Preached by the Very Rev. Mike Kinman at Christ Church Cathedral at 8 am on Sunday, December 13, 2015
Stir up your power, O Lord, and with great might come among us.
The church must be the headlight. Not the taillight.
John Lewis knows a lot about trouble.The son of sharecroppers from Troy, Alabama, as a teenager, John Lewis listened to Martin Luther King on the radio and decided to dedicate his life to making trouble. And thank God he did. Because trouble is what made John Lewis great.
He organized lunch counter sit-ins in Nashville. He was a Freedom Rider and chair of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, one of the architects of the March on Washington and led protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma.
He was arrested more than 40 times and beaten, sometimes severely, more often than that. All before the end of his 25th year. All before he had served even one day of his nearly 40 years representing Georgia’s 5th District in Congress.
Earlier this year, Representative Lewis was speaking to a group of pastors and other church people about the church today. About how the church has become pacified and self-concerned, respectable and removed.
And as he paced restlessly across the stage, he recalled the hero of his youth and reminded the audience that this was the church that King faced, too. That much of Dr. King’s energy was spent trying to wake up a church that believed God smiled on their docility. A church that had domesticated Jesus into a passive champion of the status quo, preaching a love that was about staying quiet and out of the way.
The church had to be woken up then, Lewis said. And the church must be woken up now. As he noted the young people taking to the streets and risking arrest to fight for human rights across our nation, Representative Lewis said: “I believe it’s time for the church to get in trouble as well.”
“I believe the American church is too quiet,” he said. “and it’s time to speak up and speak out. To find a way to get in the way. To get into trouble, good trouble, and necessary trouble.”
The church is fueled by the Holy Spirit, Lewis said. And we become great when we let the Holy Spirit do her work. We become great when we let the Holy Spirit stir up her power and with great might come among us and when we are not afraid to step out in that Spirit with grace, faith and love.
And not just step out but lead.
That’s right, we must not just fall in behind in the relative safety of the crowd, walking steps that have been made safe by others’ sacrifice and risk. As the church of Jesus Christ, we must make those sacrifices and take those risks ourselves, blazing the trail into a world where the ground has not been prepared for us. Where despite John the Baptist’s pleadings the mountains were not made low and the valleys lifted up, the pathways were not made straight and the rough places smooth before the Word became flesh in Jesus of Nazareth.
“If we want to build a loving community,” Lewis said. “We cannot shy away from the responsibility to lead.”
“The church must be the headlight not the taillight,”
The church must be the headlight not the taillight.
I think John Lewis and John the Baptist would have gotten along just fine.
John the Baptist also knew a lot about trouble. Long before his head ended up on a platter, John the Baptist was getting into trouble, good trouble, and necessary trouble.
This morning, he is surrounded by people who are coming out to hear him. They are fans. And John has a peculiar greeting for this crowd of potential followers. He calls them a “brood of vipers.” He asks them, “Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come.” He tells them to “Bear fruit worthy of repentance.”
Now, I would say as a church growth strategy, this leaves a lot to be desired, except John the Baptist wasn’t interested in growing numbers. John the Baptist was interested in making disciples. John the Baptist was interested in preparing people to follow Jesus, the one who was coming to baptize not with water but with the Holy Spirit who stirs up her power and with great might comes among us and leads us into trouble, good trouble and necessary trouble.
This is not “How to win friends and influence people.” This is shock therapy. This is the toughest of love. This is John the Baptist saying, “Wake up people! A great light is coming into the world, a light that the darkness cannot overcome. A light of the best, deepest, most life-changing, soul-sating love the universe has ever known. A love that is for me. A love that is for you. A love that is everything we’ve ever dreamed of, a love that is our heart and soul’s desire but that demands our heart and soul in return.”
John is saying “Wake up, people! A great light is coming into the world. And there is a choice to make.
“Are you going to live this love?
“Are you going to be this light?
And you gotta make the choice. You cannot just rest on who you have been in the past, stay in your comfort zone and think that is enough. God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham.”
It is the Advent of the Christ. And Jesus is coming. And he will baptize with the Holy Spirit and fire. And it is the baptism we as the church have chosen. And if we are, in the language of our baptismal service, going to turn to Jesus Christ and except him as our Savior. If we are to put our whole trust in Christ’s grace and love. If we are to follow and obey Christ as Lord, John the Baptist is clear this morning that we have a choice to make.
A choice between safety and risk.
A choice between standing on the sidelines and leading the charge.
A choice between following the world and following the Christ.
A choice between being a headlight and being a taillight.
John Lewis and John the Baptist have the same message: Now is time. Time for the church to wake up. To speak up and speak out. To find a way to get in the way. To bear fruit worthy of repentance. To get into trouble, good trouble, and necessary trouble knowing trouble is always what makes the church great.
John Lewis and John the Baptist have the same message: Now is the time. The church must be the headlight. Not the taillight.
And so when politicians and pundits tell us we should greet refugees with slammed doors rather than open arms, now is the time for us to stand up and say “No! That is not the love of Christ.” And so we join with our sisters and brothers at Central Reform Congregation to adopt and welcome two refugee families into our city not just to nod toward compassion but as a first step to a broader partnership of radical hospitality for all.
The church must be the headlight. Not the taillight.
When Donald Trump and his supporters spew hate against people following the ancient faith of Islam, now is the time for us to stand up and say “No! That is not the love of Christ.” And so this morning, you can take one of these postcards and write a message of love to our Muslim sisters and brothers at the Islamic Foundation of St. Louis as a first step in our commitment to beginning a deepening relationship of love that will stand against the demonization of these beloved children of God.The church must be the headlight. Not the taillight.
But that’s just the beginning.
When the people cry to John the Baptist: “What then should we do?” How do we shine our halogens ahead blazing the path, and not just bring up the rear of history’s parade? Here is what John says.
He says to the crowd: "Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do likewise.:”
He says to the tax collectors, “Collect no more than the amount prescribed for you."
He says to the soldiers, "Do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation, and be satisfied with your wages."
Three different groups of people – the crowd, tax collectors and soldiers – people at every level of collaboration with a dehumanizing, oppressive, occupying Roman State – ask John how do we accept this baptism, how do we become this headlight … and the answer John the Baptist gives to every single one of them is economic and it is personal.
Yes, it is absolutely about making a stand and saying the words, but it is also about choosing a way of life – individually and collectively – that is concerned not with building up wealth and power for ourselves but creating a beloved community of equity and justice for all.
What then can we do?
We can be a headlight not a taillight.
We can not only with our lips but with our lives reclaim the historic role of the church as chief lobbyists for the poor and the marginalized, not negotiating accommodations but demanding transformation and even dismantling of economic systems intentionally constructed so that some have a whole lot and others do not have enough; where greed is rewarded and wanting is justification enough for having.
What then can we do?
We can be a headlight not a taillight.
With our own life as a Cathedral, by how and where we invest our money, by our insistence that this space doesn’t belong to some but belongs to all, by giving away one of our coats every time we see we have two, we can give St. Louis a glimpse of our best future, of what Jesus’ vision of the beloved community can be right here, right now.
And so as our city prepares to build a football stadium while Black parents in North St. Louis City and County struggle to graduate their children from the failing schools White parents like me can escape from. In the face of this economic injustice will the church, will this church be a headlight or a taillight?
As we continue to pour millions and even billions in investment and tax breaks into the city’s central corridor while north St. Louis City and County are given crumbs off the table … will the church, will this church be a headlight or a taillight.
As income inequality spikes to levels not seen in a century, as north St. Louis becomes a broader and wider food desert, as the region continues to dump people struggling with homelessness on downtown St. Louis and considers that a viable solution to a moral crisis, as people of color throughout this country continue to get left off the major wealth escalators of property ownership and access to reasonable credit, as we continue to deny a minimum wage that even approaches a living wage…
Will the church, will Christ Church Cathedral, will we care more about our own survival or will we continue to say we care more about the life of all God’s children. Will the church, will Christ Church Cathedral, will we care more about keeping people comfortable or will we continue our call to shape disciples of a Jesus whose love has very little to do with comfort?
Will we speak up and speak out? Will we find a way to get in the way?
Will we get into trouble, good trouble, and necessary trouble?
Will we bear fruit worthy of repentance?
In this moment of history, with so much of it happening right here around us, will the church, will Christ Church Cathedral, will we be a headlight or a taillight?
This Advent, we are reminded once again that a great light is coming into the world. It is God’s love for us, and the Good News is this incredible love meets us where we are, and accepts us just as we are – nutty and brilliant; messed up and beautiful; clueless and creative. But God’s love for us is too deep and passionate to leave us as God finds us. God’s love is too great not to give us the chance and in fact beg us to choose to share in that greatness ourselves. To know the joy of John the Baptist. To know the joy of John Lewis. To know the joy of Jesus giving self for the life of the world.
The American church has been too quiet, and now is the time to speak up and speak out. Now is the time to find a way to get in the way. Now is the time to get into trouble, good trouble, and necessary trouble and my hope is we are just getting started.
The church is fueled by the Holy Spirit. And now is the time to let the Holy Spirit do her work. Now is the time for us to mean every word of the collect of this Third Sunday of Advent and bid the Holy Spirit stir up her power and with great might come among us and not be afraid let her lead us out into the world with grace, faith and love.
Now is the time. The axe is lying at the root of the trees.
Now is the time to bear fruit worthy of repentance.
Now is the time to live the surpassing love of God in Christ.
Now is the time for the church to be the headlight, not the taillight.
AMEN.
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