Sermon for November 3, 2013 -- St. John the Baptist, Milton, Delaware

St.  John the Baptist, Milton, Proper 26, Pent 24 2013

Today is salvation day in this home!  Here he is, Zacchaeus, son of Abraham!  For the Son of Man came to find and restore the lost.”  Luke 19:9-10

When I first came here, in September, I spoke about our culture’s fascination with Christmass – that is, the parts that have to do with our culture’s equal fascination with money and getting things.  Many people, including me, think that this has come about through an incorrect interweaving of what we now call “government and religion.” When ever that has happened in history, religion becomes subservient to government.  And when that happens, God, who made it all, also becomes subservient to government.  This is not a new problem: Luke’s gospel – we have been listening to it for a whole year now – is absolutely opposed to that combination.  Luke’s absolute opposition makes this very point very clear at the time of the birth of Jesus.

You recall that the Gospel at the Midnight Mass begins “Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. . . . Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral home to be accounted for.  So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah, David’s town, for the census.  As a descendant of David, he had to go there.  He went with Mary, his finacée, who was pregnant.”

The people who first heard Luke’s telling the story knew perfectly well that this was a highly charged political statement.  Caesar Augustus had just declared himself to be a god, the god to whom all his subjects were subservient.  He, Caesar Augustus, because he was a god, had absolute control over all the people in his empire.  If they did not obey the rules and regulations – laws, we call them – they were subject to imprisonment or death.  This is called “Pax Romana.” It sounds wonderful – it means simply law and order – maintained by violence of every sort.  Thus when the Emperor said, Go to your hometown for the first census, people did it – that way they remained alive.

So it is not in the least bit surprising that Joseph, even though he lives in Galilee, had to go back a suburb of Jerusalem, called “Bethlehem” – it means “house of bread” – because his ancestral family went back to David, who was accounted as the first (and perhaps only) Messiah-King of the Hebrews who was approved by the great creator God .  But Joseph was not alone; and this is no casual trip; hundreds of thousands of people were doing exactly the same thing as was Joseph – going back to their ancestral home.  They were doing it at the command of the Emperor/god Caesar Augustus.  You can imagine that this was bringing about lots of anger from the vast majority of the people.  But they did it!

Luke’s story of the birth of Jesus is his political comment on all this.  (Yes, this is not all there was in what Luke wrote; but this is the first thing that was heard by those who first heard this.)

There are two further important points in Luke’s story.  First, there are shepherds.  Shepherds at that time, were rather like our minds here in Milton tell us it’s like in Wilmington – where there are “wandering” gangs all over the place.  Shepherds were both the scum of society, and a great danger to everybody.  But somehow a messenger gets to them that contains a message that God has acted – the Messiah (the Savior) – had just been born!  BornS in that stupid little town called Bethlehem.  So all these wicked and evil people – the shepherds – run off to have a look.

I really want you to understand that the whole thing is rather like we’re here in the midst of our church service and whole gang of strange people comes in rushing and shouting and screaming –  perhaps they were even drunk – shouting political slogans against the Emperor!  That’s what the shepherds would be doing!  That’s the kind of presence they would have!

And then Luke throws in his bombshell against the Emperor.

A huge angelic choir was singing God’s praises:
Glory to God in the heavenly heights!
Peace to all men and women on earth –
those who truly want to make God’s message
of equality, justice, freedom, and love, Reality.

You see, says Luke, Caesar Augustus has to pronounce it, and send soldiers and other officials all over to tell his subjects about his order. God, on the other hand, not only needs no force, but God shows his total love for all people by using shepherds to begin the spreading of the message.

Luke is writing his gospel probably 65 or more years after the resurrection.  The vast majority of the first Christians were Jews.  They saw in Jesus and his followers the fulfillment of the Creation, and the Covenant with Abraham, and the coming of the Messiah, the new David.

Now if you sit down and read Luke’s Gospel, and his second book, Acts of Apostles, and try to understand them the way the first readers did, then you will see what Luke’s purpose really is.  Really quite simple: the kingdom of God is not some “coming event.” The kingdom of God is, in fact, exactly, and fully, and completely – here!  Right now!

And the reason this is so is because those who truly believe in the Creator-God are busy living the life of equality, justice, freedom, and love.  It shines spectacularly in everything that the followers of Jesus did.  They lived lives of care, concern,
and love.  And they did it with no resort to violence.  And this continued for several hundred years after Luke.

What in fact did these first followers of Jesus do?  Well, they did two things.  The first thing they did was to live loving lives. The second thing they did was to refuse to allow the worship of any one or thing other than the great Creator-God.  For this to happen, sometimes they had to give up their very lives.

You see, the Resurrection of Jesus tells us many things.  I want to talk about just one of those things right now.

Luke places a different picture in front of us.  You remember that in Luke’s version of the Passion, Jesus is crucified between two criminals.  One of them makes fun of Jesus: “Some Messiah you are!  You save others --save us and yourself.” The other criminal sees the truth.  And so he says “We are getting what we deserve; he did nothing to deserve this treatment – his death!”

Two things in this little bit of dialogue.  First, Luke reminds us that there is nothing special about this execution – it’s the same kind of thing that happens to any criminal.  And everyone knows that when the dead bodies are taken down from the crosses, the Romans just throw them away.  But the second criminal notes that Jesus did nothing to deserve this treatment. And he says, “When your kingdom is fulfilled, please don’t forget me.” And that truth is why we are here today!

The second criminal believed!  He knew that when his body was thrown away and that of the other criminal, no one is going to be sorry – probably there is no one at all who might even mourn.  But that bright life, born in the cattle shed, hanging on the cross of death, will never be extinguished.  No matter how many are killed in the name of Jesus, the message of equality, justice, peace, and love can never be extinguished. It will live forever; the bodies of his followers will radiate the message in every thing they do.  The resurrected Jesus is alive!

And that is why the Roman Empire, with the most massive military the world had ever seen could not destroy the message of Jesus.  The Empire was brought to its knees; not by armies, not by condemnations, not by courts of law, not by persecution, not by any form of violence.

It was the faith of the first Christians and their utter trust in God that fundamentally changed the Roman Empire.

How did all this happen?  It really was very simple!  Our patron, John the Baptist, came into the world to show that each adult needs to make an absolute commitment to the one God who created all the world.  And they did that!

They were baptized!

And through that symbol – baptism – those who had faith that the world is a good place, that everything that God has made is in essence a good thing, and that human beings – you and me, my friends – we have the right to use everything God has provided in order to make the world a place without violence, and where equality, justice, peace, and love are the hallmarks of all interpersonal relationships.  And this is true whether we are speaking of individuals, of local communities, of cities and towns, of counties and states, of businesses and governments, and all international relationships.

You see, the other part of what the second criminal said is the truest part: “We get what we deserve.”

This, my friends, is the primary reason why the General Convention of the Episcopal Church authorized the 1979 Book of Common Prayer.  This was intended to be a missionary document.  Its purpose was to fire-up all those baptized people who call themselves Episcopalians.  And we wanted them all to be fired up, because we who believe what the Gospels tell us, know without any doubt, that violence, and super large standing militaries is not the way to complete God’s creation and bring equality, justice, peace, and love to the entire planet.  It just will not work.

Therefore, as a sign of your commitment, four times per year we who are the baptized, stand and proclaim our commitment to the message of equality, justice, peace, and love that reigned from the cross, washed the blood of Jesus.

I have been told that in order to make your commitment powerful, you should be able to hear your own voice in your own ears to be as loud as you hear my voice in your own ears.  (I might add, the same goes for singing.)

Please take the form home with you and plan to read it every day between now and Christmas.