CELEBRATING:
SERMONS
"God's Politics" Dec
24th, 2002 11:00pm
Prayer:
Let your light and your truth lead us, O God, and then
we shall know the Holy Child and understand your ways
in Christ. AMEN
"In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus…"
"And the messenger said: to you is born this day,
in the city of David, a Saviour,who is Christ - God's
Anointed One."
We love this story, don't we! The nativity story -
a wonderfully gentle and seemingly innocuous narrative
about Jesus' birth. It is so often laden with sentimentality
and nostalgia - warm feelings and good cheer. It is
easier to stay with this pleasurable feeling, than to
really probe into the meaning of the story and its Word
to us.
When the Gospel is carefully read, then this birth
account is a political statement with revolutionary
potential.
The context of Jesus' birth is Palestine - a small,
out of the way corner of the Roman Empire. The Roman
Empire, a world power - unchallenged in its supremacy
- able to impose its peace upon an unruly world.
The Mediterranean world had never before been under
one rule and never had there been such prosperity. This
was the Pax Romana - military might, ensuring commercial
and intellectual and religious traffic. A huge free
trade zone pacified and guaranteed by the Roman legions,
easily moved from one troublesome place to another by
road and ship.
Who could fault such a new experience of imposed peace?
Was it any wonder that Romans not only welcomed the
emperor, Caesar Augustus, as the supreme military leader
and head of government, but also as an incarnation of
divinity.
Hail Caesar! Was not just a greeting of respect, it
became a act of worship. A troubled world looked to
this man-god - representing the Empire - for its salvation
and security.
So here in scripture the people of faith - Luke and
his friends - writing perhaps in the year 80 C.E. -
knows about the Roman Empire and its power to control
pesky peoples. In 70 C.E. another Emperor decided he'd
had enough of the troublesome Jews and destroyed Jerusalem
and drove away its residents into the far-flung diaspora.
So it is with this backdrop of political, economic,
cultural, and military supremacy that the Gospel is
written. This Gospel of a tiny infant - experienced
as the fullest expression of the supremacy of God's
love.
Early Christians knew who God was and weren't fooled
by decrees from Rome.
When they were told to pray TO the emperor for their
salvation, they responded rebelliously by praying FOR
the emperor.
It's all in the preposition: do you serve a phony god
who clothes himself in violent righteousness and buttresses
his finite-self by military and political might;
or do you serve the living God - the holy one, the Giver
of all authority and power?
So this holy One, this eternal and living God - what
do we know about this God.
The scriptures reveal a lot. God brings down the mighty
from their thrones -
the names of the mighty include Pharaoh and unfaithful
monarchs,
people who worship greed and control,
people who trust only themselves and their power,
people who really believe the Royal de Versailles ad
which assures them of joy when they buy over-priced
jewellery -
these are the ones the living God brings low.
There is no salvation in these fleeting perqs and advantages.
But this same God identifies with the poor and the
powerless, the blind and the hurt, the oppressed and
the captive. That's why this innocuous nativity story
spends much time in a dirty stable and in the company
of rude shepherds. The beasts of burden and the marginalized,
the lame and the oppressed - these are the ones God
identifies with.
The God of Christian faith stands in total contradiction
to arrogant power, but does so not with nuclear or other
weapons, but with an infant - a harmless child.
Herod the regional king of the day was smart enough
to know that this child was a threat with the potential
to topple him from his tinny throne and so tried hard
to snuff out the child. But not even the Imperial military
can snuff out God's light - that's the Gospel.
So here against naked power exercised blatantly and
self-righteously lies a naked infant with nothing to
commend it but the powerful love of God and nothing
to protect it but the boundless Spirit of God.
The story of the Gospel is that the Imperial army actually
kills the Child on a cross, but God's powerful love
raises the child to new life - resurrection - and the
Child's friends and companions have been resisting Empire
and military security and economic and political domination
ever since.
Why? Because they know that only God is God - and no
emperor or Fuhrer or President or Dictator or Prime
Minister or Duce can claim divinity, except when love
- divine love become the source and purpose of their
leadership.
So tonight as we hail the Holy Child, I invite you
to consider whose side you want to be on.
This is a very political decision, but more important,
it is a decision of life and death.
For if we choose the way of death we will allow ourselves
to get caught up in the spiral of violence that has
beset the Middle East and Afghanistan and Western Africa
and Al Quaeda and terrorists masking as protectors of
democracy, plus all the domestic scenes of violence
and revenge that are far too much part of living.
But if we choose the way of life, then we will use
our lives to nurture love - strong love, gentle love,
courageous love, hope-filled love, childlike love, wise
love, truthful love, patient love - God's love which
alone is the source of life and, in Christ, is the salvation
of the world.
Ann Weems has wisdom and true Gospel in a poem she
has written for the birth of the Holy Child. Called
"Unexpected," it is our invitation to discipleship:
"Even now we simply do not expect
To find a deity in a stable.
Somehow the setting is all wrong:
The swaddling clothes too plain,
The manger too common for the likes of a Saviour,
The straw inelegant,
The animals, reeking and noisy,
The whole scene too ordinary for our taste.
And the cast of characters is no better.
With the possible exception of the kings,
Who among them is fit for this night?
The shepherds? Certainly too crude,
The carpenter too rough,
The girl too young.
And the baby!
Whoever expected a baby?
Whoever expected the advent of God in a helpless child?
Had the Messiah arrive in the blazing light of the glory
Of a legion of angels wielding golden swords,
The whole world could have been conquered for Christ
Right then and there
And we in the church - to say nothing of the world!
-
Wouldn't have so much trouble today.
Even now we simply do not expect
To face the world armed with love.{"
Won't you worship the God who is love and who transforms
the world and us by this incredible love, recognized
in the birth of Jesus the Anointed One. AMEN
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Shaughnessy Heights United Church
congregation is a Christian faith community respecting
each other in our diversity and reaching out to all
who seek God’s love.
1550
West 33rd Avenue,
Vancouver, BC V6M 1A7
Canada SEE
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Tel:
604-261-6377
Email: admin@shuc.ca
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