Tag: Kingdom of God

Looking for God Too High Up and Too Far Away

The play "Inherit the Wind" is a dramatic account of the 1925 Dayton, Tennessee trial of John Thomas Scopes, a schoolteacher who taught the theory of evolution in defiance of a state law prohibiting the teaching of any doctrine contrary to the Bible. The prosecutor was William Jennings Bryan. The defense attorney was Clarence Darrow. Bryan won the "The Monkey Trial," and Scopes was fined $100. Several days after the trial ended, Bryan died. In the play, the character representing reporter H.L. Mencken, after hearing of Bryan's death, says to Darrow, "Why should we weep for him? You know that he was-a Barnum-bunkum Bible-beating blowhard." To an agnostic Mencken, Darrow says of Bryan, "A giant once lived in that body. But the man got lost – lost because he was looking for God too high up and too far away."

In the 13th chapter of Matthew, we find Jesus in the midst of his Galilean ministry. Jesus had previously employed comparative and figurative analogies, but at this point Jesus chooses to teach in parables. James A. Fowler provides an interesting explanation of parables:

The Greek word for "parable" is derived from two other Greek words, para meaning "beside" and ballo meaning "to throw." Literally, then, a parable is an illustrative story that is "thrown alongside" or "placed side by side" a similar or comparative concept. A parable brings parallel ideas together by drawing a figurative word-picture to illustrate a particular thought. It is often a thought-provoking analogy that leaves the mind of the listener in sufficient doubt as to its application that it stimulates further consideration thereof … This enigmatic nature of a parable allows the story to function as a pictorial ponderable, which leaves an image on one's mind to be considered again and again. As such, the Biblical parables grate against dogmatism and the fundamentalistic desire to have everything figured out and nailed down in precision of under-standing. When attempting to interpret Jesus' parables the issue is not so much whether we "get it" figured out, as whether Jesus "gets to us" by planting a glimmer of His divine perspective of spiritual realities. The parable serves as a dum-dum bullet shot into our brain, which then explodes and begins to color our thinking in accord with the "mind of Christ." (Parables of the Kingdom, James A Fowler, 1996)

The parables of the kingdom, which we will be reading on the next four Sundays, challenge us to look beyond the obvious in our search for the realm where Jesus reigns and into which he invites us to live abundantly. We can get lost in our search by looking for God “too high up and too far away.” God’s realm, as Luke tells us, is to be found within and between us – close in, as near as heartbeat and breath and hands touching. Jesus’ parables call us to look at things in a new way and discover the abundant life we’ve been looking for all along right under our noses, even in the weeds and the dark corners where we'd rather not look.

Blessings,

The Very Rev'd Ron Pogue
Interim Rector
St. Martin-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
Keller, Texas

P.S. Enjoy this recording of the Cambridge Singers performing John Rutter's setting of Psalm 119:18-24, "Open Thou Mine Eyes."

July 10, 2020
What does it mean to have faith?

Religion has never meant quite the same thing to all persons. In history there have been essentially four ways in which religion has been meaningful to people: To some religion is inward fellowship with God; to others, religion is a standard for life and a power to reach that standard; to others religion is the highest satisfaction of their minds; and, to yet others, religion is access to God, that which removes the barriers and opens the doors to God’s living presence.

It was this fourth conception of religion that attracted the writer of the letter to the Hebrews. He found in Christ the one person who could take him into the presence of God. Jesus, for the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, was the one person who gave access to reality and access to God. That is the key thought of this letter, this book of the Bible. In the eleventh chapter we find a magnificent exhortation to have faith. What does it mean to have faith?

To have faith is to have a new way of looking at reality. Each of us is born with five senses, which enable us to apprehend reality as it appears on the surface. We see, hear, taste, touch, and smell the world in which we live. The organs that make this possible are a part of our natural equipment.

We might think of faith as an organ that takes us beyond the five senses and enables us to perceive another, deeper level of reality. By means of faith, we are able to trust the truths of God that are beyond our natural ability to understand. Thus, faith is itself a verification – the verification of the things we cannot see. So, we often speak of seeing with the eyes of faith.

Such faith, according to the writer of the letter to the Hebrews, enabled people like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac to trust God’s promises and to obey God. When faith dawns and begins to develop in a person’s life, one is able to look at reality as it appears to the five senses and apprehend still another dimension that gives things a meaning and purpose they did not have before. Faith gives us a new way of looking at things.

To have faith is to have a new source of energy. The key to understanding the power of faith lies in the wonder of the human psyche. Faith is itself the power given to those who have made a decision to believe and to trust. It is the power to act. Indecision keeps all that power locked up and causes depression, anxiety, and frustration.

On the other hand, confident decisions unlock enormous reservoirs of power and energy we will need to carry out those decisions. Thus, if we want to experience the energy of faith, we have to decide what we’re going to do about the new understandings we have seen through the eyes of faith.

Finding creative solutions to complicated problems is the specialty of people of faith. Faith keeps us from giving in easily to problems and provides energy to struggle with them until they have been mastered and overcome. It doesn’t take eyes of faith to look at the past or to maintain the status quo. What about tomorrow?

I believe we can and we will keep our eye on tomorrow because we are people of faith. The kind of faith we have is the sort that guided and empowered the patriarchs and prophets and our Savior and the early Church to persevere. It will be the same for us. We have a vision and we will act on it, trusting in the promises of God. This faith is nothing less than the fuel cell of the Church! To have faith is to have a new source of energy.

To have faith is to have a new kind of security. Jesus said, “Have no fear, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the Kingdom. Sell all your belongings and give the money to the poor. Provide for yourselves purses that don’t wear out and save your riches in heaven, where they will never decrease, because no thief can get to them. For your heart will always be where your riches are” (Luke 12:32-34).

What does he mean? He means that the Kingdom of Heaven, the Realm of God, is the most valuable thing in the universe and it is God’s desire to give it to those who place their primary trust in him. Whatever we possess here is but a shadow and dim reflection of the great treasury of that Kingdom. Like Abraham, who lived in a tent, with no permanent home, we look for that city which has foundations, whose architect and builder is God. And yet, we cling for security to so many things.

Whether or not we actually sell all that we have and give the money to the poor, the role of faith is that it produces a sense of security apart from our attachments to the present material world and our possessions. Faith gives us a new kind of security.

Finally, to have faith is to have new life. When Abraham answered God’s call to leave his safe, secure homeland and journey into a land he did not know, he began a new life. All who have such faith are the descendants of Abraham and have God’s gift of new life.

Martin Luther said, “Faith is a living trust of the heart.” To live in faith is to live under the conviction that everything and everyone belongs to God. Faith, therefore, conditions the way we relate to our world and the people in it. And what is the opposite of trust? Fear. The good news is that faith is the agent that enables us to overcome fear. It relives us of some anxiety that is produced by our idea that God won’t come through. It frees us to accept our place in the divine plan for all things.

We have a commission to live life to the fullest, equipped with this living trust of the heart. So, we have new life to live today and every day, until for ever. When, with the YES of faith, we see and greet from afar the heavenly city where life never ends, we begin to experience a foretaste of that life here and now. That vision illuminates and transforms our present reality and we are alive unto God. To have faith is to have new life.

In a Nutshell… To have faith is to have a new way of looking at reality, a new source of energy, a new security, and a new life. So, fear not, little flock. for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom. Don’t trust your fears more than you trust your God to keep promises. Reach out and experience the world and the persons around you with the five senses. Then, experience all of these things with the faith that comes from God so that you might see it all as God does. It will transform you and free you become all you were made to be! And, it will attract you to other people of faith in ways that overcome differences for the greater glory of God as together we work, pray, and give for the spread of the Kingdom of God.

I'll see you in Church!

The Very Reverend Ronald D. Pogue
Interim Dean
St. Andrew’s Cathedral
Jackson, Mississippi

P.S. I have always found these lines from this secular song to be a beautiful illustration of faith.

The Rose

It’s the heart that fears the breaking
that never learns the dance.

It’s the dream afraid of waking
that never takes a chance.

It’s the one who won’t be taken
who cannot seem to give.

And the soul afraid of dying
who never learns to live.

When the night has been too long
when you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong

Just remember in the winter – far beneath the winter snows
lies the seed that with the sun’s love
becomes the rose.

March 14, 2019
Sermon at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Jackson Hole ~ June 14, 2015

The Third Sunday After Pentecost

This sermon was preached at the 8:00 a.m. service and no audio recording was made.

Read the Sermon for June 14, 2015

June 14, 2015
Sermon at Christ Church Cranbrook ~ June 30, 2013

The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost

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June 30, 2013
A Topic for a Month of Sundays

In Year B of our Eucharistic Lectionary, the semi continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark is interrupted by a sequence of five excerpts from the sixth chapter of John on the Bread of Life. This happens once every three years and when it does, people in the pews ask why we spend so many Sundays hearing about Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life. It’s a great question and I hope my attempt at an answer will be almost as great, or at least helpful.

Each one of the three synoptic gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – has its own year in the three-year Revised Common Lectionary. John is sprinkled around during Lent, Christmas, and a couple of other times. Because of this, there is no really suitable niche for the important teaching on the Bread of Life. Since our lectionary is a Eucharistic lectionary, it would be inconceivable for those who developed the lectionary to omit this important discourse in the three-year cycle. They decided to interrupt the semi continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark at the point when Mark is about to recount the story of the feeding of the multitude in order to give us John’s more elaborate account.

We are a Eucharist-centered Church and we need the instruction provided by the Bread of Life Discourse of John’s Gospel in our Eucharistic lectionary. It is so important and so powerful that we have devoted five Sundays in a row to explore the depth of its message.

Last Sunday, we read the account of Jesus’ feeding of the multitude at the beginning of the sixth chapter. As we continue to read from this chapter for the next four Sundays, we will examine John’s indirect account of the Eucharist. Bear in mind that in John’s report of the Last Supper there is no mention of the bread and wine.

The crowds that both witnessed and participated in the miracle of the loaves and fishes didn’t really understand that Jesus came to give more than the bread that satisfies physical hunger. In this discourse, he refers to himself again and again as “The Bread of Life.”

Jesus is inviting everyone to eat this living bread. The bread our Hebrew ancestors in the faith ate in the wilderness sustained them in their journey. The Living Bread, Jesus Christ, is food that sustains the cosmos – not just our tribe, or race, or nation, but the cosmos!

That means that if we feast at the table with The Bread of Life, we are not the only invitees. There are others, many of whom are not like us, some of whom we don’t like, and plenty with whom we will disagree.

Several years ago when I was a Canon at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas, I was giving a tour to a confirmation class from one of the parishes in the Diocese of Texas. We were exploring the Chancel and the Sanctuary when some of the youth spotted the needlepoint cushions on the Altar rail. I asked if they could figure out the meaning of the symbols on those cushions. One boy said, “That cross and crown in the middle is probably Jesus and the other twelve symbols represent his disciples gathered around the table with him.” That seemed like a pretty satisfactory answer, until a girl pointed out that one of the symbols looked for all the world like the symbol for Judas Iscariot. “He doesn’t belong here?” she said. “He betrayed Jesus.”

I pointed out to the class that a number of ladies from the Cathedral had painstakingly and lovingly applied every single stitch by hand on those cushions and that I would be very cautious about telling them that one of the symbols didn’t belong there. “If that’s Judas and they went to so much trouble to include him, I wonder what that might mean for us?”

After some conversation, one young man said, “Maybe it means that God’s love big enough to include Judas along with the rest of us.”

My response was to suggest that there will be times when we come to the Altar to dine with Jesus, the Bread of Life, and notice someone we can’t abide kneeling beside us or across from us. “When that happens,” I said, “remember this moment and remember that the same divine Love that welcomes you to this feast welcomes others who need it just as much.” After all, as someone has said, the bread that Jesus gives for the life of the universe (John 6:51) is multigrain.

John 6:51 says that those who eat of this bread will “live forever.” That is the consistent translation in almost all the versions of the Bible. However, some scholars point out that the literal translation of the Greek text says we will “live into the age.” The “age” – eternal life, abundant life, kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven – is a state of being where we live with God who is both in and beyond time and space. When we feast upon the Bread of Life, we are living into this divine cosmic reality. It nourishes us for the ways we touch and change that reality.

So, in this banquet, we all become one body not because we all agree or because we all are alike. We become one body because we share in one bread – the Living Bread, Jesus, who is present for us in a wonderful and mysterious way in this banquet that is happening in the here and now and at the same moment in the age into which we are living, with faith, hope, and love. This Bread of Life is our true sustenance. As we are fed, so we are sent to feed others.

It really is going to be good to spend a month of Sundays on this topic!

August 2, 2012
Sermon at Calvary Church ~ June 17, 2012

Proper 6B

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June 17, 2012
An Epiphany in a Shopping Cart

On a cold, windy day last week, Gay and I drove to the supermarket to shop. Upon arrival at the parking lot, we discovered that lots of other people had the same idea and we had to park about as far away from the store’s entrance as one can park.

When we returned to our, we loaded our purchases into the trunk and I started looking around for the nearest shopping cart return rack. It was halfway back to the store and I shivered when I thought about having to stay out in the cold wind any longer.

Just then, I heard a voice behind me say, “Here, I’ll take that.” I turned and saw a man who had just alighted from his pickup and was walking toward me. As I looked at him, he smiled and said, “I saw you looking for a place to put that cart and I’m headed that way. Let me return it for you.”

I barely managed to say, “Thank you” before he was briskly pushing the cart toward the store entrance. From inside the car, I watched him return the cart to the rack and continue on toward the entrance in pursuit of whatever mission was on his mind.

The memory of that simple, thoughtful, neighborly gesture has remained with me for more than a week. The subtle significance of that brief encounter between strangers continues to gladden my heart. In that moment, the Kingdom of God came near to both of us. Something changed in my universe and, perhaps, in his. I have no idea who he is or what motivated his good deed. I’d like to think it had something to do with his faith, but there is no way to know that. What I do know is that it had something to do with my faith. It is my faith that prompts me to see God’s hand at work in that moment in the lives of two of God’s children – one of us in need and the other with a meaningful response to that need. That empty cart was full of grace. It was an epiphany from a shopping cart.

We often focus on big goals in mission and ministry: feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, rebuilding storm-ravaged communities, teaching at-risk children to read. But let us not neglect to do good in those smaller, simpler ways, such as offering to return someone’s shopping cart, share a heavy load, sending a smile to someone who has a frown, speaking a word of encouragement to someone who seems worried, letting someone know you are thinking about them. There must be thousands of opportunities to do those good works that God “has prepared for us to walk in” every day. May God open our eyes to see them and move our hands and feet to respond. For in the intersection of another’s need and our response, no matter how simple, the universe is changed. And because God is at the center of those intersections, the change is for the better.

January 26, 2012
Promises are not enough.

Autumn is the time of year during which the theme of the gospel readings is that of the inbreaking Reign of God. In these passages, Jesus provides us with insights into the nature of that state of being he called “eternal life” or “abundant life” or “the Kingdom of God.” Through metaphor and parable, we are able to catch a glimpse of what life in that state of being is, to gain a perspective on what kinds of people are there, and to examine our own hearts and minds with regard to our own citizenship in that realm.

The Parable of the Two Sons (Mt. 21:28-32) appears in Matthew in the context of a confrontation between Jesus and the religious leaders of Jerusalem. It concerns the Kingdom of God and the makeup of the Kingdom’s population.

Why was the Kingdom so important? To get at this question, it helps to have an overview of sacred history. As the Bible tells the story, in the act of creation, God made our first ancestor in God’s own image. And, like God and the angels, the human creature was androgynous. We call the creature “Adam,” which really isn’t a name but a description of a unique kind of being – one that is capable of having complete communion with God and one that has resources beyond what any other creature possesses.

Then, as the Bible tells it, God divided the creature into two, male and female. While they were separate, they still lived in communion, in harmony with one another. There was a spiritual union. But then, the desire to become gods overcame our first parents. Ever since, we have felt disconnected, dysfunctional, diseased, dissatisfied, and disempowered. We struggle to fill the hole at the core of our being with something that will make us feel whole. We try all kinds of things but all fall short of our unconscious goal of unity within and reconciliation with our human brothers and sisters.

Finally, one like us was sent to become the New Adam. He was the first person since the beginning of time to get it all back together. And, the way the Bible tells the story; we know that it was painful for him, just as separation was painful for our first ancestors. Yet there is salvation and a sublime joy in the case of Jesus. He called that experience of having it back together “Eternal Life”, “Abundant Life”, “Kingdom of God.”

What was Jesus saying to those religious leaders? They, of all people, should be sensitive and receptive to the signs of God’s activity, but they were not. So, he told them a story about two sons. One son refused to do what he was asked to do, but ended up doing it anyway. The other son said he would do what he was asked to do, but didn’t follow through. Jesus wanted the religious leaders to know that, in his opinion, they were the ones who were not following through and that the people they most despised were going to catch on and get it together before they did.

God keeps coming to the aid of the broken, unscrubbed, ritually unclean, outcast, and marginalized. Really, that is the only kind of people there are. Jesus wanted the washed and scrubbed to know and acknowledge that fact. Such self-awareness and humility are the prelude to big changes in the heart and the mind that are the very gateway to the experience of back-togetherness. So, what he was saying to those leaders was, “You are bringing up the rear! Promises are not enough."

What does this have to do with us? We resemble the people in this parable. The self-emptying of Christ for us in the Incarnation was not his victory of the human temptation to be like God – the sin of our first parents. Rather, his victory was the free renunciation of divine prerogatives in order to fully share the human condition, which of its very nature is a service to God. By his humiliation and exaltation, Jesus has conquered, as a human, all the cosmic powers that are hostile to God and humanity. Adam and the offspring of Adam were disobedient and fragmented the human family. Jesus and the followers of Jesus restore the human family to koinonia – to fellowship, communion, spiritual union – with God and one another. All creation is watching just to see the sons and daughters of God come into their full inheritance. And, to bring it home right where we live today, everybody is waiting to see what God can do with us. What an opportunity!

September 22, 2011
What do you worry about?

Jesus said, "… Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear” (Matthew 6:25).

On Sunday, I’ll be in a place where this gospel will be read to a congregation of people who have plenty of things. I wonder how the same gospel might sound to people in Haiti or Darfur or, closer to home, our neighbors in Appalachia or our Room in the Inn guests. People who really don’t have enough may have difficulty finding the good news in Jesus’ words.

Those who have enough and those who do not will perceive the message differently. But the message is the same: don’t be anxious about these things, instead, look beyond them to see God’s hand at work.

This passage is part of the Sermon on the Mount and part of Jesus’ challenge: life in the kingdom of God has different values. It includes the poor, the merciful, those who mourn. It includes our privilege and duty to bring light to the darkest places, to salt the world with mercy and justice. These words of Jesus, taken out of context, sound unrealistic to someone who is suffering. But seen in context, we realize that Jesus is reminding his followers of God’s love for everything and everyone God has created and encouraging his followers to focus on their lives as citizens of God’s kingdom.

Jesus’ aim is to disconnect the link between value and virtue. God did not send a hurricane to New Orleans, but God inspired thousands of compassionate followers of Jesus to help those who remain rebuild their lives. God did not send an earthquake to Haiti, but God moved the hearts of thousands of Christians to bind up their wounds. God did not drive people out of their homes in Darfur, but God led people to build schools for their children to restore their hope. God did not curse the people of Appalachia with poverty, but God blesses them with believers who help them repair their homes. In God’s kingdom, we know that God’s bounty often passes through our lives on the way to others who need it most. We who are blessed are privileged to bless others.

Now, on to Egypt, Syria, New Zealand…

February 24, 2011
Today

Those of us who are old enough to remember the 1960’s will recall how important a genre of music called “folk music” was in that era. One of the early folk music groups was The New Christy Minstrels, founded by songwriter/guitarist Randy Sparks in 1961. One of Sparks’ hit songs, recorded by this group in 1964, is entitled simply Today. Some of the words of this song came to mind as I reflected on the relationship between the past, present, and future.

Today, while the blossoms still cling to the vine
I’ll taste your strawberries, I’ll drink your sweet wine
A million tomorrows shall all pass away
‘Ere I forget all the joy that is mine, Today

I can’t be contented with yesterday’s glory
I can’t live on promises winter to spring
Today is my moment, now is my story
I’ll laugh and I’ll cry and I’ll sing

In this bit of poetry set to a lovely tune, Randy Sparks and The New Christy Minstrels reminded us to appreciate the present moment and cherish the joy of now. I once heard a preacher put it in a less poetic but equally effective way: “Yesterday’s gone. Tomorrow hasn’t come yet. Today is all we have. Use it!”

During a time of transition between rectors, our church is engaged in a process of reflecting upon the past and discerning the future into which God is calling us. As we do this, we want to remember that if heritage and hope do not inform the way we live today, we are destined to be prisoners of our past or disciples of our daydreams. Either way, we are disconnected from the present, which is the scene of the greatest reality.

A visitor to the Vatican was approached by a sidewalk peddler outside the walls. He was offering a hen, a very special hen, for sale. “This hen is a direct descendant of the cock that crowed when Peter denied the Lord,” said the peddler. “Yes,” responded the visitor, “but does it lay eggs?” Whatever the hen’s past or future, the visitor wanted to know if she was doing what hens do today.

Jesus joined the past and the future together in a new way. He is the intersection of the horizontal dimension of time and the vertical dimension of spiritual reality. He warned the religious leaders that their genealogy did not relieve them of responsibility for their present actions. Likewise, he warned the rich young man that good intentions, no matter how worthy, could not give him the eternal life he was seeking at the present moment. Addressing the crowd in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times…but I say unto you.” He said to the woman at the well, “The time is coming and now is.” Each step away from the past and into the future is dependent upon the spiritual dimension we refer to as “The Kingdom of God.”

Let us enter faithfully into this process of discovery and discernment so that this community of faith may be fruitful and vibrant in the here and now. And may we cherish the opportunity and the joy that are ours today!

February 17, 2011