Now
that the election is over, the news media is full of all kinds of predictions
about what is coming next. Some of these
predictions are worrisome; that there will be deportations and wars, or that
bigotry will become a theme. I want to
dismiss most of this because I know first of all that nobody really knows how
things will play out and also, that no matter how things go in this country our
God is still in charge. That may not
always be very obvious, but I know that it is true.
We have had many moments in this
nation when we have been in trouble. It
isn’t hard to look back on history and find places where we could have done
things better, or when we could have avoided painful situations. Certainly the sixties and the time of the
Civil Rights movement was a time like this.
We got through it and we got through it by way of good people who cared
for each other. I remember when Martin
Luther King was being excoriated for his beliefs and hounded by the FBI. Now he is the subject of a marvelous monument
on the Mall in the nation’s capital because we recognized the value that he
created for this nation; how he led his followers in the freedom rides and the
march from Selma to Birmingham across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I have always loved that symbolic march because
Edmund Pettus was a Confederate general and also the Grand Dragon of the Ku
Klux Klan. That Martin Luther King
monument is a beautiful tribute not only to Dr. King, but to the great numbers
of people who defeated bigotry and segregation and set us on the right path
again.
The other thing that happens when we
look back on our history is that we become aware that we are not the only force
that makes things happen. Quietly,
sometimes very subtly our God is always in charge of our destiny.
This is Christ the King Sunday; a time to honor and to recall the incredible
work that our Lord did in this world. It
is strange that the Gospel for this day centers on the crucifixion. Our Lord
Jesus lived his whole life in the Middle East, preaching to and healing the
people who lived there. He was loved and
sought after but eventually arrested by the ruling powers, tried and crucified.
The point of this Gospel is that even at the moment of his crucifixion and the
end of his mortal life, Jesus was not done with his ministry. We
hear how on the cross he prays to God to forgive those who were crucifying him
because they didn’t know what they were doing.
Then one of the thieves who was being crucified with him told him that
if he was the messiah to save himself and them.
He was immediately rebuked by the other thief who said that they
deserved what they were getting, but that Jesus had done nothing wrong. He asked Jesus to remember him when he came
into his Kingdom. Jesus replied to him: today
you will be with me in paradise. Jesus ministry of forgiveness continued right
up until his death.
We may face a rocky road ahead. Nobody really knows what will happen. I do know that whatever it is that will come
our way, we have the advantage of a God whose love reaches all of us. God’s caring and forgiveness is stronger than
any other force that may come from or at us.
I am confident that this nation and its people will be all right and
that we will continue to be a great force in this world.
Our response to God’s call to us is
extremely important. We are called to
love our neighbors as persons like ourselves.
This means for me to watch out for bigotry and bullying around me and
call it out when I see it. We are responsible for one another in this world and
listening to and following our Lord is very important to our welfare and the
welfare of those around us.
This parish has for me always been
an example of a place that has excellent relationships with the community. The taking care of the Boys and Girls Club
for lunch on Wednesdays and getting dinners to the people at the Honus Wagner
apartments tells the world what we believe in this place.
In our own lives, it is important
that we live up to our calling as disciples of Christ. He and his teaching is the method that we
have for saving this world. He was
crucified for our sake, but even then his work wasn’t done. On Easter morning, Jesus rose from the dead
to show us that resurrection is what we can all look forward to. That is the time when the issues of this
world will matter no more and we will all be a peace with our God and with each
other. As the Lord’s Prayer says, we
will see that God’s Kingdom will come on earth as it is in Heaven. Even in death, as the hymn says, Jesus
calls us over the tumult of this life’s wild restless sea. As St. Julian of Norwich said so eloquently, all will be well, all will be very, very well. She lived in a time of tumult and
oppression. She was always under threat;
but she knew how much she was loved by her God.
We can also be certain of that and it can fill our hearts when the world
seems to be at odds with all that we know.
That is the message that we have for
this world and we teach it by the way that we live our lives. Put your worries
to rest and know that God’s infinite love reaches over all.
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