Today and next Sunday we highlight the work of our church’s Reconciliation ministry. Envelopes with the Reconciliation logo and theme – “Hearts of Fire” – have been provided to you in order that you could make a special offering to our Reconciliation ministry. Please do not use these envelopes for the tithes and offerings you give to Bixby Knolls Christian Church. Gifts to Reconciliation ministry are used to support regional and general ministries of Reconciliation.
Those of you who are particularly observant may have noticed that the insert lists September 26 and October 3 as the dates for this offering, and that the information discusses the connection between the Reconciliation Ministry Offering and World Communion Sunday. Yes, we are a few weeks late, but it fit better into our congregation’s calendar to do it now rather than earlier.
As the insert states, the Disciples of Christ have, from our earliest days, been an ethnically diverse movement, consisting of African-American, Anglo-American, Hispanic, and Pacific/Asian Disciples. Today, one of the fastest growing groups within the Disciples of Christ is among Haitian Christians. And, right here at Bixby Knolls Christian Church, we have a worship service for Cambodian Disciples, which takes place on Sunday afternoons.
For many years now, it has been a written priority of the Disciples of Christ to be a pro-reconciling, anti-racist church. We recognize that, even with our diversity, we ourselves have not always been free of racism within the church. We have not always been fair in leadership and hiring. We have not always supported efforts that reach out to minorities and immigrants. We have not always done our best to understand one another. We have not always looked for the presence of Christ that is in each person. We have not always loved our neighbor as ourselves.
As a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world, we cannot begin to address the world’s brokenness if we do not also take a look at the brokenness within. Doing so would be like pointing out the speck in our neighbor’s eye while ignoring the log that is in our own. That is why we have as a priority becoming a pro-reconciling, anti-racist church.
It goes without saying that racism is contrary to the will of God. God’s vision for the world is a kingdom of peace, a beloved community, where there is justice and freedom for all. Discrimination and inequality have no place in that kingdom, that new world.
The prophets described that vision of a new world very clearly, and called the people to live in that new world, to make it real. Jesus, likewise, often spoke of the kingdom of God, described it, preached on it, and called upon his followers to live in that kingdom, to make it real.
In the 65th chapter of Isaiah, God presents the vision of a new world, a new heaven and a new earth. That vision is presented throughout the Bible, in different ways, but here God says it will be a joy and a delight. No more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime.
Here, in that new world, all people will be able to build houses and inhabit them. All people will be able to plant vineyards and eat their fruit. All people will be able to enjoy the fruit of their labor. All people will share equally in the blessings of a productive land.
Here, in that new kingdom, all people will be intimately connected with God and with one another. There will be such intimacy that before the people even call, God will answer. While they are yet speaking, God will hear. There will be no animosity, no jealousy, no greed, no anxiety, no fear, no hatred, no prejudice, no racism, no bullying. Instead, all will live together in harmony. Even the wolf and the lamb will feed together. Even the lion shall live peaceably with others. They shall not hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain.
The way Jesus described this vision of a new world, a new kingdom, is similar. Quoting Isaiah, Jesus described it as a world where: good news is brought to the poor; captives are released; those who are blind are given sight; and those who are oppressed are set free. It is a kingdom of peacemakers, where the rich sell their belongings to feed the poor, where even enemies are loved until they are enemies no longer, but friends. It is a world where Samaritans and other despised ethnic groups become neighbors, where women and children are invited to sit with the men, and where fancy banquet tables are set not just for kings and rulers, but also for people living on the streets.
The apostle Paul described the kingdom as a place of extravagant welcome, where all people welcome one another, just as God has welcomed them: Jew or Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, male or female, slave or free. All are welcome.
Martin Luther King, Jr., that great prophet of the 20th century, understood God’s vision of a new world, a new kingdom. In that new world, he said, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will sit down together at the table of brotherhood. Children will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. In that new world, every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is God’s vision for humanity, for all of creation. When we live with our sight set on this vision, and when we work to make the vision come true, then we are living in the kingdom of God.
Throughout time, the people of God have had varying levels of success when it came to living in the vision. When the people strayed from the vision, that’s when the prophets appeared. When they became more concerned with their own welfare than with the welfare of the community; when the gap between the rich and the poor became too great; when the blessings of land and labor were enjoyed by a few and not by many;…. that’s when God sent the prophets, to restate God’s vision, to remind the people of the vision and to call upon them to return to God and God’s vision of a new world, a new kingdom.
The prophet’s task is not an easy one. On the one hand, they get to proclaim the good news of that kingdom, setting the vision before the people once again, describing for them the wondrous beauty of what life is like in that new world. But at the same time, the prophet needs to tell people that, as wonderful as God’s vision is, you’re a long way from it. And you’re getting farther and farther and farther away; and as long as you keep moving in that direction, the end result will inevitably be disaster and calamity.
Which brings us to the prophet Joel.
What do we know about Joel? Well, not a whole lot, really, except that he viewed a terrible locust plague that ravished the country as the result of the people straying from God’s vision. And what a terrible plague it was; “what the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten; and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.”
Joel saw this plague as God’s punishment, because the people did not live according to God’s vision. They did not share, they did not care, and they didn’t love their neighbors. Everyone had only their own needs and wants in mind. Their actions were guided by nothing more than their own self-interest, with little or no regard for the common good.
Now, most people today do not believe that natural disasters are acts of God’s judgment. However, it is true that greed and self-interest, on a large scale, often have disastrous results. Economists say that our current struggles are the result of too many people looking out for themselves, too many people seeking personal profit at the expense of everyone else. In other words, too much greed and selfishness.
And we know that many so-called natural disasters are actually the result of putting profits over people: dust storms caused by farming practices that are only concerned with this year’s yield and not long-term sustainability; flooding that is made worse as topsoil is stripped away in some areas while other areas are paved over; toxic waste and other forms of pollution that affect the health of millions because cleaning up after themselves is not in corporations’ self-interest; a disproportionately high concentration of toxic pollution in poor, urban, and ethnic minority neighborhoods.
All this is obviously not a part of God’s vision of a world of harmony and peace. This is a far cry from the beloved community where blessings are shared equally, where all people are spared the punishments and curses that come from a world of inequality.
Joel, like the other prophets, calls the people back to that vision. Living in that vision, Joel says, you won’t have calamities like you do now. And don’t even worry about the locusts! You see, in God’s vision – in that new world, that new kingdom – all people will eat in plenty and be satisfied, and thus give praise to God. No one will be put to shame! All people, all flesh, will experience life in the Spirit, no matter their race, gender, country of origin, income level, ethnicity, religion, physical ability, sexual orientation, or age. It will be a world in which sons and daughters prophesy, old and young see visions, male and female dream dreams, and slave and free live together in God’s kingdom.
It will be a world in which everyone is saved, everyone is made whole, everyone is able to live their lives fully, as God intended; they’ll do so together, in harmony with one another, lifting up those who are down, and always, always, seeking reconciliation with one another, since we are a people who have been reconciled to God.
That is why it is a written priority of our church to be a pro-reconciliation, anti-racist church … because we believe that all people should be able to live lives of wholeness … because God’s vision of a new heaven and a new earth – a new kingdom – will never be until the walls that divide us are torn down … because God has so structured the universe that none of us can be truly free until all of us are free.
What affects one affects all. We are our brother’s keeper, we are our sister’s keeper. We are called to love every person just as we love ourselves.
That’s how it is in the kingdom of God.
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