CHRISTISNOWHERE: How Can Jesus Be King Of Your Christmas? - Fourth Sermon of Advent

Lectionary Reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent: 

2Samuel 7v1-11 & 16 // Luke 1v47-55 // Romans 16v25-27 // Luke 1v26-38

Advent is that season of the church which precedes Christmas. 

It's when we remember a time when Christ was nowhere. We are the Christmas people, believing and giving witness to the world that Christ is now here. But there was a time in the world when Christ was not. And that is how it still feels for too many people. It can feel that way in the church too. 

Often it feels like Christ is nowhere, but we choose to believe that Christ is now here. 

There is a word that describes this Advent experience. Prolepsis. 

Prolepsis is not a word used much around my house. Never, actually. 

For those in speech or debate class, you may be familiar with prolepsis. It's the anticipation and answering of a possible objection to a point you are making in your presentation. 

For those that are story-tellers, we use phrases that are tap int prolepsis. When we use a phrase like: "he was a dead man walking" - he's not really a dead man yet, but he will be, and he is seen as a dead man now, though he is not yet. 

I was in jail the other day, thinking about prolepsis. Following my sermon study, I made a visit to the county jail. While waiting for the inmate to be brought out for our visit, I was standing against the cement wall pondering how to explain prolepsis. 

I got to thinking of all the inmates I have visited in jail. There are some inmates who are truly imprisoned. For them, the past, present, and future are wrapped up in being imprisoned now. They feel trapped, they don't know how to avoid being jailed, and though they don't want to stay in prison, they don't know what to do different to stay out of prison once they get out. 

But there are the prisoners I visit with who are free. They may be on the other side of the glass, but they are with me in spirit. When we talk, we talk about what will be different, and what is already different. They are ready to do the work that will both lead to freedom and keep them free. 

They are not just living in the future, they are doing now what they will need to do in the future to be and stay free. Though they are not as free as they want to be, they are as free as they can be. They are so certain of becoming an staying future, that they live and act now as if they are free. 

That is prolepsis. The future present now, but not yet. The present that is yet to be. The future unfolding in the now. 

Prolepsis in Scripture is scripted by promises. 

Prolepsis helps us see the Christmas story anew, because Christmas is about promises made and promises kept. Christmas is about the present that is yet to be, about a future that is unfolding in the now. Christmas is about Jesus as king now, but not yet. 

You can see this so clearly in Mary the mother of Jesus, as written down in the Gospel according to Luke. The messenger of God proclaims good news to Mary: you shall bear a son who will save his people from their sins. You will name him Jesus, and he will lead his people out of exile. Jesus will become king of Israel, he will sit upon the throne of his ancestor King David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom shall come and it will never end. 

What does Mary do? A few things. First she wonders why the angel is even there. Then she wonders how all this will happen. But then, in wonder and delight, she responds with faith and faithfulness: "May it be to me as you have promised."

Then she hurries off to hang out with her cousin Elizabeth, who had a similar encounter with a messenger of God. While there, Mary bursts into song, and it's full of prolepsis. 

Mary's song envisions a world where what God has promised has already come to pass. All the angel did was announce the birth of a king, and Mary is singing about the downfall of the proud. Mary believes a savior will be born, and now she is lauding the Lord for having lifted up the poor and humiliated. She's not even pregnant yet, and Mary acts as if the promises to Abraham and David have already been fulfilled. That is prolepsis. Believing a promise so strongly you behave as if it is fully true now.

King David had a promise-making moment with the Lord, one that is very relevant to Mary's song and our proleptic examples.

He finally had rest from warring against his enemies. David sat firm and secure on his throne. But as he looked out from his palace, he realized that God dwelled in a tent. Whereas David sat in royal splendor, God's house was a stitched together of animal skins. Maybe David felt guilty? Maybe David felt bad for God? Whatever the reason, God wasn't impressed. He didn't need a new house, didn't want a new house, and didn't ask David to build anything for him. 

Actually God put David in his place: who are you to decide what kind of house is good enough for God? But then God followed up with a string of promises to David: God will build a house for David that lasts forever. The God of Israel who established David's kingdom will cause it to never end. It's an extraordinary promise to David, who is completely humbled by this turn of events. David breaks into song and prayer, praising the Lord for making this promise to his house, to Israel. But David sings as if the promise is already fulfilled, he prays as if the kingdom is an eternal one already. 

It's like when a bride and groom pledge to uphold their vows to one another, promising fidelity forever. In that moment, they are caught up in savoring an eternal promise. Right there and then they experience the feeling of a promise of forever fidelity. 

For sports fans out there, everyone knows that elite athletes practice prolepsis. The basketball shooter at the free throw line can see himself putting the ball through the hoop before he actually does it. The future point is already present in the now, but not yet. The quarterback can already see his wide receiver making the catch in the end zone before the throw has been made. The sprinter has already crossed the finish line in first place before he is out of the starting blocks. In their minds they are victors before the contest has begun. They practice in prolepsis, seeing themselves holding the trophy while they prepare for it as if it had already come to pass, but not yet. 

This is what the church does when we share in Eucharist together. The bread and the cup of communion is a present experience of a future reality, the Great Banquet with the King. We eat and drink now as if the Great Banquet has already started. We believe we are having a communion with the Lord now as if he had already set the table. 

Or take baptism: we go under the water and are brought up from it as if we were dying and being resurrected from the dead. Baptism is death and resurrection now, but not yet. It is believing the promise so strongly, we live now as if we have already died and been raised bodily from the grave. 

Prolepsis is powerful and transformative. Prolepsis is the name we give to the experience of believing the promises made to us, and living in the light of them. 

Advent is a proleptic event. It reminds the church that we are a proleptic people. If you have been baptized, you are living in prolepsis. If you partake of Eucharist, you are doing prolepsis. If you believe the promises God made to Israel were fulfilled in Jesus and are given now to you, you are doing prolepsis.

Christmas is prolepsis. The First Christmas being prolepsis of the Last Christmas. Jesus coming to Israel as their king was a now - not yet reality. He was God reigning over the world in Jesus of Nazareth, who was king of Israel and lord of all nations, but not yet. The crucified, resurrected, ascended Lord Jesus Christ was, is, and shall rule in truth and grace forever; he does so now through the church, but not yet. 

He has promised to rescue us from sin and death, we experience it now, but not yet. He are so confident in Jesus keeping his promise to save us, that we act as if it has already happened; the future present now. Our trust in the Lord is so strong that we live now as if our forgiveness on Judgment Day has already occurred; the present that is yet to be. The faith we have in God is so vibrant, we believe that his reign has already begun on the earth;  

Christmas is about promises made and promises kept. Christmas is about prolepsis. Do you believe?

For those with searching eyes and yearning hearts, it too often feels like Christ is nowhere. That's what it felt like to the inmate I visited in jail, as she poured her heart out to me. How does God feel so far away? Why doesn't he feel close?

But to those who have heard the promise and believe it, Christ is now here. 

That is prolepsis. 

And that is what Christmas is all about.

We Can Overcome Evil with Good?

Scientific thought through skepticism and curiosity to attain knowledge of reality have historically undermined religious or spiritual claims for how or why the world works. This mode of thinking ought to continue upon science and religion and all other thought-systems, including itself. 

In the personal experiences of real life that evoke fear and injustice, suffering and hopelessness, how explain it on a mass scale despite educated efforts to unmask truth? Why does evil still persist? 

Is it merely education? A matter of desire? From whence does evil come, despite best attempts to do good, to love the neighbor next door and all neighbors in the world? 

Until science reveals a rationalistic and materialistic explanation that reverberates with reality, religion will continue to expand its presence with observations and lessons on why. But religion and science have both been a source of evil. 

Is God the mere personification of what is the ideal good across all humanity of all time? Is evil personified by Satan? We may doubt the existence of a being named "the adversary" but we do not doubt the pain and agony of evil as it wrecks our world and homes and hearts. 

So how do we begin to grasp the magnitude and depth of evil that persists, generation by generation, a ill-fated metamorphism, from the crawling barbarianism of swords and spears to the winged terrorism of jets and drones which pollinate the flowers of the earth with scorching devastation? We look within, and despair. We collaborate for a solution and become enmeshed in a net of violence guised as justice and peace-keeping. We name the evil that pervades and perpetuates throughout the whole world as the scheming of a being adversarial to all that is good and true, to love and all that is beautiful. 

The ancients used many names, we still use the devil, the evil one, the Satan, the accuser and tempter and liar, trickster and deceiver. We may doubt his existence, but not the evil we feel and see and do and suffer. What to do about the evil we see and feel and do? 

We must name it, bear responsibility for our part in it, be humbled and broken by it, and then overcome it with good. But what is good? Who will decide? What is the truth of what is good? Who will we follow? Who will we trust? Will we make it up as we go along? With the pervasiveness of evil, what confidence do we have that our skepticism and curiosity won't be infected by evil, co opted so that our conclusions are just one more variation of deceived, tricked, missing the mark of truth and reality. 

This far in humanity, we have an extensive historical list of human atrocities committed against our enemies and the innocent - it is vile and absurd, disgustingly revolting and scarily re-emergent in successive generations. Who will save humanity from itself? Is there anyone on earth who could show us, lead us, help us overcome evil with good? 

It is shameful what men have done in the name of Jesus of Nazareth. He who demonstrated a unique response to evil, he who unveiled a radical and yet reality-rooted wisdom about life and love, of what and who is good. While we may wonder why Jesus does and says -or is recorded and remembered as such - and in light of the countless perversions leeching to his Way, it takes faith to trust him, his words, his ways. 

Every generation must survive the evil thrust onto it from the prior generations, and Jesus of Nazareth must be rediscovered as a King unlike all others who can subvert evil, heal the wounded, bring together communities of shalom amidst a world at war with itself. 

It is glaringly obvious the ways the strong and privileged enforce and expand their wealth and power, exploiting any who are weaker then they. It is evil and the way of the world. And Jesus defies it, seeking to destroy it on his terms: with existential truth proclaimed in word and deed with love that seeks to redeem from evil, establishing a justice that heals rather then perpetuate injustice. 

Why does it seem that evil is more powerful then good? Why doesn't Jesus overcome evil with good now? Why put off tomorrow what could be done today? Unless Jesus can't do it today. Unless he has bound himself to time and flesh, he has entered into our world to work within it.  

He is seeking to quell a rebellion while desiring to rescue those who rebel against him. There are those in each generation who lay down their arms and surrender, ending their rebellion to King Jesus. For every man and woman who joins Jesus, they become like leaven in the world, like candles of light in a stormy dusk, seeds of hope. Striving against the evil within and the evil out there, they join with Jesus in their counter-rebellion of truth in love, grace with peace, standing firm amidst the whirlwinds of madness and chaos. 

Jesus sent twelve men, then seventy two disciples, and then hundreds of men and women into the world to call everyone to repentance and the forgiveness of their stupidity, their brutish or sophisticated arrogance, their insatiable appetites of the flesh and so on. To repent is to wake up, to see the evil within and emanating from and around and infecting you and to rebel against it, to reject evil in all it's forms. 

This requires a return of sorts to Jesus, which implies he has always been with you, striving unceasingly to free you from the bondage and lies which enslave you and us. To turn, or return to Jesus begins a new way of humility in light of truth as you come to ascertain it. We learn to live by the light we gave been gifted. 

With it begins a new chapter in the stories of our life, of our generation, amongst humanity across the ages. We are glorious characters in a dramatic story unfolding with every sonrise. Evil mars and distorts every one who emerges in the story, poisoning the gloriousness that is written into every life. 

Jesus emerges from the story of Israel, a somewhat obscure nation caught up in the rising and raging empires. In his historical and narrative context he lives and leads humanity into a new way of loving in the face of terrifying evil. 

Much like you can doubt Satan, you can doubt the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. There is enough historical veracity to support belief, which also leaves room for disbelief. In the story of Jesus his resurrection is a vindication by God that Jesus is who he claimed to be, that his words are right, his way will lead to life. 

For all who trust Jesus, like him we seek to make the most of every day in this brief but glorious life. Like him we stand firm together in a world gone mad, sowing seeds far and wide of subversive truth, radical love of enemy, faithfulness amidst tribulation, and a vision of the reconciliation and renewal of all things. 

We believe in this story where good overcomes evil, within us and through us. We confess our ongoing temptation to evil, we continually repent and stand firm again in our rebellion against the evil one who seeks to devour and pervert all that is beautiful and good. 

The church ought to repent of our complicity in the worst evils of our history. For initiating them. Sustaining them. For doing nothing to end them. For joining them. We repent. And go forth humbled and chastened and deeply aware of the allure and lusts of evil, but we also remember the rot. No more violence, or coercion, or injustice or hate.

We now have a vision and experiences of hope for overcoming evil with good, striving in our generation to bring peace in the way of Jesus. By his Spirit which forges unlikely unity and fuels scandalous hospitality, enabling us to continue what God started in Jesus of Nazareth. Until he himself returns in the same way he left, we stand firm by his Spirit in faithfulness and love, truth and grace.

Strive

What are you striving for in life?

A better job? A better marriage? A better life?

What sets Christians apart is our calling - called by Christ to follow him, which is then a call to go into the world, sent by Christ to represent Him and partner in his mission to redeem all Creation. 

The call of the Christian somehow transcends ordinary life and yet permeates it with an extraordinary mission. 

Christians strive to help everyone connect with Christ, the one who rescues and transforms and inspires. 

This holy striving gets lived out as we seek better jobs, to improve our marriages, and grow up as adults. Somehow Jesus empowers and directs our striving so that his mission bears fruit in our ordinary life.

As you strive this week, let Christ energize your spirit. We get weary doing life, and it can get tiring trying to improve ourselves. By opening up our minds to the wisdom of Jesus, we get insights on how to sustain and succeed in our striving.

What good is it to strive for your goals but lose your soul?

To strive is to put great effort into obtaining success, however you define it. For Christians, ultimate success comes when the Gospel bears fruit in our life - through our praying and parenting, or playing and working, our winning and losing. 

Let Jesus strengthen your striving as you share in Communion each week, read the Scriptures each day, and pray always.

"We proclaim Jesus, warning and instructing everyone with all wisdom, so that we may joyfully present everyone fully anchored in Christ. To this end we vigorously strive with all the glorious strength Jesus empowers so energetically in us."
[my adaption of Colossians 1v28-29]