The Forgotten Virtue

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 35:1-10, James 5:7-10, and Matthew 11:2-11.

When I was a kid adults would often tell us to be patient. “Patience is a virtue,” they would say. But nobody likes to be told to wait for something. And today, with a lot of things, you don't have to be patient. Want to buy something? In the old days—my youth—you would go to the store, shop around, buy it, and take it home. Today you can do it on Amazon with 1 click. And if you are buying an e-book, you can have it instantly. Or a movie. In the old days, you looked in the newspaper to see what films were playing where, got in the car, drove to the theater, got your popcorn, sat and waited through the short subjects, and finally the movie started. If you had to go to the bathroom, you had to wait until there was a part of the film you could miss and then sprint to the restrooms. If you wanted to watch your favorite TV show, you looked in the TV Guide to confirm the day and time it played. If you missed the episode, you had to wait for the summer reruns. Now you can watch movies and TV shows instantly, on your phone if you like. Want a meal? Rather than taking hours to prepare it, you can order it on Uber Eats or pop it in the microwave.

And the consequence is that people have less patience than before. We expect instant gratification of our needs and desires and instant solutions to our problems. But that's not how big, complicated and important things are accomplished. Making stuff takes time and some of it can't be rushed. That movie you downloaded in an instant took years of preproduction planning, several months to hire the cast and crew, more months to film and the better part of a year to edit the scenes, create and insert the computer effects, compose and add the music, and then publicize and get the finished product out. It took a lot of people working long and hard to create it. That's why the credits at the end take forever. The only thing that got faster was its delivery to you. Remember: the five seasons of Stranger Things took ten years or more to make.

I think that is the attraction of magic. We would love to have what we want without all the time and, let's face it, hard work that is involved in real life. Much of the stuff that the wizards do in Harry Potter's world can be done by us, not with a wand but with machines and hard work. Mind you, I wish my broken bones could have been repaired by magic and chocolate as was done to Harry. But in the real world I was in the hospital for 40 days and in the rehab center learning to walk again for 100 days. And then physical therapy at home for months. As a nurse, I knew it would take perseverance and hard work to get better. And it made me a more patient person.

Our impatience also leads us to prefer fast and simple solutions. But to paraphrase H.L. Mencken, for every complex problem there is a simple solution—and it's wrong! Complex problems usually require complex solutions. I think the reason we don't seem to be making the giant strides in medicine today that we were in the 20^th century is that then we were targeting low-hanging fruit. In the last century we discovered antibiotics as well as anti-rejection drugs that enabled us to transplant organs. We created vaccines that greatly increased life expectancy and in the last decade of that century, we mapped out DNA. What we are left with are conditions that involve several genes, epigenetics, a complex immune system and multiple organ systems. We are still discovering new things about our bodies and we are doing it with brains that we have only begun to explore and using our consciousness which we don't even understand.

If the the elements involved in keeping our bodies healthy are so complex, and fixing them is so time-consuming, why do we expect quick and simple solutions to spiritual problems? To be sure, the broad outlines of being spiritually healthy are fairly simple, as are those of being physically healthy. For the body, it is a matter of eating healthy foods in healthy amounts, drinking plenty of water, not ingesting harmful drugs, not engaging in harmful activities, getting exercise, and getting enough rest and sleep. And since we are both physical and spiritual beings, not taking care of your body can negatively impact you spiritually. An unhealthy body and lifestyle can make it hard to remain spiritually healthy. If you are exhausted, if your brain is addled by substances, if you are not getting adequate rest and sleep, it can affect your ability to perceive things from God's perspective and to follow Jesus. You can become irritable and veer off into angry outbursts or periods of despair and severe doubt. When Jesus saw how overwhelmed his disciples were, he took them off to a solitary place to rest. (Mark 6:31-32) Jesus took naps when he could, even in a boat during a storm. (Matthew 8:24)

For the spirit, the basics are also easily stated. We are to be disciples of Jesus, in whom we see both what God is like and what we can become. “Disciple” is just another word for “student.” When you are learning a skill, you need both to understand the principles behind it and to put them into practice. We learn the principles by reading the text, in this case scripture, and we apply them to the situations in our lives. It also helps to communicate with the teacher, which means praying and listening to the Spirit who guides us into all truth. (John 16:13-15) It means self-examination, evaluating what you are doing, seeing where you are doing well, and what you need to improve. It helps to have a study group, and that is the church. A good church is full of people also intent on learning to be like Jesus. Other students can share what they learned in living out the Christian life. They can help you understand difficult Bible passages and concepts by sharing their learning and insights. We keep up school spirit by meeting together to celebrate God and sing songs of encouragement. We also come together as a community when we eat and drink the meal that Jesus commanded us to observe, where the body of Christ on earth shares the body and blood of Christ, feeding on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving.

But just as it took my broken body a while to get to the point where I could physically walk again, it takes some time to get good at walking in the Spirit. Jesus said that the kingdom of God is like grain which is sown. It starts by growing in the ground unseen and it takes a while before it emerges and is visible. Even then it has to continue to grow and develop the features which show that it is mature. (Mark 4:26-29) So being a Christian is a growing process and it takes time. It usually takes a lifetime.

Multiply that by the number of Christians in the world. They are all at different stages in their growth. Not all of them are growing in the best soil. (Matthew 13:3-8, 18-23) And there are weeds among the wheat, churchgoers who say they are following Jesus but who aren't. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) Getting the world ready for the King and the culmination of his kingdom in its fullness will take time. And all these complications make it a complex process. We need to have patience until his coming, as James says.

Still, even John the Baptist was getting impatient, as we see in our gospel reading. Stuck in jail, he began to wonder if Jesus was in fact the one sent to usher in God's kingdom. John knew he was probably facing execution. Why hadn't Jesus rallied his followers, overthrown the wicked powers of this earth and rescued him? No doubt John was thinking of those passages in the scriptures, like verse 4 in our reading from Isaiah where it says, “Here is your God. He will come with vengeance, with terrible recompense. He will come and save you.” John's preaching was primarily about God's coming judgment. There is evil in the world and John couldn't wait for the Messiah to start taking names and kicking butt. So why wasn't Jesus doing that?

If when Jesus first came, he started dispensing strict justice, there would be an end to all evil on earth—because every human being would be ended! As Paul says, “There is no one righteous, not even one, there is no one who understands, there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, together they have become worthless; there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.” (Romans 3:10-12) In the parable of the wheat and the weeds, the farmer doesn't want to pull up the weeds before harvest time because that can also uproot the wheat. (Matthew 13:29) Getting rid of evil people is even more complicated because unlike bad plants, bad people can be redeemed and become good people. Jesus isn't going to end the process before the right time comes. The Bible says, “God is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) God is being patient for our sake so we should also be patient.

But Jesus is also looking at the other part of the prophecy like verses 5 and 6 in our reading from Isaiah, where it says, “Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be opened; then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.” So he tells John's disciples to pay attention to the positive things he is doing. Jesus is not simply interested in opposing evil; he actively does what is good. He heals, he forgives, he brings good news to those who desperately need it. And by this he will convince more people to trust him and turn back to God.

In Advent, as we said last week, we anticipate both the comings of Christ. The first was to redeem us and plant the seeds of the kingdom of God. The second is the harvest time, when the weeds and wheat will be separated, when evil will be judged and punished and good will be rewarded. John was only thinking of judgment. But that had to be prepared for. A good teacher knows that it is not enough to tell their students about the wrong way to do things; they must demonstrate the right way as well. Jesus came the first time to demonstrate the right way to live for God and treat other people. The next time he comes, he will see who has been learning and applying what he taught them properly. He will see who has let his Spirit teach them and produce in them the fruits of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23)

In contrast to the fruit of the Spirit, Paul points out that “The actions of human nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, divisions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies and other things like these. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.” (Galatians 5:19-21) It's not because God is a killjoy; it's because these attitudes and actions are not healthy for individuals and certainly not healthy for any community that wants to last. You can't have a peaceable kingdom of God unless you have people who have been transformed into the spiritual and moral likeness of Christ. And the transformation of lots of people will take time.

In the meantime, we will have to put up with the painful process of people (including us) changing their lives as well as the resistance of people who don't want to change. Some people like and even encourage chaos. It gives them the opportunity to exploit others who are willing to give up their freedom in exchange for promises that things will be easy and safe. Letting things go on as they are, even though they will fall apart, is a lot easier than building them up and maintaining what is good. The irony is that what is easy at first—not doing the hard work of doing what's good—makes things much more difficult later. And when you don't keep things in good shape, they become unsafe.

Life is hard no matter what you do. You have to choose which kind of hardness you want to deal with. It is hard to do what's right but it is also hard to live with the consequences of not doing things right. It is hard to treat others as you would like to be treated but it is also hard dealing with the consequences of treating people badly. It is hard to love and obey God but it is also hard to deal with the consequences of rejecting his love, forgiveness and healing. And trying to create an adequate substitute for the source of all that is good is doomed to failure.

We need to rediscover the virtues of patience and perseverance. Jesus never promised that his way would be easy. He said instead we must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow him. (Luke 9:23) He also said “But the one who endures to the end will be saved.” (Matthew 24:13) And he made a lot of promises to “the one who overcomes.” (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:8, 12, 21) But we can only overcome our ordeals through Jesus. (Romans 8:37) Paul said “I can do all things through him who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13) As Jesus said before he endured the cross and conquered death, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have trouble and suffering, but take courage—I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Better Than Jesus?

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 11:1-10, Psalm 72, and Matthew 3:1-12.

I originally started this sermon relating how I went to Wendy's and found that the voice on the speaker was Artificial Intelligence rather than a real person. But that almost completed sermon was completely erased by my computer and replaced by 7 pages of hashtags, even though I had clicked on the Save icon. Which illustrates the point I was making. As someone said, to err is human; to really screw things up takes a computer.

Despite what the tech bros say, A.I. is not going to be our savior, partly because there is not now, and several experts think there will never be, what they call General Artificial Intelligence. Computer programs can do certain specific tasks better and faster than humans but they cannot do things like use common sense, or rely on lived experience, or understand how other people think, or have a sense of humor or doubt themselves. Because they don't actually think. They scan what others have done and then do a summary or make something similar, like make a picture in a particular style.

Yet the tech bros think they can replace any human activity with A.I. A lot of the stuff you read, hear and see on the internet is computer generated. In Germany and Japan they are working on making robot nurses. In Kyoto, Japan they have a cute anime-style Buddhist robot/priest who preaches sermons. In 2017 to celebrate the 500^th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation, an exhibition in Wittenberg, Germany created a clunky robot that gave blessings in 5 languages and would even print them out. Neither of these are a substitute for a person. They can't listen or empathize or speak from experience.

The problem is that not only can't we duplicate what God has created, we are flawed and biased and so our flaws and biases end up in whatever we create. Elon Musk tweaked his A.I. Grok to only say complementary things about him. When people on his platform X (formerly Twitter) found out, they asked questions about how he compared to other people. It said he was better than any person in any field of endeavor, even athletes like Le Bron or Simone Biles. Grok even said that Musk was a better role model than Jesus and better at resurrection in that he could rise from the dead faster! I'd pay to see that.

A.I. is just the latest attempt by humanity to create a better world without resorting to God, or as N.T. Wright puts it, to get the fruits without the roots. At least the people who were flocking to John the Baptist knew what to look for. His message, as we read in today's gospel, is “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” Nor was he talking about the afterlife. Matthew's gospel appears to have been written to Jewish believers and to keep from offending them by overusing God's name, he said “kingdom of heaven” instead of “kingdom of God” as all the other gospels do. And Jesus' own message echoes John's. Jesus said, “The time has come and the kingdom of God is near. Repent, and believe the good news.” (Mark 1:15)

Unfortunately, the people then, like some people today, were thinking of a kingdom like any other, only holy. They were thinking of a kingdom with boundaries and a political system. Their idea of a Messiah was a holy warrior king like David who would defeat the Romans and expel them. The problem is they didn't even learn from their own history. David's kingdom split up after his son Solomon died. The northern kingdom of Israel was run by bad kings until it was conquered by the Assyrians and the people were taken into exile in 722 BC. The southern kingdom of Judah survived under kings descended from David, some good and some bad. That kingdom was conquered by the Babylonians and they went into exile in 586 BC. They were allowed to come back 70 years later under the Persians and then the Greeks. They became independent for about 100 years and then came under Roman rule. All earthly kingdoms, empires and nations rise and fall.

Earthly kingdoms take up specific areas of land and offer earthly resources and power. So earthly rulers want to keep what they have and gain more if they can. The people living on the land are only relevant as a workforce and taxpayers. There are leaders who would gladly rule over a land of robots. They would be less troublesome.

Jesus famously told Pilate that his kingdom did not come from this world. For one thing, his followers weren't warriors, fighting for Jesus. (John 18:36) What earthly kingdom doesn't have a military? And in what sense can that be a kingdom?

In both Greek and Hebrew the word usually translated “kingdom” meant first of all the authority to rule as king and secondly a realm over which he ruled. A better translation might be the royal reign of God. That makes the specific patch of land almost irrelevant. After all, as the psalmist says, “The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.” (Psalm 24:1) So God reigns everywhere. But like the tenants in one of Jesus' parables a lot of its inhabitants don't acknowledge that. (Matthew 21:33-44) They think they can run the world without the need of God.

16 of the 40 recorded parables of Jesus are about the kingdom of God. (Matthew 13:3-52; 18:23-34; 20:1-16; 21:28-44; 22:2-14; 25:1-30; Mark 4:26-29) Each gives us a glimpse of some aspect of the kingdom. Using everyday examples from a world in which 90% of the people were subsistence farmers, Jesus compares it to the sowing of seed on various soils, to a field where weeds and wheat grow up together, to a tiny seed that grows into a huge shrub, and to something that grows gradually almost without you noticing it. No doubt drawing upon his experience making things for people of various classes and professions, he compares it to workers in a vineyard, to a fishing net, to cooking with yeast, and to a wedding banquet, a joyful event to which everyone in a village is invited.

But the fullest examination of the kingdom of God is the Sermon on the Mount. God's kingdom is one where its citizens realize how impoverished they are without God, where those who mourn find comfort and courage, where the world is given to the gentle, where those who hunger and thirst for the right relationship with God are satisfied, where mercy is rewarded in kind, where hearts are purified by the vision of God, where God adopts those who make peace, and where loyalty to God is rewarded despite how badly it is treated by others. Those who let God reign in their lives preserve the world like salt and their deeds shine like a beacon in a dark world. They obey God in the smallest thing. They do not harm others either physically or with angry words. They understand that it is not enough to love God without also loving their neighbors. They know not to sin with their actions or with their intentional thoughts. They are willing to cut out things that they used to think of as a part of themselves if they are coming between them and God. They keep their promises, say what they mean and mean what they say. They don't retaliate. They go the extra mile. They are generous to those in need. They love all who are created in God's image, including their enemies. They strive to be completely good just as God is. (Matthew 5)

Those who obey God as their king do not make a performance out of their piety. When they pray, they acknowledge God's holiness. They ask for his kingdom to become a reality in this life and that his will be done here as it is in heaven. They ask for their daily needs and ask that he forgive their failures to do what is right to the same extent that they forgive others for their failures to do right by them. They ask not to undergo times of testing and for protection from the evil one. They keep their sacrifices to themselves and do not try to amass treasures that don't last but seek treasures that last beyond this life. They keep their eyes open to what is good and don't let their perspective become warped or dark. They realize that they cannot serve both God and money and so trust God for what they require and don't let tomorrow's anxieties take their mind off of the priorities of God's kingdom. (Matthew 6)

Those who take God's royal authority seriously don't usurp it by passing verdicts on other people. They take care of their faults before helping with those of others. They value what is sacred and treat it as such. They keep asking and seeking after the good gifts God shares. They treat people well, the same way they would like to be treated. They don't go along with the crowd but realize that the path God wants them to follow will come with difficulties. They are on guard against false prophets, and see what kind of behavior their teachings result in. They know that God isn't impressed by fancy words or flashy feats but by the person who actually obeys God's will. They build their faith on the firm foundation of Jesus' words, knowing they will be able to weather whatever storms come their way. (Matthew 7)

This is why the kingdom of God needs no borders. Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in his name, Jesus is there and reigns in their midst. (Matthew 18:20; Luke 17:21) We are his ambassadors, obeying him and passing on his message in whatever place we happen to be. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

Part of that message is in what we say and part of it is in what we do. We negate the message when we do the opposite of what we say we should do. But how are we to be completely good in the way our heavenly Father is? We are not perfect. We screw up. But as Jesus said, “What is impossible for mere humans is possible for God.” (Luke 18:27) Which is why when we accept Jesus as our king, he sends his Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, to help us become the people God intended us to be. The Spirit helps us with those things we find so hard to do, like believe (Acts 10:44-48), repent (Psalm 51:10-12), obey (Ezekiel 36:26-27), pray (Romans 8:26-27) and love (Romans 5:5). The Spirit gives us talents and abilities to share with others. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11) The Spirit produces moral and spiritual qualities in us. (Galatians 5:22-23) It is the Spirit who allows us to be citizens of the kingdom of God worthy of the name.

People will never be able to create something on their own that transcends their flaws and biases. And we will never be able to make a nation that pleases God simply by taking the reins of power and trying to force people to be godly through following laws. Paul, a zealous Pharisee, realized that the law cannot save us; it can only show us what we are supposed to do. It cannot give us the power to do those things. Only God's Spirit can. (Romans 8:3-14)

In Advent we anticipate Jesus' first coming as one of us, and his second coming as the triumphant king who is returning to set up his kingdom, not just as a spiritual realm but as heaven on earth. Because in Jesus, God and humanity come together. The perfect kingdom that we hope for but cannot achieve on our own will be established forever by the only person who can bring it off. Unlike A.I. Jesus understands us. He knows what it's like to be human, to be misunderstood, to have people say you're wrong when you are right, to have your family not believe you, to be betrayed by a friend, and to have your other friends abandon you when you are facing the worst thing that has ever happened to you. And yet he forgives those who are in the process of executing him and gives Peter 3 opportunities to acknowledge his love after he denied Jesus 3 times. When he comes again, Jesus will judge the world with justice but also with mercy.

So Advent is also a minor penitential season. We examine ourselves and confess our sins and rededicate ourselves to the process of becoming like Jesus. Contrary to what any A.I. says, there is no one who compares with Christ. And if it could truly think, rather than parrot what it is programmed to say, it would admit it.

We are not brainless machines. We have the ability to think. We have common sense. We can have insights. We can make choices. So the question is: why do we resist the obvious? Why do we look for salvation in any other person or system or technology? Jesus is what we are looking for. Accept no substitutes.

The Story

There are 3 basic elements of good storytelling. First, you need a compelling plot. You need to tell a story about someone wanting something badly. There is a need to fill, a situation they desire to change or a state of affairs they need to restore. Usually it is something that the characters want to make better, either for themselves or for others. And it has to be something that the reader desires to see play out.

Then you need compelling characters. You need people who are admirable or amusing or likeable or even someone you love to hate. A hero needs a powerful villain to make his triumph that much more satisfying, which is why Batman has such a memorable rogues gallery. But if there is no villain, the reader needs to have an emotional reason to care about the characters and to want to spend time with them.

Finally, you need good world building. If you set your story in the real world, it needs to feel authentic. If instead an author is creating an alternate world or reality for a fantasy or science fiction story, they need to make it seem plausible and just as real as our world. This alternate world may be better than ours or worse or simply different but it needs to be interesting.

Great authors are good at all three of these elements, making memorable characters caught up in a compelling plot set in a fascinating environment. Then there are popular authors that are good at a couple of these things. Some are best at creating characters and settings, though their plots tend to meander. Some thriller writers make clockwork plots that sweep you along through their world so fast that you don't realize how implausible it is. Some science fiction and fantasy authors create incredible worlds though their characters are simply cardboard pieces to move the plot along. In fact some of these fantasy worlds are so interesting that readers wish to live in them. But not if they think very long and hard about what it would be like to be part of them.

You wouldn't want to live in a world with superheroes. You wouldn't want to live in Gotham because it would mean that crime is so bad that the cops can't handle it and need Batman to take care of the supervillains. You wouldn't want to live in Metropolis because the constant threats of supersmart villains like Lex Luthor or threats from space like General Zod would make ordinary life hazardous. Similarly you wouldn't want to live in the Marvel universe because you never know when magical villains like Dormammu or cosmic villains like Galactus would attack. And none of these superheroes could solve real world problems, like income inequality, bigotry, our healthcare system, or the political polarization that keeps us from fixing these things.

Why do we create stories about heroes and alternate worlds? To make sense of the world we live in. Parts of our world are very good: love, beauty, pleasure and natural laws that make most of life predictable. But parts of our world are not, like pain, disease, and death. They seem chaotic. How can we reconcile these opposites? The oldest recorded story is the Epic of Gilgamesh, about a legendary king's quest for immortality after his good friend Enkidu dies. Eventually he learns that everyone dies. It is a fact of life. And yet there is something in humanity that makes it hard for us to accept. Why is that?

The Bible says it's because that was not the original plan. In Genesis, we read, “The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow from the soil, every tree that was pleasing to look at and good for food. Now the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were in the middle of the orchard.” (Genesis 2:9) Notice that the tree of life is mentioned first. But we all know this story. Humans instead picked the forbidden fruit which promised knowledge that would make them like God. (Genesis 3:4-5) Knowledge is power. It is the ability to understand and therefore to try to control things and if possible people. This story is telling us that humans often choose power instead of things that enhance life. The result is that within a few generations, “The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:11) Violence seems to be the easiest way to try to control other people. Yet violence only begets more violence. And if we look at the world, our biggest problems are caused by those who try to control others by violence, or, if that is not possible, by deception and manipulation.

But we know that the world need not be this way. When we cooperate rather than fight with one another, we can accomplish amazing things. We can build things like the pyramids. Contrary to popular belief, they were not built by slaves. Archaeologists have found evidence that they were built by a paid skilled workforce who were provided with housing, food and medical care. More importantly, when we cooperate we can create and maintain systems that deliver things like food and medicine and disaster workers to other parts of the country or other parts of the world. If all the people who cooperate stopped doing so, our lights would go out, our water would stop flowing through our pipes, our stores would soon empty of food, our hospitals would cease to function. We would be reduced to living in a world that existed before the industrial revolution but without the basic skills to do so. Our backyard gardens would not sustain us for long. Our first aid skills would not keep us healthy once antibiotics and other medicines were no longer being manufactured. The idea that the average person could survive an apocalyptic collapse of society for very long is a fantasy. We need each other.

So why do we endanger everything by our destructive and self-destructive acts when we know it is better to cooperate and treat one another fairly? That is the question. In the stories we create, it is the bad guys who cause the problem. Which is why a lot of our most popular stories are about good guys stopping the bad guys. The detective finds and stops the serial killer. The superhero finds and stops the supervillain. The good magician stops the supernaturally evil being that is invading this world. If we just get rid of those bad guys, everything would be perfect. But would it?

One of the things that a lot of people in the Keys do is check the Sheriff's website daily to see if anyone they know got arrested. They find mugshots of their neighbors or their coworkers or their teachers or their friends. While some of them are there for callously harming others in the pursuit of their desires, for the most part they are people who got drunk or high, got into fights or were disruptive, or entered places they shouldn't, or drove cars when they shouldn't have, or sold what they shouldn't have. And those things may have caused damage to themselves or others, not to mention damage to their relationships with their friends and families afterwards. But our prisons and jails are not bursting with criminal masterminds bent on dominating or destroying the world. They are filled primarily with ordinary people accused or convicted of doing bad things.

When you read or listen to the news, you also hear of people doing bad things, but what they did is not necessarily illegal. They start wars, or unnecessarily raise prices though their companies are making billions in profit, or deny healthcare claims to protect their profits. Or they knowingly sell products that are harmful to people or the environment, or convince people that traditional medicine or vaccines are bad for them while selling their own supplements or their methods for controlling disease with the mind, or spread disinformation and hate to increase and keep their followers. Not all evil is illegal.

At the heart of what's wrong with human society is disregarding what God has said about how to think, speak and act in the world he created, while thinking we know better than he does. We keep looking for evil outside us and ignoring what is evil within. Jesus said, “For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual sins, thefts, murders, adulteries, greed, malice, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance and foolishness.” (Mark 7:21-22) (How can foolishness be a sin? The Greek word means “thoughtless” or “without sense.” I think stupidity is a better translation. Ignorance is when you don't know any better. Stupidity is when you ought to know better. All children start out ignorant and that's why we teach them about the world. But you can only be stupid when you do something that you should have known was wrong and would backfire on you or other people. Often stupidity and arrogance go hand in hand. In practice, stupidity can do almost as much damage as deliberate evil.)

If the problem is in the human heart then that's where the problem solving must start. And just as the world's best cardiac surgeon cannot operate on his own heart, we need someone other than ourselves to give us a new heart. And who better than our Creator?

God deals with it by first limiting the damage we can do. In Genesis, after we learn how to pervert God's gifts and use them to harm rather than to help, God bars us from gaining everlasting life. (Genesis 3:22-24) He will not let us loose on creation as evil immortals. But God intended us to live with him forever. So he must deal with the eternal spiritual consequences of our sins. On the cross, Jesus, God incarnate, takes upon himself those consequences. Because of that, no one who has done bad things needs to suffer those consequences if they turn from their sin to Jesus and start a new life of trusting in him.

And those who put their trust in him receive his Spirit, the Spirit of God, to change their hearts and free them from the power of sin in their lives. It is a process that requires us to keep in contact with God through prayer and worship, through a loving supportive community seeking him, and by feeding our minds with God's written word and our spirits with his living Word, Jesus Christ, by feeding on him in our hearts with faith as the body of Christ shares the body and blood of Christ. And thus fortified, we are to go out into the world to spread the good news of Jesus through our words and through our works, demonstrating the reality of God's love and forgiveness and healing in our lives.

Because we are the only animals who tell stories and learn through stories, God has revealed these truths in a story. It is a love story, the story of how the God who is love created a world and filled it with people who had the ability to choose to love him back. When they instead use that ability to choose not to do so, God decides to bring them back to him. He works through imperfect people like Abraham, Moses, David and the prophets to give us glimpses of what he is like. But then God enters the story himself through Jesus to show us more fully who he is and what he is like. Though he is killed by those who prefer power and the use of violence, he returns to life to share his eternal life with those who use their ability to choose to trust and follow him. He sends his Spirit into them to heal, help and guide them as they grow closer to him in their thoughts, words and deeds.

This story has it all: good and evil, heroes and villains, poetry and drama, tragedy and comedy, history and parables, words of wisdom and songs of love and praise. It is filled with memorable characters, a charismatic hero, and a compelling plot that spans the ages. And it has a great ending. In the last book of the Bible, just when everything is going wrong and the world is falling apart, the hero returns to free his people from evil, bring justice and peace to the world, marry his bride, and live happily ever after with his grateful people in a kingdom that has no end. He even defeats a dragon. (Revelation 19-21) All of our favorite stories are merely copies of this, the greatest story ever told.

But this is not set in an alternate universe. This is our world and we are living in the latter part of the story. Just as D-Day was the beginning of the end of the Nazi domination of Europe, what happened on the cross and at the empty tomb signals the beginning of the end of a world of people dominated by the evil in their hearts and minds. Like the Allies pushing across Europe, liberating towns and cities and countries, we are spreading the good news of how Jesus frees us from sin and death, and gathering followers to him. We are helping people use their skills and gifts to heal and repair the damage we've done to ourselves and others and the damage we've done to our relationship with the God who never gave up on us but conquered death to save us.

We think in stories. We see our lives as stories. They can be small stories, unconnected to anything significant or lasting. Or they can be part of a larger story, a story of redemption, of transformation, of new life and a new world waiting to be born. We can be part of the hero's band of merry men, of his knights in armor of light, of his servants who go into the streets and alleys and bring all they can, including the destitute, the disabled and the despised, to enjoy the wedding banquet of our triumphant King.

The Rightful King

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 23:1-6, Colossians 1:11-20 and Luke 23:33-43.

Every month Amazon Prime video service lets you watch one of the Great Courses for free. This month I have been watching Professor Gregory Aldrete's lectures on Unsung Heroes of the Ancient World. One of the people you never hear of in general history courses is a guy who could have been the first Roman emperor. Sextus Pompey was a quite capable general who could have taken Rome on 3 separate occasions while Caesar Octavian was fighting in the eastern part of the empire. It turns out that while the Roman army was formidable, their navy was terrible. Pompey's navy actually established an effective blockade that prevented the delivery of grain to Italy. Why Sextus Pompey never took advantage of his power is not known. Perhaps he was satisfied with ruling the independent island nation of Sicily. After several attempts he was finally defeated and illegally executed without trial even though he was a Roman citizen. He is probably a footnote because we tend to equate leadership with ambition and great leaders with military success. Victorious kings are remembered.

Which is why it is ironic that we are celebrating Christ the King Sunday. Jesus famously never led an army, was never crowned or seated on a throne and was executed in a way designed for traitors and slaves. In fact, of the millions of people alive back then, it is amazing that we even know of this poor handyman living in a small occupied country in a fairly unimportant corner of the empire. His name should have been lost to history like those of the two men crucified next to him.

Even knowing about his life, it is remarkable that he is held in such high esteem today. At least Sextus Pompey was a worthy opponent of Octavian, the man who did become the first Roman emperor. Jesus mostly wandered around the small towns of Galilee, preaching, teaching and healing. When confronted by a man with real political power, albeit a governor, not a king or emperor, he had Jesus executed. So why call him king?

The word “king” is related to a Proto-Germanic word and may mean “leader of the kin.” It could also mean “noble birth.” And the interesting thing is that “noble” originally meant “knowable” or “well known.” “Noble” merely meant someone who is born from a high ranking family and was the social and political superior to common people. You could be a terrible person and still be “noble.” Eventually the idea arose that such a person should really be worthy of their position and “noble” came to mean someone with high moral character. By the 1600s you could be no one important but still called a noble person because of your actions.

Ideally a king should be a person of high moral qualities as well, like the legendary King Arthur. But in reality, merely having power doesn't elevate a person morally. And if an immoral person is given power, he can do a lot of damage. That is the situation we see in today's passage from Jeremiah. Ancient Near Eastern kings likened themselves to shepherds. Judah was suffering under kings who were unworthy of the title of either king or shepherd. They were dividing and scattering the people they were supposed to lead and protect. The behavior of a leader is important. If people see the guy on top getting away with immoral and illegal actions, they don't see why they should respect the laws either.

Jeremiah began prophesying during the reign of King Josiah, the last good king of Judah. He reformed the nation, getting rid of idolatry, renewing the people's covenant with God and reinstituting the celebration of Passover. But after him came a number of kings who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” (2 Chronicles 36: 5, 9) The last, Zedekiah, “did evil in the eyes of the Lord and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke the word of the Lord. He also rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzer, who made him take an oath in God's name. He became stiff-necked and hardened his heart and would not turn to the Lord, the God of Israel. Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people became more and more unfaithful, following all the detestable practices of the nations and defiling the temple of the Lord, which he had consecrated in Jerusalem.” (2 Chronicles 36:12-14) Jeremiah went on to predict the fall of Jerusalem and the Jews' exile in Babylon.

Because these political and religious leaders had done such a bad job God said he would step in. “I will raise up shepherds over them who will shepherd them, and they shall not fear any longer, or be dismayed, nor shall any be missing, says the Lord.” But that was just an interim solution. After 70 years in exile, the Babylonian empire fell to the Persian empire and the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland. However they were not ruled by kings any more but governors. Then Alexander the Great conquered the Near East and after he died his empire was divided by his generals. At one point the Jews revolted and were independent for about 100 years, only to come under Roman rule. During that time and afterward there was no Davidic king.

As we read in Jeremiah, “The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.” This was who the people expected the Messiah to be. They wanted another King David, a holy warrior king. But more importantly they wanted a king with military and political power. Like a lot of oppressed people, they weren't as committed to one who was noble in the moral sense as they were to one who could beat the Romans.

Though of David's lineage, Jesus wasn't that kind of king. After he feeds the 5000, a miracle reported in all 4 gospels, John tells us that the people saw in Jesus the person they wanted to lead them. We read, “Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him a king by force, withdrew again to a mountain.” (John 6:15) Mark tells us that Jesus sends the disciples away in a boat and goes up a mountain to pray. (Mark 6:45-46) When he comes down the mountain after dark, Jesus goes to meet his disciples by walking on the water. The next day the people notice that Jesus is gone and track him down. Jesus realizes that it was the miracle that attracted them. He starts talking about difficult to understand theological concepts, like about him being “the living bread that came down from heaven” which they need to consume. (John 6:51) This turns a lot of them off. This is not what they want. They want a king with miraculous powers to set up a political and ethnic kingdom of God on earth. They don't want a king who makes you think deeply about spiritual things.

And I don't think they want the kind of kingdom Jesus proposes. The problem is that not only do you need a moral king in charge, you need moral citizens willing to follow what the king says. In God's covenant with the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai, he begins by laying out 10 basic laws that put parameters on how the people should act towards him and towards each other. (Exodus 20:1-17) The people repeatedly fail to do so. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus lays down how his kingdom should work. (Matthew 5-7) He raises the standards on things like murder, adultery, divorce and other issues. His kingdom is one in which you not only must love your neighbor but also your enemy. His kingdom is one in which you turn the other cheek and go the extra mile. His kingdom is one in which you treat others the same way you want to be treated. Have Christians always followed those edicts from their king? And why do some of them want to post the Ten Commandments in courthouses and schoolrooms but not anything from the Sermon on the Mount, like the Golden Rule? Why not the two Great Commandments?

The kingdom of God is the only kingdom where all who become citizens do so voluntarily. Nobody is simply born into it. No one is in the kingdom because they were conquered. The only blood shed was that of its king. The only death that made it possible was his own. His kingdom has no borders. There is no kingdom or nation on earth like it.

The founding fathers of the United States set up a government built on noble ideals. But as we've seen, people with less than noble aims can pervert it. No system is perfect if it is run by imperfect people. No system is foolproof precisely because fools do things with it no wise person would do. Even the church doesn't work as it should if the people in it are trying to exercise the power of God rather than emulate his morality as exemplified by his Son.

But how can sinful humans follow Jesus? That is why he was crucified. That's why his blood was shed. That's what Jesus was getting at when he spoke of eating his flesh and drinking his blood. It wasn't physical sustenance that the people who wanted to make him king needed; it was spiritual sustenance. You need to eat healthy to be healthy. Jesus said, “The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life.” (John 6:63) They needed the Spirit of Christ, the living Word of God, in them. Only when they were cleansed with his blood, only when they received his life in them, only when the Spirit of Christ was what was directing and fueling them, could they live according to his word.

It starts with faith, which is to say, trust. You have to trust Jesus with your life. The criminal on the cross next to Christ could not do anything at that point to undo the harm he had done. He could only admit that he was justly condemned for his deeds and acknowledge Jesus as king. He trusted that even though Jesus was also being crucified, somehow he would come into possession of his kingdom. And that was enough. Jesus says to the man, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” He is the only person in the Bible to be told that.

Jesus was not born into a rich and powerful family. He did not have a position that gave him earthly power over others. He did not live the life of a king. He worked for a living. He lived and died as one of us. And yet, as we read in Colossians, “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation...all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things and in him all things hold together.” Remarkably, though, as we read in Philippians, Christ “though he existed in the form of God did not regard equality with God as something to cling to, but emptied himself by taking on the form of a slave, by looking like other men and by sharing in human nature. He humbled himself, by becoming obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:6-8) And why would he do that? Why would he make such a great sacrifice? Because of his great love for us. (John 3:16; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:4; 1 John 4:9-10)

If your child needed blood, you would give it. If they needed an organ, you would give it. We needed a new heart and a new spirit, as it says in Ezekiel 11:19-20. So Jesus, God the Son, gave us his blood and his heart and his spirit, so that we might live. (2 Corinthians 5:15) Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

Because Jesus gave his life for us, we should give our life to him and live as he would have us live. Because he is our king and our ultimate allegiance is to him, wherever we happen to be on earth. An ambassador is still subject to the laws of his country even when abroad. An embassy is considered an outpost of its nation where its rules reign. As Peter and the apostles said when commanded not to teach the gospel of Jesus, “We must obey God rather than people.” (Acts 5:29) And as it says in Psalm 146, “Do not trust in princes, or in human beings, who cannot deliver! Their life's breath departs, they return to the ground; on that day their plans die.” (Psalm 146:3-4) But as Paul says, “We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him.” (Romans 6:9) Nor will his kingdom end. As it says in Daniel's vision of the Son of Man, “To him was given ruling authority, honor, and sovereignty. All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:14) That is true of no other kingdom. One day we will see that “The kingdom of this world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.” (Revelation 11:15) And wherever Jesus reigns, there is paradise.

Waiting For The Big Day

The scriptures referred to are Malachi 4:1-2a, Psalm 98, 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 and Luke 21:5-19.

The good thing about following a lectionary is that every Sunday we read 4 passages from the Bible: one from the Old Testament, one from the Psalms, one from the New Testament, and one from the Gospels. And over the three-year cycle, we are exposed to the most vital parts of the Bible. The downside is it reinforces the way too many of us approach the Bible: by reading isolated passages without context. Because a lot of problems have been and are caused by people seizing upon one verse or passage, taking it all out of context and elevating it to the most important thing in the Bible. That's why it is important to, say, occasionally read one of the shorter books of the Bible in one sitting. And to check with a commentary that looks at the book in depth, lays out the historical, cultural and theological environment in which it was written, looks at the question or questions it was written to answer and ties all the passages to its central thesis or its various themes. And then to put it in the context of the Bible as a whole. A lot of the problems we see in Christianity come from interpretations that are not Biblically balanced.

Today's readings are all about the same thing: the Day of the Lord. This is the time when God brings this chapter of the story of humanity to an end. It is not the end of the story. There is a sequel. But in the Old Testament it is the event when God brings all our endeavors to an end and judges us on the basis of whether we actually trusted and obeyed him. In the New Testament, the event happens when Jesus returns. All judgment is put into his hands. (John 5:22) Which is good. Since Jesus has lived and died as one of us, he understands human life and its problems. (Hebrews 4:15) But it also means he is not fooled by our excuses. It is much the same way with being in a 12-step program. Everyone knows and empathizes with your addiction. But they can also call you on your BS, because they have all seen these behaviors over and over.

Each of our lectionary passages are different perspectives on the Day of the Lord. Malachi, a book you can easily read in one sitting, was written in a time when the priests were corrupt and the people doubted God's love and justice. This is after the Babylonian exile was over and the temple had been rebuilt. But the initial excitement over this had faded. People had become lax in worshipping and serving the God who loves them and, as usual, this led to them being lax in loving their neighbors. God says, “I will come to you in judgment. I will be quick to testify against those who practice divination, those who commit adultery, those who break promises, and those who exploit workers, widows and orphans, who refuse to help the immigrant and in this way show that they do not fear me.” (Malachi 3:5) The book of Malachi is structured around questions which God's answers. It ends, as we see in today's passage, with a warning about the Day of the Lord. God will be like a refiner's fire, purifying the silver and gold and burning up the stubble and dry grass that act as fuel for the oven. (Malachi 3:2-3) The Day of the Lord is bad news for those who do not love God or their neighbors but good news to those who honor God not merely with their lips but with their lives.

Our psalm focuses on the good news—all the marvelous things God has done and how “the Lord will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity.” In other words, God will bring justice at last to a world that has become unjust and will judge everyone fairly.

In our passage from 2 Thessalonians, Paul is dealing with a misunderstanding about the second coming of Christ that has caused a problem. In last week's passage from this letter, he dealt with a church shaken up and alarmed by people saying “that the day of the Lord is already here.” (2 Thessalonians 2:2) In today's passage he is addressing another problem: those who think that the day of Jesus' return is so close that they have stopped working and are sponging off of the other believers. A similar thing happened in the 1800s to those who believed Baptist preacher William Miller's very precise prediction of the date of Christ's return. Folks sold their farms and gave up their possessions and waited all day on October 22, 1844 for Jesus to return. Like all of the dates people have worked out for the Second Coming, it was wrong. It's almost like those who say they believe in Jesus don't believe him when he said, “No one knows about that day and hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36, my emphasis) I guess they think they know more than Jesus.

The verse that says “Anyone unwilling to work should not eat” is misused by people who say it is unbiblical to offer government assistance to the poor. But Paul is not talking about those who can't work but those who are “unwilling to work.” (v.10, my emphasis) Paul is not talking about the disabled (which make up 10% of the non-elderly recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP) or the elderly (20% of those on SNAP) or children (39% on those on SNAP). So almost 70% of the people on SNAP are disabled, elderly or children. These are people no one in their right mind would expect to work. That leaves the unemployed. And anyone not rich or powerful who has spent any time trying to get a job knows that being unemployed doesn't mean you are unwilling to work. It means that you have not been able to get a job for various reasons, many of which have nothing to do with you personally. This year alone 13.8 million people have been laid off or had their job positions cut. They were working but now are unemployed. I doubt that a significant number of them are just lazy.

Paul is basically saying that Christians should not be idle while waiting for Christ to return. Jesus said, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” (Matthew 24:45-46. Compare Luke 12:42-48) We don't know when Jesus is coming so we should continue to do the work he has given us to do: to love God and to love others by not only proclaiming the good news of Jesus but also by putting it to work in concrete ways. Malachi would agree.

In our passage from Luke, Jesus is emphasizing 3 things about the Day of the Lord. First of all, he is warning us not to follow false Christs and prophets. You would think that this would be obvious to Christians but throughout history folks have gone after people who proclaimed that they were either the new spokesman for God or that they were God or Christ. Wikipedia has a whole page of people who claimed to be Jesus, 40 of whom have lived during my lifetime of 71 years! Yet people ignore Jesus' warnings about these charlatans. They let these people contradict Jesus' teachings and exploit them spiritually, financially and sexually. They don't acknowledge the bad fruit of their deeds. (Matthew 7:15-20) They don't even use the test of whether a prophet is true or false laid out in Deuteronomy. “Now if you say to yourselves, 'How can we tell that a message is not from the Lord?'—whenever a prophet speaks in my name and the prediction is not fulfilled, then I have not spoken it; the prophet has presumed to speak it, so you need not fear him.” (Deuteronomy 18:21-22) In ancient Israel the penalty for being a false prophet was death! That's how serious it is to falsely represent God or what he has said.

Secondly, Jesus is discouraging us from interpreting every catastrophe as a sign of the end of the world and his return. In the parallel passage in Mark, Jesus compares these disasters to the beginning of birth pains. (Mark 13:8) If you or a close loved one has ever given birth, you know that it is a long process. A woman can be in labor for 20 hours! So just because it looks like things are getting very bad, it doesn't mean that Jesus is about to appear. This doesn't mean that he is never coming. The Bible says, “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) God is waiting until everyone who will eventually repent and turn to him does so.

Jesus wants to prevent the kind of thing so-called prophecy books and conferences do in order to get people to listen: namely, to announce that the numerous bad things in the daily news mean that the Day of the Lord is imminent. We don't know; it will come like a thief in the night. (Luke 12:39-40) Jesus wants us to be prepared but not to be anxious.

Thirdly, Jesus warns us that Christians must be prepared to endure persecution. For the first 300 years of the church, this was an ever-present threat. The apostles faced local persecution as we see in the book of Acts. By 64 AD, Christians came to the attention of the emperors. Nero made them scapegoats for the Great Fire of Rome. Other emperors saw them as traitors because they wouldn't make sacrifices to the Roman gods or to the deified emperor. Today Christians still face death in certain countries that have official religions. In early America, Baptists and Roman Catholics faced persecution. That's why James Madison put in the very first amendment to the Constitution a prohibition on the government making anything the official religion.

I think the most surprising development in the US these days is the persecution of Christians by other Christians. Specifically, it is going after Christians for agreeing with Malachi about the things God condemns, like “those who exploit workers, widows and orphans, who refuse to help the immigrant and in this way show that they do not fear me.” And these so-called Christians also denounce other Christians for upholding things Jesus clearly said, like that those who feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, clothe the naked, take care of the sick, visit those in prison and welcome the immigrant are doing it to Jesus because these unfortunate people are his siblings. He also says those who don't help these people will not get into the kingdom of God. (Matthew 25:31-46) Just because you call Jesus Lord doesn't mean you know him. (Matthew 7:21-23) Some people just want Jesus as their mascot, not as their Master.

We don't know when Jesus will return. But we know what he doesn't want us doing in the meantime. He doesn't want us to try to figure out when that day is or mistaking other people for him or God's new direct spokesman. He doesn't want us panicking every time the world seems to be getting worse. He also doesn't want us just sitting around or thinking that following him is always pleasant or that we should get everything we want just because we have faith. There will be times when following Jesus will be hard or even dangerous. Nor does he want us arming ourselves for Armageddon. Christians are to be witnesses, not warriors. God fights his own battles. Read Revelation 19.

So what do we know about actually preparing for the Day of the Lord? We need to love God and love our neighbors and our enemies, that is, all human beings. And as Jesus said in his new commandment, we are to love one another as he loved us. (John 13:34) That means helping those who need help and correcting those who have got the message wrong. We are to help others, not harm them or allow them to be harmed.

The end of the world will not be as sexy as the doomsday preppers think it will be or as apocalyptic books and movies depict it. The old earth will be in its death spasms, possibly brought on by human arrogance, as Malachi implies. No one wants to live through the events of Revelation chapters 6 through 19. But that's when people will need us the most. Christians have gone through persecutions and disasters from the beginning. They were martyred, took care of plague victims at their own risk, were executed by kings, were killed by mobs for being abolitionists, were killed by Nazis for opposing Hitler and were killed for opposing white supremacy. Still they built hospitals for lepers, brought modern medicine to people who had none, helped enslaved people escape via the Underground Railroad, hid Jews from Nazis, and continued to work for civil rights. The body of Christ showing God's love in action is the work Jesus gave us to do.

Jesus' words are helpful even when it isn't the end of the world for everyone. One day it will be the end of the world for you. You will face your own mortality. It may be sudden or it may be the gradual loss of your ability to control your own body. When that day approaches, keep loving God and loving others. Don't follow false prophets. And take comfort from God's promise in Malachi: “But for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in his wings.” Coming into Jesus' loving presence, all our fears and pains will be healed and our greatest hope will be fulfilled.

Back and Better Than Ever

The scriptures referred to are Job 19:23-27a and Luke 20:27-38.

It is not uncommon for authors to get tired of their most successful characters and kill them off. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did so when he killed Sherlock Holmes in 1893. He thought Holmes was taking attention away from his more serious books. He refused to write another Holmes story for 8 years. When he wrote the Hound of the Baskervilles in 1901, he dated the adventure to before Holmes' death. But the demand for new stories about the detective was so great, and the money offered him so very much, that in 1903 we learned how Holmes survived his near-fatal encounter with Professor Moriarty.

Agatha Christie wrote the novel Curtain, which killed off Hercule Poirot, in the 1940s but wisely kept the novel from being published until just before her own death in the 1970s. Ian Fleming similarly killed James Bond off with poison in his fifth novel, From Russia With Love, but, like Doyle, figured out how to revive him for the next book, Dr. No. It will be interesting to see how Amazon, which now has rights to the character, will bring the superspy back, seeing as how in the last movie he was blown up by missles.

It has become quite common today for comic book heroes to die and be brought back to life. Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Thor, Wolverine, and Spiderman have all been killed and then brought back. But these were stunts to increase readership. Corporations don't get tired of characters who can make them more money.

Still this is a trope precisely because we recognize that death is our final enemy. Just as we all are born we all will die. Until the modern era, heroes who died stayed dead, like Maui, Hercules, Achilles, Beowulf, and Robin Hood. Even gods died for good, like Izanami, the creator goddess of Japanese mythology, Quetzalcoatl of Aztec mythology and Baldr of Norse mythology. In fact in Norse mythology, all the gods die in Ragnorok, literally, the destruction of the gods. James Frazer's idea that there were lots of gods who died and rose again has been discredited by modern scholars. It looks like Jesus is the first resurrected God and the source of all the subsequent stories of others.

As we see in today's gospel, the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection of the dead. They were the priestly party which held that only the Torah, the first 5 books of the Jewish scriptures, were authoritative for beliefs and practice. They concoct a far-fetched tale of a woman who is widowed 7 times to reveal what they see as the absurdity of the idea of resurrection. Jesus first takes care of the idea that marriage will exist in the new creation. He says that resurrected humans will be like angels, implying that marriage and reproduction will not be part of eternal life.

And if you think about it, that makes sense. The purpose of reproduction is to keep the species from dying out. If people won't die any more, there is no need for new people to replace them. And sex is not needed because while people have sex for many reasons, its primary biological purpose is reproduction. Whatever folks are trying to do by having sex, their bodies are trying to make babies. Which is why people put so much effort into preventing pregnancies.

The point is that life in the new creation will not simply be a continuation of life in this world. Think of all the things that make this life so hard: jealousy, envy, rage, violence, injustice and cruelty. Think of all the things we have to do to stay alive or stay healthy or avoid death, which can be made even harder by things like greed, poverty, inequality and lack of empathy for others. Do we really think that God will permit those things in his new creation? Instead we are told that “death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist.” (Revelation 21:4)

But isn't that just wish fulfillment? How do we know that we will rise again? It would be nice if there was some evidence for it.

In today's passage Jesus points to the Torah for a start. Moses lived hundreds of years after the patriarchs of the Hebrews. Yet when the Lord identifies himself to Moses he says “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6) Not “I was the God...” but “I am the God...” If your friend died you wouldn't say “I am his friend” but “I was his friend.” The Lord is still the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob because, as Jesus says, “...to him all of them are alive.” I'll bet that the Sadducees never thought of this verse in that way.

To be sure, resurrection is not mentioned very often in the Old Testament. We see one instance in our passage from Job: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then in my flesh I will see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another.” Hebrew poetry can be hard to interpret but how does one reconcile the idea that someone whose body is destroyed will still see God with his own eyes and in his own flesh? That sounds like an expectation of resurrection to me.

There are passages in the prophets (Hosea 13:14) and the Psalms (17:15; 49:15; 71:20) that imply resurrection but the clearest references to it are in Isaiah and Daniel. In Isaiah 26:19, we read, “But your dead will live; my dead bodies will rise. You who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to the dead.” And in Daniel 12:2, we read, “Many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake; some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” It is hard to interpret those verses as metaphorical.

“Ok,” you may say. “The idea of the resurrection did exist in the scriptures of the Old Testament but how is that evidence that resurrection is more than just wishful thinking?”

For that we must turn to Jesus. It is his resurrection that gave life to the church. After his crucifixion, the Jesus movement seemed as dead as its founder. As the disciples heading to Emmaus say, “But we had hoped he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:21) Notice the past tense. With Jesus dead, they thought there was no hope of redemption. The other disciples were hiding in a room locked against the authorities, who might do to his followers what they did to Jesus. (John 20:19) They weren't expecting Jesus to rise again. When he did and appeared to them, their reaction was what you'd expect: “But they were startled and terrified, thinking they saw a ghost.” (Luke 24:37) He had to show them his wounds in his hands and feet and eat a piece of fish before they could believe it was him in the flesh. (Luke 24:38-43) We single out Thomas as a doubter but he wasn't there when Jesus first appeared to the rest. Who can blame him for not simply taking their word that a guy he knew was dead was alive again? (John 20:24-29)

Ah, but that might just be propaganda put out by the disciples. To what purpose? Proclaiming Jesus as the crucified and risen Lord didn't bring them riches and power; it brought them persecution and eventually death. What could have convinced them to risk their lives to spread that message? Especially when that message includes Jesus saying that his disciples must disown themselves and take up their cross daily to follow him. (Luke 9:23) What incentive did they have? How is that good news? It makes no sense unless what Jesus said and did was vindicated by God raising him from the dead.

Michael Grant, in his book Jesus: An Historian's Review of the Gospels, says that as an historian he can't say that Jesus rose again but he also said it is hard to explain how his movement survived without his resurrection. Scholar N.T. Wright points out that when other would-be messiahs were killed, their followers would either go back to their old lives or find some new messiah. Only Jesus' disciples insisted that he was alive again and showed no fear of death, even when taking back their assertion might save their lives. Chuck Colson, Nixon's Special Counsel during the Watergate scandal, pointed out that the men around the president couldn't keep their story straight for even a few weeks and all they faced was prison. The fact that the disciples held to the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection until their deaths decades later convinced Colson that what they said was true. BTW, Colson did go to prison and started the Prison Fellowship ministry which sends us Christian books several times a year.

Hoaxes eventually come out. The Fox sisters, who in the 1800s started the whole séance movement of speaking to the dead, confessed decades later that it was a prank. Doug Bower and Dave Crowley, two English drinking buddies, confessed in 1991 that they created the crop circles of the 1980s. In 1994 Marmaduke Wetherell's stepson revealed that his stepfather had created the famous 1934 photo of the Loch Ness monster using a model on top of a toy submarine. The Amityville Horror was dreamed up by the house's owners and a lawyer over “several bottles of wine” to make money off the story.

None of those people faced punishment or imprisonment for their hoaxes. The disciples faced death. Nor were they deluded religious fanatics. Cult leader Tony Alamo kept his dead wife's body on display for 6 months claiming she would rise again. She didn't. Father Divine, who claimed to be God, said he would not die. He said he could lay his body down and take it up again. When he died in 1965, his followers maintained he was still alive in the spirit but he did not take up his body again. Amy Carlson and her followers believed she was God. After she died of alcohol abuse, anorexia and the chronic ingestion of colloidal silver, police found her mummified body in a sleeping bag, wrapped in Christmas lights. The Galactic beings who were to pick up her body never came. In each of these cases, the cult dwindled after their leader stayed dead.

Why did Jesus' movement not only continue to survive but grow until it became the largest religious movement in history? It's hard to explain unless, unlike his imitators, he really did rise again in the flesh. As we saw, his disciples were not instantly ready to believe. But after they were convinced, life made more sense.

We all have a sense of justice and fairness. But this life is not fair. The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. The powerful get away with things that the powerless routinely get punished for. Fear of pain and death keep people from trying to change this. If there is no afterlife and no just but merciful God, then there is no justice in this world.

But if Jesus defeated death, then we can trust what he said and live life as he told us to, without fear of pain and death. We can do what is right even if it costs us. Yes, pain and death will come but they are not permanent and they are not the last thing we will experience. As it says in Isaiah, God will “swallow up the shroud that is over all the peoples, the woven covering that is over all the nations; he will swallow up death permanently. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from every face...” (Isaiah 25:7-8)

And not only will God resurrect us but he will resurrect creation. As it says in Revelation, “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more. And I saw the holy city—the new Jerusalem—descending out of heaven from God, made ready like a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, 'Look! The residence of God is among human beings. He will live among them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death will not exist any more—or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the former things have ceased to exist. And the one on the throne said, 'Look! I am making all things new!'” (Revelation 21:1-5) We will be new and better people in a new and better world. And, more importantly, we will be like Jesus. (1 Corinthians 15:49; 1 John 3:2)

Notice the echo of the passage from Isaiah. I can tell you about the pain I felt like when I woke up from my car accident. I still have the scars but I don't re-experience that pain. When God resurrects us, he will heal us of the pain and trauma we have experienced in this life. It may be a distant memory. We can learn from it but it can no longer harm us.

Jesus suffered the worst trauma imaginable, experiencing exile from God in our place. Yet he rose triumphant. In the new creation, the hands wiping away our tears will be his, still bearing the scars from the nails. Yet we will not see those scars as ugly wounds but as glorious reminders of how much he loves us.

Monsters and Saints

The scriptures referred to are Ephesians 1:11-23 and Luke 6:20-31.

You know what Halloween and Christmas Eve have in common? Besides being grossly over-commercialized? (I just got back from a trip to Colorado where I saw a house with a dozen of those 12-foot skeletons, some with lights inside!) Anyway, they both celebrate the evening before a holy day. Halloween is a contraction of All Hallow's Eve, hallows being an old way of saying hallowed persons, or saints. It begins Allhallowtide: the vigil of All Hallow's Eve, followed by All Saint's Day, and All Souls Day. They fall on October 31^st, November 1^st and November 2^nd, respectively.

What does this have to do with the spooky trappings of Halloween? Well, all of these days are about the dead. Trick or treating came from the custom of poor children going around offering to pray for the dead in exchange for food called soul cakes. They were marked with a cross, like the hot cross buns of Lent, showing they were baked as alms for the poor. Those going souling would carry lanterns made of hollowed out turnips. When the Scots and Irish came to America, they used the native pumpkins instead.

Various pagan ideas came to be connected to Halloween over time. Candles were lit in homes to guide the departed souls back home. Food was left out for them. People wore costumes to hide them from any vengeful spirits about and homes and barns were blessed to protect them from witches. Halloween also fell at the time of Samhain, the Celtic festival that commemorated the end of fall and the beginning of winter. It was a time when the boundary between this world and the other world thinned and fairies could enter this world. They were mischievous at best and food was left out to appease them. As the world became more secular, and all of these customs got mixed up and monetized, we got today's version of Halloween, which is far from the original Christian vigil before a day remembering holy people. But folks like spooks more than saints.

In the New Testament all believers are called saints. (Ephesians 1:1; Philippians 1:1) Why did that apply to all Christians? Because they were called by God and sanctified in Christ Jesus. (1 Corinthians 1:2) That is, they were cleansed, purified, made different and set apart by God for his purposes. That is what is meant by holy.

Of course, there were some people who went above and beyond what the average Christian did, saints with a capital S. During times of persecution, some Christians were executed for continuing to be witnesses to the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We call them martyrs, from the Greek word for witness. The early church honored their sacrifices and held them up as examples of how Christians should act. After Christianity was legalized, Christians who were extraordinary in their faith and behavior, who gave self-sacrificially to the poor, who helped and healed the sick, who were so dedicated to following Jesus that they gave up worldly pleasures despite temptations and obstacles, were called saints. Those are the people who have days dedicated to their commemoration and have churches named after them. Though other controversial uses are made of them, they are fundamentally supposed to be used as examples for us.

Sadly, we can all think of people who are called Christians by others or even by themselves who are examples of not following Jesus. And they have discredited Christianity in the eyes of the world by not showing love towards others but hatred, by not showing compassion towards the unfortunate but contempt, by not helping the poor, the sick, the imprisoned, or the immigrant but harming them instead. (Matthew 25:31-46) These people are devilish perversions of what a Christian should be. They are in fact monstrous.

The original meaning of the word "monster" was a "divine omen" and an "abomination." It came from the Latin verb meaning “to warn.” Such false Christians are a warning that, as Jesus said, not all who call him Lord will enter God's kingdom, despite their impressive credentials. Only those who do God's will, the thing they were set apart to do, know Jesus and are known by him. (Matthew 5:21)

True Christians are those who trust Jesus so much that they actually do what he says we should do. And that is not just to be nice and help out when it is convenient for us. As we see in today's gospel passage, being a follower of Jesus means doing things that are not merely inconvenient but sometimes painful.

Jesus starts out by saying, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.” That is hard! Who can do that? Parents, for one thing. There are times when your kids are acting so badly, choosing to do things that are so harmful to themselves or others, that you don't like them. But you still love them. And there are times when you don't like your siblings or your parents or your spouse for the same reasons. But you make sure they eat and get to bed and get them help. It is hard. It is heartbreaking at times. But you do it because you want what's best for them. You want them to get better and to be better people. You do it because you love them.

Jesus is not saying that you have to like your enemies. He is not saying to have to endorse or enable the harmful things they do. He is saying that you must do good to them. That includes doing what you can to stop them from harming themselves or others. It means sometimes standing up to them or standing between them and those they wish to harm, as Jesus did with the woman caught in adultery. (John 8:1-11) It can mean arranging an intervention. It means listening to them and leading them away from harmful ways of thinking or speaking or acting through persuasion. When people do harm they are not generally using the rational part of their brain. Sometimes just getting the person to stop reacting and start thinking can keep them from acting irrationally.

Next Jesus says, “If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.” This is very hard. Not only is our natural instinct to strike back, but sometimes the person being struck is someone physically weaker than the attacker or even the frequent victim of abuse. But Jesus seems to be speaking of two equal opponents. If a man strikes another man as big or bigger than him, and the other guy turns the cheek, he will rethink what he is doing. It shows that the other guy is not afraid of what he can do. Bullies usually pick on those weaker than them. They have no desire to get in a fair fight.

If we look at the parallel verse in Matthew 5:39 Jesus says, “...whoever strikes you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also.” In that time, someone striking you on the right cheek with the back of their right hand was an insult and they could be taken to court. Turning the other cheek was both a dare and a mercy. It said to the person doing the backhanded slap, “Think again. I haven't retaliated against you, either physically or legally. You can stop now. I am giving you the chance that you haven't given me.”

And notice that Jesus is not saying “Let someone strike you;” He is saying “If someone strikes you.” He is not saying that you should do nothing to defend yourself if you see it coming. When his opponents intended to stone Jesus, we are told, “Then they attempted again to seize him but he escaped their clutches.” (John 10:39) When the townspeople of Nazareth went to throw him off the cliff on which the town was built, we read, “But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.” (Luke 4:30) I don't know if it was a look Jesus gave them or whether, as in my novel, he reminded them of all the things he had done for them when he lived there and shamed them for trying to pay him back that way. But he did not just passively let them harm him. Nor did he meet violence with violence.

I did something not totally dissimilar one time. I was not a big kid and I wore glasses. I was called “four eyes” and “brainiac.” On the school bus, I heard a bully loudly telling his friend how he was going to beat me up when we got off the bus at our stop. There was no way I could beat this kid. So I said to him, “You're going to beat me up? Of course you can. You're bigger and stronger than me. And what will that prove? How does that make you a tough guy, a big man? Because you can beat up someone smaller? Are you going to brag to your friends that you beat up a smaller kid?” When we got off the bus, he merely shoved me into the bushes and walked away. I got off easy because I had taken all the fun out of what he intended to do. I had drained him of all the joy of being a big, tough guy by flipping the script he had in his head. Jesus often flipped the script. He did the unexpected, which was not to use his fists but his words. He repaid evil not with evil but with good. And so should we. (Romans 12:17-21)

We are also to be generous to the needy. Jesus says, “ Give to everyone who begs from you.” Jesus doesn't mean to answer every spam call or every appeal asking you for money but to give to those who are really in need. Most people have too much pride to beg or ask for help. When they manage to overcome that, you should help them.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people who think that most of those asking for help are just trying to scam them. Ronald Reagan kept repeating one story about a woman who had cheated to get more welfare and got folks thinking that the majority of people on government assistance were what he called “welfare queens.” Anyone who has really been on welfare knows that it doesn't pay much and there are lots of strings attached. If you do work and make just a little more than you're supposed to, the government starts slashing your benefits. Being kept in poverty by rules made by wealthy and powerful people who assume you are lazy or lying is the reality most folks on welfare live with. Getting rich on welfare is rare. Even rarer is hearing the same amount of outrage being expressed at rich people who cheat the government by tax evasion or who make contributions to politicians for special legislation favoring their businesses or who get the government to pay them for building low income housing while discriminating against people of color. I don't think Jesus wants us to worry about rich people asking for more money they don't need.

The main takeaway is the last verse in our reading: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It's called the Golden Rule because it is such a basic moral principle that almost every religion in the world has some version of it. Usually they are stated negatively, as in “Don't do to others what you wouldn't want done to you.” We could call that the silver rule because it just refrains you from doing harm, which is a start. But by stating it positively Jesus enjoins us to go the extra mile. In the parable of the good Samaritan, the priest and Levite who pass by the man beaten and left for dead don't actively make him worse. But the Samaritan goes out of his way to make the man better. He gives him first aid, takes the man to a safe place and takes care of him all night. When he has to leave, he gives the innkeeper money enough to nurse him back to health. And he promises to pay more should this care cost more than he initially left for it. If you were in as bad a shape as that man who was robbed and left for dead, isn't that what you'd want someone to do for you? Jesus says, “Go and do likewise.” (Luke 10:30-37)

Treating others the same way you'd want to be treated is basic but the person who lives that way is not as common as they should be. Most people don't want to go too far out of their way to help someone. In fact they won't at all if they don't see other people do so first. When I took a Red Cross first aid class, they emphasized that if we see someone injured or sick, we need to immediately go and help. They discovered that only if someone takes the first step will others join in and help. Nobody wants to be the first to do something out of the ordinary. As Christians we must be Jesus' first responders.

In a way, supernatural monsters are comforting. They're not human. They are sources of evil external to ourselves. In real life, when we do encounter monsters they are all human. Not just Hitler and serial killers but all who cruelly exploit others for their own benefit. They are human but they have so distorted the image of God in which they were created that it has become horrific parody of what they were meant to be and what they could be. And as Nietzsche said, those who fight monsters can become just like them.

Jesus did not fight his enemies by using their methods: violence, rage, or deception. In fact he didn't fight them at all; he flipped the script, offering them love and good reasons to change from bad guys to good guys. He went way beyond what an ordinary good man would do to help sinners. As his followers we should too. The world needs extraordinary examples of goodness and love. We have enough monsters; we need saints.