23rd Sunday after Pentecost
I stand before you today to make confession: I have intentionally and purposefully led others astray. It was the summer after my freshman year at Earlham College. My mom and dad took my younger sister, Shira, and me down to the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I had just finished an art appreciation course at school, and so I was loaded with a lot of information. We had gone to see a show of impressionist artwork. As my sister and I moved from painting to painting to painting, I began expounding, in a loud officious voice. Making impressive sounding references to the earlier “romantic” period of painting. How the impressionist lightened the often dark and heavy palate of the romantic period. I expounded upon diffuseness of the new style versus the overwrought realism of the romantics. I detailed the same principals were affecting other areas of art including music and theater. And how all of this could be seen as a precursor to the expressionism and abstract expressionism that would follow and the characteristics that were carried through to these new styles. Just going on and on. It was really just one big, long joke about how one single general art appreciation class suddenly made me an expert on what’s arguably the most important art development of the 19th century.
I suppose there was something about my clothes that made me look at least semi-official. New khaki shorts and a new Kelly-green Izod shirt. And I certainly spoke with authority; I was a theater major after all, even if 90 percent of what I was saying was baloney. And after a while, I noticed that it was no longer just my sister and me. There were other people following along. Listening to what I was saying. Nodding in understanding and appreciation for the “knowledge” that I was imparting. There must have been 10 of them.
My sister and I both thought that this was pretty funny. So, what did I do? Well, what could I do? I went on and explained even more!! I talked about three or four more paintings. And then? Without saying a word, I simply walked away. I simply left them there. Stuck in the middle of their “tour”. It was so easy! The proverbial taking of candy from a baby. And just goes to show how sometimes all it takes is having the right attitude and a believable line; How easy it was to play the role, reel them in, and then to leave them hanging!
And [Jesus] said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. How easy it is to be reeled in and left hanging. Just look, for example, at how the word “apocalypse” has been taken over and defined for us as a time of great suffering and violence instituted by God. A time of great suffering wrought by the Lord Almighty. A time to which some of us look forward with secret glee, knowing that we will see our enemies suffering divine retribution at the hands of a vengeful god. But how much of that attitude is divine inspiration, and how much of it is simply projecting onto God our desire to see punished those who oppose us, or those whom we feel have wronged us somehow?
The approach to apocalypse as divine violence is an attitude that I don’t see in either of the apocalypses in Luke’s Gospel. Instead, what we see is Jesus taking apocalyptic language and re-appropriating it. Why? Because according to Jesus the Kingdom of God is already here. What, after all, is the meaning of the word “apocalypse”? It doesn’t mean destruction. It means, “to uncover” or “to reveal”. Literally translated it means, “the lifting of a veil”.
Luke 17:20-21 tells us that “Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There it is!' For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.’”
And what does that look like? Do a search for the phrase “Kingdom of God” in Luke and you quickly find out: The sick are healed. The lowly are lifted up. the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have good news brought to them. It’s a place where enemies are loved, not destroyed. You might even say that it’s inclusive and compassionate community, where everyone is connected in relationship with God and each other to foster wholeness of mind and soul.
The story of the coming of the Kingdom of God is a story of subversive Grace. Think about it: Jesus says, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed”. In Luke 13, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to leaven, mixed in with flour that leavens the whole amount. Can we actually observe the phenomenon of bread becoming leavened? No, we can’t. What we can observe are the results of the leavening, but we don’t observe the leavening action itself.
Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, something tiny, which is planted and grows into a plant large enough that birds build their nests in it. Do we actually see the seed growing and turning into a plant and growing larger still? No, we don’t. What we see is the result of the growth/the evidence of the growth.
But this is not all feel-good theology. This is not a bunch of theological baloney wrapped in the proper attitude. At least I hope it’s not. Because the other thing that Jesus makes quite clear is that living in the midst of the Kingdom of God is not an easy thing. And here, I think, is where we so often make our mistake. We read what Jesus says about the apocalypse, "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, 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. "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.”
We read that and we make the mistake of assuming that Jesus is talking about the signs that will precede the coming of the Kingdom of God. What it really is, however, is a statement of cause and effect. Because the Kingdom of God is already here, this is the difficulty that it can create in our lives. Why? Because the Way which promises life, healing, forgiveness, and resurrection will bring us into direct conflict with a world ruled by the powers of evil, sin and death.
Jesus warns us about the conflict that can be brought to us by living life according to Kingdom of God rules.
That’s why he follows each of these warnings with admonitions about what to do in the face of such conflict: In Luke, Chapter 18, the first warning is followed by “Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. And what follows is the parable of the widow and the unjust judge.
Today’s lesson actually continues on through verse 28. It’s followed by the parable of the fig tree, which is about discerning the signs of the Kingdom of God. This then is followed by another admonition, Luke 21:34-36 "Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man."
When we seriously attempt to live out the values of the Kingdom of God, at some point, at multiple points really, each and every one of us is going to experience conflict with the world around us. Luther put it this way: “For, where God built a church there the devil would also build a chapel… Thus is the devil ever God's ape.” And the more effectively we do the work of the Kingdom and the more effectively we live according to Kingdom of God rules, the more we open ourselves up to the possibility of conflict.
What Jesus provides us with, here, is a model for spiritual wellness. We are called to engage in the work of the Kingdom not just when it suits us, but every day. And when we do that, opportunities for conflict abound. You might even say that they’re inevitable. So, it’s all the more important that we don’t allow ourselves to be led astray by good-looking young men in khaki shorts and Kelly-green Izod shirts, so to speak. We can’t allow ourselves to be drawn by unnecessary distractions from our kingdom work. We need continually to be aware of our calling and what that means for us those whom we are called to serve. We need to pray continually and not to lose heart.
Yes, we are called to help build up others in their relationship with God. But we cannot in the process neglect our own relationship with God. It’s very easy to allow ourselves to be distracted; to be drawn out of the Kingdom and into the conflict. It can feel like the devil has not only built his chapel next door, but that he’s in your kitchen making coffee for everyone, too. It’s amazingly easy to allow yourself to be drawn into the conflict; the anger; the hate. To be hurt by it; damaged by it; broken by it.
The Kingdom of God and all it brings is just as necessary for us as it is for others. We, too, need healing and peace. We, too, need to hear the good news. We, too, need to bear with one another in hardship. We, too, need to experience the healing of the sun of righteousness. That’s why we need to care for ourselves and each other. That’s why we need to pray always. So that we don’t lose heart. And so that we can be there for each other when we do. Because just as much as feeding the hungry or releasing the captive, that, too, is the work of the Kingdom of God.
AMEN