September 28, 2008

Dear Friends, the gospel passage we encounter this morning is both troubling and timely.  In two short paragraphs, we discover a dysfunctional religious and political reality in 1^st Century Palestine that looks a lot like our world today.  We would hope we would have advanced further in our understanding and response to God by now.  Perhaps, the lesson can lead us to be the vanguard of a new age.  Perhaps, we can be the people who finally come to terms with the nature of God and what God expects us to do with that knowledge.

When Jesus entered the temple that day, he walked into the center that controlled both the religious and political life of the Jewish people.   The temple was the seat of power that determined the laws and policies that governed the lives of Jesus’ kinsmen.  The temple was the structure that laid out their moral code, served as their court of appeal.  The temple housed the authorities who interpreted the nature and will of God.  The temple operated like the Vatican in the good old days.  When Jesus entered the temple, he met the best and the brightest minds of his generation.  Those men who had studied God’s law, who had risen in esteem and popularity, who had excelled in leadership and power brokering were maneuvering and determining the fates of many people in that place.  Jesus walked in as an outsider, as an unknown quality, as one apart from the structure.  He faced the establishment with a new idea.

The priests and the elders, solid citizens, men devoted to God and their people, men centered on learning and leadership, men of devoted service were skeptical and leery.  They wondered who is this man.  What is his agenda?  He is gaining popularity.  The people respond to his voice and message.  He is leading them to new conclusions.  He is not one of us.  He hasn’t come up through our system.  He hasn’t paid his dues.  We aren’t sure about his credentials.  Where is he taking our people?  Is he leading them away from the principles we know and love?  Does he mean our people harm, intentionally or out of ignorance?  What peril to our people does he bring?  What mischief will he wreak on our authority?  The chief priests and elders are in a quandary.  How can they control this intruder? 

How do they win back the hearts and minds of their people?  How big a threat is he really?  Do they, can they disseminate him as a folk hero, a new fresh voice?  Can they barter with him and make him one of their own?  At what point do they jump on his bandwagon?  The chief priests and elders are anxious.

At the heart of this dilemma lies the central question, are we correct in our assumptions about God?  They are confident that they are!  They are assured they know and fully understand God.  They have answers.  They’ve studied.  They’ve prayed.  They’ve got God all figured out so they can speak with righteousness and authority.  Ahhh, the warmth, the comfort of certainty!  It is not a very big step from serenity to smugness.  The chief priests and elders of Jesus’ time are religiously smug, and religious smugness puts one at risk and poses danger to others.  Having God all figured out doesn’t leave room for God to be God.  Part of being God is being unknowable, uncontainable, being above and beyond human comprehension.  Absolute certainty about the nature and will of God is not righteousness or piety, it is sin. It is an affront to the very essence of the Almighty.  The chief priests and elders are not the only ones to make this mistake.  Today in our world, today in our own Anglican communion, we see religious and political leaders operating under the sway of spiritual smugness.  The religious right, the religious left, the religious uncommitted are each convinced that they know God’s personal preferences.  The right says God has made himself known in the law and traditional interpretation of Holy Scripture.  The left says God will not be tied to antiquated precepts.  God is not in the letter of the law, but in the spirit of the law.  They say God uses the law only in as far as it encourages love and mercy.  The uncommitted and unconvinced say God is not an active reality because his existence cannot be determined or proven by the scientific method.  These three viewpoints are represented by powerful, persuasive voices.  Deeply committed, well funded, the right, the left, the uncommitted make their cases to the world.  Each side says we are serious people with moral concerns.  We’ve studied and reflected.  We’ve taken the charge to know God to heart and we are called to share our absolute conclusions with you and if you want to be right (or left) or at least correct with God, follow our answers.  They say, we know what God wants and dissenting opinion is wrong!  Avoid those other interpretations.  They are dangerous and disastrous.  They will put your immortal soul at risk.  Doomsday language and tactics are popular and effective in this arena.  Tension, anxiety, anger, ugliness escalates.  Civility, tolerance, measured reason and respect quickly dissipates in these discussions.  As the right, the left, the uncommitted engage in debate, their affiliation with a Holy Presence or a moral center comes questionable.  Does God want to be represented by these vessels?

As problematic as the style these confrontations become for us to navigate, the more troubling aspect is their central premise.  Like the chief priests and elders of the temple, when contemporary leaders of the religious right, left and uncommitted suggest they have absolute answers on God’s plan and nature, they diminish God.  They say to us, God’s ways and our ways are alike. God’s thoughts and our thoughts are the same. God works as we predict.  We know God, and so, we’ve aligned our agenda to his.  Follow us and you follow God.  We know God, and God believes in truth, justice and the American way.  Well, truth, justice and America are good ideas but, do those concerns describe God or a superhero?  See, a superhero, man or woman, with extraordinary powers can be known.  A superhero is predictable.  And a superhero has limitations.  If he is saving a city in Montana, he is not working in Paris.  He is not omnipresent.  A superhero is not eternal and above the scope of human intellect.  God, however, is exactly those two qualities.  He is before and after all time.  He cannot be contained and He cannot be fully conceived.  The theologian Anselm describes God succinctly and effectively, “God is that, that no greater can be conceived or imagined.” 

In your minds, go to the place of the wisest entity you can conjure up.  God is wiser still.  Think of the most compassionate being.  God is more loving than that.  Consider the strongest force in the universe.  Stretch your mind, the strongest power your imagination can dream up,  God is far mightier than even that.  If God is over, above and beyond all we can conceive, how can anyone say they know God, that they have the ultimate answers on God?  Such a claim is both preposterous and heresy!

This is why Jesus is so irritated with the priests and elders.  They have forgotten the essential truth about God, and that is – God is great! God is greater than our perceptions and so we need to be prepared to encounter him in unexpected ways.  We need to be open and receptive to new revelation.  God brings us good news, instruction and salvation in mysterious, unpredictable vessels.  Our gospel passage refers to John the Baptist.  Now he certainly came out of left field.  He wanders out of the desert, wearing sheep skins and eating locusts.  He was not part of the temple system.  He wasn’t raised up in power elite.  He was an unlikely spokesperson.  He was, however, a messenger of God.  Jesus of Nazareth, not an heir to a temple seat, not an obvious choice for a world leader, is the vessel God chose to lead us back to relationship.  The priests and elders ask Jesus the central question, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?”  They ask the right questions.  They are not prepared for the answer. 

Dear friends, it is a troubling time for the world today.  The most powerful nation on the planet is facing serious challenges.  A country that has been a beacon of hope, justice, morality and generosity is suffering economic setbacks and has lost some credibility on the world stage.  The health and moral state of our country has huge impact on the wellbeing of the whole world.  This is responsibility we must acknowledge and process thoughtfully.  This is not a time for “smugness” or absolute certainty.  It is a time to be open and receptive new revelation.  When times are hard and unpredictable, it is difficult to remain unaffected by the loudest most alarming voice.  We cling to comfortable answers and established positions.  We dismiss counter view points.  We want stability, so we hold on tightly to what we “know.”  We do not look for new ideas from unlikely or dissimilar sources.  Oh, he’s a “d” or she’s an “r” or he’s an independent.  I know what they’re about.  He’s on the right, she’s on the left, I don’t need to listen to what comes next.  They believe God is like this.  They say God is that. Definitive answers and declarative statements come easy. 

All through our lives Jesus tells us, look for signs of God’s grace and direction.  Do not get comfortable with your assumptions.  God moves in ways you cannot casually determine.  Pray, consider, wait on his answers to your heart.   All through our lives, this is the work of the faithful.  This is especially the work for us over the next weeks and months.  As our country faces change and challenges, we will need excellent discernment.  We need to follow God’s revelation closely.  It may come to us from the mouth, the proposal, the vision of someone we find unlikely.  May we have the good sense to listen anyway.  The prayer for us today, the prayer for our country and the world in this time is this:

“God, in your power and in your mercy, grant me the will and the wisdom to see your hand at work in leaders and policies you want raised up for the wellbeing of your creation.  Help me put down my assumptions, and, instead, faithfully accept your direction, for my greatest desire is not to be sure or right, but that your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Amen.