"Look Up, Look Busy!"

11-28-21

Grace to you and peace from God our creator and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen. 

“It’s the end of the world as we know it…and I feel fine!” Actually, no, I don’t feel fine! I feel stressed! There are too many cars on the road, too many people shopping at Giant, my packages are all delayed because of “supply chain issues,” covid cases are trending back up even though vaccinations among 5-11-year-olds are rolling out. I would much rather stay home and binge watch “The Great Christmas Bake off” on Hulu. 

Especially since this week even though it’s advent, and everyone around us has gone full-tilt Christmas with carols on the radio and Christmas trees up and decorated… here we are with nary a manger or angel or Mary or shepherd or even a scrap of hay … instead we have crabby Jesus and, “it’s the end of the world as we know it…” and nobody is feeling fine.

Have you ever seen the bumper sticker or memes that reads “Jesus is coming – look busy”? Like how dare Jesus find ou taking a nap or slacking off when he comes back. It reminds me of that Christmas song about Santa that is weirdly creepy… you know the one that goes  Santa “you better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout...” you better look busy or Jesus may bring you something worse than coal. 

But I’m not sure how exactly I’m supposed to be “looking busy,” especially when it seems as though Jesus must be ready to come back any minute. Between the unpredictable acts of violence, refugee crisis stretching on, the effects of climate change getting really scary…. So much pain, fear, suffering has happened just the last few weeks.

It might cause us to question whether these are the very signs Jesus was talking about. Should we “look busy”? Or should we duck and cover? Stockpile our basements with Mac and Cheese and toilet paper (again)?

Well, Jesus has an opinion about what we should do to get ready for his impending arrival. Not look busy. Not squirrel away supplies like a doomsday-prepper. But also, not to be weighed down by fear. Jesus tells us to stand up and raise our heads, be alert, full of prayer and hope. Because another kind of future is on our way to us – not our future, but God’s future, where we will live as part of God’s Queendom/ kin-dom/ kingdom.

During another time of great upheaval in human history, the prophet Jeremiah shared similar words of encouragement to an overwhelmed people. The people of Israel were conquered by a foreign nation – one of many during the centuries - and they were forced to become unwelcomed refugees in a strange land, defeated, defenseless, and dejected, they might have given up on God and given up on hope.

We fast forward to the first followers of Jesus hearing these words written by Luke. At this time, Jerusalem had yet again been destroyed, this time by the Roman Empire. Their beloved place of worship was gone, their city devastated, countless people died, and their world had become unrecognizable. Which left the early followers of Jesus wondering, can God still show up, even after all this? Is God’s kingdom still near, will God be able to break into all the doom and gloom of this present moment?

If THIS kind of stuff is what we’re going to be getting during Advent, let’s do as the rest of the world does and skip over Advent completely, right to Christmas carols and peppermint lattes. But I will let you in on a little secret. In Advent, time refuses to behave properly. I dare say, it becomes downright wibbly-wobbly.

During the season of Advent, Jesus comes to us as a baby and as a grown man. He was born, he is here, and he will return…. but we don’t know just when and how until he shows up. His Queendom/kin-dom will come, and at the same time his kingdom IS ALREADY HERE among us. From the past we find hope for the future, and the future becomes the “now.”

From Bethlehem to Vienna, God has given God’s people a head’s up, to lift our heads and look up, that from the dead stump of tragedy, a branch is going to spring up, to show us that despite all the chaos and the fear and the pain, God is still going to SHOW UP. Even when all hell breaks loose. While the rest of the world is telling us to duck and cover, or look busy and hustle for our self-worth, Jesus says to stand up and see where he is showing up. Because otherwise we might miss where Jesus and the Queendom/ kingdom are breaking into our world RIGHT NOW.

And in most unlikely places, even in the full-on advent of the Christmas shopping season, there are still plenty of opportunities to witness Jesus. Today we recognized a historic moment of inclusivity for the Scouts in our first class of young women eagle scouts. Tomorrow night we will be a presence in the Vienna community during the annual church street stroll. We have been stepping up to help support our Afghan family, even though their arrival in our lives was a total surprise. I might even choose to be courteous of that slow car ahead of me, even if they have that bumper sticker that says, “Jesus is coming, look busy!”

Every Sunday when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer “Thy Kingdom Come,” we are looking toward a time where God’s justice and mercy will reign. We look forward to a time when there is no more racism, sexism, classism, ableism of any kind, where fear and war and violence and greed and death no longer rule us. And every time we pray for God’s kingdom/ Queendom/ Kin-dom to arrive, we are allowing ourselves to be open to being part of that arrival. And not just by “looking busy” and being distracted, but instead by being aware, alert, and ready to LOOK for what and who is bringing in God’s kingdom.

Until God’s kingdom comes in its fullness, and Jesus does come back, surfing on a cloud, we wait, and we hope. That is the heart and soul of the season of Advent. We don’t know what the world will bring to us around the next corner or in the next news cycle. But we can keep our heads raised knowing God is going to show up, both in the manger and in the mundane. Thanks be to God, AMEN.

The Queendom of God

 Grace to you and peace from the one who is and was and who is to come, and from Jesus Christ, our Lord and savior, by the power of the holy spirit, Amen. 

Today is known as Christ the King Sunday, or alternatively as Reign of Christ Sunday. In the liturgical calendar, today ends the church year, which does feel a little weird being right before Thanksgiving. It also feels strange, because we live in a world where a lot of countries are ruled by presidents and prime ministers… and so to speak of Christ as our king seems a bit out of touch.

In our gospel reading, on this Christ the King Sunday we sort of HAVE time traveled – all the way to Good Friday, where we overhear the conversation between Pilate and Jesus after Jesus’ arrest. As the Roman ruler of Jesus’s occupied homeland, Pilate had probably seen it all - rebellions, uprisings, messiahs, unrest, violence…. 

But even he had to be surprised when confronted by this defenseless man who claimed to be a king. Jesus had no throne, no mansion, no wealth, no political influence, no generals, and no crown. The night before this conversation, on Maundy Thursday, all his “loyal” followers had all fled (or at least all the men had). And today, Jesus is alone, arrested and beaten up and looking the worse for wear… yet calmly having a repartee with Pilate about kingship and kingdoms.

Pilate is clearly flabbergasted… and we should be too. We all recognize, as Pilate did, that traditional power - I should specify as male patriarchal power - looks a particular way. And Jesus DOES NOT fit the bill. He never fought a single battle; he didn’t flaunt wealth or command influence: he wasn’t angry or loud or violent or “macho.”

Jesus refuses to fit into the toxicity masculine ruler narrative - Jesus’s birth was witnessed by lowly shepherds and his first crib was an animal feeding trough full of hay and cow drool. His conquering campaign involved wandering around teaching and feeding, hanging out with homeless and sick people. He was crowned with thorns and his coronation was his torture and death, and his throne is a cross.

THIS is why it IS important that Jesus was a man… NOT because God has imbued cis men with something special that women, transgender, and nonbinary people do not have. It’s because giving up power is EXPECTED by women in the patriarchy… but it is an aberration, even an abomination for men to do the same. Men don’t DO that in a regular kingdom. But apparently, GOD DOES. 

We don’t need another kingdom of violence. We don’t need any more Kingdoms, period. What else should we call God’s reign, then? A “Queendom” perhaps?

This idea comes from a fabulous book I just read called “Thy Queendom Come” by Kyndall Rae Rothaus. She’s a Baptist preacher and author who co-founded an ecumenical preaching conference designed to elevate those on the margins. She called it “Nevertheless, She Preached.” This event was created out of the recognition that most preaching conferences are dominated by white male preachers, and she knew that we, the church, can do better than that. 

In her book, Kyndall Rothaus wonders if Christ’s reign is better understood as a “queendom” rather than as a kingdom. Are our ideas we associate with the word kingdom too tainted by hierarchy and patriarchy to be useful in understanding the true upside-down reality that Christ ushers in? Rothhaus asserts that yes, the word “Kingdom” IS too compromised to be useful. Which is why she uses the word “Queendom” instead. This is not a realm where women dominate instead of men – that still falls into the old hierarchical way of thinking. But instead, in a Queendom, power is shared and decentralized. There is no head of the table in God’s Queendom. God’s table is round.

If the word “Queendom” is still a bit too potent a word for you, some have used the word KIN-dom, K-I-N, to better describe this reign, emphasizing that we are all family. No matter what we call it, Jesus did not organize a coup, storm the castle, and replace himself as the new, though much kinder, king. He instead got to work on leveling the playing field, giving up all the power and privilege that was due to him as the Son of God, in order to model for us, his followers, how we are to live. 

This does feel like a scary reversal if you happen to be in the group that previously enjoyed the byproducts of power and privilege. Centering other voices in this kingdom, queendom,  or KIN-dom - feels like suppression to those who are used to having the floor ALL the time. But that’s not silencing, but instead sharing - it’s what justice looks like in God’s reality.  Liberation is not a pie, where giving out one piece means less for others. It’s more like the number Pi - it never runs ends.

Pilate is clearly confused and uncomfortable coming face to face with this idea… as were Jesus’ own male disciples the night before, on Maundy Thursday. Jesus demonstrated the meaning of sharing power by literally stripping down, making himself vulnerable, taking the lowest social position and doing the most demeaning job imaginable - washing the disciples feet. Jesus still washed all the feet… the feet of those who would later run away, deny him, abandon him, and betray him, as had played out by the time Jesus and Pilate had this conversation about kings, kingdoms, power, and truth. 

As a friend of mine reminded me, “[God] is The very Truth of existence and The Reality Upon Whom all reality stands.” Our reality does not stand upon able-ism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, tribalism, white supremacy, discrimination or structural inequities. 

THOSE realties stand directly against GOD’s reality - justice, mercy, abundance, acceptance, forgiveness, sacrifice, welcome… LOVE. And so, as citizens of God’s Queendom/ Kin-dom, we cannot and do not STAND FOR them when they rear their ugly head in our midst, in our laws, in our courtrooms, in our classrooms, and in our congregations. We call out and we speak out the truth - the ways of Pilate, of intimidation and violence and reliance on weapons and taking another’s life at will is never sanctioned by God. 

Today we may be disheartened that this Queendom feels farther from us than ever, as the Bishop of the Greater Milwaukee Synod wrote in a statement released yesterday: “God’s vision for our world, one in which love conquers evil and peace triumphs over fear, may seem more distant today, but ... it still has the power to shape and guide us all.” 

At the close of this liturgical year and as Advent is set to begin, we wait for the arrival of this vision; and we act to participate in this arrival by stepping up  - or stepping out of the way - for others as necessary. As Kyndall Rothhaus concludes in her book “They Queendom Come,” she reminds us that “this is [God’s] queendom, where the power and the glory are shared.” (137) Thanks be to God, amen.