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The apokálypsis of Emmanuel, God among us.

Published on by The Rev. Jason A BurnsLeave a comment

Happy New Year to you all! Today is the first day of the church year and with it we begin the long march to Pentecost. Over the next 6 months we will, once again, endeavor to understand the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and what those events mean for ourselves, our community, and our world. There was a time when Advent was treated as a season of penitence and repentance, similar to that of Lent, but we have since discerned that Advent is more for reflection and anticipation. So here we are, once again waiting, watching, and anticipating; but for what do we wait? For what do we watch? What are we anticipating?

Today’s passage from Luke’s gospel hints of the coming apocalypse; of the end times; of the end of life as we know it and then warns us to be ready. At first glance this is a pretty scary passage of scripture, we are not used to Jesus telling us to fear anything, but here he is saying “be on guard”; but before we get carried away let’s take a moment to remember that an apocalypse is nothing to be feared, and in fact the message here is actually one of Hope. The Greek word apokálypsis, from which our word apocalypse is derived, means to uncover or reveal something that is hidden, as opposed to our definition which is the complete and final destruction of the world. While semantically that is arguably the same thing, for now we are just going to focus on the Greek definition because Greek is the language Luke used when he wrote his version of the Gospel.

Another thing to be aware of is that this passage is taken out of its context, and is in fact the very end of a sermon Jesus gave while teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem, during which he described the hypocrisy of the scribes who do everything for show; he described the widow who gave all that she had to the temple; he speaks of the eventual destruction of the temple; he describes the persecution his followers will endure for the sake of the gospel; and then he describes the eventual destruction of Jerusalem itself. It is only at that point that we reach today’s passage, a passage that describes the return of Emmanuel, God among us. Jesus’s words are not a warning to fear his return, it is not a condemnation of non-believers and sinners, though that is how it is often viewed because for nearly 2,000 years that is what has been taught, but that version is wrong. It is wrong because it makes absolutely no sense within the context of everything Jesus taught and stood for. His entire ministry, as presented to us in four different books shows us that he never advocated anything except love. Does he talk about separating the sheep from the goats? Yes, he does. Does he talk about returning to sit in judgement? Yes, he does. Does he talk about the destruction of the world? Yes, he does, we just heard it. The issue here is not what Jesus may have said about these things, the issue is that we are failing to understand the broader context in which these things were said and taking that into account as we discern their meaning.

Theologian and Presbyterian pastor Wes Avram says that “Luke wrote with a deep and growing sense that Christian discipleship is a kind of living in between—aware of Jesus, waiting for Jesus, and coming to know Jesus for whom we wait in the midst of an eventful, unpredictable, even tumultuous world, waiting to stand before him, yet not always knowing where he is.” Dr. Avram’s words jumped out at me because in them I see what Jesus is describing in Luke’s gospel, not just in the little snippet we heard today, but throughout. Jesus is telling us that being his disciple is going to be hard. People are going to challenge us; they are going to persecute us; they are going to think we are crazy Jesus people and sometimes they are going to be right about that; sometimes it is going to feel like the earth is quaking; that the sun and moon, and stars are falling; sometimes the nations, the people of the world, are going to be confused and not know what is happening, and they will react viscerally to protect the things they believe are important. In short, the world is going to continue to be the world because human existence is messy, and chaotic, and scary and just because we find comfort in the idea of a loving God, that doesn’t mean that everyone does and it also doesn’t mean that we are always able to find God in the chaos. Which is why we have to ask where is Jesus in all of this? Where is Emmanuel?

The world in 2024 is a scary place for many people. Many fear that the values by which they define themselves and their families, are being taken away as western society opens itself to wider definitions of love and inclusion; and likewise, there are many who fear that the new definitions of acceptance will be undone. Some are using the power of government to oppress and destroy peoples they deem dangerous or simply in their way; just as there are people whose lives are destroyed by those actions, who want nothing more than to be able to live their lives in peace. Most people simply live their lives, doing their best to follow the rules and be a good person, but they too are afraid at times. They are afraid that they aren’t good enough or that their efforts are somehow not worthy. For many people, every day feels like the end times, like the apocalypse. This world, today, is no different than the one Jesus experienced, which is why his teachings continue to be relevant.

At the beginning of this I asked for what are we waiting and watching? Hint, we are not waiting for the birth of Christ or his resurrection. There is no need to watch, and wait, and anticipate something that has already happened. We need to watch for the presence of God among us; we need to wait for God to soften the hearts of those who cling to earthly power; and we need to anticipate the day when Christ will once again walk among us and reveals the full glory of the kingdom of heaven. 

As we begin another church year, as we wait for the return of Jesus, as we watch for and anticipate God’s presence among us, we must also cling to the knowledge that God never left and that the great revealing of which Jesus spoke may in fact be the knowledge that while we await the return of Jesus, God is in fact among us in spirit. God the Holy Spirit is in the hearts and minds of all. They are in the hearts of those who want to protect their sense of self; they are in the hearts of those who use the power of government for destruction and for good; they are in those who wish to simply live peacefully. What this boils down to is this: in our anticipation of the return of Christ Jesus, as we wait for the Holy Spirit to do their work, as we watch for the presence of God among us, we need to not lose sight of the message of the gospel, the message of love and forgiveness that Jesus embodied because it was and is this message that has and will continue to better the world, despite our best efforts to stop it, until the day when Christ returns. Amen.

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Wise fools

Published on by The Rev. Jason A BurnsLeave a comment

The Greek origins of the word sophomore is sophos which means wise and moros, which means foolish, so a sophomore is a wise fool, which I think is fitting description for most teenagers and quite frankly most adults. The disciples were certainly sophomoric at times, they argued among themselves about which one of them was Jesus’ favorite, completely missing the point of everything he had taught them. A defining characteristic of being a wise fool is believing that you know all the answers, even when you clearly do not. Truly the word is an oxymoron, it combines two things that are the complete opposite and rightly so because a fool, by definition, is not wise and if you are wise then you are by definition, not a fool. Yet, our behavior as a species often makes me wonder if there is any wisdom left in the world.

Jesus settles the dispute between the twelve by saying that whoever wants to be first, must be a servant of all. All! As in everyone and everything. Notice that Mark does not say all people, he ends the phrase at all. All what? Our sophomoric selves assume he meant all people because what else would it be, but once we apply a little logic and dig deep into our scriptural knowledge, we remember that God created humanity to have dominion over creation, which means that we have sovereignty over it, or to put it another way we are tasked with caring for it and because we have been bad at our job and because God so loved the world, they sent their only begotten son to redeem the world. God sent Jesus to return us to our purpose, which is to be a servant of all.

During the enlightenment, philosophes, such as Rousseau and Locke, spoke of government as a contract between the people of a nation. A contract in which the people agreed to follow their leaders as long as their leaders were caring for the people. It was from this idea that the phrase servant of the state came into being. Frederick the Great of Prussia was the first to use the term, he said that he was the first servant of the state, meaning that his role as sovereign was to serve his kingdom, not dominate it. Freddy, as I like to call him, deserves some credit here because he recognized that holding dominion over something does not mean that you should simply use that thing for your own selfish devises, because that is what a fool does. A fool thinks that they can extract minerals from the earth under the guise that they are using those materials to better humanity by facilitating the creation of gadgets that make life easier and that doing so causes no harm. A wise person recognizes that the process of this removal is harming the environment in ways that cannot be repaired in their lifetime. A sophomore, a wise-fool, agrees that harming the earth is bad and then posts a video about it on TikTok from their iPhone, completing our circle of irony.

God gave us dominion over creation, but with power comes responsibility and because our species tends to lean more towards foolishness than wisdom, God sent Jesus to give us pearls of wisdom, like those who want to be first need to be last and a servant of all. This is God telling us we messed up because having dominion over creation means that we must serve creation, not dominate it. We started to understand this during the enlightenment, we started to understand the wisdom of Christ, the wisdom that said, by serving all; all people; all animals; all plants; all that was and is created by God, we can and will see the heaven and earth that John speaks of in his Revelation. I suspect we have a long way to go before we will see the new heaven and the new earth, but I have hope. I have hope because if nothing else in this world is true, I know that God will never give up on us, even though we act like sophomores most of the time. 

Truth matters

Published on by The Rev. Jason A BurnsLeave a comment

As an American citizen, and as a social studies teacher I pay very close attention to politics, because I believe very strongly that it is a part of my duty as a citizen and a christian to do so. Having taught history for nearly 20 years I am very aware of the trends in this nation’s history and I am very aware that the division we are perceiving  now has always been there, right from the beginning. The reason we think it wasn’t is because history has traditionally been written and presented in a way that glosses over the truth and highlights the positive. The only time negative things or the role of the minority were traditionally brought up in history was when they were something that needed to be and were defeated. Here’s the thing, in all cases what has been perceived as negative or a minority has had people on both sides of the argument fighting for what they believe to be the correct interpretation of the situation.

In the 1930’s, a very large number of Americans felt very strongly that the United States needed to stay out of European concerns, in most cases it was because they didn’t want to send another generation across the Atlantic to die in a trench, in some cases it was because they believed we simply have no business meddling in Europe or Asia, and in a small number of cases it was because they thought the Nazis were right. There were violent clashes over these issues, as well as riots caused by labor unrest, racial tension, and immigration; but what do we hear about the 1930’s? We hear that the New Deal saved America and that Americans, though reluctant to get into a war, kicked butt after they were attacked at Pearl Harbor.

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul is clear that the struggle of the faithful is not with blood and flesh, meaning humanity itself, but against the rulers and the authorities, by which I believe he means the ideas and beleifs we cling to, the things that are used to structure our society and define who is allowed to participate. In the first century there were many conflicting ideas about God and humanities’ relationship to them and the same is true today. Much of the content of Paul’s many letters is a reminder to readers to hold fast to the teachings of Christ Jesus, to not be fooled or derailed by nay-sayers, what-ifers, and people who distort Christ’s message for their own purpose. These are the rulers, the authorities, and the cosmic powers that Paul speaks of. It is not specific people he is warning about but the self promoting ideas that they voice, for nothing from God is about aggrandizement and self-promotion. To combat these forces, Paul recommends that we “take up the whole armor of God” by which he means the teachings of Jesus. 

In John’s gospel we have come to the end of the body and blood narrative, Jesus once again says that “Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” but what does that even mean? Truly he is saying the exact thing that Paul is trying to get us to understand, that through his teachings we will find life, but to do so we must accept God into our lives, internalize the teachings of Christ, and accept them as the truth, not a truth, not a truth that we drag out when we need it, like our suitcase or Christmas decorations; but a truth that is so profound, so meaningful, so correct that it drives every decision we make, at which point we will have fully donned the armor of God.

For centuries christians have practiced slavery of some kind, created laws that subjugate women and children to men, and established social structures designed to concentrate power in the hands of specific people. In all of these cases a justification has been made by using the words of scripture, but in all of these cases the words chosen have been removed from their context and the teachings of Jesus have been left out of the picture altogether. In many cases the religious connection came well after the deeds were done, and only after someone asked if what was being done was okay in the eyes of God, which is a clear sign that Jesus was not at the heart of the decision making process. This is similar to the historical narratives we have traditionally heard. A certain value is attached to an event and then a narrative is written to ensure that the desired value is promoted, often at the cost of truth.

The curse of Cain has traditionally been used as a justification for slavery, in 19th century America it was believed that the mark of Cain was black skin, and often conflated with the curse of Ham, which was a curse on the descendents of Ham, son of Noah, to be the servants of others. These stories are of course very convenient, but have nothing to do with the teachings of Christ or even God. God did not curse Ham, his father cursed him because he broke the commandment to honor his father and mother by gossiping about his father’s naked body. In the case of Cain, it was God who punished him to forever need to wander the earth, instead of being a farmer; but God also marked him so that others would leave him alone, thus saving his life and redeeming him.

As Christians we have a duty to understand the true nature of the gospel, in the same way that as citizens we have a duty to understand the truth of our past as well as the present, because it is through our misunderstanding that we cause and perpetuate harm. If we arm ourselves with the truth then we will be able to withstand the evil that ensnares us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf; but only if we do the work that is necessary. Donning the armor of God requires regular engagement with scripture, regular prayer about how scripture applies to our lives, and most importantly an acknowledgement that if we are not seeking to apply what we learn to every aspect of our lives we are in fact not following Jesus. Seeking division at all costs, perpetuating myths and openly ignoring the truth of our past and the present is not rooted in the way of love, nor is it about God, it is about power, both personal and collective. Jesus stood up to power, Paul warned us about it, yet we collectively give into it or go along with it as if the truth doesn’t matter, but it does matter. The truth about our history matters, the truth about our society and culture matters, and the truth about God matters. So as we navigate the world, don’t forget your armor so you can speak truth in love and combat the spiritual forces of evil that continue to plague creation.