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Kings and Kingdoms
A sermon preached by the Reverend Dr. Stephanie Nagley, July 27, 2008 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, Bethesda, Maryland
I was asked, after preaching this sermon, if the sermon was a political. It is political in terms of how we live together in a way that is most life giving. The gospels are political and we shouldn’t be shy about that fact. The gospels give us clues as to how we are to live together with love, mercy, justice and compassion. Jesus taught about the Way and relentlessly implored us to give ourselves to one God and one kingdom. So this sermon is political. Where this sermon inspires and motivates to follow God’s dream, the credit goes to the work of Brian McLaren in his book, Everything Must Change. I wish I could have assembled the pieces as well McLaren. He did so brilliantly and I hope my work does his justice.
A tale of two kings, a tale of two kingdoms. If you wanted to give someone the thumbnail version of what the story of Jesus is about you might need only to say just that: The gospels are a story about two kings and two kingdoms.
Not just the gospels, the whole scriptural story is really about which way we are going to go, and which leader we are going to follow. Hear O, Israel the Lord your God is one God, love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul.
Two kings, two kingdoms. When Jesus was born Herod was King. That’s the way the story begins.
These are ancient stories but the theme still is ours, today, in this time and in our world. We struggle to know which king to follow and which kingdom will be the best for us.
Jesus was born into the Roman Empire. That is where he lived. The Roman Empire was great and powerful. The empire and by all worldly measure deserved respect and admiration. Rome had given the people a system of roads and ports that made lucrative trade possible. Rome built aqueducts and amphitheatres that made urban living so much the better. Rome provided a strong economic system by a common currency and a cultural system that spread Roman ideals and values.
Jesus lived in the Roman Empire, an empire strong enough to guarantee peace and security. Any opposition could be crushed. The Empire quickly attacked and defeated enemies. Criminals were punished and often crucified as an example to all. Roman was a powerful and peace and security was maintained for all.
All that is except the slaves and servants – who had no rights. All that is except for the farmer who couldn’t pay the taxes so that had to eventually sell out to the big land owners who gladly paid the taxes in exchange for the title to the land. The big land owners let the small ones continue to farm the land and even gave them a small patch so that they could stay alive.
Rome made sure all people had a sense of peace and security, all that is except women. A woman was just property. Someone bartered to another as you might barter cattle. Her job was to bear has many sons as possible to be soldiers for the empire. The average girl in the Roman Empire married at fourteen and began childbearing immediately. The empire depended on her to raise five children to adulthood.
All people enjoyed the peace of Rome unless you were slaves, servants, tenant farmers, a women or someone who lived on the edges of the empire.
If you were a neighbor of Rome, just across the border you would be constantly worried about invading tribes and nations trying to conquer Rome. You would always be rebuilding from the last time your land was invaded or the Roman army moved onto to your land to protect the homeland.
Every now and then, some of those neighbors would get it into their heads they wanted a better life and they would try to immigrate so borders had to be carefully protected.
This is the world Jesus in which Jesus lived. The peace and security of Rome was for a select few. As long as you weren’t a slave, servant, tenant farmer, women or border dweller life was good and the living was easy. Jesus saw the consequences and knew there was another way.
So he went about preaching and teaching another way – the way of another king and another kingdom, saying: “Let anyone with ears listen”. He preached revolution. He had to. Something had to change for every time human beings follow the wrong king and settle into the wrong kingdom there’s hell to pay.
Jesus tells the parables so that people will wake up. Rethink everything he says. Jesus said: The kingdoms of this world will tell you this: Revenge is right. But I tell you: Don’t seek revenge, seek reconciliation. The kingdoms of this world will tell you that violence deserves violence. Jesus says: Get creative, people. You can rebel and revolt without ever hurting anyone and win.
Jesus gave us a narrative that subverts all the kingdoms of this world that build walls between “us” and “them”. One of Jesus’ favorite images for the kingdom of God is the party to which the wrong people are invited. Maybe the religious leaders of our day should have read that parable before sending out invitations to some but not all for the Lambeth Conference.
Jesus eats with the “wrong” people, talks to the “wrong” people, welcomes the “wrong” people because it is right. God’s kingdom is about “we”, a new humanity that celebrates our diversity in love, with justice and dignity for all.
When Jesus tells the parables this is the kingdom he’s hoping we’ll catch a glimpse and the kingdom in which we will choose to live. It’s our only hope really. For our world is surely groaning for something fresh and new. 200,000 people didn’t show up in Germany just because of Barak Obama. 200,000 people came because they know everything must change.
Everything must change. We can’t sustain our economy. We can’t sustain our environment. We can’t promise our children a tomorrow unless we agree to do this life differently, unless we who have ears listen.
Can we turn things around? Nobody knows.
The answer is not in the kingdoms and kings of this world. World kingdoms are driven by self-interest and profit margins, fear, greed, and pressure. Politicians stick a wet finger into the air to see what direction the wind is blowing. We aren’t going to change that. Jim Wallis, leader of Sojourners, says that the only hope is that we change the wind.
Changing the wind means that we follow that king and kingdom way that we say we believe in. Changing the wind means we follow Jesus.
People have done it – and winds have changed. Gandhi did it. And so did Martin Luther King, Jr. Rosa Parks managed. Even nations have changed the wind – South Africa did it.
On the shores of lakes and hillsides Mary’s son told stories about kings and kingdoms. That’s what he was talking about when he spoke of wheat and weeds, of seeds and sowers, of pearls of great value.
He was asking us to go another way. He was asking us not to conform to kingdoms that fulfill our hunger for prosperity, security and equity like the Romans did, or react against such kingdoms with violence but implored to seek a new alternative.
Perhaps, as never before, the world is crying out for a new way.
Perhaps, as never before, we are ready.
If we believe him we will find ourselves making choices not because we have to, but because we want to. We will pray not so much for answers or relief but for inspiration, for creativity, for wisdom.
If we believe him we will make new choices about our time. We will want to take Sabbath, to rest, to pray, to think about life, and even to play and we will come to our work or to our commitments with energy. We will see that we are participating in God’s kingdom, and building a new world.
If we believe in him we will consume differently. We’ll check the labels. Are the blueberries local or was the carbon footprint large from being shipped across the country? Is the coffee fair-trade? Do I really need another pair of pants or shoes or another car?
If we believe and have ears to listen we will spend differently, drive differently, invest differently, eat differently, volunteer differently and treat each other differently.
If we believe in him our community life will continue to emerge. We won’t hang onto what doesn’t serve our souls and we will move toward a great realization of the kingdom of God. Our life together will be vital and contagious for we will be living from the theology of the kingdom of God. We will be living out those radical parables of Jesus.
Later on in the gospel according to Matthew, Jesus says to his disciples: “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you” (v.20).
Everything must change. Jesus asks us to hear. The kingdom is at hand, the kingdom we are to live in, and the king we are to follow. If we listen, everything can change.
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