"A Down-to-Earth Jesus" San Williams, UPC
John 18:36
Our sermon series this summer is titled, “Recovering the Message of Jesus for a World in Crisis.” This is not simply an interesting topic for a long, hot summer. Rather, we’re addressing the fact that Christian identity has become muddled, distorted and even misguided. So it’s critical that we recover the essential message of Jesus—his proclamation of the Kingdom of God as good news for the poor and as hope for a different sort of world.
As some of you know I had the distinct privilege of spending four days with my son in Oaxaca, Mexico, over Father’s Day. Edward is in Oaxaca for the summer in conjunction with his master’s program in journalism. He’s doing research on the role of the media in social change. Like many young adults, Edward is passionate about social justice, distressed about corruption and greed in government, and cynical about economic and political systems that are destroying the environment while accelerating the gap between rich and poor. Also, although he willingly attends church on holidays and whenever his mother makes a special request, he, like many modern young adults, is not actively involved in church.
While in Oaxaca, we visited the very impressive Santo Domingo Cathedral. We sat in one of the pews, taking in the splendor, the beauty, the opulence all around us. I seized the moment and asked him a question that I’d been eager to ask. “What kind of church,” I began, “would young adults such as yourself find so compelling that you’d be drawn in and want to be part of it?” He replied, “It would have to be a church that’s standing up for social justice, for the poor and oppressed, for a way of life that doesn’t exploit the environment simply so that the rich can get richer while the poor are left with less and less.” That’s the essence of what my son told me.
His response deepened my conviction that the church needs to recover a down-to-earth Jesus—one whose primary concern is for this earth and for this life. You may have heard young people use the expression, “I’m down with that,” which (I think) means: “I’m on board. I agree.” Well, I think more people would be down with the church if the church were more closely in tune with a down-to-earth Jesus, one whose life and message relate to the very issues that most threaten our lives and world. A down-to-earth Jesus is the Jesus who proclaimed a vision of the world as God intends it to be—a sacred ecosystem in which all creation is renewe, respected and loved.
But why has it been so hard for Christians to embrace such a down-to-earth orientation for our faith? Why has Christianity traditionally been viewed as a way to get to heaven rather than as a way to transform the earth? Why this disconnect between worshiping God and caring for the creation? Perhaps the disconnect comes, at least in part, from a misunderstanding of the verse we read this morning, in which Jesus says, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Many people have taken Jesus to mean that his was an otherworldly kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, something to experience after we die. Heaven is our true home, they might say, while the earth is ours to abuse, use and exploit until Jesus returns and saves us from the mess we’ve made. Ultra-conservative television commentator and author Ann Coulter gave vivid expression to this line of thinking when she said, “The ethic of conservation is the explicit abnegation of man’s dominion over the earth. The lower species are here for our use. God said so: Go, be fruitful, multiply, and rape the planet—it’s yours. That’s our job: drilling, mining, and stripping…Big gas-guzzling cars with phones and CD players and wet bars—that’s the biblical view.” Well, that’s not the biblical view; it’s a distortion, but one that, sadly, is widespread.
Yet this lack of concern for the earth is hardly what Jesus meant when he said “My Kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus had previously stated, in John, that he didn’t want his disciples to be removed “out of the world.” Instead, he sent them to be in the world, but not of the world. Jesus’ kingdom is in the world, and it is for the world, but it doesn’t work the way earthly kingdoms or empires do. Earthly kingdoms are established by violence and domination, maintained by force, and sustained by competition and greed. Jesus proclaims an alternative kingdom established by God, maintained by grace and sustained by love for the other. Isn’t it ironic for Christians to think that the purpose of life is to get to heaven, when scripture clearly says that God’s purpose is to bring heaven to earth? Jesus made that clear in his prayer: Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” Indeed, the story of the Bible, is the story of God who created the world good, who loves the world in spite of the mess we’ve made of it and who is committed to making all things new.
Speaking in the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., just four days before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King spoke about his hope for the future. He called to mind the vision in Revelation, in which John sees a New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven to the earth and declares, “Behold, I make all things new; former things are passed away.” Then Dr. King declared, “God, grant that we will be participants in this newness and this magnificent development. If we will but do it, we will bring about a new day of justice and brotherhood and peace. And on that day the morning stars will sing together and the sons of God will shout for joy.”
If we will but do it? Dr. King’s haunting challenge still sounds before the church. If we will but order our lives around the down-to-earth kingdom that Jesus proclaimed and brought near; if we will but love and care for the earth the way God intends for us to, then we can be the kind of church that is salt and light, one that inspires people to believe that a different kind of world is possible.
And the good news is that many Christian communities throughout the world are embodying the down-to-earth message of the Kingdom. I recently read about a community in Philadelphia called New Jerusalem. One of its projects is a grease co-op. Townspeople gather used vegetable oil from around the city and have a little greasel station where they convert it to biodiesel. They have cars that run on used oil and homemade biodiesel, pointing us toward the hope of a post-oil era. New Jerusalem provides jobs for formerly homeless folks, in a business that radiates with hope for another world. When members of the community are asked, “Why are you using old vegetable oil to run your cars?”—they answer, “Because we are Christians.”
This spring at UPC we had an extended conversation on poverty in Austin and how we as a congregation could offer signs of hope. One of their suggestions was that we establish a community garden on the lot just north of the church. Not only is gardening a community-building activity, and one that could provide healthy produce for our Micah 6 Food Pantry, but also growing our own food is one of the most revolutionary, down-to-earth practices we can participate in. After all, how can we fully love the Creator, when we’ve grown such a distance from the creation? Perhaps the community garden can become a focal point for encouraging better nutrition while supporting local agriculture, a sustainable environment and a keener appreciation for the miraculous creation that God has given us.
Friends, I don’t know if my son or other adult children will return to church. But I know that young people—and people of all ages, for that matter—are hungry for hope, for a vision that the world can be different. The church has been entrusted with just such a vision. I know that we can be a sign of hope…if we will but do it.