Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ
November 25, 2012
Year B: The Feast of Christ the King
2 Samuel 23:1-7
Psalm 132:1-13, (14-19)
Revelation 1:4b-8
John 18:33-37
Resident Aliens
In
my homily at our Thanksgiving service I talked a little about how most
everything we do here in church is meant as a call to mindfulness.
The
architecture, the stained glass, the music, the vestments, the prayers, the
Bible readings – all of it is meant to make us more mindful – make us more
mindful of God at work in the past and more mindful of God at work in our lives
right here and now.
And,
the Church’s call to mindfulness – the Church’s call to remember and to pay
attention – has never been more needed or more difficult.
Let’s
face it - everyday life is full of worries and distractions that make
mindfulness very hard.
Since
today is the last Sunday of the church year – the Feast of Christ the King –
and since, of course, the calendar year is drawing to a close as well - it’s
natural for us to take stock of this past year.
It’s
a year we look back on with mixed feelings, I’m sure. It was a year when jobs
were lost, when relationships grew weak or collapsed completely, when beloved
family members and friends died, when a huge storm battered our homes and our
sense of security.
But,
it was also a year that brought new jobs and opportunities, the beginning of
hopeful new relationships. It was the year some of us discovered Grace Church. And
for some of us, it was a year when a huge storm helped us rediscover what we
thought was lost forever.
Whatever
kind of year it was for us – with so much going on, big and small, it sure
wasn’t easy to be mindful.
And our culture is downright
anti-mindfulness.
You
don’t need me to tell you that our culture is all about distraction. We’re
bombarded constantly by images and noise. We’re assaulted by all sorts of
appeals to want and to buy all sorts of stuff that we don’t need – and, often,
isn’t even very good for us.
And
the distractions have only gotten worse in recent years with our cell phones
and other gadgets incessantly beeping and blinking – insisting that we read the
latest message and respond right away – with little or no thought or reflection
– and certainly no mindfulness at all.
And,
we all know the distractions are going to get even worse and more intense over
the next few weeks during what the world calls the Christmas season.
Meanwhile,
here at Grace – here in our house of mindfulness - we’ll be marking the holy
season of Advent, this spiritually rich time when we remember the events
leading up to the birth of the Messiah to a couple of nobodies who were given
an awesome responsibility and who did the best they could – but that meant
placing the newborn King in a manger, feeding trough meant for animals.
Here
in our house of mindfulness, we’ll be marking the holy season of Advent when we
don’t only look back but also look ahead to the new world in which Christ is
indeed the king.
Advent:
there’s probably no time of year when the Church is less in sync with the
world. Advent is just about as counter-cultural as we get.
But,
as we heard in today’s gospel lesson, there’s nothing new about us being out of
step with the world.
In
this familiar scene from the Gospel of John, the Roman governor of Judea,
Pontius Pilate, tries to figure out how this Jesus of Nazareth could possibly
be a king. How could this nobody – this Jewish teacher without an army, this
Jewish healer without even a large number of followers, how could he possibly
be king?
And,
to be fair, Jesus doesn’t make it easy for the shrewd, ruthless, and practical
Pilate to sort all of this out.
Jesus
tells the governor, “My kingdom is not of this world.”
And,
unfortunately, for the most part, that’s still true. Christ’s kingdom is still
not of this world.
In
Christ’s kingdom, the poor are blessed.
In
Christ’s kingdom, the hungry are filled.
In
Christ’s kingdom, the mourners are laughing.
In
Christ’s kingdom, enemies love one another.
In
Christ’s kingdom, doing to others as you would have them do to you is the way
of life.
Pilate
couldn’t figure out Christ the King. The world still can’t figure out Christ
the King. And, usually, we still can’t figure out Christ the King.
Yet,
even though we usually can’t figure out Christ the King, through our baptism we
are citizens of Christ’s kingdom.
The
Church is not just a house of mindfulness in our frantic world, but at our best
the Church is a colony – a colony of Christ’s kingdom in the middle of a world
that so often chooses hatred, selfishness and materialism.
Back
in 1989 Stanley Hauerwas and William Willimon published a book about the present
and future of the Church. They called it Resident
Aliens.
And
I think that’s exactly right. Resident aliens – that’s who we are, or at least
who we are meant to be.
We
live out in the world but our true home is here in this house of mindfulness.
We
live out in the world but our true home is here in this colony of love, gratitude,
forgiveness and generosity.
We
live out in the world but our true home is here in this colony of Christ’s
kingdom – this colony of Christ’s kingdom right here on earth, right here in
Madison.
But,
that’s not all.
In
Resident Aliens, Hauerwas and
Willimon write, “The colony is God’s means of a major offensive against the
world, for the world.”
So,
my fellow resident aliens, we come to the end of another church year and
approach the end of the calendar year.
It
was a year that we look back on with mixed feelings.
While
the world drives itself nuts getting ready for what it calls Christmas, here we
resident aliens prepare for the holy season of Advent – looking back to the
humble birth of Christ the King and looking ahead to the new world yet to come.
As
a new year begins, let’s truly be a house of mindfulness and a colony of God’s
resident aliens.
As
a new year begins, let’s be part of God’s major offensive against the world,
for the world, by living mindfully, by serving the poor, by feeding the hungry,
by wiping the tears of the mourners, by loving our enemies, by doing to others
as we would have them do to us.
Resident
aliens of Grace Church, as a new year begins, let’s be part of God’s major
offensive against the world, for the world, by moving out from our colony and going
out there, helping to build the new world in which Christ is indeed the King.
Amen.
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