imagine going to bed tonight and waking up tomorrow to... Pent 24A

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up tomorrow to a pristine creation.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up tomorrow to no news of war, coups, or ethnic cleansing.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up to a world where everyone eats breakfast.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up to a waterfall of heart felt repentance for sexual misconduct and harassment – starting a new day without domestic violence and violence against women.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up to a healthy humanity, and doctors or nurse practitioners for everyone.

We have all wished – hoped – for a different world than the one in which we live. We talk a good talk about wanting peace.  We contribute to NGOs whose missions are to bring relief, to feed the hungry, dig wells, and supply goats.  Some will even teach and preach that waking up to a renewed creation, a world of peace, no more hunger, violence, or sickness, that this is the kingdom of God.  Is this not our hope?  Is this not where we have placed our Christian mission – to make the world a “better” place to live? To bring about God’s kingdom now?  To arrive at the Day of the Lord, with all its glory….  Yes.

No.

There is a part of us that resonates with the Gospel and entertains ideas of wholeness and life, yet, we live in a reality that hinders embracing Truth; and is in bondage to fear.  In the backs of our minds are nagging questions: have I done enough, been good enough, what happens after I die, will I face judgement, will my enemies be punished, will evil be damned, is God all that loving? These are the underlying percolating questions of humanity – just running under the surface, making everyone a little uneasy.  Scriptures sound harsh today, for they articulate theology we are too scared to voice. One cannot skip over the thrust of the readings in November. All speak of end times; where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, a day of wrath and judgement, a day that comes like a thief in the night, accompanied by labour pains.  Ideas we like to veil behind walls of inclusive liberalism, pluralism, and political correctness.

Church is this lovely place we come to hear the Word, to be filled by the Gospel, and be inspired by the Spirit to be about God’s vision and mission in the world. We come for community and all the benefits that gives our lives. There is a sense that Sunday morning is a small reflection of the God’s kingdom with a banquet meal where all are welcome; where there is singing and praying and harmony. In the safety of this space, Christians have gathered for over a hundred years to hear of and enact the coming Day of the Lord. Our situation is not that different from the people of Zephaniah’s time waiting for the Messiah and the fulfilment of the covenant with all the promises that entailed.  In this context, Zephaniah presents a very dismal, fraught filled, description of the Day of the Lord; the side of the day of the Lord the people avoid talking or thinking about. I am sure it disturbed the people of Zephaniah’s time, as much as the description disturbs us.

Professor Margaret O’Dell, of St. Olaf’s College in Minnesota wrote: “…the audience is jarred out of its ritual commemoration of the Day of the Lord to find itself in the far more destabilizing reality of God’s actual presence.”

Is this not the crux of our lives: we imagine waking up to a different world, hoping for a brighter tomorrow, then we are confronted by the destabilizing reality of God’s actual presence – the enormity of risk and change the imagined vision would be?

Imagine you go to bed tonight and tomorrow you wake up to a pristine environment and so on.

The truth is that everything would be turned upside down.  For this kingdom to come, the way I envisioned it, we would wake up with millions of people gone, down to a number that the environment can sustainably provide for.  Human living would be drastically downsized. We would wake up to the disappearance of comfort technologies, ones that make too much pollution, like automobiles and air conditioners; toilets would be converted to composting varieties.  As discussed, a few weeks ago, we would eat worms and insects for protein. We would not eat anything processed. We would all have less product, less stuff. We would wake up to a world with no markets to grow investments, capitalism and consumerism would cease to exist. We wouldn’t tell some of the jokes we tell, sing some of the songs we sing, behave the way we do; we would tell the truth even if it cost us our jobs, promotions, our reputations. The focus of humanity would change, attitudes and living would be entirely for the other, for the good of the whole, and all to the honour and glory of God.  To be the kingdom, the world as we know it disappears; what we currently take for granted and status quo is destabilized in God’s presence.

Destabilization freaks people out.  Start talking about overhauling the education system, or the health care system to create something that will work into the future, and one sees how difficult change is.  Better the devil we know than one we don’t. Whenever I cleaned my room as a kid, I would empty all the drawers out into the middle of the floor and start fresh to put things a way. The room went from utter chaos (instability) to a re-creation of order.  The transformation slowly came about over time with lots of sweat equity and determination to get it done.

As a community of faith I think we can be room cleaners, comfortable in facing, perhaps even creating utter chaos – pushing instability in situations – so that transformation and re-creation abounds and the day of the Lord appears.

Professor Jane Paterson from the seminary of South West Austin wrote: “The day of the Lord will entail judgement not because God chooses to be judgemental, but simply because the full presence of absolute holiness is destructive to whomever or whatever is unprepared to be in its proximity.”

The Apostle Paul wrote: But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.  For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing.

As we anticipate, or fret, the day of the Lord; as we talk about or hope for a better world, Paul gives a very simple activity for Christian community to be focused on. Focus on encouraging one another. Use faith, love, and hope. We continually prepare to be the in proximity of absolute holiness.  We have moments, glimpses, experiences of the character of God.  We hear the destabilizing Word, and continue to hear Jesus’s parables that upturn the economic systems and religious understandings of his day and ours.  We get that God’s ways are not our ways.  Each time we are pummelled with scripture like this morning’s we get cracks and holes in our human exterior; that makes more room on the burning day of the Lord for God’s light and heat – absolute holiness- to penetrate to our hearts.  We are to be about encouraging others, planting seeds, cracking human exteriors, in preparation for the coming day of the Lord.  Share faith, love, hope – instigate conversations where attitudes are confronted, system change suggested, and institutional stability questioned; prepare people by offering different options, embody compassion, respond to circumstances with hope.  Encourage those put in your way: be love to those who feel unloved, be forgiveness to those who are guilty, be peace to those with anxiety; counter depression with hope, hunger with food, loneliness with relationship, scarcity with abundance. 

Something so “other” -the Day of the Lord is- there is cause for fear, for anticipation; for denial, for hope. Let this not paralyze us. We are told over and over to stay awake. Preparation comes in articulating our fears, the underflowing theology, thoughts of judgement, that somewhat embarrass us to say aloud.  Abate the fear through conversation about this sticky topic, and focus your energy on encouraging each other --- continually cracking human exteriors – so that all are ready with enough cracks, so not to run for fear of judgement, but, rather to stand before God long enough, that God’s refining and purifying holiness can penetrate to the depths and salvation settles in.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up tomorrow to an encouraged humanity, ready to welcome the day of the Lord.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up tomorrow to a humanity full of humbling cracks.

Imagine going to bed tonight and waking up tomorrow humanity anticipating the full presence of absolute holiness.

The Hinge of the Bridesmaid Story (Pent 23A)

I am.  I am the door.

I am the standard size for an exterior door, 80” x 36.”  I am wooden, strong and heavy; darkly stained. My lites, three small glass windows near the top of the door, let light out and in, and are too high to see out – there is a peep hole for security.  I am equipped with a standard door handle on both sides of my door panel. The door handle has a tongue latch on it.  I am a sturdy, functional door.

Being in this venue is outside of my usual character.  I like to be held in my frame; that’s where I feel safe and secure. Don’t misunderstand me, life as the door is not safe and not secure…it is only where I feel that way because it is my purpose; it is who I am.  It is in my capacity as “the Door” that I greet you today. I have come to share my take on the story of the bridesmaids. Why? Because I am a passing remark that no one focuses on. I am the hinge of the story.

I have to tell you, that that was a long night.  Usually when people come in for weddings they arrived before supper, you know for hors d’oeuvres and a drink; the bride and groom come along not so long after and the supper begins.  But not on this night, people kept coming up to me putting their ears to my panel and listening to hear if the party had started. Some went in to choose their seats, later on to get out of the damp evening air, and the bridegroom didn’t come and didn’t come.  “Delayed” was an understatement.

Finally, I see the wedding party at the top of the street. Well most of them.

Those who were ready went with him (the bridegroom) into the wedding banquet; and the door was shut.

I was shut. It was dark, there were bugs, the skunks and racoons were out and about, the air was cool; others in the neighbourhood were not interested in the noise of a party going on after midnight, keeping them from sleep.  I was simply shut, as a buffer.  Not locked. Not bolted.  Shut.

Later the other bridesmaids came also, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open to us.”

Ladies, ladies, ladies.  First, they didn’t bring oil which seems irresponsible, but, the situation was taken in hand, oil was found, the situation, corrected.  The bridesmaids – lamps full- eventually make it to me, “the door.” It seems that all is going to be okay. The bridesmaids have learned that there is responsibility involved in relation to the bridegroom and his grand banquet. The bridesmaids, however, need to bang their heads on the door --- frankly they learned nothing, as they lazily call for the bridegroom to open the door.  Seriously this is a wedding reception.  The bridegroom never hangs out by me, never, unless he is sneaking out for a smoke. The bridegroom is with his family and bride, dancing up a storm, drinking, laughing, and being merry. He is celebrating.  He is not watching the door.

For whatever reason the bridegroom passes the door – maybe on the way to get more wine- and to the yelling, replied, “Truly I tell you, I do not know you.”

Fair enough.  The bridegroom’s head is in a different place. The bridegroom held me open earlier as the late wedding party arrives to join the others who had already opened me and crossed the threshold.

Bridesmaids, late arrivers… take some advice:

You have come this far.  You made the effort to get oil.  You made the effort to come to the wedding.  Now make the effort to congratulate the bridegroom.

Bridesmaids after all this you simply knock on me.  Expecting someone to open me for you.

When it is not opened what do you do? Some of you walk away. Some of you hang out to wait. How about this? Did any of you bother to test the door?

Bridegroom forbid, that my hinges turn to rust because people fail to try the door.

Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut -yes, those are words from the bridegroom on a different occasion.

Tonight he said, I don’t know you.  How many weddings have you gone to where you know only one in the couple? Where you don’t know the groom? --- Exactly.  So what, you don’t know the bridegroom.

But you know where the bridegroom is. You want to be here or you wouldn’t have followed, albeit, late, but you have followed. So …

Open the door and introduce yourself.

It is a hard life being a door that people approach and choose not to open.  I can’t talk and tell people to push the latch on the handle.  I can’t swing open of my own accord.  To make matters worse, on bad days, I notice those who eye me from across the street, whispering to their little ones to stay clear for I might suck them in or fill their heads with religion.  I have been egged on more than one occasion because I stand firm as the door, the door to a different life, a life that is abundant, full of grace, near to glory.

My strike plate is a little scratched and my mortice has changed shape. That’s from people trying to pick their way in.  These are people who make relationship so difficult— they work so hard assuming the door is locked. It might as well be. I don’t open unless the tongue is released by using the handle – or pushing the accessibility button. Relationship with the bridegroom is that easy.  Taking one step, the initiative to accept the request to come to the banquet. Opening the door is saying “yes.”

Do you know what gets my jamb jammed? Resistance and fear.  I am. I am the door. I easily open as my hinges are well oiled. Just try the handle.  So you were unprepared, that happens to everyone at some point in their lives.  You are human beings you are not perfect.   What in the bridegroom’s name are you afraid of?  Is it fear of the unknown, like that old game show about choosing what was behind door #1 or #2 or #3. Are you afraid of relationship? Being turned away? Finding out who you truly are? Come, grab a hold of my handle, take the risk and cross the threshold.

Every hero crosses a threshold.  The threshold is crossed when a hero accepts their calling and risks crossing from an old world to a new. A transition happens from the door sill to the interior flooring.  Crossing is made at the threshold – through me- the door. Say good bye to what you know and venture into the unknown.  Samwise Gamgee, from the Lord of the Rings had to take a step over the line from the farthest he had ever walked from home; Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, had to take the step to leave home, Alice goes down the rabbit hole, Harry Potter stepped through the wall at platform 9 ¾. Their lives changed.

Okay, so I might be a little intimidating. You probably heard me when I was on one of my rants- -- that would have been from a period of time when I wasn’t being used.  A time when I was pitted at fist level, scarred at foot level, people wildly knocking, angrily kicking.  You probably heard me say something like:

I hate and despise your street festivals and I take no delight in your solemn approaches – of course because you always leave a mess in front of me. And even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings, ie. crumpled up “help me” prayers and leave them in the mail box to the left of my frame, I will not except them; and the offering of well-being the parades that go past me I will not look upon. Completely tired of them. Take away from me the noise of your songs; I will not listen to the melody of your harps. Bad day.  I am sorry. 

Oh, that I would love for water to run past my sill, waters of justice and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

I would hope that you also would have heard the good days, where I whistle my favourite Psalms. Psalm 24,

Lift up your heads, O gates! And be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in.  My head is always up, it is the stationary top of my frame. All day I lift up my head from whence comes my help. This night in the story, this ancient door opened and the King walked through.  It was amazing!

What are you waiting for?  Do you not want to go through to the light and see, experience the bridegroom’s warmth, for yourself?  It is actually not so scary. On the other side of a threshold there are guardians --- people who help you on the new quest; not that that is necessary, after you open the door to the bridegroom, this is your introduction to new creation.

There is an open-door policy in effect, although the door is closed.   Its like answering the skill testing question for a contest – the question is always simple.  In Canadian law the reason for the question is to eliminate randomly-drawn winners.  You are not random. You have an invitation.  You have finally found and brought oil.   So, come, draw closer to my door panel, put your ear against me, listen for a moment…

There it is, do you hear it, a knocking from the inside… this is a miraculous and Mysterious occurrence that happens all the time… behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears and opens the door --- (knock 3x) open the door. And you enter a Godly relationship.  You will eat together at the wedding feast.  And you shall all  know me.

Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door.