There are times when I skip to the last chapter of the book. Perhaps, I have been slogging my way through,
or maybe I am frustrated by the story or bored with the book, or even appalled. So I
skip ahead, I read the final chapter, and then I decide: Do I want to know the
journey between here and there? My life
with novels is complicated. If I have
just read one that made my heart soar, I want another book, I want another
delight, immediately. Yet I know, I cannot use any review or search engine to
find that perfect new fictional journey.
There have also been times when I have read a book all the way through, and I despise the ending. I feel slighted. I find myself resistant to starting a new
book. I grow growly and snarly and
perfectionist and I think about taking a break.
Yet we need story, we are created for story. New research shows that our brains light up
when we hear a story. All the places in
our minds that we need to bind together for meaning making: stories do it. Hearing a story is like a meaning making wish
come true.
Grace and peace to you from the one who is and was and is
coming, and from Jesus Christ—the faithful witness, the firstborn from among
the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. Look, he is coming with the clouds!
Revelation was 3-d before there was a word for
3-d. It is abstract storytelling art, word pictures inviting us into God’s
story. The letter to the churches that
we know as Revelation, it is
written to be read aloud, written to be heard and written to be experienced. Revelation
is surround sound, and it is absolutely not Morse code. The main character in Revelation is Jesus
Christ, The main plot is that God has made us agents in the story of his reign. You could imagine this royal story following
a route on a map, yet we know from our earliest days the route isn’t flat or
straight. You could imagine God’s story as a Ferris wheel, or like the Godly
Play circle of the church year, going around and around, never ending.
To understand this message of God's reign made flesh in the
life of Jesus we must see the world eschatologically, see things from the final
perspective. Of all the stories Jesus
tells us about who he is, brother, friend, teacher, shepherd, gate, vine,
bread, lamb, in the end we are called to know him as Christ the King. We are called to enter the last chapter, which is also the first chapter. We are invited to experience the hope and
heartbreak, invited to the truth that this is God’s story, and that it has a
beginning, a middle, and an end. Yet the
thing about this end, is that it is not the kind of end that you can pin down. Our conclusion is off of the page, off of the
map, our last stop will be beyond 3-d, beyond now and then. That last moment, every first moment, these
are all in God’s heart, in Christ’s reign.
The gospel writers didn’t begin with creedal statements. They began with stories, because we are wired
for stories. They began with
telling of Jesus’ reign by telling us of his life helping us to make meaning of
what the destination is and our place in it.
Jesus’ quest is a story where love is everything. Love is the setting and plot and the actors of
God’s story. The kingdom of God isn’t
about a place or a time, it is emotions and actions and relationships and responsibilities. This reign of God, our plot line within it, this
is impossible without love. Impossible
without forgiveness, impossible without refusing to be separated from those
‘outside’.
It is Christ the King Sunday, the New Years eve of the church
year. A time to look back at the year
gone by, and a chance to wonder about the way that lies ahead. It is a quiet type of New Years eve and I
cannot help but look back at this year’s journey. If it was a book, I would
tell you I barely remember the first chapter. More importantly, however, it is a
multi-dimensional story of stories, of surprise, hurt and confusion and rising
to challenges. The tender stories of friends
and strangers in the kitchen serving soup, an unbelievable story of teens in the ocean on
a sunny San Francisco summer day. Everyday
chapters that tell of Bible studies and Renovare and Godly Play wondering. The brave epic of whipping up a cooling center
in a heartbeat. There is not one single story
that will tell of how we have lived the quest for
the reign of Christ this year. We are living
the tale of Christ’s love, even when it is hard, and messy and you are ready to
close the book.
This isn’t a fairytale, the violence across the world is
unavoidable, the fear, hard-heartedness and shame runs loose in the streets
here at home. The not-yet of God’s reign
is too loud and too close. Advent is
dawning, and Jesus is coming. It is the
time for daring hearts to rumble with a trying journey. Time for eyes open, minds alert, time for
people brave enough, in love enough with the story, to follow our Lord and Savior into mystery of
it all.
There was one book I really wanted to give up on. It was a startling,
and strange, and non-linear novel. Because
of its premise, I knew that reading the last chapter wouldn’t help. I kept texting the good friend who recommended
the book. ‘Really? Should I keep
reading? This makes no sense.’ ‘Yes,’
she replied. And the next time, yes she
said, and again. I was over halfway
through the book before I began to get it, I was deep in the story before I
found myself in the beauty and awe of the story. I had to rumble with the novel, I had to go through the disorientation and
frustration. I could not skip the middle
of the story. I had to read it with a friend.
Christ has already told us
what the brave ending of this story is. Now
and then, there is only a love story. Love your friends, love your enemies, learn
to love the rumble with the hardest parts.
The brave beginning, middle and ending is a love story. Our text comes from the life of our beloved who
is the soon to be newborn King.
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Walla Walla, WA
No comments:
Post a Comment