Homily – May 1

I wasn’t with you last Sunday, but instead found myself in a Lutheran Church in California listening to a very engaging preacher. He was telling his congregation how he had been away the previous week, doing research on their behalf. It seems he had chosen as his subject the concept of Utopia, the perfect place. To aid in his research, he chose to search for utopia by traveling to one of those all – inclusive resorts in the Caribbean. He went to great lengths to let the folks know that he didn’t really want to do it, but he agreed to suffer on their behalf for the sake of research. The things we preachers do for our congregations!

While he had a nice time, he quickly realized that he had not found utopia. The food and drink was plentiful, but he found that the food was good but not great and the drinks were a bit on the watered down side. The location was lovely, but the facility was a little tired and in need of some maintenance. And while the service was great, he realized that other folks were working to serve him while he was playing, or should I say doing research? It would seem then that on his quest to find utopia, he had struck out. It left him with the impression that there is no perfect place on earth, and it is only in heaven that we will find such peace and tranquility.

Today’s lesson from Revelation seems to echo that. The revelation tells us of the holy city of Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It is truly an amazing place, and wonders will abound. The river of life will flow through the city and the tree of life will produce enough for all to eat for eternity. No pain will be felt; no tears will be shed. It will be the dwelling place of God on earth and there will be no need of a temple, as God himself will dwell there with us. There will be no night as the light of God will be all that we will need. It will truly be heaven on earth, the utopia that we all seek. But until that day comes, what are we to do in the meantime?

I was torn this morning between talking to you about the pilgrims landing at Plymouth Rock or talking about Matt Damon being left behind in The Martian. If that seems like an odd combination, bear with me. The pilgrims were victims of religious persecution in England who traveled to the new world to establish a new home for themselves so they could be free to worship God as they chose. Matt Damon and his crewmates had traveled to Mars as part of an advance party of astronauts to scout the planet and learn all they could. What do they both have in common? They were colonists. The Pilgrims intentionally, and Matt Damon accidentally, but both found themselves as colonists in a strange land far from the world they knew.

In their book “Resident Aliens”, Hauerwas and Willimon talk a lot about a colony. “A colony” they say “is a beachhead, an outpost, an island of one culture in the middle of another.” That is precisely what the pilgrims became. They brought their culture to a strange land, a land they were not from, and established an outpost of that culture in the midst of that new world. Matt Damon, although he was accidentally left behind, did much of the same. He established an outpost of earth on the strange and unfamiliar land of Mars. So why am I talking about this? Because like the pilgrims, like Matt Damon, we too are colonists.

We live our lives as disciples who strive to bring about the kingdom here on earth. We are in that sense, not really a part of the world even though we live here. Hauerwas and Willimon talk about us as a colony. “In baptism our citizenship is transferred from one dominion to another and we become, in whatever culture we find ourselves, resident aliens.” Resident Aliens. I think they are absolutely correct. For we know that what we see in this world is not the end unto itself. We are changed by our relationship with Jesus Christ and we live our lives according to a different set of ideas. We are an outpost of Christian culture in the middle of a world that is not.

That is really the crux of the matter. What we are talking about today is the idea of being in the world, but not of the world. As Christians we indeed live in this world but we are not of this world. That world ended when Jesus was born, when the son of God took mortal form, lived among us, died and rose from the grave. As followers of Christ we know that this world is not the end but the beginning. We know that Jesus will come again and that we will be with God for eternity. But that is not just some far off day. It is happening right now. For we are living in the middle times. The old world passed away with the life and death of Jesus and while we wait for the coming of the new Jerusalem, we remain in the world but not of the world.

Life as a resident alien is nothing new. The Jews who were kidnapped and taken to Babylon had a similar existence. While they were under great pressure to adapt to their new surroundings and environment, they held fast to their culture, their beliefs and their God. As we hear in Psalm 137, their lament was “how can we sing the Lord’s song in a foreign land?” Well that is precisely what Jesus is calling us to do.

For Jesus tells us in this morning’s gospel “I do not give to you as the world gives.” The world, the old world tells us that we should focus our efforts on our selves. We hear about the “wisdom of the world” all the time. It goes something like this. “Charity begins at home.” “Always look out for number one.” And my personal favorite, “Do unto others, before they do unto you.” These are the world’s way of keeping us focused on ourselves rather than on others.

But Jesus refutes that and reminds us that we are not to live according to the wisdom of the world, but of God. We are to sing the Lord’s song to the world, even as we are merely resident aliens living in the world. We are to sing the Lord’s song by acting counter to the wisdom of the world, by turning the other cheek and by loving our enemies.

When we do this, we spread the gospel. We show others what life is like when we live in Christ. And we show the world that there is another way, a better way. For unlike other colonies living among aliens, we are called not to remain apart, but to share our love with others. Our mission is not to protect our private little culture and maintain it as an island set apart from the world. We are called to share the gospel with all, making disciples of all nations.

That is the way that we can prepare for the coming of God, for the coming of the new Jerusalem where God will dwell among us. We are called to turn our colony into the kingdom.