Sunday Sermon: Advent 1: Food and the end of the world
I went to see the new movie 2012 this week. The movie, about the end of the world as the Mayan calendars predicted, seemed appropriate for our particular world ending scripture readings that we have today. I went to see it so I could have some great tidbit of wisdom for you all about end times. I came away from that movie only wanting to talk about Care Bears and Cabbage Patch Dolls. Seriously, its hardcore. I am turning into a big wimp when it comes to movies these days.
The end of the movie has stuck with me because it expresses a dream I have for our Church. A dream for Gethsemane, for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, and the United Sates, for the Anglican Communion and for Christendom as a whole. In the movie the world is changed, it took freak alignment of the planets, and extra strong bursts of fire from the sun, but the world was changed. At the end of the movie one of the kids asks if they can go home, which of course they can’t because some place in Wisconsin has become the new South Pole, and South Africa is the only place above water. His question about going home struck me, because where exactly is home, what is familiar and how do we orient ourselves to a new horizon knowing the world is changing all the time?
Christopher Columbus, when he went sailing the ocean blue did not simply leave Spain and waltz over to the Americas. No, he hugged the shore of Europe as long as he could, and then when Europe’s shore came to an end he hugged the African coast as long as he could, when the African Coast finally came to an end he had no choice but to leave the coast behind and head out into the new horizon. By the time he had sailed down the coast of Africa his people were angry, close to mutiny and ready to go home, when he ventured off to the new horizon, their orientation changed, their focus changed because their lives depended on there being a new horizon. Home was no longer the same, and they had to know in their hearts that the world was changing.
It is my belief that Jesus felt and believed down to his bones that he was going to change the world. God told him, yes, probably true, but if he was truly human, he had to have had some doubt, some kind of question as to whether or not this was going to happen. If not doubt then, a lack of clarity about how it all would end or come about. All Jesus had to go on was a promise after all. A promise of a better future, a promise of salvation, a promise of righteousness, a promise of justice. That is all. If we had only a promise to go on, how would we react? We often don’t act on promises unless we are certain that the outcome will benefit us. It is not often we will act on an uncertain promise or on someone’s simple statement of I promise you this.
Yet we hear loud and clear today, from the prophet Jeremiah, that we are called to listen to God’s promise for us and respond with utmost faith. It is God’s promise, Jeremiah tells a people in exile, a people being slaughtered by Babylonians, it is God’s promise to you that I will restore you. Tell that to the woman being raped, tell that to the father being murdered, tell that to the children being cast aside, orphans in a new dangerous world. How in that kind of anxiety did the Israelites hear any kind of promise. How do people hear and know that God has a promised and preferred future for them when it seems there is no hope for their life right now. But Jeremiah knew exactly what to say, he reminded them of God’s promise to the people of Israel. Jeremiah listened to their suffering and said, God is with you in your pain, God is with you in your suffering, God is here and present and promises to raise you up and give you justice in this unjust world. That is what Jeremiah says God promises. When Kings and rulers practice righteousness then the city and the land will be healed and restored.
What do our lives depend on here at Gethsemane. Bonnie Perry, one of the Bishop Candidates said at the walkabout I attended, “When the Bishop came to our parish he said, ‘Some parishes are dead, and that is ok, but the worst kind of dead parish is the dead parish that thinks its still alive, for that parish will never experience the power of resurrection.” It is a sentiment I have wondered about this place for a long time, not if we have died, but rather if we have been resurrected. Have we allowed ourselves to be pulled out from the darkness into the light that is God and Jesus. Have we allowed ourselves, as I said at Patti Cadwell’s funeral, to be turned into God’s own. God turned Patti’s body into God’s own, now what is God doing to our body, this part of the body of Christ? How are we being transformed and changed, how will we sing our praises, what truth will we speak, what justice will we declare?
God has given us a few clues about what our promised and preferred future will be. That future includes food, food shelf, Eucharist, meals, potlucks, hospitality and a few other things you all could probably name as well. We have been given all that we need in order to listen and hear the hope in God’s preferred and promised future for us. We have been given the vision, we have the energy, we are doing the work. But there is something missing, there is something that is not present, and I can’t put my finger on it. It is the Brett Favre shaped missing piece of our Church. One thing that will make us complete and Super Bowl contenders. What is it? I wonder if it is moving from the mindset of we have to grow the Church (Capitalism) to we have to do and be God’s Missional people in the world (Kingdom of God). How are we being transformed by the coming of Jesus, by the power of the resurrected Christ. How are we becoming God’s own in new ways? We are clinging to the coast as Columbus did and it is time now to turn to a new horizon and prepare for what waits beyond our sight, beyond our knowing, beyond our imagination, beyond the horizon we are oriented towards.
We are fed in order to feed. We feed in order to be fed. That is our new mission slogan, our new mission statement. No longer are we about New Life in the Garden, today We are fed, in order to feed, We feed in order to be fed. It is the truth is it not? As Ben said last week, we are activated already, we have been transformed already, we have been changed and we have been fed. Now, because of our new life, because of how God has done to us great things, we will go out into the world and do great things. Because we have been fed in such a way as we have, we will go and feed others as they wish to be fed. Because we have everything we need to live and do God’s mission, we are feeding the people of the world, we are changing the world itself so that we will be fed and transformed ourselves. Our mission is food, our hope is food, our future is food. Sounds like something Cub Foods should trademark, but it is our new trademark. Our lives have changed, I hope, for the better, but more importantly we have chosen that life for ourselves. Our lives have shifted, and we can no longer live the way we wanted to live, we must now seek a new horizon for this place, for this state, for this country, for our world and for ourselves.
Facing the sunset, the characters in 2012 had no choice but to embrace a new horizon. A new horizon that shifted the world, literally shifted the physical structures of the earth. We also face a new horizon on this day, a new year, a new liturgical year, but more than that a day that declares God’s kingdom the alternative kingdom for us as Christians. Macys, Wall Mart, Sears, and yes, even Target do not matter they have no hold on us. All that matters, all that possesses us is God, God’s preferred and promised future for us and that we are oriented towards that new horizon, glittering bright red, orange, green and azure blue, as we prepare for the next phase of our life together. We are fed, in order to feed. We feed in order to be fed.
The end of the movie has stuck with me because it expresses a dream I have for our Church. A dream for Gethsemane, for the Episcopal Church in Minnesota, and the United Sates, for the Anglican Communion and for Christendom as a whole. In the movie the world is changed, it took freak alignment of the planets, and extra strong bursts of fire from the sun, but the world was changed. At the end of the movie one of the kids asks if they can go home, which of course they can’t because some place in Wisconsin has become the new South Pole, and South Africa is the only place above water. His question about going home struck me, because where exactly is home, what is familiar and how do we orient ourselves to a new horizon knowing the world is changing all the time?
Christopher Columbus, when he went sailing the ocean blue did not simply leave Spain and waltz over to the Americas. No, he hugged the shore of Europe as long as he could, and then when Europe’s shore came to an end he hugged the African coast as long as he could, when the African Coast finally came to an end he had no choice but to leave the coast behind and head out into the new horizon. By the time he had sailed down the coast of Africa his people were angry, close to mutiny and ready to go home, when he ventured off to the new horizon, their orientation changed, their focus changed because their lives depended on there being a new horizon. Home was no longer the same, and they had to know in their hearts that the world was changing.
It is my belief that Jesus felt and believed down to his bones that he was going to change the world. God told him, yes, probably true, but if he was truly human, he had to have had some doubt, some kind of question as to whether or not this was going to happen. If not doubt then, a lack of clarity about how it all would end or come about. All Jesus had to go on was a promise after all. A promise of a better future, a promise of salvation, a promise of righteousness, a promise of justice. That is all. If we had only a promise to go on, how would we react? We often don’t act on promises unless we are certain that the outcome will benefit us. It is not often we will act on an uncertain promise or on someone’s simple statement of I promise you this.
Yet we hear loud and clear today, from the prophet Jeremiah, that we are called to listen to God’s promise for us and respond with utmost faith. It is God’s promise, Jeremiah tells a people in exile, a people being slaughtered by Babylonians, it is God’s promise to you that I will restore you. Tell that to the woman being raped, tell that to the father being murdered, tell that to the children being cast aside, orphans in a new dangerous world. How in that kind of anxiety did the Israelites hear any kind of promise. How do people hear and know that God has a promised and preferred future for them when it seems there is no hope for their life right now. But Jeremiah knew exactly what to say, he reminded them of God’s promise to the people of Israel. Jeremiah listened to their suffering and said, God is with you in your pain, God is with you in your suffering, God is here and present and promises to raise you up and give you justice in this unjust world. That is what Jeremiah says God promises. When Kings and rulers practice righteousness then the city and the land will be healed and restored.
What do our lives depend on here at Gethsemane. Bonnie Perry, one of the Bishop Candidates said at the walkabout I attended, “When the Bishop came to our parish he said, ‘Some parishes are dead, and that is ok, but the worst kind of dead parish is the dead parish that thinks its still alive, for that parish will never experience the power of resurrection.” It is a sentiment I have wondered about this place for a long time, not if we have died, but rather if we have been resurrected. Have we allowed ourselves to be pulled out from the darkness into the light that is God and Jesus. Have we allowed ourselves, as I said at Patti Cadwell’s funeral, to be turned into God’s own. God turned Patti’s body into God’s own, now what is God doing to our body, this part of the body of Christ? How are we being transformed and changed, how will we sing our praises, what truth will we speak, what justice will we declare?
God has given us a few clues about what our promised and preferred future will be. That future includes food, food shelf, Eucharist, meals, potlucks, hospitality and a few other things you all could probably name as well. We have been given all that we need in order to listen and hear the hope in God’s preferred and promised future for us. We have been given the vision, we have the energy, we are doing the work. But there is something missing, there is something that is not present, and I can’t put my finger on it. It is the Brett Favre shaped missing piece of our Church. One thing that will make us complete and Super Bowl contenders. What is it? I wonder if it is moving from the mindset of we have to grow the Church (Capitalism) to we have to do and be God’s Missional people in the world (Kingdom of God). How are we being transformed by the coming of Jesus, by the power of the resurrected Christ. How are we becoming God’s own in new ways? We are clinging to the coast as Columbus did and it is time now to turn to a new horizon and prepare for what waits beyond our sight, beyond our knowing, beyond our imagination, beyond the horizon we are oriented towards.
We are fed in order to feed. We feed in order to be fed. That is our new mission slogan, our new mission statement. No longer are we about New Life in the Garden, today We are fed, in order to feed, We feed in order to be fed. It is the truth is it not? As Ben said last week, we are activated already, we have been transformed already, we have been changed and we have been fed. Now, because of our new life, because of how God has done to us great things, we will go out into the world and do great things. Because we have been fed in such a way as we have, we will go and feed others as they wish to be fed. Because we have everything we need to live and do God’s mission, we are feeding the people of the world, we are changing the world itself so that we will be fed and transformed ourselves. Our mission is food, our hope is food, our future is food. Sounds like something Cub Foods should trademark, but it is our new trademark. Our lives have changed, I hope, for the better, but more importantly we have chosen that life for ourselves. Our lives have shifted, and we can no longer live the way we wanted to live, we must now seek a new horizon for this place, for this state, for this country, for our world and for ourselves.
Facing the sunset, the characters in 2012 had no choice but to embrace a new horizon. A new horizon that shifted the world, literally shifted the physical structures of the earth. We also face a new horizon on this day, a new year, a new liturgical year, but more than that a day that declares God’s kingdom the alternative kingdom for us as Christians. Macys, Wall Mart, Sears, and yes, even Target do not matter they have no hold on us. All that matters, all that possesses us is God, God’s preferred and promised future for us and that we are oriented towards that new horizon, glittering bright red, orange, green and azure blue, as we prepare for the next phase of our life together. We are fed, in order to feed. We feed in order to be fed.
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