our very beings through confession. Bending our selves to the ways of the Lord we become able to bear fruit through the Lord our God. Joyfully, the parable that follows helps reveal truth vital to our ability to bear good fruit, the fruit of the Spirit.

We read of a landowner who had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. There are some things that we need to remember about these ancient landowners. They were very rich men. They were men with the power to do as they wished with their land and their people. This isn’t so different from rich men in every time and place.

Too, many landowners were absent from their lands much of the year. These farms tended to be kept by lease holders, share croppers of a sort. This is not so different from what we know in our age of corporately owned farms. Perhaps the only difference in the last 2,000 years is the speed of communication and the quality of information between the farmer and the landowner.

Landowners are the Lords of the Manor and Lords of the Lands. Their whims could move worlds, their fancies could change lives. Their eyes on the bottom line can move jobs overseas and their accounting can ruin the retirement funds for thousands of workers.

There is a hired gardener in this story too. The gardener is like the lessee or the share cropper. This is the one who tends the vines and the trees. This is the one who knows the soils and the plants and cares for all of the matters of the Master’s land. Again, this person is not so different from many who work the land in every time and place.

If the gardener seems like a simple person, it is only because the wisdom this person carries is so old and without nonsense that all pretense has washed away and all that remains is plain and simple truth. These basic truths haven’t changed in 2,000 years, but there is an even deeper understanding of the truth that comes with time and revelation.

These are the working farmers. These are the folks who tend the land. Their whims can’t move a dry pea across the hard ground; but by their work, what to some looks like arid land can bear great fruit. These are the people who carry the torch and till the land. These are the people who bring in the crop and present it to the landowner.

Erich Auerbach, a German Jewish scholar who immigrated from Germany to Turkey and then the United States before World War II wrote, “God’s grace is infinite, but so also is God’s justice, and one does not negate the other.”[1] The Lord God Almighty will come as the landowner to judge the fruit of our labor. Should our lives not bear fruit, then God’s judgment will be upon us.

In the same hand comes the Lord God Almighty tends and sustains us as the farmer tills the land. The same Lord will tend the soil and provide the best possible conditions for us to thrive. And as in the end of this parable, this graceful farmer also reminds us that judgment is upon us. If we bear no fruit, we will be cut down and our only use will be as kindling for the fire.

It’s not so much a question of whether or not we will be judged, because we will be judged. The question is how we will be judged by the Lord our God; and as we see through this reading we will be judged in the same way as the fig tree, by the fruit we bear, in our case the fruit of the Spirit. As the tree, to be able to produce good fruit, we must be willing to be humbled by our lord. The gardener works hard to prepare the soil around the tree, but the tree will have to bear the indignity, if you will, of being prepared.

The tree will have the soil around the roots prepared. This will involve shovel and spade. There will be digging around the tender roots of what makes us what we are to make it so we can grow. This digging will be too close for comfort. There is bound to be some times when the shovel will nick a root or worse, causing what we might think an irreparable scar. Still, the gardener knows how to work the soil. The gardener knows how to prepare us to get the best results.

Then the gardener will give us the best food so that we may provide the best fruit. This sounds wonderful when we read it like this, “the best food…” This is when we get to remember that in this parable the best food is manure. Yes, in order to provide the best fruit we have to be humble enough to be covered in the part of beef that’s not for dinner. We want to receive the best of all things from the Lord, we hear of the feast at the table of God; and in this case the best of what we can receive what comes from beyond the hindquarters of livestock.

In the words of the German worship and liturgy author Rudolf Peil: “The gospels that prepare for Lent indicate the springtime labor that must be done in the vineyard of the soul. The soul must be harrowed by penance and contrition in order that the divine seed of the holy season of Lent may bring forth an abundant harvest.”[2]

In this Lenten season, we travel with Jesus from the countryside to the temple to the cross and to new life. Only by this special revelation, only in the words and works of the Christ are we able to repent in ways the victims of Luke’s tragedies only prayed to know. Only in the words and works of Christ can we repent in ways that the world around us seeks, wishes, and needs to know. Only by Christ in this life and in the life to come do we know eternal life.

This repentance, spoken of so gloriously in the words of the prophet Isaiah, made real in the person and work of Jesus Christ, this repentance turns us to be able to bear good fruit. Yet it is not enough that we turn once and forever to the word of God written, proclaimed, and incarnate. As my friend pointed out, the Word of God is made new everyday. Our Redeemer lives and His revelation is not dead either. So let us not simply turn to God, let us return again and again to the signs and sacraments of our faith in Christ everlasting.

Other Resource:
“Feasting on the Word, Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary.” Edited by David L. Bartlett and Barbara Brown Taylor. Year C, Volume 2. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2009, pages 92-97.

[1] Auerbach, Erich, “Dante, Poet of the Secular World.” Translated by Ralph Manheim. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1961.
[2] Peil, Rudolf, “A Handbook of the Liturgy.” Translated by H. E. Winstone. New York: The Crossroad/Continuum Publishing Company with permission of Herder and Herder, 1960.

Set

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday December 13, 2009, the 3rd Sunday in Advent.

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

A couple of weeks ago[1] I lamented the way that preparations for Christmas are getting earlier and earlier each year. On Tuesday, I read a posting on one of my favorite websites by a Mr. Mike Kowalski of Rancho Cucamonga, California. He writes, “[I] Went to Disneyland on November 24, in search of, among other things, Disney-themed Christmas ornaments for 2009. Alas, none could be found. But there were plenty of Christmas ornaments with the date 2010.”[2]

In that sermon two weeks ago, I said that before Labor Day seemed excessive to begin preparing for Christmas, but compared to over 13 months in advance of the next Christmas August seems downright reserved.

Disney, in a kind of a sick way, is calling us along side toward the celebration of our dear Savior’s birth. Of course I think they’ve gotten ahead of themselves and that’s what I love about the liturgical calendar as opposed to the marketing plan of a major multi-national corporation and their mouse.

The joy of the liturgical calendar is that at this time of year it prepares us for the coming of the Lord and the coming of Christmas. The discipline of the liturgical calendar also exhorts us not to get ahead of ourselves. We get ready; we get set for the season that is to come. This exhortation is where we start this morning, leading us into John’s exhortations to the crowd.

But first, what is exhortation? According to the dictionary,[3] exhorting is like urging, advising, or cautioning earnestly. It also means admonishing urgently. It can also mean giving urgent advice, recommendations, or warnings. According to my big biblical dictionary,[4] the goal of exhortation is to persuade someone or some ones to act, or think in a particular way. Going back to the Greek roots of the scripture, exhortations came in two ways,[5] as comfort and as admonition. So in by whatever measure you use, exhortations contain elements of discipline and of soothing. There is not necessarily reprimand, but neither is there molly coddling.

Just as important, the Greek version of this word also involves calling the people to the exhorter’s side.[6] The one who exhorts calls the one who receives the word to come together and walk together. This becomes no more evident than when we discover that the Greek root of this word is later used by theologians to describe the Holy Spirit, Paraclete.

Our passage contains four very specific exhortations. I want to start with the last three before returning to the first.

In the first of the set of three exhortations, the crowd asks John “What then should we do?” In reply he said to them, “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.”

John’s exhortation calls the people to share. But there is an important condition he places on this giving, a qualification which makes a great difference. John calls for those who have two coats to share and those with food to do likewise. John calls those who have more than enough to share with those who do not have enough.

What John advocates is radical. In a way, it is a privately supported welfare system which provides that those who have enough share with those who do not. It requires people who have enough coming forward to share, and it also requires those in need to come forward and receive what they need that they may survive.

This is truly a tightrope of love. While many people with more than enough are more than willing to share, there are others who are not. While many people with need seek help and assistance, there are others who are ashamed to ask. There too are those with surplus and those with need who manipulate the system, causing skepticism among all. Still, when this tightrope is walked with love, when those with more than enough walk alongside those with need; there is enough for everybody.

The next exhortation is directed at the tax collectors that came to be baptized who ask John “Teacher, what should we do?” John tells them, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you.”

As the old Revolutionary War saying goes, “Taxation without representation is unfair.” As the old Mad Magazine corollary goes, “Taxation with representation isn’t all that great either.” John exhorts these men to be honest, and more than being honest is the exhortation to be fair in assessing taxes.

Lurking just below the surface of this exhortation is a little known fact. Being a tax collector wasn’t always the job of “robbing from the poor” we think of when we think of tax collectors. The tax collector’s job is to pay tribute to Rome through the proper middle men. It didn’t matter if the people didn’t pay the tax collector; the tax collector still had to pay the state. So if an individual failed to pay their taxes, the collector was left in a lurch with the Roman overseers. Since this position was also often inherited much in the same way as a family farm, the problem became multi-generational.

In short, some tax collectors were as poor as the people they were collecting taxes from. Some of the tax collectors were in as big a pinch as those they were collecting taxes from. In a way, the only way a tax collector could be assured that they would have no need to over-collect from those who had more assets is for everyone to pay their prescribed taxes. How’s that for an odd exhortation, while directed at the tax collectors to collect no more than the prescribed amount, it also exhorts the people to pay the prescribed amount so that the tax collectors wouldn’t be tempted to take more than was due.

Again, this is a call to be fair in dealings, even paying taxes in love. Again, there were those who manipulated the system. The gospel story of Jesus dining with the tax collector is a fine example. When the tax collector promises to repay those he has cheated three times what he cheated them, we learn both that there’s a lot of tax cheating going on and it can be profitable, but this is not always the case. John exhorts us to respond in love, even in paying taxes.

The third exhortation was in response to the soldiers who asked “What should we do?” John tells them do not “extort money from anyone by threats or false accusations, and be satisfied with [your] wages.”

John tells those with direct and immediate authority to act justly. I can’t speak to the wages of what were probably local men serving as soldiers protecting the tax collectors. But John made their call to the general well being, protecting all manner of people from all manner of evil.

At least one scholar posits that the soldiers were paid poorly and expected to shake down the people to make ends meet[7] making manipulation a part of the system. So this is more than just a call to the soldiers to do their jobs and be satisfied with their wages, it is a call to the government to pay soldiers enough so that they won’t need to shake down the people to make ends meet. It is a call to the people to pay workers equitably so that they not be tempted to steal.

In all three of these cases, John illustrates the “fruits worthy of repentance.” John calls for radical and sweeping reform of the way business is handled in first century Palestine. He calls for the people to take care of each other and the government to take care of the things individual people cannot. People are to refrain from exploiting their positions for their personal gain at the expense of others. People who have wealth, power, and authority are to care for those who are less powerful.

But before we leave the specific exhortations, let us look at the first exhortation. John cried out to the crowd, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” I see this as more the discipline element of exhortation than the soothing.

He sees many of those who came out to be dead trees unable to bear fruits worthy of repentance. He sees the unrepentant as ax fodder, kindling for the fire which burns hot the chaff. Still, this is the same crowd he addresses with the exhortation on sharing. John knows that as God can raise children for Abraham out of these stones, the people can repent. John also knows that the people have come, and that is their start.

The crowd comes out to see John. Last week he tells the crowd to get ready. He tells them to prepare the way of the Lord, making his ways straight. This week he tells them to get set. He shows the crowd different ways that they can make straight the ways bearing the good fruit of repentance through a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. He also warns that those who do not follow will face horror of unquenchable fire.

The last verse in our gospel this morning reads, “So with many other exhortations, he proclaimed the good news to the people.” John walks beside us, providing examples to prepare us for the one who will baptize us with the Holy Spirit and fire. Comfort and admonition are how we get ready and set for the Advent of the Christ child. Next week, we complete the set.

[1] Coming. http://timelovesahero.blogspot.com/2009/11/coming.html
[2] Easterbrook, Gregg, Tuesday Morning Quarterback. http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=easterbrook/091208&sportCat=nfl, retrieved December 8, 2009.
[3] Exhort, dictionary.com. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/exhort, retrieved December 12, 2009.
[4] Exhortation, The New Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible. Vol. 2.Nashville, TN: Abingdon Publishing, page 366.
[5] parakale,w, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Volume V. Gerhard Kittel, Editor. Grand Rapids, MI, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, pages 779-780.
[6] parakale,w, Bauer, Walter, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition. Frederick William Danker, Editor. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2000.
[7] The New Interpreter’s Bible. Vol. IX. Leander E. Keck, Senior Editor. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1995, page 84.

Miracles

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday July 5, 2009, the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time.

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10
Psalm 48
2 Corinthians 12:2-10
Mark 6:1-13

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Over the past several weeks, we have been privy to some of the most wonderful and miraculous acts the world has ever known. But this week, this week we read of miracles that fizzle out like dud Fourth of July fireworks. You know, all sizzle, no pop. We are so familiar with these texts, and with Mark’s verse four interpretation of them, “Prophets are not without honor, except in their hometown, and among their own kin, and in their own house,” that we hardly pay it a never mind.

Often when people don’t get the miracles they want, they hope for, they pray for; this failure gets chalked up to verse five, “he could do no deed of power there.” This is explained further in verse six where we learn, “Jesus was amazed at their unbelief.” Or as the New American Standard Version renders it, Jesus “wondered.” But making this leap from the people’s faith to Jesus’ ability to perform miracles is a mistake. Saying that Jesus was not able to perform miracles because the people of his hometown did not believe may be true, but that’s not the only word on belief and miracles.

A few weeks ago, we read from Mark’s version of the crossing of the sea. We read of the great storm and the apostles hope that Jesus would get off of his pillow and help out. But instead of lending a hand, Jesus raises a hand and calms the storm. “Peace, be still” he cried and there was dead calm. As the apostles began to freak out in the boat, Jesus asks them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?”[1]

In this case, Jesus questions the faith of his shipmates, his closest companions, while he calms the chaos of the waters. He literally stills death in its tracks, and he does this questioning their lack of faith.

It’s easy to question the strength of someone’s faith if a miracle doesn’t happen. It’s poor pastoral care. It’s being a lousy friend. It’s not quite right either, but it’s easy enough to do. It is easier explaining the lack of a miracle due to the doubt of others than any other reason. Still, Jesus did not need the apostles’ belief to make the storm subside. While it seems the faith of the people of Jesus’ hometown had something to do with the lack of miracles, to say that this is a hard and fast rule wouldn’t be right.

If there is a difference between the hometown people and the apostles on the boat, it’s this: The men on the boat expected Jesus to do something. They expected him to grab a bucket or take a line; and what he did was calm the storm. The people of Jesus hometown expected nothing, and nothing is what they got.

Theologian Frederick Buechner describes miracles this way. “Miracle: a cancer inexplicably cured. A voice in a dream. A statue that weeps. A miracle is an event that strengthens faith. It is possible to look at most miracles and find a rational explanation in terms of natural cause and effect.

“Faith in God is less apt to proceed from miracles than miracles from faith in God.”[2]

Buechner is on target here. The apostles’ own weak faith was affirmed and their faith demanded a response. Their responses were not perfect, far from it. James and John, the sons of thunder, will seek positions of honor without knowing where it will take them. Peter will deny Jesus, but not before Judas betrays him. They were the apostles. They were the chosen. They were trusted members of the twelve. None of them got it completely right.

This leads us to the second half of our reading, the sending of the twelve. Jesus pairs the twelve off and sends them out giving them authority over unclean spirits. They weren’t ready, we just made that clear. But the one thing they were was sent. They were sent with power and authority, and not much else. They went out with only what they had on their backs and a companion for the journey.

The Mainline Evangelism Project considered many things during its study. One of the things they studied was Mormon missions. We all know what the Mormon mission looks like. Two conservatively dressed young men, at least in my experience it has been men, come to your door and knock. Then you say “No thank you” and send them on their way.

If you ask how this brings new people into the fold, you wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it doesn’t. Very few “new disciples” are added to the Mormon Church by this door-to-door evangelism. What is surprising is the way that this process, this door-to-door trek strengthens those who make it. Those who serve in Mormon missions don’t bring many people to the Latter Day Saints church, but it strengthens those who make the journey. Their faith becomes unshakable because they have been forced to depend on their faith. They responded to the call to know and share their faith story. They are stronger in their faith because of it. And I don’t doubt that the Apostles were strengthened the same way.

They were sent out and proclaimed that all should repent. But here’s a question: Of what we are to repent?

In a sermon, Johnny Ray Youngblood, pastor of Saint Paul's Community Baptist Church in Brooklyn, whose story Samuel Freedman tells in his book Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church, says: “Every time I see a man put down his bottle, there's a resurrection goin’ on. Every time I see a man go back to school, there's a resurrection goin’ on. Every time I see a man hug his son, there's a resurrection goin’ on.”[3]

Leaving behind our old ways, making amends with those whom we love, and who love us. This is how we repent.

Philip Pare writes, “Magic is usually a labor-saving device which spares the magician or his client time and trouble, and quite often magic is irrational. Miracle on the other hand tends to mean not less, but more work for its beneficiaries.”[4] Answering the call of the Lord, even when it means more work, not less, this is one of the ways we repent. By miracles and acts of power, we have examples of this repenting.

As for the Gerasene demoniac who asks to become a follower of Jesus. Instead he was given different work, and more difficult work. He was Christ’s first apostle to the gentiles. Say what we will of Saul of Tarsus, this Gerasene man is the model on whom all of our evangelism follows; and all we know of him is that he almost did what he was told. He was told to go home and tell his friends of all of the great things the Lord had done. Instead he went to the Decapolis and told of what Jesus had done. What he did may not have been what Jesus commanded to the letter, but if you will pardon the pun, he followed the Spirit of the Word.

Two women are healed gloriously. One a woman whose life is restored to her by the gift of healing as Jesus made her ritually clean; the other a little girl whose life is returned to her by the gift of Jesus. Today we learn of Jesus healing “only a few” then the apostles going out and healing more in his name, with his power.

So what is the miracle? Dag Hammarskjöld, Secretary-General of the United Nations from April 1953 until his death in a plane crash in September 1961, put it this way: “We act in faith—and miracles occur. In consequence, we are tempted to make the miracles the ground for our faith. The cost of such weakness is that we lose the confidence of faith. Faith is, faith creates, faith carries. It is not derived from, nor created, nor carried by anything except its own reality.”[5]

As Christians, our reality is that the Lord our God, creator of all that is created, wants a loving relationship with us. The Lord who demonstrates for us the perfect relationship in three persons wants us to be in relationship with God’s own self. The miracle is that we were created for this relationship. The miracle is that the all powerful Lord of the universe wants us to join in this relationship of our own loving free will. A God who could coerce creation into worship and praise desires our response in love, not bending human will by force.

The miracle is that Jesus chose twelve imperfect, incomplete men and by them has shown the world a power and glory that was never known before. They expected Jesus to do something, and Immanuel—God with us—did more than they ever hoped or imagined. We have to expect this miracle too; we have to expect God is with us. We have to respond sharing the glory of the miracle of God with us. If we don’t, we are like the people of Jesus’ hometown, and we will get exactly what we expect.

[1] Mark 4:35-41
[2] Ibid, HomileticsOnline.com, -- Frederick Buechner, “Wishful Thinking: A Seeker's ABC” (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1973, 1993), 74.
[3] Samuel Freedman, “Upon This Rock: The Miracles of a Black Church” (Harper Perennial, 1994), Ibid, HomileitcsOnline.com.
[4] Philip Pare, “God Made the Devil,” cited in “The Harper Religious & Inspirational Quotation Companion”
(New York: Harper & Row, 1989), 288 found at HomileticsOnline.com, http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords=miracle, retrieved July 4, 2009.
[5] Ibid, HomileticsOnline.com

Camelot

This sermon was heard at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on Sunday January 27, 2008, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time.

Isaiah 9:1-4
Psalm 27:1, 4-9
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
Matthew 4:12-23

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen

A myth, a legend, Camelot is these things and more. Camelot is the mythical kingdom and court of Arthur, King of the Britons. As an actual kingdom, most modern scholars regard Camelot as being entirely fictional, its vague geography and bold philosophy perfect for romance writers. Its location, if it even existed, is unknown. As a realm Camelot is associated with ideals like justice, bravery and truth; the virtues romantic literature embodies in Arthur and his knights.

The tales of Arthur and Camelot as we know them are generally taken from the stories collectively known as Le Morte d’Arthur. This work from the mid-1400’s is a collection and editing of predominately French stories of Arthur. Among the stories that make up the collection, one of the most familiar is “The Noble Tale of the Sangreal.” From this story, we receive the legend of Arthur and his knights as they seek the Holy Grail.[1]

In a radical retelling of this tale, British filmmaker John Boorman re-envisions the quest for the grail reflecting an ancient Celtic belief about kingship and kingdom. In this version, Merlin speaks the words which show the connection between Arthur and his kingdom:[2]

You will be the land,
And the land will be you.
If you fail, the land will perish;
As you thrive, the land will blossom.[3]

In this retelling, after much trial and tribulation, as death makes its slow and sure way to his body, one of Arthur’s knights, Percival, comes to discern this truth and who it is about in a vision. When he does, he is allowed to take the grail and drink from it escaping death and revitalizing himself. He then takes the grail to Arthur with the secret that Arthur and the land are one; as he fails Camelot perishes, and as he thrives the land blossoms. Arthur drinks from the cup and knowing the truth; Arthur is revitalized and prepares for final battle. Arthur turns from his previous ways of grief, anger and despair and the kingdom is renewed.

Through all of these stories, Camelot is more than just a place, it’s an ideal; an ideal of justice, bravery, and truth. Matthew presents us with an ideal in this scripture reading too, but this kingdom is not the work of romantic fiction; it is the Word of God. Matthew’s presentation of the kingdom of heaven is prefaced by an imperative command. Matthew commands listeners to repent because the kingdom of heaven has come near.

Where Le Morte d’Arthur is a collection of French stories, the inspiration for Matthew’s language of repentance and kingdom comes from where we would expect Matthew to take it. As the apostle whose mission was to Jewish believers in Christ, Matthew takes his theology and his wording from the Old Testament. When he calls the people to repent, the Greek word used literally means change one’s mind, but the Hebrew listener would hear more. So the members of Matthew’s congregation not only hear the command to change their mind, they would also hear the Hebrew equivalent, turn or return. This word, this call, was the standard Jewish means of reconciling with God.

As the stiff necked people of the Exodus strayed from God; the children of Israel were called to turn from graven images and idol worship and return to worshiping the Lord.

As many of Israel’s ancient Judges and Kings did what scripture called detestable things, worshiping other gods like the goat god Baal and making places of worship like Asherah poles; these rulers were constantly called to return to worshiping the one true Lord; the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The people were being called to turn from their old ways and return to the ways of God.

From these examples, the word repent, turn, and return do not paint a picture of confession or remorse. The command to repent does not mean that we are to feel bad about our past behavior so that we may feel better now as we move toward the Lord. It doesn’t call us to feel at all. This is an action verb; Matthew tells the people that Jesus wants them to change their behavior, not simply their attitude.

It is a call to change direction. It is a call to stop doing what is being done; and discern, find out what is to be done for the glory of the Lord and the inbreaking of the kingdom of heaven. The passage commands us, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come hear.”

“The single most encompassing image within which Matthew’s theological affirmations take place is that of the kingdom of heaven. It unites the message of John, Jesus, and the disciples, pre- and post-Easter. The message the church continues to preach is the ‘good news of the kingdom.’”[4]

And when Jesus speaks the words of the kingdom of heaven, he speaks of a new way God is working in the world, a way which the kingdom of heaven has come near. This new orientation of the lives of the people of God is the response to the kingdom’s having come near. [5]

Another connection to the Old Testament is Matthew’s affinity for kingdom language. This is because the people Matthew wrote for used kingdom language as a part of their everyday lives.[6] Through Caesar, through their religious lives, and through the history of Israel and Judah kingship and kingdom language predominate their mindset as much as a democratic ideal dominates ours. And in the ancient and not so ancient world it is important for anyone who wishes to make a claim to the throne to establish royal heritage.

Matthew’s first chapter presentation of the genealogy of Jesus is important to establish his kingship. Beginning with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and rising through King David; Matthew establishes Jesus’ royal lineage. Through these words, Matthew acknowledges how important kingdom language is to the nation of Israel. Also in this lineage, Matthew says that Jesus is the Messiah and establishes him as the King of the Jews, a title Pilate will later discern on his own.

So we have learned a little about the Israelite concept of kingdom invoked by Jesus and again by Matthew. We have even noted that Pilate would come to know Jesus as the King of the Jews, so now we ask what does this kingship and kingdom mean to us?

A very important thing we can take from scripture is that the kingdom of heaven does not exist in time and space; it is a happening, an event. In the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Jesus says the kingdom has come near. This is different from other translations. The New International Version says the kingdom is near and the Revised Standard Version says the kingdom is at hand. Both of these translations point toward a kingdom that exists in time and space. The kingdom is near, proximate, close to us. The New Revised Standard Version differs. By saying the kingdom has come near, we are challenged to perceive that the kingdom is coming, not that we are coming to the kingdom.

Where the other versions I mentioned point toward a static thing of a kingdom, the New Revised Standard Version describes the kingdom of heaven as an event, an occurrence, not a physical place. It is an announcement that in the Messiah, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the kingdom of heaven has come near. In the Messiah, the kingdom has come so close we can touch it. And in his person and work, the kingdom continues to come in the lives of the people. It continues to come as long as the Church, as long as the body of Christ, the church, continues the work of the kingdom.

This Christian message about Jesus connects the church to the message of John the Baptist when he says “Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[7] John’s cry comes to us even before the Baptist sees Jesus at the Jordan. It also connects the church to the mission of the Messiah when Jesus charges his disciples “As you go, proclaim the good news, ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’”[8]

Through this simple sentence, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near,” Jesus calls all who will be his disciples of every time and age to stop, turn from what does not support and further his work; turn to him and follow who he is and what he does. The kingdom of heaven represents the triumph of God over all that resists God’s will and disrupts God’s creation.[9] Through the Body of Christ, we are called to represent God and participate in this triumph.

Arthurian scholar Norris J. Lacy commented that “Camelot, located nowhere in particular, can be anywhere.” [10] Is the kingdom of heaven anything like Camelot? Both of them are founded on the being and work of a great king. Both are bound by justice, bravery, and truth. But where Camelot is located nowhere in particular, the kingdom of heaven rests in its king, our risen Lord Jesus Christ. The kingdom of heaven exists wherever the church of Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit lives and moves.

Where Merlin says Arthur will be the land, the Christ will never be the land. As Merlin says the land will be Arthur, the land will never be the Christ. The Christ is the creator and Lord over the land. The kingdom of heaven is the triumph of God and through this truth, the Christ cannot fail. The work of Christ begun on earth as a weak child laid in a pile of straw, seemingly ended on the tree by a power hungry Governor, explodes from the tomb to make all things new.

So where Camelot is located nowhere in particular, the kingdom of heaven is located in the person and the work of our Lord Jesus Christ and exists anywhere the Body of Christ continues to hear the word, celebrate the sacraments, and follow Christ in the world.

I would be remiss if I did not note that we Americans have a Camelot of our own, the 1,000 day presidency of John F. Kennedy. During these very few days, there was a great hope and optimism that was sorely lacking after his assassination. Did this optimism come from Kennedy’s work? Did this optimism come from Kennedy’s charisma? Opinions vary. But it is true, as the king was assassinated, so too the promise of the new kingdom faded with him.

In an interview with Life magazine, President Kennedy’s widow Jacqueline was quoted saying that President Kennedy’s favorite song in the score of the Lerner and Loewe musical Camelot was:

Don't let it be forgot,
that once there was a spot,
for one brief shining moment,
that was known as Camelot.

She continued “There'll be great Presidents again,” she added, “but there'll never be another Camelot again … it will never be that way again.”[11]

As true as this is in human terms, Camelot is not the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven has come near and continues to come near in the person of Jesus Christ in the work of His holy Church. Let this be our clarion call, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Let us turn away from our wants and desires and return to the ways of God, for in that way, the kingdom He initiates will continue to come nearer and nearer through his person and the work of his eternal body.

[1] Le Morte d’Arthur, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Morte_d%27Arthur, retrieved January 26, 2008.
[2] Excalibur (film), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excalibur_%28film%29, retrieved January 25, 2008.
[3] Excalibur, Orion Pictures/Warner Brothers,1981
[4] The New Interpreter’s Bible, Leander E. Keck, Convener and Senior New Testament Editor, Volume 8, page 289.
[5] Ibid, page 167.
[6] Ibid, page 289.
[7] Matthew 3:2
[8] Matthew 10:7
[9] The Confession of 1967, Part III, The Fulfillment of Reconciliation.
[10] “Camelot” The Arthurian Encyclopedia. Norris J. Lacy, Editor. New York: Peter Bedrick Books, 1986, pp 75-6.
[11] Jacqueline Kennedy, interview with Theodore H. White, Life Magazine, Dec. 6, 1963.