First  Sunday  After  Christmas     

Is. 61:10-62:3; Ps. 148; Gal. 4:4-7; Lk. 2:22-40

After I bought my house on Lamont St., I found that the soil in the back yard was not in good shape. In particular about one foot down there was a layer of dense clay. So for several years I would dig a hole, insert one of those metal garbage cans that we used to use before supercans, but with the bottom of the can removed. Then each day I would add all of our food scraps plus some soil. When the can was almost full, I would extract the can, put more soil on top, and move to another location.

In recent years I have been growing tomatoes and cucumbers and flowers out back, so several weeks ago I decided to improve the soil again. Since I didn’t have a metal garbage can, I went to the container store and bought a plastic can about 18 inches tall, cut out the bottom, and started digging. After the first hole was filled, I removed the can, put a cinderblock on top to dissuade critters from digging into that spot, and moved the can to a new location.

At first all went well. However, after I had started on the third hole, I discovered that some critters – probably rats – had dug a tunnel down along side of the cinderblock and was thus able to access the food scraps. Not what I had in mind.

An article in Google suggested that rodents did not like human urine, so I tried that approach – no details – but it didn’t work. Then Barbara suggested the old jalipina pepper trick; so I bought a dozen fresh jalopina peppers, ground them up and steeped then in water, and then spread them under the ground and on top of the ground. That didn’t work either. That project is now over, because it was clear that THE RATS HAD WON.

Now you may be wondering why I have told you this bit of poignant personal history. It’s because of today’s texts – which struck me as particularly cheerful, almost glowing. We heard Isaiah say: I exalt for joy in Yahweh … for he has clothed me in the garments of salvation, he has wrapped me in a cloak of saving justice … In other words the prophet himself is in great shape. Isaiah then goes on about Jerusalem, the Chosen People, and Yahweh: The nations will then see your saving justice, and all kings your glory. In other words all the peoples of the earth will know that Yahweh is God and Lord over all nations.

Today’s psalm 148 said that praise of Yahweh is to come from: the kings of the earth and all nations. Again, Yahweh is to be acknowledged by everyone.

Then in today’s gospel we hear about Simeon, who was an upright and devout man; he looked forward to the restoration of Israel. That phrase the restoration of Israel, is I believe code for the coming of the Messiah. And Luke says that Simeon has been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Messiah. And Simeon says: … my eyes have seen the salvation – that is, the Messiah. We also hear about a female prophet named Anna, who went around telling everyone about this child who is the ONE.

Incidentally, that pairing of Simeon and Anna is parallel to the pairing of Zechariah and Elizabeth – the parents of John the Baptist. One commentator says: “Luke expresses by this arrangement that man and woman stand together and side by side before God. They are equal in honour and grace, they are endowed with the same gifts and have the same responsibilities.”

[H. Flender, St. Luke] It’s a pity that the Church later failed to live up to that ideal.

In any event, everybody in these readings is happy and upbeat. And elsewhere in the New Testament we find that though the Messiah didn’t turn out to be what people expected, nevertheless the Messiah did come and the Kingdom of God was inaugurated.

Well, it’s now two thousand years later. When we look back and search for the Kingdom of God, what do we see? I see the hordes invading the Roman Empire and killing thousands. I see the Norsemen coming down into Western Europe and western Russia and slaughtering thousands. I see the Crusaders slaughtering thousands of Muslims. I see the Hundred Years War and many others. By the 20th century we had gotten so good at killing people that with world wars, revolutions, colonialism, and dictatorships we managed to kill around 200 million people – all in a single century. And the new century is not looking much better.

One is tempted to say: THE RATS HAVE WON. As Christians, however, we are never allowed to say that. Despair is never an option. So what can we say about the coming of the Kingdom of God?

First, we have to admit that there are some ambiguous – not to say misleading – passages in the New Testament. In Matthew [24:34] we hear Jesus saying: … this generation will not pass away till all these things take place. What does that mean? I don’t know; and scholars have lots of contradictory interpretations. So, we should forget all the nonsense about the RAPTURE and pay attention to the one sentence in Matthew that is absolutely clear, where Jesus says: But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. We don’t need to know the day and the hour.

Furthermore, we don’t need to feel guilty because the Kingdom has not fully arrived. We are not in charge of that. All we can do is our part. The rest is up to God.

Here’s what we know about the Kingdom. It was something to be instituted by the Messiah. In the book of Daniel [7:13f] we read: … there came one like a son of man … and to him was given dominion and glory and kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. And St. Paul [Rom 8:22] has a wonderful image of humanity’s waiting for this son of man. Paul says: We are well aware that the whole creation, until this time, has been groaning in labor pains. I think it fair to say that creation is still groaning in labor pains, waiting for the Kingdom to be completed.

The Messiah has come, and he taught us to pray this way: … thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Those two clauses say the same thing: the kingdom will be here fully when God’s will is being done fully. And what is that will?

In Mt 4:17 Jesus says: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That’s the first thing that God wants of us. Then in Romans 14 [v. 17] Paul upbraids the Roman Christians for arguing about whether they should eat meat or not, whether everyone should treat Wednesdays and Fridays as days for fasting or not - in other words they were wasting their time on what I call Christian quibbles – of which there have been a great many during the last 2000 years. So Paul says to them: The kingdom of God is not food and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. The Greek word here translated as righteousness could also be translated as justice. So Paul says that the kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy.

That leads me to an image of the coming of the Kingdom as a ladder. But before I describe the rungs, let me add one more element - one of my favorite sayings – written about 60 years ago by Charles Peguy: La justice – c’est l’epanouissment de la charite – Justice is the flowering of love. That’s important because it explains – at least to my satisfaction - why during the last two centuries there have been quite a few men who described themselves as revolutionaries and who who claimed that they were seeking justice for all, but did so with anger and hatred in their hearts and ended up with violence, not justice. If you don’t start with love, you will never get to justice.

So I see the Kingdom of God as a ladder. The first rung is the promise of a Messiah, who would bring salvation to all of humanity. The second rung is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The third rung is love. And if we have enough love, we can reach the fourth rung, which is justice. And once justice abounds, then you have the fifth rung, which is shalom or peace. Then comes the final rung – joy in the Holy Spirit, or complete union with God.

The moral of all this? Keep climbing, my friends, keep climbing. Amen.

Dunstan Hayden

12/28/08