Be awake, Jesus is back!

Matthew 24:36-44

Today is Advent Sunday beginning the count down to the coming of Christ in to the world. It is the count down to the beginning of the end to the ruthless power of violence, persecution and isolation presently deemed to be in charge of the world. The coming of Christ into the world is to usher in the reign of God and to bring about a change of orientation and the end of the ego self as the reigning image of power and entitlement.

Today is also the beginning of the year of Matthew, a writer with an end-time or apocalyptic orientation. Matthew believes history is divided into two ages -- a present, evil age that God would soon replace with a new age, the reign or kingdom of God. The old age is marked by idolatry, sin, injustice, exploitation, sickness, enmity between nature and humankind, violence, and death. The new age will be characterized by the complete rule of God and by authentic worship, forgiveness, mutual support, health, blessing between nature and humankind, and eternal life.

For Matthew, God is acting through Jesus Christ to effect the change. The birth, life, and resurrection are the first phase of the transformation, with the complete manifestation arriving with the second coming. Meanwhile, Matthew’s community lives in a conflict zone between the ages. God calls the Matthean community to follow the instruction and model of the Matthean Jesus.

Some scholars affirm that many in Matthew’s congregation were losing confidence in the coming of the Realm. The apocalypse was delayed. Their witness was fading. Matthew wrote to encourage them to continue. (Ron Allen)

For a community enthused by the hope of regime change and the possibility of freedom from both the tranny of the Romans and the seeming assault on their values and beliefs, the return of Christ and his Kingdom couldn’t come to soon. It hadn’t, it didn’t or hasn’t.

Or did it?

Many cartoonists have commented on this desire to find Jesus and to find Jesus in his return to the world. It is often a comment on those who knock on our door with the desire to convert us to their vision of faith with the question, ‘Have you found Jesus?

Well, one of my favourite t-shirts is this one – “I have found Jesus-he was behind the sofa the whole time”.

I have been accused of being heretical for wearing it, but I suspect it captures something of the apocalyptic message of this passage. Be awake, Jesus is already here, have you missed him?

If we are always looking west we will never see the sun rise in the east. Until 1697 all swans were believed to be white. No one had seen a black swan until Dutch explorers led by Willem de Vlamingh became the first Europeans to see black swans, in Western Australia. It has become a way to describe events we are unable to predict because there is no precedence, experience and awareness on which to base our judgement. The election of Donald Trump could be a black swan event.

We do know the coming of Jesus was one such event and the second coming of Jesus through the coming of his spirit in the world after his resurrection is another such event. Matthew is often read to speak of that time when his kingdom will come in power and turn on its head the world in which we live, ushering respect, justice and compassion – the with-ness of relational wholeness empowered by love.

Do we still live waiting for that event, for if we do I fear we short change the gift of the spirit and the capacity we have to live in the kingdom which is to come, now.

My t-shirt is a reminder to me to:

·      Be awake to the now, to the spirit of Christ at work in the ordinariness of material being. Jesus may not be physically behind the sofa but he is to be found in all those places where the structures of power and tyranny, capitalism and false democracy are challenged by those who represent equality, compassion, justice and inclusion. What is more apocalyptic than that? The Anglican churches with prayer rooms for their Muslim friends or including LGBTI within the leadership of their church or making space for those who are different and deemed less than us, and more. Those who stand against the systemic violence of war, winners and losers, banned for life and builders of walls and barriers to freedom.

·      Be awake to the opportunities I never expect to have, the black swan experiences which open up possibilities for my voice to be heard, my love as a verb to be experienced or my simple presence next to someone who is being excluded, oppressed or avoided to be felt.

·      Be awake to the truth that Christ has already returned through the power of his spirit and it is my responsibility to be ready to act, speak and be the prophet of the reign of Christ, now. This is not something coming from above or in the future, this is to come from within and now; from within this material existence and from within me and it is now, this very moment I am being called to love – to be the action of love in this world.

I witness this amazing second coming everyday.

·      I see it here in this parish. When someone gets sick, faces  the loss of someone they love or the possibility of their own death, I witness Christs spirit at work in this congregation – the kingdom of God acts. People visit, ring, prayer, cook, wash and are just present. People tell me when I ring offering assistance, ‘Not to worry Vicar, I am being well cared for by my friends here.” I have had others say how much their ‘St Oswald’s family” have done in their time of need.

This is an example of turning the power of oppression upside down and acting out the second coming of Christ in this place.

·      I also see it in the efforts people make to support refugees, homeless, unemployed; to go to rallies and marches; to advocate on those who are excluded.

This is another example of turning the power of oppression upside down and acting out the second coming of Christ in this place.

·      I see it in the capacity of people to continue to live as joy and hope for others when the odds are stacked against them. For example:

o   ARtlifting is a US program using art to engage homeless people. It is not therapy or feel good helping. Homeless people explore their artistic talents and the folk at ArtLifting  run exhibitions, art shows and auctions, selling the art and lifting people from dependency to independence.

o   I see it the work of Slingshot which has launched Australia’s first ever Indigenous start-up accelerator program called Barayamal. The accelerator aims to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander entrepreneurs build successful business ideas into worldclass products.

o   I see it in a record for the University of Western Australia where six Aboriginal medical students will graduate this weekend, including Vinka Barunga who wishes to become Derby’s first indigenous doctor.

o   I see it in the many ways, places and people who are embodying the spirit of Christ and revolutionising the world, we just have to be awake.

Matthew does have a focus on the second coming, we do live in the in-between times, not as a place of being in limbo, but as a place where the second coming is ours to institute. Be ready, be awake, and act as if Jesus has already come. Amen

The With-ness of Being

At the back of the house where we stayed on our break runs a little river. It gurgles and gargles alongside large native trees, over the remnants of such trees laying across it and over little rocky rapids as it makes it way down to the meeting of waters, a place where, as the name suggests it reaches other little rivers.

 

I went for a walk in the bush behind this spot and wandered along beside another of these little streams that seemed to me to giggle and laugh its way down hill over trees and rocks, alongside little eddy’s which were havens for those who didn’t want the wild ride the middle of the stream offered.

 

Beside both of these creeks were banks inhabited by  a multitude of life, animate and inanimate. Multi hues of greens, browns, yellows etc covered the banks hiding a variety of life and activity only partially glimpsed by the naked eye.

 

We drove through the forests above Marysville to marvel at the savagery of nature and the capacity it has for returning to continue the search for wholeness and fulfilment. The sense of interconnectedness and relationship as different species worked together to bring back life under the stately skeletons of eucalypts who perished in the fires was awe inspiring.

 

Charles Darwin concluded his last chapter of his ground breaking book with the following:

 

"It is interesting to contemplate a tangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent upon each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. ……….. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

 

Darwin encapsulates for us a series of ideas relevant to our celebration of the reign of Christ on this the Feast of Christ the King. In the last few months and longer we have experienced the upsurge of isolationism, populism and blame sharing most of us have not previously experienced. It seems that many of the givens in our society  have been overturned and replaced by ideologies and movements determined to wreak havoc on our sense and sensibilities. The rise of the right in Turkey, Brexit, the rise of the right and one nation here, the success of Donald Trump and the possibility of the extreme right exerting power in Europe alongside the growing influence of China and the continuing power of Russia all seem determined to change how the world has been for most of our lifetime.

 

In the midst of this how do we make sense of the reign of Christ? What does it look like in a world in continuous flux? Who or what is in charge? How do we discern Christ the King in this seemingly unmanageable mess?

 

In our reading Luke has Jesus in conversation with another on the cross which goes like this:

 

“Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” ⁴³He replied, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

 

There are three things in this exchange in the midst of Luke’s passion story I think is worth remembering, not only for our world but for the church and on this day of our AGM, our parish – wholeness, relational and love.

 

These three words could be used to sum up both the Gospel of Jesus and the thrust of Darwin’s work.  Creation is, through the evolutionary process, working towards relational wholeness empowered by love. It is the reason why we are to always be hopeful about the future, the future of the parish, the church and the world.  The turmoil we see is the result of the process into wholeness, the ultimate end of evolution and faith. It is the result of being in relation with others and the Other as we work to fulfil our calling to abundant flourishing in the natural and spiritual worlds. It is not the end.

 

The conversation between Jesus and his companion is about relationships – you will be with me – the word with describes the reign of Christ. It is about with-ness not separate-ness. Christ is not a king separate from the agony of the process to wholeness. And by association God is not a distant God who arbitrarily chooses when to intervene, on who’s behalf to intervene and for what cause to intervene.

 

Much that was distasteful was said during the recent US election, but the moments which disturbed me most were when both candidates ended their speeches, at various times, with God Bless You or God Bless America. How dare they co-opt God into their ideologically inspired campaigns? How dare they think that God is theirs to invoke in such away? 

 

Christ is with us, right in the very middle of it to such an extent that his desire for wholeness for all takes him into the deepest with-ness or relationship possible – death on a cross – the ultimate in suffering and in sharing the suffering of others. It was the worst of death for those who challenged the way of the powerful and fearful and it is all the evidence we need for the with-ness of Christ, and by definition, the with-ness of God.

 

Wholeness is the process of creation. We are engaged as human beings in the ever-forward process of wholeness and fulfilment. We are deemed to be the pinnacle of created beings, but like all created beings we are not finished yet. There is more to come to create wholeness in capacity, capabilities, knowledge, wisdom and co-operation with all that is. It is the direction of faith taking us toward the reign (kingdom) of God. It will be complete when we live relationally in justice, respect and compassion. It will be that time when all is complete and all live in completeness. It will be the fulfilment of love.

 

Love is the spark of creation and the energy that empowers the process towards fulfilment. All creation, humans included, are imbued with the creative spirit of Christ and it is the spirit, this love, this essence of God, who is responsible for empowering the urge toward relational wholeness – the reign of Christ. Love is not an emotion. Love is not a concept. Love is not just a descriptive word. Love is a verb and it is the a verb or action word at the centre of all that is.  Without love, without the creative spirit who is God and love, there can be no hopefulness, no striving for existence and wholeness.

 

These three words – relational wholeness empowered by love – describe the reign of Christ in the world. It is the ongoing with-ness of Christ at the darkest and most difficult moments and also at those moments of great joy. They are to be our motto for how we live individually, in community and in our church. If we live these three words well we will attract others to see and participate and we will share with others and ourselves the reign of Christ here and now.

 

These three words must be at the centre of all that we do if we are to survive, grow and flourish, not for ourselves, our memories or our hopes, but to usher in the reign of Christ now and forever. Amen.