The Rev. Neale L. Miller

Sermon for December 10, 2006

Texts: Malachi 3:1-4/Philippians 1:1-11

Title: “In This Thing Together”

              In the first chapter of the book of Acts we find the apostles, wide-eyed, craning their necks to watch as a cloud took the resurrected Jesus out of their sight.  An extraordinary experience it surely was, but it was by no means a satisfying one, for Jesus had hardly been forthcoming with them, in their judgment, at least, about what his resurrection meant for them, and for their future.  Oh yes, attempt they did to make him spell things out, “Lord is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

              This was a “go to the head of the class” caliber question, the very question they should have been asking.  It was not, however, the question they might necessarily have asked before the resurrection.  You see, before the resurrection they really didn’t know what to make of Jesus.  Wonderful teacher and miracle worker, Jesus was all of that, but was he really the messiah, the Christ of God?  In moments of clarity the disciples could make that declaration, but clarity was a window that slammed shut almost as quickly as it opened.

              “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”  The resurrection meant that Jesus actually commanded such power, didn’t it? “Is this the time.” The disciples were braced and ready for all heaven to break out.  This was the big event, the consummation of centuries of waiting.  This was prophesy fulfilled.  This was hopes realized. Jesus would restore Israel. But Jesus said, “not so fast.”  While the disciples excitedly waited for the kingdom to be born, what did Jesus do?  He blew out the candles.  “It is not for you to know the times or periods that the Father has set by his own authority.”

              Left to be addressed was when they WOULD know “the times or the periods” that the Father had set. Has any event in the history of the world had as much build up as the arrival of Israel’s messiah?  We know that things went south fast after king David vacated the throne.  His heirs left a lot to be desired, one after another succumbing to some vanity or vice.  We know, however, that God would not give up on his chosen, prophets sent by God repeatedly assuring them that God hadn’t forgotten them.  Hopes for restoration centered on a king, only more than a king, who would reestablish Israel to the glory she enjoyed under David. 

              One of the first things you and I learned in the nativity story our Sunday school teachers taught us was that the very king, that messiah, Christ, Emmanuel, whom the Jews awaited was Mary and Joseph’s son, Jesus, born in the Bethlehem manger. Pity the disciples of the Lord didn’t receive the education we did, instead they were challenged to discern Jesus’ identity from daily interaction with him, and, unfortunately, onto the day of his death the lesson never really took.   

              Discernment may have come slowly, but when it did come it came with a rush. The book of Acts tells us that in the days following his resurrection Jesus appeared to the disciples at least twice.  Those appearances vanquished their doubt.  Jesus WAS the messiah.  But as they watched Jesus ascend into heaven, they could only guess when, and how, he might return to the earth.

              From the time of those first disciples of our Lord until today the questions persist, when and how?  Malachi, the ancient prophet, (his name in the Hebrew translates “my messenger”), certainly didn’t have Jesus in mind when his words were recorded, but he, like other prophets of old, were quite clear on what God’s messenger, the messiah, or a figure like the messiah, might bring to the earth in the last, decisive days.  Malachi describes a messenger who was to appear like a “refiner’s fire and fuller’s soap,” an agent come to cleanse and purify.

              Old Testament scriptures that treat the end times, the reestablishment of Israel as God’s kingdom on earth, typically describe the event in cataclysmic terms.  The prophet Joel whom Luke quotes in the book of Acts, talks about “portents in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke…sun turned to darkness, and the moon to blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.”

              Prophesy regarding the great day of the Lord’s return depict the day as being dislocating and nightmarish, anything but a pleasant experience. Final judgment would be rendered with devastating consequences for the Lord’s enemies. The experience has been rendered graphically in painting and sculpture, in literature, and from the pulpit in oratory breathing fire and brimstone.

              Substantial chapters in the gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke have Jesus serving up the fire and brimstone.  “Nation will rise against nation [Jesus declares], and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.”  Continuing “When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near…for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written.”  “A fulfillment of all that is written,” Jesus, of course, was referring to that which was prophesied and written in scripture.

              In the last hours before he was ascended Jesus’ disciples were full of questions.  When would the Lord restore the kingdom to Israel? If restoration was to come through a process that would destroy Jerusalem and many of her citizens, and wreak havoc through famines and plagues, you might well have expected the disciples to urge Jesus to delay his return to earth.

              Dislocation and judgment are prominent fixtures in much of the literature focusing on God’s great day, whether Jesus happens to be identified as the agent of judgment and dislocation, or not. Even as we mark the days to Christ’s birth the readings of Advent continually veer off to take us to places we would rather not go. 

              Judgment is not the word any of us wish to hear, particularly from the mouth of Jesus. But the issue of the second coming, the restoration of God’s kingdom on earth, cannot be treated without the subject of judgment arising. A human heart turned cold to Jesus’ message is as destructive of life as armies poised to destroy Jerusalem, and whether the human heart or disobedient Jerusalem, scripture makes both the object of the Lord’s wrath upon his triumphant return.                      

              Throughout the ages much speculation has arisen as to when the Lord would return.  Recall the flurry of excitement that greeted the new century. People from around the world prepared the welcome mat for the Lord, believing that the year two thousand would be the decisive year when God would reclaim the earth. It didn’t happen of course, but the imagination continues to conjure up images of the great day, the popular “Left Behind”  series feeding the public appetite on matters pertaining to the second coming.

              You can bet that the disciples of the Lord, anxious to know when he would restore the kingdom to Israel, did not envision a hell fire and brimstone scenario in which any ot them would be burned. For the righteous, or those who believe themselves to be righteous, the day of the Lord is not a threat, but a reality to be embraced.

               Is the coming of the Lord an event to inspire dread, or longing?  Both potentialities exist for those who take seriously the witness of scripture.  The call to repent is a call that cannot be, must not be ignored, but not to displace the opposing reality that lifts us from our knees.  God’s mercy is reaffirmed and renewed every morning.  Grace abounds for those who wish to receive it.

                We live subjected to the curse of sin that will not let us go, feeble attempts to free ourselves through our own efforts always coming up short.  The good news is that we are beneficiaries of grace that never gives up on us. We fear the curse of damnation, the final day of reckoning when our sins will be tallied and judgment rendered, even as we look forward to the promised day when lamb shall lie down with lion, and each child of God shall enjoy a privileged seat in God’s banquet hall.

                 Of all the saints we meet in Holy Scripture, none had so firm a grasp on the competing realities of sin and grace to which the likes of us are daily exposed as the Apostle Paul. A former persecutor of the church, Paul experienced the full weight of alienation that rests on those who oppose God’s will.  Called to serve Christ, however, Paul experienced the profound freedom that comes to those who have known the restoring power of grace.

Having experienced the power of grace, Paul lived his life anticipating the day when Jesus would complete what he started.  It was to the establishment of Jesus’ reign on earth that Paul committed his life, knowing full well that nothing he could do would either hasten or delay the plans that Jesus had ordained.

                 Paul wrote the letters he wrote to churches or individuals keenly aware that the life he was living, and the ministry in which he was engaged, were but preparation for “the day of the Lord.”  While he states on more than one occasion his desire to be united with Christ immediately, he recognized an obligation to spend himself in service to his fellow Christians until Christ called him home.

                 To live in faith is to live between what already is, and what shall be. The grace of God is ours to experience in the here and now, but scripture declares that what we experience now, in this life, is but a mere down payment on what we shall experience when the reign of God is fully established on the earth.

                  The twelve disciples of the Lord watched Jesus ascend into heaven not knowing when he would return, but none of those disciples was as diligent as Paul in preparing the faith community for his return.  The letters he wrote acknowledge the particular responsibility he felt to build faith communities that could endure the extreme hardship that waiting for the Lord might impose. 

                Christians were being jailed, beaten, and martyred for professing faith in Jesus.  No stranger the jail or the whip himself, Paul knew firsthand the pain and suffering that so many in the churches was suffering.  His message to the churches?  “We’re in this thing together.”

                Paul maintained extraordinary confidence that the God he knew through Christ would not let him down. “I am confident of this [he writes], that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ.”  He continues, “It is right for me to think this way about all of you, because all of you hold me in your heart, for all of you share in God’s grace with me, both in my imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel.”

                 Bottom line?  We need each other.  The church has many faults, intolerance, bigotry, and hypocrisy its greatest sins, but the church gives you and I the best chance to learn and grow to the full stature God in Christ chose for us to have.  

We are in this thing together.  Is salvation possible outside the church?  Anything is possible with God.  But the church exists, fellowships like this exist, that we might have a place to share and grow our faith, that we might have a place where we are held accountable to the values and beliefs Christ would have us maintain, and that we might have a place to pray with and for each other.

                  “I thank my God every time I remember you [Paul writes], constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now.”  Even as he wrote from his prison cell in Rome Paul lived in the expectation that Jesus could return to the earth any day. His hope in that reality was kept alive despite great hardship and adversity because he was fed by the power he witnessed to be alive in the church. To all to whom he wrote, whether it was the church in Corinth, the church in Thessalonica, the church in Rome, or his partner in ministry Timothy, he made one declaration repeatedly, “friends, we’re in this thing together.” Not just you.  Not just me.  In this thing together.  We are the church, the people Christ loves and redeems AMEN.  

PRAYER

              Eternal Father, creator, Jesus Christ, redeemer, and Holy Spirit, intercessor, known to us in three persons, but one in essence, we live, O God, because you gave us life, we are free because you gave us freedom, we do not fear the adversaries that stalk us by day, or the terrors that threaten us by night, for you never leave our side. On solid rock we stand, O God, for you are that rock, a constant replenished source of strength and consolation.  May this people gathered in your house today experience your nearness, and in the assurance of that nearness, confidently approach you, candid in confessing sins committed, confident in seeking your forgiveness.

                 O God, you anointed Abraham to carry your name and blessing to the world.  Heirs of Israel, through Jesus your anointed son, the church has been chosen to carry your name and blessing to the world. When we have been faithful to that calling, great things have been accomplished in your name.  The gospel has been preached, seeds of justice and peace sown, hope proclaimed and generosity extended to the deprived and marginalized.  Faithful in the face of the challenges the world continues to thrust into our path, may your church, O God, be for the world the beacon of light you meant it to be.

                 We strive, O God, but never alone, for our faith is nurtured in community.  We praise you, O Christ, for the ways you work in the lives of this congregation.  We are grateful for all of those who by their acts of kindness, generosity, and caring have made this church a welcoming place. We thank you for those who devout their time and talents to the ministry of teaching, the ministry of child care, and the ministry of fellowship. We thank for those who by their example of Christian living challenge us to be likewise minded. We praise you for this place in which we are privileged to meet, and for the workmen who throughout the week commit their skills and energies to restoring our sanctuary. 

                  We continue to pray, O God, for the cessation of violence in the world. Darkness has fallen on the Middle East as we worship this morning, the end of another day marked by terror and bloodshed.  Challenged to respond to conflict that seems irresolvable, the leaders of nations continue to seek ways to promote peace in Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and elsewhere.  Despairing of answers to address the complex issues that breed conflict in lands sanctified by the saints of the world’s major faiths, many are prepared to give up.  O God, intercede on behalf of all peace loving people, that the nightmare in which so many are forced to live may at last end.    

                Lord, source of compassion and hope, abide with all those who live in the midst of personal distress and inner turmoil.  In your mercy support those who are borne down by the weight of guilt and self-recrimination. Brace those who have lost confidence in themselves, whose sense of personal worth has eroded.  Be with parents who struggle with the obligations of parenthood.  Be with adult children whose days are occupied with the responsibilities of caring for elderly parents.

               Lord of our lives, support each one who has come here today, that no one may leave unchallenged or unmoved by what they have experienced here.  Work your will in each of our lives that each day we may be one step closer to being the people you created us to be.  For the gift that allows us to express our faith freely and without fear, we give thee thanks, O God, praying the prayer….