Year C
Jeremiah 23:1-6
Psalm 46
Colossians 1:11-20
Luke 23:33-43
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
How odd it is\u2026 to have a reading that evokes images of Good Friday\u2026 during Advent\u2026 how counterintuitive it seems\u2026 to mash-up Christ the King with Christ the Crucified\u2026 how unlike the excess of monarchy\u2026 is the poverty of Jesus on the cross\u2026 as of this year\u2026 there are still 43 sovereign states in the world\u2026 with a supreme ruler or monarch as head of government\u2026 thirteen in Asia\u2026 twelve in Europe (which includes the House of Windsor)\u2026 nine in the Americas\u2026 six in Oceania\u2026 and three in Africa\u2026 rulers who wield varying degrees of benevolence or authoritarianism\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Revolutionary War was fought\u2026 our country sought to free itself from England for many reasons\u2026 but among the most prominent… was the idea that those who lived more than thirty-five hundred miles away could not know\u2026 could not adequately and justly represent the needs and concerns of their subjects\u2026 but even after the Revolutionary War\u2026 in the earliest years of our country\u2026 our democratic experiment was only for white men who owned land\u2026 that is\u2026 who had money\u2026 but as democracy has matured and evolved\u2026 our self-governing experiment has come to increasingly mean that all sorts\u2026 and all conditions of people have\u2026 or ought to have a chance to participate in their government\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And as we think about our reading from Jeremiah\u2026 let’s remember that shepherds were lowly outcasts\u2026 they had dirty jobs caring for animals who didn’t have much sense\u2026 sheep left on their own will scatter and get lost\u2026 sheep eat with their heads down just moving along\u2026 oblivious to where they are\u2026 just walking and eating\u2026 walking and eating\u2026 and they may not even realize that they’re lost and alone\u2026 that’s why the shepherd does what’s needed\u2026 to direct them from behind\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earthly kings lead in much the same way\u2026 often pushing people with their power and authority\u2026 and remember\u2026 God really didn’t want the Israelites to have a King\u2026 in 1Samuel 8\u2026 God warned the people about the abuses of power and corruption\u2026 and how the day would come when they’d cry out to God because of the king who they themselves have chosen\u2026 but they really insisted\u2026 and God relented\u2026 and gave them a king\u2026 and when Saul proved to be corrupt\u2026 God directed Samuel to go to Jesse’s house\u2026 and God chose David as king\u2026 a lowly shepherd\u2026 shepherds and kings\u2026 and in this reading from Jeremiah\u2026 written during the fall of Jerusalem\u2026 the leaders have endangered their sheep with such reckless shepherding that they are scattered\u2026 Babylon has taken advantage of dis-integrated leadership\u2026 but the passage promises that God will gather them back in\u2026 raise up a shepherd so that none shall fear\u2026 or be dismayed\u2026 or be lost any more\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
in the Lord’s Prayer\u2026 we pray that God’s Kingdom come\u2026 on Earth as it is in Heaven\u2026 this isn’t about establishing earthly values in Heaven\u2026 but about establishing Heavenly values on earth\u2026 in his rejection of the divisions in the world\u2026 Jesus embodies a different set of values\u2026 values to which we’re attracted whenever people in positions of power exhibit them\u2026 people like Pope Francis\u2026 Princess Diana\u2026 Archbishop \u00d3scar Romero\u2026 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2026 and what makes these people attractive is that they don’t behave how the world would expect them to\u2026 they reject the power and privilege that could easily shield them from the messiness of life\u2026 they don’t use their positions to keep themselves raised up\u2026 they don’t lord their authority over others\u2026 they identify with those in need and invite relationship\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pope Pius XI instituted today’s feast day in December 1925\u2026 and this is why\u2026 in the aftermath of WWI\u2026 which ended in 1918\u2026 nationalist sentiments were increasing throughout the world… Mussolini became the fascist head of the Italian Republic and was actively trying to win over Italy\u2019s Roman Catholic majority through several religious appeasements\u2026 in July 1925\u2026 Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his manifesto\u2026 Mein Kampf<\/u><\/em>\u2026 that next month\u2026 in August\u2026 approximately 40,000 members of the KKK marched on Washington, DC\u2026 and with a membership of nearly 5 million\u2026 it was believed to be the largest fraternal organization in the US at that time\u2026 two months later\u2026 in October 1925\u2026 the seven agreements of the Locarno Treaties divided Europe into eastern and western sections\u2026 and Pope Pius felt compelled to respond to the trend of this unhealthy global nationalism\u2026 and by establishing this feast day\u2026 he called on the church to declare Christ\u2019s Kingship over all of creation\u2026 it’s what a seven-week Advent is intended to remind us of\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n And so what the Romans didn’t realize when they put that inscription over Jesus which read\u2026 This is the king of the Jews<\/em>\u2026 what they didn’t realize was that they were only partly right\u2026 because Jesus’ way of being\u2026 the Mind of Christ out of which Jesus functioned\u2026 transcended anything that was particularly Jewish\u2026 in other words\u2026 in a realization comparable to Pope Pius’ centuries later\u2026 the people could proclaim that power belonged not to Nebuchadnezzar\u2026 or Cyrus\u2026 or Caesar\u2026 or Herod\u2026 any other king or emperor\u2026 but to God alone\u2026 and so to call Jesus not only a king\u2026 but THE King\u2026 was to undo Rome’s position\u2026 and the hold its Empire and religious establishment\u2026 had in anyone’s life then\u2026 and our lives now…<\/p>\n\n\n\n And you know\u2026 so much of difficulty we have getting our heads around Christ’s Kingship\u2026 so much of why it’s all so illogical and irrational\u2026 so much of why it’s mystery\u2026 is because so much of it is paradox\u2026 it’s because it’s an upside down way of functioning and forming expectations\u2026 it’s about giving ourselves away and having more left over\u2026 it’s about acknowledging our brokenness and becoming more whole\u2026 it’s about being healed even when we’re not cured\u2026 it’s about choosing to function with a perspective of abundant blessing instead of one of scarcity\u2026 it’s about how when we forgive others we experience more of the forgiveness we already own\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s almost as if the Roman Empire and the kingdoms of the world are like the realm of classical physics\u2026 that branch of science which uses force and action to explain the fundamentals of motion and energy\u2026 with predictable but limited possibilities and options related to cause and effect\u2026 and which understands time to be fixed and space to be uniform throughout\u2026 which sees limits instead of possibilities\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n However\u2026 Colossians says\u2026 that\u2026 in him all things in heaven and on earth were created\u2026 things visible and invisible<\/em>… and\u2026 in him all things hold together<\/em>\u2026 then it is within this reality\u2026 and as Matthew 19:26 says that\u2026 for God all things are possible<\/em>\u2026 it is within the spiritual depths of quantum physics\u2026 that the passage of time is relative\u2026 and space is curved\u2026 where giant molecules are capable of being in two places at the same time\u2026 where light can simultaneously be both a particle and a wave\u2026 and where the solutions for the conflicts and limitations we face\u2026 can arise through a new paradigm\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Author Brian McLaren asks\u2026 what would it mean if we just happen to be living\u2026 when a new humanity is in the painful\u2026 but fragile process of being born\u2026 and what if the growth of this new humanity\u2026 the new social creation [ to which Jesus referred over and over again ] depends on the old one losing its dominance\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I write these words\u2026 he writes\u2026 I can\u2019t help but feel a flood of resonances with the Hebrew Scriptures\u2026 echoes of Isaiah\u2026 speaking of God doing a new thing\u2026 of something fresh springing forth\u2026 so that there will be good news for the poor\u2026 recovery of sight for the blind\u2026 and freedom for the incarcerated and oppressed\u2026 I hear the prophet imagining a promised time when weapons are recycled into farm equipment because nobody studies war any more\u2026 I hear Ezekiel\u2019s oracle about a new heart\u2026 a heart of flesh that replaces the heart of stone\u2026 I hear Amos envisioning a time when a river of justice rolls down from the heights\u2026 filling the lowest places first\u2026 I hear Micah relativizing everything in his religion except doing justice… loving kindness\u2026 and walking humbly before God\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Whatever this new emerging meta-movement is\u2026 it is bigger than any single religion\u2026 in fact\u2026 it is bigger than religion as a whole\u2026 it issues an invitation to all religions… all economies\u2026 all educational and political systems\u2026 all arts and trades\u2026 all sciences and technologies\u2026 everything\u2026 it is\u2026 we might say\u2026 a spiritual movement that encompasses everything\u2026 it is God’s will into which we are being invited\u2026 kind of like the field of all possibilities\u2026 kind of like the Kingdom of Christ\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Let us pray\u2026 Holy God\u2026 guide us to perceive what is right\u2026 and grant us both the courage to pursue it\u2026 and the grace to accomplish it\u2026 through Jesus Christ, our Lord… Amen\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C Jeremiah 23:1-6 Psalm 46 Colossians 1:11-20 Luke 23:33-43May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 How odd it is\u2026 to have a reading that evokes images of Good Friday\u2026 during Advent\u2026 how counterintuitive it seems\u2026 to mash-up Christ the King with Christ the Crucified\u2026 how unlike the excess of monarchy\u2026 is the poverty of Jesus on the cross\u2026 as of this year\u2026 there are still 43 sovereign states in the world\u2026 with a supreme ruler or monarch as head of government\u2026 thirteen in Asia\u2026 twelve in Europe (which includes the House of Windsor)\u2026 nine in the Americas\u2026 six in Oceania\u2026 and three in Africa\u2026 rulers who wield varying degrees of benevolence or authoritarianism\u2026 The Revolutionary War was fought\u2026 our country sought to free itself from England for many reasons\u2026 but among the most prominent… was the idea that those who lived more than thirty-five hundred miles away could not know\u2026 could not adequately and justly represent the needs and concerns of their subjects\u2026 but even after the Revolutionary War\u2026 in the earliest years of our country\u2026 our democratic experiment was only for white men who owned land\u2026 that is\u2026 who had money\u2026 but as democracy has matured and evolved\u2026 our self-governing experiment has come to increasingly mean that all sorts\u2026 and all conditions of people have\u2026 or ought to have a chance to participate in their government\u2026 And as we think about our reading from Jeremiah\u2026 let’s remember that shepherds were lowly outcasts\u2026 they had dirty jobs caring for animals who didn’t have much sense\u2026 sheep left on their own will scatter and get lost\u2026 sheep eat with their heads down just moving along\u2026 oblivious to where they are\u2026 just walking and eating\u2026 walking and eating\u2026 and they may not even realize that they’re lost and alone\u2026 that’s why the shepherd does what’s needed\u2026 to direct them from behind\u2026 Earthly kings lead in much the same way\u2026 often pushing people with their power and authority\u2026 and remember\u2026 God really didn’t want the Israelites to have a King\u2026 in 1Samuel 8\u2026 God warned the people about the abuses of power and corruption\u2026 and how the day would come when they’d cry out to God because of the king who they themselves have chosen\u2026 but they really insisted\u2026 and God relented\u2026 and gave them a king\u2026 and when Saul proved to be corrupt\u2026 God directed Samuel to go to Jesse’s house\u2026 and God chose David as king\u2026 a lowly shepherd\u2026 shepherds and kings\u2026 and in this reading from Jeremiah\u2026 written during the fall of Jerusalem\u2026 the leaders have endangered their sheep with such reckless shepherding that they are scattered\u2026 Babylon has taken advantage of dis-integrated leadership\u2026 but the passage promises that God will gather them back in\u2026 raise up a shepherd so that none shall fear\u2026 or be dismayed\u2026 or be lost any more\u2026 in the Lord’s Prayer\u2026 we pray that God’s Kingdom come\u2026 on Earth as it is in Heaven\u2026 this isn’t about establishing earthly values in Heaven\u2026 but about establishing Heavenly values on earth\u2026 in his rejection of the divisions in the world\u2026 Jesus embodies a different set of values\u2026 values to which we’re attracted whenever people in positions of power exhibit them\u2026 people like Pope Francis\u2026 Princess Diana\u2026 Archbishop \u00d3scar Romero\u2026 and Dietrich Bonhoeffer\u2026 and what makes these people attractive is that they don’t behave how the world would expect them to\u2026 they reject the power and privilege that could easily shield them from the messiness of life\u2026 they don’t use their positions to keep themselves raised up\u2026 they don’t lord their authority over others\u2026 they identify with those in need and invite relationship\u2026 Pope Pius XI instituted today’s feast day in December 1925\u2026 and this is why\u2026 in the aftermath of WWI\u2026 which ended in 1918\u2026 nationalist sentiments were increasing throughout the world… Mussolini became the fascist head of the Italian Republic and was actively trying to win over Italy\u2019s Roman Catholic majority through several religious appeasements\u2026 in July 1925\u2026 Adolf Hitler published the first volume of his manifesto\u2026 Mein Kampf\u2026 that next month\u2026 in August\u2026 approximately 40,000 members of the KKK marched on Washington, DC\u2026 and with a membership of nearly 5 million\u2026 it was believed to be the largest fraternal organization in the US at that time\u2026 two months later\u2026 in October 1925\u2026 the seven agreements of the Locarno Treaties divided Europe into eastern and western sections\u2026 and Pope Pius felt compelled to respond to the trend of this unhealthy global nationalism\u2026 and by establishing this feast day\u2026 he called on the church to declare Christ\u2019s Kingship over all of creation\u2026 it’s what a seven-week Advent is intended to remind us of\u2026 And so what the Romans didn’t realize when they put that inscription over Jesus which read\u2026 This is the king of the Jews\u2026 what they didn’t realize was that they were only partly right\u2026 because Jesus’ way of being\u2026 the Mind of Christ out of which Jesus functioned\u2026 transcended anything that was particularly Jewish\u2026 in other words\u2026 in a realization comparable to Pope Pius’ centuries later\u2026 the people could proclaim that power belonged not to Nebuchadnezzar\u2026 or Cyrus\u2026 or Caesar\u2026 or Herod\u2026 any other king or emperor\u2026 but to God alone\u2026 and so to call Jesus not only a king\u2026 but THE King\u2026 was to undo Rome’s position\u2026 and the hold its Empire and religious establishment\u2026 had in anyone’s life then\u2026 and our lives now… And you know\u2026 so much of difficulty we have getting our heads around Christ’s Kingship\u2026 so much of why it’s all so illogical and irrational\u2026 so much of why it’s mystery\u2026 is because so much of it is paradox\u2026 it’s because it’s an upside down way of functioning and forming expectations\u2026 it’s about giving ourselves away and having more left over\u2026 it’s about acknowledging our brokenness and becoming more whole\u2026 it’s about being healed even when we’re not cured\u2026 it’s about choosing to function with a perspective of abundant blessing instead of one of scarcity\u2026 it’s about how 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