Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,

given by Rev. Steve Ellis/November 25, 2007

  The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share

Christ's love in the world.  We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to other

Colossians 1:11-20 - May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

     He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers-- all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.

Luke 23:33-43 - When they came to the place that is called The Skull, they crucified Jesus there with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left. Then Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing." And they cast lots to divide his clothing. The people stood by, watching Jesus on the cross; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

     One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise."

He has rescued us from the power of

darkness and transferred us

into the kingdom of his beloved Son

~ Colossians 1

Sermon

    Preachers promote stewardship, but people don’t understand it.  Why?  Because there is such a powerful counter-message.  Because people expect the church, the synagogue to be saying the same thing as the dominant culture, and Bible’s message was always counter-cultural.  But Colossians tells us that in Jesus, God has transferred us from the power of darkness into the kingdom of light.  And I wonder if we appreciate what that means.

     So I want to talk with you about that transfer, and what we have to take up to live in the kingdom of light, and what we have to give up to live in that kingdom.  And to start that conversation up again, I’m going to tell you about an article you might want to read.  Summary of Walter Bruggemann’s article, The liturgy of abundance, the myth of scarcity (Christian Century, March 24-31, 1999).  It talks about the lies we have to give up, and the work we have to take up so that we can live in the kingdom of light.

     Wealth has always had a tendency to corrupt, but in our time consumerism has become a demonic spiritual force among us, hiding from us our faith and our foundations in the goodness of life, the steadfast loving-kindness of God.

     It is good, very good.

Sabbath, a respite from striving because enjoying, being, and being-with is the goal, not striving and having.

     God breathes our life and God is utterly reliable, good all the time.

     Bruggemann: “faith is the awareness that creation is the gift that keeps on giving.”

Pharaoh (& Hitler) represent scarcity, and have no source of blessing but having ever more, are therefore desperate.  In desperation they exclude, demonize, and pillage others.

The power of the future, that is of faith, of God, is with those who trust God’s abundance, because those who trust in wealth live in scarcity and always in fear and its ruthlessness, and its unrelatedness.

     Bruggemann says here and elsewhere, that this is not a liberal/conservative issue.  There are different approaches to being good neighbors, different ways of sharing the wealth.  But we must all confess that “the central problem of our lives as people of faith is that we are torn apart by the conflict between our attraction to the good news of God’s abundance and the power of our belief in scarcity – a belief that makes us greedy, mean and unneighborly.”  We feel threatened and at risk, even though we want to believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

     The Nike story (AKA the myth of scarcity) – says it is what you acquire that measures you, and you get it for yourself, there is no giver.  This he claims is the prevailing creed of American society.  It is, of course, bad for America if we think this way, and terrible for the kingdom of light.  This is what keeps us from hearing the message of abundance, of being good stewards of God’s creation, of being neighborly.

     Bruggemann says, “Jesus talks a great deal about the kingdom of God – and what he means by that is a public life reorganized toward neighborliness.”  Everywhere he went his actions were to create new community between classes and groups of people, and to heal broken lives and broken relationships.  “Jesus example gives us a mandate to transform our public life.”  And his parables were the “subversive re-imaginings of reality”.

     But the consumption machine wants to shrivel our imaginations so we can’t conceive of living well except by ever-increasing consumption – as if that brought inner peace, or shalom among neighbors.

     And so we are torn.  Here we are, people who believe, from our gospel tradition, that all people matter, that we could be neighbors who respect and do right by one another.  But we are also consumers in a society in which consumption has become a dominant value, an almost demonic air we breathe.  We both imagine God’s new creation with longing, in which there is justice for all and real community – and fear that it will take from us the safety of our economic dominance.  And Bruggemann warns that you cannot “store up God’s generosity” any more than the Israelites could store up the manna in the wilderness.  You aren’t living in wonder of Divine generosity, along with your brothers and sisters, when you are also scrapping against them to have more than they do.  Trust God or trust Mammon.

     This is our dilemma.  We accept God’s forgiveness and generosity, on our knees, receiving the Absolution.  Then we rise to share it with one another in token of changed lives.  But if that generosity does not extend beyone these walls – are we not false to God’s forgiveness?  This is fundamental to how we view our community, how we vote, how we talk about our community and nation, how we think of groups of people.

     So Bruggemann counsels us to wean ourselves, to start the journey back from the consumer culture, to give up the junk food of moralism and domination, to let the God of justice to lead us to a more neighborly world. 

     What will we do? 

     We can acquiesce, and live in scarcity, mistrust, and fear and the demonization that goes with it.

     Or, we can  trust God’s abundance and get to work (liturgy) to find practices, procedures and institutions that allow generosity to work.  This gives us back to our neighbors, because we cannot figure out these practices and build these institutions except as we know and understand one another.  Building a better government, building stronger congregations and community organizations, so that life works for everybody, is work that requires collaboration and mutuality.

     It starts with faith, with hope, with God, but it is a faith that can only become real as it is hammered out in relationships in public life.  This is the liturgy, the work of abundance.  Is there any other way to overcome the myth of scarcity and recover our trust in God?