Sermons

May 4, 2008

“An Ascending Order”

Ephesians 1:15-23, Luke 24:44-53

Rev. Phil Blackwell

Early in the week some of you requested that I say something about Jeremiah Wright, but I thought it might be old news by today. However, the newspapers are filled with more commentary this morning, so let me say this much, and let it lead us into our consideration of the focus of the day, the Ascension of Jesus Christ.

I have met Jeremiah Wright a few times and have heard him preach in some ecumenical settings. In every case he was challenging, thorough, edgy, and inspiring. So, when I heard the sound-bites of some weeks ago I knew that they did not represent his whole message. There are people of mischief out there who delight in tearing other people down, even if it means bearing false witness. Among them are racists who are devoted to setting people against one another, the good, old strategy of “divide and conquer.”

So, last weekend I was glad that he had three opportunities to put forward his theology and political views unfettered – the Bill Moyers interview, the speech before the NAACP, and the appearance at the National Press Club. The sadness of it all, at least for me, is that, while he clearly articulated what he thought, he presented it in ways that ultimately undercut one of his parishioners and led that person to distance himself from his pastor. The connection of pastor and parishioner is a sacred trust, and when that is broken it hurts the whole Church.

It may yet be old news soon, even if the mischief-makers try hard to keep it on the front pages. In the meantime, I commend to you the back pages of the newspaper, for I found there on Tuesday, while the headlines were blaring away about the National Press Club breakfast, a thoughtful column by Leonard Pitts, a columnist in Washington, D.C. In it he quoted James Lawson.

“A part of the religion of Jesus is to be on the right side of history and the right side of God, especially when others are on the wrong side . . . Much of Christianity in the United States has been influenced more by violence and sexism and racism and greed than by the teachings of Jesus . . . . I am a follower of Jesus. That’s what I’ve called myself for decades. And that is a radical faith that refuses to define any human being or group of human beings as being outside God’s grace.”

James Lawson, who is he? He is a United Methodist, I am proud to say. He was the pastor of Homan United Methodist Church in Los Angeles for 25 years, and now in what could be his retirement years, he is teaching at Vanderbilt University. Such a sweet irony! Vanderbilt is the school that expelled him back in the 60’s for organizing student protests.

As a young man Lawson had spent some time in India as a missionary, and there he learned the non-violent strategies of Gandhi. So, when Martin Luther King, Jr., enlisted Lawson to help plan the boycotts of the early Civil Rights Movement, he taught the young people who were prepared to sit in at the lunch counters how to act peacefully. There is a wonderful book about all of this, David Halberstam’s, The Children. Lawson bore the wounds of all the indignities, insults, and beatings of growing up Black in America, but he turned them into a gift of redemption which he offered our country. A way to live peaceably together, a gift we have not embraced fully, yet still ours to receive.

Now, the words Mr. Pitts quoted from James Lawson were not from a speech long ago or about race, but just last week at the United Methodist General Conference about discrimination against homosexual persons. Lawson’s sense of God’s grace is that it is general, not prejudicial; it is available to all, not just some. So, countering the Church’s tendency to vilify gays and lesbians, this “follower of Jesus” reminded all others who call themselves “followers of Jesus” that “Jesus broke all the social etiquette in terms of relating to people and bringing people into relationship with himself. He acknowledged no barriers or human divisions.”

Followers of Jesus, we must put Jesus first above all else. That is an ascending order. That is, God orders us, commands us, to have no other gods above the divine power revealed in the person of Jesus whom we call the Christ, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

And make no mistake about it, we are talking about power. Paul writing to the first Christians in Ephesus, “God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”

Putting Jesus’ name above every name, even the name of Caesar. That is what got Paul executed. He did not die of old age. Prophets, as a rule, die young because they say things that are unpopular and upsetting. Look what Jesus calls us to be when he speaks to his disciples at the time of his ascension: “Proclaim in my name repentance and forgiveness to all nations. You are witnesses of these things.” Remember that the root word for “witness” in Greek is “maturia,” from which we derive our English word, “martyr.” To be a witness is to be willing to be a martyr on behalf of the truth of God’s love revealed in Jesus Christ. Putting Jesus’ name above all names is serious business.

Remember that Paul said that when he was preaching on Mars Hill in Athens. “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city . . . I found . . . an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’” Then, Paul proceeds to attach a name to that altar, the God who made the world and revealed all we need to know through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Paul always is asking us, “At what altar do you bow?”

It is an issue of power. The power of Jesus, Paul insists to his own peril, nullifies the power of the world: the power of violence, the power of fear, the power of discrimination, the power of “might makes right.” All of this is overcome in Jesus, Jesus the Christ who has ascended to a seat of judgment. Recognizing that is an ascending order. If we were to say, “In ascending order,” then it would be a matter of setting the right priorities in our lives, putting first things first. And that is always a good thing to do. But, today’s scripture is not self-help advice. This is not Paul giving us “Ten Ways to Make Yourself a Happier Person.” It is an ascending order; God commands us, calls us, impels us, cajoles us to honor the power of Jesus above all else. “God has put all things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.”

Let us not be too quick to agree, for if we worship Jesus at the pinnacle of an ascending order of power, then inevitably we will be at odds with our government, and we will not be able to hide behind a tiny flag pin stuck in our lapel. Simply, the power of Jesus calls into question the power of violence, the power of misspent funds, the power of half-truths and untruths, and the power of the abuse of power.

When I stood at the conclusion of the National Day of Prayer breakfast on Thursday and sang “God Bless America” with 250 other Christians, my thoughts went back, not to Jeremiah Wright, but to the Gospel of Luke. There in his version of the Beatitudes we have not only the blessings of God conferred on the righteous, but also the woes, the curses, the condemnation, the damning (Wright is right about this one; “damn” comes from the same root word as “condemn”). If we pray for God to bless our country, as we must, then we must also welcome God’s judgment of it. That is a dangerous thing to do when governmental power is in the ascendancy, but it is a necessity when the power of Christ prevails.

If we agree to God’s ascending order of things, then we will question the ways in which gender is used to wield power – in our country, in our offices, in our homes, in our churches. You know, this is an interesting political season. We have not only racism as it relates to one candidate, but sexism to another, and ageism to the third! On every front America is being called to accountability for making real the freedom it professes.

If we confess that “Jesus is Lord” then it inevitably will call into question the way spend things – spend money, spend time, spend energy. What is of greatest importance? How can we be generous in an economic moment when we are told that we are getting poorer, and many of us are? How do our investments bring honor to God, forgoing the narcissism of greed so worshipped by our culture in order to serve others with all that we have?

This is the challenge of the Ascension. Let us not restrict “ascension” to being a geographical term. You know the question: “Why don’t we see the risen Christ anymore . . . walking in the garden, meeting behind locked doors, eating breakfast along the lakeshore, like in the Bible?” Of course, some people do see the risen Christ today. Last month his image was found outlined on a Cheeto, and undoubtedly it was sold on e-Bay for a ridiculous price.

Our answer to the question, “Where did Christ go?” cannot be some simple hydraulic image of the risen Christ being lifted up out of sight somewhere beyond the clouds and seated on some bejeweled throne. No, God orders us to place Jesus on the throne of our hearts so that people do not have to look in a bag of Cheetos, or at tree bark, or at peeling paint in someone’s kitchen in order to see the Body of Christ, but to look at us. When people look at us they will see what we value most. We are to be witnesses to all of this.

Another prophetic voice, one calling the Church to be “conservative” in a radical sort of way: “Let the Church . . . . remember that it is conserving the most uprooting, the most revolutionary force in all human history. For it was Christ who crossed every boundary, broke down every barrier. He crossed the boundaries of class by eating with outcasts. He crossed the boundary of nations by pointing to a Samaritan as the agent of God’s will. He transgressed religious boundaries by claiming the Sabbath was made for humans and not humans for the Sabbath. Everywhere he manifested his freedom and called others to theirs, calling them forth from family, national, and religious loyalty to the world at large. If ever there was a man who trusted his origins and had the courage to emerge from them, it was Christ.” William Sloane Coffin, Jr.

The Ascension is all about power, which power sits upon the thrones of our hearts. In Jesus the Christ we claim a power that informs, reforms, and transforms life. And to embrace that power is, remembering James Lawson now, “an act of a radical faith that refuses to define any human being or group of human beings as being outside God’s grace.” It is an ascending order. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Philip L. Blackwell
The Chicago Temple
May 4, 2008