On terrible suffering and death . . . and our Lord's promises to us! (Todd White funeral)

      I suppose, by way of introduction, I should explain why you are all here today, instead of at a funeral home, remembering your friend, Todd.  First of all, my name is Brian McVey.  I was rector of St. Alban’s Episcopal Church for 8 ½ years, and I was the White’s priest.  OK.  I see a few looks of surprise, but not too many.  Good.  Yes, Todd was an active member of this parish when I served here.  When I say active, of course, I don’t just mean he showed up occasionally.  Todd was one of the manly men, as we liked to joke around here, who made sure food was distributed not just in this neighborhood, but to churches that fed people in Western Illinois, other communities in eastern Iowa, and even southern Wisconsin.  We hold it axiomatic that we never know how far acts of kindness and obedience to God might go, but Todd was one of those men who made sure that thousands of families that suffered from food insecurity, were fed by dragging himself out of bed early on Saturday mornings, come rain or snow or shine.  That was his serious work, as far as I was concerned.

     Todd, though, had a playful streak.  In some ways, he was the kid who never really grew up.  Terri might not remember, but I will probably always picture Todd and John on the roof during waters wars in my mind.  Imagine 60-70 kids running around outside in the field over there, and Todd . . . err, John, armed with a slingshot of sorts and dozens of water balloons.  Everyone is laughing because they know who the real instigator was!  Every time Todd nailed a kid with a slingshotted balloon, he’d high five John and hold his hands out and make that face which Terri loved!  I can see that some of you do it better.  I have not seen it in seven years, so I am a bit out of practice.

     Todd also was a guy who was serious about hospitality.  I have to confess, Terri, I am glad to have learned the reasons behind the bumble bee costume and crazy dancing in your yard.  With Todd, one never knew; and truth be told, I was afraid to ask about it.  LOL.  But Todd would, probably only four days a week, wave at me with a beer as I drove by, usually with my kids on the way home from school, inviting me to stop and have one with him.  He’d fuss from time to time that I never stopped to have beers.  I’d remind Todd I was bringing all my kids home from school and probably getting ready to run to another meeting or something.  Time was my issue.  And Todd had some four-letter words of wisdom about me paying attention to my time.  Of course, when it was serious, Todd would come over to chat in the office.

     So, when I heard from the people I had served in the parish about everything that had happened to the family, I made the offer to come up from my parish in Nashville, assuming the priest’s permission, and celebrate at Todd’s service.  And truthfully, what else could I do?  You have had enough tragedies in your life these last couple months to rival Job.  First Maddie dying.  Then the house fire.  Most everything was lost, especially the memorabilia and your dogs.  Then Todd’s untimely death.  Then the wreck.  Now Terri and the girls find themselves in a strange home, with half the family literally gone, with much of what was familiar gone, and no fawning pups to make it all better.  Terri made the comment this weekend that she felt a bit uncomfortable about the idea of hold a service here because it had been so long.  It has been.  Two weeks will mark seven years that I have been gone.  And a lot happens in seven years.  But, as we all know, a lot more can happen in the blink of an eye.

     Although perhaps Terri and Todd were not keeping good track of those with whom they served in this parish, the parish was certainly keeping track of and praying for them.  As each of these tragedies unfolded, more and more former parishioners reached out to ask me where God was in this mess.  What you visitors do not know, the more to this story, is that the current priest has been battling brain cancer for some time, and only recently decided to cease treatment.  She has fought the good fight, but barring a healing miracle, she will likely lose this life to cancer.  The parish is without their leader, in some ways, and the pastoral care you require needs a leader in their minds.  Part of my job will be to remind us all that we have the Leader and that He will give us what we need to minister to one another, and to the world, in light of such tragedies, trusting in both His promises and power to redeem all suffering, even suffering as seemingly hopeless as this.

     Those of you visiting an Episcopal Church might be a bit surprised by our seating and the symbols you see and, perhaps, unsure what to expect.  I am assuming that some of you are still worried that the roof might collapse at any moment because Terri dropped an f-bomb or three when she spoke of Todd before the service began.  Yes, I know.  And the priest didn’t try and muzzle her or chew her out for her language.  What is happening here?  First of all, this is no longer my church.  If the lightning bolt hits, I don’t have to file the insurance claims.  LOL  More importantly, though, her language, while perhaps not used in polite company too often, spoke to the hopelessness and frustration and anger and bitterness and other unsatisfied emotions we all feel this day about Todd’s untimely death.  Our Lord Christ ministered among fishermen.  As I once reminded Todd when he asked me questions about language, I don’t know many fishermen who speak in “thee, thou, and vouchsafe” language.  Todd laughed at that and told me stories about his fishing buddies.  Don’t worry.  I don’t remember the names.  But if you cringed at the idea of Todd talking to me about you, you could probably still use a good Confession and Absolution, even if not for your language with Todd.  That’s a sermon for another day, though.  Lol.  No, one of the great mistakes a pastor can make with Todd, I found out firsthand, was to teach him that swearing was not a sin.  Watching the elbow nudges and seeing your expressions, I am guessing you experienced Todd’s “earthy” language for yourself.  Sin and manners are different, and earthy language is not always welcome around kids, especially at church, but Todd figured out a way to be himself, to serve God around here, and not teach little kids words they did not need to know too soon.

     As you entered searching for a seat in the back, some of you were disturbed to find out that this is a church in the round.  It is great for services such as this, but no bride in her right mind dreams of walking down that truncated aisle.  Of course, next to Todd’s cremains is the Pascal Candle.  That Candle is lit during the Easter Season, and at other times of the year but especially funerals, reminding all baptized Christians that we are baptized into Christ’s death and Resurrection and empowered by the Holy Spirit to carry His light into a dark world that rejects Him and those who serve Him.  Appropriate for our gathering today, we see one of the signs of Advent, the wreath.  Similar to the Pascal Candle, the Advent wreath reminds us of the Light of Christ entering the darkness of the world.  I serve at an Advent parish now, and I am always reminded and reminding that we look back at the Light who came into the world at Christmas even as we look forward to His promised Return while we remind ourselves of His presence among us.  If ever there was a set of tragedies that needed to be named for their darkness but seen in light of God’s promises, these are they.  Terri and all you who loved Todd, those candles remind us that these evils will be redeemed.  Make no mistake, they will likely not be redeemed in the way we want or as quickly as we want, but they will be redeemed.  As sure as He came out of that tomb when it first appeared the darkness had won and condemned Him to death, one glorious Day, all of this will be like that strawberry we got learning to ride a bike or that fishhook in the fleshy part of our thumb.  But today is not that day.  Today, and for days and weeks and months and years to come, is the time that we carry our hope in Christ into the world that desperately needs to hear and believe.

     And, before I go any further, we need to do a bit of spiritual vaccination.  I hope everyone is used to vaccines now that we are more than eighteen months into a pandemic.  This one should not hurt as much as those.  Terri, first and foremost, this was NOT part of God’s plan.  If anyone tells you that God wanted this to happen to Maddie, to Todd, to you and the kids or even the dogs, tell them to fuck off.  I cannot emphasize enough how much tragedies like this are NOT part of God’s plan.  God’s plan was that we would choose to trust Him and live in full communion with Him.  But we revolted.  We sinned.  And that walking and talking with unfettered access with Him had to stop for our own good.  We brought sin into the world.  We do well to remember that.  Just as we do well to remember that God has promised to redeem all things in our lives, thanks to our faith in the work and person of Jesus Christ.  God had no intention of death.  We know that from the Garden stories and even from Jesus Himself, who weeps and snorts angrily at the death of a friend.  So, never think this the plan.

     You will also hear other nonsense like “it’s for the best,” “he’s in a better place,” and “he’s with his princess now.”  Those who loved Todd know this was not for the best, and the more you loved him, the more you valued him as a friend or buddy, the more painful his absence will seem.  Eucharists such as this are times for us to remind ourselves and one another that we are not without hope, but neither are things the same.  Yes, one day we will see Todd again; hopefully, though, for most of us, it will be years, if not decades in the future.  It is right for wives to miss dead husbands.  It is proper for children to miss dead fathers.  It is right for us to mourn those whom we see no longer.  It is neither an indictment of our faith nor a sign of weakness.  In fact, it is an acknowledgement that things have changed.

     If you are in a tradition where they teach you to say that this is a part of God’s plan, think about what you are being taught and encouraged to do.  Why kind of monster would wish this set of tragedies on a family?  Do you really want to believe that God wanted Terri to lose the love of her life and her daughter?  Do you really want to believe that God wanted the kids to lose a sister and their father and their possessions?  God does not hurt us because he needs a project to glorify Himself.  He loves us.  We know the depth of that love because, as we will celebrate in just a couple weeks, He came down from heaven to save us.  For all the wonder and awe of Silent Night, you and I are reminded that that story would be meaningless, were it not for His suffering and death for our sins.  We may not understand it rationally, as it is a holy mystery, but God came down and bridged the chasm that we could not in the work and person of Jesus Christ.  To be sure, we will remind ourselves in a couple weeks that world did not know Him when He entered the world, and we will further remind ourselves of our rejection of Him when we return to Holy Week and Good Friday in the spring.  More significantly, we will remind ourselves that He did all that, that He suffered that rejection and torture and death, out of His incredible love for each one of us and everyone we meet.  Rather than say such nonsense to fill the void of silence, just be a shoulder to cry on, remind folks that God can redeem this because He raised Jesus from the dead.  Use both ears.  But never tell someone suffering that this was a part of God’s plan.

     Now, all of that leaves us with the question of a loving God and the existence of evil and suffering in the world.  Do we serve a God who could have cured Maddie?  Absolutely.  Do we serve a God who could have healed Todd and prevented His death?  You better believe it!  Do we serve a God who could heal a priest whose healing ministry is internationally known?  Yes.  But we serve a God who is not bound by time and space as we are and who knows far better than we what is really good for us.  Because He has already proven Himself to us by His coming and dying, we can trust that He will redeem even this horrible set of tragedies.  He may not do it the way you or I will want, but, then again, He always does more than we can ask or imagine.  And, as our readings chosen by Terri and Todd’s father remind us this day, we are reminded that we will see all those who claimed Christ as Lord again,   that this is not the end of Maddie’s story or Todd’s story or even Judith’s story.  God has so bound Himself to us that He would be dishonored were He unable to redeem this.  And we who plumb the Scriptures and have seen His power in the world around us understand all too well that He does not suffer dishonor for long.

     How do we know?  Much of what we forget in the Church in this country is the threat and presence of death.  We are blessed, most Americans, in that death is not the companion it is in other parts of the world.  In other parts of the world, diseases, hunger, war, and natural disasters loom large in the life and death of people.  We take for granted that death is something that happens in old age.  Death, of course, is that great stumbling block.  Think of the money people spend trying to put it off or delay it.  Think of the efforts that people go to to avoid it.  Cryogenic freezing and other nonsense.  The problem is that death is perceived as the end.  I can accumulate the wealth of Bill Gates or Elon Musk, but I cannot spend the money if I am dead.  I can accumulate the power of a President or monarch or military leader, but I cannot exercise that power if I am dead.  I can be the most beautiful of women or most handsome of men, but nobody will admire me if I am dead.  Death reminds us that these things we chase, these things we accumulate, most of these things that we value in life are, in the words of vanities.  Death is the stumbling block that cannot be overcome by want to, by innovation, by wealth, by strength, or by smarts.

     Ah, but for those of us who call Jesus Lord, know that death is not the final obstacle of life.  Yes.  It is the consequence of sin.  We die because we sin.  We understand that axiomatic truth.  More importantly, we understand the need for Jesus to die so that we might be reconciled to God.  Not unlike the way we breathe or blink, God destroys sin.  Were we to approach Him absent our faith in Christ, we would be destroyed.  But, He came down from heaven and became sin, took Himself all our punishments, so that we could be reconciled to Him again!  It is a price He willingly and lovingly paid.  After torture, He died.  For three days He laid in that empty tomb.  His disciples were confused because they thought His rescue had ended.  The Temple leadership thought they had secured their power, because they had conspired to put Him to death.  Pilate likely never gave Him another thought once He gave Joseph of Arimathea to retrieve the Body of our Lord and bury it.  Messiahs were a dime a dozen and charlatans all! 

     But God raised Him on that Easter morning!  That we might know He was Who He claimed to be, that we might know He really was the Messiah, God raised Him from the dead!  That Resurrection is important to us because it vindicated Jesus’ faith in our Father.  In the end, Jesus trusted that the Father would glorify Him for living the holy, righteous, sinless life He lived.  Though the world fought Him, rejected Him, and killed Him, His Resurrection testified to His Apostles and disciples that death is not the end!

     Just as significantly to us, though, it restored us to God.  I began this service with the reminder that we do not have life in ourselves.  We live and die in the Lord and are always His possession.  That means we can face the vicissitudes of the world, we can face the very worst that His enemies have to throw at us, with confidence that our sufferings will be redeemed and that we will share in His glory.  How does that work out in these tragedies?  I cannot say for certain, and, truthfully, I do not know that I want to try.  Any ideas or imaginations that I share will be dwarfed exponentially by what God will do.  How do we know Todd will be redeemed and glorified?  Because He claimed God’s Son as His Lord.  How do we know He will share in Christ’s glory?  Because that is Christ’s promise to him and to all who have been adopted as God’s children.  How do we know God can cause this all to come to be?  Because He raised Jesus from the dead!  If He had power to raise Jesus from the dead, He has the power, and more importantly the loving desire, for us to spend eternity with Him!  If He can take the events of Holy Week and our Lord’s death on the Cross and redeem them, if He can take the events of Job’s life and redeem them, He can certainly redeem these tragedies.  Perhaps our witness and our hope will lead others to His saving embrace.  Perhaps our faithful ministering to Terri and the family will cause others to wonder and ask why?  God alone knows how He will turn these tragedies to His purposes.

     Brothers and sisters, in just a couple weeks we will remind ourselves of the darkness of the world and of our need for a Savior.  We will go again to the manger, we who mourn, who perhaps even argue with God, over senseless deaths and His seeming inaction, and we will look upon the face of He Who came down from heaven.  We will remind ourselves that this first visitation was to show us the path to the Father.  And we will remind ourselves that the babe lying in the manger has been given authority to execute judgment of the world.  We will treasure, I hope, the knowledge that the Lord Whom Todd loved is the One who has been given that authority.  We will trust, I hope, in those promises that God made to Todd in his baptism.  We will, no doubt, grind our teeth a bit more on that bread and swallow a bit harder that wine that serves as the pledge of God’s promises to us in the Eucharist.  And, I pray, fortified by that pledge and this reminder of His promises to all who call Him Lord, we will look a bit more expectantly to that time when our Lord calls us home or returns to finish the re-creation that has begun, and that, like Todd and the saints who have gone before, we, with them, will be re-united with God and with them forever and share in that amazing, promised Feast, clothed not in these fleshy, always breaking down bodies nor even as a bumblebee, but clothed as sons and daughters, princes and princesses, of God, and all this bitterness and sadness forgotten.  We may not have the answers to our questions or the salves for our wounds.  Thankfully and mercifully, we, like Todd, know the One who does!

 

In His Peace,

Brian†

Christ will reign . . .

         I noticed a few worried faces this morning.  Uh, oh, we’re in white.  What’s going on?  In case you have forgotten or, more likely, time has gotten away from you because of coronatide, today is a special day in the Church.  In the old days, it was known simply as the Last Sunday after Pentecost.  It marked the end of the regular green season.  In truth, though, it is our newest feast.  In the days before the pandemic, a few fans of the 1928 Prayer Book remarked that the feast day seemed new.  So, I did some reading.  It turns out they were correct.

     By way of information, the observance of the new feast occurred in the 1920’s.  The Pope was greatly and rightly concerned that people were suffering under secular rule.  Just to remind us of our history and geography, the Pope declared the feast day after an Italian ruler by the name of Mussolini suspended a number of what we call today civil rights.  There has, from time to time, been some conflicts between the Italian leadership and the Vatican.  Part of the friction is that the Vatican is super wealthy and located within the city of Rome.  Part of the friction is due to the fact that the Vatican has tried to operate as it sees fit, paying no taxes to italy.  It’s that old story that reminds us that money equals power!

     In any event, the world was chaotic.  The last pandemic, the Spanish Flu, was not even a decade in the rear view mirror.  The war to end all wars was yet to be fought, though WWI had been tried.  America was on the doorstep of the Great Depression and The Dust Bowl.  In Europe, France and Britain had ceded the Rhineland back to Germany.  Hitler had only been in charge of the Nazi Party in Germany for a couple years.  Asia and Africa?  The world did not pay much attention to the events on those continents.  But, suffice it to say, the time was filled with social, political, economic, and religious divisions.  Add a few natural disasters, a plague, and a couple other anxieties, and you can see why the Pope decided that the world needed to be reminded that Jesus truly reigned.

     Of course, in the United States, we preferred the designation “The Reign of Christ” over Christ the King. Sunday.  It turns out that people who fought a revolution to free themselves from a monarchy are not fond of reminding themselves that the end of times will see the re-establishment of a kingdom and King, even if it is Lord Jesus.  

     For us, liturgically speaking, it is a great end of the Church year celebration.  Next week marks the beginning of Advent.  Other churches have patronal feasts.  We have a patronal season.  Our calling, insofar as our name suggests, is that we are to be a congregation that reminds the world that God’s Anointed has come and that, one glorious Day in the future, He will return to judge everyone.  Our focus looking backwards and forwards reminds us that we both testify to the fact that Jesus was and is who He said He was, that He was vindicated by God on the wonderful Easter morning, and that He will return to finish all that He has started.  Christ the King Sunday prepares us to focus upon our roles as Adventers in the world around us.  It’s just a shame the world is in so much better shape than it was when the Pope instituted the feast.

     At least everyone laughed ruefully, recognizing the sarcasm in my voice.  In many respects, not much has changed these last 95 years.  I suppose one big difference is that our politicians work for us rather than for themselves.  Hmm.  That laughter makes me think you disagree.  Well, at least we live in a country where we throw those who do not serve us out simply by casting a vote.  I see the nods but remind us that we seldom think our own Senators or Representatives are the problem.  Time and time again, Congress gets a horribly dissatisfied rating as a group, but those elected from our district or state are dissatisfied only by members of the other party.  Thus, we keep electing the same people and wonder why things do not improve.

     The pandemic, of course, has brought a number of our idols and assumptions into the light, in addition to radically changing the way we go about life, to say nothing of the suffering and death it has caused.  Last week, we reminded ourselves of those whom we had lost and not been able to mourn and celebrate properly.  We read the litany and reminded ourselves of that loss and our loss of those who have gone to their reward.

     Our inability to gather in the parish hall and share stories is but one way how things have changed around us.  Now we have the big television, so that events can be hybrid at the parish.  We want people to participate as much as possible, but we do not want them taking unnecessary risks.  Similarly, the drone of the hepa filters reminds us that gatherings are dangerous to some and risk spreading the plague to all.  Suffice it to say, we are just not yet ourselves, no matter how much we wish we were.

     Not that the wider world is in any better shape.  Economists are confused.  We are in the midst of the great resignation, and yet jobless claims remain near historic lows.  The myth is that the extra unemployment safety net caused “lazy” people to stay home and not work.  Some states cancelled those benefits during the summer, and the benefit expired in September.  So where are all the workers?  It’s almost as if people re-evaluated their priorities during a life and death pandemic and decided their jobs were not worth the risk.  Now, people are having to wait longer to get gods and services.  And let’s just say “loving their neighbor as themselves” is not at the top of their efforts right now.

     Justice seems to be in rather short supply, too.  The case in MN was decided this week with a jury finding the defendant not guilty, effectively believing his claim of self-defense.  Some among us understand the double-nature of justice.  If the defendant was black, do we think he would have gotten off?  Were the defendant poor, do we think he would have been found not-guilty?  It is easy to see why people perceive the scales of justice tipping a bit in one direction.  All of us, I expect, would like to take a shower after the case.  All of it began when the defendant crossed state lines to involve himself in social unrest.  He did not live there.  It does not seem right to others that he inserted himself into a volatile situation and was able to take two lives.

     And lest we forget, another case is playing out in Georgia.  A young black man was shot for running through the neighborhood.  One of the shooters testified under oath that the man was only running, clearly had no weapon, and did not verbally assault the three of them.  He seemed intent on avoiding their pickup trucks and shotguns.  Despite that testimony, is anyone here certain the three will be convicted when the case heads to the jury?  Even the judge has complained about the racist behavior and actions of the defense attorneys.  But, under Georgia law, there was nothing to be done.  So, people of color are excluded from the jury and the lawyers get to complain about black pastors intimidating members of the jury and the long toenails of the deceased.

     Lest we forget, we all know, and you are likely sick of me mentioning it, but we started a food pantry when food insecurity only impacted 1 in 5 Tennesseans.  How much higher did that get during the pandemic?  We provided space for those who are struggling with addiction.  How challenging was that?!  How tough has the pandemic been on mental health, but we had to make sure events and meetings here did not put people at unnecessary risk.  And you all have no idea the tug of war behind the scenes.  We demonstrated ourselves capable of distributing money to the needy and documenting that giving appropriately, and yet our local government is challenged getting new funds to those in need and specifically do not wish to work with churches.

     In the midst of those “big things,” many of us are dealing with all kinds of more personal issues.  Without getting too specific, we have Adventers who are suffering from other diseases. Some of the outlooks are downright scary, and some of the good outlooks involve some difficult treatments in the near future.  Some Adventers are dealing with broken relationships.  I know we are on the brink of the holiday season and that many of us hope for a Norman Rockwell experience, but have you met our families?  We laugh, but only because we know the truth.  None of our families look like those pictures.  We all have long simmering feuds, rolls to play, and the pressure of meeting the expectations of those who know us best.  Under stress.

     So, yes, it is good that the Pope, in his wisdom, introduced another feast day for the Church and at this time of the year.  Aside from ending the Church year with a last proclamation and look towards the eschaton before we start Advent, we get to remind ourselves that, despite all this stuff, said and unsaid, Jesus has authority and will reign.  Better still, He has promised to redeem all our sufferings and to vindicate us for our faith in Him despite the testimony of the world around us!  Our focus on the end of this year has been on the crazy ability of God to redeem and incorporate.  Naomi is literally redeemed, and Ruth became the grandma of David and an ancestor of Jesus, despite her station as a Moabite widow.  Job experiences all kinds of evil at the hand of Satan; yet God restores even Job’s honor and gives Job a vision of the things he did not know or understand.

     Our reading from 2 Samuel is from David’s obituary.  Some of the outside world might believe David was a great king.  God certainly loved him and credited David for having faith in Him.  A man after God’s own heart is how our Lord describes the great king.  Yet, those of us who read Scripture and pay attention to the stories about David understand he not a righteous superhero.  To be sure, David kills Goliath and a large number of Philistines.  David even patiently waits on God to fulfill His promise to make David king over God’s people.  But, and this is an enormous all caps but, David does a few things that make us cringe.  Were we reading the entirety of the story of David, we would be reminded of his dalliance with a woman who catches his eye.  In times of yore, this was just good old fashioned adultery, but now we cringe even more because we wonder whether Bathsheba really wanted to betray her husband.  How does a woman in that society say no to a king?  That affair results in an unintended pregnancy.  David tries to hide it by bringing Bathsheba’s husband home from the front, but ends up using the war to kill Uriah the Hittite.  Were we to pay more attention to David, the man after God’s own heart, we would see he is not the great shepherd of God’s people that he is called to be all the time.  Kings in the ANE did censuses to set taxes and decide whether there were enough fighting men to go to war.  Israel’s kings, however, were supposed to consult God before going off to war.  That meant they were supposed to speak with the prophet.  The prophet would advise the king whether God would give Israel victory over their enemies.  David, of course, does a census for the purpose of determining whether he has a big enough army.  When God offers David the choice of his family facing the consequences of the sin or letting the consequences fall on the people of Israel, David makes another bad choice.  Now, what makes David a successful king in God’s eyes is his willingness to repent when confronted with his sin.  Unlike his predecessor Saul, David repents when he confronted by his sin.  David is not sinless, not by any means, but he is righteous because he admits his sins and turns to God every time.

     What we long for, of course, is someone who does not sin, someone who does not make the mistake of letting his passions get in the way of doing what God commands.  And in that longing, David is just like us.  His obituary makes it clear that David’s rise and successes are all attributable to God.  God exalts David.  David does not win the throne by cunning or strength of arms.  God anoints and elevates and swears the everlasting covenant.  God causes David to prosper.

     David uses agrarian imagery to speak of one who rules justly in God’s stead.  Now, we know David makes mistakes.  David was a better king than most of his offspring.  But, even he looks to the day when God’s Anointed reigns.  Such a ruler gives his people the peace of a meadow with dew and no clouds in the sky.  We call it the peace that passes all understanding.  You may know the peace on a beach, with the sound of crashing waves and sand under your feet.  Call it whatever we want, we know what such a ruler would mean for us.  How much would our tensions and stressors be lowered if our elected leaders sought God’s justice?  Heck, how much more palatable would our fights be if our leaders repented when wrong, rather than acting and sounding like Saul?  You and I are blessed to see God’s promise to David fulfilled.  That greater Son has come.  The king in the line and family of David has been anointed.  We know this because He was raised from the dead and Ascended to the Father.  But one Day, He will return to rule forever.  It is that scene that we hear and read John describing in our reading from Revelation.  His first entrance into what was His own was unnoticed by most.  His next entrance will be rather the reverse.  All will see Him.  His appearing will be unmissable, and the tribes of the world will wail because all will learn that the Gospel really was true, and that they have chosen poorly.

     But, for now, the privilege and responsibility has been given to us, to all who proclaim Him Lord, to herald both comings.  He came not to judge the world during His first appearing, but to save it, as our comfortable words remind us.  Now is the time that we are given the job of spreading the Good News of God in Christ.  We are the proclaimers of His death, His Resurrection, His Ascension and His coming in glory.  We feed the hungry in His name; we carve out space for mental health in His name; we paid rents, mortgages, and utilities in His name; we show patience to those waiting on us in stores in His name; we are, in the words of John, a kingdom not of this world, but of His.  The only proclamation that we make during the Eucharist that He has not fulfilled is that promised return.  And so we gather this day to remind ourselves that one day He will, in fact, rule, that we will experience the peace described by David, we will see the glory described by John, we will experience the rule of one who testifies to the truth.

     we live in that time between, that tension between the already and the not yet, as Carola liked to remind each one of you.  We live in a world that rejects His authority, His revealed truth.  Most of our leaders serve themselves, not us; many of our neighbors love idols rather than the One who created them in His image; we fight hunger in His name, hoping people will hunger and thirst for He who feeds us and gives us living water; we do unending work and spend money on problems that seem never ending, trusting that He who created the heavens and earth has whatever resources we need to testify to His abundance in our lives; heck, we even gather during the midst of a pandemic believing that our worship of Him is essential, both for us and for those who do not yet know Him.  We remind ourselves, on this day, when we remember the trials of our lives and the rejection of the world, that the King we serve triumphs even over the mockery, rejection, and death visited upon Him by Pilate, even as He will one done redeem the mockery, rejection, and evil we have experienced ministering in His name and to His glory!

In His peace,

Brian+