Church on Morgan
A Seditious People
[MUSIC PLAYING] From Church on Morgan, a United Methodist congregation whose desire is to be a reminder of the beauty of God and each other. This podcast is a collection of Sunday teachings inspired by the revised Common Lectionary and recorded weekly in Raleigh, North Carolina. And now a moment of silence before this episode begins. [MUSIC PLAYING] This morning's gospel text comes from the book of John, chapter 18. And we're going to be looking at verses 33 to 37. Here now the word of the Lord. John writes that, then, "pilot." "Enter the headquarters again and summoned Jesus and asked him. Are you the king of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "Do you ask this on your own, or did others tell you about me?" Pilate replied, "I'm not a Jew. Am I? Your own nation and the chief priests have handed you over to me. What have you done?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not from this world. If my kingdom were from this world, my followers would be fighting to keep me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is, my kingdom is not from here." And Pilate asked him, "So you are a king." And Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to testify to the truth. And everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice." Friends, this is a word of God for us, the people of God. Thanks be to God. So the last two weeks as we've gathered here, if you've been with us in half a week-- and that's probably required. But if you were with us in paying attention, you know that for the last two weeks, politics has at least been in the frame. It's not all that we've talked about. It's not for sure at all kind of the fullness of what the sermons have been about from myself and from Sam. But we would be lying to you to not admit, come clean. Yes, we were providing some political commentary along the way. So the first week, the first Sunday right after the election, I preached about this idea with the widows might, that it was good for us as the people of God to remember that we aren't caricatures of human beings who are red and blue, left and right. And though while the world wants us to see each other that way, God sees us in our full humanity, which is often much more complex. And last week, Sam talked about this idea that Jesus says in the Gospels that when it looks like the world's ending and everything's shaking, don't listen to certain people. Be aware of folks who are going to tell you they got the whole thing figured out and this is where it's going and follow them and the rest, right? And so we talked about, for some of us, the last couple of weeks have felt like some sort of political earthquake or national earthquake. Others of us, maybe it felt less so. But what I can tell you is there are plenty of people who were in the room and are in the room ever given Sunday, who were having their own personal earthquake that had nothing to do about politics. But surely this was also like commentary on our own kind of relationship to politics. To me, that's more than enough. I'm done. I'm tired. I want to talk about politics anymore. I don't enjoy it. I'm not proud to necessarily admit this. But for the last two or three weeks, like I've unplugged. I'm not listening. I'm not listening right now. I need a break. Sometimes people take a break from church. I'm like, I get it. God be with you. I'm taking a break from politics. I've had enough. I'm not listening to podcasts. I'm not watching the news. I'm off social media for the most part. Anywhere I can go to touch grass, as a friend said the other day, right? Like I just-- it's time to move on. In fact, this morning, I walked by the hospitality huddle and Molly was like, hey Justin, you didn't give us a discussion question this morning. And sort of half tongue and cheek. I said, why don't you just ask this crowd how they feel about a third week talking about politics? And then I hung movie posters and overheard things like, I just got all my Christmas stuff out. I'm ready to move on. Can we have like a moment-- can we just sort of start something else? Can we step into a different space? Someone else, I think, very honestly, was saying, look, I know that Church on Morgan, one of our values is that we address the mess we have. Let's keep going. Like, let's move on. Enough said, we heard it. We went there, we're still here, we get all the gold stars, but we've had enough, we don't need another. I didn't come to Church to hear about politics, right? I am with you. Like, let it be clear, I am so with you. But this week, when I realized that I was up to preach and that this Sunday is what's called Christ the King Sunday, one of the newer traditions in the Church calendar, this morning we're actually celebrating the 99th year. Next year will be 100 years of Christ the King Sunday. It was instituted by Pope Pius in 1925 to remind the Italian people that their ultimate allegiance was to the God of heaven and not Mussolini. And from that time forward, the Church has begun to adopt this as a helpful annual reminder for us in any given season that as we finish our Church calendar year this morning, as we've walked with Jesus through all of his life and ministry and miracles and we're about to start the whole Church calendar over and begin a new year next Sunday, that the last thing that we need not forget is that Christ is King and ultimately rules forever. And so the Church has said, at the end of the Church year, every year, stop, pause and remember this. And of course, the gospel text in front of us as well as every text that went with it, trust me, I tried, is got heavy political overtones, not even undertones. In fact, the gospel reading I just read you is probably the most dramatic showdown between the government and Jesus in all of the gospels. I'm like, is there literally anything else we could preach on, like sex, gender, immigration, guns? I'll take anything other than politics. This week, I was sharing with our board a podcast I was listening to by one of my favorite preachers. And we reference him regularly, Sam Wells. And he was recently on Kate Bowler's podcast, Everything Happens, which I also commend to you. And it's one of the most recent episodes I shared with our board. I said, this is like a masterclass on how to care for people who are hurting and Sam, the whole podcast is about that. It's not at all about politics. But at the very end, Kate Bowler says to him, you have this beautiful line where you say, if you can't, sometimes you can't make it happy, but if you can't make it happy, make it beautiful. When you look at us and Sam lives in the UK, when you look at us, Kate's saying, here in America, you're pretty familiar with us and who we are as a people. What's one thing that you think you could say to us that from your perspective as a pastor, if we can't make it happy, at least we can make it beautiful. And this is what he said. He said, from my perspective on the other side of the pond, right, that for the past seven years, it seems to me that the conversation behind every conversation for Americans is politics. It is the elephant in the room. And then he goes, nope, it's not the elephant in the room. It's the asteroid in the room. And you can go ahead and change the subject, but you're not fooling anyone. Right? And so it's important that we find a way in this unhappy space that many of us find ourselves with those we love and family, divided over politics, divided within ourselves, that we keep reaching for a way to make it beautiful. And this morning, my hope is that we come to this Christ, the King Sunday, that we might find good news, that we might be surprised, even weary people like myself who are like anything else, but a sermon on politics. So here's the first surprise for us. First surprise for me. If you were to pick a gospel text, if you were to pick a scripture lesson for Christ the King Sunday, the Sunday we remember that God reigns and rules ultimately, that our ultimate allegiance is to this God, I wonder what text you would pick. I would probably start with the ascension, right? When Jesus after being resurrected ascends to heaven to take his rightful seat on the throne of all creation, maybe we would go to transfiguration, where Jesus with three of his disciples is transfigured before their very eyes, and they see the real identity of this man that they've been walking with, the rabbi, who's clearly God, right? Maybe if not one of those two, at least we would pick sort of some sort of mountain moment, some glory moment, a miracle. Maybe this is the best of miracles. And yet when the church comes to Christ the King Sunday, the text they pick is the one where we see Jesus arraigned, arrested, dragged in before pilot, the governor, bloody, head bowed down, hands tied behind his back, sleep deprived, hungry, harassed. This is the scene that we're given of a clean, powerful pilot in his office. You know, one commentator said, "You can almost imagine Caesar's picture on the wall "behind him, and pilot sitting at his grand desk, "and Jesus being dragged in in front of him." This is the scene that the church thinks we need to look at to remind ourselves that Christ is King. It sure seems like Christ looks weak in that. In fact, in the very next chapter, this is a long conversation that goes on, but in John 19, pilot literally says to Jesus, right? He says to him, essentially, "Son, "I wanna remind you where you're standing. "I wanna remind you the situation you find yourself in. "I have the power to release you or to crucify you. "Do you know who you're talking to?" This is what pilot says to Jesus. "I have the power to release you or to crucify you." So I'm gonna ask you to think very carefully about this next question that's about to be presented. And essentially, he reads him his charges. He says to him, "How do you plead?" There's two answers, innocent, not guilty, guilty. We've watched enough crime shows, right? How do you plead? Are you the King of the Jews? Have you claimed to be the King of the Jews? Guilty, not guilty. How do you plead? This is what the church puts before us as we remember the reign of Christ. And Jesus, no surprise, takes a third option. Does not plead guilty or not guilty. Instead of he, courageously, boldly, in the face of all this power says, "Well, I actually have a question I wanna ask you." Not appropriate. I wouldn't advise this in a courtroom, right? He says, "Can I ask you, are you asking me this? "On your own accord? "Or does somebody make you do it?" He says, "To the seat of power." He's saying, "Let me remind you, "I can kill you and release you. "You're in front of the most powerful man "you will ever meet in this life." He says, "In the language of the princess bride?" You know? You keep saying that word, but I'm not sure you know what it means. You keep saying power? I'm not sure you know what it means. Are you asking me this question 'cause you wanna know? Or are you asking me this question 'cause somebody else is making you ask? Do you feel what he's doing? You're pretty powerful. Who's whipping the tail right now? How do you find yourself in this office? Was this your idea to bring me up on these charges? And he's exposing this frustration that's underneath Pilate in that very moment. That at the seat of all power, this is the last thing Pilate wants to do. He has zero interest in the religious squabbles of this small minority group called the Jews and some guy that some people are upset with. This is not how he wants to spend his time. His whole objective is to keep this small minority group that he's in charge of quiet, paying their taxes and submissive. He does not care about their theological arguments and all the rest of it that he's got dragged into this fight. He's sitting there and he's calculating like these people, this minority group, who is an annoyance to me, are asking me to kill this man. And if I don't, they might rise up and create more of a headache for me. And so he's calculating, do I have enough troops to shut that down if that happens? But also, if this turns into a little bit of chaos, what are my bosses in Rome going to have to say about my leadership here in Jerusalem, when I can't keep this small group of people down who are creating trouble, right? Jesus sees this man and goes, power? You think you have all the power? Is this the room? Is this the conversation? Is this the charge you want to be involved in? It seems like you're real concerned about all kinds of things that feel way out of your control. And in this moment, the church asks us to look deeper. There's multiple levels of, the dramatic irony here is intentional, that we would see that it's not just pilots' power that's being exposed, so-called power, lack of power, that even powerful people find themselves completely enslaved, that it's not just a commentary on the lack of power that Pilate has, it's a commentary on the whole system of power that he participates in. It's exposing that anybody who thinks they'll find true power in this place never will. It's a life of compromise, right? Of yourself and what you want and your values. It's never ending deals and favors. It's always looking over your shoulder. It's a world that's dominated by an operating system of fear and control. I got to control these people and I got to do so with fear. But as I appear to be controlling them and keeping them afraid, I'm actually the one that's terrified, right? The whole system is being exposed in this moment. And we, kind of from an abstract perspective, we step back and we look at not only the politics of Jerusalem and Rome of that day, but I think if we're honest, this isn't just about political leaders. This is the operating system. If we're friends, if we're being honest, that we live in, that your life lives in. You may be comfortable. You may own a house. You may have a car. Your kids may be in great schools. You may have a little savings retirement. You may seem to be in control of your life. And yet there are whole parts of yourself that you don't feel comfortable bringing into the room for fear of the implications of what it might mean. There's convictions that you have that you would never speak in certain company because of what it might cost you, right? It's the same kind of exercise that's happening in pilot, it's happening in all of us, kind of weighing the cost and deciding, finding ourselves whipped around in rooms we never thought we'd be in, having to make decisions that we don't fully believe in because of all the powers around us, whether they be our neighborhood or our friends, our family, our political sort of allegiance, right? Like we too find ourselves living in a world of fear being controlled by some outside force. And it's not just us as individuals, it's called spay to spay. It's the church. I mean, how often has the church failed to live into its own convictions and confession for fear of what it might cost us and membership, attendance, resources? A lot of people who look really powerful, who turn out to be really, really weak. Instead, we get Jesus, who says back to pilot, my kingdom is not of this world. It's not from this world. And sometimes when we read that phrase and other people use it, they use it as a way to say that Jesus is saying, my kingdom has not come yet, like he's deferring it. Like my kingdom is not of this world, which feels intellectually satisfying to go, well, that makes sense of why it's so crappy around here sometimes, right? Like he's saying, my kingdom will come in the future, but it's not happening right now. Or maybe even worse, it sounds like Jesus is retreating from our problems, from all that's at stake in our politics and saying, my kingdom has nothing to do with your everyday life, with the politics of this life. But that's not how I hear it. That's not what I think Jesus is saying. And the reason I believe that when he says my kingdom is not of this world, that he's not just deferring or retreating from the important stuff is because he gives us an example for what he's talking about, that you live a part of a kingdom that's dominated by fear and control. And I live according to a kingdom that's dominated by love and freedom. Watch Jesus speak freely. The example he gives is he says, if my kingdom was of this world, if my kingdom was like your kingdom and your kingdom and your little house's kingdom and your church's kingdom and your country's kingdom, if my house was like that, if my kingdom was like that, you know what would happen? All my followers would be fighting right now. That's how these kingdoms are managed. That's how your kingdoms are managed through violence and fear and control. But they're not fighting. You know why? Because we're a part of a completely different operating system that allows me to stand here bloodied, head bowed, hands tied behind my back, looking at you and being willing to walk forward in love, because I don't think that our kingdom has anything to do with fear and control. My kingdom is about love and freedom. Sam Wells says it this way. He says that on Christ the King's Sunday, we remember that the face of God we see on the cross is the same face of God we'll see on the throne. This is what the kingdom looks like. Not an aberration. Not an accident. Totally different operating system. His authority comes from his love and his freedom to lay down his life. This is what ultimately rules and reigns the world. And while Pilate's kingdom will come and go just as the Babylonians did, the Persians did, the Greeks did, the Romans did, always limited to some small group of people and some set in time. Jesus says my kingdom goes on forever for all people. It's totally different than the one you're a part of. So you can live your life in the kingdom of fear and control and you can join the kingdom of love and freedom. I came across a quote this week, Katie actually shared it with me. This pastor Benjamin Kramer who says it's a fragile God. It's a fragile God who needs political forces to preserve and enforce their will. It's a fragile God who needs political forces to enforce and preserve their will. But it's a powerful God who can show up in this world poor, advocate for the sick, the hurting, those in need of healing, be unjustly killed and still change the entire world. The thing that Pilate doesn't understand in his world of fear is that Jesus isn't interested in his seat. He's not trying to replace Pilate. He don't want to be the next Pilate, right? He's not interested in being the next guy who sits in the seat of fear and control over a whole group of people. He's undercutting the entire sort of assumption of that existence. It's this kind of awareness. It's this commitment that led the earliest Christians to make their first confession of faith. The first thing that Christians ever claim to believe that identified them in the world was this simple statement, Jesus Christ is Lord. This was the center of their faith. Jesus Christ is Lord. He is King and it is His Kingdom that will rule forever. And they aligned their lives accordingly. When they gathered and they prayed that same prayer that we will pray in 15 minutes and they said, "Your kingdom come and your will be done." Those on the outside listening in said, "This is a seditious people." These folks are a threat to the kingdoms of this world. These people need to be taken care of. They have an allegiance to a different king that threatens our very way of operating. So much so that much of the church had to walk through an experience of real martyrdom and suffer in ways that strikes our imagination. It's hard to even fathom. I've given you a contrast about 20 years ago. I found myself at a conference with a bunch of pastors and one of the most influential people in my spiritual life, a guy named Tony Campolo who died this week at the age of 89. This was the first preacher I ever heard as a teenager that I thought, "I'll stay awake for that." There's so much so that I ended up choosing to go to college where he taught because I just was like, "That guy is saying something no one else is saying, that's where I want to be." Then he said to a room full of pastors, he said this, "This is the extent to the idolatry that our current climate finds us in, that any given pastor in America will get in way more trouble for removing the flag than removing the cross." When you compare that to the earliest Christians who said, "Jesus Christ is Lord," and all those on the outside said, "This is a seditious people," which by the way, like all of you are on some no-fly list just sitting here, right? Like the AI machine is like tagged out joker. But we would somehow find ourselves in a church environment where it would be more scandalous to remove the American flag from our worship than it would be the cross. Just some of you might have seen this clip, he died this week, people were sharing it, it was going around, but he was on Stephen Colbert and Colbert, the Colbert rapport, if you remember those glory stays. And he's interviewing him and he says to him, "Talk to me about religion and politics, what's your relationship of church and state and all the rest?" And he said, "Combining religion and politics," he said, "is like combining ice cream and manure." He says, "It doesn't do anything to the manure, but it ruins the ice cream." I've heard him that clip, never really like registered with me. I feel like I saw something this week I haven't seen in a long time. There's a lot of people in our church, I'm one of them this morning, who are like, "We need to keep politics out of the church." But if I'm being honest, the majority of that sentiment is, politics should not be involved in the church because I don't want my church meddling in my politics. And Campola says, "That's never been the threat." The threat is that your politics will meddle in your faith, it'll mess up your hope, it'll realign your allegiance. It will lead you to live a life of fear and control instead of one of love and freedom. This is the threat. It's our gospel that needs protecting, not our politics. And yet we fall for this temptation again and again and again. Anybody with just a smidge of power and says, "Hey, we'd love for the church to participate." We're in, we're there, we'll be there. What do you want us to do? What do you want us to say? We'll pray, however you need us to pray, you know? We fall for it again and again, taking the bait, believing that somehow the powers of this world could deliver on the promise of the kingdom. It never could. And so this morning church on Morgan, my God, if next week is about politics. May we hear it. Maybe it takes us three times to hear it. May we be a seditious people. May we refuse the system of fear and control that seeks to divide us from one another and turn us into caricatures of human beings. May we refuse and reject all those voices who would tell us that this political action or that political action ensures a doomsday. And instead would we find ourselves the people who keep pledging our allegiance to the kingdom of God which is bringing us love and peace and freedom, not just now but forever and for everyone. The name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you for joining today. If this episode has been meaningful to you, would you take a moment to share it with a friend? To support this ministry or learn more about our community, visit us at churchonmorgan.org. [MUSIC] You
The good news about who's in charge. A sermon for Christ the King Sunday on John 18:33-37 by Rev. Justin Morgan.