November 22, 2015 ~ (Proper 29) ~ 34th Sunday in Ordinary Time ~ Twenty-Sixth Sunday and Last Sunday after Pentecost ~ In Some Traditions Known as The Reign of Christ ~ 2 Samuel 23:1-7; Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18); Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14; Psalm 93; Revelation 1:4b-8; John 18:33-37.
Basilica — Reign
“Pilate asked, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus replied, ‘You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for one purpose: to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who seeks the truth hears my voice.’” — John 18:37.
I have mentioned here before that back in the early 1980s, when I lived in New York City, I had the privilege of meeting the Archbishop of Capetown, the Rev. Desmond Tutu. The Archbishop, of course, at one point won the Nobel Peace Prize. But that was after I met him.
If my memory is good (and I think it is) when he won the peace prize I walked around for two or three days pinching myself saying, “Wow! I met someone who won the Nobel Peace Prize! How about that?”
At the time I was a lay member of an Episcopal Church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. That church and one on the Upper East Side conspired to bring Tutu to New York City for a week of lectures, workshops and services of worship. It goes without saying this was the time when apartheid was the law of South Africa.
A week before these events both the leadership of the churches and the members who had committed to attending the scheduled functions gathered to talk about what we might expect. Why? There were security issues to consider.
You see, the official policy of the United States concerning apartheid at that time was to engage South Africa economically while trying to persuade that government about the error of its ways. Tutu and others, including some large American corporations, were instead seeking at least limited sanctions and/or a full embargo on trade.
An embargo on South Africa did not pass Congress until years later, 1986. Since it was possible protesters from either or both sides of the issue might try to disrupt some of the proceedings we had to be ready and trained should a difficult situation arise.
The second security issue had to do with the government of South Africa. We were told that at all public events the Archbishop attended, agents of the South Africa government would also be in attendance.
They would be easy to identify. They would all be men— no women. They all had uniforms of a sort: blue blazer jackets and khaki pants. The jackets would have a distinctive lapel pin which identified them as government agents.
These agents would not be there to cause trouble or be disruptive. They would be there to listen to what the Archbishop said in public.
If Tutu said anything which could be deemed as treasonable, a record of it would be made and go into Desmond’s government file. Of course, by that point Desmond’s government file probably took up a number of cabinets, a whole wall I’m sure.
We were told to be friendly and polite to the agents but to not engage them in any conversation deeper than a discussion of the weather. You see, anything they overheard from us which could be construed as seditious, construed as encouraging rebellion, might be recorded also.
Well, the conference happened without problems or disruptions. And what did Desmond say? The Archbishop preached the Gospel. The Word Desmond shared said the realm of God is present among us— the realm of God is present here, now. (Slight pause.)
Now, some people say the Gospel, itself, is seditious. Others argue it is not. I would suggest, if the Gospel speaks the truth, the Gospel is seditious, at least seditious to the status quo. (Slight pause.)
We find these words in the work we have come to know as the Gospel according to the School of John: “Pilate asked, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus replied, ‘You say that I am a king. I was born and came into the world for one purpose: to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who seeks the truth hears my voice.’” (Slight pause.)
As you heard earlier, today is known in some traditions as the Feast of the Reign of Christ. But what does that mean and why do we get this story when the lectionary has largely been using Mark and Matthew throughout this church year? Why do we get this story from John?
Well, few stories in the Bible are told with such finesse and power as this one. The drama begins at Chapter 18, verse 28 and ends at Chapter 19, verse 22. I urge you to look it up and read it all. What we heard today is but one scene.
It interests me that today’s narrative contains the physical movement of Pilate back and forth from the inside to the outside of the Pretorium— outside where the religious authorities are. This positioning is meant to be ironic.
If the religious authorities entered the Pretorium they would be ritually defiled, unable to partake in Temple rituals. They are so pious that they want to remain ritually clean but are, at the same time, seeking to do away with the agent of God.
I would suggest these movements tie into yet another level of irony. The word here translated as “realm” is used three times. In other translations that word is sometimes translated as ‘dominion’ and sometimes as ‘kingdom.’ The underlying Greek word is ‘basicillia.’ In Latin it is ‘basilica.’
In the Roman tradition a basilica is the destination of a pilgrimage. But it is also often the seat of a Bishop. Bishops found it convenient to place themselves where pilgrims might arrive, make a contribution to the coffers of a shrine and, hence, to the see of the Bishop, a see being the bishop’s ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
The point is ‘basicillia’ is not real estate, is not a kingdom. A ‘basicillia’ is a jurisdiction. And the real jurisdiction of God is not limited by territory but exists throughout all time and space. And so the proclamation of Jesus we hear is that the jurisdiction of God is not limited by human concepts of territory or human understandings of power. (Slight pause.)
After all, how is it that Jesus speaks so boldly to someone who holds the power of life and death of every last person in that temporal realm. How is it that Jesus addresses the realm of God as if the temporal realm is of little import? (Slight pause.)
John makes it clear throughout this work that in Jesus we find the real presence of God with us. John is, after all, the only Gospel which contains the “I am” statements.
When Jesus says ‘I am the vine’ or ‘the light’ or ‘the truth,’ many take the objects of these statements ‘vine’ or ‘light’ or ‘truth,’ to be central. But the comparison intended by the writer of John is the subject of the sentence— “I am.” The name of God in Hebrew, Yahweh, means ‘I am.’ I am the way. I am the truth. I am the light. (Slight pause.)
This is my take away from all that: the realm of God, here proclaimed by Jesus, is not only unlimited but the realm of God is with us now, is present now, is real now. So Jesus is simply addressing that reality, that truth. (Slight pause.) These thoughts brings me back to Desmond Tutu.
The Archbishop also spoke the truth. Mahatma Gandhi spoke the truth. Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke the truth. I think for all these people speaking the truth is about acknowledging the reality of God, the reality that the realm of God is present, is real.
Now, I can’t speak about Gandhi or King. I never met them. I met Desmond. In one session he was asked how he had the where-with-all to even face returning to South Africa where had no rights, where he was less than a second class citizen, where the threat of jail or death was real.
The Archbishop said two things. First, he spent at least two hours a day in prayer unless the demands on his time were extraordinary. Then he spent three hours.
Second, he always held one thing in front of him. No matter who he was addressing, the President of South Africa or of the President United States, primary allegiance was to God. He said by their nature governments produce politics because they try to balance competing needs. So their solutions tended toward the violent act of instilling fear— setting one side against another.
He also said God truly sought freedom, peace, hope, joy and love for all people, not for some. No one was in competition with anyone else for these in the realm of God, where God had jurisdiction. And God has jurisdiction everywhere.
Therefore, he said, if God has jurisdiction everywhere, the realm of God, is here and present... now. And since the realm of God is about freedom, peace, hope, joy and love there was nothing to fear. (Slight pause.)
The realm of God is not a territory. The realm of God has no limits and it is not limited. The realm of God has no limits and is not limited because the realm of God is about exactly what Archbishop said it is about: a jurisdiction that has no room, no room for fear. It is a jurisdiction that has no room, no room for violence.
If you identify fear, if you see violence, whoever is perpetrating that is saying that the realm of God is not a part of their lives. The realm of God only has room for freedom, for peace, for hope, for joy, for love. Amen.
11/22/2015 — Feast of the Reign of Christ
Untied Church of Christ, First Congregational, Norwich, New York
ENDPIECE: It is the practice of the Pastor to speak after the Closing Hymn, but before the Choral Response and Benediction. This is a précis of what was said: “Mahatma Gandhi said this ‘The enemy is fear. We think it is hate. But it is fear.’ I want to suggest fear has no place in the realm of God.”
BENEDICTION: Let us receive the gifts of God’s grace and peace. Let us rejoice in the freedom to love as Jesus loved. Let the Spirit of God speak through us today. Go forth and reach out to everyone you meet in the name of Christ. And may the face of God shine upon us; may the peace of Christ rule among us; may the fire of the Spirit burn within us this day and forevermore. Amen.
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